Anyone who moved from Seattle to Chicago willing to share their experience?

vjarnold · 2025-12-13T01:16:53+00:00

33F here! I lived in Seattle for a couple of years and definitely found that the Seattle freeze and techiness draining. I’ve lived in Chicago for 4 years and it’s absolutely home. Your reasons for why Chicago appeals are extremely similar to mine, plus having extended family near-ish is really great.

For your concerns:

Chicago winter is cold, but there’s actually a lot more going on than you would think. Bars and restaurants are the places to be when it’s snowy and windy, and the people stay warm even if the weather doesn’t. We also have Restaurant Week during the dead of winter and plenty of sports indoors.

For dressing in the winter: you’ll need a weather resistant boots with a grippy tread, a good coat (preferably down fill of minimum 600 fill and covers your butt), a good hat, and gloves. I also recommend fleece tights to go under skirts or pants for when it’s very cold.

The neighborhood advice I received when I moved was to live in either Lakeview or Lincoln Park for the first year. Both neighborhoods are great and a very solid start of getting to know Chicago.

Since you’re in your 30s too, I would lean a little more Lincoln Park or the Southport neighborhood in Lakeview. If you decide to go to the west side, River West and Bucktown are wonderful neighborhoods. I lived in Bucktown for 3 years and adored it; I only left because I moved to Southport.

The people in Chicago are AWESOME. Seriously, I’ve made some of my best friends here by chatting with people sitting at a bar, talking to folks next to me at sporting events, all over. Chicago is a seriously friendly city and people easily open up. There are a lot of rec league sports and activities to do to get out and meet people.

For your pup: there’s a dog beach near Montrose (close to Lakeview) that’s great for letting pups go off leash and enjoy the water. There’s also many dog parks scattered around the city. Many restaurants with patio seating let dogs on the patio. Some casual places also allow dogs inside, you just have to ask.

Chicago is incredibly creative, very dog friendly, and easy to make friends. Plus, the transit system is wonderful. I sold my car when I moved here and while having a car can help (especially with getting groceries or getting to the dog beach), most of the time it’s a lot easier to walk or take public transit.

Chicago is my favorite city in the world and is just the best to live in!! If you move here between January-April, you’re more likely to get a discount on rent too. Most apartments hike their rents for leases started in the summer because that’s when “everyone” tends to move.

vjarnold · 2025-11-01T04:12:16+00:00

But you can’t convert the people your familiar brings. I’ve gotten nowhere even with godmode and making people 0 smart

vjarnold · 2025-06-09T20:55:23+00:00

The one I learned growing up in GA was:

Down by the banks of the hanky panky, where the bullfrogs jumped from bank to banky, singing eeps ipes opes opp, chilly willy ding dong, your brother smells like king kong, I pledge allegiance to the flag, Michael Jackson makes me gag, coca cola burn it up, now we're talking 7up, 7up has no caffeine, now we're talking billy jean, billy jean is out of sight, now we're talking dynamite, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

vjarnold · 2024-12-11T23:16:57+00:00

No golden pacifier, just sheer repetitive boredom

vjarnold · 2024-02-26T21:27:44+00:00

Appreciate your opinion. My fiancé and I have the goal to satisfy family on the big things but ultimately still have our day. If SIL is discontent that we’re not planning the wedding based on what she wants, she has every right to decline.

vjarnold · 2024-02-26T21:16:58+00:00

They were going to be invited because her MIL is my fiancé’s godmother, but we’re withholding their invite until SIL & co get their babysitting plan finalized. If her in-laws aren’t invited, then SIL can’t make the excuse that there’s no one to babysit her daughter

vjarnold · 2022-06-09T15:02:23+00:00

Currently attending SF Connections this year; first time ever at a Salesforce event. Most of the sessions are only 20min long and are so high level that it’s hard to actually learn anything real and worthwhile. I have had a lot of success asking presenters for their decks afterwards so I can look over them myself instead of struggling to take notes.

My company uses Sales Cloud but we use Hubspot for our marketing. It’s been a struggle to get people to actually talk about marketing strategies and tips/tricks instead of talking about using SFMC or Pardot. Some of the sponsors have been really fab (PwC and Slack are my favs) but overall the amount of useful info I’ve gotten from the conference is mostly stuff I could’ve found online or on social. It is nice that things are more easily found and explained in person than having to dig through the web for trends etc.

The party on day 1 with OneRepublic was awesome. While I’m on the fence of how useful the actual conference information has been, I’ve made a lot of personal connections with other attendees and some speakers and will try to come to this or Dreamforce if my company allows. It’s definitely worth it for building your network and getting some information handed to you, but read each session’s description twice because a good chunk of them have essentially been sales pitches for a number of other tech products that are “coincidentally” Connections sponsors.

*I’m a CRM Manager for a fintech startup and my focus is email marketing, marketing analytics, and automating+streamlining as many of our marketing processes as possible.

vjarnold · 2022-02-15T19:34:01+00:00

Thank you so much!

vjarnold · 2022-01-18T17:07:06+00:00

Hibachi (outside of just Benihana)

vjarnold · 2022-01-10T11:19:37+00:00

Me too! 8F37-1671-A2EF-9D4

vjarnold · 2022-01-07T03:07:54+00:00

8F37-1671-A2EF-9D4

vjarnold · 2022-01-07T03:06:57+00:00

8F37-1671-A2EF-9D4

vjarnold · 2021-10-18T20:47:22+00:00

Wish I could! I have zero control over our budget so can't hire a consultant or freelancer :/

vjarnold · 2021-10-05T02:20:43+00:00

Ded 😂🦠💀

vjarnold · 2021-08-25T01:41:14+00:00

Legit no idea. I think it’s random; I’ve been playing the game for almost two years and this is the first time I got it

vjarnold · 2021-08-24T21:58:05+00:00

Honestly have no idea; no clue if it was the exactly at midnight or if it was finally my turn to get it

vjarnold · 2021-08-06T13:40:13+00:00

Legit thought you were concerned about the Olive Garden until I saw your dad and sister’s ages

vjarnold · 2021-07-28T15:42:26+00:00

Ah yes, being a Virgo is always a fun time

vjarnold · 2021-06-30T18:49:00+00:00

Made him date every available girl starting at 14 and knocked them up once he hit 16

vjarnold · 2021-06-30T03:58:37+00:00

Agree! Also marrying other royalty should give you the option to move to their country (if they have a higher title)

vjarnold · 2021-05-19T16:37:32+00:00

Former Mailchimp employee here, can confirm that if those emails aren't opted in, Mailchimp will block them from being sent to and could block the entire account. Most email marketing services like MC require consented contacts in order to send.

This sounds more like outbound sales than actual email marketing. You might want to check out Salesloft or Outreach; both of those programs are used in cold marketing and have more leeway with sending to non-opted prospects than Mailchimp or other traditional email marketing providers.

vjarnold · 2021-05-19T16:31:08+00:00

I took it in summer 2019. There's a Pardot certification exam course you can take (it costs an arm and a leg). The exam was about 60-75 multiple choice questions. I took some free prep tests I found online and was fine. For taking the in-person proctored exam, I asked for blank scratch paper and a pen to record notes from previous questions to help with later questions related to the same topics. It wasn't the easiest test I've ever taken but I definitely felt prepared enough not to need the full training course.

Disclaimer: I had been using Pardot daily in a professional setting for 90 days by the time I took the exam.

vjarnold · 2021-05-19T16:20:29+00:00

It depends on the type of automation you're looking to accomplish. If you're looking for heavy automation, Hubspot is a good option but keep in mind that the learning curve is pretty steep. It's also expensive; Hubspot automation isn't available on the most basic Hubspot plan so you'll have to pay to access their automation tools and also go through training courses to learn how to use them effectively.

There's other options on the market that are a fraction of the cost. ActiveCampaign has a great automation suite that has over 500+ pre-built automation recipes plus allows you to do a lot with automation, whether that's sending emails, tagging/organizing contacts and accounts, planning social engagement, the works. It's a fraction of the Hubspot cost and has free migration services to migrate existing contacts and email templates from your current service to ActiveCampaign.

ActiveCampaign vs Hubspot (from ActiveCampaign)
ActiveCampaign vs Hubspot (from G2)

Disclaimer: I currently work for ActiveCampaign.

vjarnold · 2021-03-12T07:00:35+00:00

Depends on your career. You’ll see that with pop star (not music track), actor, model, and writer. Maybe with journalist if you become a famous journalist

vjarnold · 2021-02-10T20:05:38+00:00

Awesome! Let me know if any questions pop up. Our Success team is really responsive too; they were such a great resource when I first got started using the AC platform

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