My March and April were filled with 28 different airplanes, 16 states, 3 countries, over 30 trout, over 3k miles driving, and a new job. It’s been a pretty exciting stage of life, I couldn’t be more grateful, or feel luckier. I don’t think of myself as ‘that guy’; I spend more time asking “how do people do that stuff?”, than doing stuff like that (which probably sounds like something “that guy” would say). At any rate, here’s the story.
From one G to the next
Around 6 months ago, I made a short list of places that I’d always wanted to live and companies that I’d always wanted to work for. Tops was Google, but it also included places you might expect – Netflix, Facebook, a startup, etc. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to focus less on selling people stuff they don’t need, and more on improving the stuff they already use.
I spent a few weekends dusting off my resume & portfolio, then talked with a few connections in places Bailey and I thought it’d be great to live. Then, I filled out some cold apps and passed along a few resumes. I was pretty casual about things - I had a great job at Garmin, and loved what I was already doing.
I was flattered to get callbacks from several places over the course of the next few months - agencies, a few big companies (including Google), and startups. My afternoons became complicated juggling recruiter phone calls, etc.
I spent a lot of time preparing and interviewing, and in the process, found some potential fits, and some ‘no-fits’. I had to make some hard decisions turning down opportunities, and got turned down on others - something I attribute to God’s divine providence, and timing.
The entire Google process took over 5 months, and was one of the most extensive and (oddly enough) rewarding interview experiences I’ve ever been a part of. I applied to Google online, without any internal connections, and ended up getting the job. There’s been tons of luck in that, mixed in with a whole bunch of hard work.
A busy month
(from ski slopes to Thai street food to Trout waters of Yellowstone)
Although we’d just gotten back from a nordic adventure a few months prior, we’re big fans of adventuring when you can. Besides, there are only been a handful of times where I’ve been able to take more than a week or two off for travel, and changing jobs was the perfect excuse. I like the financial advice Audrey Sutherland gives in Let My People Go Surfing, “Don’t spend money on gear, spend it on airplane tickets”. Below is some of the adventuring Bailey and I did.
When I received the job offer from Google, we'd never even been to Seattle. The weekend after I accepted the job, we flew out to see what we had just signed up for.
The following weekend, we had planned a trip out to Denver to see some Senators hockey, and shred gnar on the slopes with my sisters.
In one of my finest flight deals ($450 rt), my sister joined Bailey and I on a trip around Thailand, now one of my favorite places. Highlights included elephant TLC in Chiang Mai, private Island life in Phuket, and China too.
It wouldn’t be vacation without some fly fishing. I practiced strippin' in some trout on an extended weekend trip in Bennet springs, MO.
We had a gap week just in case we weren’t able to find a home in Seattle the first trip out, so naturally, we went to Vegas. Vegas can actually be quite cheap if you don’t gamble (tickets were $79 rt, and our hotel/resort was under $65/n) - Grand Canyon too.
The whole ‘moving across the US’ thing turned out to make a pretty spectacular road trip vacation. Here's the route we took - I would *highly* recommend this trip, the Northwestern US has some truly spectacular stuff. Although 4 consecutive nights of steak in 4 different states may have been the highlight, fly fishing in Bozeman wasn't terrible.
Finally traveling onward to Oklahoma and Arkansas, seeing some great friends/fam and celebrating a wedding.
Seattle & stuff
I had my first week of orientation at Google in Mountain View last month - somewhere I never thought I’d be. My wife and I got rid of <half of all our things (including a car), lived out of a suitcase for 2 months, and along with Lucy moved into our 657 Sq ft apartment in Seattle a few weeks ago. I’m incredibly fortunate - not only for the opportunities, but also Bailey who sported all of it, quit her job, and moved to a place she’d never been. My Instagram will cool down, and I’ll probably return to a lackluster routined life of cynicism in no time, but for now, I feel pretty lucky, grateful and excited.
