Please, please try to get a job (and maybe a place to live) before you move here! (Beaver: credit, home)

[markg91359]

I've seen too many posts lately in this forum where people begin by telling some story about how they are divorced, desperately unhappy with where they live, laid off, life has gone to pot, and their magical solution to this problem is to move to the Beehive State (Utah). I realize that alot of people are hurting in this economy and I realize life can get pretty tough for some.

Folks, no matter what your personal situation in your present location is its NEVER a good idea to move to a new location before you have landed a job and you have a place to live. Most people have some support network in the state they are coming from. They are familiar with the environs. Even if you don't like it that's at least something. Moving to a new location is always chancy. You may like it and you may hate it.

You need to change your thinking a bit. Don't just ask the question "what will moving to Utah do for me?" Ask questions like "what job skills do I have and are they needed in Utah?" We have a state agency called "Workforce Services" that can help you answer those questions if you are willing to pick up a phone and make a few calls.

The advice I'm giving may prevent you from becoming unhappy and/or a member of the homeless population in our state. Yes, we have one.

[Fiddlehead]

Hey, I hear you, but you must be wrong, they cannot be heading to Utah. They are all heading here to the Beaver State!

[skibarbie]

Well said Mark!

[sp2007]

Agreed Mark. There are so many resources out there, especially nowadays on the web, where ppl can get jobs BEFORE moving here.

If you have the ability and time to post on this forum, you have time to do some job searching on the web.

[ChrisC]

I agree with this for the most part. But I also think there are alternate strategies and other factors that can come into play.

For instance, I'm planning a move without necessarily having found employment before I go. But, it won't happen until I have absolutely no debt of any kind, and I have a year's worth of living-expense cash saved (which for me, isn't a huge sum; I'm alone and a minimalist by nature) and enough to build my very small home. That way, if I don't like the area six months down the road, I can leave. I'm not trapped.


Also, sometimes, for some people, the hate for a place can be so strong that you literally can't stand to wake up another day in that place. If that's the case, regardless of employment, you damn well better leave before you end up slitting your own throat or something. It's real and I've experienced it in the distant past. It was a move to another state for employment. I could tolerate it only a little over a month. It wasn't the job that I hated (it was fine), it was the place. I quit the job, hopped on a Greyhound bus and left. I HAD to leave. I never want to see that place again. It took quite a while to recover financially. I had no job for awhile. But, as I said, I had to get out of there. So I can understand how someone can feel that strongly about moving out of a place. Now... moving INTO Utah? Heh... well, that's another matter altogether. That right there is just crazy talk.

[sp2007]

Thats great Chris, but I imagine that almost everyone who wants to move and doesn't already have a job lined up probably do have debts and probably do not have a year's worth of living expenses.

So Mark's comment makes sense for the 99% of the ppl who want to move without a job.

PS Minus those ppl who have the luxury of moving into a free home situation like relatives or philanthropic friends.

[hilgi]

Or figure out a way to telecommute as I do

[sp2007]

Originally Posted by hilgi

Or figure out a way to telecommute as I do

That would be a job, which is what the people the OP was stating don't have.

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by sp2007

Thats great Chris, but I imagine that almost everyone who wants to move and doesn't already have a job lined up probably do have debts.

Sadly, you are right. And debt is essentially self-imposed slavery. I should know; I was a poster child. Then one day some years back the stupidity switch turned off for some reason. And it will never turn on again. Live and learn. As applied to moving, if you don't have all that debt, the field of potential employers opens up considerably because you don't need a huge salary to pay the creditor's payrolls (essentially like flushing three-fourths of your paycheck down the toilet).

Originally Posted by sp2007

So Mark's comment makes sense for the 99% of the ppl who want to move without a job.

99% is not 100%. Everything is not always linear. That was only an example: simply pointing out that there are other ways to make it work. Of course having a job lined up is a good idea. Having two legs to run a marathon is a good idea as well. But there are people who have found a way to make it work with only one.

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by hilgi

Or figure out a way to telecommute as I do

An ideal situation. You're not bound to any one location and you don't have to worry about finding a job before you even get there.