Planning move. Advice?
 

Hi everyone. I’m looking to get as much information as I can.
Between now and a year from now my girlfriend and I are moving from NE Ohio to South Carolina. I personally fell in love with the state and the southern hospitality when I was there and did not want to come back, so I found where I want to live. The areas I picked so far are Charleston and Columbia. Are these pretty good areas? Pros and cons?
I am moving down trying to land state jobs in the IT field. Although, any other companies you guys can chime in.
We are moving because we hate it up here the people suck, the cost of living is actually getting higher as far as I have seen, the weather sucks, and no jobs.

If you have any advice or information you feel I should know that would be awesome. I’m open to anything. I’m stalking indeed as we speak.

Thank you, Merry Christmas as well!

I don't know the area but I know the industry. Check into consulting companies that service the area and try to pick up contract jobs until you find a perm jobs. You may like contract and never go back to perm. That's what happened to me 10 years ago.

Personally, I’d go with Charleston - Southern hospitality at its best & close to the water. My bro-in-law lives there & has been after us the last few years to move down - I/T job market is on fire. Boeing & Blackbaud are two companies that are expanding there.

Daniel Island / Mount Pleasant area are really nice areas in the suburbs, just minutes from downtown. Have not seen traffic be too bad for commuters.

On the other hand, Colimbia is nice, but having been there in the summer - it may be the hottest place on earth.

You may not like this piece of advice, but don't jump off the dock hoping the boat shows up during your jump. In other words, don't move hoping for a job. That will end you getting desperate and taking whatever job you can get. Potential employers can see desperation a mile away and will either not offer you the job or get you as cheap as possible.

Both cities are nice, just don't get desperate. Also, southern hospitality sometimes only pertains to visitors. You "yankees" can sometimes be shunned for being from up north. It happened to my family when we moved from Chicago to Charlotte.

I agree on the southern hospitality thing. There is a saying in Texas. If you don't like it here, I-35 will take you back home.

I’ll have to think about it man! I used to be a contract Field Technician I loved the job but the company I worked for basically went under.

Thank you man! I’m 23 she’s 21 and we want out of here. She’s from the south and she hates it up here. I’m going to keep doing my research as well :)

It’s best to have negative and positive lights on the subject, up here where I live you have the rudest people on the planet. Neighbors believe that because they have slightly greener grass than you (swear to god) think they are better than you. You have people that consistently hate younger people that are doing better than them, might be because of where I live but, still, all cities around us everyone is the same. I will not be desperate about it because I have made that mistake with my Field Technician job, I’m really trying to score a position in a good place. I really am taking my time with the moving. My girl is from the south and she’s complaining about the winter and the people up here because she loved the people back home. I personally am tired of the cold all together. So I want to move south, Georgia and Florida were my first targets but then I went to SC the hot weather in the summer made me fall in love. The job market up here is awful, you can’t find anything that makes 30+ a year. That’s how bad it is.

Thank you for the advice! I’ll keep an eye out, my girl and my best friend are going down again to scope out the area more and more for a week.

Best of luck to you. I lived 8 years in PA and just recently moved back to MO so I have a good idea of what you're talking about. It definitely depends on who you come into contact with. It was a weird feeling moving from the midwest where you can learn someone's life story standing in line at the grocery store to a place where people won't look you in the eye unless you need something and even sometimes not then. However, I'm not being negative, I'm being realistic. There's no reason to put yourself in financial strain because of a few people who are disagreeable or just plain a$$holes. I use my analogy from my original post, don't jump off the dock and hope the boat is there when you land. You can find yourself getting wet or drowning pretty easily without a plan to support yourself. I'm all in favor of going somewhere you want to. I moved back to MO recently where I'm closer to family and while I miss my friends I made back in PA I have some friends I've known for a long time out here. However, I didn't move back here until I was able to line my job up (lucky for a promotion with my company) and have a way to support my family. The #1 reason for divorce (I know you're only dating, but the relationship sounds serious to move together) is money problems. No point in putting unnecessary stress on a relationship just so you can have a few more friends.

The only thing I could say is do not move to another location until there is a job already waiting for you.

Charleston. May see you there. That is going to be my daughters first duty station. Will be going there a lot more in the future.

Ohh I completely understand. No I’m taking this the safest route possible, I really want to take this as slow and calculated. This year I’m using all my vacation time to stay down there for a week or so just for job interviews. For sure do not want money issues! I believe you’re supposed to have up to 3-6 months of bills saved up before a move.

Oh definitely I had friends that did that and ended up struggling because their savings were draining while finding a job. I will use my vacation time to stay down there and interview. I won’t move until everything is ready to go. Taking off without a job off is risky, I like to play my life as safe as possible.

Maybe! I loved Charleston it’s such a nice area, I’m not so keen on being right on the ocean I really like to be inland but if a job offer is good enough I’m going. Lol.