Web helps in search for city, job

Editor’s Note: April Forristall will graduate from the University of Maine May 13 and is writing a series of columns, appearing Wednesdays, about her and her classmates’ job-hunting experiences.

When my boyfriend and I were still in the getting-to-know-each-other phase, he learned that I have never lived in one place for more than five years. The look on his face was priceless.

When I learned that he not only had lived in the same town, but the same house his entire life, so was mine. It always amazes me when I meet people like that, the kind of people who have had the same friends since they were in diapers. For me, moving was normal. It’s fun and exciting. Moving so much when I was younger has made me nomadic. It’s not moving that freaks me out these days.

So, picking a new place to go after graduation is especially exciting because it’s the first time in my life that I am moving by choice. No longer is home “where the military sends you,” but a city that I choose that may or may not have a Base Exchange (military store) within a 50-mile radius.

The possibilities are endless.

The No. 3 reason in the United States for people to move is because they have graduated college. The No. 7 reason is jobs.

I know that I would like to stay on the East Coast for a while longer before settling down somewhere permanently. In my pregraduation survival guide, “What Color Is Your Parachute?” Richard Bolles lists Web sites that can help you pick a place to live.

One site, www.bestplaces.net, has endless ways to search for jobs based on random criteria, such as the best and worst cities for sleep, the healthiest cities, or the best and worst cities for dating. These types of things always make me stop and wonder whose job it is to research this stuff. It’s like those facts you hear on SportsCenter: “He’s the first player to score that many goals during an even-numbered year and while wearing white.” But hey, figuring out the most challenging cities to navigate had to be important to someone, or it never would have been researched.

Another site, and my personal favorite, is www.FindYourSpot.com. This site has a quiz that has you answer questions based on categories like weather, culture, schools, hospitals, airports, activities, religion, and more. The answers are similar to the end-of-semester course evaluations any UMaine student knows like the back of their hand. Agree, strongly agree, neutral, disagree … you get the picture.

After you complete the quiz, the site gives you 24 cities that are right for you. Each city has a description, links to jobs in the area, homes, roommates, and other additional information that is critical when moving. It’s fun and informative – what every Web site should be. And you can end up with places you never would have given a second thought.

For example, my list of 24 cities included four in Pennsylvania. The only thing I’ve ever thought about that state is that I slept through it on more than one cross-country drive.

After actually being offered a job in Pennsylvania, though, I have decided I’m not ready to leave Maine. My entire life I have had to move when I’m not ready and didn’t want to. Now I am in a place in my life where I don’t have to if I don’t want to, so I’m not going to. No offense, Pa.!

The top five places as of June 17, 2005, to find a job are Hawaii, Vermont, North Dakota, New Hampshire, and Virginia. These are the places with the lowest unemployment rates in the United States.