>> It depends on what you like.
>>
>> I gather that there are people who actually *like* travelling. People
>> who pay to go on round the world cruises. Personally, I'd hate that. But
>> that's OK; people are different.
> 
> Working someplace isn't the same as vacationing there.  But you know 
> that.  And yes, people are different.
> 
> I'm trying to point out (and apparently reaching "epic fail" with it) 
> that you're forming opinions on places based on, well, nothing.  You 
> think you would hate living in Zurich or Geneva based on no actual 
> experience at having been there at all.

Of course. Because I've never been to Geneva. Oh, wait - actually yes, 
yes I have. :-P

> You make assumptions that the 
> people there would treat you as bad or worse than you're treated now, but 
> you have zero empirical evidence to suggest that.

No, it's more that I find foreigners intimidating. That being the case, 
it's not a good idea to deliberately surround myself with them.

>> There are people who *want* to live in the south of France, because it's
>> very sunny there. Personally, I hate hot weather. It would drive me mad!
>> But hey, that's why I'm not moving to the south of France, right?
> 
> "Sunny" is different from "hot".  OK, you don't like warm weather; I 
> don't particularly like it either.  Maybe you'd like Scotland?

I imagine that would be far too cold. But yeah, I get your point.

>> And I am completely confident that there are plenty of people who'd
>> *love* to live and work in Switzerland. (It would be kind of an empty
>> country otherwise...) Doesn't mean I'd like it though.
> 
> But as I said you don't seem to have any empirical evidence that says you 
> wouldn't like it either.

Apart from having spent several weeks in Switzerland? And that doesn't 
count because...?

I mean, it's nice to go play with the snow and everything, but I'm 
always very relieved to get back home again afterwards. I wouldn't want 
to never return home ever again.

> So if you want to live near where you work, there are two options:  Find 
> a job closer to home, or find a home closer to the job.

Agreed.

> If you're 
> looking for a new job, then you have the freedom to look anywhere and 
> move near the job.  Which means you can find something you'll actually 
> *like* doing without the constraints of it being "near home" because 
> "home" can be moved.
> 
> You're still young (no matter what you think) and unattached.  It's the 
> *perfect* time to look for something that really engages your abilities 
> and skills and passion and not care particularly *where* it is.

I don't think it's feasible for me to get an enjoyable job. Let's face 
it, nobody is going to pay me to sit around geeking out over monadic 
combinator libraries. They're going to pay me to get a job done, no 
matter how boring it turns out to be.

One of the careers advisors I spoke to suggested that with my skill set 
I should maybe look at financial modelling. I looked around, and did 
find a job. First, the job was based in London. Second, they demand a 
PhD. Not negotiatable. I guess if I had really amazing grades from my 
degree I could argue that they should at least look at me... but I don't.

Let's be real here. You want to be a programmer? Why should I hire you? 
There are other programmers out there. Programmers who can do C and C++. 
Programmers who understand cache coherence and can cope with 
little-endian data (mis)representation. Programmers who won't get bored 
and do something unrelated every five minutes.

You wanna be a technical writer? Other people can write. And most of 
them write a damned site better than you. They can express themselves 
clearly, they can FREAKING SPELL, and they can type faster than you. Why 
should we hire you?

You wanna do something with maths? Other people have a real, formal 
mathematical education. With certificates and grades to prove it. Who 
are you trying to kid?

You want to design digital logic? We have engineering graduates who have 
been *actually doing* this stuff for, like, the last 8 years. Why should 
be hire some guy who's read about it in a book when we have a queue of 
people who have done it for real?

I need to be realistic about what work it is actually possible for me to 
get. I'm never going to be a software architect or a document writer. 
These jobs are few and far between, and there are plenty of people far 
more qualified than I am already competing for them. I need to look at 
jobs I might actually be able to get - and I doubt location makes a huge 
difference to that.

> Actually, most of them are in Germany because that's where they live and 
> they are doing something there that makes them happy.  I also know 
> someone who grew up in the Netherlands who works in New Zealand, someone 
> who grew up in New Zealand who works in New York, and my younger brother 
> grew up in Minneapolis and now lives and works in Osaka, Japan.  I've 
> another friend who grew up in Alabama (if I remember correctly) who lives 
> and works in Germany.  Shall I continue?  Coworkers who grew up in India 
> who live and work in Utah; another who is from Australia who lives and 
> works in Utah.

Like I said, some people *like* to travel. I don't.

>>> and why would it be "obviously impossible" anyways?
>> Because ordinary people don't get to work in cool places like that. Only
>> special people. I'm not special. (Not that way, anyway...)
> 
> Bullshit.  The only people who don't get to work there are those who are 
> (a) unqualified, or (b) don't bother to apply because they don't think 
> they stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting the job so they don't 
> even try.
> 
> TRY, DAMMIT!

I've tried applying to Wolfram. (They specifically requested 
applicants.) I applied to some bluechip on the M25. I've applied for 
just about every Haskell-related job going in the UK. Want to take a 
guess how many of these people even bothered to reply?

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