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IBM @ Austin


Ektris

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Hey everyone... I've been pretty silent here lately but have been checking in daily still. Just not a whole lot to say I guess.

 

I have been holding onto one thing though...

 

In March I received and accepted my first job offer - as a software developer for IBM in Austin, Texas!

 

I'm super excited to have such an opportunity given to me. Finally all of my work paid off... Even if I still haven't received anything else and I do feel somewhat pushed into a corner when it comes to my options...

 

Well this weekend I finally went down to visit the office and drive around the area. Oh boy...

 

I think I like the office. I know I like the premise of the product I'll be working on. My team all seems really nice. But they seem to be expecting a whole lot out of me and as a first job I don't know what to expect and it's making me incredibly nervous.

 

As for Austin itself... Wow it's hot here. And not even summer. Ugh. That'll take some getting used to. Also, the traffic is absolutely horrendous. And toll roads just to get anywhere?! Not cool. Worst of all and most importantly, I just do not have any idea where to live or what to shoot for. I think I'd want at least a 2 bedroom apartment just for the space but know nothing of neighborhoods or anything...

 

I don't have a car, furniture, or even know if my girlfriend will go down with me yet (I've not even graduated college to even look at these things!)... Yet half a dozen agents - and counting - that IBM has contracted for my move have contacted me for al of these details and more. It's stressing me out so much.

 

More than anything the distance is driving me crazy. I'll be so far removed from all that I know and love and it scares me. It scares me tremendously. I'll be moving into unknown territory in all ways. I still can't convince myself wholly that this is where I should be. But if I change my mind now... I have no other option. I killed myself with stress for just getting a job offer and don't want to go back to that... Not that this is much better right now. I'm scared, plain and simple, but I can't bring myself to just accept having nothing by saying no.

 

So I've got a lot to think about lately. A lot to think about that makes being a horrendously indecisive person a very bad thing.

 

(I didn't go stalk RoosterTeeth by the way... there'll be time for that. :P)

 

~|ET|~

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Yo. I know moving for a job is a crazy stressful thing. I'll be doing the same later this year, and even though it's with a company I've worked at before and in an area I've spent the summers over in the past, it's still really freaky.

 

All I can say is - when you get there, start branching out. See if IBM's got any interest groups, even if it's something as casual as board game nights or something. I'm not saying you'll meet your new BFF first week in town, but meeting new people is doable.

 

Similarly, for the job - yeah, your team's probably expecting things of you, but if they're anything like where I work (and it wouldn't surprise me if they are) they'll be willing to help you learn the ropes. Don't be afraid to ask for advice or resources. They know you're fresh out of college and that this is your first time working with them; on balance, teams tend to be more reasonable than not about this sort of thing. My first software dev job was in a field I'd never worked in before in a language I'd never used, and while it was a bit overwhelming at first, you'd be surprised at how quickly you pick up on stuff.

 

The short version is I guess - yeah, it's freaky, but moving and working has a lot of upsides to it. Drop me a PM if you ever want to talk about the industry/etc. - I've never worked at IBM, but it sounds like I've had some similar experiences to what you will.

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Austin is one of the coolest cities you could possibly be living in. I would be more jealous if I weren't in Portland. I cam this close to living there once-upon-a-time. You should talk to Adrian, he lives there now.

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As for Austin itself... Wow it's hot here. And not even summer. Ugh. That'll take some getting used to.

I've lived in Texas for all my life and I'm still not used to the heat :P .

 

Congrats on getting the job, though. Sounds like you're doing all right in that area.

 

-TNTOS-

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As for Austin itself... Wow it's hot here. And not even summer. Ugh.

As another lifelong Texan I can assure you, it will only get hotter. Sunscreen and a good hat should be on your packing list, not to mention a good water bottle!

 

Also, the traffic is absolutely horrendous. And toll roads just to get anywhere?! Not cool.

Count your blessings: at least you aren't moving to Houston. Traffic in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, or Austin is gonna be horrendous, some worse than others. Just make sure to plan ahead and give yourself a lot of time. Most of the radio stations I know of down here give traffic updates every 10-15 minutes (I would be surprised if that was unusual) so don't be shy to explore the channels.

 

I can't agree with DeeVee that Austin is such a great place, but I'm an Aggie so I have a natural anti-Austin disposition :P I can say, however, that Texas is awesome and we look forward to having you ^_^

 

And if you need to be rescued from those weird people in Austin, I'm just down the road in Aggieland (College Station). Whoop!

 

P.S. I hope you like country music.

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Ew, Aggies. :P

What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of the Aggie Band :P

 

It be more cooler if it were here in San Antonio. Maybe you can meet Emzee. He's up in Austin there at some company similar to yours.

Who are all these Texan BZPer's I have not known about? Agh?! Thank you, ET, for getting a job down here. I feel a lot less lonely now XP

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Yo. I know moving for a job is a crazy stressful thing. I'll be doing the same later this year, and even though it's with a company I've worked at before and in an area I've spent the summers over in the past, it's still really freaky.

 

All I can say is - when you get there, start branching out. See if IBM's got any interest groups, even if it's something as casual as board game nights or something. I'm not saying you'll meet your new BFF first week in town, but meeting new people is doable.

 

Similarly, for the job - yeah, your team's probably expecting things of you, but if they're anything like where I work (and it wouldn't surprise me if they are) they'll be willing to help you learn the ropes. Don't be afraid to ask for advice or resources. They know you're fresh out of college and that this is your first time working with them; on balance, teams tend to be more reasonable than not about this sort of thing. My first software dev job was in a field I'd never worked in before in a language I'd never used, and while it was a bit overwhelming at first, you'd be surprised at how quickly you pick up on stuff.

 

The short version is I guess - yeah, it's freaky, but moving and working has a lot of upsides to it. Drop me a PM if you ever want to talk about the industry/etc. - I've never worked at IBM, but it sounds like I've had some similar experiences to what you will.

Heh yeah should've figured you'd be doing something similar... as always I'll keep it in mind. :)

 

Austin is one of the coolest cities you could possibly be living in. I would be more jealous if I weren't in Portland. I cam this close to living there once-upon-a-time. You should talk to Adrian, he lives there now.

Might do that. Also, Portland and Austin are, well, only slightly far apart, so I'm a little curious how that change happened. :P

 

 

As for Austin itself... Wow it's hot here. And not even summer. Ugh. That'll take some getting used to.

I've lived in Texas for all my life and I'm still not used to the heat :P .

 

Congrats on getting the job, though. Sounds like you're doing all right in that area.

 

-TNTOS-

 

Oh. Yippee. Just what I wanted to hear haha.

 

 

As for Austin itself... Wow it's hot here. And not even summer. Ugh.

As another lifelong Texan I can assure you, it will only get hotter. Sunscreen and a good hat should be on your packing list, not to mention a good water bottle!

 

Also, the traffic is absolutely horrendous. And toll roads just to get anywhere?! Not cool.

Count your blessings: at least you aren't moving to Houston. Traffic in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, or Austin is gonna be horrendous, some worse than others. Just make sure to plan ahead and give yourself a lot of time. Most of the radio stations I know of down here give traffic updates every 10-15 minutes (I would be surprised if that was unusual) so don't be shy to explore the channels.

 

I can't agree with DeeVee that Austin is such a great place, but I'm an Aggie so I have a natural anti-Austin disposition :P I can say, however, that Texas is awesome and we look forward to having you ^_^

 

And if you need to be rescued from those weird people in Austin, I'm just down the road in Aggieland (College Station). Whoop!

 

P.S. I hope you like country music.

 

Yay more heat warnings... Seriously not looking forward to that. :| One of the first things an exec I met with last week said to me was that I have pale skin just like him and should just ignore any embarrassment and used sun screen.

 

I guess I'm probably just not used to life in the city, which is why the traffic came as such as surprise/nuisance. I know it's something I can probably adjust to, but I definitely don't know how to handle it yet..

 

(UGH country music!)

 

----

 

Thanks everyone. It's looking like it's still going to be a rough transition for me, but... Still hearing about it helps some.

 

I've always said that I never, eeever wanted to live in a city. Well I still feel like I don't have a choice but to now. I'm coming from a rural place with a very different climate and it's going to be tough.

 

And I can't shake off the fear of not having a place to live either. Despite all of their insistence that I go through companies IBM has contracted for moving, I simply am not getting the help that I need in finding a place. Like I'm supposed to. Instead I've got far too many companies assuming I have a destination and they keep coming, but nobody to actually assist me and I don't know the first thing about where to start or how to even contact apartments. I've literally never lived in one and it's all so confusing.

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What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of the Aggie Band

Overhyped. I went to Oklahoma State University before you guys chickened out of the Big12. I did like you guys a lot more than Tech, so there's that. :P

 

Might do that. Also, Portland and Austin are, well, only slightly far apart, so I'm a little curious how that change happened.

Nukaya.

 

As for city living, I really can't stress enough how awesome Austin is. The downtown area is immensely walkable, the grocery stores are easy, accessible, and HEB is phenomenal. The lakes around the outskirts are amazing, and while it does get crazy hot, you get used to it. The nightlife is fantastic, even for folks not into bar-style nightlife. Great theaters, and some of the best restaurants in the country. And luckily, as someone who also has a distaste for country music, Austin is the live music capital of the world, and almost every musician in America on tour stops in Austin at some point.

 

You should have more luck catching Transformers and other toys in stores too, as Austin is a big market for distributors. Plus, you won't be in Dallas.

 

As for apartments, Google is your friend. Just google "Austin apartments" and a ton of sites that do apartment aggregates will show up. Don't be afraid of Craigslist either.

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Nukaya.

I feel like that should have been obvious.

 

As for city living, I really can't stress enough how awesome Austin is. The downtown area is immensely walkable, the grocery stores are easy, accessible, and HEB is phenomenal. The lakes around the outskirts are amazing, and while it does get crazy hot, you get used to it. The nightlife is fantastic, even for folks not into bar-style nightlife. Great theaters, and some of the best restaurants in the country. And luckily, as someone who also has a distaste for country music, Austin is the live music capital of the world, and almost every musician in America on tour stops in Austin at some point.

Ah, HEB. One of my team members did recommend shopping there, but didn't make it to one over this weekend.

 

I most definitely am not into bars and that type of nightlife, but the theaters and restaurants were definitely looking good. The few I stopped at were great and I can't wait to attend a show at the Alamo Draft House.

 

You should have more luck catching Transformers and other toys in stores too, as Austin is a big market for distributors. Plus, you won't be in Dallas.

Hahaha excellent.

 

As for apartments, Google is your friend. Just google "Austin apartments" and a ton of sites that do apartment aggregates will show up. Don't be afraid of Craigslist either.

That's exactly what I did Saturday. I drove around to almost a dozen of them to get a scope on the areas, but didn't stop in to any of the info centers. Maybe should have done that... it did give me a start on pricing and even a few places to avoid, though.

 

I've never used Craigslist so it never even crossed my mind. When it's not finals week (so this was great timing for all of this >_<) I just might.

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I've never used Craigslist so it never even crossed my mind. When it's not finals week (so this was great timing for all of this >_<) I just might.

This is legit how we found our apartment we live in now in Portland. Many apartments advertise on several different sites at once, including CL.

 

I most definitely am not into bars and that type of nightlife, but the theaters and restaurants were definitely looking good. The few I stopped at were great and I can't wait to attend a show at the Alamo Draft House.

 

If you're not a bars person (and I don't blame you, I'm not either), avoid 6th Street at night downtown. It's an awesome stretch of bars and clubs, but it's loud and annoying on weekend nights. Cool to visit once or twice, and some nice rooftop locales to sit and talk with friends at, but otherwise it's too much.

 

I don't know if you're into Red vs Blue or anything like that, but Rooster Teeth is in Austin too, even though they just moved and I believe they've shut down studio tours. But it's still cool!

 

Also, go watch the bats. Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in the world, and at dusk they fly out from under a bridge downtown. It is really really cool, even if you find bats scary.

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Yeah I visited during their first week in the new office, so I just barely missed my chance to visit them. :(

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Awesome ET, congratulations!

One good thing about Austin is that it's not a terribly large city like Houston, Dallas or San Antonio. A drive out into the country isn't that long.

I actually used an apartment locator when I moved to Austin because yeah, apartment hunting is not exactly fun, especially in a hot market like Austin. She'll do research for you and you can spend a day visiting all of the prospects -- there should be enough to make a decision when its all over. I still have her contact information, if you want it, feel free to PM me. :) You can also PM me about any other Austin question too, though I might not know as much as Pat yet. :lol:

I will admit that making friends outside of work is extremely hard no matter where you go, so I also suggest using Meetup.com as a resource. It has helped me a little bit.

 

It be more cooler if it were here in San Antonio. Maybe you can meet Emzee. He's up in Austin there at some company similar to yours.

Who are all these Texan BZPer's I have not known about? Agh?! Thank you, ET, for getting a job down here. I feel a lot less lonely now XP

Yeah you got Flaredrick, TNTOS, myself, and (hopefully) ET for starters. Other people sometimes forget that there's a significant BZP presence down here.

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