[MOVING] on up, to...well, I have no idea.

mxmarks

Sorry if there's already a thread about this, but I looked around the last 5 pages and didn't see one. I'm in a bit of a panic mode, and figured why not SHARE my panic and maybe get some great advice, or perhaps even help others! So here's my story:

I live in central New York, and have all my life. I'm an ancient one now, clocking in at 28 years old. I got my associates degree from a local community college here, and while I was really debating going and getting a bachelors, I got offered a full time job at a TV Station. I figured the whole GOAL of college is to get a full time job, so woo hoo, I just saved a ton of money and landed one without the 2 more years of schooling. Ive now been there for 6 years, living in a pretty shitty apartment.

For the last 2 years I have been trying to move to Boston. I'm not in love with Boston, but I really like it and it's the place that I really enjoyed when I went to visit some family. I wanted to go to NYC, or LA, or some big city, but Boston felt a little less overwhelming. So Boston was a perfect middle ground. I scoured Monster.com, and I went a couple times and handed out applications. I've gotten 1 call in 2 years. Jobs as a TV director are hard to come by when even the major cities have 3-4 local TV stations. I've had a very very hard time trying to figure out what else I can do, and what I can spin my current job into (as in, using my experience with editing, ect to work somewhere thats not a TV station).

But the bottom line is I've officially hit crunch time. My lease is up May 31st. I've had a host of complaints with this place, and it's looking more and more like I won't even be given the option to sign another lease (they havent taken to kindly to me actually demanding things get fixed. You get what you pay for). So now comes the time to figure out what to do.

I'm looking for advice, stories, just general discussions on moving. Should I take the plunge, save my cash the next month, sell some things, and then take off for a cheap place in Boston, hoping that LIVING there I'll be able to find a job to pay the bills? From this distance, I havent been able to apply for things like sales associate jobs, so Im hoping being able to walk in, do an interview without all the travel, ect it would be easier to pick up a job. I hate to sound like a lost loser, approaching middle age with no idea where to go, but I just have never had to deal with this before. My life has followed a fairly standard fill in the blank path - go to school, get job immediately following school (I literally started the day after graduation), work job until death.

If I go live back home or with a friend for a month, and rent a storage space, I could leave with very good credit, and between $2-3k in the bank.

So, whats better in life - taking the risk, going and living and hoping to land some odd jobs in a city that seems like I'd fit right in, or staying here, where I dislike my job (6 years of the overnight shift with no chance of moving yaaaaaaay.), but have the security OF a job, and could find another place to live.

So lets hear it. Who's just moved and hoped for the best. Who's failed and who's succeeded. Let's all move.

KalTorak

Hey, I'm from CNY too - Hamilton.

I moved to DC without a plan other than "get a job at a law firm." My gf was going to law school and I was thinking about it as well. It was definitely stressful (high rent, and went 2 months before I found a job, which looking back on it is not actually that long, though this was before THE ECONOMY happened). Your work experience will be an advantage that I didn't have, and it's definitely easier to make the job-search rounds when you're there rather than from a distance.

One thing that helped with my stress level (besides living with a gf, which helps with the rent among other things) was having a small cash cushion I'd built up. I ended up not having to dip into it, but whether you do or don't it's definitely nice to have something between you and "if I don't get a paycheck i'm getting kicked out." I'm not sure about Boston rent rates, but having good credit and cash in the bank is another good thing for you.

Do you know anyone living in Boston you could room with, or could get you set up with a roommate? Most cities it's just a lot cheaper to share a place than try to find a studio/1br in your price range. One of my friends had good luck finding roommates on Craigslist, but obviously that can go either way.

Jacobkosh

Moved to H/A.

mxmarks

Thanks for moving it to h/a. Ive never actually BEEN in here, and once I noticed it existed i figured it made more sense anyway...

so now...help/advice?

RadicalTurnip

The economy is picking up. I'm not sure that it's picking up enough to make a jump like this, but maybe. It kinda' depends: are you an adventurous guy? You said you had family? in Boston, would they let you crash at their place for a month or so? Make sure you let them know it will be temporary, and do whatever they want you to do to ensure that it *is* temporary, but if you could live there for a month or two without apartment/housing expenses, that $3k or so is going to go a lot further. Just make sure that if you do it, Applying *becomes* your full time job. Sometimes when I'm between jobs, I'm "applying" for work, but it's like 1-2 applications a day, and about 8 hours of video games, so don't do that.

I guess I advise going for it, assuming you have a fallback plan...but I'm pretty adventurous.