Texas or Bust?

I wrote my first post reflecting on my career, life, and repatriation to the United States about 9 months ago. We’ve been back in the United States – specifically Chicago – since then. I don’t think I’m a fan.

A whirlygig at a Houston area Flea Market.

I joined my current team around this time last year, and the scope of the work is really similar to what I was doing in Asia. Career wise: I actually love what I’m doing right now. I merged 491 pull requests this year in Python, GoLang, SQL and even a little TypeScript. My technical colleagues are super competent and nice. I work with some great PgM/ Product Manager-types who protect me from corporate political bullshit I don’t want to deal with.

Still, Chicago isn’t really working for us.

The food is amazing. But I feel like the food is making me sick because it’s so unhealthy. My commute is mostly fine, but Oak Park station and the “L” can be sketchy; parking in the city is too expensive, and driving downtown isn’t my favorite. My extended family is technically here, but they mostly keep to themselves. I don’t feel like there’s a ton to do in the Midwest. It’s not exactly a cultural capital.

I’ve been in a major creative rut in my photography and I don’t know if that’s because I’ve been so busy, or it’s hard for me to find the art in my hometown, (and I do consider Chicago my hometown in the greater sense despite being raised in the South Suburbs and in the areas surrounding Joliet.) Lately, I’ve been fixing up an old truck I bought, and that’s been good for new hobbies.

Now, my wife is from Texas, and I’ve liked Texas basically every time I’ve visited. BBQ, Trucks, H-E-B – I like all those things. We’re considering a move, but I’d really like to stay with my current company – I’ve been there almost ten years. The company has an Austin office, but the problem I’m facing now is that my team doesn’t have an Austin presence, so I’d have to do a team transfer. Team transfers can be super tricky, because you never know if your new team will be cool or not.

The other option I have is to leave the company. If I were to do this, I’d probably consider firms in Houston only, because we’d like to be closer to family. I actually had some interviews with some Houston-based companies last year in the aftermath of some of the first rounds of the Big Tech layoffs. I made it pretty far with a couple of firms last year. Unfortunately, it’s hard to pull a decent offer when you’re interviewing from the other side of the planet, and distracted by the many things that come with combating layoffs and reorgs. 

I guess we could stay in Chicago, and ride it out. Or, there are other locations where my team does have presence. Colorado came up a couple times. Maybe there will be different opportunities as AI Technology continues to mature or if the economy improves. I really have no idea what next year will look like.

Anyways, I guess If you’re a hiring manager in the Houston or Austin metros, reach out; I’d love to talk with you. I have experience in Traditional IT; Distributed, High-performance Super Computing; AI/ ML & Data Science; Software Engineering and other disciplines. I also have an M.B.A. and experience as a people manager. eCommerce and online retail is one of my more recent passion projects.