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Thread: Moose: Advice please on moving to "The Meadows".

  1. #1
    Moose
    Guest

    Moose: Advice please on moving to "The Meadows".

    Guys who love Las Vegas and know the place cold, this is where I need your help.

    I have a degree in Computer Science, and am also a fairly skilled dealer. I would love to do either - or both - jobs for quite a while.

    Can anyone tell me what the computer market is like in Vegas, how it looks for the next couple of years, and what sort of things it has to offer in it's daily life for a late 20-something looking to start adventuring in life?

    Thanks.

    M.

  2. #2
    Wildcard
    Guest

    Wildcard: Re: Advice please on moving to "The Meadows".

    > Guys who love Las Vegas and know the place
    > cold, this is where I need your help.

    > I have a degree in Computer Science, and am
    > also a fairly skilled dealer. I would love
    > to do either - or both - jobs for quite a
    > while.

    > Can anyone tell me what the computer market
    > is like in Vegas, how it looks for the next
    > couple of years, and what sort of things it
    > has to offer in it's daily life for a late
    > 20-something looking to start adventuring in
    > life?

    > Thanks.

    > M.

    Moose...

    I don't know Vegas cold, but will offer my 2 cents worth. Some prudent surfing should uncover what the job market is like with your skills. Perhaps a head-hunter would be the best approach as most jobs are not in newspapers. Polish up the resume and cover letter.

    I also thought I'd like to live in Vegas...I'm retired and have "done my time". I would recommend renting an apartment in Vegas, Henderson, or Bullhead City. This would allow you to scope out the area you might want to eventually live in...homes I think are reasonably priced.

    Dealing would be interesting, and it might enhance your job marketability (or be a requirement) that you have a certificate of some kind from a reputable dealer's school.

    Perhaps a post of generic content on "the other" site might improve the responses to your questions...as there are some that live in Vegas. I'm sure they would be most helpful to you.

    Tired of the snow and ice eh? :-) I've not been to the Alberta area, but it is definitely on my "to do" list.

    Good luck on your venture, I say go for it and don't look back for an instant! The greatest joys of life are often found in the risks and chances we take along the journey!

    I enjoy your posts and wish you the very best!!

    Regards,
    Wildcard

  3. #3
    Viktor Nacht
    Guest

    Viktor Nacht: It's Heaven and Hell

    Here's my highly subjective and necessarily brief take on living in Las Vegas. I'd prefer to craft a response to a question I consider as important as this one , but I must be strong.

    Las Vegas is fabulously delicious locale, a place most visitors either love or hate, period. To live here elicits the same response, except with the addition of a highly populous number of completely, and annoyingly, disinterested residents. You'll love it, you'll hate it, or you're just the kind of person who could live anywhere, satisfied with working your 8 hours, watching 12 hours of TV, and then doing it again.

    Having spent most of my life living in highly cultured Midwest towns (including Ann Arbor, MI and Chicago), I respect and commiserate with the people who hate it here. It lacks culture, in nearly every sense of the term. While it is the fastest growing county in the nation and has nearly 2 million residents, it's plainly still a hick town. But this is one of its very significant charms, and also key to the opportunities someone in your position could exploit.

    It most certainly lacks a soul, in part because Vegas has no interest in its own history, or ever having one for that matter, and in part because our fast growth is mixed with awesome turnover. You won't ever see a grass-roots political or artistic movement here. And as a staunch moderate with leanings towards minimal Federal power, I find the politics as strangely varied as my own, which most people would find schizophrenic. Our mayor is a former mob attorney that represented many of the mobsters that helped build Vegas, and he actually has alcohol sponsorships (with the money devoted to charities).

    Moreover, Vegas is growing way too fast in the style of urban sprawl that had infected the rest of the nation. Homes are being built cheap and fast. Illegal immigration is rampant and annoying. Vegas has a very tragic side that requires a pragmatic, removed compassion to cope with. Many people come to Vegas either as the land of endless opportunity or their last chance at success, fame or recovery. The former is quite true if you're clever and dedicated, but all too often the dream or last ditch effort ends in disappointment and culminates in the morbid statistic that Las Vegas is the suicide capital of the nation.

    Last but not least, you may end up living along the artery of a nuclear waste transport route. Although it is very nice living in one of the least Federally regulated states in the nation, we also get shit on by the rest of the country.

    That said, Las Vegas is fabulous, fun, exciting, convenient, economic, vibrant, 24-hour place to live. The city is there waiting for you when you want it, and escape from it and the vagaries of modern life are literally minutes away. You can go from feeling like you're on vacation, living like a movie star and eating like a critic during the day (and as much of the night as you can handle), back to the comfort of your own bed and abode at your leisure.

    You have access to world-class dining and entertainment, gorgeous mountains, outdoor sports and more, all within 30 minutes. Nowhere else that is as developed as Vegas can you go from the most beautiful hotel in the world, the Bellagio, to absolute nothingness in 15 minutes.

    The cost of living is 20% cheaper here than in Chicago (my only basis for comparison), and cheaper still if you learn the art of couponing and promotions management . You'll never pay for drinks again, and you'll be surprised to see many people eat 99-cent hot dogs for lunch and Wolfgang Puck for dinner. To live cheaply and live well is one of the juxtapositions this town excels at.

    On top of that you won't pay any state or local income tax. No matter how much money you make, you can make it go a lot further in Vegas and achieve a lifestyle or social status higher than you could anywhere else worth living.

    It's very easy to get around, with minimal traffic except during rush hour. Although be warned, we have the highest car insurance rates in the continental US because it's a 24 hour town and because, and this isn't an exaggeration, it is the most dangerous place in the country to drive. These people are very, very bad drivers. I feel safer bumper-to-bumper at 80 miles an hours in Chicago than I do one block behind a broken down SUV in Vegas.

    And depending on the type of person you are, you may love the many things people hate about Vegas. Sure it has no respect for the dead, but there's always something new and exciting going on. If you're bored here, you have no business having a pulse. As long you have a personal sense of meaning for your own life, it doesn't matter if you live in a city pointless to human civilization. And our mayor, former mob buddy he may be, loves this town and works his ass off to fight for what's best for it.

    In regards to your specific situation there's a shortage of computer nerds here, and very few people doing web development, if that's in your repertoire. In terms of dealing you may have trouble getting job. There are still plenty of out-of-work dealers who have years of Vegas experience. We still haven't fully recovered from the economic fall-out of the attacks, so opportunities on that front are limited.

    But a person with a technical bent and an entrepreneurial heart could do very well here, especially with experience in the gaming industry. I'm not familiar with your resume (although I'd be interested in seeing it), but someone with your combined background has a world of opportunities.

    Of lesser or greater importance depending on your situation and preference, this is the place to live if you're a young, single person. This town has the most amazing looking boys and girls. I can't speak of the men, but the women are works of art and an endless variety, although there's a propensity towards silicone and bleach. This is the hottest town on the planet to be single in. No matter what, make sure you brush your eyes twice a day or risk cavities from the mile long aisles of eye candy.

    It also has the best strip clubs in the world. See last paragraph.

    I hope that helps a little. I love this town passionately, warts and all.

    Good Cards,

    V

  4. #4
    Joe Miner
    Guest

    Joe Miner: Great post. Thanks for the time it took to wirte! *NM*


  5. #5
    The Mayor
    Guest

    The Mayor: Moose please move to Vegas

    Then we could play video games together and win free pizzas, just like the good old days 8-0

    --Mayor

  6. #6
    Sean Murphy
    Guest

    Sean Murphy: Re: It's Heaven and Hell

    I personally have found the weather in Vegas between May to Sept. almost unbearable. Anything over 30 degrees C is too hot for me.

    The weather is something I would consider before moving to Vegas.

  7. #7
    Moose
    Guest

    Moose: Hasn't (Little) Caesar's clamped down on that?

    .. I'd hate to get 86ed from every (pizza) joint in town on my first day.

    M.

  8. #8
    Moose
    Guest

    Moose: Thanks for the great assessment!

    Viktor, I appreciate all the help, somehow I had a hunch that's what it would be like. Someone once referred to Vegas as a "giant gold-plated turd", which might not be too far off, but it's certainly shiny!

    Right now I'm at a real crossroads in life. By this time next year I'll have my bank loan paid off and my son will just be getting old enough that, if I wait any longer to move, it's going to get real awkward.

    Maybe I'll take a one-year sabbatical and try and land something temporary here, and see where it leads..

    M.

  9. #9
    Bettie
    Guest

    Bettie: A bit of advice

    Just a bit of advice that worked for us when we moved. We bought a map of Las Vegas and then mapped out where things that we needed were so we could get a better idea of the location we would be happiest in. We marked out where our bank was, our car dealerships, organic foods groceries and a few other places that we knew we'd be visiting on a regular basis, so that we didn't waste time looking in a part of town where we'd be nowhere near our regular haunts. Two parts of town stood out for us, and when we compared some other issues, like traffic and average household incomes and familial units, it was easy to focus on one in particular. We lucked out and it took just 6 weeks from the time we made the decision to move to actually get here. We lucked out again and really feel that we live in just about the most perfect spot in Las Vegas for us, considering we didn't know much about anything off the Strip.

    We had made a few trips prior to moving and spent most of our time asking questions - dealers, waiters, ploppies, everyone - in order to get a feel for areas of town, weather (while my SO loves the summer, I hate it; still, it beats Chicago's weather), people, etc. Keep asking questions after you move here. We grilled our insurance agent (hey, we didn't know a soul out here!), and found out about traffic issues, year-long schools, and more specific information about our neighborhood in particular.

    One last thing. People move around Las Vegas like crazy, and you can use that to your advantage when signing a lease. Our complex offers a 6-month lease as standard, but when we signed a one-year lease, we got them to replace all of the carpet in our apartment to a shade we liked at no cost. When we renewed for another full year, they agreed to keep the rent as is and send over professional carpet cleaners.

    Hope that helps, and I hope that you take Viktor's post to heart, as every single word of it is absolutely true. I couldn't tell for sure if you were bringing your son with you, but you obviously have many other issues that never even crossed our minds if you are bringing him. I suggest that you focus your energies on Summerlin or Green Valley areas if you'll have a child with you. Good Luck!

    Bettie

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