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Relocation

Relocation

Relocation

(OP)
Just curious how many times you have relocated? I.E. moving cities?

I've been in engineering and technical jobs since 1996 (1993 if you include co-op)

This will be my 3rd post college relocation (and 5th city if you count co-op jobs)

Moving is tough but for the job one has to do it, especially in this economy.

RE: Relocation

2nd city after college
5th city if you count college

been working in the "industry" since '98 (summer after freshman year)

yea, yea, yea.....shaddap, i'm young

do you have a family?

RE: Relocation

(OP)
Fiance with me now.

Was looking to get a house in the town i grew up in. Then I got laidoff. Tough.

Now I'm moving 5 hours away (but a quick 1 hour flight)
 

RE: Relocation

In my profession since 1982.  13 jobs, 6 relocations, plus a stint in Asia.  I run into very few people nowadays who have been static for more than 3 or 4 years.

RE: Relocation

i was at my first job out fo college for 4 years.  i loved that job, and would have stayed had i not hated south florida.

LOL.   

RE: Relocation

Relocated to two different suburbs in the large metropolitan city that I was born and raised in my rather short life span.

RE: Relocation

10 years here, and only one major relocation under my belt.  I was offered jobs in 2 other far away places as well.  Well not Asia far away, but states away in the US.

Seems like it comes with the territory these days.

James Spisich
Design Engineer, CSWP

RE: Relocation

6 years in first location...2 jobs
12 years in 2nd location...3 jobs
15 years in 3rd location...3 jobs

Out of the 8 jobs, have had 5 different employers, 2 of them twice (including myself)

RE: Relocation

In 25 years I worked in two different locations in SoCal. First job out of colledge lasted three years and then the plant shut down in the '82 recession. Next location was about 30 miles away (no unemployment, fortunately). In 21 years I worked for five different companies but didn't really change jobs. Then decided to get out of SoCal before it was too late.

RE: Relocation

I have had 6 relocation's

I know of a person who has had over 20 relocation's  (a real job shopper)

RE: Relocation

@ compositepro

is the '82 worse than this one?

RE: Relocation

'82 recession was not as bad as this one. This one is on par with the '74 recession.

RE: Relocation

I've had to relocate for every new employer, ever since I started, so that's 7 times in 27 years, not including uni.


 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Relocation

As the saying goes "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours". This one is definitely worse for the overall economy than '82. Back then there wasn't fear of economic collapse. Although I lost my job I don't think of '82 as all that bad. I was in high school in '74 and remember how bad it was in aerospace and for Boeing. Later in my carrer aeropsace was a great industry for people my age because so many junior engineers had been laid-off and went into other industries. That age gap was still evident until just recently. like the "Baby Boom".

RE: Relocation

15 years, 3 relocations, and some long commutes. A 10-year spell at one job, a couple of years in London, and the first few near my home town. Ironically I want to relocate now and can't because house prices are down and no one is buying. That may force a change of plan with a job I enjoy because I'm not prepared to commute forever more and may have to look more locally.

Over here the recession looks like being worse than the one in the early 90's, maybe as bad as the one in the early 80's when our manufacturing base was destroyed by Thatcher. I can remember the 90's one clearly; I'm a little too young to have appreciated how bad things were in the early 80's but I remember the closure of the shipyards and the Miner's Strike which both hit North East England so hard.
  

----------------------------------
  
If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Relocation

35 years and 1 location, I guess partly down to luck and partly down to seeing being close to friends and family as more important than just money.

Interesting to see different people views on the 70's 80's and 90's , to me this is the worst as they were more local recessions, so it depended far more or where you lived and the industry you were in.

I cannot agree with Scotty, Thatcher was the saviour not the villain, prior to that the unions had brought down successive governments with unrealistic demands. Whilst they were striking for things like sacking workers for being a sleep and a non qualified electrician changing a light bulb, in Europe they were working for better working conditions and redundancy packages, so we are still seeing plants closing in the UK because it is cheaper to do so despite them being more efficient.
 

RE: Relocation

ajack,

I don't deny the unions weren't everything you describe. She didn't try to fix the problems with the unions, she just destroyed the industries which supported them and killed the unions that way. It was a high price to pay, too high as we are faced with the utter collapse of her precious service industry economy like some house of cards in the wind and with nothing in its place.

Thatcher's method of saving British industry was akin to curing toothache by cutting off the patient's head.
  

----------------------------------
  
If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Relocation

Funny, I hear a lot of people talk about this recession being worse than 82.  For me it's the opposite.  Out hear in "Greater" Minnesota (outside the metro, not bragging) we feel economic effect almost immediately, but we lag the recovery by years.  We still had mass business closures and farm foreclosures running strong up until about 88 or 89.  Knock on wood, so far-so good this time around.  Wife and I still both working, although the missus has had her hours cut.  The 80's were rough.  I had to close my year old start-up when the work just wasn't there, and had to take the worst paying job of my life just to keep a roof.  I think it all boils down to individual situation.  Some businesses thrive in conditions like these, just due to the fact that so much of the competition is withering.  Seems I'm well off topic on the thread so I'll sign off now.  Happy Easter / Passover, everyone!

RE: Relocation

One's views on economic up periods and down periods is so heavily based on the age of the viewer.  It's impossible to be objective as a teenager and equally hard to look back to teenage years without bias.  I was a Maggie teenager.  We need another 50 years to be able to make objective commentaries.

- Steve

RE: Relocation

I suspect it's probably also skewed by where you live: take two people in their late 30's, one who grew up in Kent and one who grew up in the in the Durham coalfield. One saw the the strike on the national news with the lawless miners attacking the righteous forces of law and order, and the other watched from the bedroom window while Maggie's stormtroopers beat their father in the street below.

The truth is no doubt somewhere in the middle; who decides what is the truth anyway?
  

----------------------------------
  
If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Relocation

Been working 30 years since college.  Two companies (first one bought out), seven relocations, three countries, six cities.

Good luck,
Latexman

RE: Relocation

Graduated college May of 2006, started first job in July of that year. Fast forward to February of '09, got laid off for the third time in less than a year, so that makes 4 jobs in (almost) 3 years. Changed cities after the first job.

If it weren't for the gorgeous weather and women, I would have never moved out here if I knew then what I knew now.

RE: Relocation

Since 1994:
3 companies
6 countries
11 moves

My record so far is to move continents 3 times in the span of 12 months

RE: Relocation

When I was single, moving was easy.  I moved from London to Brighton (employer change).  Then from Brighton to Chicago (same employer).  Then from Chicago to Sompting (hence handle, briefly via Brighton again though).

Now it's more tough.  My "wife" and child have put roots down in Sompting, but I have thoughts and offers further afield.

(BTW Scotty, if you're implying/thinking I'm a Kent boy, nope.  Cornwall/Plymouth.  Unions in the 70's meant "The Dockyard")

- Steve

RE: Relocation

(OP)
How did you like Chicago Sompting? That's where I'm moving, to a western suburb though because I'll go between two locations (one north of Chicago and one west).

Any recommendations on nice areas to live. I think my halfway point is Elgin.

 

RE: Relocation

Others here have more experience and better qualified testimonies.  I loved it as a an ex-pat Brit.  Very central for US travel (trains & planes).  A beach (even if fake).  Some really cool downtown areas.  A river (flowing backwards).  Plus the blues.

Can't comment on Elgin or surrounds though.  I was closer to Lisle/Naperville/Aurrora.
 

- Steve

RE: Relocation

... where are your two locations?

- Steve

RE: Relocation

(OP)
Sompting guy, I will PM you with this.

RE: Relocation

(OP)
Actually not sure if we can send private messages on here LOL.

Just a little paranoid about posting too much information as I've posted alot of info critical of my last position and things that happened there.

RE: Relocation

Steve,

"BTW Scotty, if you're implying/thinking I'm a Kent boy, nope."

'Twas an example only. I'm not a Durham lad either. No offense intended - just as well I didn't choose Essex! smile
  

----------------------------------
  
If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Relocation

I'm not in my late 30's either winky smile

- Steve

RE: Relocation

EngineerDave,

You are correct, the site does not have a PM facility.  Anyway, I dug out my map and it's all coming back to me.  I used to spend many a weekend in towns on the Fox river that runs N/S through the far west 'burbs.  Most of them are really nice places.  A river really makes a town.

- Steve

RE: Relocation

5 jobs, 4 locations so far...currently looking for job 6.

Central Illinios, Rhode Island, East Central Indiana, and Mid North Indiana so far.

 

MechEng13   machinegun elk

http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanetzkorn

RE: Relocation

EngineerDave,

I've lived around Chicagoland for the last 16 years (although I'm up in Wisconsin now).

Elgin would be a good choice for accessability.  It's a nice area, or at least it was last time I spent any time there a few years ago.  It's growing very fast and there have been traffic congestion/urban sprawl issues, but that's true of virtually all Chicago suburbs.



 

RE: Relocation

Moose hunting with a machine gun. Props!
wink

Fe

RE: Relocation

1978-1981 Corning, NY 1 job
1981-1985 Columbia, MD 1 job
1985-1994 Mesa, AZ 2 jobs
1994-2005 Chambersburg, PA 1 job
2005-present Waco, TX 2 jobs

That is since graduating when we lived in Provo, UT.
5 locations and 7 jobs in 31 years.

"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

RE: Relocation

North to West commutes and back again in Chicagoland? You have got to be kidding. The traffic patterns are miserable heading west from the North/South 294 tollway and 355 N and S is also miserable North of I 55.

If you have to commute North and Elgin is your halfway point I would not live in any western suburb. Where is your North destination?
 

RE: Relocation

(OP)
Metengr

Gurnee is the northern suburb

But the way it will be split up is 2 days in Gurnee and 3 days in the far flung western location.

Now mathematically it could make sense to be in between or closer to the one where I'll spend 3 days.

However i might prefer to live closer to Gurnee or somewhere on the lake (even as far south as Evanston)

Then on a couple days make the mega commute out west (with a likely one night stay at hotel per week).

Just my thoughts, not sure yet.

It's all brand new to me.

RE: Relocation

You have several good choices - Gurnee, Antioch, Round Lake, etc. I would not live in or around Elgin.  

RE: Relocation

(OP)
With the fiance taking classes potentially in downtown (we're not sure what program she will be in for nursing school yet), it might make sense to stay in a town on the Northern Metra system (UP-N line as it says on the map I'm looking at now).

So that means a quick commute to Gurnee and a mega one to that town out west (with probably an overnight hotel stay per week).

But that's life, it will be exciting.

EngineerDave
 

RE: Relocation

(OP)
looslib,

That's some impressive moving around. You must handle it better than me, moving makes me a nervous wreck and stressed out!

Really the biggest thing i dislike about moving now is leaving family. I do love Chicago though (at least from every visit I've made there)

 

RE: Relocation

Ten relos with three different companies since 1967.  

RE: Relocation

Four different locations in 40 years;
numerous job changes, all engineering related, during that time. Chicago was a job market and labor market.

As you approach retirement, maneuver your location change into a nice locale away from mega-cities. Went from Chicago to south central Michigan. No regrets. We vacation near the water, E, W, or North, as a rule.

RE: Relocation

10 locations; Orlando twice, Clearwater, St Petersburg twice, Tampa, Jacksonville 3 times, Atlanta twice, Detroit, Albuquerque, Houston, San Antonio 3 times - 17 job changes  over 30 years.  Most of the jobs were contract, and many were the same job, different contract.
Current position is direct and going on seven years (knock wood).

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - Robert Hunter
 

RE: Relocation

While I am young, and the general impression I get is that it often takes a couple jobs after college before people find someplace they settle at. In ~4 years, I have had 3 engineering jobs. I relocated twice, but both were by choice. I specifically looked for positions in a different area, and moved when I found them. All three jobs were within <2 hours drive from each other though, so no large relocations. I have a house now and plan to stay put for awhile. =)

-- MechEng2005

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