Life As Nick Starr

What does the future hold? So many would love to find out that answer for their own life, and that is what has me thinking now. Should I move, should I stay? Will I be able to find a job out there? Will things work out? What is the right move and when is the right time to make it?

Right now I’m working for the next 4-6 weeks as a consultant to a company in Clearwater working on updating their “database” aka excel spreadsheets into Access, and automating reporting. The pay is pretty good and I am getting around 40 hours a week. Should give me a larger buffer in terms of finances then I had before this position.

I recently sold a few things on eBay, and will be using that money towards travel expenses. With the rising gas costs, a trip across country is going to cost at least $350+ in fuel alone.

I’ve been given a lot of support in terms of moving out to Cali and the Silicon Valley area, but the job front hasn’t been as successful. I did find out that the formatting of my resume didn’t come through on Monster, so all of the apps I sent out looked like garbled text. I will be working on sending out a new resume in the upcoming days.

I’ve never been one to take such a huge risk. When I moved to Alabama, there was a family structure (my girlfriends) to support us, and when I moved to Portland, OR I knew I had a place to stay and finances weren’t a problem….although finding a job out there was next to impossible due to their horrible job market at the time. This is a large risk, moving to an area I barely know. There are a number of people that I know out there, ironically more there then here in the Tampa Bay area, but in the end I’m the one who has to look out for me.

It’s not like I’m moving to LA and trying to become an actor, my goals aren’t quite as grandiose. I’d just like t work for a company that I am going to enjoy the work, people, and environment. I don’t care if that is working for an internet company, Fortune 500 company, or even a small mom and pop place. I’d just like to be happy. I think the initial move itself will be a great experience, and I fully intend to blog/podcast the entire experience of driving across the country. Finding a job and security once I get out there is my main concern now.

As I said in the beginning, no one knows what the future holds…here’s hoping that whatever decision I make, it turns out to be the right one.

Well as you may of read on my twitter feed or on here yesterday, my day job ended. Around 11am I was pulled into my boss’ office, and the IT manager was there too. My boss told me that they had decided to outsource my position (Director of Marketing) to an outside ad agency. The agency had “new ideas” for the company and provided them at “a lower cost.” I guess a company has to cut corners where they can, but when I did nothing wrong I felt I deserved a bit more then just the boot. I got no severance, no vacation pay only my last week’s paycheck.

They gave me a box to pack up my stuff (not having a house, I kept a number of things in my office). I was surprised they didn’t escort me out or watch me pack up. They ironically where nice till the end. I also was a secondary IT person for the company, and an employee there came up to me (not knowing I had been canned) and asked a computer question, which my boss saw me answer. I wanted to ask my boss if anyone there even know I was living out of my car, maybe to rub it in a little, maybe just to acknowledge that they were as observant as a blind person in a dark hallway, but my boss was so nice, I didn’t want to ruin his impression of me. He even offered me a good recommendation, as well as one of the VP’s of the company.

Well now what to do? Well I still blog professionally for Boy Genius Report, and will continue to do that.  I wrote recently about wanting to move to California, and now that I truly have nothing tying me here, it was one of the first ideas to pop into my head. The crazy part is my parents read my blog, and they even mentioned California for me. I was shocked that they would even suggest it, but they mentioned that they were in support of what would make me happy. It made me more confident about the possibility.

I’ve got a storage unit here that I’ve been cleaning out. I will finish doing that very soon and start selling a bunch of the items that are expendable for me. Currently my list includes:

• 51″ Sony HDTV
• 30Gb Black Zune
• Bose Quiet Comfort 3 Headphones
• MacBook Pro (so I can get downgrade to a MacBook and make a little bit while keeping a computer)
• Nintendo Wii

No clue on prices yet, and the MBP sale is only a possibility. I think I could get around $16oo-ish for it on eBay, but a new MB with tax is $1300, so is $300 really worth the downgrade? The Wii has 3 games (Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Madden 07) with 2 controllers I am thinking $225-ish for that (all prices based on eBay estimates). Bose headphones I will prob sell on eBay since their resale value is pretty high ($250+). The Zune I could sell for like $180-ish. The TV will be more of a Craislist item, for around $750.

If I sold all of those items for around those prices I wold make around $1700. Would help in terms of a financial buffer. I have a bunch of other items I could have a yard sale at my parents place.

Well now all that remains is getting a job. With all that I have to sell and items I would have to wrap up, I am considering a job temporarily for a month or so, maybe something 2nd shift, so I could still blog during the morning. I’m sure things will work out one way or another, it’s just a huge step moving across the country. As for this “3-day” weekend, I will be hitting up all of the job hunting sites both here in Tampa and in Cali. I could accept a job anywhere in the nation honestly, I just thing I would prefer to move to Cali or stay here in Tampa.

Well that’s the story….from here I’m sure there will be plenty of updates (especially with all the extra time I have). Here’s hoping everything works out for the best.

First time being sick since I moved into my car. Fortunately, my parents live nearby and were allowed me to come over and take a nap after leaving work early. I’m still not feeling 100% today, and my throat feels worse, but I’m not sneezing all the time anymore. Got plenty of water, cold pills, etc so hopefully I will feel better.

BTW, the title of this post comes from my Gtalk (NickStarr) away message yesterday, to which no less then 5 people said, “Home sick, don’t you mean car sick? Zing” After the 2nd time it got a bit old.