So you want to move to another country Part 2: You Need a Job

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This is part two of “So you want to move to another country”.  My overview of the process we went through to be able to actually move to London.  So far I am still writing the series so not sure how many parts it will eventually come out to.  I am finding it very therapeutic to write this all out.  Hopefully friends and family enjoy it and anyone on the internet thinking of doing the same thing might find it useful.

Having the ability to work in the EU with MC now being an citizen of an EU country was only the first step. Even though it felt very complex and stressful in and of itself it was likely pretty easy compared to what came next. Let’s face it MC was able to prove her criteria to be a citizen. All she had to do is jump through the hoops to get the paperwork. Finding a job on the other hand was nowhere near as guaranteed.

MC and I both agreed that our most viable option would be if there was an opportunity within my company. Where she worked was very small and niche. The challenge was at the time of those discussions in the summer and fall of 2016 there appeared to be no opportunities in my company availible. MC and I still agreed to move forward with citizenship process anyway since it was something that kind of always wanted to have done anyway.

Opportunity presents itself in the weirdest ways sometimes. At the end of March of this year my group was part of a large reorganization within the greater technical operations group. As part of that reorganization some of the work that was currently part of the group I managed was getting spun off into a new central delivery group. What was left was purely a support organization. I’ve done IT operations support on and off in my career for years. I have done operational support more than anything else however prior to that group I was doing service delivery and I liked it. In my role at the time service delivery was a small part of what i did and I was a little frustrated with it going away. When my boss at the time asked me how I was doing after the announcement of the reorganization we had a long chat. I voice my concerns and he presented an opportunity to lead the group that was being formed out of the people from my current group and my peers groups in the new organization. At first I wasn’t so sure I was interested.  It would be a smaller group and doing something different.  It was similar to what i had done at a smaller scale in the past and i enjoyed that.  Even if support can be tiring I sometimes enjoy the adrenaline of under pressure problem solving.  I had mixed thoughts about the opportunity however the more i thought about it the more interesting it became.  The final deciding factor was that there seemed to be an opportunity for overseas relocation.  In my group at the time i was responsible for Americas.  It was very regional and no real overseas opportunities.  The new position was managing a global team again.  The was a case to be made to do that job from England.  My new manager agreed and was interested in seeing if we could make it happen.

At that point it was only an idea but it sounded promising.  Due to some other re-org related dependencies I had to stay quiet about my job move until late April / early May.  Once that change was announced i started in my new position.  I also started working with my new manager to make the business case to his management about my move. His manager seemed opened to the idea and wanted to see it written up.  Once that eventually got approved it had to go one level higher for approval.  During that time there was debate over where to send me.  London was an option that i assumed I would goto, however there was another site in England that was an option too.  MC and I would have been happy with either.  During the summer it seemed like this decision was more we are going but not sure where yet however nothing was in writing.  In August i got word that everything was approved for London.  The next part of the move was to have our Mobility and HR groups get involved.  it wasn’t until early September before i got the details of the offer.  It was another week or two before I had paperwork to sign.  It is one thing to know something is happening and it is another to actually have something to sign.  The entire process from hearing it was a possibility to do in March to having signed papers in September was almost 6 months.  It was totally worth it however as they say the waiting is the hardest part.

When this originally started looking like it was a possibility we were targeting a move at the end of 2017 or early 2018.  Even with things feeling like it took a long time it turned out that my finger in the air guess on when we could move would actually come true.

In Part 3 of this saga I will describe the process of actually selling our apartment…

The W Sisters and the Short Story Of The Piggy Bank Competition

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This week in our house loose change has been worth it’s weight in gold. For some reason the girls have been super excited to find lose change and put them in their piggy banks.

This week I had to find coins to give both of them since they were fighting over the three or four that they had gotten sometime recently.

I find it amusing that they enjoy taking dimes and quarters and putting them in a container. I know that they won’t be that easily entertained in the future.

The W Sisters and the Story of The Promised Pony

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When we talk to people about our move many of them ask how we told the girls? Or what do the girls think about the move? The answer is they are super excited. Why you might ask? Because to sweeten the deal on our international move we promised the girls we would get them a pony. We figured we could live on a nice British farm near a village and we could have a pony they could use on the weekends. Not really sure how we can figure that out logistically but we both agreed that the best way to convince them this move was good would be to promise them a pony.

So maybe some of that first paragraph isn’t true. I hope people realize that. That is either my version of click bait or I just thought it was pretty funny. Yeah, I just thought it was pretty funny. What is true about that paragraph is that people ask us those questions. They’re valid very good questions to ask.

I was probably pretty bad parent during this planning of the move in the early stages. I would talk openly to MC about things in front of the girls. They are old enough and they did understand a lot of it. We realize we needed to tell them what was going on when T got upset and thought we were giving away our apartment. We had to explain that we were selling it and that we would be getting a house when we got to London with a backyard. That was something that MC had wanted for years no matter where we lived. The girls were definitely excited to hear that. An added benefit of the house was that we would not need to continue to yell at them all the time when they ran around. Nowadays we do that since our neighbor downstairs does complain now and again if the girls do that.

We did promise the girls other stuff however. Just nothing as crazy as a pony. For almost what feels like two years the girls have been asking for bunkbeds. For most of that time however they’ve been crazy lunatics at bedtime. That means we did not want to get them any sort of vehicle to be able to jump off of when they’re in the room by themselves at night. Since the beginning of the summer I think they’ve been going to bed most nights without any problems so they’ve grown up enough that bunkbeds are a viable option for them. The added benefit of that is we can get a bunk bed and not bring the two top their beds that were once their cribs with us when we move. Both girls are extremely excited over that. The challenge they have is they both want to be on the top bunk. We agreed that they would rotate innate to be determined rotation schedule.

Other things the girls are excited about are the castles that we told them are all over England and Ireland. They are very curious about the princesses that may live in those castles and tried to explain to them that there probably aren’t any. That not change the fact that T will likely look for or ask for them when we go on trips.

For the girls this move is just an idea. When we first told them we said it was a long way away. We didn’t want them to get scared or apprehensive about it. We told him they have Christmas and Hanukkah and A’s birthday to go through before we move. I don’t think the reality is going to start setting in for them until either we start packing the apartment or we actually get to our new house in London.

The W Sisters and the Short Story Of Their Favorite Holidays

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At dinner Tonight T announced her favorite holidays were Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, and Halloween in that order. She declares that she loved them all since for all of them they got treats or presence. This just proves that the Jews are doing a terrible job of promoting Purim.

After T’s declaration Am confirmed she agreed with that top 4 list.

So you want to move to another country Part 1: Being Eligible For a Visa

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Pretty much everyone that we tell or finds out we are moving to London says “wow that is so cool”. The main exception is for immediate family who will miss us, and are not so pleased.  They say they are “happy for us”. On top of that anyone I know who has been an  Expat in London has said we will love it and its going to be a great experience.  I believe those who have done it.  I am super excited for this move. I have been passively and actively trying to make this happen for a while, so yes we are all excited including the kids.

With all of that out of the way this post is about the monumental amount of effort that is required to make a move like this happen. Some things you think about and others you just can’t imagine. I am writing this before half of the actually moving happens and it is extremely stressful and mind bending what you have to do. I want to write this post or what is ending up being a series of posts to outline the effort and stress involved. This move is not something we decided to do on a whim. It is not without its risks, challenges or stress. So here goes.

So you want to relocate to another country. That’s great. It is easier said than done.  We knew that MC was eligible for citizenship in an EU country for years. It was something we talked about even before we were married however didn’t really do much with it. After our girls were  born MC mentioned that if she had gotten her citizenship before they were born they too would’ve gotten it. We were lazy about it however not the end of the world. What must’ve been about a year and 1/2 ago we were talking to a friend who had gotten the documents to get her Irish citizenship. To sum it up I think she said something like it’s simple but not easy.

Somewhere around the summer time of 2016 MC and I started talking about it more. I had always been interested in an overseas assignment. Up until that time nothing seemed to have presented itself. I am not sure what was the motivator however I realized life is too short to wait for something to drop in your lap. So the more MC & I talked about it the more I decided I wanted to see what opportunities there were and seek them out. At the same time MC was going to gather all the documents she needed to finally get the citizenship done. MC’s parents were great help with this. They had either originals or photocopies of original documents that we would need. Some stuff going back over 100 years ago. It was her parents that had enabled MC to have the claim.

It wasn’t until the fall of 2016 that we really started getting the paperwork together to submit an application. Around the same time there was rumblings about whether or not my office in New York would remain or if other locations would become more prominent.

The friend we spoke to previously was right about the application process. What you needed was very straightforward. Getting it and having it certified in the right way to be used was time-consuming and in some cases costly. The fact that we lived in New York City and enabled MC to go to the courthouse was very helpful. It took almost 3 months of part-time document gathering before we had a bundle ready to submit to the Irish government.

We sent our application out in mid-January 2017. They said it could take up to six months to give us a reply. We were pleasantly surprised four months later to get MC’s foreign birth registry document. Then we used that document along with a lot of the other ones we had gathered to apply for MC’s passport. We had that done sometime around late June or early July 2017.

This long drawn out timeline of what we had to do to get MC her Irish passport is important. Without that our family had much more limited options. With a passport from an EU country any opportunity within any EU country was open to both of us. Since as a spouse of an EU national I have the right to work also. Without that it’s not impossible however significantly more difficult to be able to do what where undertaking now.

In Part 2 I will talk more about the opportunity that made use of all this work.

The W Sister’s And The Story of Why We Are So Excited About Explaining Stuff

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If you have kids you might be like us and explain stuff to them. I have done it since T was a baby and wasn’t possible for her to understand. On one hand I think it’s a good idea. It is is also something to pass the time when dealing with little kids.

As the girls get older both MC and I continue to do it and try to make it into a conversation with the girls. Sometimes it sparks their interest and others they could care less.

On a weekend in November we traveled to MC’s parents house for a visit. We were driving over the new Tappanzee bridge and MC was explaining that it was a suspension bridge. MC was trying to go into details about how it works so the girls would understand how it works. T instead blurred out “Mommy why are you so excited about this bridge?”

MC broke out hysterically laughing. It was pretty funny. T just wanted to know why MC was going on about this bridge. Hopefully comments like that aside T grows to appreciate engineering even if she doesn’t choose to study it.

A on the other hand was quiet during the encounter. I can’t remember if she was just sleeping but that is likely since we were driving.

Hello Hoboken, I Will Barely Remember You

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Hoboken, you make it so difficult to dislike you. The Times Square office had a fantastic view. You had to go on one off that with a gorgeous skyline view of Manhattan. You took a standard desk setup that I had for 2 years in Times Square and you had to kick it up a notch with a hydroelectric standing desk standard. Now that is cool and I promised my neighbors to annoy them with the hydronic lift randomly let’s face it that function is lost on me. Simply for coolness factor it gets points though.

Then the office has to be nice and bright with lots of personal space to go if I needed it. Then there is a boutique coffee shop only a few blocks away that was on par with Grumpy’s.

I almost like you Hoboken. Almost… all the things I discussed are great yet you still will always be geographically undesirable. My morning commute was around one hour and twenty minutes. I took a local for a seat however at the time I traveled the express isn’t that much faster.

In the end let’s face it I will hardly remember you Hoboken. You are a 4 week layover until London. I footnote in my life. I will be back a few more times. Till then…

Bye For Now Times Square

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Times Square can be a challenging place to work.  It is crowded with tourists most of the year.  The tour bus people always harass you to buy tickets even when I feel like it is pretty obvious i am not a tourist.  Then there are the off brand cartoon characters trying to get you to give them money to take photos with them.  30 Rock was totally on the money about them.  With all of that I still love working in Times Square.

When describing were i worked i had to be more detailed than just i work in times square.  Especially for those from out of town.People would ask oh where in Times Square? And I would say right in time square… If you look up from my window you see the ball. I would also tell the story about the 10 stories high red Walgreens sign flashing at my window annoying the crap out of me for about two years. I get the blinds closed pretty much the entire time.

I do remember many days over the years I would grab my coffee and start walking to the office and enter time square with all the activity even at 7:50 in the morning you get kind of excited. It may be a New York centric thing to say however time square is arguably one of the centers of the world. Even with all the negatives it was has been cool working here.

Friday however was my last day working out of Times Square. My group is relocating to an office in Hoboken. I found out about the Hoboken move after my London relocation was already pretty much done. The move wasn’t really going to impact me much since the overlap of me going to Hoboken before London would be for only a short period of time. It works out to about six weeks between when the move happened and when I will relocate. During that time. I’m glad i am relocating to another country since this move adds about 20 to 30 minutes to my commute. Not the end of the world however it pushes the commute to Borderline challenging especially when I need to get home to pick up the girls,

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Hoboken. We toured the office about a week ago and it looks really nice. The lunch room has a gorgeous view of the Manhattan skyline. It looks like there’s plenty of things to do around the office for food. Maybe not as much is Times Square however how many places have that much stuff to do like times square? It’s just that it’s further from my house and it’s not time square. Sorry Hoboken. I’m just being honest. You’ll never have a place in my heart like the Times Square office did.

I’m also going to miss a lot of my old group. I might have moved organizations in May however I still sat near people I worked with for several years. We would still go to lunch and grab drinks after work. I know all of that would change when I move overseas however this brings that date up by six weeks that I was not originally planning on.

I still hope to grab drinks now again before I leave. I have to pass right by the Times Square office on my way home from the Hoboken office anyway. It’s not really that far out-of-the-way to meet up with people. I wonder how many times actually will do it. It is still my intention to make the effort while I am still in NY.

I don’t think I’ll find another office when at 8:15AM you will hear cheering in the background because some crowd of people is yelling at the TV morning show being filmed a block or two away.

Let there be Scones

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With everyone in the house in various stages of being sick or recovering we opted to stay in for the day. That meant parts of art projects, Lego building, naps (for the adults not the kids) and of course scones.

MC had been wanting to make the scones for a while. When my friend was visiting a few weeks ago she opted to make muffins instead of scones. That delay provided us much deliciousness today. After dinner Amelia asked for “the things that you made for me and are sweet.” MC and I both assumed she meant the scones. Sadly no butter for her or her sister. I had enough butter for all three of us

My Decor Choices in the New House, Oh I Mean The Blog Has a New Name

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That picture is the decor of the master bedroom in our new house. Ok maybe not. I am not sure if MC would be cool with that. I really did not ask. If she is then I might totally go for that minus the monolith. Unless the Monolith has a flat screen in it.

The main reason for this post is after I wrote my blog renaming post yet before it was published this Wednesday I came up with what I feel is a great name for this site, A Scott Odyssey.  I have had a few names over the years but have never focused on the name aspect of the site identity.  I have fixated more on the URL and as i have written before i kept coming back to what i am using today.  With my track record in waffling on names and URL’s i may change both in 6 months.

I think “A Scott Odyssey” is something fun and semi descriptive enough.  I also feel that it avoids all the things I highlighted I do not want to do when I renamed. On one hand writing about this is too much technical side of the blog itself however this is the minutia I OCD over. I like the Odyssey part and the play on words from 2001. Life is an Odyssey and this move we are taking is the next Chapter in it. Here is to another 14 years of writing at “A Scott Odyssey”.