IB in Tampa / St. Pete?

After starting FT quickly realized the big city life is not for me. I’ve been looking into long-term locations and Tampa seems like a great place to settle down. Warm weather, active lifestyle, ability to have a car, raise a family, etc.

Given I’ve never visited, would be great to understand the culture from someone familiar and why it’s great / not great. How is Tampa for someone in mid-to-late 20’s and beyond? Any other places I should consider as long-term options?

20 Comments
 

Nicer downtown and more to do. There are no bars in downtown tampa and the city is a ghost town at night. Most bars are in soho if you are looking to hang with college students. St Pete you are by Clearwater and the best beaches in America. Plenty of bars! It's more upscale and less "trashy"

 

Alright then in that case Tampa is absolutely amazing. Great drink scene, beautiful people and scenery. My absolute favorite place on earth. I will be going there after I finish my banking stint.

 

I’ve lived in Tampa my whole life. Great city. Cost of living is low, economy is booming, and there’s a lot of development happening. I like to call Tampa a “big, small town”, where it has a large population but there’s a lot of inner circles and people who know each other. One of my favorite things about Tampa is how compact it is. You can get to anything from south Tampa/downtown radius within 20 minutes. When comparing Tampa and St Pete, I will say that St Pete has a better downtown, though that gap is narrowing. Outside of downtown and beaches, St Pete isn’t that nice. People there are a little more eclectic and the bar scene is better though, if that’s what you’re looking for.

As far as jobs go, Raymond James is here. My wife works there, and we live in Tampa and her commute is 20 minutes. You don’t need to live in st Pete to work there, but I would recommend being close to one of the bridges. Baird is also growing their office here. We also have Pwc, Accenture, JPM, BoA, and Citi with big presences.

 

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