Next Stop Oregon!
As if to prove that old axiom about mice and men, roughly 3 years after moving to South Carolina because we wanted to be in the South, we now find ourselves on the verge of moving about as far away from the South as we can without leaving the country.
Yes, my wife has accepted a job at the Oregon State Alumni Association. You can read more about her thoughts over on her own blog, I won’t try and speak for her.
What I do want to say about it is two fold. First and foremost, a bit of career advice. When you build good relationships with your co-workers, or other contacts, opportunities tend to find you. In this case, her former boss in Ohio wound up out in Oregon and approached her about applying for this job. When you combine that with my own experience of being recruited to my last two jobs by people I had met at conferences, the importance of relationships cannot be overstated.
The other thing I want to talk about is the flexibility I have with my job. Look, I might not absolutely love every single moment of my job, but it is a job that can be done from anywhere. That freedom to work from home and travel to training engagements means that I get to be the “trailing spouse”, and continue to do the same job, just from a different place. There’s a whole lot to be said for that. I wonder how many other couples are turning down tremendous opportunities because they are stuck going into an office when everything they do for the company could be done remotely? Or how many really good employees are being lost when their spouse gets a great opportunity that requires a move, who could be kept on as remote workers with a little imagination?
I don’t know the answers to those questions. It seems to me that companies are learning the benefits of remote working and making use of it when appropriate more than they used to, but then again, I work in the software industry, so my experience may not be all that common in other industries.
So, we’re on to the next adventure of our lives. Angela will be heading to Corvallis in a few weeks, while I stay behind here in South Carolina for the Summer to pack up the house, and fulfill some other commitments. I’ve got the week of Labor Day penciled in as the time to be away from work and make the 2,700+ mile drive to Oregon. Might as well take a week and make some stops on the way out there. Just have to figure out where to stop!
In the mean time, anyone want to share their experiences in Oregon? I’m looking forward to exploring a part of the country I’ve never been to, and of course, taking lots of photographs of some of the natural beauty of Oregon!
