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Cool project. I did something similar myself very recently, except I just used a spreadsheet, and I didn't look at the whole country. I was focused on cities ou
by aaron987 12y ago
Cool project. I did something similar myself very recently, except I just used a spreadsheet, and I didn't look at the whole country. I was focused on cities out west. I found a list on Forbes of the 200 best cities to start a business (which I would like to do) and used that as a starting point. I then combined that with walk score, cost of living relative to minimum wage, average temperature (I want to be somewhere warm), and crime data. I even searched each city on OkCupid to see how many people had at least a 90% match to me relative to the city's population, which was an indicator that people in the area tend to think the way I do. In other words, it meant I would be able to make friends and get along with people if I moved there.
Using all of that data, I gave each category a rank based on how important it was, and tallied the results. My top three cities were Vallejo, CA, San Francisco, and Olympia, WA. I've never been to any of those places, but I want to leave Ohio. At least now I know where to start looking.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoOlympia is a sleepy town without much tech. In general, big cities have big jobs.
- aaron987 12y agoGood to know thanks. I plan to visit the towns before moving there. Anyone have an opinion of Vallejo?
- flavor8 12y agoIt has ferry service to SF, so commute wise it's not terrible. Just be aware that the ferries don't run super late, so you'll be restricted when it comes to staying out late after work. Downtown is decent (although a shell of its former self), the waterfront is good, there's good sailing & kayaking opportunities, easy access to Napa & Sonoma, plenty of hiking around. Not a bad spot.
- rdl 12y agoVallejo is commute-to-SF, although fairly extreme, and pretty horrible for commute-to-Peninsula. In my experience, there isn't a whole lot in town itself; it's gone through a period of bankruptcy and sketciness, although not as dangerous as some other towns like Richmond, CA.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoTaken like that, Olympia could be a bedroom community for....Tacoma. Not sure about tech jobs there, though. There are state government jobs in Olympia, so if you are a lawyer...
- will_work4tears 12y agoThere are a bunch of State Tech jobs too, not just for lawyers. They don't pay nearly as much as Seattle jobs. Tacoma doesn't either for that matter, and Tacoma doesn't even have the Government thing going for them (just the base). There is some "trickle" effect for tech jobs slowly making their way south (I see regular postings for Tukwilla, Renton and even Federal Way development jobs), and some in Tacoma, but my experience is they tend to hold onto that 50-60+ hours a week work ethic, but only pay 35-45k. No thanks.
- aaron987 12y agoThanks for the input everyone. It's very helpful.
- will_work4tears 12y agoThere is, however, a surprising number of Government tech jobs, but they don't pay well. There's a big base (Joint Base Lewis-McChord) with a bunch of contracting jobs, and Tacoma has a small amount of tech jobs. Nowhere near the level of even Seattle though. I know from experience - I live in Tacoma with no real desire or ability to commute to Seattle daily (at least for a couple more years). I also am not willing to work in Olympia for less than 75k (and even then the job would have to be pretty interesting), but most of the jobs are .NET C# type things, which I don't currently have experience with, and the ones that are left pay more like 55-60k,