Change Location
Change Location – been in London for a while – perhaps it’s time to move
- pro – new start
- pro – can work from anywhere really
- pro – a change is as good as a rest and all that
- con – have to build up network again from scratch
- con – London is pretty hard to beat work wise
- con -might end up having to travel alot which would be fun for me and suck for Jane
Edinburgh:
- pro – close to family
- pro – good place to raise kids
- pro – nice folk
- pro – could probably find a job or start something
- pro – could still come down for meetings
- con – might feel retrograde
- con – cold
- con – opportunity to network is limited.
- con – cold
- con – would miss my friends
San Francisco
- pro – already got the passport
- pro – still lots of interesting stuff going on and suspect I could find a job
- pro – weather
- pro – nice place for the kids
- con – very far away from family
- con – I’m afraid of americans
- con – people say ‘have a nice day’
- con – would need to build a network although I don’t think that would be too hard
Every move is a setback by 1-3 years! And waste money. I did this way too much and regret it to this day.
One comment about San Francisco. You might find that your options are more limited there in some respects (although clearly not in others) because Americans are much more demanding when it comes to paper qualifications (degrees!). If you are staying within the field where you made your name this probably makes no difference, but if you want to move to something new you might have more trouble.
But then if you decide to do something new you’ll probably go back to school to get some kind of qualification anyway…?
Yer, not likely to happen is it
If I did end up getting a job over here tho’ it would be nice to have something which allows a bit of travel back and forth to see family and such!
One of the best things I ever did was moving to Sheffield 12 years ago. Strongly recommended. London has a gravity and a noise which tends to blind even the most perceptive people to the world outside the orbit of the M25.
Con is I still end up working in London 50% of the time. It is where most of the work is. But I love having a haven to go to at the end of it. I can feel the stress dropping off my shoulders the moment I walk out of Sheffield station. It’s a wonderful feeling!
Over the years I’ve spent a fair amount of time chatting with Catriona Campbell from Foviance who are based in Edinburgh. She manages to do the dual life, but I do wonder if currently the life-style benefits outweigh the commercial realities. Definitely going to continue pondering this one.
But Sheffield, I mean really
Do it! Your kids deserve it! 15 years in the same place is good but this is the end of jupiter’s (journeys/discovery) cycle… time to discover something new… Later will be too late… Fancy dying in London?
Computer Love Manchester are looking for Account director! Check my links on FB..
Jon,
Having just returned from San Fran I can assure you that unless you plan on spending your time in a Starbucks, no one will wish you a nice day.
It may be far away from parts of your family, but it’s also closer to some of us