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Careerchat III


S John

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9 hours ago, Liffguard said:

 

Mate that's awesome. Best of luck to you.

 

There are trains and buses, but neither are practical. The train journey would be two-and-a-half hours, with multiple changes and at least one connecting bus service. Taking the bus the whole way is nearly three-and-a-half hours. Unfortunately, the only two viable options are to drive or to live closer.

With the "live closer" option, is there a way to split the distance, or live outside of town, to at least shave 30 minutes off the commute? FWIW, my commute is 45 minutes, and Mr. X has a 55-minute commute. This is all within New York City, mind. 

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Could you give it a try for a while, or would it be burning too much of a bridge with your friend (and his boss) if you quit? Commutes are the worst (I have references) but it sounds like it might be a really great opportunity - if it turns out to be something you love and want to keep pursuing, it might be worth moving for (and you'll have some connections in the new town at that point.)

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6 hours ago, Datepalm said:

Could you give it a try for a while, or would it be burning too much of a bridge with your friend (and his boss) if you quit? Commutes are the worst (I have references) but it sounds like it might be a really great opportunity - if it turns out to be something you love and want to keep pursuing, it might be worth moving for (and you'll have some connections in the new town at that point.)

I don't know how much of a commitment they'd want from me. If I do take the job, I definitely don't want to go through all the hassle of moving before starting. What if I hate it and find out I've uprooted my life for nothing? I plan to have a chat with my friend about whether or not a trial period would be possible, and how put out the boss would be if I decided early on it wasn't for me.

This is actually a reason that I don't normally like mixing my personal and professional life. If this was a job I got through formal channels, I'd feel no guilt at all about quitting early if it wasn't the right fit. But because it's through a friend I think I'd feel guilty not making a committment. So yeah, I'm going to talk to him and try and thrash out what the expectations are.

If I got assurances that I could try it and leave if it wasn't for me, then I'd be more tempted to go for it. That way if I did like it, I could then potentially look into moving closer, whilst still staying relatively close to my current city.

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14 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

That is fukken siiiick. I am so proud of the both of you. Congratulations!!! 
 

Legit, I was showing my friend videos of you and R last weekend, trying to convince her to start bodybuilding. (she's into weightlifting, but not for competition). 

:cheers:

 

Thank you X! Lots of work ahead but I am excited for the future.

That's awesome. Did it work?

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@Liffguard I would advise against a long term commute of that length.  I did it for several years and hated the quality of life.  But you could do it for a few months to see if you like the job enough to move closer to it. 

A real career change into a new field and higher income level has a significant long term pay-off in your life.  If this is the direction you want, then it’s definitely worth trying it out for a few months.  If it’s going well, start testing what it would be like to live closer.  “All my friends and hobbies are close by me now” is classic comfort-zone thinking.  I have some regrets that I’ve left behind social networks as I relocated for my career but I’ve always made new friends and joined new sports teams.  And it’s not as if you’re moving thousands of miles for this. 

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I moved out of town for love a couple years back while keeping my job. It was only a little over an hour’s drive away though. What I found was that the commute was horrible, but moving away from my friends and family wasn’t so bad. Now that me and my friends are in our thirties and most of them have kids we usually make plans more than an hour in advance anyway (yes, that’s an understatement) so I didn’t end up seeing them any less than I used to.

I wouldn’t recommend moving to somewhere in between unless that’s a place where you actually want to live. Living near a city was something I appreciated a lot even though it wasn’t my city. You might not feel the same way, but you should think long and hard about it. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today I had a chat with the boss at the vaguely possibly offered job, and I think I'm going to decline. One, the drive there confirmed to me that there's absolutely no way in hell I could commute it. I could maybe do it for a week before losing my cool. Two, they weren't actually offering more money than I'm currently on. I mean, that's totally fair, they'd need to spend a lot of time training me before I became even halfway useful. But it being fair doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't be making any extra to justify the stress and cost of moving. Three, I could maybe deal with those two points if the work itself was amazing, but it wasn't. It seemed quite interesting, but this is not a field I have a deep passion for. I'm not sure I'm ready to uproot my life for "quite interesting" combined with "no extra money."

I was offered a trial period of a few weeks, which definitely intrigued me. But it would mean quitting my current job. I have no leave days left to use and I'd struggle to explain away three or more weeks of unpaid leave. And frankly, I wouldn't want to deceive them anyway.

I'm glad I went along and found out more. But I don't think this is the right fit for me.

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23 hours ago, Liffguard said:

Today I had a chat with the boss at the vaguely possibly offered job, and I think I'm going to decline. One, the drive there confirmed to me that there's absolutely no way in hell I could commute it. I could maybe do it for a week before losing my cool. Two, they weren't actually offering more money than I'm currently on. I mean, that's totally fair, they'd need to spend a lot of time training me before I became even halfway useful. But it being fair doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't be making any extra to justify the stress and cost of moving. Three, I could maybe deal with those two points if the work itself was amazing, but it wasn't. It seemed quite interesting, but this is not a field I have a deep passion for. I'm not sure I'm ready to uproot my life for "quite interesting" combined with "no extra money."

I was offered a trial period of a few weeks, which definitely intrigued me. But it would mean quitting my current job. I have no leave days left to use and I'd struggle to explain away three or more weeks of unpaid leave. And frankly, I wouldn't want to deceive them anyway.

I'm glad I went along and found out more. But I don't think this is the right fit for me.

Reading through the thread I don’t blame you - long commutes are awful and unless it’s your DREAM job or they’re paying you mega bucks I doubt it’s worth it. My dad lives in Cornwall and works in LONDON and he’s miserable and yet still does it just because the pay is good - personally I wouldn’t do that. So much time wasted. 

 

I had an interview for a full time 6 month paid museum internship yesterday and it went really well. Museum jobs are hard to come by and although this is min wage at least it’s paid!! And full time for 6 months living with my parents I could save a ton. It’s the EXACT kind of work that I want to do (curatorial) and because my degrees are history as opposed to museum studies it’s quite a hard job to get into (museum curator) so a 6 month CURATORIAL internship would help me out for the future so much. 

Really hope I get it. 

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On 9/11/2018 at 10:24 AM, Liffguard said:

Today I had a chat with the boss at the vaguely possibly offered job, and I think I'm going to decline. One, the drive there confirmed to me that there's absolutely no way in hell I could commute it. I could maybe do it for a week before losing my cool. Two, they weren't actually offering more money than I'm currently on. I mean, that's totally fair, they'd need to spend a lot of time training me before I became even halfway useful. But it being fair doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't be making any extra to justify the stress and cost of moving. Three, I could maybe deal with those two points if the work itself was amazing, but it wasn't. It seemed quite interesting, but this is not a field I have a deep passion for. I'm not sure I'm ready to uproot my life for "quite interesting" combined with "no extra money."

I was offered a trial period of a few weeks, which definitely intrigued me. But it would mean quitting my current job. I have no leave days left to use and I'd struggle to explain away three or more weeks of unpaid leave. And frankly, I wouldn't want to deceive them anyway.

I'm glad I went along and found out more. But I don't think this is the right fit for me.

I don't blame you.  Funny enough, I'm applying for a job right now that I feel confident I'll get a look for that is located exactly 1 hr and 15 minutes from my hometown.  So I could find myself in very similar dilemma if I were to move back east because I actually would prefer to live in my hometown vs. where the job is located.  For a number of reasons, but specifically because there are some truly awesome houses there at extremely reasonable prices and I think the city is up-and-coming in general.   I could live in and restore a legit Victorian mansion in that town (which is something that I would thoroughly enjoy) for less than what a 2br 2ba would cost me here in Austin.  The commute would actually be a rural drive, not traffic filled, so maybe I could hack it with some podcasts.  It'll be something to think about if the job comes through.

35 minutes ago, Theda Baratheon said:

I had an interview for a full time 6 month paid museum internship yesterday and it went really well. Museum jobs are hard to come by and although this is min wage at least it’s paid!! And full time for 6 months living with my parents I could save a ton. It’s the EXACT kind of work that I want to do (curatorial) and because my degrees are history as opposed to museum studies it’s quite a hard job to get into (museum curator) so a 6 month CURATORIAL internship would help me out for the future so much. 

Really hope I get it. 

Good luck!

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4 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

Reading through the thread I don’t blame you - long commutes are awful and unless it’s your DREAM job or they’re paying you mega bucks I doubt it’s worth it. My dad lives in Cornwall and works in LONDON and he’s miserable and yet still does it just because the pay is good - personally I wouldn’t do that. So much time wasted.

Yeah, the thought of potentially losing two and a half hours every day, minimum, just depresses me. Especially compared with my current commute, which is a ten minute bike ride. Even if I were to move there, the nearest clubs for my sports are in my current town, so I'd still be doing the same drive four or five times a week anyway, just in the other direction.

 

Quote

I had an interview for a full time 6 month paid museum internship yesterday and it went really well. Museum jobs are hard to come by and although this is min wage at least it’s paid!! And full time for 6 months living with my parents I could save a ton. It’s the EXACT kind of work that I want to do (curatorial) and because my degrees are history as opposed to museum studies it’s quite a hard job to get into (museum curator) so a 6 month CURATORIAL internship would help me out for the future so much. 

Really hope I get it. 

Awesome, best of luck to you.

 

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My dad lives in Cornwall and works in LONDON

Wow, that sounds absolutely horrible. He doesn't commute every day does he!? Or does he live in London during the week and head back to Cornwall for weekends?

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4 hours ago, Liffguard said:

 

Wow, that sounds absolutely horrible. He doesn't commute every day does he!? Or does he live in London during the week and head back to Cornwall for weekends?

Works 5 days in London living out of a suitcase in a hotel and then 2 days back home. Honestly could not do that myself but he’s been doing it for years now. 

 

6 hours ago, S John said:

 

Good luck!

Thank you :) 

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I suppose long commutes depend on the circumstances. I have to leave the house 1.5 - 2 hrs before I start work, but an hour and 15 mins of that is sitting on an empty train, with free wifi watching films on my tablet, its not exactly a hardship.  Also I only work 6 days out of 10 so it doesn't seem as bad.

 

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Resume question. Do you always have to list your past job experience is sequential order, or is it okay to put the most impressive stuff at the top? Just asking because a lot of my past work should blow people away, but my current job isn't comparatively impressive. 

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