Moving to LA (Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills: find a job, neighborhood, university)

[Cooper 1906]

Hey Folks...

I decided to move to Europe for university, but now that I have seen everything and will finish my B.Sc. Degree in Business Administration this summer, my wife and myself are strongly considering to move to Souther California and LA in particular.

We now have question about loads and lots of things as you prolly imagine and wanted to ask you for some advice in housing, jobs etc...

To make it more concrete: As we want to spend as little as possible in the beginning to see how things are going we are considering a 1 bedroom appartment or even a studio. Which areas would you recommend, with a budget of around 1200? As we are both in our early 20's we would like to live in a more lively neighbourhood which, in the same time, is not dangerous (as we are spoiled from living in europe :P) Just to give you an idea about our expectations and our durability, we lived in a studio of approx. 270 sq. feet and got by pretty well. So, we mustn't have the greatest of places to be happy.

On another note, how is the job situation in LA or Southern California in general. How would you consider my chances of finding a job being a fresh graduate with 2 years work experience at Philips? And what would you consider my salary to be? Also my wife as around 3 years of work experience for Tailor Made and Nike with an associate's degree in communications. How would you rate her chances?

We would very much appreciate any kind of help and/or advice.

Luise & Tim

Btw. sorry for the long

[Chicagoan30]

Check out the Fairfax District for 1 bedrooms around $1200. Nice little neighborhood off Melrose. Loits of restaurants, bars and shopping are all walking distance and tons more just a short drive away. It's safe and filled with 20-somethings up through 40-something young families. It's between Hollywood and West Hollywood and near Beverly Hills. If your budget increases and you want to be near the water, you can always head to Santa Monica. You might want to figure out where you'll be working because LA is very livable until you choose a job that's far from where you live..and then you're stuck in traffic hell. As for finding work, you both have good backgrounds but these days finding a job is all about who you know....so no one can really tell you what your chances will be. I think a site for salary info is Glass Ceiling or Glass Door...something like that. I think you can type in a profession and a city name to get an average. Good luck.

[BRinSM]

without work visas it will be very difficult, if not impossible to find a job that pays decently, so hopefully you have that all lined up already. there are jobs out there right now, but competition is fierce to say the least. the unemployment rate is double the average right now, so even americans are having a hard time getting work. make sure you have plenty of reserves if you do move just in case things don't go as planned.

[Cooper 1906]

First of all thank you both for your advice. Fairfax sounds like a very good starting place then. Will def keep that in mind. Regarding the work visas... I am actually an American by blood (my father is an american) so I have citizenship and we will try to arrange a K-3 visa for my wife. So this should cover the first problem BRinSM raised. Regarding the job situation, it is of course sag to hear that the economy is still in recovering, but I am sure that there must be some possibilities out there if you just want? Any ideas of when the economy is supposed to improve? I mean more like an indication. For example either in the next 1-2 years or in the next 3-5 years... you know what I mean. As we are planning to come either next spring or next summer depending on the how long the administration of the visa takes. Any further advice and thoughts are more than welcome...