Questions about the Atlanta Software Engineering Market

Question

My wife is likely being relocated to Atlanta next year for work. I'm trying to figure out a few things about the Atlanta market for Programmers, Software Engineers and Technical Leaders. Any insight would be helpful, but I also have a few specific questions:

1. Is the market for .NET Professionals in good shape? Or hurting right now?
2. Are most of the jobs with large companies, or are the a good number of smaller companies out there?
3. Is it possible to find jobs for Software companies, or are most of the jobs for consulting, IT Services, or non-Software companies that have an IT division?
4. Is there a good startup market, and is it situated around some of the larger universities (Georgia Tech, Emory, etc).
5. Where is the biggest tech area of Atlanta (if there is one).

[I really would like if this questions is not closed as non-Programming related (which is subjective), and I have taken care to frame this deliberately related to Programming/Software Engineering.]

Answer 1

I've been in Atlanta IT industry for about 4 years now (mostly software engineering). My responses are based on my experiences so far:

1. When interviewing a year ago for a new job, a majority of the software engineering positions were for .NET programmers.

2. Most jobs seem to be with smaller companies (< 500 employees, many under 100).

3. I'd say about 1/2 are software companies or in-house software shops for a small company. The other 1/2 would be consulting and outsourcing type companies.

4. The startup market is slow growing. Coming from Georgia Tech, most entrepreneurs I know are eager to move away unfortuantely. Those who stick around (like myself) are more interested in working with established companies.

5. There doesn't seem to be a single big tech area. Most of the markets including the one I work in are niche markets usually targeting business customers.