We need a jobby job!

September 6, 2007 9:24 AM

Help us find jobs! My wife and I have decided to do things backwards and pick a place to live before we find jobs. We have chosen Raleigh NC. We are moving from Bermuda. What would be the best route towards finding great jobs? Back in the heyday, it was quite easy to put a resume up on Monster or Dice. But now, from what I understand, things have changed. Would we be better off engaging a recruitment agency? I work in I.T. as a web dev / lotus dev / project manager, and my wife is an accountant with SAP experience. To complicate things further we are 1) In Bermuda so face-to-face interviews might be tricky, 2) We would like to travel for 1-2 months after we leave Bermuda. My gut feel is that we might have to move to Raleigh first before getting serious about finding jobs. And before you say we are crazy, 1) we have researched Raleigh and know it's where we want to be, and 2) we have cash to float for a long time. Unfortunately, our professional network is somewhat limited to Bermuda, Michigan, and the Caribbean, so going the 'networking' route might be difficult. Would it be best to research companies in the Triangle and contact them directly? How would you approach finding a job in a specific city?
posted by jasondigitized to Work & Money (10 answers total)

Hmmm - what is the commute/travel time from Raleigh to Charlotte? - there are many big IT companies with campuses in Charlotte.

And - tadellin it is possible to be an IT consultant/contractor in the Bahamas/Caribbean and put money away (re: finance, banking work)
posted by jkaczor at 9:51 AM on September 6, 2007

I would also browse craigslist
posted by lohmannn at 9:59 AM on September 6, 2007

jkaczor, I think tadellin was meaning why would anyone living in Bermuda with enough money to live on without a job for a long while, want to move to Raleigh ;)
Not that someone in Bermuda couldn't put aside enough money
posted by missmagenta at 10:01 AM on September 6, 2007

Response by poster: I think tadellin's comment was deleted, but from what I surmise he is asking why you would leave Bermuda. Because they have term limits on work permits and eventually you have to leave. No one would leave if they didn't have too. Its the land of milk and honey.
posted by jasondigitized at 10:12 AM on September 6, 2007

"what is the commute/travel time from Raleigh to Charlotte? - there are many big IT companies with campuses in Charlotte."

Charlotte to Raleigh is *way* too far to commute, and Raleigh/"the Triangle" is the center of tech stuff in NC.
posted by mccxxiii at 10:37 AM on September 6, 2007

Craigslist and Careerbuilder are big nowadays. Monster is a place for you to meet scammers.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:50 AM on September 6, 2007

Charlotte to Raleigh is *way* too far to commute, and Raleigh/"the Triangle" is the center of tech stuff in NC.

Ok - my vision & actual in-person experience with Charlotte is flavoured by my current employer & their customers ;-)

I will second staying away from Monster - the only thing I've gotten from them for the last year has been spammer email from people who "saw my resume on Monster".

Hit the local yellowpages and find some local recruiters - I assume you have at least 2 years of experience. I personally don't mind dealling with recruiters - if they're good, then they have built up a ton of local contacts - if they are bad, chances are you won't even here from them anyways.
posted by jkaczor at 12:58 PM on September 6, 2007

This is the Triangle Classified Ads job search, which is powered by careerbuilder, but incorporates the Raleigh newspaper ads, Chapel Hill newspaper ads, and the advocate ads (just a classified paper inside other papers). Searching just IT brings up a ton of hits, all local. You could also just try calling the companies in RTP that you want to work for or visiting their websites. Also, you mentioned Michigan as a place where you have contacts-- University of Michigan-Ann Arbor has pretty big ties with UNC-Chapel Hill academically, and people frequently move between those towns both ways, so it may be worth it to hit up your connections there to see if they have any down here.

Good luck.
posted by greta simone at 1:49 PM on September 6, 2007

This is the jobsite the Durham Herald-Sun uses. Also, sometimes interesting indie kinds of jobs get listed in the Independent weekly.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:24 PM on September 6, 2007

Oh, and also check out the universities' jobsites directly: UNC, Duke, NC State, NC Central.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:27 PM on September 6, 2007 [1 favorite]