My wife is in love w/ Charleston and wishes we could move there (she hates the cold of Boston, and her mom lives in Myrtle Beach). The problem as I see it is the job market. I’m a software architect who will be going back to school in the fall to get my MBA.
Anyone with experience down there know what the job prospects for someone like me would be? I’m not sure what I’ll do with my MBA when I graduate, but given my background it’s safe to assume it will be in a software/technology area. Do I have any chance of finding a good job there, or should I rule it off the list?
There are a few Chucktown Dopers around who may or may not be along shortly. I can tell you that there are IT jobs down there (like everywhere, I assume) and also in the immediate area (I-26 between Charleston and Columbia) I would check monster.com but I don’t like hitting that website at work. I have had some friends in IT consult in the area but not me personally.
I’m a graduate student here in Charleston. My SO is a programmer (lots of Java). My impression is that there’s a limited amount of tech work here. He was lucky to find something open within a couple of months after we moved here. He’s currently working for a company that contracts workers out on the local military projects, and he seems fairly content there (despite the frustrations of working with slow gov’t).
Email me if you want to (I think it’s in my profile), and I’ll forward your question to him. I’m sure he’d be happy to give you a more complete idea of what’s around. He definitely knows more about it than I do!
Just curious … has your wife visited here in the middle of the summer? Yes, you’ll get rid of those nasty Bostonian winters, but your summer will be six months of blazing sticky humid hell. I say this only because summer is starting, and I’m a sun-worshipper in a body that would have been well-suited for a vampire, and I’m ticked.
Thanks for the input. Yes we’ve been there in the summer and she has no problems. I, on the other hand, am an ice person so I’m not thrilled about the heat, but I do love the city. We were just there last weekend for her cousin’s wedding. (He’s in the AF and stationed there) It really is one of the prettiest cities in the country, and being somewhat of a country boy, it’s more my speed and size, even compared to Boston, which isn’t all that huge of a city itself.
Yeah, we moved here from north of Atlanta. I grew up in rural Michigan, and moved to rural NC from there, so Atlanta was just waaaaaaaay too much for me. Charleston is much more livable. It’s hilarious to listen to people complain about the traffic here, after developing a reference point in a larger city. I love it here.
Glad to hear that your wife takes heat well. You’ll hopefully be comforted while outdoors during the summer (as I am) by the everpresent breeze. IMHO, it’s the only thing that makes life tolerable while I’m in transit between air-conditioned buildings.
I live in Charleston also. I’m not in the tech industry, but from what I’ve heard those jobs are not abundant here. That’s not to say it’s hopeless though. I’m not very tech-savvy - sorry - but I hear Blackbaud has great benefits/treats employees well - if they’re anything close to what you know, I’d look into them.
Best Wishes to you & Mrs. racekarl if you decide to move here. It was 93 today…
It was 93 today…