It has been over six years since we moved from up north down to the Tampa area. We lived in an apartment for a while when we first moved down here - the biggest reason for that was the time it afforded us to research and find the best place to buy a home.
I did a lot of research before picking the Tampa area as the place we should move to. In many ways that research was correct. There are many nice things to do around Tampa, there are many IT jobs, etc. When we were choosing a house though, I wanted to keep options open a bit though. I didn't know people who worked at any of the local IT employers so I wanted to be located somewhere central in case a future employment change was needed. This was very sound reasoning and in the end was useful to a degree.
The first place I worked at down here was located in Temple Terrace. From our house, it was typically a 35-50 minute drive which wasn't too bad. There were occasional days where it was over 1.5 hours when accidents occurred at the wrong place/time. Overall this was fine - until that employer announced pending layoffs and everyone had 3 basic choices - quit on your own terms, stay and see if you ended up laid off, select to take a termination package which required you to stay for some amount of time before you could get their "layoff benefits" package. Since I had only been there for a couple years, the "layoff benefits" package wasn't very enticing. If you ended up having to stay until one of a set of predetermined dates - you end up looking for work with a flood of other people at the same time. In the end, it seemed like the best move was to quit on my own terms and find a new job before a large mass of other people were also looking for work.
I didn't have a lot of time to find something else but I did my best. I found a place which was starting some similar cloud work and had some other interesting aspects. When I interviewed there (about 10am), the drive was only about 1 hour which wasn't bad. I was a bit nervous because the distance was quite a bit farther and required taking the interstate which had traffic issues on the news almost daily. I decided to take this job and nearly immediately found that it was typically 75-90 minutes driving there and usually at least 90 minutes coming home. My GPS would try to route me around traffic but that was usually pointless - I often ended up on streets with stop signs every few feet or the route was just erratic. I continued with this for around 8 months and was very tired of the drive. It was hard to be home at a reasonable time to have a family dinner together. It would have been better if they allowed some remote work but that was never an option.
I was contacted by someone from another company at around the 7 month mark and we started talking. They were looking for someone which had had prior development lead experience and lots of general development experience, etc overall. I would have some architecture, dev lead, mentoring, etc work which was pretty much the description of a "dream job" for me. The routes to this company followed the same initial path as my current company at that time but the new company was closer - not far from the airport. I figured this would reduce drive time by 15-30 minutes one way. So given the "dream job" option and less driving - it seemed like a good choice to make.
So I made that change. It was a little less driving but it was still daily stop and go traffic with motorcycles driving between lanes and other just bizarre behavior. It was usually between 50 and 75 minutes to work and 60-75 minutes home. Nearing the 2 year mark here and then COVID hit. We had just moved many people, including myself, into a new building next door - all setup with the open floor plan and everyone sits together at groups of long desks. A bunch of different things just made it feel like it was time to leave there. The original "dream job" description didn't include all the red tape that affected everyone living in my household due to the nature of the business. At this point, I really am worn out from the daily drives and traffic, etc. I realize at this point that it is hard to find something "close" to where I live which is under an hour drive.
I reach out to agencies and look for remote work. Jobs which require coming into the office on a limited basis would be great. I do enjoy the direct contact with others. I also decide to go with contract or contract to hire positions for the first time ever. If something changes for the worst, it seemed like it would simplify changing jobs.
I find a job with a large well known company and it is contract to hire. It is fully remote at that point but it was indicated that it could change a little. If I had to go into the office it would be 1.5 to 2.5 hours one way but if that was only once a month or so then that is doable. There were no real decisions on the details or plans at that point. I decided to give that a go. It was going ok but I wasn't doing any real design/architecture work and was pretty bored. Then one day, it was announced that there would be a 3 day in-office requirement starting in 2 weeks. That was obviously not going to work well for me and the 2 week notice for it was beyond strange. Fortunately, my local manager had already requested an exception for a month for that in-office requirement for me. That ended up extended for another month since they really liked what I was doing. I knew that at some point that would have to end - if for nothing else, it isn't fair to other employees who have to go in. At some point, it would cause some friction with other employees if I was left exempted from that requirement.
Anyways, I finally reached an end-date there and now it is time to find something again which I would love to be a long term employer which doesn't require large numbers of hours on the road each month.
So my recommendation to anyone thinking about moving to a new area like Tampa - think carefully about where the jobs are versus where you want to live. Don't underestimate the effects of drive time and traffic. Also remember to account for other things though like floods, hurricanes, sink holes , etc too though.. In the end, it may cause you to rethink how you define "best location" to live.
Wishing everyone in similar circumstances the best!
Scott
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