5 Pieces of Advice I Wish I Had During My Job Relocation
Forget budgeting or bills. These are tips people won’t tell you about relocating for a job.
After reading my fellow Account Strategist, Erica Dube’s, blog the other day, I started thinking about my own, almost opposite experience.
While she was adjusting to moving from Connecticut as IMPACT’s only remote employee, I was moving to Connecticut as IMPACT’s first employee to relocate for the company.
I started reflecting on my experience and the things I’ve learned along the way. To pick up everything and take a chance on a new job cross-country is exciting and terrifying all at the same time — but it taught me a lot of things.
Making the Big Move
My first day at IMPACT went a little something like this.
My alarm blared at 6:30am and I climbed out of my air mattress, being careful not to step on my sleeping pup next to me. (He only kicked me three times the previous night — a new record — and I looked forward to getting my bed back just to avoid his restlessness.)
I grabbed some wrinkled clothes out of my suitcase and headed out, staring at my GPS more than the road to avoid getting lost.
Despite the last night’s lack of sleep, I was super excited. This is the moment I was waiting for.
I walked into my new office to warm greetings and was immediately invigorated with the idea of working with tons a smart people. On the other hand, I also felt slightly intimidated. I saw my new team, studied my new clients, noticed the dress code around the office, and kicked myself for packing the wrong things. My belongings weren’t set to arrive for another week!
I took a couple breaks to make sure the electric and oil bills were set up correctly (seriously…oil?) and everything was going smoothly for my house closing, and double checked that the moving company was still running on time.
Those first few weeks were filled with long days like this. Even when I left the office, I felt like I was never done working as when I got home, I still had quite a bit to do.
Combined with the fact that I missed my friends and family, it was definitely a challenging time, but what could I do?
I had two choices at this point:
1. Let the stress of a new job and a new environment get the best of me and go back home.
2. Choose not to fail by any means possible.
Since I’m writing this blog, you can guess I chose the latter.
Relocating for a job is a whirlwind experience filled with highs and lows, sometimes in the same day, but it’s an experience that I wouldn’t give up for one second.
I’m a Strategist for a living, so naturally I’ve devised some tips and strategies on how to improve my experience if I had the chance to go back and do it all over again.
The following is my best advice on how to not only transition to a new job, but a new home, and a completely new lifestyle.
1. Smile
Things may be stressful for you, but those around you don’t know it and they may not ever understand it unless they’ve had a similar experience. They are trying to get to know you, validate that they made the right decision in hiring you and are placing their confidence in you.
Be your friendly self, and let the personal stress stay at home. Your co-workers are who you will be leaning on the most in a job relocation, not just at work, but as friends.
Smile. Take time to chat in the kitchen and try to talk to as many people as you can, not just your immediate team.
2. Slow it down to speed it up
No, this isn’t just my advice to Connecticut drivers ;)
When I started at IMPACT, I wanted to prove myself as quickly as I could. I knew everything would be stressful, but I didn’t want to take the easy way out.
Quickly, taking on too much at once started to hinder my performance, and I realized I should have asked to slow things down.
When your role requires leadership and you don’t feel completely confident in what you’re doing, it’s okay to say it. I learned that over time, but I believe I would have onboarded faster in the end if I had incrementally taken on more responsibility rather than diving in head first.
