Career Choices [kinda long]
Warning: I tend to ramble.
I like my job. It's not a great job, but it's not terribly difficult. I currently work Help Desk for pretty large Homebuilding company. It's a pretty lousy company, but they treat me well enough.
I started 2 years ago as an (payed) intern. I wasn't looking for a job, it just happened to stumble upon me. My boss was good enough to make my schedule work with school, and she always made sure that I put school above work. If I needed days off to study or whatnot, she'd let me have them no questions asked.
A little over a month ago, I finished school, and the paperwork promptly went through to change my status (and pay) to full time. So, in essence, I've been treated well.
Last Friday, one of the managers here (who happens to be an ex-classmate), asked me to get in contact with an old professor of mine, who happens to work for a really good company, if he knew any good database admins who are looking for a job. I'm pretty good with this professor, and we got to talking, before long he asks me if I want to join him at his current job working on his team.
I mean, I'm no idiot. Better paying job in a much better company is a no-brainer. I sent him my resume on Monday morning. Only problem I can see is this. He's in California. I'm in Miami, Fl. Taking this job would mean having to move cross country (literally) to a place I know next to nothing about. Honestly, I'm exited of the chance of being somewhere new and honestly this is a job many would dream to have, but at the same time, I'm kinda scared (is that the right word?) about leaving everyone I know behind. I guess I could just view this as the moving away for college experience I never had.
I probably didn't have to write so much, but since this isn't something that I can really talk about with people at work at the moment, I need somewhere to let this out.
I'll at least leave you with a question, because I'm sure at least one of you has gone through a huge move such as this. Any words? How was the move? Did it take long to adjust.
None of this is final, though. For all I know, this falls through, and I just end up in the status quo.
"The pen is mightier than the flaming bag of poop" - Bart Simpson
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Maybe anxious would be a better word. If you don't have anything seriously holding you to your current location and you think you would like the job and location better then why not? Good luck with your decision.
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Why on Earth would you move to California? Did you not see A View to a Kill? They're one evil villain away from sinking into the ocean I tell you!
In all seriousness, it's a tough move. I went through it when I had to move from Michigan to Indianapolis about nine years ago. Granted, that's not cross-country, just four hours from home, but it was still a move to a place where I knew nobody and was pretty much completely on my own for the first time. The first night here was the toughest. I'm in a new place (crappy two bedroom apartment), with all my stuff boxed up and a completely foreign view out the balcony window. Okay, it was a view to the back of a Wal Mart, but still. It was a long night of just asking myself over and over again, "what did I just get myself into?"
I don't remember a lot from that first year or two. My new job helped get me into a nice day-to-day rhythm, which was really all it took to start purging any fears I had. I'm not a big social butterfly, so a lot of the time it was just me, a crappy dinner, and the TV/PC, which wasn't really so bad. Getting a pet helps, if you like that sort of thing. For me, it was nice to come home and have my cut curl up on my lap while I played Baldur's Gate II.
Really, all I can tell you is that it starts out a bit scary, but gets a little better each day until you wake up one day, years later, and realize that this "foreign" place is home now.
Best of luck. And my congrats on just getting the job opportunity!
---Todd
The Nut and the Feisty Weasel: A place where a deranged Ohio State Buckeye and a rabid Michigan Wolverine fan come together... and air grievances.
They say you only live once.... However i have too much family and friends to move that far personally. Could be a nice adventure!
WOW: Bounce
In '94 I moved myself from CT to San Jose area in CA for a new job. I was pretty apprehensive. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I would have always regretted not doing it.
It seems like you're at a stage in your life where you can afford to take some chances. You will regret letting this opportunity pass you by.
"I learned 2 things today - first, I've got to use Mariano as my closer and second, I suck". - Francona after the AllStar parade in NYC
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I moved from Los Angeles to DC a few years ago, not because of an awesome job offer but because I wanted to change locations.
Moving across the country isn't always easy, but I'd do it in a heartbeat for a dream job or something close to it.
How to put this - the people I know who didn't go far for school almost uniformly have not left the area that they grew up in. Without making any judgments, they seem less willing to look outside their surroundings to chase something.
From your post it sounds like you want to be convinced to move. I say go for it - you can always go back to the area you grew up. I think "moving back" is relatively simple. Moving to a completely new city/area gets progressively harder the older you get and the less experience you have with moving.
And on a side note, the boundary for "moving far away" is whether or not you can drive home in a day, which is ~6-8 hours for me. Being four hours away means you can still make it back easily for important occasions or (should they come up) emergencies. Sure it's possible to fly back in a day, but it's much more difficult to drop everything to do so. In that sense it's difficult, but I find it's still managable.
Xbox live:Scaphism
First Question: Where in California?
Secondly, I just made a move from Southern California to New York. I didn't know anyone up here. So it was definitely scary. But, like what was said above me, you only live once. Take the chance. You'll be fine.
Chumpy wrote:
If you do not do this I will go to your house and kick you in the nuts. Start packing!
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Go. If you hate it, you can always move back home. I moved halfway across the country. 13 years later, my parents moved out here.
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I would also like to echo this statement. If you do not do this, I will send Edwin to your house to kick you in the nuts.
Chumpy wrote:
I pass by his house twice a day to and from my way to work. It won't even be extra effort. His office would be in Cupertino.
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Twice a day, and yet you never come to visit anymore.
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[edit] In an effort to keep this post relevant:
How painful/painless is the actual move. I've got a ton of crap I'd hate to see damaged during the move.
"The pen is mightier than the flaming bag of poop" - Bart Simpson
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I'd wait to move everything till you decide to move in on your own. Since you are sharing an apartment just take what you need and what you can like your consoles, clothes, etc. Once you move in to your own place that's when you go and move it all.
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That depends, if the company you are moving to pays you a relocation package, it can be very painless. If not, it depends upon how much you have to move and how much you are willing to pay to have someone else move it for you.
Out of college, I moved to California and all I had was what I could fit into my car. With my move to NY, I had a lot more, but the company paid movers to do all that for me. Really, it comes down to how much you have to move.
Chumpy wrote:
I will echo this sentiment. Getting married, buying a house, having children, all make this exponentially harder to do. Best done while young, and under threat of nut kicking.
"And the circle has been charged through the power of unphysics, which are physics so stupid they erase normal ones from your mind." -Wields-Rulebook-Heavily at rpg.net
I moved only what I could fit in my car (a 2 door integra hatchback). if I were to move today I'd probably have to rent a small uhaul to hitch to my car or a uhaul van.
Honestly, that should be a small consideration. Moving is painful. Friends that help you move are real friends, or masochists. Don't let that stop you.
You also have the benefit of moving from home - your parents can send boxes after you arrive, as long as you pack them up in advance.
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Do it. DO IT!!
Don't you understand, Cliff? We put a chainsaw on a machine gun! That's it! It doesn't get more awesome than that! We've peaked, man! We've peaked! - ctrl-alt-del on Gears of War 2
I say go for it. Then again, at age 19 I decided college wasn't for me, and in the span of a week, decided to marry my wife, pack up what I could, and move away from everything and everyone I knew. It was scary as Hell beforehand, but it's worked out pretty well, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I had no job, nothing even lined up, and we spent our first week living in a hotel room with everything packed in my crappy little Grand-AM.
As for moving... it really does depend on how much crap you're moving. My wife and I have moved 4 times in the 6 years we've been married, and while we've always done the moves ourselves (with the help of my brother on one, and Robear and Paleo on the others), I wouldn't even consider doing it ourselves at this point if we were going cross country. We have a 2BR/1.5Bath home that's cluttered enough as it is. But if it were like our first move, where we were teenagers with only enough stuff to make about 3 car loads (about the equivalent of a small U-Haul), I'd run the numbers on the gas it'd take to do it before ruling out making the drive myself.
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I have to echo the sentiments of most of the folks who have posted thus far, GO FOR IT!
I am in no way trying to live vicariously through you, since I have had my share of moves, but I for one would be incredibly excited at such a proposition and would not be the least be hesitant to head somewhere for what could be a great opportunity.
Quintin_Stone wrote:
lunabean wrote:How much more would they pay you in CA? The cost of living there is completely outrageous, especially compared to Florida. In the end, he better paying job might not actually pay all that much better, all things totaled.
That said: Go for it. Or apparently you'll have a whole horde of Goodjers kicking you in the nuts.
"Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you, Kat. You." - Haakon7
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Nothing has been officially offered to me yet, so info like salary and such hasn't been discussed yet. Seeing as I'm basically at the bottom of the ladder, at the moment, any increase may be significant. Honestly, though, when the proposition arose, the money wasn't really the first thing in my mind.
Now, the safety of my nuts. That's kinda important.
"The pen is mightier than the flaming bag of poop" - Bart Simpson
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I've never regretted a move, even big ones, but there's a couple I wish I wouldn't have turned down.
I have a black belt in cross-country moving... let's do pizza and beer and discuss your plan to not have twenty people kick you in the nads
dejanzie- "Let's say Stephen Hawking is after your new pc, and your porn is backed up- would you find it wrong to shoot him?"
LiquidMantis- "Hell no. I'd push over his wheelchair then teabag him while shouting, 'Here's your universe in a nutshell!'"
For this reason a man shall leave his entry-level job and cleave to a larger paycheck, and they shall become one target demographic.
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