
Get Paid to Move to Maine - prostoalex
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/blog/2016/06/03/maine-vacation-paid/
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downandout
This "program" is essentially nothing more than a PR grab. From the FAQ:

 _How much will I get reimbursed if I land a job in Maine?

That will depend completely on the employer who hires you. They have complete
discretion to provide a signing bonus or expense reimbursement as an incentive
to get you to move to our great state. There is no requirement for an employer
to reimburse any job seeker._

In other words, there is no program. There is a logo that falsely implies
there is a program, and apparently some kind of marketing budget to get places
like Boston Magazine to write sponsored content about said falsely implied
program. But that is all there is.

Another oddity in the FAQ is that they actually say that job boards are not
allowed to link to their website. I'd love to see such a policy challenged in
court, but the fact that they would even come up with such a heavy handed and
ridiculous policy, regardless of whether it can be enforced, is very off
putting.

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ChristianGeek
Plus you're not getting paid to move to Maine...if you do get paid, it's to
visit Maine before deciding that you want to move.

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mjolk
If I can offer some unsolicited advice, here's your "head's up" from someone
from Maine that recently passed on moving back:

\- Maine jobs are low-paying and few-and-far-between. Not an issue if you're
positive you can line-up recurring remote jobs, but be honest with yourself.

\- Income taxes are pretty high.

\- You'll want to live in Portland.

\- Portland is "expensive" for rent (you're very lucky to get a nice 1br for
1400/mo, with rents on the rise due to out-of-state purchasing of condos for
rental-income or airBNB/subsidizing owner-seasonal housing)

\- Portland is a driving city. You _do_ have a car, right?

\- Food/drink/going-out is a little below NYC prices (they can get away with
it due to out-of-state travelers). There are great restaurants, but most are
mediocre to bad. The beer's great though. Enjoy your beer per hour, as you'll
be driving home.

\- Everything is closed by 11 on weekends.

\- Housing costs are steeply on the rise and the local culture is on the
decline -- it's not a secret Maine is beautiful, and most of the population is
retirement age (oldest in the nation!), so the culture is whatever sells to
out-of-state money. Hope you're cool with those taxes going up to support the
baby boomers leaving the workforce.

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ktamura
Anyone to share their stories living and working in Maine? My background: I
have a great job in SF, but SF is such a terrible city to live in. In the 5 to
10 years time frame, I am strongly considering moving away from SF.

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sillysaurus3
Would anyone mind expanding on why SF is a terrible city to live in?

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nedwin
Expensive. If you moved here 5-10 years ago your rent isn't too bad but good
luck if you need to move out for whatever reason (eviction, bad housemate
vibe, meet a partner, have a kid...).

Relatively high crime rate, human shit on the street everywhere, terrible
schools...

By comparison Portland Oregon is 50% less expensive to rent or buy (1 bed SF =
$3500-4500; 1 bed Portland $1435-$2535).

Plenty of high paying jobs but I know that personally I would be up if I moved
to any other city and took my companies cost of living adjustment.

~~~
broodbucket
>human shit on the street everywhere

Uh, what? I've never been to SF, but I've never heard this before.

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ahlatimer
It's definitely a thing. SF has a pretty substantial homeless population and
apparently very few options for them to defecate that isn't the sidewalk. You
can spend all day walking around playing human or dog. Walking by one of the
BART stops on a warm day, you're hit with a pretty strong smell of urine.

~~~
vvvv
I've travelled all around the world, including India and a number of poorest
countries, and I've never seen anything like this.

~~~
orf
Then you haven't looked. When I visited China I saw lots of people deficating
in the streets, parents encouraging children to do it etc.

When a man's gotta go...

~~~
vvvv
If you're thinking of the same thing I am, then it's different. In some
places, the only option may be to defecate on the side of the street by the
curb, but that area gets swept frequently. I have never been able to play a
dog vs human sidewalk poo guessing game as suggested above, including in the
African, Asian and LatAm slums.

Perhaps it's because those people are not a transient homeless population that
(presumably) gets cleaned up after, but they actually live there.

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b_t_s
Born and raised in Maine, worked there for 5 year or so, but can't imagine
going back. Maybe if I got something remote I'd go back for a few months in
the summer(Maine is awesome for about 2-3 months) but there's almost no jobs
and if you manage to get one the pay is abysmal. Oh and winter is like 5
months long, so living there year round is brutal(a _lot_ of people move to
Maine for 1 to 3 years and leave after the first bad winter)

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SloopJon
One local recruiter linked to a Forbes article about "Best States for
Business" and tweeted, "We beat MS and WV - hooray!"

I recently reached out to a small company in Portland with a posting on its
web site that seemed like a great fit. Unfortunately, hiring in ME is no
different than MA: they never call, they never write.

I spent a weekend up there looking at neighborhoods. Beautiful area with nice
houses and good schools.

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swampthinker
I've heard of some large companies opening up offices in Portland. Beautiful
town and area for half of the rent and other costs, and there is a great
network of agencies and talent in the area to hire from.

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cm3
Does Maine have similarly good FTTH coverage as Vermont?

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secstate
Nope. This is a marketing move, but one that is not done in concert with
actually making the state's infrastructure and utility access and cost any
better.

I love Maine, I love living here, but it is not friendly to business and for
the life of me I can't figure out where the leadership gap is in terms of
turning it around.

~~~
cm3
What makes Vermont so great that it has Sanders and FTTH?

