Top 10 Hot Jobs in Columbia/Ellicott City MD - Best Places to Live

Money magazine online chose the Columbia/Ellicott suburbs the the southwest of the Baltimore Metro Area in Maryland as the second best place to live in Americain its100 Best Places to Live list for 2010. Employment opportunities are plentiful and include over 140,000 job openings with in 25 miles of center city; with an unemployment rate of only 5.2%.

The nearby suburb, Ellicott City, possesses old mansions listed on the National Record of Historic Places, a preserved downtown area that recalls the 1700s and the Colonial Period of America, restaurants, shopping, tours and services.

The unincorporated place and planned community (large housing development or groups of developments) of Columbia, 10 miles south of Ellicott, supports a large amount of greenspace, music, fine arts, and culture. Expanding and improving these in conjunction with Ellicott help to boost the metro area to 2nd from 8th Best Place to Live since 2008. The local economy is "going gangbusters" according to the high numbers of jobs being listed and the area needs more IT and Healthcare workers.

In close proximity to Washington DC, Columbia is also near the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the US Fort Meade Army Base, producing 8,000+ jobs, with plans for 1000s more in 2010 - 2011. Both Baltimore and DC are close enough for commuting.

Columbia is only about 26 miles north of Washington DC, but the local mass transit system advises on its schedules that a regular bus requires nearly 2.5 hours to make the trip during the week. Ellicott City north of Columbia provides the same transit system service in 1.5 - 2.5 hours. Traffic must be congested and the bus making several stops or layovers along the way.

From Baltimore MD to Washington DC, the transit ride under 2 hours long, while driving an automobile requires from about 60 to 75 minutes.. However, the trip by bus from either Columbia or Ellicott City to Baltimore MD or back takes less than 60 minutes.

Transport between the two communities of Ellicott City and Columbia (about 26 miles) is rather slow by limited-service express bus. According to printed scedules, this requires over an hour by bus in the mornings and evenings, and then only Monday - Friday.

Like Newton, Massachusetts in New England, Columbia is made up of several villages. These 10 villages include:

1. Village of Wilde Lake - Founded June 1967 around a dammed man-made lake created from a stream. The 10 villages include three man-made lakes.
2. Village fo Long Reach - The largest village, it supports several neighborhoods.
3. Village of Harper's Choice - The third Columbia Village, it featrures more contemperory architecture.
4. Village of Town Center - Condominiums and townhouses are clustered around the village and The Mall in Columbia. Urban, convenient, and pedestrian friendly.
5. Village of Hickory Ridge extends to Route 32, with over 4,600 houses.
6. Village of Oakland Mills - Reportedly offers the best prices for housing.
7. Village of Owen Brown - Close to the southern part of the community and highways, it provides for a quicker commute to Washington, DC.
8. The Village of King's Contrivance - Third largest of the villages.
9. Village of Dorsey's Search is the 9th village, formed in 1980.
10. Village of River Hill is the 10th and most popular area, known for its public schools.

PUBLIC TRANSIT: Howard Transit and CorridorTransit at Connect A Ride. Click for route and schedule information.

Columbia was designed and planned with an idealistc intent of eliminating all forms of strife and disparity among income levels, races, and religions. Its villages and streets were named after classic literary authors, apparently mostly white, but also for black inventgers and Native American landmarks; and demographics research indicates a large majority of white populace. It is successful in the business sense, however; and since it is unincorporated, there are no city taxes. The regional shopping mall and the camouflaged smaller village malls produce healthy revenues.

There is plenty to do in Ellicott City and Historic Ellicott City, Inc. implements an ongoing plan to register and restore additional structures and other sites in and around the former mill town on the National Register of Historic Places for the enjoyment of its many visitors and residents. Several events are connected with this ongoing preservation and development, including an annual Decorator's House SHow in which a specific historic home is shown for walk-throughs.

One of the events I really like to hear about is the storytelling done in Ellicott City, preserving the oral histories of the region as well as the buildings and lands. This is called Stories from the Patapsco River Valley and is available as a book called Remembering Ellicott City.

The preservation company plans to reconstruct the mill town that was Ellicott City before the Amerian Revolution. This included restoring ot rebuilding several different types of mills, including those originally constructed by the Ellicott brothers in 1772. This Mill Project is planned to be authentic and interesting, bringing with it additional opportunities for the town's travel and tourism businesses. Already restored or ongoing projects include Ellicott City B&O Railroad Station Museum (see link above), Thomas Isaac's Log Cabin, the Heritage Orientation Center, and the George Ellicott House.

The top graph shows an incredible leap in numbers of jobs open in this market are from 2008 to January 2010, when a slight decline was recorded. The bottom graph, blown up visually compared to the first chart, illustrates how numbers of job openings have held at a steady number from March - June 2010. Over 125,000 job openings were listed in mid-July!

Overall, a large number of job postings in the Columbia/Ellicott area come from IT and Healthcare needs (which also include IT) in government agencies and government contractor companies.

1. General Dynamics Information Technology
2. CSC - Computers/IT
3. Johns Hopkins Univ. @ Applied Physics Lab - IT Jobs
4. Northrop Grumman SAIC - Scientific/IT
5. Washington Adventist Hospital
6. Critical Connection
7. Bae Systems
8. Johns Hopkins University - other
9. ManTech
10. Washington Hospital Center
11. Kaiser Permanente - Health

1. Software Engineers
2. Systems Engineers
3. Occupational Therapists
4. Project Managers
5. Registered Nurses (RNs)
6. Administrative Assistants
7. Physical Therapists
8. Business Analysts
9. Java Developers
10. Program Managers

Additional High Demand Jobs

1. Network Security Engineers
2. Retail Salespeople
3. Network Engineers

General Dynamics Information Technology is a leading IT solutions and integration coporation that provides information technology, systems engineering, and professional services for the areas of defense, intelligence, homeland security, federal civil and private commercial sectors. GDIT employs 17,000+ IT professionals around the globe and needs additional employees from 2010 through 2020.

HOT JOBS

1. Service Desk Technicians with security clearances
2. Top Secret Clearance Network Security Engineer
3. Sr Principal Scientists
4. Fiber Technicians
5. Sr Network Technicians
6. Scientists
7. Health Care Customer Service Specialists
8. Associate Research Analysts
9. Sr Scientists
10. System Controllers
11. Lead Technicians
12. Training Specialists
13. ETL Programmers
14. Principal Network Engineers
    

CSC is a global leader in Information Technology, in consulting, systems integrations and outsourcing for private industry and government agencies since 1959. CSC serves at least 90 different nations around the world. HQ an divisional offices are located in USA, Australia, Asia, and Europe.

Industries Served:

Healthcare, Natural Resources, Chemical, Energy, Finance, Manufacturing, Technology & Comsumer. Services provided to these industries include:

• Consulting - CSC provides a full array of business consulting and IT solutions, process improvement; and planning and implementation. The latest technologies increase the speed an defficieny of a number of buinesses and governmental agencies around the world.
• Systems Integration - Integration for commercial enterprises and vital government projects have been successful among a long list of important clients at high levels of administration and operations.
• Outsourcing - Private business and government agencies in at least 15 different nations have benefitted from CSC outsourcing solutions. This includes cutting edge technology that is secure and mobilized.

Highest demand CSC jobs listed with Indeed.com at SimplyHired.com

1. Project and Program Management Principal Leaders
2. Client Service Coordinators
3. Subcontracts Leaders
4. Project Managers
5. Project Control Sr Managers
6. Information Security Engineer Leaders
7. Logistics Assistants
8. Asset Managers
9. Operations Supervisors
10. Network Engineer Sr Staff
11. Department Sr Assistants
12. Project Control Associates
13. SQL Server Administrators