San Francisco Here I Come (Permanently)
I generally say that each year while boarding the plane to SF for Macworld Expo but this time, it will be a permanent change. Last night, after nearly 4 years of “planning” my relocation to the bay area, Laura and I decided that we’re going to do it. We deliberated and talked about it for nearly 5 hours yesterday and reviewed all of our options. Here’s what we have:
1. Take the money that’s currently in savings, pack up everything and just leave. We’ll arrive, put everything in storage then stay at the hostel and begin job searching. The hostel is $15 a night per person so we could do that for 2 weeks while we find jobs. This plan has the highest likelihood of failure for a few reasons so we threw this one out. (ETA 3 weeks)
2. Sell everything that we own in a super eBay / on-site Internet promoted garage sale. Combined, Laura and I have nearly 1000 local friends on Myspace and Facebook and creating an event with photos of everything that we own then inviting them all to an open house where you name your price and buy all of our worldly possessions. We’ll use that and cash we have saved, fly to San Francisco, move into a furnished apartment and start job hunting. (ETA 4 weeks)
3. The last option, which I feel is the best plan, is to update my resume and begin applying for jobs. I’ve already started the application process. I’ve also started looking at rentals. We’ll probably sell most of our big furniture and ship some things like my computer and clothes to a friend in SF then Laura and I will have a rental and job waiting for us when we arrive. This is the best option but it also means that we’ll be living in Florida longer. Getting a job from another side of the country is difficult. It works but takes a little longer than being able to do an in person interview. (ETA 45 days or more)
All of these options involve selling things. This sell off includes our cars too which are both used with over 150K miles each but in SF we won’t need a car at least initially. I plan on getting a motorcycle after getting established. Here’s a list of some other items that are for sale:
1. Living Room Furniture (couches, tables, entertainment stand, 32” CRT television and DVD racks)
2. Nearly 400 DVD and CDs that are all in perfect condition
3. Camping Gear (dry bags, lanterns, tents, sleeping bags and misc. survival gear)
4. Bedroom furniture (bed, furniture and tables)
5. Office items like my coveted glass desk, miscellaneous Mac and PC electronics, lava lamp, old Mac software and my “electronics junk drawer”
6. My collection of 175 vintage technology T-shirts from the past 15 years. I have nearly 200 shirts from conferences, companies, product releases and shipping them all is a pain so I’m putting them up for grabs.
This will help us raise some extra money. An issue with taking everything over there in a moving van is the cost of gas. The smallest personal van one-way from Florida to California would be about $1400 dollars and an additional $1200 in gas. We could make that much money by selling off everything and just starting new. It sucks to get rid of everything but would be a fresh start and the more cash that is in the bank, the easier things will be initially.
It’s scary to think that I’ll be leaving my life behind and making the move. A year ago, I did sit down with Laura and review other US cities as options for our move but nothing had the appeal of San Francisco. I’ve personally traveled throughout the southeast from Tennessee to Louisiana and as far south as Miami. I’ve been to Boston, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Austin, Los Angeles, Orange County, Reno and San Francisco. I have no interest in central US and of every city I’ve been to, SF is the best. For many of you, I don’t have to say why this is the case and no one has an extra 3 hours to read that so let’s just say that for me and Laura both, it’s the best place to start over.
I’m throwing this post out there with a request for help. I don’t need your money. This is simply asking for advice on our move. If anyone knows a realtor or any open rentals in SF or perhaps your place of employment has an opening for someone in my field. A place that also pays for relocation would rock but I’ll do fine without that and I’ll need 2-3 weeks to notify my employer of the departure but if you have any recommendations or advice, comment below or send them my way to adam@dailytechtalk.com
Here is a link to my resume: here
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