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I've been fighting to stay in Chicago and it's been difficult to get the next job when you're between jobs quickly (lots of recruiters that are really good at w

I've been fighting to stay in Chicago and it's been difficult to get the next job when you're between jobs quickly (lots of recruiters that are really good at wasting your time here), and it's even harder to find advertised salary ranges where you want them to be (tech salaries are really depressed here compared to elsewhere). I've been trying to stay here because it took me forever (as an introvert) to build a strong social circle and those people support me a lot in my creative endeavors, so I'm disinclined to leave and have to start all over again elsewhere. The food here is excellent, though. With the exception of seafood (which tastes fine, but not nearly as fresh as on the Bay), just about every cuisine you can think of has a quality representative or two nearby (even in the suburbs, where I live). The suburbs also has plenty of forest preserves to explore, if you're into hiking and trees (which I am also). Housing prices are reasonable, depending on where you look. You can get a good home for ~$200k-230k in the suburbs if you keep an eye on the market and you're quick to make an offer.

monksy 11y ago
What kind of work are you looking for? As far as recruiters. There are some recruiting groups that are absolutely garbage. (There is even one named after the redline stop that the Cubs play at which is really shit) You'll just have to weed out the bad ones to find the good ones.
- cableshaft 11y ago
  I know not all recruiters are bad, but I'm mainly venting frustration at the last two times I had to look for work, which had several months of unemployment as recruiters kept calling me all day every day about various potential jobs, and then interviews almost getting set up but then cancelled for changing requirements or other crap, or I'd get an interview and do well but the company would take forever to set up a second interview (and the recruiter knew they worked that way), or they kept trying to get me to relocate on my dime which I couldn't afford and didn't really want to relocate anyway. I did get my current job through a recruiter, and he was very professional, polite, communicative, so not all experiences have been bad, just a ton of my time got wasted when I really badly needed a job and my finances were getting screwed pretty badly. If I were looking I'd be interested in getting back into mobile development in a senior role, preferably with opportunities to work from home periodically, especially if it's downtown. I've been learning React Native in my spare time in preparation for when I'm ready to get back into the mobile scene. My current job is just right up the street, the boss is nice, and pays decent so my main concerns are it's not mobile development and it's not looking like I'm likely to get promoted to a senior role here anytime soon because there are many talented people on the team who have been here longer and would probably get promoted before me.

monksy 11y ago

What kind of work are you looking for? As far as recruiters. There are some recruiting groups that are absolutely garbage. (There is even one named after the redline stop that the Cubs play at which is really shit) You'll just have to weed out the bad ones to find the good ones.

cableshaft 11y ago
I know not all recruiters are bad, but I'm mainly venting frustration at the last two times I had to look for work, which had several months of unemployment as recruiters kept calling me all day every day about various potential jobs, and then interviews almost getting set up but then cancelled for changing requirements or other crap, or I'd get an interview and do well but the company would take forever to set up a second interview (and the recruiter knew they worked that way), or they kept trying to get me to relocate on my dime which I couldn't afford and didn't really want to relocate anyway. I did get my current job through a recruiter, and he was very professional, polite, communicative, so not all experiences have been bad, just a ton of my time got wasted when I really badly needed a job and my finances were getting screwed pretty badly. If I were looking I'd be interested in getting back into mobile development in a senior role, preferably with opportunities to work from home periodically, especially if it's downtown. I've been learning React Native in my spare time in preparation for when I'm ready to get back into the mobile scene. My current job is just right up the street, the boss is nice, and pays decent so my main concerns are it's not mobile development and it's not looking like I'm likely to get promoted to a senior role here anytime soon because there are many talented people on the team who have been here longer and would probably get promoted before me.