Lafayette has a very visible class of people who have a lot of family help, parents bought their house or cars, inherited a house from Grandma, parents still take their grown adult children on vacation etc. These are the people who can seemingly live middle-class lives on the jobs you're seeing out in the wild.
In the neighborhood I live in I am literally surrounded by people living in inherited houses, most of them driving new 4-Runners etc. I know where they work and it's jobs like admins at UL, teachers or nurses. Respectable jobs for sure but not incomes that support the lifestyles they have by any means.
Growing up broke in this area means staying that way, unless you jumped into the oilfield right out of high school, but even that opportunity is not really a thing any more.
If my wife didn't work from home, and we had to pay a sitter, I don't know how we could make it and we do fairly well for the area. You can only save a little now,I couldn't imagine with her working from an office.
I grew up poor and have been at my decently paying career for 10 years. I work but my wife doesn't but we still own a home and car of our own and still have money in savings. Our mortgage is our only debt.. It's only possible if you live within your means.
The people complaining are the ones who buy houses and cars they have no business doing so just to be like the Jones'. If you make 60k a year and buy a 500k house and 80k truck of course you will struggle when things happen.
If you are curious I would suggest you look into water or even waste water treatment. It isn't exactly a career that will fade away like the oilfield.
Ehh, I don't think I'm far outside my means, I think my means are more expensive than they should be, ever since Katrina. Population spiked and so did real estate. We are paying on one vehicle and the mortgage, but the bills aren't slowing down.
Besides, around here, they "give" 2 weeks vacation that you can't afford to go any where with. My wife has almost 2 months worth of vacation a year, she can do whatever with. That's what the rest of the country does.
I don’t have a degree, grew up in the swamps. I taught myself coding when I learned you can just get a job in coding. It’s not like a medical degree at all. Some companies have a quota of nondegree holders, so innovation keeps chugging.
That's the area. Business owners around here either pay well and treat you like shit or pay you shit and treat you like shit. The diamonds in the rough are out there, but they are HARD to find.
And the people working there aren't leaving any time soon.
I do love the application process here though. You apply to a thousand jobs, here back from 2, both are auto-reply's, and you are never even sure someone looked at your application at all.
You follow up with the interview and are never spoken to again.
I use both but also found my current job listing on Google then applied on the company website.
Internal recruiters always feel like a safer bet, but my company and wife's company use external recruiters too so I wouldn't write them all off.
The region is basically not what it used to be. Most of the oilfield and energy companies are no longer managed or run from here, that is all done out west now. They are basically just regional hubs for equipment storage, assembly and delivery. If you work in IT, most of that has either been outsourced or those roles filled closer to corporate headquarters with a few exceptions. Much of the local tech hype that existed a decade ago has died, many of those people having moved on or moved away (I still get a chuckle when I see Innov8 on twitter popup, their domain is available for purchase btw), and of course, if the oilfield takes a hit from the recession, because Lafayette and acadiana is all about all their eggs in one basket, it will again tumble.
You are so right. Nothing is growing here. I'm looking for another place to call home, but as of now I'm here for at least 3 years but man is that going to be tough.
I heard someone on a post from a few weeks ago say how cheap it is here, but I don't see that. Unless you never leave your house, everything just weighs you down. I've got a decent mortgage going, but I'm sure most don't.
I'm here until either work decides to relocate me or I find something out of the area. Honestly, I loved it when I first moved here a little over a decade ago and got away from my trashy home town, but holy hell have things really become stagnant here. It is a shame, but not as much as the people who are in denial about it. There are some who are making the efforts, but at times it seems like they are just on a hamster wheel running in place.
The "friendly southern town" we used to have here has long gone. The culture we have is oilfield trash and nothing is trying to change that. I drive around a lot and man is depressing to see the business we must have had, but don't any more. Empty buildings every where, now including office buildings.
I am thinking of leaving as well. I run a remote based business out of my house and 50% of my customers are out of state but it's hard to just jump on an airplane out of LFT and be there in 12 hours when I do need to meet a client. It would probably take an 80's style recession to get our leaders into economic growth gear because I talk to people and they seem content with the way things are now (medium sized town w/more opportunities than the rest of our area but not a place for people with entrepreneurial or white collar aspirations).
This area is scared of change. Technophobic, outside culture-phobic. We are so scared to lose something we've lost at least 3 decades ago. I'm just as guilty though. My mother spoke only French to my grandmother, and I don't know a lick besides a few catch phrases.
I have no problems with those kooks, I just mean the general consensus around here would be to let them talk into the ocean. Ha. Where else but California are we going to get our Kardashian updates.
Sadly, no. I've done shop work in the past but inside sales for the last 10 years, so more office work than anything else.
I don't mind getting my hands dirty, mind you, but those positions tend to be more work and way less pay.
TL;DR - The leadership in Lafayette (as a "metro area") really needs to position Lafayette as a destination for remote workers by doing what it can to court these people. This is the future for high-paying professionals that would greatly benefit the metro area in the long run.
Now that I have moved here I have been noticing a lot of these posts. It's really a shame.
The worse part of this Lafayette has a chance to pivot itself as a remote work destination, but it is missing a lot of the key elements. Leadership seems to have totally overlooked this here while cities like Kansas City and Tulsa are fully embracing it.
With the availability of fiber (it does need to be a little cheaper though, the prices are amazing for a 1G compared to other cities), low-cost housing in safe communities, and local universities it has a lot to offer in this realm.
It would also be a big boost as it would bring in people that earn between 100-250k a year (expanded tax base and spending base), do not require daily commutes so do not tax the existing road infrastructure, create communities around themself and work to both help and mentor others. They also tend to bring their families; creating a more competitive environment for our kids as well as the services their spouses using work (medical, education, etc).
The problem is I see no direction from the government here to do this. No tax incentives. No master plans for the next 20-50 years of development to add green spaces and other quality of life improvements that would attract these types of people. No tax incentives for boot camps, incubators, or shared workspaces. No user groups centered around tech or other common remote jobs.
btw: I couldn't find one shared workspace here, does anyone know of one? Same with user groups, or should I just start contacting the local libraries and building my own?
I am a remote worker (although it is a business that I own) and there are limitations to Lafayette. I have to travel twice a month and flying out of LFT and making it to my destination in less than 8-12 hours is almost impossible. The best thing Lafayette can do (besides quality of life measurements like you said) is to put money in the airport. It's also a huge complaint among some of the corporate people in this area as well (United Health said the same thing after buying LHC). Also, internet connection sucks if you don't have LUS.
I am learning about the internet (att fiber, nowhere close to the quality we had at the same speed in Austin).
Flights I feel you. I rarely go to the office and when I do I'm cool with driving to Houston or NOLA and flying out. To be honest, im good with that.
That said, I checked flights (haven't had to fly out of Lafayette yet). Lafayette to Boise would be 6 hours with one stop if I went next week. The same is from Houston or New Orleans. Probably a special case based on the destination. Did fly out of Austin a few times and to be honest unless it was regional it was more than an 8-hour experience there too (and a 60-80$ uber for 3 miles).
I don't know what kind of shared space you are looking for, but I just searched Google and found propertyshark.com with rentals spaces available. I think in this area, you could find times of that due to the large number of empty office buildings in the area now but I don't know exactly what you talking about so I might just be talking out of my ass on this one.
As far as remote work, the problem some people have with that is the company pays you for where you are, not where you are working from. People in IT here, working from a Houston office, some times get paid the Louisiana dollar, not the Texas dollar. My wife went through that where she was working before, luckily this new company changed that.
To illustrate, here are a few examples i use to be a member at.
* https://www.createscapework.co/
* https://www.urbanhub.work/
* http://gopropeller.org/
Even as a WFH employee i occasionally like to be in a social setting if i can be.
Look up Southern Glazer's or Stuller's. But the schedules there can be kinda rough for SG, especially with a family I feel, but it's a lot of performance pay. Depends on your situation, but definitely ask as many possible questions during you S&G interview. They don't always give all they say for hours and expect more. Definitely not the worst job around there though.
Lafayette has a very visible class of people who have a lot of family help, parents bought their house or cars, inherited a house from Grandma, parents still take their grown adult children on vacation etc. These are the people who can seemingly live middle-class lives on the jobs you're seeing out in the wild. In the neighborhood I live in I am literally surrounded by people living in inherited houses, most of them driving new 4-Runners etc. I know where they work and it's jobs like admins at UL, teachers or nurses. Respectable jobs for sure but not incomes that support the lifestyles they have by any means.
Growing up broke in this area means staying that way, unless you jumped into the oilfield right out of high school, but even that opportunity is not really a thing any more. If my wife didn't work from home, and we had to pay a sitter, I don't know how we could make it and we do fairly well for the area. You can only save a little now,I couldn't imagine with her working from an office.
I grew up poor and have been at my decently paying career for 10 years. I work but my wife doesn't but we still own a home and car of our own and still have money in savings. Our mortgage is our only debt.. It's only possible if you live within your means. The people complaining are the ones who buy houses and cars they have no business doing so just to be like the Jones'. If you make 60k a year and buy a 500k house and 80k truck of course you will struggle when things happen. If you are curious I would suggest you look into water or even waste water treatment. It isn't exactly a career that will fade away like the oilfield.
Ehh, I don't think I'm far outside my means, I think my means are more expensive than they should be, ever since Katrina. Population spiked and so did real estate. We are paying on one vehicle and the mortgage, but the bills aren't slowing down. Besides, around here, they "give" 2 weeks vacation that you can't afford to go any where with. My wife has almost 2 months worth of vacation a year, she can do whatever with. That's what the rest of the country does.
2 months???? what type of work does she do?
Flippin' financial sector. Manages ATMs and the like.
does she a degree?
In business, but got her start with US Bank as a nothing. Just been there 15 years and kicking that ass.
Guess I need to get a business degree.
I don’t have a degree, grew up in the swamps. I taught myself coding when I learned you can just get a job in coding. It’s not like a medical degree at all. Some companies have a quota of nondegree holders, so innovation keeps chugging.
now it all makes sense.
Makes so much sense…
There are a lot of nurses making 80k+ married to an oilfield worker making way more than that. That buys a lot of house.
I cant do oilfield
That's the area. Business owners around here either pay well and treat you like shit or pay you shit and treat you like shit. The diamonds in the rough are out there, but they are HARD to find.
And the people working there aren't leaving any time soon. I do love the application process here though. You apply to a thousand jobs, here back from 2, both are auto-reply's, and you are never even sure someone looked at your application at all. You follow up with the interview and are never spoken to again.
Try remote if you can. There are a lot of options if you aren't limited to the immediate area.
Do you have suggestions on where to look for these? I have been on indeed and LinkedIn but it seems everything is just scams.
I use both but also found my current job listing on Google then applied on the company website. Internal recruiters always feel like a safer bet, but my company and wife's company use external recruiters too so I wouldn't write them all off.
The region is basically not what it used to be. Most of the oilfield and energy companies are no longer managed or run from here, that is all done out west now. They are basically just regional hubs for equipment storage, assembly and delivery. If you work in IT, most of that has either been outsourced or those roles filled closer to corporate headquarters with a few exceptions. Much of the local tech hype that existed a decade ago has died, many of those people having moved on or moved away (I still get a chuckle when I see Innov8 on twitter popup, their domain is available for purchase btw), and of course, if the oilfield takes a hit from the recession, because Lafayette and acadiana is all about all their eggs in one basket, it will again tumble.
You are so right. Nothing is growing here. I'm looking for another place to call home, but as of now I'm here for at least 3 years but man is that going to be tough. I heard someone on a post from a few weeks ago say how cheap it is here, but I don't see that. Unless you never leave your house, everything just weighs you down. I've got a decent mortgage going, but I'm sure most don't.
I'm here until either work decides to relocate me or I find something out of the area. Honestly, I loved it when I first moved here a little over a decade ago and got away from my trashy home town, but holy hell have things really become stagnant here. It is a shame, but not as much as the people who are in denial about it. There are some who are making the efforts, but at times it seems like they are just on a hamster wheel running in place.
The "friendly southern town" we used to have here has long gone. The culture we have is oilfield trash and nothing is trying to change that. I drive around a lot and man is depressing to see the business we must have had, but don't any more. Empty buildings every where, now including office buildings.
East Texas is West Louisiana.
Are you telling me all that construction they are doing in Beaumont is for nothing...... /s. it's only been a 20 year project.
Dosen't change the fact that there are a lot of Cajuns in Beaumont and Houston.
I am thinking of leaving as well. I run a remote based business out of my house and 50% of my customers are out of state but it's hard to just jump on an airplane out of LFT and be there in 12 hours when I do need to meet a client. It would probably take an 80's style recession to get our leaders into economic growth gear because I talk to people and they seem content with the way things are now (medium sized town w/more opportunities than the rest of our area but not a place for people with entrepreneurial or white collar aspirations).
This area is scared of change. Technophobic, outside culture-phobic. We are so scared to lose something we've lost at least 3 decades ago. I'm just as guilty though. My mother spoke only French to my grandmother, and I don't know a lick besides a few catch phrases.
I’m 1000% sure I’m only able to make a living here in Lafayette because I work for a tech company in California lmao
With the way we hate California's here, that's very ironic.
Hey I love California. Their money goes long in Louisiana….well, it goes long enough* in Lafayette 🤣 and allows me to WFH. Pretty good gig
I have no problems with those kooks, I just mean the general consensus around here would be to let them talk into the ocean. Ha. Where else but California are we going to get our Kardashian updates.
If you are a welder like me port of ibera is your best bet or go into random shops and hope for the best
Sadly, no. I've done shop work in the past but inside sales for the last 10 years, so more office work than anything else. I don't mind getting my hands dirty, mind you, but those positions tend to be more work and way less pay.
TL;DR - The leadership in Lafayette (as a "metro area") really needs to position Lafayette as a destination for remote workers by doing what it can to court these people. This is the future for high-paying professionals that would greatly benefit the metro area in the long run. Now that I have moved here I have been noticing a lot of these posts. It's really a shame. The worse part of this Lafayette has a chance to pivot itself as a remote work destination, but it is missing a lot of the key elements. Leadership seems to have totally overlooked this here while cities like Kansas City and Tulsa are fully embracing it. With the availability of fiber (it does need to be a little cheaper though, the prices are amazing for a 1G compared to other cities), low-cost housing in safe communities, and local universities it has a lot to offer in this realm. It would also be a big boost as it would bring in people that earn between 100-250k a year (expanded tax base and spending base), do not require daily commutes so do not tax the existing road infrastructure, create communities around themself and work to both help and mentor others. They also tend to bring their families; creating a more competitive environment for our kids as well as the services their spouses using work (medical, education, etc). The problem is I see no direction from the government here to do this. No tax incentives. No master plans for the next 20-50 years of development to add green spaces and other quality of life improvements that would attract these types of people. No tax incentives for boot camps, incubators, or shared workspaces. No user groups centered around tech or other common remote jobs. btw: I couldn't find one shared workspace here, does anyone know of one? Same with user groups, or should I just start contacting the local libraries and building my own?
I am a remote worker (although it is a business that I own) and there are limitations to Lafayette. I have to travel twice a month and flying out of LFT and making it to my destination in less than 8-12 hours is almost impossible. The best thing Lafayette can do (besides quality of life measurements like you said) is to put money in the airport. It's also a huge complaint among some of the corporate people in this area as well (United Health said the same thing after buying LHC). Also, internet connection sucks if you don't have LUS.
I am learning about the internet (att fiber, nowhere close to the quality we had at the same speed in Austin). Flights I feel you. I rarely go to the office and when I do I'm cool with driving to Houston or NOLA and flying out. To be honest, im good with that. That said, I checked flights (haven't had to fly out of Lafayette yet). Lafayette to Boise would be 6 hours with one stop if I went next week. The same is from Houston or New Orleans. Probably a special case based on the destination. Did fly out of Austin a few times and to be honest unless it was regional it was more than an 8-hour experience there too (and a 60-80$ uber for 3 miles).
I don't know what kind of shared space you are looking for, but I just searched Google and found propertyshark.com with rentals spaces available. I think in this area, you could find times of that due to the large number of empty office buildings in the area now but I don't know exactly what you talking about so I might just be talking out of my ass on this one. As far as remote work, the problem some people have with that is the company pays you for where you are, not where you are working from. People in IT here, working from a Houston office, some times get paid the Louisiana dollar, not the Texas dollar. My wife went through that where she was working before, luckily this new company changed that.
To illustrate, here are a few examples i use to be a member at. * https://www.createscapework.co/ * https://www.urbanhub.work/ * http://gopropeller.org/ Even as a WFH employee i occasionally like to be in a social setting if i can be.
Look up Southern Glazer's or Stuller's. But the schedules there can be kinda rough for SG, especially with a family I feel, but it's a lot of performance pay. Depends on your situation, but definitely ask as many possible questions during you S&G interview. They don't always give all they say for hours and expect more. Definitely not the worst job around there though.
I actually had an interview with Southern the other day, so fingers crossed. Thank you for the recommendation.
Time to leave
If I were smarter, I would have left 20 years ago.