Seattle area recommendations

[Soulflame]

I have always wanted to try that. I see them all over town.

It's easier to do things like that when you are a dirty tourist!

 

[Viin]

Victoria is nice, but might be a little cold in March - fun taking a float plane up there though. Great restaurants.

[sickrubik]

Are there any comedy clubs worth a shit up in Seattle?

[Rasix]

This is somewhat of an off topic necro, but I have a question about Seattle's tech sector.  What are the job prospects like in the area? My wife is looking a job in the Seattle area (Auburn specifically), and even though I'd probably be able to work my current job remotely, getting away from my current employer and getting something local would probably be a good thing.

I'd just like to give her some input on the feasibility of me finding something rewarding before we uproot the family.  She's fairly miserable in her current situation, and this opportunity seems like a good fit.  Government hiring is a lot different than it used to be, so nothing's a lock, but she'd have a pretty good chance at landing the job.

Oh, and where's a nice place to live? 

[Hawkbit]

Tech sector is a wide open market.  I would have a hard time imagining someone with a tech background not finding something here.  The list of open Amazon and Microsoft jobs alone would be staggering, though I'm not sure you want to read the novel to even get an interview at either of those locations.  Look at Zullily or Redfin job sites.  We're (allrecipes.com) pretty light on positions but let me know if you apply: https://www.meredith.apply2jobs.com/ProfExt/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.searchJobs&txtKeyword=allrecipes.com

For example (I don't know your background), search Indeed Seattle for PHP devs yields 242 results:  http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=php+developer&l=Seattle%2C+WA

Use Linkdin and have a web portfolio/git of your work.  Your Git is what gets dev interviews here.

As far as where to live, that's extremely subjective.  Commute from Auburn to downtown Seattle would be 60-90min on an average day.  However, we work with more than a few people that live down that way.  The problem is that to live in the middle of that puts you in a kinda crappy suburbia in Renton. 

Generally speaking, north of Seattle tends to be hipper and trendier, east of Seattle tends to be tech-heavy suburbia in Bellvue/Redmond, west of Seattle is across the Sound so it's BFE and south of Seattle is a bit grittier.  I really like West Seattle; it's our new home.  But someone will come along in a post or two and tell you it's a crime-ridden wasteland.  Which would be wrong, but what do I know? 

Two things you have to enjoy:  Being damp all the time and homeless people. 

[Rasix]

I'm used to my homeless people being sunburned.

I'm not sure I really even fit in a development position.  I'm a long way from my college degree (masters in MIS), but it seems like everyone wants to interview me for development positions.  An IT/test position would likely be a better fit, as someone hiring me as a dev would have to put up with me getting back into coding shape.  Most of my experience as of late is in storage virtualization, vmware and various systems tidbits.

Glad to know it won't be as starved as it is here.  If I wanted to change companies here, it'd have to be Raytheon or one of the biomedical/healthcare companies. 

[Hawkbit]

We trade QA testers between companies quite often.  Brush your automated testing skills off and join the fun! 

Or stay on the IT/MIS side and still have just as many openings. 

I'm breaking out of the Marketing side and into Dev hopefully in this year.  I've got five classes left in my BS in WebDev and starting to get nervous/excited about the job search.  I'm completely bored in my current job, but they give me a really, really long leash to do whatever I want.  I mean, I get most of my homework completed at work.

[Torinak]

I'm used to my homeless people being sunburned.

I'm not sure I really even fit in a development position.  I'm a long way from my college degree (masters in MIS), but it seems like everyone wants to interview me for development positions.  An IT/test position would likely be a better fit, as someone hiring me as a dev would have to put up with me getting back into coding shape.  Most of my experience as of late is in storage virtualization, vmware and various systems tidbits.

Glad to know it won't be as starved as it is here.  If I wanted to change companies here, it'd have to be Raytheon or one of the biomedical/healthcare companies. 

There seem to be a lot of QA subcontractor companies in the greater Seattle area, given how often MS rotates through testers (subcontractors to avoid paying full benefits) based on people who worked for them. Note that all but the lowest-tier QA folks (that tend to get outsourced anyway) will need *some* coding or scripting, at least at the "big" area companies.

There's also a fair amount of biotech in the area, as well as finance (mostly in downtown Seattle or Bellevue).

Oh, West Seattle is a crime-ridden wasteland. :)  Well, maybe not, but the Seattle PD does have an issue with shooting people--so much so that the DOJ called them out on it. So if you do live anywhere near Seattle, make sure you're not shifty-looking or walking around wrong.