All you need to know (Portland, Beaverton: middle-class, health insurance, crimes)

[dacrazyone07]

Other than the facts provided by this site, I would like to know pro's and con's of Hillsboro Or. Is the city generally a good area coming from Georgia and Texas one must stay away or out of some neighborhoods due to crime. Could this also be a potential issue here. I have a background in technology so I have read that Intel is located there anyone know the hiring processes. Any input would be considerably helpful.. Thankyou.

[hamellr]

There are no areas of crime, anywhere in Oregon that most people would consider "bad areas." Your worst areas are going to be mostly domestic abuse crimes, drug possession and car prowling related.

Hillsoboro, due to it's location near three Intel Plants, Yahoo, and several other tech companies has a decidedly uniform Middle-Class suburb feel. There are pockets of older neighborhoods, farms on the out skirts of town, a decent downtown district with historic buildings, easy access to public transportation, and the second best public library system in the state. But there are a lot of McMansions to go with that. There is also a higher then normal Hispanic population that is a left over from when Hillsboro was mostly farms.

The Intel hiring process is insane, and almost 100% via recruiters. A lot of scam recruiting companies will recruit you, then connect you to another recruiter who then sends you to Intel. So while employees frequently make good money, contractors (of which there are a lot, something like 40%,) tend to be making much worse wages due to the layers of recruiters. They also have a policy where you can only contract for them for a year before having to leave for six months. Contractors are very rarely hired on full time.

If you're a Fab or semi-Conductor Engineer though, you can pretty much write your own paycheck. If you're just a regular IT person, all IT functions are outsourced, albeit to a fairly competent group of people which as you know is unusual.

[Nell Plotts]

The reason why Intel (and other employers) limit contractors to one year is because after that IRS will rule them employees and fringe benefits are payable. Microsoft got in a heap of trouble some years ago from just that practice. I think there were a number of contractors who kept working for them on that basis in the hope of becoming employees. MS just kept extending their contracts. Ultimately someone sued, MS lost and paid out a HUNK of money and retro stock to a class.

Consider for a moment a contractor who works for an employer for.. oh, three years. After 30 months a member of their family becomes seriously ill and the contractor has no health insurance. That contractor should have been converted to employee status and entitled to sign up for health insurance. The company now must retroactively compensate the contractor/employee not only for the insurance but pay the person for the medical expenses (and maybe providers if some of the cost was written off).

Technical recruiters have a contract with an employer and are paid by the employer. Any technical recruiter who asks the applicant for $ is running a scam. Do not sign any exclusive representation contract with a recruiter. Firms like Intel do not contract with individual technical recruiters, they engage a firm. Find out the name of the recruiting firm and run a Google search on them. Often a technical recruiting firm will represent more than one employer and when appropriate may 'shop a resume around' to try to find a fit. If there is an employer who you do not want to see your resume exercise caution. Executive recruiters are very discrete but technical recruiters may not be so careful.

[kathy5701]

Hillsboro/Beaverton/Aloha are great places to live in. Both my daughters live there. Son in law works for US Bank and daughter is an office manager in a medical office in Portland. My other daughter is finishing Beauty College in Downtown Portland. They have never had any problems. With that being said even in these cities there may be whats called a rougher part of town. They live near TV (tualatin Valley highway) and actual address is Beaverton. Zip is 97006.

[kathy5701]

Intel can be hard to get employed at. They have a website and most people are registered on the site and can opt in if they find a job that suits them. You can also get email alerts if something matches your background and skills to flag you to apply.

[hamellr]

Some of the less reputable recruiters for Intel will also double submit candidates if they know they've already been submitted. Intel's processes usually automatically kick that person out. They do this to keep their competitors from filling positions in an attempt to get Intel to go exclusive with them.

While I have no proof they do this, Mindlance is at the forefront of worse of the group.

[dacrazyone07]

What about the medical feild in the Hillsboro area for example an RN would it be easy to find employment how many hospitals. Also looking to do a bit of farming and gardening such as having chickens are there any city restrictions when it comes to animals? Thank you for your input.

[alexxiz]

I'm in software and would NOT deal with any recruiters, they are all scammers to me, and nothing but a total waste of time. Anything I ever found was without them. If any of them contact me, I respond with "cease and desist".

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by dacrazyone07

What about the medical feild in the Hillsboro area for example an RN would it be easy to find employment how many hospitals. Also looking to do a bit of farming and gardening such as having chickens are there any city restrictions when it comes to animals? Thank you for your input.

Depends on what city you're in. Chickens are grandfathered in within Portland City Limits. Beaverton just recently allowed them. If you're in unincorporated county areas then you'll be (usually) less limited.

[dacrazyone07]

Grandfathered?? I have never heard this term used before. Do you mind explaining it. And the city I am looking into is Hillsboro.