re: The job market for an engineer looking to grow absolutely sucks in Louisiana

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I gtfo after college, I think everyone should. Go explore a hobby, live in a new region, take crazy chances.

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This is actually VERY good advice for anybody. I agree. You need to live somewhere else to get perspective. You really get a "no bullshite" view of what's good/bad about Louisiana, too. As opposed to living here all your life and assuming it's the same way everywhere else that it is here.

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.I just hope for MOST La folks their only opportunities aren’t in Texas.

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This has been my problem. I have tried several times to pursue moves out of state, but the only places that seem interested in hiring me outside are in Houston. It really gets on my nerves. Everyone keeps telling me to get out of this state and that there’s this big world of opportunity out there, but the only part of that world calling back is shitty-arse Houston. That’s just a bigger Baton Rouge with more jobs and Mexicans. It has all the downsides of home with none of the upside. Yet, it seems inevitable.

I have no idea what you do but getting some experience in a place like Houston should make you more marketable to other places you actually want to live

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Yet, it seems inevitable.

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It has all the downsides of home with none of the upside

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Are you comparing Baton Rouge to Houston?

I see it as Baton Rouge has all the problems of Houston but very little of good.

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Everyone keeps telling me to get out of this state and that there’s this big world of opportunity out there, but the only part of that world calling back is shitty-arse Houston

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Houston hirers are not leary of La prospective employees, they feel they are worth the investment.

When my daughter was interviewing in CA, MN, and FL there seemed to be some hesitation that after investing in training her she would want to bolt and head home as she would be so far away. Or she just wasn't the best candidate.

Houston and Dallas seemed to have more interest.

Why there is a shortage of warm body EEs in the SF area?

There is a shortage of warm bodies there because the cost to house those warm bodies is so ridiculously high.

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What I mean is that it has the same lame sprawl, same shitty traffic, same flooding issues, same nasty climate, etc, but without my support system (friends and family) living there. However, most of my friends are one by one moving to Houston or Denver. I really want to follow them to Denver, but haven’t had any success getting work out there. Houston sucks, Atlanta sucks, and Dallas isn’t much better. They remind me too much of home, and not in a good way.

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I originally moved to SoCal in aerospace in the late '80s. The only thing I really liked about the area was the skiing, which isn't much there. So I resolved to either move to Denver, so that I could ski on the weekends and visit NOLA with vacation time, or vice-versa (it ended up being NOLA). Once I semi-retired and started doing contract work in the late '90s, I would work half the time somewhere in the 48 states and then the rest of the time chill at home or go skiing (on 2 1-month long trips, one in North America, and one in Europe).

Folks talk about Dallas, and I worked a contract there, and I thought it was nicer than Houston (or at least what my idea of Houston is, which isn't much. ) As for Denver, I finally moved out there as a Katrina diasporee (during the winters at least). Yes, I would have been happy winding up there, but I have a skicentric attitude on life.

After Katrina gave me an excuse to move anywhere, I decided to buy a cheap replacement home to get the Road Home money and spend most of time abroad in Eastern Europe (currently St. Pete & Sochi, Russia, as there is a great visa for Americans).

The sucky career options for Louisianians that hate working in a nasty plant environment typically leads to the question of where to move to - Atlanta, Houston or Dallas. I had always thought that having to move there for the simple reason of being "within 1-day driving distance" to be a depressing thought; I have always thought it was far better to move to a nice place and just fly in to visit, even if a bit less often. Now I "visit" once or twice a year, LOL.

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If you are talking engineering the. On average you are wrong.

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I was not talking engineering specifically, but just in general. People who take the step and move to another part of the country tend to think they made the right move.