Just the other day on LinkedIn I saw that an old friend had a new freelance role at an agency in New York.
It’s been years and years now since we pored over Harvard scholarship application forms in her room, convinced she was going to become a criminal lawyer down the track. Me, I thought I wanted to go to Columbia like my favourite fictional character, Jessica Darling.
How things change.
Another friend is moving to New York next month and while I’m super excited for her – and envious of all the amazing food she’s going to get to eat all the time – I couldn’t help but feel a bit parochial when we turned to discussing my career and what I want out of the next few years. For the perfect opportunity, I’d be happy to go overseas for a stint (though the headache of having to find a place to live and set up all the elements of a new life is a daunting prospect). But the odds of something like that actually coming to ME is, shall we say, unlikely.
I live a small life, I know. In a small country at the bottom of the world. Expat friends are doing cool things in exciting cities abroad, but of course that comes with a tradeoff – a degree of financial security (because I hang with creatives, not lawyers and bankers).
I also have a good career here – I’ve had the privilege of working for great companies in great roles that I really care about – and it would be tougher to continue that overseas. Big fish, small pond…
This week’s links:
I had to laugh at these 10 tips for Japanese tourists visiting the US
20 Years Hence interviewed me about two of my favourite things in the world: food and travel
Even if you aren’t an engineer in Silicon Valley, this post is full of job hunt nuggets and interesting anecdotes (and the FizzBuzz part had me shuddering in recollection of the time i tried to learn Javascript through Codecademy)
A thought provoking post on interracial friendships
Manda reflects on what it was like to lose her father at a young age
Some unorthodox ways to scope out a new neighbourhood
Think twice about these things before starting your own business
Whenever I get annoyed about the rain or lack of Mexican food here and ask myself why we don’t live in California already, I manage to stumble across something like this … or Scandal reminds me that politics is influenced by the gun lobby … or I see a LinkedIn blog post that reminds me US employers don’t have to give staff any paid time off. (Also: jobs, family, friends.) America, I know you can do better!
Goddamn, the human spirit is an amazing thing. This powerful story just got nominated for an award, which is how I found out about it. Masterful use of the second person – I hope it wins. (And the PF nerd in me rejoiced in the paragraph that talks about his retirement account, good credit and platinum card.)
Lastly, I just finished a freelance feature on the basics of personal finance, and changed a line in my author bio from ‘believes that money buys happiness’ to the noncontroversial ‘money buys peace of mind’. But I truly believe money DOES buy happiness, for all the reasons Revanche points out. Too many people say they’d rather be poor and in love than rich and alone without actually having experienced it. I’ve been broke and coupled up and it nearly sank the relationship. I haven’t experienced being rich and alone but I suspect I would prefer it (of course, YMMV, depending on your personality and need for security).
Thanks for posting the link on the Silicon Valley job search. Extremely useful read for me at this moment in time!
You make some excellent points there about a career NZ Muse, it really boils down to what you want to achieve and there is no wrong or right answer..
Keep up the great blogging
So happy to have you aboard for Chewing the Fat and I’m glad you had so much fun playing along! We will absolutely have to “laksa” together one day! 😀
And hey, there’s nothing wrong with being content with your career and being happy to stay where you are. I think New York City living sounds good in theory but the sacrifices you’d actually have to make to live there probably soon have you wondering whether you wouldn’t be better off living somewhere else and just popping by for a visit every so often…
We really won’t do better as long as there’s sensationalism and a large part of the population that’s really proud of ignorance. I lean one way, but the same may be said for people who agree with my political leanings. Anyhow, this isn’t a political blog so I’ll leave my opinion at that. I already miss real Mexican food in DC (El Salvadorian food is much more bland). Good Mexican food can be hard to find outside of the American West. Honestly if it wasn’t for my Mom, brother, dog, and government job, I’d move your way! You Kiwis have a much better life-work balance. 🙂
I’m with you – I think money CAN buy happiness! Let’s face it: one of the biggest reasons why so many relationships/marriages fail is because of money problems and fighting about money. So I’d much rather be rich and alone. Say what you want about that.
I really like this idea for a blog post. Great way to give notice to some things you enjoyed reading/seeing. 🙂
Great Links! Thanks for sharing.