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Lived in Tucson for 7 years and never seen a scorpion inside my apartment. While hiking the numerous trails in Southern Arizona over that time (hundreds of miles), I might have seen scorpions less than 5 times.
I'd be more worried about those Africanized Killer Bees in AZ (just kidding, but not really)!
I hear there's a lot of cougars in the Scottsdale area, they especially like those 30-something-year-old guys, so be very careful popwar.
I'm not concerned with them , they're suppose to be quite friendly.
Assuming you're not married and no kids. What research do you take away as a must have for the best combination of comfort, job salary, QOL, weather, etc ? Have you backed out of a once thought great ideal area because of new extended research you found?
Personally, I love the Phoenix area , but the only reason I haven't relocated permanently is because I don't want to deal with/get stung by Scorpions. Never seen one and some people never do, I don't want to get stung in the shower, in bed, etc.
How do you envision spending your leisure time? I ski. I sail. My set of metrics is going to be far different from yours.
Assuming you're not married and no kids. What research do you take away as a must have for the best combination of comfort, job salary, QOL, weather, etc ? Have you backed out of a once thought great ideal area because of new extended research you found?
Personally, I love the Phoenix area , but the only reason I haven't relocated permanently is because I don't want to deal with/get stung by Scorpions. Never seen one and some people never do, I don't want to get stung in the shower, in bed, etc.
First off, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Get used to it. No place is perfect.
I recommend that you don't start from zero - find places where there is an existing support system (friends, relatives, etc) or community (church, school/alumni, etc) for when times get tough. Being alone in a faraway place can be difficult or lonely in the best of times. Also, these people can give you tips on the ins and outs of an area and help you decide whether the area meets your needs/goals.
Also, unless you have actually lived-in or stayed in a new city for an extended period of time, it is never as good (or as bad) as you imagine a place to be. Once you start working, your life will basically be home-commute-work-commute-home-sleep-repeat 85% of the time anyway. Those mountains/lakes/nightlife may not always be accessible, and even the best of places become old hat after a period of time. So, it comes down to basic daily cost of living and quality of life issues wherever you choose to live.
Look for an industry/job which has a future and is not part of a boom/bust cycle or a declining industry - most great jobs end up being temporary anyway (job definitions change, bosses change, job advancement change, etc), so get a position where you can have both internal opportunities for change, and external opportunities where your background and skills have value. Getting a job at a company which is hiring multiple people the same time as you will also help in developing new friends/acquaintances if moving to a new city - if all are fresh out of school then these people may actually become your new friends for life if all are the same age/experience as you. And avoid joining a family-run business unless you are family, as you will always be an outsider and your advancement will be limited (no matter what they promise you).
Finally, weather will be secondary for the most part, with the exception if you are specifically looking for a change. Humans adapt to everything, and no weather is perfect everywhere all of the time. But if you absolutely despise certain types of weather conditions (heat, humidity, cold, snow, rain, desert, etc) you may get used to dealing with it, but over time you may come to resent the area you are in.
For the second part of the question - yes I have turned down offers three times. The first was because although the salary was higher, there were conditions where I thought the job could be at risk before I even started since I was given a start date a couple of months in the future. Another job offer I turned down because during the interview I observed that their business model was in the process of evolving into a greater use of contractors, and I heard inside info that some of their business plan had changed such that there was going to be less business in the future (company ended up almost bankrupt in a couple of years, actually), and the third offer I got would have actually been a great job, but I felt I was really not qualified for it (it was very technically complex in a field I was not trained in) and that I would probably fail at it if I took it. 2 of the 3 jobs would have been out of state relocation, one of which was in a much higher cost of living area (Tyson's Corner) than where I was living at the time, which also played into my decision.
[Side note - the fact that I turned down the one job because I felt I was not well qualified caught the attention of others in the company, who later made me a second offer for a position I was better qualified for that turned into a 30-year career. ]
First off, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Get used to it. No place is perfect.
I recommend that you don't start from zero - find places where there is an existing support system (friends, relatives, etc) or community (church, school/alumni, etc) for when times get tough. Being alone in a faraway place can be difficult or lonely in the best of times. Also, these people can give you tips on the ins and outs of an area and help you decide whether the area meets your needs/goals.
Also, unless you have actually lived-in or stayed in a new city for an extended period of time, it is never as good (or as bad) as you imagine a place to be. Once you start working, your life will basically be home-commute-work-commute-home-sleep-repeat 85% of the time anyway. Those mountains/lakes/nightlife may not always be accessible, and even the best of places become old hat after a period of time. So, it comes down to basic daily cost of living and quality of life issues wherever you choose to live.
Look for an industry/job which has a future and is not part of a boom/bust cycle or a declining industry - most great jobs end up being temporary anyway (job definitions change, bosses change, job advancement change, etc), so get a position where you can have both internal opportunities for change, and external opportunities where your background and skills have value. Getting a job at a company which is hiring multiple people the same time as you will also help in developing new friends/acquaintances if moving to a new city - if all are fresh out of school then these people may actually become your new friends for life if all are the same age/experience as you. And avoid joining a family-run business unless you are family, as you will always be an outsider and your advancement will be limited (no matter what they promise you).
Finally, weather will be secondary for the most part, with the exception if you are specifically looking for a change. Humans adapt to everything, and no weather is perfect everywhere all of the time. But if you absolutely despise certain types of weather conditions (heat, humidity, cold, snow, rain, desert, etc) you may get used to dealing with it, but over time you may come to resent the area you are in.
For the second part of the question - yes I have turned down offers three times. The first was because although the salary was higher, there were conditions where I thought the job could be at risk before I even started since I was given a start date a couple of months in the future. Another job offer I turned down because during the interview I observed that their business model was in the process of evolving into a greater use of contractors, and I heard inside info that some of their business plan had changed such that there was going to be less business in the future (company ended up almost bankrupt in a couple of years, actually), and the third offer I got would have actually been a great job, but I felt I was really not qualified for it (it was very technically complex in a field I was not trained in) and that I would probably fail at it if I took it. 2 of the 3 jobs would have been out of state relocation, one of which was in a much higher cost of living area (Tyson's Corner) than where I was living at the time, which also played into my decision.
[Side note - the fact that I turned down the one job because I felt I was not well qualified caught the attention of others in the company, who later made me a second offer for a position I was better qualified for that turned into a 30-year career. ]
Great post even better perspective . It's all about learning how to balance and temper your expectations when it comes to moving to a new city. No place is perfect, every place has its pros and cons. A lot of people are so gung-ho about moving to a new city that they lose sight of that (lots of people in my home state Ohio definitely have the "Grass is always greener" mindset sure folks in Buffalo have it too). Also, like you said most people who move to new cities mostly go work and go home; they rarely hang out and kick it. Plus, I can live in any place no matter the weather. Folks think if you're in a warmer place you're happier and if you're in a colder place you're mean and insular. Well, I've met mean and insular people in the South just as well as the Midwest and East Coast. If folks would have the same perspective you have they'll realize not every place is Paradise and not every place is Hades either.
Assuming you're not married and no kids. What research do you take away as a must have for the best combination of comfort, job salary, QOL, weather, etc ? Have you backed out of a once thought great ideal area because of new extended research you found?
Personally, I love the Phoenix area , but the only reason I haven't relocated permanently is because I don't want to deal with/get stung by Scorpions. Never seen one and some people never do, I don't want to get stung in the shower, in bed, etc.
I wanted a place that I wouldn't be attacked by kangaroos or polar bears, which opened up my options considerably compared to yours. I also could not stand a job taking care of polar bears, no matter what the salary was. Kangaroos, maybe, but only if the weather was nice and the QOL did not include Starbucks ratings or electric scooters accessibility. I backed out of a job in Hawaii because I heard that kangaroos might migrate there. Mind you, if I had been told that any migrating kangaroos would be stung in the shower by scorpions, I might have reconsidered.
My real criteria included climate, taxation, freedom (including zoning/code compliance), cost of living, medical care, access to services and shopping, an unencumbered source of water, crime rates, population density, and overall stability.
Assuming you're not married and no kids. What research do you take away as a must have for the best combination of comfort, job salary, QOL, weather, etc ? Have you backed out of a once thought great ideal area because of new extended research you found?
No, I've had three major moves in my life (age 35 now), and I didn't learn that I liked/disliked certain attributes until I experienced them.
1. Moving to an isolated 25K small town (and living there for three years), and being 90 minutes from a city of size taught me that I didn't want to live like that for the rest of my life. But living in that place taught me how to enjoy far simpler things, and also taught me that I wasn't as conservative as I thought I was. This town also taught me about racism/ethnic discrimination, which I had never experienced prior to moving there. It instilled a fear of it in me that I had hoped to avoid in the future.
2. Living with snow taught me that I never want to live without it again. Living in a major metro area again (I grew up in one) made me realize that it's likely I will need to live in (or at least near) one for most of the rest of my life.
3. I reluctantly moved to a mid-sized (some would call it small at 500K) city, that is very much one-race, and the fears of racism/etc creeped up again prior to moving there. But it was not to be, there was no hint of racism or prejudice or anything of the sort anywhere in the area (in my experience). This place taught me what living with mental freedom felt like, and how "not diverse" does not equal "racist".
4. My hometown taught me that sitting in traffic and chasing status are not things I want to aspire to. It also taught me that "good weather" all the time is not for me, and neither is a high cost of living.
I've traveled a lot domestically (especially over the last few years), and find things that I like and don't like along the way. Usually it's the initial research that turns me off to an area, not something new I find once I dive in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordHelmit
Weather is the big one for me...I will never ever move to Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, etc simply due to the heat. I cannot stand breaking into a sweat just walking from the office to the car. I don't think I would let something like pests keep me from moving unless it was like the Australian Outback or something lol. COL is the next biggest...I'm fine living in a HCOL as long as it has the amenities to make it worthwhile...Denver for example does not. Denver is nice but is very HCOL for what amounts to be a pretty standard large-ish city. I also liked the idea of moving to Atlanta, I liked the economy and could tolerate the weather due to autumn and winter being okay, but housing ended up being more expensive than I thought. NOVA is another of the same.
This is pretty much me too. When I think of moving to Las Vegas or Phoenix, or even back to my native CA, I think about settling into daily life there and hating it again after not too long (the heat/weather mostly). Same thing with COL, I don't even throw an eye at expensive places because I don't want to pay more for some gain I can't fully perceive. There are so many places where you can get *almost* the same amenities for quite a bit less in $$.
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