Pretty accurate. I grew up in the LA so it doesn’t seem that bad. I will say I don’t hate it as much as I did pre kids. It’s now my guaranteed peace and quiet each day.
The problem is we have laughably bad public transit options for a city of our size. There’s no rail. Only the poors use the bus. People work in clusters of areas (downtown, Westshore,etc), but the bulk of those areas (generally speaking) aren’t near desirable or affordable (one or the other) neighborhoods to live in. On top of it, some people work or live in Tampa or St. Pete and work or live in the opposite all the time. So then the bridges are clogged (of which there are only 3 that connect both counties).
You just described every city in America with the exception of NYC or DC....im sure I can find people that still think their public transit stinks.
The difference is we don’t have it period. No light rail really hurts. I know people in cities like Seattle that bike or take the bus to work. Those aren't options in Tampa.
Commute/traffic and cost of living are two wonderful perks about living in Cleveland. Weather is nice as well for 7 months per year.
Don't want a tangent, but my point is that all cities have commutes that are a nature of the best of living in a large city. Seattle's traffic sucks.
I agree with your original premise that a 45 minute commute isn’t that unusual for bigger cities. But you can’t tell me that Tampa’s public transportation isn’t worse than other big markets. There’s more than 3 million people here and like 99% drive.
I’m not trying to hijack the thread, but each of those cities has commuter rail. Tampa doesn’t, which you seem to not understand. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Unless they’re within five miles of downtown Seattle they probably also have to drive. The sounder only goes so far.
I have a 45 minute commute down i95 traffic but I make my own scheduler around my meetings the majority of the time. Usually in the office 9-4 but work from my home office a few days a month for my sanity. Most Friday’s during football season i work out of my pocket. We grew 35% last year and the owners couldn’t be more hands off. You could double my pay in a traditional company model and id laugh you out the door. Money’s not everything
Got a call back on one of the apps today, scheduled a call with the VP of the department for tomorrow afternoon. Sounds like they are trying to move fast based on what the recruiter was telling me, but the culture of the company sounds awesome. One question I found weird was he asked , “How soon are you looking to start a new job?” I’m like, well I’m applying, so basically now (given the proper notice).
It's a question any decent recruiter is going to ask. It's not uncommon at all for a candidate have a project they want to finish before leaving an employer so they don't burn any bridges. There's also timing issues if relocation is part of the deal. It's our job to get ahead of any potential issues as fast as possible.
what I hate is when the question is on a job application. Like how the fuck am I supposed to know? it kinda depends on when you make a decision on who you want to hire.
I worked New Year’s Day as my last day with a previous company. It secured my previous year’s bonus, and current year’s HSA contribution. That one day was my down payment on my house.
That’s awesome. You’re company is very generous with its bonus structure. Goose is right though. With a lot of companies, you need to be in your seat with with company the day the bonus is paid to be eligible. You can put in notice the day after, but need to still with the company that day to receive it. Like I’ve said, I specialize in manufacturing jobs, which have large bonuses attached to base salary with higher level positions. Bonus payouts can be a large hurdle for start date, especially at this time of the year.
I recently transitioned companies and had a bonus due March 15 for prior year. I was up front with new company and showed proof of bonus pay out eligibility and had them match as a sign on bonus. My 7 mile commute in south Florida was 45 minutes. My 9 mile commute in VA is 20 minutes.
So this job I am going to be interviewing for requires 15-20% travel, he said typically maybe 4 to 6 times a year (if he had to guess, but trips are flexible?). I know it probably doesn't seem like a lot, but is it a lot? I've never really traveled for my previous jobs. Could I use that as leverage to get a higher salary possibly? I am married and have 3 younger kids fwiw.
Think of them as mini vacations away from the wife and kids. That’s a great number of travel days imo. (I also went from 90% travel the majority of my career to 0%}
That's what I am thinking too, but not sure how the wife will think of that lol. Yeah he said probably leave Sunday night, come back Friday. In the trips he also included seminars/conferences, so those may or may not be a full week.
I travel about a week a month and have for the past 3 or so years. There have been a couple bursts of traveling 3 weeks in a month that really sucked, but one week a month is pretty routine for us. Wife doesn’t travel for work and we don’t have kids yet, so it’s pretty easy on that end, and I built up airline status and hotel status pretty quickly, which is nice. Main thing I would be careful about is don’t get fat. It’s easy to eat and drink way too much and lose whatever fitness routine during work travel. I had a run a few years ago where I travelled 6 weeks out of 8 and gained 20lbs in two months.
My travel is pretty erratic and depends on where we are in the multiple projects we handle, and handling various crises that arise. I have a wife and one kid. I love the travel, but it can get stressful and difficult on her when it starts piling up. Hotel and Airline status and points are a major job perk. Recently took a very close to free vacation to Jamaica.
Flip side, I did 20-25% travel for about 4 years and I'm kinda over travel now. I also would typically be in BFE working long hours and not somewhere cool. The points are nice though.
Your mother in law live nearby? I have 3 kids under 2, and usually travel a few times a quarter. Without her I’d be screwed, but she’s able to help when we need her.
I travel 3-4 times a year for 3-7 days. 3-5 days is doable. Any more than that and wife/kids are not super thrilled. I love that frequency and could do a little more. It also depends on where work is taking you. BFE, nah. Nice cities? Yeah for sure.
Oldest is 11, so she could help out with the younger ones. MIL lives about 30-35mins away, so not real close, she still works though.
My relationship with my wife was never more clean than when I traveled m-tr of every week. Made our time together like a elation vacation every week.
I've traveled 120k Miles each of the past 3 years. (M-F 75% of the year) So glad to have a break after next friday
What’s the protocol on accepting an offer, then getting a better offer elsewhere, thus reneging on the original before your start date?
I’ve never done it, but it’s happened with roles my company was trying to fill at various companies. Burns bridges at that specific company and maybe that recruiter, but no real blowback beyond that IYAM
Be careful, look this up and do math. 10% is basically 5 weeks(business days) out of the office. I would not be where I am today without traveling, however I hate it outside of a few very select locations and jobs. Fortunately I am now 99% in my office at home now. If you approach that 10 week mark that’s 2.5 months you’re theoretically on the road. There are tons of variable here still but hope that puts time into perspective for you. Other considerations, per diem, location, ease of travel(are you eating days to get from A to B?), expense account, times you have to be on site (see last line, can you travel in hours) and who are you traveling with routinely? And wife/kids. You’ll never get those hours back off the clock. Diet is huge as well. I could expand upon this list immensely and situationally with the companies I have worked for. I can assure you all of the above can make life miserable or much more enjoyable. In my catchup reading of this thread it comes back to a lot of already covered. Overall my traveling has been positive for my career and family and I think most places are pretty cognisent of the balance required to make it tolerable. Mind you, I am talking in your travel range, which is not true road warrior status. Just be careful of expectations moving forward and try to get some delineation on what you and your family can expect. Side note. One company I worked for had two private executive jets. I’m no baller, I’m not poor either, but we got use of said jets or could accompany execs when seats were empty and if itinerary aligned. It’s the best fucking way to travel ever. If you ever get filthy rich, get a jet or a share program. It’s definitely the way to go. I’m in IT.
The only ones that’ll be hurt by this is the company you renege on. Specifically the hiring manager. If you’ve accepted, they’ve probably let other candidates go, told their boss the position is filled, closed the req, order your laptop, start to plan and forecast assuming you’re there. Backing out after accepting will put them another three months behind at least. Fine chance you’ve burnt a bridge with a few people in that department who you’ll probably bump into at some point down the road somewhere else. I typically tell people don’t accept unless you know you mean it, But like someone else said, you always need to take care of you first as well. Last thing- don’t worry about your Recruiters feelings. This decision impacts you 1000 times more than them. If a Recruiter gets pissed, that’s very selfish of them. A good recruiter wouldn’t let you accept before you knew you were ready, especially if they knew you had a couple of opportunities so closely aligned.