couch 'em wrote:We're both engineers - I'm electrical in the MEP consulting industry and she's environmental in water resources, although for you hiring types out there I think we'd both freely change industries if the money and environment was there.
We want to move because we were both born and raised in the Dallas area and graduated from SMU, so we never really left "home" in Dallas, and although we like Dallas, we want to change that. Also, Dallas has too many relatives a little too close for our tastes.
I have an 18 month old and another on the way, so we are looking for a quality place to raise a family with decent career possibilities. Our entertainment interests are diverse, so we aren't tied to anything specific like a major downtown area, skiing, etc.
Try Midland. Oil companies and companies related to oil and gas sector can not hire enough engineers
Trading Dallas for Midland would be a major downgrade. Since you are both from Dallas, guessing you wouldn't want a ton of cold weather, otherwise I'd suggest Seattle. San Fran is another good option, too.
skyscraper wrote:Trading Dallas for Midland would be a major downgrade. Since you are both from Dallas, guessing you wouldn't want a ton of cold weather, otherwise I'd suggest Seattle. San Fran is another good option, too.
Downgrade? That depends on what you are looking for. I was raised in Dallas, Higland Park to be exact. It is true Midland does not have everything Dallas does, but it has a lower cost of living, extremely family oriented town, friendly people and I have been blessed to make a very good living in the oil and gas business. Also Southwest Air is one hour to Dallas.
Try Plano. I hear it's nice but I've never been that far north.
"This is . . . dedication to distraction by fans. Is that what I'm going to go with Jay?" "That poor kid has to be wondering what is dad doing." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XknLDwj0dSo
Seattle is great. One of my favorite places I've ever worked. But no one had A/C in the summer.
I actually Spent most of my time in Redmond which is a very nice suburb.
"This is . . . dedication to distraction by fans. Is that what I'm going to go with Jay?" "That poor kid has to be wondering what is dad doing." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XknLDwj0dSo
Don't really need A/C when the average summer high is what, in the low 80s? Acutally lived in Kirkland in the early 90s when they hit their record high of 99 and could have used A/C on that day.
Beautiful condo on Lake Washington Blvd, those were the days...
True, it does rain the Pacific Northwest for about 9 months out of the year. It's where the all the US weather starts. But the other 3 months is unbelievable.
Plus, as I recall couch 'em is somthing of a big fan of the locally made fermented barley and hops beverage. He could do worse than the Pacific NW for that aspect of the social life.
jtstang wrote:Don't really need A/C when the average summer high is what, in the low 80s? Acutally lived in Kirkland in the early 90s when they hit their record high of 99 and could have used A/C on that day.
Beautiful condo on Lake Washington Blvd, those were the days...
I had some days in the high 80s and 90s and it felt hotter than 100s here because you couldn't escape it.
"This is . . . dedication to distraction by fans. Is that what I'm going to go with Jay?" "That poor kid has to be wondering what is dad doing." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XknLDwj0dSo
A friend of mine moved to Portland and loves it (except for the rain). DC area is nice. An hour from the mountains and three hours to the beach. Annapolis is an hour away for sailing types. You get four seasons, but not long stretches of bitter cold or brutal heat every year. Its expensive though. Engineers are sought after here, but usually they need a security clearance since a lot of the work is for Uncle Sam. A major city so you have options for restaurants, theatre, sports, and of course our favorite activity here, politics. Lastly, very few natives. Most people are from someplace else so people are very tolerant of newbies. We unfortunately have a bunch of Cowboy fans here who grew up in DC and hated their parents, so they adopted the Cowboys.
