Working and living in the Bay Area

Yeah, 17 gets pretty backed up during commute hours. The guy works at VMWare though, and he insists that his commute time from there is the same as when he was in downtown San Jose. I work with a bunch of people who live in Santa Cruz as well, and they either take the shuttle or drive in at off-peak times. But a lot of that is because traffic in Santa Cruz itself is really bad as well. Just getting over the mountain is only half the trip. Also, the coast is cool and foggy in the summer, which may or may not be appealing. You see a lot more sun on this side of the mountains.

You're all overlooking a critical element here. When you move to the West coast, the time zones start working in your favor. No longer do you have nights where you're playing games with goodjers until 3 in the morning and zombie-ing into work on 4 hours sleep, because that's only until midnight over here.

Also, if you aren't digging it, you deal with it for a few years, and then go move anywhere else in the country with an inflated salary and a jar full of extra cash.

Mr Crinkle wrote:

You're all overlooking a critical element here. When you move to the West coast, the time zones start working in your favor. No longer do you have nights where you're playing games with goodjers until 3 in the morning and zombie-ing into work on 4 hours sleep, because that's only until midnight over here.

Also, if you aren't digging it, you deal with it for a few years, and then go move anywhere else in the country with an inflated salary and a jar full of extra cash.

The timezone thing is best for sports, especially football. Get up on a Saturday/Sunday morning just start watching.. all the games are over by 9pm, and your evening has just started!

complexmath wrote:

Yeah, 17 gets pretty backed up during commute hours. The guy works at VMWare though, and he insists that his commute time from there is the same as when he was in downtown San Jose. I work with a bunch of people who live in Santa Cruz as well, and they either take the shuttle or drive in at off-peak times. But a lot of that is because traffic in Santa Cruz itself is really bad as well.

Santa Cruz traffic is nightmarish. I used to commute into Aptos, and I thanked the lord that I did not have to go three exits further up the highway.

Just checking in on Michael.. as it is "next week" now. How was the trip to Snapple? Don't forget, if you take the leap, you'll also be close to the home of the soon-to-be NBA champions.

Nah, they'll choke just like the Sharks always do

complexmath, you shut your filthy mouth.*

Seriously though, Michael, my brother works in the power division, and my neighbor is in batteries. Do let us know how your visit out here goes, and if you think you'll move. I'd be more than happy to get you in touch with my brother to talk real-word specifics about the work atmosphere and realities of the job.

*note: said in friendly sports-jest. See icon for reasons

Carlbear95 wrote:

Just checking in on Michael.. as it is "next week" now. How was the trip to Snapple? Don't forget, if you take the leap, you'll also be close to the home of the soon-to-be NBA champions.

Hey, thanks for thinking of me. Yup, I was out at Snapple this Wednesday and Thursday for two days of interviews. I definitely have a positive feeling coming out of it. It was hours and hours of technical interviews, but they weren't as bad as I thought.The position is perfect for me. I was really happy about the whole process and had a great time overall. I don't know if there are going to be more interviews at this point, but hopefully I'll hear something next week regarding the next steps.

I drove around San Jose, Cupertino, and the towns south of there. I drove up 17 into the mountains and ended up in Santa Cruz (guess I should have turned around at some point), and waved at the ocean.

I'm excited to see how it all pans out. Now that I've gone through that part of the process it seems even more... real.

Bet you forgot about this. The process continues! I fly out again in two weeks for more onsites. This time they said "bring the wife! Let her see the area. Stay a few days extra on us." I'll take that as a good sign.

At least we've had a lot of time to wrap our heads around it. Now I just want some resolution.