Thinking of moving to...

…Austin, TX.

Tired of things where I’m at. Not for lack of trying, had to get a rather basic job to get by but it’s definitely not enough. (COL vs. salary sucks.) Not even in the field I want, as I’ve been doing driving for my paycheck and it’s been too long. The feeling I get in my local job market (Chicago area) is that it seems most “entry level” jobs for graphics or design are intended to be in-house positions and only posted publicly because they’re required to do so. (So many crazy specific requirements or level of experience that few would have had out of college.)

I think I just saved up enough to move, so I’m planning to make the jump. Not only some good friends from my past there, but I heard the job market may be a bit more open.

The kind of job I’m looking forwards to: generalist graphic artist. Not just 3D (which I feel I do well enough with Blender - but I’m open to using other software), but also 2D, some Flash, photography, a bit of audio/video work, etc. How’s the job market there? Good for that specific field? And if anyone has some leads or knows an open position being offered I’d be glad to hear about it!

If you’re going to move out of state for opportunities, why not try Los Angeles? There are much more opportunities in LA than in Austin. I’ve considered moving out of California before for Austin, but there doesn’t seem to be much going on there, relatively speaking.
And if you don’t find anything here in LA for a while you can always make enough money as an uber driver until you do find something solid.
I think I’d love the climate in Austin though. If they had a bigger market I’d make the move too!

If you do move to Austin be sure to make a new thread or update us on this one and let us know how it goes.

Hey, you live in a h-u-g-e and wonderful country … which means that you’ve got a choice. (And, if you’re reasonably young, or young-at-heart, you’ve probably got time.)

Therefore: “would you like to move to Austin?” Really cool place, rolling hills, gorgeous wildflowers, seriously-happening music scene, and, oh yeah, bats. Lots of bats.

“If you can’t find a job in Chicago, you simply lack imagination.” But, if you’ve got itchy-feet, by all means, “go!” After all, you can always one day move back to the Windy City.

Los Angeles, of course, is another great city (although, “I left my heart in San Francisco”). But don’t feel that you have to live there, “just to get a movie-job.” The Internet has allowed creative-arts work to expand tremendously.

If you put your mind to it (and if you are blessed with “itchy feet”), you can manage to live in a bunch of very interesting places and to make money in all of them. (Uhh, “including Chicago.”)

My wife and I are both “itchy-feet people,” and we’ve managed to parley this into living in more than a half-dozen US cities (and counting). So, if you are “thinking of moving to …” … why not do it!

@sundialsvc4
Do you work in the CG industry? If so, how do you make a living in Nashville? I’m moving back to the South soon from LA myself. I’m going to contract for my current company but eventually, I’m going to have to figure it because I’m not going back to LA. :stuck_out_tongue:

Paul, I agree with sundial. Go for it! I lived in Dallas for a few years and was always jealous of the Austin peeps. That’s a great city.

I’m pretty skint and pulling up lint. The job I’ve been working for the past 6 years or so, although honest work, pays horrible and at part time too. Not much saved up to float on for long.

The budget I’m working with is about $3K. I doubt it would last long enough anywhere in southern CA, and I feel it’s pushing it for the location I’m scouting as it is. At least in TX I have a friend or two to call on. But can’t find out if I can make it nor chase the dream unless I make the jump, right?

As for not finding jobs around here? Not that I haven’t been trying. Part of it seems to be age, a lot of places seem to want “kids” at my experience level. (I got my degree a bit late compared to what most people would expect.) They wont say it (not legal), but that vibe is definitely there. Another part is I’m looking for something I feel I could get behind, one job that looked cool at first seemed a lot more sketchy once described out during an interview. The guy was pretty much wanting to leech images of products he was putting on his website, when the same things could be bought without markup elsewhere. If I help pitch a product or service, I’d prefer it’s something I’d think of as having value. (Not just some middleman or link-farm feeling place.) And way way too many jobs listed seem to be intended for in-house hiring as their requirements are numerous and oddly specific. No idea how I’d get my foot in the door with them. It seems like you have to be in-the-know, and I feel like an outsider.

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Indeed, sometimes moving to a new place is the curve that makes all the difference in your life. You’re not a tree, and you definitely have a choice where to live and how to spend the time of your life. If you feel like movign to a new place, just go for it.

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Not sure if any of you here at BA are in the area… So yeah I did it, and made the jump! :RocknRoll: Looking for work still. Tried to land something before leaving, but nope. My friend that also moved out here is a bit too busy getting his stuff together, so I can’t really fall back on him much either. Hopefully I can land a decent job now that I’m here and can do things like interviewing in-person.

Also had the luck to find the cheapest place to crash near the research area, so anyone from Austin probably has a really good clue where I’m kicking my feet up. Net here isn’t fast, but I can’t say it’s awful either. I’m willing to go and visit if anyone is interested in meeting a near 40 slacker (but not entirely, just easy going), at least 'til things pick up. Cheap eats and/or some outdoor stuff is cool with me.

Technically speaking, I am a museum-services consultant these days … and, to a lesser extent, pure-IT consulting. My involvement with Blender has to do with the creation of short videos that illustrate how 19th and early 20th-century mechanics worked. I still don’t have an abundance of computer resources.

And, like everyone within a two-hundred mile radius of Nashville (my home base, now, is closer to Chattanooga), I am actively involved with making music with my computer. I’m not rich yet, but I’m also not done yet. (“It’s a thing that I love to do, and, that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it …”) :stuck_out_tongue:

But, in my earlier days, and within two weeks of getting married for the first and only time, I moved from this area to Silicon Valley in the early 1980’s, staying there until … uhhh… the Loma Prieta earthquake. (But I’ve been back to the Valley, and many other places, many times since then.) Obviously, my wife and I (yes, she’s still here … :yes: …) love to travel.

The job-market, in every field, is pretty-crazy right now, at least in the United States. People certainly do not value experience these days like they once did. They’ve certainly drunk the kool-aid that says that “it’s a fantastic idea to ship human beings from thousands of miles away, to avoid hiring the local who lives next-door,” and likewise, “to build a factory 10,000 sea-miles away instead of just down the street.” I’ve never understood the logic of any of that. (But, I’m also not an accountant. Thank God…)

“These things, too, shall pass,” and when they do, we’ll wonder what-the-hell somebody was smokin’. (I am reminded of a quote that I once saw in a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store, back when Mr. Robbins was still alive … the quote that ends, “… and those who consider price alone are that man’s lawful prey.”)

Nevertheless, anyone who plays in the poker-game of Business cannot entirely control the hand that s/he is dealt, and if you can parley that into even a little time in fair Austin, I’d certainly take the chance. (If you love music, you’ll never get a chance to sleep.)

And yes: “L.A.?” I have a number of friends who live there, and quite a few of them love it. But, to me, it’s a very nice place to visit. The rolling hills of the southeast have taken quite a hold for me, despite the (ugh…) summertime humidity.

If you live in an area where there’s almost no possible contract work to be done onsite, consider starting your own CG-related business (you could possibly do contracts via contacts on the web).

I’ve been working on selling my Blender work for a living and even did some light contract work myself (though no VFX and animation work, it’s all about general art pieces for me). Kansas doesn’t exactly have much of a tech. industry or CG industry).