April 6, 2016 at 8:58 am
Sean Redmond (4/5/2016)
Hi Lynn,Working from home is hard. I do it now and then when a child has an appointment at the doctor's and when my wife is not at home. It is better to get 3 hours' work in in a morning than to have to take the whole morning off or to commute into work, work an hour and then come back again. I have also done it when I had a child sick at home in bed.
However, working from home is hard. I miss the company of others around me. I miss my two monitors. The place where you work has to be as tidy as if you were in your office otherwise distractions set in.
Kind regards,
Sean.
Yes, I agree that it is. Some people can do it and some can't. I have worked with companies where it was a flexible option, such as driving to work in a blizzard, or extremely icy road conditions, etc..
I watched my now ex work successfully from home for over 7 years. She worked 7 hours a day starting at 6:00 AM and when she finished around 1:30 to 2:30 (depending on time off to take kids to school or the doctor, etc.) she was done. Didn't matter if her supervisor called her five minutes later, she was done for the day. She also got more work done in 35 hours than any one in the Denver office working 40 hours. It can be done. You have to be disciplined when it comes to your work. It also helped that even when young that our children could entertain themselves.
I am trying to save the money needed to put together a work station environment like I have at work for home that way I get the same experience in both places. Then we will see what happens.
I understand about the monitors, I actually have 4. There is the laptop monitor plus three additional monitors connected to the docking station. Nice setup here in the office.
April 6, 2016 at 9:14 am
If you have the opportunity to do so, go the country in question and apply from there. You find many more jobs advertised there and you are less likely to be turned away by Personnel if you are not abroad. It is expensive though, and the longer that you can live frugally, the longer you have the funds to stay. I knew people who saved enough money, went off to Japan and set themselves the chore of finding a job (usually teaching English to start off with) within a month. Most of them succeeded. Where there is a will, there is a way [1]. Not always, but often.
If you have qualifications and are attractive from an employment perspective, then it may also be worth your while to go to a recruitment company and let them help you on your way. Not being able to attend an interview within a day's notice is not good.
[1] and, in the case of Jessica Fletcher, a murder.
April 6, 2016 at 9:31 am
Sean Redmond (4/6/2016)
If you have the opportunity to do so, go the country in question and apply from there. You find many more jobs advertised there and you are less likely to be turned away by Personnel if you are not abroad. It is expensive though, and the longer that you can live frugally, the longer you have the funds to stay. I knew people who saved enough money, went off to Japan and set themselves the chore of finding a job (usually teaching English to start off with) within a month. Most of them succeeded. Where there is a will, there is a way [1]. Not always, but often.If you have qualifications and are attractive from an employment perspective, then it may also be worth your while to go to a recruitment company and let them help you on your way. Not being able to attend an interview within a day's notice is not good.
[1] and, in the case of Jessica Fletcher, a murder.
I'll look into that avenue then - it makes sense, I suppose I would be hesitant to offer employment to someone 10,000 miles away.
I am somewhat tempted to apply for a working holiday visa, have a bit of downtime and then see if I can make it from there. But I think that comes with a lot of risk, and I'm a '5 year plan' sort of person!!
Thankyou for your advice, it helps a lot 🙂
April 6, 2016 at 9:42 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (4/5/2016)
Was in SF last week. It's crazy expensive. I don't even like staying there when I visit. I've gotten to the point I'll stay near the airport or E bay and commute if I can.
I'm with you. SF is the most expensive city in America (most people think NY is). But you'd have to agree that the food is excellent, some of the best Thai, Chinese and seafood in North America.
-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001
April 6, 2016 at 10:55 am
All of this talk on this topic has me wondering about moving to a location prior to finding a job. I know that's dangerous. When I was unemployed for months and was looking out of state of opportunities, I got the distinct feeling sometimes that I would have gotten the job, if I was there. They didn't say it outright (I think they could have let themselves open to lawsuits if they had), but that's the feeling I got. All my assurances that I'd be willing to relocate didn't persuade anyone. Given the high unemployment in my state and the fact that the job market is really poor here, should I loose my current job I know I'd be facing another long term of unemployment.
So has anyone here every left one place and just moved to another, in hopes of finding a job in the second location?
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
April 6, 2016 at 11:09 am
Rod, I did that very early on when I was just starting out. I ended up moving without any idea if I'd find a job and managed to get one just about the time my deadline was running out. That catapulted me into SQL Server and opened up a whole new world to my younger self. 🙂 I don't know that I'd do it now without knowing someone in the area and maybe having a place to live worked out beforehand. However, your situation is a bit more unique where it might be worth considering to get out of a bad situation. I'd definitely do some good research on where the jobs will likely be and the cost of living near-ish to those jobs or the commute costs before moving. For example, in DFW, the vast majority of tech jobs seem to be in the Northeast corner of the metroplex. (Not all, but a lot.) The cost of living nearby can be a bit expensive, but the commute can be a bear if you live further away.
April 6, 2016 at 1:07 pm
Rod that entirely depends on your situation, if you have no particularly important ties to where you are and the ability to live without income for awhile it's definitely worth taking the chance. I did it after my last company went out of business and I wanted to leave the area anyways(Los Angeles is a hell hole) but I had family to stay with where I was going to and no real reason to stay where I was.
April 6, 2016 at 1:20 pm
Lynn, I just moved to 27" monitors at home. Monoprice has had them for $250 (2560x1440). Seems solid so far. I use a USB dock so that I don't have to buy again when the laptop changes.
April 6, 2016 at 5:07 pm
Andy Warren (4/6/2016)
Lynn, I just moved to 27" monitors at home. Monoprice has had them for $250 (2560x1440). Seems solid so far. I use a USB dock so that I don't have to buy again when the laptop changes.
What type of USB dock are you using? I found a nice DELL one on Amazon.
April 7, 2016 at 1:57 am
tindog (4/6/2016)
Sean Redmond (4/6/2016)
If you have the opportunity to do so, go the country in question and apply from there. You find many more jobs advertised there and you are less likely to be turned away by Personnel if you are not abroad. It is expensive though, and the longer that you can live frugally, the longer you have the funds to stay. I knew people who saved enough money, went off to Japan and set themselves the chore of finding a job (usually teaching English to start off with) within a month. Most of them succeeded. Where there is a will, there is a way [1]. Not always, but often.If you have qualifications and are attractive from an employment perspective, then it may also be worth your while to go to a recruitment company and let them help you on your way. Not being able to attend an interview within a day's notice is not good.
[1] and, in the case of Jessica Fletcher, a murder.
I'll look into that avenue then - it makes sense, I suppose I would be hesitant to offer employment to someone 10,000 miles away.
I am somewhat tempted to apply for a working holiday visa, have a bit of downtime and then see if I can make it from there. But I think that comes with a lot of risk, and I'm a '5 year plan' sort of person!!
Thankyou for your advice, it helps a lot 🙂
Be careful though because in most countries there are restrictions on the kind of work you can do on a working holiday visa, and how long you can stay. You may be young enough for it not to be an issue in Australia, but it's not always straightforward.
April 7, 2016 at 2:14 am
Beatrix Kiddo (4/7/2016)
tindog (4/6/2016)
Sean Redmond (4/6/2016)
If you have the opportunity to do so, go the country in question and apply from there. You find many more jobs advertised there and you are less likely to be turned away by Personnel if you are not abroad. It is expensive though, and the longer that you can live frugally, the longer you have the funds to stay. I knew people who saved enough money, went off to Japan and set themselves the chore of finding a job (usually teaching English to start off with) within a month. Most of them succeeded. Where there is a will, there is a way [1]. Not always, but often.If you have qualifications and are attractive from an employment perspective, then it may also be worth your while to go to a recruitment company and let them help you on your way. Not being able to attend an interview within a day's notice is not good.
[1] and, in the case of Jessica Fletcher, a murder.
I'll look into that avenue then - it makes sense, I suppose I would be hesitant to offer employment to someone 10,000 miles away.
I am somewhat tempted to apply for a working holiday visa, have a bit of downtime and then see if I can make it from there. But I think that comes with a lot of risk, and I'm a '5 year plan' sort of person!!
Thankyou for your advice, it helps a lot 🙂
Be careful though because in most countries there are restrictions on the kind of work you can do on a working holiday visa, and how long you can stay. You may be young enough for it not to be an issue in Australia, but it's not always straightforward.
I looked into it last year, and from memory you can stay for 1 year, or 2 years if you do ~90 days agricultural work. Then you can apply for a temporary visa or permanent residency if you so wish (or do what my friend did - fall madly in love and get a partnership visa!) You can't stay in one job for too long so I'd probably find myself having something of a gap year and doing bar jobs before I worked it out. But that could be fun. (Or it could be awful...)
I'm not sure how WHV's work in other places though, I assume similar-ish for most countries.
April 7, 2016 at 4:02 am
I Would not move, I have turned down much bigger salaries where if accepted I would've sacrificed my time with my daughters. When push came to shove I didn't have it in me.
April 7, 2016 at 7:16 am
Lynn, it by Plugable, see http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-UD-3900-Universal-Docking-Ethernet/dp/B00ECDM78E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460034655&sr=8-1&keywords=plugable+usb+3.0+dock. About $90. I'm using their two port USB switch in front of it, kinda KVM'ish.
Seems to work fine. Only issue I have now is that with 3 27" monitors that all run at 2560x1440, the dock will only drive one. With 2 it drops down to 2000xsomething. They (and others) also sell USB dongles (essentially a graphics card with a usb plug) and I'm hoping I can use those (at $60 each mind you!) to run all three at full resolution, though now that I think about it I should see if another dock will do what I want, might be cheaper to buy now. Still, even at the lowered resolution its nice.
Im still undecided on the three large monitors. Nice, but big, and a noticeable turn to left or right to use the side ones.
April 7, 2016 at 8:07 am
Peter Schott (4/6/2016)
Rod, I did that very early on when I was just starting out. I ended up moving without any idea if I'd find a job and managed to get one just about the time my deadline was running out. That catapulted me into SQL Server and opened up a whole new world to my younger self. 🙂 I don't know that I'd do it now without knowing someone in the area and maybe having a place to live worked out beforehand. However, your situation is a bit more unique where it might be worth considering to get out of a bad situation. I'd definitely do some good research on where the jobs will likely be and the cost of living near-ish to those jobs or the commute costs before moving. For example, in DFW, the vast majority of tech jobs seem to be in the Northeast corner of the metroplex. (Not all, but a lot.) The cost of living nearby can be a bit expensive, but the commute can be a bear if you live further away.
Peter, thank you for the benefit of your experience! I've never done this sort of thing, but feel that I really might want to. Or at least not be forced to have to. There are certain places I'll stay away from due to cost of living (e.g.: San Francisco and apparently Atlanta and Chicago), but I'm open to other places.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
April 7, 2016 at 8:09 am
ZZartin (4/6/2016)
Rod that entirely depends on your situation, if you have no particularly important ties to where you are and the ability to live without income for awhile it's definitely worth taking the chance. I did it after my last company went out of business and I wanted to leave the area anyways(Los Angeles is a hell hole) but I had family to stay with where I was going to and no real reason to stay where I was.
ZZartin,
Thank you also for letting me benefit from your experience! It's great to learn from someone whose been down that road. As it is, I have no important ties to where I currently live.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
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