The move: March-May 2015
About two weeks later February was nearly over and I was sitting at my comfortable desk at the office where I work in Woburn when my phone rang. A lovely woman named Carol inquired, "Are you still looking for opportunities in Los Angeles?" My pulse doubled in an instant as I stood and considered closing my office door, instead walking out of my office toward the door to our suite. I replied, "yes, I am...just one moment as I get some privacy."
As I hustled to the lobby and toward another floor to ensure that I was not overheard, my mind reviewed the various other phone screen calls I have had over the years. The mistakes, the miss-steps, the small wins, the clever framing, the candid admissions. "Thank you for waiting for me. I'm in a better place to speak," I said, with a tinge of guilt to my employer, a long term friend and compatriot who knew of my stated desire to move to California.
Carol, the recruiter, was reassuring, impressed with my bonafides (to my surprise) and nurtured and tended to every concern I had about determining whether this was the position for me. When the call ended I was confident, but also convinced this would be another of the sought opportunities that would not result in a new job with me moving. Sure, she knew my state of residence and considered it to not be a problem. Sure she complimented the skills I had. But this was just silliness.
What followed were several multiple hour Skype interviews with a variety of individuals. My skills were interrogated closely. My experience was queried and questioned. I coded for them. I wrote simple database queries. I showed them how I might write a test case for a particular page in their application. After another four hour call for which I felt my post graduate experience had only just prepared me, I signed off to a smiling wife. "You ought to start thinking about how you're going to negotiate the offer." She was convinced one was imminent, so I had to come up with realistic responses in a negotiation.
But first there was the matter of the various costs.
A chaotic, lightly redacted, list of the things that needed to get done
As you can see, there was much to be done before we could start our new life on the sunny left coast. But we had just shoveled about 22,500 cubic feet snow of snow in a matter of a few weeks. We're americans; we were nonplussed.
| Cost Low | Cost High | |
|---|---|---|
| Airline Tickets | $500 | $1000 |
| Pet transportation | $500 | $700 |
| Mover - home goods | $6500 | $6800 |
| Mover - car | $1500 | $1500 |
| Totals | $9000 | $10000 |
Now I had a sense of what effort was going to be involved, and which of those items had an estimable cost. With that list of items that I could estimate costs around, I was able to think about the cost of relocation.
In summer-y
At the end I had an offer. Defy Media would cover the cost of my move. I fairly pestered them to speed over an offer letter to detail the opportunity. Having worked with the same people for 15 years, it was very sad and stressful giving my notice. But, as it turned out my employer matched the offer and made other accommodations that essentially allowed me to work from California. This was absolutely the best of all possible outcomes. I could continue working with people I enjoyed thoroughly and appreciated and with whom I was comfortable while escaping to a new adventure.