Consider Relocation To Land Your First Job

By Zack on March 26, 2009

In headier times it may have been possible to pick and choose the city where you begin your career. If you went to school in Philadelphia and wanted to stay to start your career you probably had a pretty good chance. However, with the current job market you may have to look around and relocate to find the gig you are looking for.  One of the places that may be worth checking out is Raleigh, North Carolina.  Yesterday's Forbes.com features an ind-depth profile of the burgeoning hot spot for employment where "the three-year projected annual employment gain is 1.4%. according to Moody's Economy.com, 15th best in the country."

Helping fuel Raleigh's strong economy is the Research Triangle Park, one of the oldest and largest science parks in North America. It is located between Raleigh and Durham and is home to 170 companies employing 42,000 people. Big employers include Biogen Idec, Cisco Systems and IBM.

"Raleigh is holding up better than any other place in North Carolina," says Matthew Martin, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va. He cites the significant higher education presence and low manufacturing base in the area for Raleigh's steady economy.

A good friend and old roomate of mine moved down to the Raleigh-Durham area about two years ago and is the happiest he has ever been. Between well paying jobs and a relatively low cost of living it makes for a very comfortable living.  You make have to make some sacrifices in this market regarding the selection of jobs, but it is good to know that there are areas of the country where you can still find what you are looking for.

The Forbes piece also looks at some other regions of the country and how they stack up.  Austin, Texas made a significant leap from 47th to 8th this year. And going in the other direction is California, which had just one of it's 21 metro areas in the top 100 (Riverside). Read the entire article for more.

On then to The Links ...

Chronicle of Higher Ed's Wired Campus Blog Announces: Blackboard has an iPhone App. The app, called Blackboard Learn allows students to check grades and receive class updates via there iPhone. It's free and can be found in the Apple App store.

Chronicle of Higher Ed's Wired Campus Blog Also Found: Internships with Google. "Google is handing out $4,500 stipends to a select group of college students who will spend this summer contributing to open-source projects, including ones that compete with Google’s own software." The program is called "Summer of Code."

Alison Doyle's Job Searching Blog Warns: Twitter can help you get a job. "However, there is a danger in thinking that all you need to do is go online and tweet yourself to a new job. There is no quick and easy way for most of us to find a job." Read Alison's post for a well rounded approach to finding a job.

Fistful of Talent Asks: Who has a better shot at scoring a job: The young college grad or the seasoned vet? Read the post for a breakdown on the advantages of each to see where you stand.

"Downtown Raleigh at sunset" Photo courtesy FotoDawg via Flickr's Creative Commons.