Looking to move out west

[subbes]

At this point, if you're a software engineer, it's competitive in the other direction. Way too few candidates for way too many jobs. Hiring has been extremely difficult for us in SF.

(LOOKS AT PILE OF JOB REJECTIONS, SHOVES CAKE INTO MOUTH WHILE CRYING.)

Transportation question: How feasible is it to commute into the city using the ferries? It was a total scrum on Sunday, but that was an unusual day for public transportation; I don't have a sense of the normal conditions.

[Luftmensch]

Cripes, the first couple days after I posted this I didn't have any responses so I expected it to just be buried and never seen again. I appreciate all the input.

What line of work are you in?

The short answer is that I'm not in any line of work right now. I recently left (on good terms) a job doing graphics for a local t-shirt place, after I reached a point where I knew I had gone as far as that job could take me (my former boss, a very nice woman and old friend, agreed with me and my plan). My plan since has been to put together a nice portfolio, learn Spanish, and take my money I've got saved up to move to a nice city, get my foot in the door at some nice place where I can prove myself to someone important, and, with any luck maybe do something awesome like you do today. The field specifically isn't important. Every time I've gotten a job I've found a million reasons I could do it forever and not learn everything; this is true of t-shirt printing, welding, carpentry, everything. I've just had the bad luck of getting jobs in a town of 30,000 where the ceiling is kind of low.

But video games, children's cartoons, and films all especially appeal to me.

I've also tossed around for a long time the possibility of joining the Navy and becoming a Nuke, a job they've been offering me since high school and which they tell me is still absolutely open if I ever want to go for it. I don't feel it, maybe I'm skipping on an amazing opportunity there.

Oh, crud, important detail, I don't have a college degree. I started college like everyone else because that's what you do, and it turned out I couldn't afford it so I had to drop out with a pile of debt. It's pretty lame, and will probably hold me back, but I've kind of made peace with the fact that I was pretty stupid and irresponsible and I have to pay for it.

dibs, my mother is an Irish citizen, but she claimed her citizenship after I was born and since I turned 21 this year the gate has slammed the fuck shut for me to get an Irish passport by birthright, even by legal loophole. It pisses me off because I would just move to goddamned Europe in a heartbeat if I could. There is no rational reason for it, I just wish I could get on a train and be somewhere where no-one speaks the same language as me. Instead I get on the bus and spend three hours with racists and then I'm in Atlanta and it still sucks.

This is 100% fucking true. Please do not move to San Francisco.

However, feel free to move to Oakland or Berkeley, which are right across the bay from San Francisco and share the BART transit system, and are cool and fun and hip places to live in their own right.

I had figured that much out from the research I did since I posted, but thanks for the specific recommendations. I'm pretty sure Berkeley is where Dr. Hal (aka Harry Robins aka every doctor from Half-Life) lives, so that's a plus.

Another question: Like I said, I have literally no support network west of Atlanta, and I've never lived more than a bus ride away from someone who could bail me out of a tough situation. This isn't really a question, or asking for favors, I just want to know if that's a totally terribly bad idea or if I'm on the right track here. South Carolina is pretty soul-sucking place.

[miffy495]

Calgary, Alberta (that's in Canada!) welcomes you. Not all the way west, but we have mountains and prairies and stuff, in addition to a bustling metropolis rated 5th best in the world! Vancouver and Toronto, also top five. Note, no US cities in the top 10. Jus' sayin'! North is where its at. Oh, and I personally welcome you, but some of our immigration folks are jerks, so if you don't get in, sorry, not ma' fault.

I may or may not welcome you. Calgary is a fine place I suppose. Being one of the most conservative places in Canada would probably still be a step up from South Carolina if you lean left politically. I suspect Kraznor may be with tourism though, as if I didn't have a good group of friends and a partner who doesn't want to leave the city, I'd be gone right quick for a different province.

[Murdoc]

How so, Toblix?

***

SF housing is unreal. I've only been here for 6 months and coming from Vancouver I didn't imagine it being as bad as it is. With that said, this is the best place I've ever lived, so far, if you enjoy the west coast.

***

Coasts, Philosphy, Canadiana

As far as phisosphy and way of life goes between the East and West coast, I'd hardly consider Alberta (Calgary) of the West Coast variaty. I have had the pleasure of living all across that great nation and as far as I can tell, Alberta is the Texas of Canada. You will find some amazing people there, but the status quo is nothing I'd even relate to West coast philosphy.

From what I can tell in my experience (Lived in Canada my entire life until recently) is that the more North you go in Canada the more American "South" it gets. The East coast is fairly similiar to America as well as the West Coast, with, maybe, the exceptions of the Maritime provinces... no idea what's going on there.

* I didn't read Miffy's post, but I agree completely.

[miffy495]

Yeah, in Canada "West" in the American sense (ie: California & Pacific NW) basically means Vancouver or Victoria. Calgary and Edmonton are nice enough places, but as a whole Alberta really does work hard to earn its reputation as the seat of Canadian conservatism. It's not like it's an oppressive atmosphere or anything (I can hang out in public with my friend and his husband and very few people react to their holding hands, kissing, etc. Hell the fact that I can say "my friend and his husband" is pretty damn positive) but just a general feeling of never being quite sure if it's cool to be as left wing as I am that I've never felt in any other Canadian city. I'm not super negative on the place, I've made a good life for myself here and (assuming the Calgary Board of Education hires me for next fall) I intend to stay quite a while, but there's a whole lot about this place that drives me crazy. On that note, anyone ever considering living here, have a car. The sprawl is goddamned ridiculous and the public transit is utter shit.

[Chambraigne]

My top choices are San Francisco and Los Angles; LA because that's where most animation studios in the US are based, SF because that seems like a place I'd actually like to live.

I grew up in a smallish town (pop 55,000) close to the bay, moved to Los Angeles for college and stayed ten years. I have since returned to the bay, now living in Oakland. Moving from my small town to Los Angeles would have been a nightmare without the implicit college social network. LA is an expansive, compartmentalized city (read Robert Bruegmann's "Sprawl") that is inadvertently ideal for homebodies. While you won't have any trouble finding meetups or fun events, you will have to spend an incredible amount of time getting from point A to point B. The bay area (I'm talking SF, Oakland, and Berkeley) is a much nicer place for transplants, in my opinion - vibrant walking neighborhoods, localized social events, and excellent public transportation. Oakland was my first choice when I moved because it seemed to merge the city feeling that I liked from LA with the small town vibe that I missed from home.

This is 100% fucking true. Please do not move to San Francisco.

However, feel free to move to Oakland or Berkeley, which are right across the bay from San Francisco and share the BART transit system, and are cool and fun and hip places to live in their own right.

I didn't even consider SF because it is, indeed, full. Seriously. Not only are there a TON of new people looking for apartments, but there are a just as many people who had to settle for crappy apartments that are now looking for better places. Chris is right - Oakland and Berkeley both have hip identities, and are incredibly close to SF. (Neat fact - Oakland was named #5 on the NY Times places to go in 2012, just behind Myanmar and London).

The short answer is that I'm not in any line of work right now.

...

But video games, children's cartoons, and films all especially appeal to me.

...

My advice is to get involved with one industry at an entry level while you continue to explore options, build your skills, and learn where you might need formal training. For example, part time work as a game tester would afford you the opportunity to learn about the entire game production pipeline. It would be slow, but you would start to accumulate industry knowledge and relationships that help immensely when applying for full time work.

[Luftmensch]

My advice is to get involved with one industry at an entry level while you continue to explore options, build your skills, and learn where you might need formal training. For example, part time work as a game tester would afford you the opportunity to learn about the entire game production pipeline. It would be slow, but you would start to accumulate industry knowledge and relationships that help immensely when applying for full time work.

I was encouraged by Sean's little spiel about getting an inch and taking a mile taking him all the way to director on The Walking Dead, because that was pretty much my intention from the start, to a certain degree. Film, television, and Video games are such broad disciplines that I feel certain I can find a specialty I'll enjoy at a good company.

There's a few people in particular I know I'd love to work under. Glen Keane is one, Terry Gilliam tops my lists for most interesting and least practical. Jake and Sean seem like they'd be cool to work under but not for the same reasons.

[Luftmensch]

I'm just going to make a quick note about where I am at the moment and what I think is most open and ideal to me:

I'm currently working on finishing my wooden boat, with is coming along nicely though not very quickly, and I promised my father that we'd finish it and take it sailing before I left. I don't expect the project to take too much longer, but I'm assuming a couple months before it's really quite done, all accounted for.

In the mean time, I'm studying Spanish, mainly with Rosetta Stone, and supplementing with some good old-fashioned book learning. Wherever I go, I assume bilingualism gives me an edge.

Also, as I mentioned before, I don't have a college degree. This is a little limiting: Intern programs require applicants to be college students or graduates. Most serious jobs will require experience or prior industry experience or both, which means I have to start at the bottom.

Now, I've mentioned the idea of moving to Buenos Aires for a while to live and (illegally) work somewhere inexpensive and exciting. I've been dismissing it as just screwing around instead of actually making a career, but there is one detail about BA which I didn't mention but really put it on my short list in the first place: The University of Buenos Aires is free to everyone, including foreigners. The only requirement for entry is to pass a one-year introductory course called the common basic cycle, which is also free.

As Chambraigne noted, going to a school automatically introduces a sort of social network around your classes. I know I can't afford school in the US (unless I were to be admitted to Cooper Union, perhaps, or I guess joined the military), but UBA is an internationally recognized school so I would actually be doing something with myself while I'm BA.

Honestly, would it make more sense to try to go to school overseas and get myself a degree, or to go straight to California to make a career? I've still been kind of rejecting the Buenos Aires plan because it seems like a waste of time, but I still have that nagging feeling that I'm being too outright dismissive.

Worth considering: A friend of mine who lives in BA and is going to UBA has been working on her degree for about 7 years to date and tells me that it's really hard to get a degree quickly there.