I need some help in short listing a few cities in the U.S. where I can start searching for jobs. I will be switching jobs in a few months and would likely be moving away from my current location.
Essentially, I want to hear about some cities on east coast and perhaps midwest where I can start looking. I’m interested in a metropolitan (not necessarily cosmopolitan) city with a well knit community feeling to it, and where as a desi, I would not feel out of place. The presence of a decent sized Muslim community, mosques, and availability of halal food are a must.
In my little research done so far, I’ve come up with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh as two possibilities. Can someone (dis)confirm these choices, and suggest other options to look into as well.
Your choices are interesting. As those 2 cities were a topic of conversation last night with my desi muslim friends. I've heard that Pittsburgh is a very depressed area. It is an industrial area. I haven't heard anything positive about Cincinatti.
You should consider DC. Alhamdullilah, it has a large muslim population, numerous masjids, halaal grocery stores, halaal restaurants, lots of young muslim desi professionals.
what about new england...??...like hartford,CT.or boston,MA.....has some great job opportunities....(especially in the health care fields..)
a decent sized paki population with mosques and desi stores ....u might want to consider it....
btw...in what field are u looking for a job???
NY mey a jaein.
Insha Allah, u will find good job. you are so educated.
All my best wishes and prayers from a sister for you.
Kindest,
dushwari
I need some help in short listing a few cities in the U.S. where I can start searching for jobs. I will be switching jobs in a few months and would likely be moving away from my current location.
Essentially, I want to hear about some cities on east coast and perhaps midwest where I can start looking. I’m interested in a metropolitan (not necessarily cosmopolitan) city with a well knit community feeling to it, and where as a desi, I would not feel out of place. The presence of a decent sized Muslim community, mosques, and availability of halal food are a must.
In my little research done so far, I’ve come up with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh as two possibilities. Can someone (dis)confirm these choices, and suggest other options to look into as well.
^ Seattle is ok, if you can get used to the rain 300 days of the year.
Umar, do check out Denver.
Decent size desi community, halal food is nothing like it is in TO but probably a dozen places in the metro area.
Great place to be for out door activities.
Growing IT/Engineering/Medical Research industry.
Some of the great high schools (for raising a family) and public higher education institutions.
Housing prices are far more manageable than similar metro areas around the US.
Politically balanced, considered a swing state.
Drawbacks:
- Too dry .. especially for people coming from coastal areas.
- Far away from everywhere ... flights to TO will cost $500+ and the closest big city is Kansas which is about 7 hour drive.
Pittsburgh is way too depressing. I saw this billboard once. On it was a picture of a sandy beach and blue waters. The heading said "Pittsburgh". On the bottom it said "We make anything look good".
Been there once and would like to keep it to that one time only. :D
Someone in the thread mentioned RTP, North Carolina. I actually like the area and it also on my list of places to check out in more detail. It has great schools and the property value is not that expensive.
You should also check out Austin, if someone has to live in TX, Austin is probably the best place to be.
phoenix too. but since your a CS guy with a phd, i think bay area with its mix of the greatest CS unies and information systems hub of the planet along with the desies and halal food and mosques is a good candidate
DC is good, specially the suburbs (eg Norther Virginia or southern Maryland). Tons of Universities. You'd get most of the stuff u require. The only thing is that its full of politicians and rich foreign students, so there's a lot of "false front" kinda feeling.
I like NY in that sense, ppl here have both feet on the ground and everything's upfront. Not to mention you get everything here.
One can try workin in Pakistan too. The pay would be loose change compared to what you'll be making somewhere in the US but its not a bad way to give back to our country and at the same time explore Pakistan like you might not have as a youngster. Somewhere up north maybe.
Looks like DC is getting a lot of votes and I’ll need to check it out personally. I’ve been to the city a few times, esp. while working at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore but never really lived there for any time to make a fair judgement.
As per Seattle and SF, I’m simply not looking to move that far out – as yet… but who knows, if there’s a good opportunity that arises I might consider it.
NY is just too big for my liking. I feel smothered every time I go there. I’m interested more in something along the size of Chicago which is certainly on the list.
Umar, do check out Denver.
Drawbacks:
- Too dry .. especially for people coming from coastal areas.
- Far away from everywhere ... flights to TO will cost $500+ and the closest big city is Kansas which is about 7 hour drive.
See AJ, that’s quite a snag to me… I’ve been living in a midsized city which is only about 2 hours from Toronto and I feel isolated. I need to be somewhere where I have things to do if I want to while enjoying a serene life in a small community setup at all other times.
Cheegs man… I’d love to go to Pakistan and have already contacted a few ppl there… unfortunately, there isn’t much going on in my area of expertise there at this time and the best that I’ve been recommended is visit every couple of years as a visiting scholar, teach for a term or so and collaborate on research with other people there. Dekho kya banta hai.
In the meanwhile, starting this fall, I’m going to be actively looking for opportunities near-abouts (Southern Canada and East Coast & Midwest U.S.) and just wanted to get an idea about what other cities to explore in the U.S. that wouldn't be too different from Toronto.
i have been living around dc for the past 10 yrs. its nice here. job market is also pretty good. govt related jobs are a plenty. most do require a security clearance of some sort. so be ready to hear 'what ur clearance status is' a lot when you interview. housing is a lit bit on the expensive side compared to the median household market in other cities.
i do like the bay area for its thriving VC population. austin cuz it reminds me of islamabad. austin job market crashed after the telecom bust and hasnt picked up yet. but, if you can land a good job then its the best city to live in as far as housing prices and living expenses. so is houston. for academia, research triangle park is an awesome place. you have 3 very good universities in 20 mile raidus. plus that area is filled with lakes and is very beautiful. raleigh also has more folks with a bachelors degree than any other town in US. a perfect place to raise a family in my opinion. pittsburg as is the consensus here... is a real flipping gloomy town. but, i would take that over NYC any day of the week twice on sundays. NYC in my opinion is a shiit hole. a good place for crooks. never met a decent person from NYC desi or otherwise.
umar I was limiting my note to your initial constraints of metropolitan and eastcoast or midwest thing
by the responses in this thread it appears that ppl dont know that los angeles and seattle are no in the east coast, or what the difference is between a metropolitan and a cosmopolitan city.
zara bacchon ko defintion batana. and mayeb post a map of US with midwest and eastcoast circled :)
DC is beautiful.
I've been there a number of times and I know that the desi community is sizeable.
The basic things that you have listed are aplenty and the weather, for the most part, is amazing too.