Looking to move to a larger city; suggestions?

[JamesAC]

Ok, so myself and my partner are looking to move to a larger city, we're quite bored of where we currently live as it is very tiny and opportunities are pretty much non existent, we've looked at a few places such as: Newcastle (As it's like 60 miles away), Manchester, and obviously London, we're just wondering how we would go about doing this and if you have any recommendations of which city would be good to live in (Not necessarily from the above).

I know it seems a little spontaneous, and obviously planning would have to be made but we're just trying to brainstorm a bit of potential cities/areas and the cost of these areas also comes into play. So, has anyone had the experience of moving from somewhere small to somewhere big? How'd it go? Obviously it's a bit frightening, I'd be a liar if I said it wasn't, but it's something I've always wanted to do - To move to somewhere larger with better facilities and more opportunities.

Thanks guys, appreciate it.

Don't.

 

[Seigi]

Don't.

Thanks for that inventive feedback, want to elaborate why not?

 

[marinyork]

I would be careful about recommending Sheffield. Yes, it is a great city, but it's not for everyone, it's got a very much more grim and less vibrant outlook than many other places even to this day even with changes, but people of all walks of life are nice and you'll get on with them (it's one of the lesser snobby places). It avoids being a city for either very young people or very old people, although it's better being a youngster in some ways than in the past. A lot of outsiders come and live in the much more affluent areas and get a slightly false image of it. Despite the changes outside the university, NHS and council employment sectors there are very few decent job opportunities, certainly compared to some other cities. Shopping wise, sheffield has kept less quality local shops say than places like Leeds or Manchester. A couple of big local shopping areas outside the city centre survived in Sheffield. There is a high concentration of parks/woods/open spaces in some bits of the city, unfairly so which some of the outside invaders can hardly believe. Outside the more affluent areas, transport is difficult, crime is high, there are some no go areas even in broad daylight, especially if you are on foot. There is nothing wrong with living on an estate they are good places where normal people live, but since some of the rebuilding exercises the last few years crime has sky rocketed on some of the estates. It's not so much of a problem if you're mobile.

Cycling wise, a huge proportion of the cyclists live in few small corridors, mostly in the same sector of the city. A lot of people actually cycle in these neighbourhoods. These areas tend to be closer to town, more affluent and flatter than the really big hills than other bits of the city. They tend to cycle very short distances within these neighbourhoods which are pretty pleasant for cycling or make a bolt for the Peak district (as many of them live the right side of town) and rarely cycle anywhere else apart from town. This isn't a complete picture of cycling in and around the city. The road system in Sheffield is a bit weird, unlike some of the graceful slightly curved and wide roads elsewhere in some cities it has roads that weave and split, fork and stop, one way roads, blocked off roads. On the other hand one of the major things that ruins cycling in some cities is a lack of bridges and Sheffield is very well catered for this. In addition there is no proper 'urban motorway' in Sheffield unlike many other cities and apart from the parkway a lack of big bad roads where cycling is banned and hindered. To the west is the Peak district, to the north west are some beautiful valleys such as loxley. To the south are some great fairly untouched valleys outside chesterfield and the fringes of the peak district. To the south east if you put up with a few unpleasant roads you can romp around Nottinghamshire and if you go far enough lincolnshire. For the rest of South Yorkshire a lot of the villages in 'Rotherham' are very nice even though virtually nobody cycles in Rotherham. I could go on and on. Basically if you're not a very nervy cyclist, can put up with a bit of traffic and some hills and learning navigating your way around, have an open mind to explore beyond just the same staple places people cycle, Sheffield is a much better city for cycling than is generally made out.

 

[Adasta]

London is not like anywhere else in Britain.

That could be a good thing, or a bad thing.

 

[ttcycle]

The world is your oyster - apart from exploring places and seeing what feels right, it is worth trying at least for one of you landing a job in the new city first before committing to the full move as having some form of income however small is easier for securing accommodation and if you don't have friends etc having no money can make for a miserable time.

Best of luck!

 

[perplexed]

I really liked Sheff and I'd quite happily live there again. Nice people, nice pubs, interesting music scene and the peak district's on your doorstep. And you don't see too many hipsters on fixies due to the hills...

Wot he said...

I am biased obviously, it's my home city. But much great riding to be had in Sheffield. It also sits on the Trans-Pennine trail, and a significant chunk of the city lays within the Peak District. Sheffield has a direct rail link to, amongst others, Manchester (through the Peaks, so you could train out ride back) or Lincolnshire if you fancy something flatter.

There's also a huge range of housing stock, from the very cheap to the nut busting, eye wateringly expensive.

 

[vernon]

Ok, so myself and my partner are looking to move to a larger city, we're quite bored of where we currently live as it is very tiny and opportunities are pretty much non existent, we've looked at a few places such as: Newcastle (As it's like 60 miles away), Manchester, and obviously London, we're just wondering how we would go about doing this and if you have any recommendations of which city would be good to live in (Not necessarily from the above).

Having rthought about your original request, I think that you are putting the cart before the horse. Your priority is to find a job and in the IT world, the prospects for newly qualified young people are not brilliant according to my son who was lucky enough to find a job two and a bit years ago.

What sort of job in the IT world are you looking for? Have you tapped into the recruitment market? Have you researched where the jobs are to be found? There's no use setting your sights on a city if the job prospects there are poor. For what it's worth, my son reckons Leeds and Manchester are good places to start the job hunting.

There's plenty of time to get things wrong. You might not like your first job or first major city so don't get too obsessed with getting things right first time. I was lucky in that I liked the city I moved to to attend university and spent the first six years moving from flat to flat before settling in my first house and then had two subsequent house moves before stability was finally achieved.

 

[ttcycle]

Vernon speaketh sense- you may find that you are underqualified for a lot of IT jobs where people require degree and further qualifications on top of that which are industry specific.

Find a job then move otherwise you're stacking the odds against yourself already.

 

[Seigi]

I understand what you're both saying, and I appreciate the suggestions greatly.

I went for my foundation degree interview today and it seems very appealing (For a number of reasons, firstly being that I know the course tutor pretty well, he's a good lecturer, and secondly because apparently I get a £1200 reimbursement from the college, on top of the maintenance grant, and that if I decide to top it up with a final year BSc I won't have to pay the inflated price of ~£9k, which I was unaware of), so I'm in a position where I'm considering staying where I am for the moment...part of me feels like I wasted all your time but I really do appreciate all the suggestions and I will definitely take it all into account in the future when we do decide to vacate this city.

After all, I'm only 19, I hope I have another 80 years of life left :3

But yeah, thank you all so much, it's been of great help, to allow me to see potential prospects for the future, and to allow me to think critically about the situation.

 

[ttcycle]

that sounds really positive and good luck!!!

yeah you have plenty of time to relocate and it seems that you've got a great opportunity where you are at the moment - I have a lot of family in IT - do you have any time at all where you could get a bit of experience within the IT industry whilst you're studying? It might give you some insight and an edge in terms of the world of work (pretty tough as it is!)

 

[Seigi]

that sounds really positive and good luck!!!

yeah you have plenty of time to relocate and it seems that you've got a great opportunity where you are at the moment - I have a lot of family in IT - do you have any time at all where you could get a bit of experience within the IT industry whilst you're studying? It might give you some insight and an edge in terms of the world of work (pretty tough as it is!)

Oh yeah, forgot about that, he was saying that we get 30 days throughout the year in work placement (some paid, some unpaid), and if we can't find anywhere he'll help us find somewhere. Carlisle is pretty dire for IT though, the only places that use it on a larger scale are education facilities or government facilities, everywhere else seems to be in the dark ages.

 

[ttcycle]

sounds great! you could always try a placement a bit further afield if you wanted to whet your appetite.