OT: Career advice

[sbjnyc]

Any news is good news. Be excited to talk to them. All you can control now is your mood...

As far as living in a city goes.. I'm in west palm beach, FL.. Traffic sucks because its nothing but old ppl and whenever Trump comes into town he screws up traffic all over. I took the only job i could get down here. I work in the right industry but im in the wrong part of the company for me. Housing is either mansions or the hood. Theres no inbetween. I want to move to somewhere with opportunites but im not sure I have the correct background to get my foot in the door. I have over a years experience in the legal and operations department of an investment firm. I don't think i can move to a big city and swing the move to the FO in the same move.

I work downtown near the heliport and can see (and hear) when the president comes to town. Bush and Obama seemed to come to NYC every week but Trump not nearly so often. No offense but I hope he stays in Florida for the winter.

 

[NCRanger]

Any news is good news. Be excited to talk to them. All you can control now is your mood...

As far as living in a city goes.. I'm in west palm beach, FL.. Traffic sucks because its nothing but old ppl and whenever Trump comes into town he screws up traffic all over. I took the only job i could get down here. I work in the right industry but im in the wrong part of the company for me. Housing is either mansions or the hood. Theres no inbetween. I want to move to somewhere with opportunites but im not sure I have the correct background to get my foot in the door. I have over a years experience in the legal and operations department of an investment firm. I don't think i can move to a big city and swing the move to the FO in the same move.

What's funny is, you would be PERFECT for Charlotte RIGHT NOW.

However, once you get 5-8 years under your belt, you'd have to move again to go where you would want to be career wise. Unless you were able to luck into a managerial role. Worst part is, having to move, you'd still be chasing what it is that you truly want, because it just isn't here.

 

[NCRanger]

I agree with that. I'm looking to make a move with my company or another financial institution if that doesn't work out, somewhere in VA or further south.

One thing to remember, this isn't the 1990's any more. Things down here are not as cheap as you may think they are. And salaries have not kept up with the cost of living. The biggest break you get is property taxes. State income taxes are still quite high (now Tennessee has no income tax, but sales taxes are pretty high). Lunch in uptown Charlotte costs as much as lunch in Midtown Manhattan. The cost of food out in this city is beyond insanity.

So many people have moved to the cities in the south where the infrastructure has not kept up with population, meaning traffic is beyond hellish, now, it's not backed up 35 miles out, but the commutes within the cities and close in suburbs themselves rival anything you may face in NJ and NY. Add in construction projects being done by people who are not very bright makes traffic a nightmare at almost all hours of the day and night.

Get used to your day starting well before the sun comes up. Been down here 21 years and I still can't get used to this. And due to the above, the morning traffic starts earlier than you may imagine. With all that, I rarely can stay awake past 9:30. Sick and tired of waking up at 5 AM to start racing. I'm out at 6 taking the dog for a walk, and my neighborhood is busier then than at any other time of the day. Three school buses with lights flashing into the pitch darkness. Every house lit up like a Christmas tree. I live 8 miles from the center city. I think to myself, this is utterly ridiculous.

This morning, as I was dropping my daughter off at school a little before 7 AM in pitch blackness, trying to make a left against a wall of oncoming traffic, even she said, "Dad, when we move, I hope we find somewhere that I don't have to be at school this early." I have to drop her off that early (school starts at 7:45 actually), because if I don't, I won't have a parking spot, even though I pay for one monthly, if I don't get there by 7:45 myself. Forget public transportation, it's less reliable than the Ranger penalty kill.

I still say, if you are young, single, and educated, move here, rent a "luxury" apartment, with the knowledge in five years, you will be moving on unless you happen to get lucky.

It does not make as much sense for a family to make the move as it did in the 1990's. You'll find everything to end up costing you the same as it did up there, just goes into different buckets of expenses.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

So I just had the interview. Kind of upset at myself. My communication wasn't great. The content was fine. In the end it's an analytics role, not like it's a sales role.

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

@SnowblindNYR stay positive and keep your head up. Best advice I ever got was from one of the worst teachers I ever had who was a businessman at heart. He was this ultra successful alpha guy who loved to brag about his career/much younger girlfriend/etc. But he said for all the success he had, he's been unsure of himself in it 2/3s of the time and still succeeded. And any opportunity that he didn't he would just pick himself up, dust himself off, and keep moving forward.

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

So I don't want to make this a big thing as I'm obviously more of an under the radar poster here and I'll never win a popularity contest (lol) but I start something new in the next few days. It's a tremendous opportunity. Very much above my head but I figure at some point you have to be brave and run with it. I've never really taken that approach before.

I actually enjoyed my last job which I wasn't at very long but the way I equate it, it's like dating someone you know you're not going to marry. There was a limit there and I got out a little sooner than anticipated.

If it goes well, it will open a lot of doors for me. It's funny because I keep finding ways to stay around the NY area. I pretty much have been feeling like it's time to leave for about 4 years but had a lot of loose ends including finishing a degree, and when I'm finally less than 6 months away, this tremendous opportunity comes. If it doesn't work, it's fine I have a backup plan, but if it does and I'm going to try and make it work, awesome.

I'm probably not going to be around as much especially during business hours because it's a serious environment and until I have a comfort and know I'm in, you won't be seeing me comment as much.

 

[I Eat Crow]

So I don't want to make this a big thing as I'm obviously more of an under the radar poster here and I'll never win a popularity contest (lol) but I start something new in the next few days. It's a tremendous opportunity. Very much above my head but I figure at some point you have to be brave and run with it. I've never really taken that approach before.

I actually enjoyed my last job which I wasn't at very long but the way I equate it, it's like dating someone you know you're not going to marry. There was a limit there and I got out a little sooner than anticipated.

If it goes well, it will open a lot of doors for me. It's funny because I keep finding ways to stay around the NY area. I pretty much have been feeling like it's time to leave for about 4 years but had a lot of loose ends including finishing a degree, and when I'm finally less than 6 months away, this tremendous opportunity comes. If it doesn't work, it's fine I have a backup plan, but if it does and I'm going to try and make it work, awesome.

I'm probably not going to be around as much especially during business hours because it's a serious environment and until I have a comfort and know I'm in, you won't be seeing me comment as much.

Good for you! It always takes time to adjust to any new job. Let everything fall into place there before you worry about our bickering asses here.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

@SnowblindNYR stay positive and keep your head up. Best advice I ever got was from one of the worst teachers I ever had who was a businessman at heart. He was this ultra successful alpha guy who loved to brag about his career/much younger girlfriend/etc. But he said for all the success he had, he's been unsure of himself in it 2/3s of the time and still succeeded. And any opportunity that he didn't he would just pick himself up, dust himself off, and keep moving forward.

Thanks, that's good to hear!

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

Good for you! It always takes time to adjust to any new job. Let everything fall into place there before you worry about our bickering asses here.

Haha thanks! This place has become such a huge part of my life for the past decade+. I knew this day would maybe come. I enjoy the Statler and Waldorf of this board though.

I'm going to be able to sneak in a few checks here and there just commenting will decrease. I'm still laughing and debating along in spirit.

 

[NCRanger]

This is where I am. I was sitting in yet another pointless meeting yesterday where the application I support is being asked to do things it cannot currently do as designed. One of the comments made by the idiot on the business side was "we know this violates the business rule". At that point, I just mentally shut down. I've said in the past, "then why are you asking for it"? I just didn't care yesterday. I have been the "conscience" of this application for the past three years, raising my hand when we've been told to do things that are incompatible, incorrect, and in many cases, downright wrong. I'm tired of it. At this point, we've only done things like knowingly put incorrect data into a system. This new ask could undermine the whole processing of the database, but who cares, right? All my hand raising has gotten me is a reputation as a naysayer (yet my company was fined a billion dollars for the incorrect data). I've tried to do the right thing, and it's done nothing for me. I'm constantly ignored.

Been here six years and have finally come to the realization that I'm going NOWHERE. I've been doing this systems analysis design for 20 years and I'm downright sick of it. I want to be in project management or managing a team. I don't want to be in a senior level individual contributor role if there is absolutely no room to go anywhere. Plus, seems like every company in the city of Charlotte has seemingly phased out senior level roles. The whole damn city seems to be loaded with $55-$85k positions, and if you make slightly more than that, you're pretty much stuck where you are, because there's NOWHERE currently for you to go. Experience doesn't matter; in fact, in many ways it hurts you here. As I've said before, I've had RESUME PROFESSIONALS tell me to dumb down my resume and just take the slightly lower pay and consider your job a vacation. That's some real solid advice there.

I've shut down. I can't come to work any more and give a ****. I just don't care any more. It's been three years of the same bang your head against the wall and expect something different.

The problem is, there is absolutely nowhere to go.

I do not know what to do. I am not in a financial position to take a massive pay cut and just do anything.

I almost feel like walking in front of a bus and just being done with it.

I just don't know what to do. I don't know if there's anything I can do.

 

[East Coast Bias]

This is where I am. I was sitting in yet another pointless meeting yesterday where the application I support is being asked to do things it cannot currently do as designed

/lays web front end over 35 year old mainframe batch system
//doesn't address mainframe gaps

"Why are we not getting real time analytics here?"

 

[I Eat Crow]

This is where I am. I was sitting in yet another pointless meeting yesterday where the application I support is being asked to do things it cannot currently do as designed. One of the comments made by the idiot on the business side was "we know this violates the business rule". At that point, I just mentally shut down. I've said in the past, "then why are you asking for it"? I just didn't care yesterday. I have been the "conscience" of this application for the past three years, raising my hand when we've been told to do things that are incompatible, incorrect, and in many cases, downright wrong. I'm tired of it. At this point, we've only done things like knowingly put incorrect data into a system. This new ask could undermine the whole processing of the database, but who cares, right? All my hand raising has gotten me is a reputation as a naysayer (yet my company was fined a billion dollars for the incorrect data). I've tried to do the right thing, and it's done nothing for me. I'm constantly ignored.

Been here six years and have finally come to the realization that I'm going NOWHERE. I've been doing this systems analysis design for 20 years and I'm downright sick of it. I want to be in project management or managing a team. I don't want to be in a senior level individual contributor role if there is absolutely no room to go anywhere. Plus, seems like every company in the city of Charlotte has seemingly phased out senior level roles. The whole damn city seems to be loaded with $55-$85k positions, and if you make slightly more than that, you're pretty much stuck where you are, because there's NOWHERE currently for you to go. Experience doesn't matter; in fact, in many ways it hurts you here. As I've said before, I've had RESUME PROFESSIONALS tell me to dumb down my resume and just take the slightly lower pay and consider your job a vacation. That's some real solid advice there.

I've shut down. I can't come to work any more and give a ****. I just don't care any more. It's been three years of the same bang your head against the wall and expect something different.

The problem is, there is absolutely nowhere to go.

I do not know what to do. I am not in a financial position to take a massive pay cut and just do anything.

I almost feel like walking in front of a bus and just being done with it.

I just don't know what to do. I don't know if there's anything I can do.

On the bolded, and this is the most important part of my reply. If you're really serious and considering this, please PM me and/or any of the mods here.

By your post I can tell that you're really frustrated and feel stuck, but trust me, you're not. I don't know your family/friend situation, but is there anyone that would let you crash somewhere else in the country (even just a few days) just to scope out the job market there? Is moving feasible? I seem to remember from other posts that you say you have a young family (sorry if I'm thinking of someone else). Thing is with having kids is if they're old enough, taking them out of school and moving somewhere hundreds or thousands of miles away can be a really tough adjustment for them, at best.

There's nothing worse than feeling stuck in the job that you are. It's probably the most important of my personal ten commandments of having a job/considering a move. For anyone else that may be interested, these are my personal ten commandments that can apply to any field, really:

1. If you feel you are underpaid relative to your peers in the area, leave.
2. If your boss sucks, leave.
3. If the work environment is toxic (shitty coworkers, too strict or too lax of a work atmosphere), leave.
4. If your job efforts are being subverted by outside entities or your superiors, leave.
5. If your benefits and/or pay get cut, consider leaving.
6. If your commute is hilariously bad, consider leaving.
7. If you're being asked to break the law, definitely look to leave ASAP
8. If you're offered a promotion with another company with similar benefits, similar or better pay, definitely leave
9. If your hours are long or odd, and you're being asked to work a shit ton of overtime, consider leaving (if you don't want the overtime)

but most importantly:

10. If you're feeling stuck in a job with no chance of advancement or promotion, start looking for a new job.

I wish you luck, but especially to the bolded, I'm here and HFNYR are here to chat

 

[NCRanger]

On the bolded, and this is the most important part of my reply. If you're really serious and considering this, please PM me and/or any of the mods here.

By your post I can tell that you're really frustrated and feel stuck, but trust me, you're not. I don't know your family/friend situation, but is there anyone that would let you crash somewhere else in the country (even just a few days) just to scope out the job market there? Is moving feasible? I seem to remember from other posts that you say you have a young family (sorry if I'm thinking of someone else). Thing is with having kids is if they're old enough, taking them out of school and moving somewhere hundreds or thousands of miles away can be a really tough adjustment for them, at best.

There's nothing worse than feeling stuck in the job that you are. It's probably the most important of my personal ten commandments of having a job/considering a move. For anyone else that may be interested, these are my personal ten commandments that can apply to any field, really:

1. If you feel you are underpaid relative to your peers in the area, leave.
2. If your boss sucks, leave.
3. If the work environment is toxic (****ty coworkers, too strict or too lax of a work atmosphere), leave.
4. If your job efforts are being subverted by outside entities or your superiors, leave.
5. If your benefits and/or pay get cut, consider leaving.
6. If your commute is hilariously bad, consider leaving.
7. If you're being asked to break the law, definitely look to leave ASAP
8. If you're offered a promotion with another company with similar benefits, similar or better pay, definitely leave
9. If your hours are long or odd, and you're being asked to work a **** ton of overtime, consider leaving (if you don't want the overtime)

but most importantly:

10. If you're feeling stuck in a job with no chance of advancement or promotion, start looking for a new job.

I wish you luck, but especially to the bolded, I'm here and HFNYR are here to chat

Thank you. Am I serious about the bolded? No, not really. Just frustrated to a boiling point that's ready to blow over.

As for friends, not many there, not many here either. Mostly anyone we know here is through my daughter's school (or sports), which frankly, is about the only place in this city, outside of my church where I feel any sense of calm. We have a basketball game tonight and I work the ticket gate.

My daughter is 10. Not exactly a young family, and we got married late. I'm 48. Moving is definitely an option, but it's going to be something where we know nobody (as I am not moving back to the NYC area, unless I can double my salary.) Not that is such an awful thing. When we moved to Charlotte, it was something that we planned to be temporary, we really didn't attempt to make friends with anyone as it wasn't a place we really wanted to be for any length of time. Raleigh/Triangle was weird, but it started feeling like home in some ways. Here we are now, 12 1/2 years in, and, like I said, outside of our daughter's school, we hate it here. We should have left in Spring 2011 after I was fired from a job for who knows what reasons, but the housing market was still in the tank and we wouldn't have gotten anything. Daughter was 3 and wouldn't have missed anything.

As for your ten:
1. I don't know any more. I think a lot of people my age and skill set have either transitioned to manager roles, have left the area, or are eating **** sandwiches like me.
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Pay not cut/benefits are a joke for a company this size
6. Yes and No. Distance isn't bad at all. The fact I'm in ridiculous traffic before 7 AM in pitch black darkness is insanity, and if I tried to get in later, I wouldn't have a parking spot.
7. That's a maybe. Not like criminal prosecution laws, but we aren't doing the right thing by our customers, and we've been dinged, hard.
8. Don't I wish. Jobs just don't exist at the level I'm looking.
9. No. That's about the only advantage of working here.
10. Yes

I've been looking for another job for almost three years. I got the one in Nashville, but never got an offer thanks to the hiring manager getting greedy. Anything local, I'm either grossly overqualified for, the pay is a joke, or it is so niche that they can't find anyone.

I mean I have TWENTY YEARS experience in banking IT. It's not like I can't run projects (as I have), manage people (as I have), understand applications and application support (as I have done.) But because it's never been my primary role, I'm not seen as someone who's an asset, outside of doing what I've been doing for the past six years. I just don't understand how I GOT a senior level Project Manager job in Nashville and was told was one of the best candidates they'd ever seen for the role, yet I can't even get an interview for a middle range PM in Charlotte (when once in a blue moon that these positions are even available.)

I'm not trying to brag, but I know enough about the IT world that I could probably help out a start-up at a Director level and get them running. Was even told that by a recruiter. Around here though, the start-ups think anyone over the age of 35 is washed up and wouldn't even look at me.

 

[Gardner McKay]

@NCRanger Move to Georgia and come hang with Inferno and I.

The economy here is absurdly good and as long as you live more than 10 miles outside the Atlanta/Buckhead area, housing is stupidly affordable. Although, it is starting to go up as more and more people look to move further North. Not to mention, taxes are low and the cost of living is cheap. I live 35 miles outside of the city and with the new express lanes they just finished, my commute that was previously 75-90 minutes has been cut down to 35-45 minutes.

I know it isn't easy to just pack up and move when you have kids but the right opportunity is everything.

 

[I Eat Crow]

@NCRanger that's a tough pill to swallow. You've been settled into an area for a long time, but job opportunities look to have run dry in your neck of the woods. If moving is an option, it might be your best one, but I can't tell you or anyone else how to run their lives. I'm happy to hear that you're actually not planning something drastic like stepping onto oncoming traffic, but we're always here if you'd like to vent

While I'm not changing fields per se, I will be changing work settings hopefully sometime soon. I've been a nurse for over 8 years now, all of which except for just under a year when I was starting out in the same place. It's an inner city intensive care unit, so to say I've seen some shit would be putting it mildly. Last year I graduated with my masters to be a nurse practitioner. I passed my certification exam a few weeks ago, but the credentialing process has been moving at a snails pace between the bureaucracy of the state and credentialing agencies in getting all of my applications lined up so I can start practicing. Thing is, I went to school to work in the primary setting (i.e., doctor's office, subacute rehab, etc.) and not in the hospital. While I'm really looking forward to not having to work in a hospital again, networking has proven to be difficult because all of my contacts in the industry for the most part work in acute care (the hospital). I know that I'll find a job, and hopefully in a company where I won't have to work in the inner city all of time, but I'm frustrated that it may take me a bit longer to find new employment. I regret not networking more while in school, but the way things shook out wasn't really ideal for getting into a place where I did my clinical rotations. The first three of my four preceptors no longer work at the places where I did clinical (the first got another job, the second moved out of state, the third went back to school, really rotten luck) and my last preceptor was wonderful, but the clinical site was an hour away from me.

I'm excited for the new role when I get it though. No more 12 hour shifts. I'll actually get snow days if I'm in an office (offices close because of bad weather, hospitals do not!). It will be a change of pace too. The hospital environment has gotten progressively more and more toxic since I started years ago to the present day. Federal reimbursement based on satisfaction scores based on post admission surveys is the worst thing to happen in healthcare, maybe ever. The hospital experience has become just as much a customer service industry as a medical industry. Because of this, I can't tell a nasty patient or family member (they're worse than the patients 99% of the time) to go jump in a lake. I have to take their shit (literally) and accommodate them with a smile on my face. Management and administration is constantly on your back about nonsense and actively looks for f*** ups in your documentation. I can't wait to leave. I'm thinking of doing a reddit AMA about my time in the hospital when I do leave and start a new job. I'll be sure to link it here if I decide to.

 

[NCRanger]

@NCRanger Move to Georgia and come hang with Inferno and I.

The economy here is absurdly good and as long as you live more than 10 miles outside the Atlanta/Buckhead area, housing is stupidly affordable. Although, it is starting to go up as more and more people look to move further North. Not to mention, taxes are low and the cost of living is cheap. I live 35 miles outside of the city and with the new express lanes they just finished, my commute that was previously 75-90 minutes has been cut down to 35-45 minutes.

I know it isn't easy to just pack up and move when you have kids but the right opportunity is everything.

The same thing is being said about Charlotte. And the thing is, if you are under 30, and single, the economy is good. Really good. The city is booming. It's just booming in the middle. There are apartment buildings going up everywhere. There are a few developments of giant homes, I guess for the few really high paying jobs. I was talking with a friend of mine in church on Sunday who was a member of the NC State House, but lost his seat two years ago. He said that they did a great job with incentivizing companies moving to Charlotte and North Carolina in general, BUT, they forgot that they needed to attract the positions that actually paid really well.

However, it's done absolutely nothing at the senior levels. That's what happens when there are really no HQs in the city. So, there are jobs everywhere, just not anything for anyone with any levels of experience.

So, when I hear the "economy is absurdly good", I have to take it with a grain of salt. Also, they're putting in Express toll lanes north of the city on I-77. Problem is, hardly anyone can afford the toll rates.

 

[NCRanger]

@NCRanger that's a tough pill to swallow. You've been settled into an area for a long time, but job opportunities look to have run dry in your neck of the woods. If moving is an option, it might be your best one, but I can't tell you or anyone else how to run their lives. I'm happy to hear that you're actually not planning something drastic like stepping onto oncoming traffic, but we're always here if you'd like to vent

While I'm not changing fields per se, I will be changing work settings hopefully sometime soon. I've been a nurse for over 8 years now, all of which except for just under a year when I was starting out in the same place. It's an inner city intensive care unit, so to say I've seen some **** would be putting it mildly. Last year I graduated with my masters to be a nurse practitioner. I passed my certification exam a few weeks ago, but the credentialing process has been moving at a snails pace between the bureaucracy of the state and credentialing agencies in getting all of my applications lined up so I can start practicing. Thing is, I went to school to work in the primary setting (i.e., doctor's office, subacute rehab, etc.) and not in the hospital. While I'm really looking forward to not having to work in a hospital again, networking has proven to be difficult because all of my contacts in the industry for the most part work in acute care (the hospital). I know that I'll find a job, and hopefully in a company where I won't have to work in the inner city all of time, but I'm frustrated that it may take me a bit longer to find new employment. I regret not networking more while in school, but the way things shook out wasn't really ideal for getting into a place where I did my clinical rotations. The first three of my four preceptors no longer work at the places where I did clinical (the first got another job, the second moved out of state, the third went back to school, really rotten luck) and my last preceptor was wonderful, but the clinical site was an hour away from me.

I'm excited for the new role when I get it though. No more 12 hour shifts. I'll actually get snow days if I'm in an office (offices close because of bad weather, hospitals do not!). It will be a change of pace too. The hospital environment has gotten progressively more and more toxic since I started years ago to the present day. Federal reimbursement based on satisfaction scores based on post admission surveys is the worst thing to happen in healthcare, maybe ever. The hospital experience has become just as much a customer service industry as a medical industry. Because of this, I can't tell a nasty patient or family member (they're worse than the patients 99% of the time) to go jump in a lake. I have to take their **** (literally) and accommodate them with a smile on my face. Management and administration is constantly on your back about nonsense and actively looks for **** ups in your documentation. I can't wait to leave. I'm thinking of doing a reddit AMA about my time in the hospital when I do leave and start a new job. I'll be sure to link it here if I decide to.

My wife is a Home Health nurse. She used to work in the hospital. I've heard the stories.

She's also in the same boat as me. She has generally constant work, but hasn't had a raise in all the years we've been here.

 

[Thordic]

@SnowblindNYR stay positive and keep your head up. Best advice I ever got was from one of the worst teachers I ever had who was a businessman at heart. He was this ultra successful alpha guy who loved to brag about his career/much younger girlfriend/etc. But he said for all the success he had, he's been unsure of himself in it 2/3s of the time and still succeeded. And any opportunity that he didn't he would just pick himself up, dust himself off, and keep moving forward.

If you don't occasionally find yourself in situations where you feel like you have no idea what you are doing, you probably aren't being challenged enough. Uncertainly forces you to learn. Odds are, if you have a decent manager, they put you in that position knowing you'd be able to handle it one way or the other.

 

[BringBackLibertys]

The same thing is being said about Charlotte. And the thing is, if you are under 30, and single, the economy is good. Really good. The city is booming. It's just booming in the middle. There are apartment buildings going up everywhere. There are a few developments of giant homes, I guess for the few really high paying jobs. I was talking with a friend of mine in church on Sunday who was a member of the NC State House, but lost his seat two years ago. He said that they did a great job with incentivizing companies moving to Charlotte and North Carolina in general, BUT, they forgot that they needed to attract the positions that actually paid really well.

However, it's done absolutely nothing at the senior levels. That's what happens when there are really no HQs in the city. So, there are jobs everywhere, just not anything for anyone with any levels of experience.

So, when I hear the "economy is absurdly good", I have to take it with a grain of salt. Also, they're putting in Express toll lanes north of the city on I-77. Problem is, hardly anyone can afford the toll rates.

To be clear, this is NOT an issue in RTP (Raleigh Durham area), there are plenty of jobs, and plenty of senior level jobs. Same state, different area, so I am not sure how the incentives affected it. RTP is a great place to relocate right now, with everything house/community wise @NCRanger is talking about, plus great jobs at all levels.

 

[Gardner McKay]

The same thing is being said about Charlotte. And the thing is, if you are under 30, and single, the economy is good. Really good. The city is booming. It's just booming in the middle. There are apartment buildings going up everywhere. There are a few developments of giant homes, I guess for the few really high paying jobs. I was talking with a friend of mine in church on Sunday who was a member of the NC State House, but lost his seat two years ago. He said that they did a great job with incentivizing companies moving to Charlotte and North Carolina in general, BUT, they forgot that they needed to attract the positions that actually paid really well.

However, it's done absolutely nothing at the senior levels. That's what happens when there are really no HQs in the city. So, there are jobs everywhere, just not anything for anyone with any levels of experience.

So, when I hear the "economy is absurdly good", I have to take it with a grain of salt. Also, they're putting in Express toll lanes north of the city on I-77. Problem is, hardly anyone can afford the toll rates.

Well, I am not single, I am not under 30 and I have children so...

There are a significant amount of 6 figure jobs being created here. I've been amazed when looking at our comp analysis at the average pay levels here in Atlanta. We keep having to do some significant market adjustments just to keep up (I work in HR).

The toll rates here aren't that steep, well at least I don't think so. Costs me $2 when heading home. Mornings range from $4 - $6. Totally worth it to get 3-4 hours of my life back each week.

If you really want to get out of Charlotte, I would check it out at the very least.

 

[NCRanger]

To be clear, this is NOT an issue in RTP (Raleigh Durham area), there are plenty of jobs, and plenty of senior level jobs. Same state, different area, so I am not sure how the incentives affected it. RTP is a great place to relocate right now, with everything house/community wise @NCRanger is talking about, plus great jobs at all levels.

I used to live there (1999-2006). I was working in financial services and the group I was in got bought by another bank and we were closed. I was looking for something up there and couldn't find anything decent at the time and that I was pigeonholed into financial services. Being I was in banking, I expanded my search to Charlotte and found something in two weeks. Back then, Charlotte had more of the higher paying roles (wasn't qualified for one back then). Now, it seems like the cities have shifted, Charlotte is now the younger, recent college graduate demographic, and Raleigh/Durham is the more established professional demographic. Might have to move back up there.

As for the differences, all started back in 2013/2014, our idiotic city council started this nonsense in how to make Charlotte more millennial friendly. The labor force got younger almost overnight. In response, the larger companies that have locations all over the country, moved the more senior managers out of Charlotte, even though they still managed their Charlotte teams. They also stopped the career progression from team member to team lead to team manager. I guess it was to raise the salary of the manager that was now in Minneapolis or St. Louis or wherever. Because the labor force got cheaper, the ability for a more senior person to jump to another company for a raise just disappeared. There's no incentive to pay for talent because they don't have to. It's led to employment stagnation. Nobody here ever stayed in a job for more than two years, even if they moved internally. The FTEs on my team are all "veteran", and most are looking to get out. But they can't. No job churn also keeps salary increases down.

As someone who loves the study of economics, the Charlotte labor market is a very interesting case of the supply/demand curve not working the way it is supposed to.

@Gardner McKay , what's very interesting is that our MRPs (what we base salary on) have not changed one bit since 2014. In fact, the actual starting salaries have DECREASED over that time frame. Yet, cost of living in Charlotte is skyrocketing.

And, at the same time, the companies moving into the Triangle are not looking for entry level college graduates.

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

Anyone have some advice in regards to looking for a different job while at a company? I've been at this company for over a year now and I just don't enjoy working in the current department that I'm in(legal). Theres an opportunity to move to an operations role this summer but if that falls through I think i'm going to start looking for work else where

 

[SnowblindNYR]

So at work part of my responsibilities is checking to see if certain companies are already in the system or not. It's a tedious, super junior process. But you can export the database into excel. And excel is my jam. So I created a model that would partially automate the process. There's no way to automate it completely. Anyway, I sent it to my boss "in case I'm ever out and he needs to do that". But honestly, I just wanted to show him my excel skills. It's pretty advanced stuff and he was definitely impressed. So much as that he asked me with help in something way less junior and even confidential that he couldn't figure out how to do in excel. Also, he suggested I take an excel/powerpoint test that they give to see if people should be moved to more appropriate spots. So I might have an opportunity here. That said, I don't know how impressive that opportunity could be I just started and I'm an entry-level role earning very little. I still have to hear back about my interview last week. I also applied to a few companies. Not sure if I should chill because things are going pretty well or if I should look to move still since I'm making less than half of what I should be making given my years of experience and education.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Anyone in finance? I've dabbled in it and at the very least know what financial models look like. Putting bankers that work crazy hours and actually have technical skills (know financial statements very well) aside, most people in corporate finance that I notice use internal metrics. Their jobs involve listing those internal metrics in a spreadsheet and adding, subtracting and multiplying them by one another. It's not easy from the perspective of there being a lot of data and you have to wrap your head around it. But still these guys make a good amount of money and I can't figure out why. It's not rocket science. I'd actually love to do that since I really enjoy this type of analysis. But I don't understand why it's a relatively lucrative role.

 

[East Coast Bias]

Anyone in finance? I've dabbled in it and at the very least know what financial models look like. Putting bankers that work crazy hours and actually have technical skills (know financial statements very well) aside, most people in corporate finance that I notice use internal metrics. Their jobs involve listing those internal metrics in a spreadsheet and adding, subtracting and multiplying them by one another. It's not easy from the perspective of there being a lot of data and you have to wrap your head around it. But still these guys make a good amount of money and I can't figure out why. It's not rocket science. I'd actually love to do that since I really enjoy this type of analysis. But I don't understand why it's a relatively lucrative role.

Are you talking about financial reporting? Analysis?

In my experience, anyone’s whose job it was to write simple excel formulas and prepare excel files for a living now has their job being done in India.

Being an excel whiz isn’t enough. Most companies have BI tools layered over their ledgers and subledgers to customize reports.