SPUG: Living in Seattle

Jacinta Richardson jarich at perltraining.com.au
Wed Aug 10 17:51:29 PDT 2005


Tim Maher wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 09, 2005 at 01:14:30PM +1000, Jacinta Richardson wrote:
> 
>>My husband has just been offered a job (out of the blue) in
>>Seattle ...
> 
> <SNIP>
> 
>>I *presume* that they'd be willing to either provide me a job
>>as well or help me find one. As my expertise is similar to my
>>husband's, that shouldn't be too hard.
> 
> 
> Jacinta,
> 
> I don't understand why you're so quick to assume that your
> husband's job offer would necessarily include one for you too,
> unless that's the way it typically works Down Under.
> 
> Here in the USA, I'd be /extremely surprised/ if any company
> would feel a duty to arrange employment for the spouse of a new
> employee. I'm not saying it's never happened before (for all I
> know, Linus' wife might have been set up with her own Mercedes
> dealership in Portland to entice them to relocate there), but
> it's certainly not the norm here.

It's easy for me to presume this, even while knowing this may be an unusual
practice.  They want my husband enough to pay for him to travel over from
Australia.  They don't believe in losing top talent due to monetary issues.
He's plain and simply not going to work for them if I don't come to the US with
him.  I'm not going to the US to spend the next few years job hunting.  I'm also
not going to the US to work at a job that doesn't utilise my skills and pay me
appropriately.

So either they'd help me find work or they wouldn't get him.  If they want him
as much as they say they do, then I think they'd find it in them to help me out.

We can take this approach because we really don't care if they reject our
proposal.  Our current situation is perfect.  So they've got to provide a very
compelling offer for us to accept theirs.

On the other hand, I've known many people who've moved overseas for a job and
whose spouse was also been provided a job.  Some of these have been moving to
Australia and others from Australia.  I've even known people who've moved
interstate (inside Australia) and who have had this happen for them.  Maybe the
USA is special in this regard...

> Even better than Down Under, very few of us die from unexpected
> venom injections here! 8-}

Well there is that... although having seen many snakes and spiders, close up, in
the wild, I'm doing fine.  ;)

	J


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