Another job prospect

[unixronin]

All of a sudden, in addition to the Perl coding job at NASA Goddard that I'm hoping to hear back from Any Time Now, I now have an interview Friday witn Convergys in Reston, VA.  It's a low-level NOC-monkey job, and I get the impression from talking to them that I have vastly more experience and skills than they're actually looking for, but anything that'll get us out of this moldering rathole is worth a shot.

Of course, there's a very real chance they may decide I'm overqualified.  (To my surprise, that was a concern at NASA -- that I might be overqualified.  I still haven't entirely wrapped my brain around the idea that NASA might consider me overqualified to write code to talk to their satellites and their satellite data archives.)  There's also the issue of whether we can find a place within sane commuting distance of Reston (taking into account my mobility limitations) where a family of five can live in reasonable sanity and comfort on a salary in the $40k/year range.  I'm given to understand this may be difficult, which is why I'll be researching it today.  By my calculations, that's going to end up in the $3500/month ballpark, which by the usual guidelines means (if memory serves) that we'll be considered to be able to afford around $1200/month in rent.  So now I get to see what we can find for rent for $1200/month within about a 45 minutes radius of Reston.

On the other hand, truth to be told, given the choice I'd rather live in VA than MD.  MD firearms laws have the ass-nature.

Comments

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

The more rural areas are considerably more affordable than Reston/Herndon. Manassas, for instance, is supposedly comparatively cheap.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup, I managed to turn up a number of 3br apartments under $1200/month a bit further out. And I have no problems with being a little further out. Plus, I've been informed that I'll be under consideration for a better-paying engineer position as well as the NOC-monkey position.

Any particular recommendations for where to look, besides Manassas?

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

Sorry, not really. I don't know the area very well yet. I just specifically remembered people talking about Manassas being cheaper.

[darthgeek.livejournal.com]

Ashburn, Centreville, Burke, Sterling, Dulles, South Riding. Even West Virginia isn't all that far. bonkoif and snarkymarcy live out in West By God VA and bonkoif commutes to Herndon daily.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, South Riding was the first hit for the preliminary is-this-possible rent.com search I did yesterday. 3br for $1060/month. (A small 3br, to be fair, 1170 ft², about the same as the 2br I had in San Jose, but we could deal, short-term.)

[darthgeek.livejournal.com]

Don't forget to check out Craigslist (http://dc.craigslist.org). You can sometimes find good deals there