<p>The reality of working in ND is living in your truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot, working 12 hour shifts 6 or 7 days a week, and getting so oily that most laundromats won’t let you wash your work clothes there. You could go work on a fishing boat in Alaska, same thing, except for the oil part.</p>
<p>ND is a good place, long winter, but beautiful spring-summer.</p>
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<p>This is just a beautiful piece of writing, captures North Dakota, and what it is like to be young and not young anymore, all at once. Just had to note that. </p>
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<p>this too gets at something. A few more like this and we will be able to put together a short story.</p>
<p>carry on.</p>
<p>ND would be pretty far down the list for me. This is a big country, and there is a lot of opportunity in my own backyard.</p>
<p>You bet.*</p>
<p>*practicing the dialect in case the move becomes reality</p>
<p>There are certainly professionals and professional jobs in ND. Some of these comments are ridiculous.</p>
<p>One of the things, I believe, that is hurting metro Atlanta’s recovery is the number of people who continue to move here and end up unemployed or underemployed. But they come here, because they just have to live here. </p>
<p>In my day, a huge percentage of my fellow graduates had to either go where the job was or go home. I graduated during the oil recession (depression?) in Texas in the late 80s and many of my friends who were from Texas had to make very tough choices. Many of them moved places they no more wanted to live, but they needed to work and so they did so.</p>
<p>Nowadays, people move around. So you can take the job in ND (or wherever) until you can land where you eventually want to be.</p>
<p>North Dakota is the flavor of the month, if you can’t find a job where you currently reside,i find it hard to believe North Dakota will still have plenty of well paying jobs…</p>
<p>Fwiw, i would never live there…ever. ;)</p>
<p>Pmk, please come to Austin for the springtime. ;). Two of your three issues will be taken care of.</p>
<p>I read the same article in AARP last week and commented to DH that if soon to be college grad. S2 can’t find a job in our state (or one nearby), he might need to consider going to ND!</p>
<p>Our son applied for a job in ND, it came with a full relocation package, 2 month salary for “moving expenses–security deposit on an apartment, etc.”, full benefits, 8% match on the 401K from day one…for a job that was basically a counter sales person at a farm supply store, starting salary of $40K. </p>
<p>If you are a geologist, engineer or any other useful professional in the oil industry, you can pretty much tell them when, where and how much for a job in ND. A couple recent grads we know work for oil companies up there (geologists) and they work 3 weeks on/3 weeks off. On their off weeks they are given an airplane ticket to anywhere they want. They have traveled all over the world in the past few years.</p>
<p>My brother moved to Minot for one of these “great” jobs, and we’re originally from North Dakota. He drove oil tankers, but didn’t last a year. The job and living conditions were terrible. I even started a thread here on cc, asking about the dangers of living in an abandoned crack house, the only accomodations he could find.</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay, I do love Austin and get there as often as I can.</p>
<p>I suppose if DH and I were broke, losing out home, etc., we would move to ND. I wouldn’t be happy but there are worst things in the world. </p>
<p>However, I cannot see a young college grad moving there for a job, unless they were in the petroleum business. </p>
<p>The kids I know who are graduating without a job are moving to NYC, SF, DC or Boston, getting some kind of job or even two jobs to tide them over while they look for a better job. This has worked so far for all the kids I know who have taken this approach.</p>
<p>Minot, ND has severe housing issues, partially because of the influx of workers but also because of the enormous floods that happened last year. Other parts of ND are not that bad for housing. Personally, I would never encourage my child to move to an expensive city right out of college and options in places like ND are fantastic for kids. It’s a great way to live cheep, save some money so you don’t have to sponge off your parents for the rest of your life :D.</p>
<p>All of western North Dakota has housing issues. Williston is 100 miles west of Minot. Would you like to live in these?</p>
<p>[New</a> Boom Reshapes Oil World, Rocks North Dakota : NPR](<a href=“New Boom Reshapes Oil World, Rocks North Dakota : NPR”>New Boom Reshapes Oil World, Rocks North Dakota : NPR)</p>
<p>Wow, toledo. Thanks for the link. No, I can’t see myself living in one of those.</p>
<p>I’ve lived in way worse places than North Dakota.</p>
<p>If you’ve got money to spend, you can make any place bearable. If you don’t, then you probably have no choice but to go to places like ND where there are jobs. Personally, if I were a new grad and I could make money in ND–I’d go and keep looking for a way to get out ASAP.</p>
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<p>Actually I believe it’s You betcha…or at least my H says I say that a lot…somewhat prevalent in Minnesota, Northern Michigan and to a certain extent the Dakotas. Drives my H crazy. You can use You betcha in any number of occasions -When you agree, when you disagree and when you just don’t care :-)</p>
<p>Lots of local recent grads are heading there, including a good friend’s son who is on month six of his contract. Living conditions are very tough. There is also a lot of drinking and prostitution there. However, this young man and his buddies are looking at it as short term, huge money, resume building (civil engineer grads). These guys work very long hours five days a week and commute long distances for “local” shack like housing. They also come to the Twin Cities every weekend for a mental health break and some clean, comfy living. Serving a purpose until a better opportunity arises. I would do it in a heartbeat if I needed a salary and some work experience.</p>