Just had a great job interview

Brewery in western Florida sought me out for a truly excellent position. I just had an hour long phone interview where I appear to have wowed the chief of Operations for the company. I am in the final 4 for this position. It would be a great opportunity in a part of the country I would enjoy living in. It also just feels really good to have someone so impressed by my philosophies, skills, and experience.

Now, this is where things get complicated...

The baroness is my #1 priority. She also makes the majority of money in our relationship, although this job may well pay about the same as her current position as a programmer. I need to talk to her about this possibility and what she would like to do. I know she likes the area because we vacationed around there. She would likely have to find a new position if we move. She is not happy at work right now though. Her programming skills are also minimally transferrable. She really only knows COBOL, and is in the process of learning Java, but hasn't completed the course work or become certified yet. She does not like moving. We just moved across country to Ohio 3 years ago. Overall, she is very risk averse. I am not going to have an easy time getting her to accept the idea of making another leap again.

There are also some good possibilities for me here that I can't speak to at the moment, but could well come to fruition soon. But a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

I'm now going to have to figure out how to talk to her about this opportunity and what we would like to do about it. Really not sure what angle to discuss this from.

Congrats on the interview.

Not an easy discussion, luckily my wife stays at home so our moving discussions are "easier"...

This would potentially give me the income to support us both on my own for a while. Not enough that I would want to be the sole income permanently, but enough to be comfortable for 6-12 months. I don't think that idea would appeal much to her though.

If this were not in a place where we were both like, "I would totally live here. We're going to vacation here again, just not in the middle of summer next time," and were she not really unhappy with her current employment situation, I don't think I'd even be considering it.

Ok so she's not happy? That's your out.

That's exciting! Congratulations!!

Did she know you were interviewing in FL? That could be a problem.

Perhaps an interim time living in 2 locations? If your income is gonna match hers, you should have a little extra change. What about if you suggested a 6 month period, with a visit once a month.

That would let you scope out the area, find some good neighborhoods, beat the pavement a little on her behalf, and give her some time to think about it. She could come visit once a month and check out the areas you are finding, then you can make a decision together.

If it looks bad in 6 months, move back.

I know that sounds a little extreme, but you need to get back to work. This could be a great opportunity for her too, just have to figure out how to get over her risk aversion.

Also, if your income will be able to replace hers and the opportunities look reasonable for her, then she could take 6 months off and live on your income while she completed the course work and certification for Java. That should make her much more marketable too, and put you both in a much better situation in a new area you like.

She's a programmer, can she Freelance?

I told her about the interview as soon as I knew it was going to happen. Let her know that I knew she didn't want to move, but I was only considering this particular opportunity because of the location.

An interim living in two places is possible. We did that in the process of moving to Columbus. That was really rough for her. She has issues with depression, and it was really hard when I left her behind in CA for 3 months, especially because that job fell through a month after she got here. This would also be different because at that time she really had no social support where we were in CA. Now, she has the roller derby team, which is great for her (although, she'd have to leave that behind, but I'm certain there's roller derby in the area).

If I could support her will really depend on what the offer is and figuring out cost of living in the area (pretty sure it's going to be higher than Columbus). I'm also not sure if she would be wild about the idea of being dependent on me in general.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: She's a programmer, can she Freelance?

I don't know. Firstly she likes the stability of working for a company she's been with for 15+ years. She has realized that they are really out to take care of their own interests, not her's. I don't think she'd enjoy the uncertainty of constantly hunting for part time gigs. I think she's also intimidated by the idea of applying for new jobs after not having interviewed for 15 years.

Only knowing COBOL is a big issue with finding programming jobs.

There is roller derby around Tampa and a lot of programming opportunities as well.

COBOL programming is a very high-paying but very niche job. Most of the people still doing that are past retirement age and about ready for the "big retirement." It's also a job in decline as businesses work to replace those few terribly aging, costly to maintain COBOL systems with something from this century (literally, or figuratively something from this millennium on tech timescales). She definitely needs to learn to program in other languages because the days of COBOL programming are numbered.

If she learned on COBOL I can see how she wouldn't easily pick up on any remotely modern language. It's also not going to be as easy to make good money programming in a modern language like every Tom, Dick, and Rajeev out there, although work will be easier to find.

Edit: I'd just like to see her reaction to Python. It would be like an ancient Egyptian ship captain stepping onto the bridge of the Starship Enterprise

Haha. You spelled COBOLSUX wrong.

Otherwise, if the money they are offering would cover what your family takes in and living expenses are not significantly higher, doesn't sound bad. I mean, if you family gross income is XX now with her working and you not and is going to be XX down there with you working and her not (for now), then it's not a big move financial wise. She can find something, I'm sure. There is actually a need for programmers that speak ENGLISH as a native language, or, let's say, live somewhere around US Central Daylight Savings Time, plus one or minus 2. I don't see a lot of COBOLSUX jobs, but other languages like VB and the whole dotnet thing are big. And then there's always analyst work, as a lot of business analysts around here are former programmers.

Good call Hess. Huge need to ba's. And programmers work great.

I believe what she's studying now is Java and .NET database design. Her experience is mainframe database.

It would almost certainly be a temporary income drop. I really don't know until they tell me what sort of pay they're thinking of. Brewer's don't make much, but this would be a high value position. I am drawing unemployment insurance and working part time now, so I am paying my share of finances. My best estimate is that if I took this job and she didn't work at all, we'd see a roughly 20% reduction in earnings (to roughly the median income level for the region) until she got a job again, at which point we would be easily in 6-figures with no debt and no kids. I also have about $50k cash in the bank set aside as rainy day fund and down payment for a house.

What is entailed in being a business analyst?

I keep telling her she is really best suited to a management/leadership role. She has a solid understanding of programming, communication, and above all Common Sense! She is not the best in any of those disciplines, but I think just having competence in all three is a rarity.

When do we get the details of which brewery it is? Or at least what "west " FL is. Is that tampa or Southern Alabama?

I'd rather live in the Tampa area than the Columbus area. Been to both and I like Florida.

Any chance for her to spend a few months writing a replacement for Axware autocross timing?

Enyar wrote: When do we get the details of which brewery it is? Or at least what "west " FL is. Is that tampa or Southern Alabama?

You get details of which brewery when I'm farther along in the process. I feel uncomfortable spilling the beans on someone's business status.

West Florida is within the Tampa area. We stayed in that area on vacation and LOVED it. Although our living expenses would probably jump by 5% just to keep the Baroness in sun screen. I think she and I would both prefer to live in that area. It really is the stress of moving and her needing to find new employment that would hold us back.

KyAllroad wrote: Any chance for her to spend a few months writing a replacement for Axware autocross timing?

I'd do it if someone's paying for it. Seriously.

Business analyst can be something of a catch-all, but a lot of my duties involve being something of a translator between higher level product people (who generally are not the most adept at technology) or customer and the software developers. Also can involve dealing with customer support people when things go wrong.

Dr. Hess wrote: There is actually a need for programmers that speak ENGLISH as a native language, or, let's say, live somewhere around US Central Daylight Savings Time, plus one or minus 2.

That plus decent cost of living outside of the big cities in said timezone is the driving force behind where I work. Cheaper than a local contract solution, better than sending it out of the country (and often cheaper in the end.)

< SIDETRACK > Main office is in Duluth, MN, if any programmers out there are looking for a job in the exact opposite of Florida. We're almost always hiring, feel free to drop me a line using my username @gmail.com. < / SIDETRACK >

If she's learning newer stuff, Java knowledge tends to pay more than MS stuff but getting paid while getting good enough at it is more of a challenge. There's more work on the MS (mainly C#.NET or VB.NET) side that would be likely to hire in people with less familiarity. These are major generalizations though. Not sure if combining existing COBOL knowledge with either gets you anywhere, but it may as part of a team modernizing someone's COBOL setup if the chips fell just right.

Getting good at the flavor of the day JavaScript frameworks is a decent route into a lot of places. The preferred frameworks/libraries/etc in JavaScript seem to change on a yearly basis, so you're never much more than a year behind everyone else.

Business Analysts, like "How much crap did we sell last week, and how was that year over year?" What's the forecast at Plant X based on the sales data from BigBox Store?

I see no need for database design work in DotNet, unless you mean accessing SQL Server or something more powerful, like Tera Data, Vertica, etc. Straight up SQL is what's needed for that, not DotNet. That is, nobody is writing a database for the company. You buy a database engine and write things against it.

I like Tampa. The company I used to work for has their main office there. They are always looking for Business Analysts because they are a cheap soda pop company that makes cheap soda pop. That is, they pay cheap. But starting pay for a Business Analysts that is trainable is >60K for someone with a degree and some experience. Oh, there is also a need for SAP programmers, because for some reason, after they buy it, SAP doesn't do the things the salesman said it was going to do, and now they are screwed. And that pays big bucks because "The Germans."

Tampa/St Pete/Clearwater used to be one of the premier areas to relocate to years ago. There are a lot of old people there living in park model MHs.

Well, florida needs better craft brew options.....so I'm in favor of your move.

If I was either of you I'd be nervous about moving somewhere depending upon just your job. It's no slight against you but your last few positions haven't lasted very long. My questions would be - how is this one different and how likely is it to last? Maybe the brewing industry has too high of a turnover to move around chasing jobs in it. Or at least without her already finding a position to transition into.

In reply to Beer Baron: There is lots of automotive fun in this area of FL too. Make that move!