Job Opportunities in Boston Area

[Emily W.]

Hey everyone,

Was wondering if anyone had a take on what the job opportunities for LAs are like in the Boston metro area, especially when compared to California.  

I’m currently weighing the pros and cons of living in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Boston.  I am from Boston but currently live in CA.  Boston has a lot of personal pros for me, but the thing that scares me the most about living there is that LA jobs may be scarce compared to the opportunities available in Northern and Southern CA.

I’m mostly looking at civic and commercial firm opportunities – not residential.  Anyone who can speak from experience on this?

Thanks!

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Sasaki is hiring!

[Trace One]

california never suffered from the ‘right to work ‘ plague that hit the eastern south – so my experience is that the salaries in Ca. are the highest in the country..But I am not specifically familiar with the eastern north states – north of New York, for example..
I personally have found Ca. to have exacting testing for LA’s and substantially higher pay, IF you can get hired..The pay differential is on the range of $40 to $50,000 higher than pay scales in right to work states (no unions) – but you do have to get the job – that is the unknowable part.. A paycheck is better than no paycheck..

[David Farber]

Ofcourse California pays more, look at how expensive everything is.

Thats a big move. If I was you I would get some assurance of a job before hand. Dont go blindly. Oh and Sasaki is like a revolving door to the grunts of the office.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

They’re looking for 6-8 years experience… that shouldn’t be grunt any more. Besides, I’d rather have a revolving door than no door at all…

[Trace One]

they pay more because it is more expensive? what? the world does not work that way, sorry, David – check out the LA salaries in Hawaii..Reminds me of when I told my dad that I thought we made more money because we had more kids..
and no, we weren’t on welfare..
I think the pay difference is because of unions..

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

+ There are lots of firms in Boston and Cambridge, not to mention several suburbs (can I use that word?).

The cost of living is not anywhere close to low – especially housing in Boston (lots of students). … not a plus or minus, but since others assume that it is low it should be mentioned.

– There are lots of recent graduates available from good schools (HGSD, RISD, URI, & UMass) and lots of alum own firms and may tend to help those from their alma mater over others.

– The population of Massachusetts has been shrinking in the last 20 years (lost a US House rep after 2k census, expect to lose another after 2010), so growth potential is less than other places. That said, many of them are international firms.

– Many of the firms are international and you may move to Boston only to find yourself working in China (see recent ASLA job posting)

+ Because there are so many firms, there is a much wider net that can catch you than in other communities.

– There has been a lot of municipal improvements throughout the state over the last ten years such as schools, fire & police stations, parks, affordable housing, transportation hubs, etc,….. which sounds more like what you are looking to do. These often require local voters to approve property tax increases and many towns have tapped out that resource. There is definately a movement toward fiscal responsibility here that is in stark contrast to “normal”. I expect that there will be a lot less of these projects going on in the next ten years for those two resons (they already built them and there is little interest in financing more of them).

+ Residential has always been stronger here than many other places.

[Brad Nordling]

I think if you end up finding a job in the field at all, you should take it. Gotta start somewhere right?

[David Farber]

Thank you Trace, for telling me how the world works. I feel better now.

California has a high cost of living compared to the rest of the US, therefor salaries are higher to compensate.

[David Farber]

Oh the revolving door comment was because I know a lot of people my age, aka just out of college, who have been hired by firms like Sasiki and to be fired within two years. But your def. right, better to have a revolving door than no door.

[David Farber]

Atleast…..I hope they would be higher for LA’s like yourself who live in California.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Yeah, but I don’t recommend spending the last of your student loan money to move yourself halfway across the country to work for a big name firm where you will work 80hrs a week only to be laid off after four months of soul crushing, mind warping, body ruining work… nope, not fun at all… You might want to wait and see if you can find something in your area…

[Emily W.]

hey guys,

thanks for the opinions, much appreciated. but I’m still looking for an objective answer to my question – opportunities in Boston vs Bay Area or Los Angeles = less? more? thanks.

[nca]

Combing over the ASLA job board through the past few months postings might give some indication as to the number of opportunites, etc.

How is any one person supposed to know precisely how many job opportunities there are in one place versus the other, which happens to be 3000 miles away? Even if you found someone whom has lived in both places in a short time frame, their information would likely be subjective and anecdotal.That said, there are at least two people contributing to this thread from either region.

I’ll offer my own anecdotal response. The last few ‘real’ job opportunites that have come across my path were via word of mouth and never advertised openly on ASLA or the like. It’s been said before, but perhaps worth mentioning again that personal relationships mean a lot right now when looking for career opportunities.

By common sense reasoning I would surmise that a firm in California, for example, is less likely to hire a person from Boston than they are to hire a person from California. There just seem to be less contingencies.

If I were offered a positiong in China for example I would look long and hard at the employers incentive in hiring me over a Chinese citizen. On the surface things just don’t seem to add up. Given, there are certainly plenty of legitimate opportunities abroad for talented, hard working professionals. Still, right now I think it comes down primarily to incentive.

Good Luck.

[Trace One]

you are mad, David, mad..pay scales have nothing to do with the cost of living in an area..why should they? LA wages flatlined a decade ago..it has been a buyers market for decades..The pay as little as they can, unless there is a union…
“They” pay more when there are unions..We, in Ca. , are part of an engineers union..

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