DC is a great place, and there seem to be a good bit of jobs in the area. There are also a ton of things to do. However there are 2 not so rosy factors to consider:
1. The traffic is crazy at best - move close to where you work (if you can afford to -- which leads me to #2) Many people here have a 45 min -1 hr. commute and 1.5 hr. commute is not unheard of, as people move further out to find cheaper housing and more and more people move to the area for jobs. 2. Housing is insanely expensive -- around 400K for an average Single Family Home in an average neighborhood (unless you plan on a 1 - 1.5 hr. commute each way). Take care, Lance Quoting Simon Horwith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > I lived in the DC area for 5 years before moving to London and now I'm > back again. I like the DC area. In terms of nightlife - if you like > clubbing, dancing, and/or drinking, DC is really good. There aren't > quite as many places for that stuff as in New York City, but it's close > (and usually cheaper, too). The best areas to go for that sort of stuff > depends on your taste, but most likely you're going to want to hang-out > in the Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle areas. Georgetown has a few > bars/clubs that are fun as well. There are many very large nightclubs > more downtown - closer to chinatown. There are also some nice bars in > VA, though not much in terms of clubbing/dancing there. If you're into > museums and culture, DC is terriffic - all of the national museums are > here.... it'd take you over a year of spending every single weekend in a > museum to see them all. There are also a lot of nice monuments, govt > buildings to tour, and parks. It's a terriffic city, really. You'll > most likely want to stay in North West DC - the rest of it can be nice > but you're much more likely to end-up in bad neighborhoods/dangerous > situations in those areas. > > Places to live: if you don't want to be downtown and also want to be in > a good and convenient location, Arlington, VA is good... so are some of > the neighborhoods in MD like Bethesda and Silver Spring. There are more > nice neighborhoods I would also recommend if you don't require being > walking distance to the Metro. I like being in extremely convenient > locations personally.... yesterday my wife and I found out our offer on > a condo was approved, so it looks like I'm going to be living in the > Logan Circle area - very convenient to Dupont Circle as well as > downtown. I used to live in Arlington, in the Courthouse/Clarendon > area, and that's a very hip, young, safe, and fun place to be. It's > also very convenient to getting into the heart of DC. Old Town > Alexandria and it's vecinity isn't as convenient a location to get to DC > from, but it's also not really inconvenient and it is really pretty and fun. > Living conditions are good - it's a booming city with good property and > fun stuff to do. It's expensive - that's definitely a negative. Well, > the city itself isn't really more expensive than any other, but real > estate is. If you're looking at buying, property tax in some areas can > be pretty high - particularly in Montgomery County, MD. You don't have > to worry about crime as long as you're in NW DC, Montgomery County, MD, > or Arlington VA along the metro. Some other areas in VA and MD are also > really safe, especially (obviously) as you move further away from the city. > > Regarding the job market - obviously, security clearance does help. The > Federal Government is probably the largest single user of CF (if you > consider all of the Federal govt. it's own entity). DC also has a VERY > large number of associations.... most of them also use ColdFusion. > These account for the majority of the jobs. This was also the center of > the dot com boom - certainly on the East Coast, anyway, so there are > still a decent number of companies here that do consuting and > contracting. Even if you don't work for the govt. or an association, > you'll probably be doing development on applications for them. Being > the East Coast dot com capital also means that there are still several > start-ups in town, though obviously a large number of them did disappear > when the bubble burst. Don't worry aif you don't have clearance... > therre's plenty of work without one and you may end-up working for a > company or on a contract that gets you one. If you have the opportunity > to get clearance, seize that opportunity... there's far more work here > that requires clearance than there are people with clearance, so you'll > be EXTREMELY marketable - even in this market. I don't have clearance > but hope to have an opportunity to get it sometime soon. > > There are a lot of places to look for jobs and houses/apts. but your > best bet is washingtonpost.com. The washingtonpost.com website for jobs > is actually http://www.washingtonjobs.com. > > Hope that answers all of your questions? DC is a really cool place to > live (and has a great job market) - if you have any other questions, > feel free to ping me. > > ~Simon > > Simon Horwith > CIO, AboutWeb - http://www.aboutweb.com > Editor-in-Chief, ColdFusion Developers Journal > Member of Team Macromedia > Macromedia Certified Master Instructor > Blog - http://www.horwith.com > > > > > K Edwards wrote: > > >Based on the previous topic and the fact the Atlanta CF job market leaves > much to be desired, I invite any and all DC based companies to post or send > me available job opps. I am a very experienced CF'er along with many other > web related skill sets, and I would consider moving to DC if I could find the > right opportunity. > > > >Seems to me many jobs I see in DC or VI require a security clearance which i > don't have and I would guess the type of job that is not much fun, being > government type work. Could be wrong but let us know. > > > >Not being from DC I would like to know what you DC'ers thought about the > area like what is a good, central, accessable, interesting, affordable, fun, > etc.. place to work and live. Not the far out subburbs and prob not downtown, > but a happy medium and what to look for in that town in terms of good (living > conditions, etc) vs bad (traffic, crime). > > > >In essence, what the hell is going on in DC with CF work these days and > should the rest of us want to be there? > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware: a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:11:2233 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/11 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:11 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.11 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
