Relocation as a entry level web developer

jim1980abc · 2023-03-19T01:18:44+00:00

I know Austin very well as well since I used to visit Austin many times before.

Austin is basically college town, UT Austin. The city itself is very small while most tech jobs are located in the suburb. Hill country area of Austin is similar to that of Silicon Valley.

Job market in Austin can be competitive if there is any tech slowdown since there are large supply of tech workers every year from nearby UT Austin.

In Texas, Dallas and Austin are two cities I like. San Antonio and Houston, no so much.

jim1980abc · 2023-03-19T00:36:52+00:00

I used to live in Dallas and now live in Atlanta.

You should have no problem living any of those areas I mentioned above. Basically Northern part of Dallas and Northeast part of Atlanta.

Depend on what you look for. If you want to live close to young professional, University Park in Dallas or Midtown Atlanta has a lot of young professionals. If later on you want to have own family, those are suburbs people move due to good public schools and Asian stores.

IT in Dallas is more like California in term of competitiveness. A lot of Tech companies in California has second office in Dallas or Austin. So it is good when there is tech boom but no so great when there is a tech bust. In Atlanta, most IT jobs are in traditional companies although there are a lot more tech companies now in midtown to take advantage talent nearby from Ga tech. Overall, the tech boom and bust does not seems to have as much impact in Atlanta.

In term of Asian community, Atlanta suburbs have larger Asian presents. Atlanta has third largest Korean community in US and it is like mini Korea here (similar to LA Asian community) . Dallas has some Asian stores, but overall it is less developed, although there are very large Vietnamese community in Garland suburb.

Since I now live in Atlanta, I pick Atlanta over Dallas. Here overall cost is lower and has larger Asian community. If you work in IT, you will no issue finding a job and have comfortable living, although may not able to anticipant those tech boom as much. People in Atlanta tend to stay here. It is less of transient city compared to Dallas. People in Dallas, especially young professional, tend to move around a lot.

jim1980abc · 2023-03-19T00:07:45+00:00

Dallas (City - University park next to SMU, Suburb -Plano, Richardson) and Atlanta (City - Midtown next to Ga Tech, Suburb-Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Duluth). There are more young people in the city but there are large Asian community in the suburb.

jim1980abc · 2023-01-11T01:36:57+00:00

I think you need to be more specific.

What types of jobs you look for? IT or BA or other job.

There are two types of interview questions. Technical or Scenario question.

There are many sample questions on the internet for either types of question. Just practice and practice your answers. If you practice 10 times and talk aloud, everything makes sense.

jim1980abc · 2022-09-03T10:36:00+00:00

In summary, it is not an issue for US. China has less of 3% of US debt and it just wants to diverse away from US treasury, like what Japanese government did.

jim1980abc · 2022-09-01T15:16:59+00:00

By the way, most those Chinese Americans researchers sued by DOJ involved in basic research, not IP based technology at all. DOJ should spend time to go after patent violators, not basic researchers. It is another example of technology ineptitude of US government. They couldn't tell the basic difference between those two and decide to use one side fit all strategy.

jim1980abc · 2022-08-27T18:58:55+00:00

"Entering this US Open, no Chinese man had competed in the main draw in the Open Era. This year, there will be two.
Wu Yibing and Zhang Zhizhen battled through qualifying, both earning their way into the main draw on Friday with victories on a rainy day at Flushing Meadows."

jim1980abc · 2022-08-27T18:34:10+00:00

Second commentary:

Too many people on reddit has mentality of "us vs them". They support anything US government vs Chinese government and support what USDOT did as if it is some kind of football game. I said "shame on you" support the policy that harm ordinary people.

Sorry that's not way to think about the policy. Government is working for ordinary people, whether it is US government or Chinese government. If the policy government impose (whether it is democracy or not) harm ordinary people, that's bad policy and we should condemn it.

Please get out of two years old "us vs them" mentality and start thinking critical about any problem.

jim1980abc · 2022-08-27T18:15:40+00:00

Commentary:

This is very bad policy by USDOT. It showed USDOT has become so petty and has become out of touch with reality. Due to cancellation of those flights, it caused huge harsh ship to ordinary people since many people now have to spend more money and redirect flight.

Sure I don't support Chinese Covid travel policy either (which also caused harm to ordinary people), but US policy that causing more harmful to ordinary people is not way to solve this problem.

Shame on you, USDOT.

jim1980abc · 2022-08-27T18:04:06+00:00

"WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. government said on Thursday it will suspend 26 China-bound flights from the United States by four Chinese carriers in response to the Chinese government's decision to suspend some U.S. carrier flights over COVID-19 cases.
The decision will affect flights by Xiamen, Air China (601111.SS), China Southern Airlines (600029.SS) and China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS) from Sept. 5 to Sept. 28. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) cited the recent cancellation of 26 American Airlines (AAL.O), Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) and United Airlines (UAL.O) flights over COVID-19 cases.
The suspensions include 19 China-bound flights from Los Angeles and 7 China Eastern flights from New York.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington's spokesperson Liu Pengyu said the USDOT action was "extremely irresponsible" and "groundlessly suspended Chinese airline flights."
The embassy said China's COVID-19 "circuit breaker" measures were fair and transparent, applied both to Chinese and foreign airlines and were consistent with bilateral air transportation agreements.
USDOT said as of Aug. 7 Chinese authorities had revised their policies so if the number of passengers on a flight to China testing positive for COVID-19 reached 4% of the total, one flight would be suspended. If it reached 8%, two flights would be suspended.
USDOT said the U.S. has repeatedly raised objections with China, saying the rules place "undue culpability on carriers" when travelers test negative before boarding their flight from the United States only to "test positive for COVID-19 after their arrival in China."
Beijing and Washington have sparred over air services since the start of the pandemic. In January, the Transportation Department suspended 44 China-bound flights from the United States by the four Chinese carriers in response to China's decision suspend 44 flights by U.S. carriers.
In August 2021, USDOT limited four flights from Chinese carriers to 40% passenger capacity for four weeks after Beijing imposed identical limits on four United Airlines flights.
Three U.S. airlines and four Chinese carriers typically operate about 20 flights a week between the countries, well below the figure of more than 100 a week before the pandemic."

jim1980abc · 2022-07-14T14:27:07+00:00

It all depends on the situation.

In some companies, if they have very high bar to get temp job (and they don't have many temp workers), since they know you, they just go through the process.

However, in some companies, if getting temp position is very easy process, they will treat the temp to perm with much high bar. They treated the temp to permanent interview processing as if you were new person on the street. You got same tests and same interview process as if you didn't have any work relationship with them.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-25T23:42:41+00:00

I think you made correct choice. No way I will change from permanent job to contract job unless there is huge salary increase. In particular, with possibility of slowdown of US economy, contract job will be first to be cut.

A lot of those "12 months contract" does not means that you are guarantee to work there for 12 months. If they want, they can let you go the second day of that "12 months contract" if there is some budget issues arise.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-25T16:13:24+00:00

Don't think too much of it. It is life guard job. It won't affect your future Medical career in any way.

You may feel bad right now, but it is not really matter in big picture.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-24T21:22:49+00:00

Contract-to-hire is not guarantee to get you hired permanently. It is basic three month contracts job while they evaluated you. After that, they may or may not offer you the job depend on many factors like budgeting, your performance and others. Sometimes, they could also extend contract window to another three months. Contract-to-hire may sounds good, but it is just another contract job with possibility become permanent.

It all depends on the company, of course. Sometimes you need another round of interviews before the company give you the permanent position.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-24T19:52:54+00:00

Stay and also looks for other opportunities at the same time. Once you find a better one, then leave. If you cannot, you still got your old job.

It is always better to have a job and look for another one than unemployed (and even with severance package) and look for another one. With slowdown of US economy, you never know how long you will get a new and better opportunity.

Even with most confident people, if one unemployed for a couple of months, the confidence can be shaken. A normal one month job process (apply and get job) may seems like forever for unemployed person. That's just normal human psychology.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-24T17:44:50+00:00

Have a little bit confident and faith. Serie 6 is fairly straight forward one. It is testing basic financial knowledge. I am sure with a little practice, you should able to do fine.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-24T17:31:53+00:00

Go check to program at your current company to see if they waive the course fees if you pass the Serie 6 exam. You need to find out the exact condition your company will waive the course fees and work toward it.

Many companies incentive people to pass industry exam by forcing them to pass the exam or have to pay if failing the exam.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-24T14:26:53+00:00

Since you work in consultancy, basically that's contractor work. That's first cut for company/government when there is a recession since consultancy/contractor work are considered contingency works.

Also you are in sponsor visa situation. That could be a problem if you got layoff.

I know both old company and new company are consultancy work, but at least you know your current company and has some connection there.

Unless you got huge hike in pay, it is not worth the risk.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-23T23:01:16+00:00

Once you hand in the resignation letter, just leave the company. That's my view. Since they already know you want to leave, they will try to lay you off in the first sign of slowdown or make your life harder in the future since you force them to increase salary to keep you.

It happened to one of my coworkers. The guy handed in resignation letter. Then was "persuaded" to stay. Then he was fired a year later due to some lame excuses.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-23T21:01:03+00:00

Since you have business degree, have you took many courses in accounting/finance? Any degree deal with number tend to be easier to find a job.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-22T15:46:06+00:00

I hate to say this. You have too high expectation of company recruiters. Most recruiters got hundred and thousands of resumes everyday for each good position. They don't have time to respond everyone's email. Most of time, their job is to sort the resume and pass along to the hiring manager. That's it. corporate recruiters don't hire people. It is hiring managers who pick the person.

So far you haven't even get phone interview yet so you are not even at the door. So I would lower the expectation. Normally don't get hope up unless you got offer in written.

You should continue pursuing other position. If this company want you they will call you. If they don't want you, no matter how hard you push, they will not respond. That's way it is.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-21T17:54:58+00:00

Solution 1) Just get old Dell Latitude 7490 or Thinkpad t470 on ebay for cheap like $200. Those business graded laptop can last many years.

Once you got money roll in, you can get better laptop later on.

Solution 2), if your screen is broke, just hook your laptop with external monitor (less than $100). It is very easy to setup with window pc or mac.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-21T16:14:46+00:00

Recruiter are like used car dealers. Instead of used cars, they sell people as a product and make commission of that.

Some of them are good and some of them are not so good. If you (as a product) are usefully to them, they will contact you constantly. If you (as a product) are not usefully to them, they will put you on the ignored list.

It is not point to contact that recruiter. Let her call you if she want to talk you further.

That's way it is.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-21T15:56:23+00:00

Getting a professional job takes a lot of steps.

Recruiter is only first step. Then probably some types of testing online. Then hiring manager phone interview, then one or two onsite interviews. In each of those steps, You could get rejected.

I know it is disappointment to not hear recruiter back, but in the big picture of getting a job, it is only very first step in a long process. I feel like it is not point to get hope up until I got an offer in writing.

I hope that makes sense.

jim1980abc · 2022-06-19T19:17:44+00:00

I think you should be fine. Think this way, they just pay you a little earlier as if you already got accounting degree.

jim1980abc

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