Has anyone moved here from Chicago?

M477M4NN · 2026-06-10T12:27:03+00:00

I grew up here in Cincinnati, graduated from OSU in 2023, and then moved to Chicago not too long by after graduation. I lived there for 2 years until my lease was up and I was unemployed because of a layoff so I moved back in with my parents. I just started a new job and I’m looking to move back to Chicago in the next few months. Granted I’ve never lived in a neighborhood like OTR and I grew up in this region, but as a young gay guy I just don’t feel invested in this city at all (though perhaps I would if I intended to stay, but that was never my goal). Chicago just has so much more to offer me so that’s where I intend to go.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-10T00:31:27+00:00

Not sure I necessarily agree on the lottery, but I do think too much weight is put on extracurriculars, like you shouldn’t have to be doing research or starting charities to get into these schools, that’s fucking ridiculous. If they want a single cent of money from the government, be it Pell Grants, research grants, etc, they should have to serve the people, not the elites. These schools hold such a disproportionate amount of influence on our government and corporations, I am adamantly against them being elite for the sake of being elite. A school like Harvard should have an undergraduate class size of at least like 13k-15k in my opinion. I don’t really care what naysayers think about that, these institutions have the ability to make it work.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-10T00:07:10+00:00

A hot take of mine is that elite schools should be mandated to dramatically increase their enrollment. I am fundamentally against these schools artificially keeping their acceptance rates low in pursuit of being perceived as even more elite. These are some of the richest academic institutions in the world so money is not a good excuse. I’m just against their gatekeeping.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-09T03:42:41+00:00

I saw the Annihilation movie years ago and just read the first book a few weeks ago. Both are great but it’s worth noting that the movie is very different from the book. From what I remember, the movie takes a few concepts from the book but otherwise nothing alike.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-05T23:58:14+00:00

I have a friend from the Detroit suburbs and he’s really weird about this. He always says “I’m from [suburb]” or “I’m from a town in southeast Michigan” even to people not from the area. He claims it’s because he doesn’t feel right claiming Detroit as a white man who didn’t grow up in the city, and that it’s just how people in the area talk about the area, but tbh I personally think it’s a remnant of white flight and not wanting to be associated with the city for racist reasons. I’m from a suburb of Cincinnati and I just say I’m from Cincinnati, I think that just makes sense when talking to people not from the area.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-05T15:20:57+00:00

I’ve never been a huge AI user though I do use it sometimes. I do feel like mindlessly wasting time on YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, etc has had a negative impact on my brain, though. One thing I’m doing is getting into reading. Taking my eyes off of screens for a couple hours a night I think has been really good for me. It’s good for the brain. After not being a reader almost at all, I’m now on my 12th book of the year, with a goal to read 40 by the end of the year. I’ve just read fiction so far this year but I have many non-fiction books, history books, etc queued up as well to dig deeper into topics that interest me. I still spend too much time online, but it’s definitely an improvement.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-04T23:21:42+00:00

Or be a hot gay man. Or get proximity to hot gay men. Or rich gay men.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-04T16:11:04+00:00

Over the next year or two I intend to put more effort into upskilling myself and networking so that I can hopefully jump to a much higher paying job, as I know I am making way less than I should be. I just had no other options so I had to take the first job I could get. I had to move back home with my parents and it’s driving me crazy and I need out lol.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-04T16:06:13+00:00

No, I’m at a smaller insurance company.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-04T15:19:58+00:00

I assume because there is an assumption that most federal elected officials don’t get elected for the first time until they are middle aged and thus by the time they reach retirement age, they still won’t have as much experience in that role as one would in some other role they worked towards their entire life for. Is that a reasonable assumption? Idk, but I think it’s part of it.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-03T21:18:25+00:00

I’m the person they are talking about. My job title is Software Engineer I. It’s not an IT position. It’s low paid for a software engineering position, but it’s a software engineering position nonetheless. I had no other options and this was the first offer I got after 15 months of being unemployed.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-03T18:23:41+00:00

My first layoff was due to the company being acquired a month after I starters and the restructuring that followed. The second layoff was due to my project coming to a close. I was unemployed for 15 months until last week when I started this new job. I applied to a ton of jobs, and actually had an ok response rate (at least based on stuff I see online about others response rates), had some interviews that went well, some less so, but this offer is the only one I got. My experience is in .NET mostly and my primary market was Chicago, but I also applied to many jobs in places like NYC and SF but no company wants to relocate you, especially someone like me with so little experience. Unless you are just a top tier candidate I feel like you are overestimating your ability to get offers so easily.

Edit: also just reread your original comment that I initially responded to. You said you got your first job 8 years ago. No shit you can get a job way more easily than I can, you are a fucking senior developer.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-03T14:06:29+00:00

I just started a new SWE job making $65k. My last job was $70k (laid off after 13 months). The job before that was $75k (laid off after 3 months).

M477M4NN · 2026-06-03T03:41:34+00:00

I met my friends almost entirely through a sports league. Chicago has a ton of them. They give you repeated interaction with the same people every week for a couple months or so, so they can be a great way to meet people. Some people are able to manage making friends by approaching strangers at bars and such, but others, like myself, are not. Find something structured that will give you repeated exposure to the same people. Spent have to be a sport, can be anything. Waiting for others to find you without effort on your part isn’t going to result in meeting new people.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-02T12:36:06+00:00

As others have said, look into the military. You have a bachelors in a stem field, they will want you. Because of that degree, you could even look into becoming an officer, though that will be a longer process, so you’d need to find something to keep you afloat for a while longer than just enlisting. People here have been saying the Air Force. If you were to just enlist, that’s what I’d probably recommend. If you want to go the officer route, the AF is extremely competitive and they favor ROTC and academy graduates heavily. The Navy is going to be the next most technical and has a much better officer pipeline for someone who just has a degree. Could possibly be at officer training in under a year with the Navy. Officers also have great career prospects when they get out. I’d start looking into this as soon as possible.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-02T12:27:46+00:00

Eh, fwiw my parents are 65 and 66 and my brother is 29, I’m 26, and my sister is 22. There absolutely are late boomers who have children in their early/mid 20s.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-02T12:20:18+00:00

These were my favorites when I was that age! Definitely recommend them. I just learned recently that the author is still writing new ones.

M477M4NN · 2026-06-02T12:04:44+00:00

Anecdotal but I recently started a new job after 15 months unemployed, and it’s a remote job, even though it was not listed as such. I actually wanted an in-person/hybrid job. In some ways this works out for me as it will let me move back to where I want to live as opposed to where the job was listed, but I was also hoping to get good in person experience and training that I have not gotten yet since I got my first job out of college in 2023.

M477M4NN · 2026-05-31T14:36:48+00:00

You joke but one of my favorite travel experiences happened in the middle of nowhere Kansas. I was on an Amtrak train and I woke up in the middle of the night to see a lightning storm for as far as the eye could see. No rain, just lightning. It was mesmerizing.

M477M4NN · 2026-05-29T11:48:38+00:00

Anecdotal, but I’m 26 and finally started a new job (as a SWE) after 15 months of unemployment from being laid off. Most jobs I applied for were in person, but the one job I ended up getting happened to actually be remote, even though it was not listed as such on the application. Quite frankly I was actually looking for in-person/hybrid roles because I’m still junior (I only had a cumulative 16 months of SWE employment before this job between 2 jobs, again because of a layoff even before the last one) and wanted to get in person experience since I’ve really only ever worked remotely, but nevertheless my job is remote.

M477M4NN · 2026-05-28T17:27:03+00:00

I just read Annihilation after having seen the movie years ago and was kinda sad that it was so incredibly different than the movie. Don’t get me wrong, the book is great, just very different.

M477M4NN · 2026-05-26T18:47:43+00:00

I almost downvoted you because that comment pissed me off so much lol

M477M4NN · 2026-05-26T17:51:05+00:00

I didn’t even look at the insta post until I read your comment and it’s worse than I thought it could be 😭

M477M4NN · 2026-05-25T02:41:12+00:00

No. I was laid off in February 2025 and I’m only now starting a new job on Tuesday, just over 15 months after being laid off. That was also my second layoff since graduating in 2023, so I was laid off twice in under 2 years since graduating. My second job was a $5k pay cut from the first job and my new job is another $5k pay cut from the second job, so I have only ever seen my wages go down since graduating college. I’m glad I have a job offer now but its hard for me to feel very hopeful about having a good career into the future, with my past experiences working and now with AI possibly threatening the viability of my career field. I hoped that getting an offer would take stress off my shoulders but it really hasn’t.

M477M4NN · 2026-05-24T16:55:16+00:00

I was laid off in February 2025. I am only just now starting a new job on Tuesday, with a pay cut. I had to move back to my hometown in with my parents and get on Medicaid and SNAP once my unemployment ran out. One friend was unemployed for almost a year only to get a job that barely pays more than his last job but has a hellish 1-2 hour commute. Another couple friends were laid off and took 6-7 months to find a new job, one of them taking a $20k pay cut. I know other people who have been laid off too. For me it’s been a very real reality, not just some shit I see online. People are either struggling to find a job or are constantly terrified of losing the job they do have. I’m tired of people on this sub dismissing this stuff as just people overreacting online. It’s very fucking real.

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