(no subject)

[anniethebruce]

Oh yeah this place exists.

So I've basically decided that I need to revive my plans to get to California, which I largely abandoned years ago. Being trans in a red state is not a great situation. San Diego, though not the most liberal part of California, is far more so than Missouri, especially southern Missouri. I would be much safer there, the problem is, it's expensive. Like a 2500 average rent for a one bedroom.

Thankfully, I'll have a computer science degree in a year to a year and a half. If I can get a programming job, that could pull in 80k+ to start, though some amount of luck is involved. I'm starting work on a portfolio to help. A degree says I can pass classes, a portfolio will show I can actually program shit. Overall picture would be any language I've worked in, and think I could get up to speed quickly on the job, will have at least one program there. Maybe some other stuff if it shows mastery of certain ideas better. I do need to learn a bit more C, since I do have an interest in systems programming and C is huge there. And maybe get some bugfixes successfully submitted to some OSS projects, showing I can work with larger projects from other people.

It's kind of convenient that the fastest route to a paycheck that could make this work is a thing I was doing anyways. I got really lucky with that.

The rough budgeting I've done- only very rough now, more a feasibility study than a real budget- says this should be doable. Average entry level programming pay is enough to live on my own, assuming average rent for a 1 bedroom. There's room to accept a lower quality(thus cheaper) apartment, or a similar quality but downsize to studio if I end up with a lower than average salary.

I'm likely to try to get a remote position first. This would put me in average national pay ranges, which is a bit lower than San Diego specifically, but it would let me build up a moving fund and decent emergency fund before I make the move.

Comments

[dissectionist]

If you’re able to get a remote job, you wouldn’t even need to be in SD proper. Not that the suburbs are much cheaper (I don’t think there’s anywhere in CA that is anymore, with maybe a few exceptions in central CA) but a couple hundred a month can make a big difference.

[anniethebruce]

Yeah, I probably should have said I'm looking at the San Diego region as a whole. The city itself would certainly be considered if the right place at the right price popped up in my searches, but it's really everywhere from Camp Pendleton to the border and 50 or so miles east(I want the coast reasonably accessible, though I'll accept inconvenience). The rent market or proramming job market would have to go to absolute shit if I couldn't find an affordable place in that region.

I do want to at least be closer to the coast if possible, but getting further from it is one option for bringing costs down. From what I remember of the area my best case would be Carlsbad, though I realize that was 22 years ago and I'm obviously not the same person I was then so I might not like it as much. Though it's also reasonably central to where the friends I still have out there live, so that certainly still applies.

Also... while there's a chance I'd move there anyways once I have my degree, I hate that it's basically being forced by political bullshit. And it's not lost on me that I got incredibly lucky being lined up for this come another year or so, and it being something I'd otherwise consider. Other trans people, if such a move is even possible, would have to sacrifice so much more of what they wanted out of their lives to make it happen.

[anniethebruce]

I will be applying to some in person jobs in the area if they look likely to pay enough. I suspect a veterans preference will be stronger(even if only informally) there than in a nationwide remote work search. Though a veterans preference would go further in an area less likely to have shittons of vets applying, so that may end up a wash.

[dissectionist]

It’s definitely bullshit that you’re being forced to move. :( I hate what’s happening right now in the US and UK. I’m waiting for it to really get going up here too; we’re already having the edgelords calling in bomb threats on drag queen events and protesting at elementary schools that are supporting trans teachers. It hasn’t spilled into the popular culture yet (probably because we don’t have JK Rowling living here) but I think it’s inevitable, particularly if that fash fuck Peepee gets voted in during the next election.

[anniethebruce]

I hope Canada doesn't go the way the US has, especially the Southeast and the Midwest(especially lower).

The Northeast and the west coast still seem mostly OK, but the GOP has enough power at the federal level to make me fear for every square inch of this country. States rights, but only when the feds so something I don't like is the way they're trying to govern.

[dissectionist]

I hope so too, and we do have a legacy of being more progressive in terms of sexuality/gender than the US. But the UK used to be pretty progressive on trans folks and all it took was one popular shitbird to change the narrative. :/ So I don’t have any sort of smug assumptions that it couldn’t happen here, or that the fascists aren’t going to try to take it in that direction. (I’m not using “fascist” loosely; the folks organizing the anti-trans actions are the same white supremacist Christofascists that organize anti-POC rallies.)

So far, community defense has been excellent, and it’s not just the usual antifa opposing the shitheads; parent LGBTQ groups like PFLAG have been stepping up to counter-protest as well.