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How do people move out of state?
Lux
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I know there are a few "moving" threads here but they all seem to have figured out something I don't. How do you folks manage to move out of state?
I work full time in a non-career administrative job, I've saved up about $10k, and don't really want to spend the rest of my 20s in Los Angeles. I imagine I'm just supposed to apply for jobs in places I want to live, but how do you manage interviews? Should I take a week off first to scope out living situations? Should I just save up even more and move without any job prospects? Aren't I just going to go bankrupt in 6 months and forced to fly home to live with my parents?
I'd love to hear how you guys did it.
I work full time in a non-career administrative job, I've saved up about $10k, and don't really want to spend the rest of my 20s in Los Angeles. I imagine I'm just supposed to apply for jobs in places I want to live, but how do you manage interviews? Should I take a week off first to scope out living situations? Should I just save up even more and move without any job prospects? Aren't I just going to go bankrupt in 6 months and forced to fly home to live with my parents?
I'd love to hear how you guys did it.
0
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When I moved to a new state, I worked positions through temp agencies to make ends meet until one of my interviews panned out. I think it took about 6 months for me to get my current "career" job, but the temp office work was pretty east to come by.
1. Apply for jobs from where you are, company flies you out for interview. This obviously depends on there being a position specialized enought to get flown somewhere for.
2. Apply for jobs from where you are, you pay for your flight (or drive depending on the distance). If you have multiple interviews either with the same company or multiple companies, this obviously will get expensive.
3. Move where you want a job, dip into savings to keep yourself afloat until you can get a job. Obviously not without risk. Probably want to keep a buffer/have a plan in case this falls through.
I'm not even totally sure, I'm still in the "figuring out" stage but I imagine it would have to be a big city with reliable public transportation. Chicago, SF/Bay area, New York, Boston and the like. I'm willing to save up the money. The problem is that even if I did have a specific city in mind, I don't really know the logistics of moving anywhere that you can't drive to in a day.
When thinking about moving also take cost of living into account. 10k in Los Angeles and 10k in the Midwest are two totally different numbers. I live in an area where 30k a year gets you a pretty comfortable lifestyle where as 30k a year in Hawaii would get me a spot on the beach with some camping gear.
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But the logistics of moving can be complicated, depending on how far you're moving. It helps to have a friend to crash with for a couple of weeks while you sort out new housing, but the internet can be very helpful when you're looking for apartments (though don't rent anything until you or someone you trust has seen it).
If you can get away without having to rent a truck or a pod thing, that makes it a lot easier. Sell your furniture, pack up your clothes and electronics and then have them shipped. If you want to keep your big stuff, I've done both a self move (U-Haul) and assisted (UPack) and would go with the assisted for sure in the future, it's so nice not to have to drive your crap cross-country.
If you have other logistics questions feel free to ask, I've done a bunch of long distance moves and would be happy to help
Good on you for wanting a change of scenery. But those are all real expensive places. But so is LA I guess.
Anyway, a good rule is to figure out a budget would be for 3 months in whatever places you're considering, add a 1/3rd to that, and see if that's feasible for you savings-wise. It's pretty conservative but yeah. What's your deal career wise? That'll make a big difference.
* Oh snap sorry man, I didn't see that bit about admin work. OK, well I don't have any specific advice but I'd say spend a few hours on craigslist/monster/whatever and get an idea what the landscape and wage spread looks like for jobs you feel like you'd be qualified for.
LA is a fantastic, walkable city if you do it right. Get a job downtown, and live there or in Culver City, K-town, Hollywood, or Mount Washington/Pasadena, which are all served by the subway. You would never have to drive during the week unless you wanted to and all of those but some gold line stops are in walkable areas themselves.
The plan as I would see it is:
1) Minimise living costs by crashing with a friend/family for a while if possible. Also makes that big move to a new place a bit less scary.
2) Have enough savings to last a good few months without work.
3) Don't be too proud to take whatever work gets the bills paid while you look for the real job you came out for. If you've got a good admin background you should hopefully be able to pick up temp office work fairly quickly but check this kind of thing out in the area before you move.
Assuming you do want to move somewhere where the weather is shittier, you really just need to sit down and do some monetary comparisons for the areas you're looking to live. For example, you can rent a place in Chicago for about the same as a place in Manhattan. But you can also rent a place in Chicago for much less than a place in Manhattan (while the opposite is not true). Similarly, in my opinion there are only two places in the US where public transit is sufficient to allow for not owning a car -- NYC and DC (and NYC wins between the two by a lot). Other places, you can get by with a bike if you live in a downtown area and if you have great fortitude, and you can usually get by on busses but they're rarely ideal in the states since they're on the same roads as everyone else.
So, first see where you'd live based on your current income and current money. Some areas may be priced right out of contention, while others put you in a location you can afford but would otherwise hate (far from everything, for example).
Then, see what the job market is like. Are companies hiring? What's the local unemployment rate? Is the area known for jobs that are related to what you do? For example, if you were in software development or games development, there's a surprising amount of stuff between Baltimore and DC, which is possibly cheaper than Bay-Area living. You'd look in this order to see if you could even afford to live comfortable in the area once you get a comparable job -- you don't want to get into a situation where you find a new job but can't actually afford to live in the area without major sacrifices on your part.
Finally, it's rare to find both job and new place to live at the same time -- usually one comes first. If you have a friend or contact in the area, ask if you could use their address for resumes. State that you're relocating to the area shortly (so companies know that you're not looking for a transfer package), and then you can use your normal resume. Or, if you find a dream city that seems to fit all your criteria, consider just up & moving and applying for a job. It's much riskier, but it's a guaranteed way to get out and experience something different. You'll be spending your savings, which is risky, so you may want to work out some contingencies, such as at what point you move back, or where you move back to, and so on.
Next: Find a job.
Now: Move. Plan on a week or two of apartment hunting when you get there.
Moving can be quite expensive if you've got any volume of stuff, and is not to be taken lightly.
If you are moving speculatively, it'd be best to leave the "stuff" in a relatives garage/cheap storage and get it when you have the money to get it. Sublet a room in a shared house until you are sure your job is secure. That way you can remain mobile should anything happen.