Re-posting this really good post, it's not mine but I think it's worth a bump: The problem here is that South Florida have very slim pickings. I'm not trying to throw cold water to anyone, but these are the things that people need to be aware of. Coming from what is the crème de la crème of South Florida tech scene (and Citrix is de local crème de la crème) won't necessarily help you. The local market is heavily skewed towards contractors. Herein lies the problem - you would have to go through recruiters. And then, let's supposed you have been doing C++, but you have also done Java or C#. Guess what? Recruiters WILL NOT SEND YOU openings for Java or C# or whatever tech that you can do. Similarly, if your last job was in mobile development, but you did a lot of web development, recruiters will not let you know of openings in web development that you are qualified for. They will just send you mobile dev openings. They will pigeonhole to whatever last tech you did. And the problem is that, if for some reasons the local market is lacking openings on that last thing you did, you can be unemployed for a while until you find an opening on whatever you are getting pigeonholed by recruiters and HR, or break through into something else by luck, network connections or simply skewing your resume towards that opening. In other words, keep several versions of your resume tailored to openings, and use multiple recruiting agencies. If you can do C# and C++ (or Java and C#), then use one set of recruiters for one tech stack, and another set of recruiters for another tech stack. Don't ask me how I know. I went through that, and I was unemployed for months because recruiters were only sending me to C++ jobs while refusing to send me Java openings. It was like that for months till I got a job because of network connections from ex-colleagues. Some of my very close friends might recognize me from what I'm about to describe, but that is fine. I had to have two versions of my resume, one showing my full line of work, and one for Java in which I completely erased and collapsed my last 4 years of C++ into a single line to make space to bring my 10+ years of Java experience to the front page. So keep that in mind please as you do your job hunting. Recruiters will not forward your resume, nor notify you of openings except for those that match the last year of your most recent job. You could have been doing, say, C++ for 20 years, but if your last 2 years were in Java, C# or Ruby, recruiters WILL NOT forward your resume to C++ jobs, nor let you know of C++ openings. It might be different in other, more tech-inclined regions, but in this caveman-like area that is South Florida, that is the game you need to play because the recruiters and HR drones you interact with can't tell the difference from what you do from a glazed doughnut. Good luck.
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Con't. As for employers not wanting to see a candidate because his skills "are not current", I've seen them also, and I avoid them like the plague. Why? Because that shows they do not know how to gauge technical skills. It's like the firms that won't hire someone with experience in say, JBoss BPM Suite because they are precisely looking for Oracle BPM (something completely stupid). Except in a time of desperation and need for a job, why would anyone want to work with such an employer. These are also part of the problem in the tech-deficient market of ours. Pick your recruiters smart (and have several to deal with their pigeonholing), and avoid the 'not-current' employers like the plague. That will save you a lot of headaches.
@nopenopenope - oh please, yeah right. Unless you are a developer, how the hell will you know if a candidate can back up what he/she knows? I'm the guy who wrote that the post quoted in this thread. Been in this business for 25 years, 15 of those as a contractor. And the story that originated that post of mine was exactly that, I got pigeonholed as a C++ developer, completely ditching my Java/JEE experience. The firm that was pigeonholing got quite the surprise when I told them I got a Java position at the place they were refusing to send my resume. I could never prove to the recruiters that I could do the job, SOOOOO, I went directly to the employer and proved myself. Unless you are a qualified engineer, you cannot tell if I can do the job or not (just in the same way I am not qualified to gauge someone's skills in medicine or marketing.)
Speaking as a recruiter, because I am a recruiter, I'd just like to state that I WILL, WILL, and also WILL, send you to a C# or Java position if you want me to, but have been doing C++, or Ruby, or whatever for the past 2 years. But guess what?!?!? You've got to back up that you can actually do the job, AND, you've got to back up that somehow not doing C# or Java, and instead building lego cities or Rails work for the past 2 years has somehow made you better at C# or Java. And by better, at the very least, I mean better than the person who decided to continue doing C# or Java development. It's easy to blame the recruiters but I see manager allday errday just denying to even speak with great candidates for reasons like "experience with xyz isn't current".
yep, pretty much what FTLDude said!
got a house in Coral Springs, kids in schools, married, and loving my life OUTSIDE of work down here in FL. wouldn't trade it for anything! (yes i lived in Queens for 3 years and worked in Manhattan).
con't. Anonymous65247, with all that taken into consideration, then it should be clear why some people simply choose to stay here and weather the regular tech-job storms in a relatively anemic tech industry. Some of my friends might recognize me for this, but for me, should I make the decision to relocate, it would be Orlando or Denver (after having done all the calculations regarding cost of living and diversity - or lack - of tech opportunities.) But I won't pull the GTFO trigger, not yet.
To survive in this local tech economy, people need to be very nimble. Plan to see a disruption every 4-6 years, and plan to be on the job hunt for 3 to 6 months. Plan to work as a contractor rather than a perm (this is true in most of the country anyways). Plan for COBRA coverage in between transitions. Know how to calculate your hourly rate based on your annual rate plus benefits (401k matching, health plans, college reimbursement, paid vacations/PTO, etc.) Most importantly, aggressively use social media to expose your brand (linkedin, stackoverflow profiles, even facebook.) I was very surprised to see my Citrix colleagues being very conservative, if not unaware of professional usage of social media (that is suicide in the volatile economy we live in.) I hope this answers your questions about why people stay here. It is not all cut and dry simple math.
con't. Anonymous65247, What happens if your significant other has a job already, or if you have kids already in school (very disruptive for them to get yanked to other locations)? What if you own property? What if your entire professional network lives here? A person needs to do a cost analysis when migrating somewhere else. San Francisco is the panacea when it comes to tech jobs, but the ROI is atrocious (specially if you are married, have kids and your significant other is not in tech.) There is also the analysis of month-to-month quality of life. Boston is great for tech jobs, but not so great when you have to shovel snow 3-4 months out of a year.
For all its failings, South Florida provides significant trade-offs in term of quality of life. Not the cheapest real state, but certainly cheaper than San Francisco/Bay Area, Virginia/MD, NY or Boston. Hurricanes suck, but weather is workable (and you can put an economic value to it.) Some of its neighborhoods are among the best rated in the country in terms of quality of life and school ratings.
Anonymous65247 , to reply to your question. If you are single and have no family ties, then yes, it is easy to GTFO. And by the way, Atlanta, Raleigh, Jacksonville? are you nuts? Raleigh is about to get hammered by the IBM layoffs, for example. All those cities you mentioned have a lot of tech jobs, but very, very few large players (thus subject to layoff apocalypses.) Pick Dallas, Denver or Seattle if you really want your tech prospects to shine, or Orlando/Melbourne if you want to work with Disney/defense contractors (and all the other small companies that stem off that ecosystem.)
guys, if you're serious about your technology career, why the hell would you stay in south florida. this place is the third world. move to atlanta, raleigh, even jacksonville. at least there are a decent number of fortune 500 co's there. unless you like working shitty cruise ship or service jobs for tip money.
look at the wasteland of se florida tech: RIM, Motorola, IBM, Citrix, Freescale. All shells of their former selves. even other big companies are folding up (Office Depot and more). game over.
So true, so true: "can't tell the difference from what you do from a glazed doughnut."