Moving to Austin - My Job search/networking quandary

General chatter / What's happening

Hello All,

I am planning on relocating to Austin this summer and I am looking for advice in a few different areas.

1. I recently graduated with my MBA and would have to say my ideal job would be working for a smaller tech company doing some type of business development (although I am really open to any type of position). However, I have been looking/applying to jobs for about 2 months now and have had 0 luck. I was told by an alum from my school that the best way to find a job is by taking advantage of the prevalent happy hour culture and any other networking opportunities. I'm starting to think that might be the right path but I'm hesitant to leave my current job (that pays well). Thoughts?

2. Everything I have seen about jobs available in Austin are for IT, computer hardware design, or software design. I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering with about 2 years of experience (this is what I am currently doing). It seems like finding an engineering job is the best way for me to find employment in Austin right now but I'm having trouble given that it doesn't seem there are many job's for ME's?

3. My experience is in power generation (design of generators and exciters) and I would love to work for a small clean energy company. I haven't had any success simply applying for jobs at the existing ones in Austin from my current location. If I were to move, does anyone know of any opportunities where I can network with these specific types of companies? Organizations, events, etc?

I'm also happy to receive any other advice that might be good for someone with my background (BSME & MBA). Thanks for reading!

Comments

This site is the best way to

Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, May 21 2009 - 2:05 PM.

This site is the best way to find out where the opportunities are to network with people in Austin... however if you've followed any of the threads here, the job market is currently the Austin tech job market is the worst its been in about 20 years so there are few opportunities and massive gluts of highly qualified candidates competing for every one. That is most likely why you are not having much luck with your search, because local candidates that already have connections here would have the inside track on anything that does come open.

If you've got something that will get you by where you are at you may be better off sticking with it until we start to see some kind of recovery or at least a bottoming out of the free-fall the job market has been in recently. I would definitely say that before you spend a lot of $$$ to relocate you should first take the time to network as much as you can remotely and possibly visit here on whatever vacation opportunities you have in order to bolster your online networking efforts with in-person events.

Thanks for the advice. Given

Submitted by Jsticca on Thu, May 21 2009 - 2:16 PM.

Thanks for the advice. Given that Austin is such a tech heavy industry, how does this view lend to mechanical engineering jobs? I assume all of the laid off workers cannot transition into this field so how does that specific industry look right now?

I know this site might not be a great place to look for ME positions or information but I haven't found much else for Austin. Can anyone recommend something better or provide advice about that?

Thanks.

Well, I'm not a Mechanical

Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, May 21 2009 - 2:28 PM.

Well, I'm not a Mechanical Engineer, so I haven't been looking specifically for that... but I do look at a wide swath of tech job opportunity postings around the area and just about everything is down right now. You are probably right that a lot of the laid off people in the software and semiconductor industries probably could not easily transition to ME jobs without going back to school, however because of the mix of businesses here I don't think that even under normal circumstances that there are a lot of jobs for MEs in the area.

San Antonio may be a better option, as it has a huge amount of defense industry employers who I would guess would be more likely to need the talents of an ME than most of the companies around here. You may also have better luck in DFW or Houston because they are not only much larger, they have more varied industries and seem to have stronger job markets in general than Austin does.

I AM an ME, and I've been

Submitted by jdunham on Mon, Jun 1 2009 - 3:31 PM.

I AM an ME, and I've been working in central Texas for 33 years. For much of that time finding an ME position here was easy, but no more. Much ME work has gone elsewhere or just plain dried up. Others have already indicated the places that are probably your best bets (ERCOT, Austin Energy, LCRA, Luminant, etc.), but there are many qualified candidates fighting over very few positions.

I haven't worked in San Antonio for 20 years, but it is generally a low tech town in comparison to Austin. That doesn't mean you won't find possibilities there, so don't fail to give it a try. The first place I'd look is SwRI, and I might be able to give you a contact there.

Good luck.

--
Jerry Dunham
ME (Maniacal Engineer)

Well that's unfortunate. I'm

Submitted by Jsticca on Thu, May 21 2009 - 2:30 PM.

Well that's unfortunate. I'm moving to be with my girlfriend so Austin is really my only choice. Might consider a commute to San Antonio though if I can find a good enough position.

If you are considering

Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, May 21 2009 - 2:41 PM.

If you are considering commuting to San Antonio you should keep that in mind when you select where you move. The smaller towns south of Austin such as San Marcos, Kyle, Buda, Dripping Springs or even as far south as New Braunfels may be a good compromise for you if your gf is working or going to school in Austin and you have to work in San Antonio. Unfortunately most of the nice areas of South Austin tend to be silly expensive compared to the North side, but the aforementioned communities are more reasonable if less fashionable. Getting across Austin would probably be 1/2 or more your commute time to SA if you live in North Austin, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Cedar Park or Georgetown.

Austin has the worst traffic

Submitted by johnlogic on Thu, May 21 2009 - 7:01 PM.

Austin has the worst traffic of any town its size, so I second SJ's advice.

I reckon that prospects for technology employment in Austin are going to get even worse in the coming years, and I now plan to spend the summer (and possibly the foreseeable future) back home in Silicon Valley.

If you absolutely must move to Austin, check out Austin Energy (the City of Austin's municipal electric utility), which might be a good source for other leads, and Green Mountain Energy.

And a word of warning: Austin is a college town that churns out a ton of graduates from about a dozen schools every year, so your degrees will likely be treated as minimum qualifications; highlight your work experience to set yourself apart from the rest of the herd.

Also see the similar Relocated to Austin - Looking for IT Work thread.

Good luck!

- John

Jstcca, Your background

Submitted by HireThisStar on Tue, May 26 2009 - 12:35 PM.

Jstcca,

Your background makes you a good candidate for ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas); they're showing two pages of open positions in both their base of Taylor, TX (about an hour north of Austin), as well as Austin. From their site: "ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature." So while they're not a small start-up, they're in a niche position, sorta public-private.

That said, we really do have too much traffic here already. Leaving aside protectionism, it's stressful and inefficient; you'll have a hard time bearing in mind that "Live Music Capital" stuff and the lakes when in rush hour on I-35.

Good luck!

Wayne C. Vermillion
Instructional Designer/Project Manager