General Chat / Resisdence in the US

Considering so many of NEs members are from the US id like your views on where to move to later on in life.

im currently a part qualified accountant working in the UK.

Sick of the rat race to work every morning, passing scruffy ppl spitting on the pavement, mums aged between 15-16 with 3 kids AKA Wolverhampton, i've decided that once i've passed my exams and became financially stable i'd like to move abroad.

I receive monthly accountants magazines offering jobs around the world, so became curious as to the ideal city/suburb to live in.

Boston, Massachusetts looks amazing with its tree lined avenues and i know not to venture into Detroit but this may be a sterotypical view lol

Also, do US firms consider applicants who have a european accountants qualification (ICAEW)?

I would be grateful of your views of cities and job prospects.

Cheers

I hear Boston kicks a lot of ass.

Boston is sweet to live in. Looks like there's a good chance I'll be living downtown this September, too. It's real expensive, though, and the weather is pretty extreme on both ends. I've been a lot of places in this country but New England is still my favorite. I could never move away from this area.

mums aged between 15-16 with 3 kids AKA Wolverhampton

Way to dis where i live lol. Wolverhampton is a great city! Well, parts of it are anyway.

But i suppose you have thought hard about this and made your mind up, i would also suggest Boston. It looks like a very nice place to live, did a case-study on it in geography and it seemed live the place-to-be in USA.

Good luck.

-X-

Also, do US firms consider applicants who have a european accountants qualification (ICAEW)?

Is that an university degree or a less higher one? I can't speak for the US, but here in holland you are taken very easily. Point is however that I know how big accountant offices are since we refer that here to 'american style management'.

My sister worked for Ernst & Young for about 4 years. She got two university degrees (in the time before we switched to the bachelor/master system) in 6 years (both count for 4 years each). In that period she also did a lot on the university as student-assistent. In other words she is a person that needs to release her energy. We call it ADHD here (don't know if that's also the english term)
What I mean to say is that she can handle quite a workload. However she always wanted to get a the top at first and believe me: if someone has the qualifications it's her. Then she started working at E&Y. They treat their employees extremely bad. 70 hour weeks are no exception, but the problem is that it's structural and not once in a while. Also they expect you to work on saturdays or even sundays because they have a 'deadline' to keep while:
A. it could been in normal hours if there was enough personnel (a lot of people leave because of the poor conditions)
B. they took on normal deadlines
Point is that they expect you to let your work to be your life and that means you aren't having a good private social life next to it since the job will exhaust you from that.
Also when some higher guy doesn't like you you can kiss progressing in your carreer goodbye even when you function very well.
Anyway she also needed a last degree: register account. It technically means that you need three years of real world practice and pass several exams and if you have that you may sign any important documents. A very valuable paper. She managed to get that paper in 3 year which is also the official duration of that degree. And believe me: that's rare. After she finally got that paper she left E&Y.
It shouldn't have taken much longer since she was very near to a burn-out. Now she has all important papers everyone wants to employ here. She currently works at bank where the workload is normal, the people are a lot more normal and here salary got a 30% boost (which could have been more if she had looked around more, but she wanted to get away that desperately).
Big accountant offices are not good employers IMO

Petrov, what kind of a city do you want to live in? What are your priorities and what things do you consider to be less important?

Many people will tout the benefits of their city because they've lived their for a while, and the same amount will trash their city for the same reasons. I guess job prospect seems to be a high priority, but in terms of city setting, what other more specific things would you like, and what would you NOT want to be around?

the cheapest place to live is in the middle of the us, like where I live... property tax is low, housing is cheap, etc. it comes with a price to pay, it's boring as fuck not living in or near a big city. but yeah, boston is probably the best city the US has to offer. cost of living is pretty high up on either coast, though.

Isn't the Big Dig in Boston finally done with? If so it would be awesome. The city's downtown was a complete wreck when I was there last (which was like 7 years ago so I think it's over with now) and it was all tunneling related stuff.

Detriot's not as bad as people make it out to be, in fact there are areas both in the suberbs and in town that are very nice. Unfortuenetly getting lost isn't exactly the safest thing... Chicago is a lot like Detriot in that way. The more modern (aka recently developed) areas are really nice, the ones that have been there since the 50s are total dumps. Really that's true in any city I guess, it's just more visible here in the Midwest because our cities used to be centered around industrial manufacturing more so than those on the east or west coasts, as a result the deportation of jobs has brought potentially great cities to their knees. I mean just look at Flint, once the thriving GM city peaking in the late 60s and early 70s then when GM moved most of their facilities out the whole place imploded. Anyone who could retire and move to the suburbs or elsewhere completely did, those who could find jobs elsewhere moved, everyone else just got stuck. Real ugly then, still is now. heh. Rambling mode off now... Of the places I've been I'd say Boston, the place just has this certain atmosphere to it... Something that's very pleasing. Chicago is another city with a similar climate and again on water, though in the case of the latter it's fresh water (Lake Michigan).

ride6

What part of Michigan are you from Ride6?


Chicago's a wonderful city, at least the part I visited. The food is amazing.

Isn't the Big Dig in Boston finally done with?

The Big Dig will never be over.
At this point, everyone is just used to big holes in the ground and those blue and yellow walls everywhere. So it doesn't matter anymore. And we got a cool bridge out of it.

Personally I don't care. I will never drive in Boston, it's just something I don't do. I'd much rather deal with the incompetence of the MBTA than risk my life driving in that city.

Still though. Great town.

Being, Canadian, and a Vancouverite, my recommendation is Vancouver! It is consistently rated the best city in the world inwhich to live. The downside is cost of living. The average price of a detached house is $557,739. That includes all the suburbs. The average price of an apparment, suburbs included is $275,165. Downtown it's not uncommon to pay $400,000 for 600sqft. Anyways, on with the evidence!

I so love that second-last picture nate. Thanks for bringing it back up.

I'll never be able to figure out panoramas with my own photography, but damn they're awesome to look at.

I'll never be able to figure out panoramas with my own photography, but damn they're awesome to look at.

It's just a special kind of lense, and some editing. The colours on that picture are what make it good.

Well I know about getting a panoramic lens for my manual camera, but peripheral lenses tend to give me fits with that thing. Digitally, hell with that, I can't edit photos on the computer at all. Photoshop's not my thing. Give me film and some exposures to fuck around with any day.

...another topic derailed by the two JBs. Sorry dudes. Carry on.

Don't move to Texas unless you like engineering, otherwise, you'll get cut up like no other. Remember, we just took in a couple hundred thousand, if not million people from the Gulf Coast and Katrina. The Northeastern US is mostly where I'd suggest looking into; correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there are more banking institutions there than anywhere else in the US. I'd go with the already-said Boston selection as it's location and relative center in the US for financial usage.

Sorry to brush the topic off a bit, but in that panorama... either someone is really good at Photoshop, or the photographer had some of the most fortuitous conditions ever. That is GORGEOUS.

cheers for the input,

Those pictures are amazing,

the last picture is my ideal, i mean to have something so tranquil in the middle of the city is perfect. work hard all week then chill there would be quality.

My mates family come from vancover, and he's always raving about it.

As for the question about the qualification im studying, its the Association of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Higher than a degree as its one of the official body of accountants.

X, what part of wolverhampton do you live in? im from Dudley commuting to there.

Edited by petrov, 24 February 2006 - 03:33 AM.

X, what part of wolverhampton do you live in? im from Dudley commuting to there.

I'm nearer the Willenhall part of Wolvo.

By the way i've changed my mind, if you can afford it, move to Vancouver! Great pics Nate, that really looks like the place to be...

-X-

Yes, my 'rents went there for their honeymoon and they enjoyed it much. Vancouver, that is.