Satiating the Travel Bug
So much of who we are is where we have been
— William Langewiesche
Like so many millennials our age, my fiancée and I are travel addicts. We take trips whenever we can, always trying to maximize our vacation days in order to squeeze the most time and value out of them. We both have had full-time jobs for the past 6 years; while we appreciated the financial security our jobs have provided us, 3 weeks of vacation a year is simply not enough time to quench our thirst. Every vacation ended with the hope for a few more days; we were limited to 2 long vacations or 4–5 short vacations per year, we thirsted for more time to see the world.
The Plan
We have been planning a move from Boston to New York City for the past year. While we enjoyed our time in Boston, having gone to university and worked here for the past 10 years, it is also a long time to be in one city. We did not want to be in Boston forever and decided on New York City because of its ease of transit, diversity, and our existing network of friends there. This planned move also sparked an opportunity of a lifetime, a new city meant new jobs, and a potential gap time we can take in between to scratch that travel itch. The plan we drafted was
Interview Prep (February-March)
Interviews (March-April)
Offers and Negotiations (May)
TRAVEL! (June-August)
Move to New York City + New Job (September)
We wanted our departure from Boston to coincide with our lease expiration at the end of May so we are not paying for rent while we traveled. There were a lot of unknowns at the time we started to execute our plans. Will we be able to get jobs in NYC easily? Will our new jobs pay enough to offset the cost of living differences in NYC? Will our future employers be okay with a 3-month gap between the offer date and the start date? Despite all these unknowns, we thought the risks were worth the rewards of fulfilling our travel goals so we decided to go for it.
The Result
It was a stressful 3 months between interview prep, phone screens and on-site interviews. Thankfully, we were able to schedule all our onsite interviews within a 2-week window so we didn’t have to make multiple trips to NYC. My 2 months of heads-down interview prep paid off and I received multiple solid offers. In the end, I accepted a Senior iOS Engineer position at Facebook. They were totally okay with me taking the 3 month gap time, awesome! My fiancée’s job search was a bit rockier, as the market demand and experience expectations for Product Manager roles in NYC was not as favorable for her. While she was also to get a solid offer from a fast-growing tech company in NYC, the 3 month gap time was a dealbreaker for them so she unfortunately had to turn it down to realize our dream. It was an extremely tough decision for her at the time, having to choose between job opportunities and a more extended period of travel, plus the potential backlash she would receive from her family for making that decision. In the end, she took a leap of faith and made the choice to grasp the rare opportunity in our lives where we have the money, energy, AND time. No amount of money in the world can buy the memory and experiences of traveling for 3 months.
Conclusion
The plan we have set in motion 4 month ago is finally falling into place, we are moving out of our Boston apartment in 2 days and will be flying one way to Madrid in two weeks. I couldn’t be more excited to finally see the world with much less time constraint, stay tuned for travel posts!
