lizziea06

I feel like this whole conversation is irrelevant until you have job lined up. Why don't you apply for some jobs, and then come back with some actual scenarios? I can tell you how great a city is until I'm blue in the face, but if you can't find a job there, what good is it?

RedRock

From the sound of your post you do not have a a job, you just looking.

___________

I will be taking on a position in the US, without a car, for about three years. It must be a big city preferably in a hotbed for the pharma/biotech industries.

enzian

Raindrop is talking about a postdoctoral fellowship, not a "job". This is a highly desireable position with a research institution--a continuation of one's education. She knows what she is talking about with respect to salaries. I checked with my husband, a research Ph.D. who hires postdocs. In Seattle, the position pays about $35,000. So all you skeptics can quit questioning.

And Raindrop, I wish you well with your search for a position. You would be most welcome here in Seattle. It is a nice place to live.

Stephanie

I'd say Washington D.C. the subway systems are clean with no filth or graffiti and they are very reliable and the systems are easy to read and get around on - just colored lines, blue, green, yellow and orange with main hubs where you connect to other colors.

Daniel_Williams

Hi raindrop,

Good luck with your postdoc. I did mine a few years back at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and managed there OK without a car, although I must say I've lived in/visited much better cities as far as public transit is concerned. (I knew those bus schedules in and out and counted on things being either 10 minutes early or late.)

I'm gathering you have some interest in researchers in the cities you mention. I think you'd be fine in SF and Boston (if the researcher hiring you is centrally located). Decent biotech opportunities in both after if you decided to stay. Two of my fav US cities for sure. Houston is so spead out, would be tough without a car. Never been to Seattle/Berkeley.

Good luck!

nytraveler

$35,000 may well be correct for a post-doc fellowship. But that's not a job. If the OP had asked the proper question it might have elicited better answers.

And in that case, I would think the deciding factor would be who the OP would be working with and on what project - not what city it's in. If you need to you can live inexpensively almost anywhere - it just depends on how many people you're willing to share with. And for fellows the university or hospital involved usually has a housing office that will help them deal with issues like this.

enzian

nytraveler---she said in her opening post she would be "taking a position", not a "job". Her question related to the ease of getting around by public transport in the cities she had chosen---all good choices given her goals. So she did ask the proper question; it was some of the answers that got off track.