Emotionally exhausted!

We broke the news to the kids yesterday. We thought that a day out with the kids and some nice dinner afterwards will give them an emotionally enough high that we could run with and share what's going to happen in a few weeks. Little did I expect what actually happened. I was told by them that after such a great day these are the worst news anybody could ever receive. Lesson learned, I guess.

While we were out rollerskating in Brooklyn Bridge Park I looked at the skyline and the people around me and knew that I will miss this. I don't think we can have this in Irvine. But then, we'll have other things that are just as great and will make for everything else. At least, that's the theory I am going with right now.

After the first shock and many rounds of "Why?" and "Can you quit it?" and "We'll do anything for it not to happen!" the 10 and 11 year olds kind of accepted their faith (my 11 year old just told me over breakfast that she is actually a little bit excited about the move.) The 15 year old is having a lot of a harder time. She had a hard first year in her new high school and she is afraid that she has to this all over again. She's not good in making friends and it took her most of the year to just fit in and be comfortable with her new surroundings. She is right. She will have to do it all over again but going to a smaller school and, hopefully, with the help of the teachers and staff at the new place, it will not be as bad as here. I also think people are a lot nicer in California than they are here in NYC. That's another theory I am using until proven otherwise. The least we can do is put her in charge of picking a school. We will choose our neighborhood by what school she's comfortable with (to a certain extend, of course.) She can look at the clubs, the curriculum, even the look of the school.

On the other hand, my in-laws reacted in the most positive way. My wife's entire family lives in Seattle and Portland and they are ecstatic that we will be only a couple of hours away and not five or six. My father-in-law just turned 80 and it is important that it'll be easier to get to see him whenever needed without taking extra days off from work or spending a ton of money. My mother lives in Germany and she was also very excited about the news. She's quite a bit younger so I am not too concerned to be a lot farther away from her now. Luckily, we don't have much more family that needs to know.

Next step, tell the co-workers. I already told my boss and the one colleague I work with the closest. Now I have to spread the word to everybody else. This can actually be exciting!

Introduction

Before I go on I want to introduce myself and my family and give some more context to what we are going to do. I am an almost 50 year old IT professional who has been working at a university in New York City for almost 20 years. I have been in IT for a very long time and it has been my source of income ever since I was 16. My wife has been working in marketing and communications for at least 5 years and was a graphic designer before that. She works for the same employer as I do. We have three children, two girls at the ages of 11 and almost 15, and a boy of the age of 10. They all go to public schools in Manhattan and we all live on Roosevelt Island, a little sliver of land in the middle of the Easy River, between Manhattan and Queens.

My company had a major shake up in the top ranks of the IT department and things are turning strange ways. While I do not mind a good shake-up (and we do needed that and the ones we had the in past were always good news at first) this one was different. Our new CIO comes from a different East Coast university and his approach (and, I admit, it's also the mandate given from above) is to cut costs. The president's current goal is to make our private university relatively affordable. It's one of the most expensive schools in the country and he wants to change that. Part of that strategy, of course, is to see where reoccurring costs can be cut etc. This is all fine and dandy. You must never do this while disrespecting the current culture, though. You do not do ahead and hire all your own buddies from your previous jobs and move current management to the side. Don't be an arrogant asshole!

I admit, though, that working for a university that provides really good compensation, benefits, job security, and an awesome work-life balance, makes you complacent and lazy. Just do the job, make good money, and wait it out. Things will change in a few years anyway. But that job posting I came across by chance shook everything up. I started to update my resume and my LinkedIn page, I created accounts on Monster, Indeed, and Dice. I even paid for the LinkedIn subscription. I was surprised how much interest there was for my skill set and experience. Unfortunately, most opportunities were just contract or contract-to-hire positions (which I am not interested in at this point of my career) but there were a few good leads. Blizzard was the first to offer. CVS Health came in next. I had another couple of leads. In the end, well you know from my last posting, it all worked out with Blizzard. Start date will be June 4th!

Tonight my wife and I are going to break the news to the kids. It'll be an interesting follow-up posting for tomorrow.

Job offer

Home now

 In February I came across a job posting for an IT position at the Game and Entertainment company Blizzard. My 10 year old son is a major fan of one of their games and I thought he would be ecstatic if I told him that I am thinking of applying there. He sure was and at first the only reason I kept going with this job application was to impress him and let him have stories to tell his friends. He took pictures of some of the mail headers that showed that I was indeed communicating with a real Blizzard employee. My other kids occasionally asked if I was serious about this job but I always said that I was not and that I am just trying to figure out what I am worth after working for the same employer for almost 20 years.

Home soon

The process was actually quite interesting. It all started with filling out an online application, paste your resume, write a cover letter, and link to your LinkedIn page. After a few days I got an invitation to a telephone interview with the recruiter which then was followed up with another telephone interview with the hiring manager. Whenever I was asked why I would be so willing to move cross-country I always had some excuses ready: it's time to go back to the West Coast (my wife and I are originally from Seattle), the weather in New York sucks compared to SoCal, it's time to do some radical changes in my life, etc. At this point it was still good fun. Then Blizzard invited me over for an in-person interview. I was flown to Irvine, CA, hotel and everything was paid, and I was given $250 in pocket money for any extra expenses. All that for one day of interviewing. After that day I was sold. I was completely and utterly sold and knew I would uproot everything I know and love but it would be worth everything. Well, almost. I would not do it if it didn't come with a major pay increase as well.

A few days passed by and I saw one of the people I interviewed announcing that Blizzard is still looking to fill the position I applied for. It was a huge bummer but also a bit of relief that, you know, we don't have to move cross-country. It also helped that another job lead was moving forward as well. Another week came and went and I asked for an update. Lo and behold... I got the job. It was a Friday when the recruiter told me that they really want me and asked me once again, if I am still serious about all this, if I have anything else going on, etc. Of course! Show me the money! Well, I had to wait another week. One week later, on a Friday again, I got the deciding call. Numbers sounded very, very, very good. Benefits are not as great as what I have now (well, I do work in academia and those bennies are really hard to beat) but still above average, and Orange County would mean an upgrade of our financial health (coupled with a major pay increase, of course). New York, after all, is still about 30% more expensive on average than SoCal.

My wife was out of town on a business trip and I was pacing up and down trying to figure how to break the news. She just started a new job a year ago and loves it. Tearing her out of that will come with some heartbreak, I knew. After a lot of back and forth, a lot of arguments for and against, and some planning on how to deal with such a move smoothly, we decided to go for it. The kids will hate it, we know, at least for a while, but in the end it will be all worth it! At least that's what we think. I'll update this blog in a year and give feedback.

I want to use this blog to a) speak my mind about moving cross-town with family in tow, b) document what it takes to do such a thing, and c) share with the readers tips and tricks on how to do such a thing right and/or avoid other things that we did.