SpeedWorld

Hey all, I am from Minnesota and I'm tired of the snow. I'm 21 years old and I've been living here my whole life and I'm looking to head south and change it up. I am thinking about maybe looking in the Dallas area. The only thing holding me back right now is because I have a pretty good job here, so I would want to find something pretty decent there as well...that's kind of why I thought of Dallas, because they seem to have a lot of businesses there and for the most part, seems pretty clean.

Right now the weather is the main thing that I am drawn too. I have checked out apartments online and things seem to be pretty cheap, but I have found out that the standard of living is less there, so everything is scaled down as far as price goes.

Any tips or advice for someone like me coming down there? Going to be me, my girlfriend, and my two dogs. How's the economy and the job growth? Tough to find a job? Thanks!

CySevans

Actually, I would say the Houston economy would be much stronger than Dallas right now. You may also want to consider the Houston area.

What line of work are you in?

SpeedWorld

Ok, cool, I will research the Houston area. I have a lot of customer service & insurance experience. I'm a business major so pretty much anything business related, just nothing too technical.

blown4.6

What field do you work in? If your in IT the plano/Dallas area is great for that field, I'm not sure how easy finding a job here will be though due to the economy

PatriotT/A

Dallas isn't the only area you'll want to look. Fort Worth, Arlington, and the other surrounding areas are pretty nice. Just like any cities, they have bad areas, but you can definitely find a nice apt/house for a good price down here. Also, to cover you disgust with the weather up there; When it snows/ices in Texas, you don't have to go to work (depending on employer of course) and people avoid the roads as if there were land mines everywhere. Just a small perk I thought you might like. What's your line of work? Might be someone on here that can get your foot in the door somewhere.

SpeedWorld

That's great news about the weather. I don't have any particular line of work so I'm pretty open. I'm working on my Bachelor's in Business Administration and have done a lot of customer service, insurance work. So pretty much anything that isn't too technical... I'm just looking out the window and seeing about 6 inches of snow fall and it's starting to confirm my feelings about leaving.

SpeedWorld

I was looking at Dallas too because my current company has an office in Dallas, but there is no guarantee they will have openings in what I'm qualified to do there. But if I find something I'm hopping on it the first chance I get and heading down there.

MY06TBSS

big difference in the Dallas and Houston weather scene, Houston is much warmer yr round..

SpeedWorld

Hmm, ok. I was just a bit worried about the hurricanes but I know Ike was pretty much the only one to partially effect that area in the past 25 years or so...also I thought flooding was kind of bad since it tends to rain a good amount? Not sure if that is true, though. I don't mind rain...anything but snow!

blown4.6

How much are you looking to make $/hr?

SpeedWorld

Are the wages lower their since everything else their seems to be cheaper?

blown4.6

It probably depends on what your doing but I've never compared to Minnesota to Texas. The reason I asked what you were looking at making an hour was to tell you if that is something reasonable and would allow you find a job easier.

twitchtwice

iTrader: (12)

houston has wayyyyy more job opportunity than dfw

SpeedWorld

Gotcha, well based on what is seems like houses and apartments go for out there I wouldn't think I would need to make too much. I'm making around $33k as of right now, but that is pretty much the median around here. Any idea what the median is down there? I thought I saw like $40k median family income somewhere for the Dallas area...

TLUZLS1

iTrader: (6)

Hurricanes aren't a problem. Im 20 and have lived in a houston suburb all my life, and in these 20 years the only thing a hurricane has done has stolen 10 shingles and trimmed the trees a tad. Mind you i live on the side of houston closest to the water. Just do some research on which area of houston is the best as far as flooding is concerned. Water has never gotten past our sidewalk, even during Allison. Houston has TONS of business. It's constantly ranked really high nationally and highest in Texas as a place to live for work. There's also tons of stuff to do, whereas Dallas doesn't have as much (or at least nothing houston doesn't have), except maybe a Six Flags lol. Either way, you can't go wrong with Texas

PatriotT/A

Houston is twice as Humid. Not trying to make this a "my city is better than your city" thing.

blown4.6

Yeah if you have any sort of business experience 15/hr will be easy.

TLUZLS1

iTrader: (6)

Definitely true, but hey he said he wanted to try warm weather? lol

RickyMartinZ28

iTrader: (5)

Might try East Texas.... Tyler area is in pretty good shape right now...

SpeedWorld

Yeah I don't think I will really mind the weather being too hot. In MN, the summers can get up to 100 degrees and just be muggy and humid as all hell, but I can get used to it. I plan to look for some jobs down there but I would think it would be hard to land one before I actually move there, so I was hoping to move to a place that would have a decent amount of jobs available so I could get one as soon as possible and then go from there.

I knew you guys would be able to help me out more, it's easy to read stuff online, but it's better to hear from people who actually live there.