Contemplating Moving..

[DiscoDave]

Hi Everyone,

After a couple of rough months and a job change (that isn't really working out - Not enjoying it) I'm having a good think about what I want to do.

Situation : 24 years old living in the outskirts of Cambridge and currently working in Cambridge centre.

Cambridge, to be frank, has terrible public transportation to the city centre (within it is fine) as well as road links into the centre, which makes the morning drive to work awful (takes me about 70-90 mins to drive 28 miles to work).

On the plus side, I've had a interview for a large company with an office in Cambridge which looks to be a good move as it's a multinational company with a lot of room to progress and develop my career.

Hypothetically speaking, if I was made an offer from said company and accepted it, I would have to move closer to the centre.

The problem is, as a big university city, Cambridge is full of student accommodation and the quality of rental properties is consequently pretty bad for me living on my own. I know a lot of you will say that this is true for a lot of big cities, but I've seen much better places in other, student-like cities.

I'm not a fan of house-sharing with strangers, but a friend of mine is looking to move out about March time next year, so moving in with him is a possibility, with two of us we should be able to rent a better quality place.

I've always had a soft spot for York, and have often thought about moving there. However, York isn't very abundant in IT vacancies. However, I hear Leeds is pretty good for IT jobs so a train commute could be possible (wouldn't want to drive between York and Leeds on a daily basis). I once made a thread about this on here a few months ago - thanks for all of your replies.

To summarise, I've got two main choices

Stay in Cambridge

• Move to the city centre by either waiting for a friend to do the same, or participate in a homebuy scheme and get on the property ladder (much better quality flats/small houses)
• Stay in a familiar place
• Stay near friends
• Good place for IT jobs

Move to York

• New place, fresh start, new beginning
• unfamiliar
• away from all my friends and family

I'm not really sure what I'm asking here, perhaps just some words of wisdom as some of you may have encountered a similar predicament in life, and if so, what did you do? Did it work out? A middle ground could be to move to London, as it's not so far away as York so I can still see my friends and family often, I just don't really think I would fit in with the inner-city lifestyle.

Thanks,

David

 

[Freefaller]

You're young - living in NY despite not having many friends there you'll end up making loads. It's a cool city - and I'd jump at the chance to work there.

A change doesn't have to be a bad thing - I think if you want to spread your wing you have to jump out of your comfort zone. At least you would have given it a go...

 

[decmatt]

You're young - living in NY despite not having many friends there you'll end up making loads. It's a cool city - and I'd jump at the chance to work there.

A change doesn't have to be a bad thing - I think if you want to spread your wing you have to jump out of your comfort zone. At least you would have given it a go...

I think he means York (the one in Yorkshire). Its a nice city, there's a few IT jobs that are advertised near me there, depends what role your after.

It's a nice place... Just have to be careful, as in all areas, where about you live in it.

 

[Makunouchi]

For some reason I read it as New York as well the first time

 

[Randomface74]

Don't move to York - there are hardly any good IT jobs.

Stay in Cambridge, rent something cheap initially. Then you can take your time finding somewhere nicer to live.

 

[Freefaller]

I think he means York (the one in Yorkshire). Its a nice city, there's a few IT jobs that are advertised near me there, depends what role your after.

It's a nice place... Just have to be careful, as in all areas, where about you live in it.

Ooops! My bad!

I know nothing of York - so I shall step out of the thread!

Though I still think a change is as good as any - and York isn't THAT far...

 

[t3kno_tr0n|c]

York is a lovely lovely lovely city.

One of the nicest in England thats for SURE.

Cambridge is nice also, but if you are fed up of it, then I would move to York in a heartbeat.

I miss going to the New China Palace, I used to love that chinky. I wonder if its still there, in Acomb....

Make the break and go do something new... It would be a rush.

If it all goes wrong, you can go back to Cambridge, its only a few hundred miles away.... Not like you are moving across to NZ or Australia.

Its far better to live with regrets for having gone and done something, than to live with the regret of not having done it at all.. I know that one all too well..

 

[DiscoDave]

If I got offered a job to New York then I doubt I would hesitate at all going . So just to clarify, yeah I mean York in Yorkshire, UK .

Freefaller: I do have an urge to spread my wings a bit and make my own mark in the world in a new place, I kind of always thought I would do this with a wife/girlfriend though.

decmatt: Yeah all places have good and bad parts, I've checked cwjobs.co.uk for IT jobs and in my area (windows sysadmin/support) its a bit scarce, hence the idea of commuting to Leeds for work (which I hear a lot of people do).

billysielu: Yeah that's an issue, it's just sods law that Cambridge, while being a good place for tech jobs just has major issues with access.

 

[Mattyjw]

Wherever you go there you be.

Going to York isn't going to help if your the reason you're unhappy. Living in York and working in Leeds would lead to you being stuck with yourself because most of the people you work with are going to be based in and around Leeds so your either going to rush off to get the train back to York or end up imposing on a colleague for a place to crash.

I think you should give it a few months, take up a new hobby, change your diet do the small things first, going Geographical and after a couple of months heading back with your tail between your legs or worse self medicating is going to do more harm than good in the mid-term.

Many times when people move for the sake of a change they end up doing the same thing they would've if they'd stayed where they were. It's pointless if all you're doing is changing the scenery.

 

[uvarvu]

What is your current place like? Is the long commute time the only thing you don't like about it? If so, what if you change your commute to something like driving and cycling? That's assuming that congestion is the reason for the long journey times of course.

 

[Freefaller]

If I got offered a job to New York then I doubt I would hesitate at all going . So just to clarify, yeah I mean York in Yorkshire, UK .

Freefaller: I do have an urge to spread my wings a bit and make my own mark in the world in a new place, I kind of always thought I would do this with a wife/girlfriend though.

Don't wait to get tied down, travel, experience the world and different places whilst your free and single - you can have a lot of fun doing that too. However, that's just my way, clearly if having a wife/girlfriend to settle/travel with or set up a life with is more important to you than all power to you to fulfill your dreams.

 

[Downsy]

Move to one of the villages on the south side of Cambridge, such as Shelford. You can cycle or bus or train it in from there. I did that for a good number of years and it was pretty good.

 

[Mr-White]

I was working for a private college in Cambridge town centre until recently, the transport into Cambridge centre is pretty bad. The train station is about 1.5m away, the roads gets grid locked and there's no where to park. If you're looking to move closer to town the prices are pretty expensive (1 bedroom share starts about £400pcm), the main places are north of the river and between the town centre and out towards the train station and beyond. The college had approx 25 student houses doted around Cambridge town centre so despite not being from the area I've driven around these areas.

MW

 

[Pug]

you cant afford decent accomodation in Cambridge so are thinking of moving to York? I think you'll struggle.

 

[DiscoDave]

Wherever you go there you be.

Going to York isn't going to help if your the reason you're unhappy. Living in York and working in Leeds would lead to you being stuck with yourself because most of the people you work with are going to be based in and around Leeds so your either going to rush off to get the train back to York or end up imposing on a colleague for a place to crash.

I think you should give it a few months, take up a new hobby, change your diet do the small things first, going Geographical and after a couple of months heading back with your tail between your legs or worse self medicating is going to do more harm than good in the mid-term.

Many times when people move for the sake of a change they end up doing the same thing they would've if they'd stayed where they were. It's pointless if all you're doing is changing the scenery.

I see where you're coming from with regards to the living in York and hanging out in Leeds all the time. Although from what I've experienced a lot of people keep their work and personal lives seperate.

What is your current place like? Is the long commute time the only thing you don't like about it? If so, what if you change your commute to something like driving and cycling? That's assuming that congestion is the reason for the long journey times of course.

Current place is fine. A part drive/part cycle route to my current place of work isn't feasible. The vast amount of the bad traffic is before I even reach Cambridge, and there's no where convinient to stop before there.

Don't wait to get tied down, travel, experience the world and different places whilst your free and single - you can have a lot of fun doing that too. However, that's just my way, clearly if having a wife/girlfriend to settle/travel with or set up a life with is more important to you than all power to you to fulfill your dreams.

Thanks for your kind words, if I'm completely honest, my main goal in life at the moment is to develop my career, but I still do a bit of travelling and having great times with friends, it's just finding the balance.

Move to one of the villages on the south side of Cambridge, such as Shelford. You can cycle or bus or train it in from there. I did that for a good number of years and it was pretty good.

Isn't Shelford quite a rough area? I'm currently looking into surrounding villages and seeing whether or not a cycle route can be formulated.

I was working for a private college in Cambridge town centre until recently, the transport into Cambridge centre is pretty bad. The train station is about 1.5m away, the roads gets grid locked and there's no where to park. If you're looking to move closer to town the prices are pretty expensive (1 bedroom share starts about £400pcm), the main places are north of the river and between the town centre and out towards the train station and beyond. The college had approx 25 student houses doted around Cambridge town centre so despite not being from the area I've driven around these areas.

MW

Yeah that's all pretty true. My only saving grace is to move in with a friend so we can get a decent place. I fear living on my own near the centre probably won't work out

you cant afford decent accomodation in Cambridge so are thinking of moving to York? I think you'll struggle.

I've done some reasearch and had a look around, you can get a much better place in York for the same price you'd get in Cambridge.

Odd predicament now; I had a job interview in mid november for a company 10mins down the road from me, perfect. They said it would take a week or two to get back to me, now they've said they wanted to extend the interview period due to volume of applicants and won't come to a decision until late January. I've had some positive feedback from an interview I attended for a company in Cambridge, and they want me back again this week. Could either hold out and hope for the job 10mins down the road and not worry about moving etc, or just go for the job in Cambridge. Tough call.