vendredi 25 décembre 2015

Job vs. Location

Dear colleagues,

I've been on this board since I was pre-med, and now I'm 1.5 years into my post-residency attending career as an outpatient psychiatrist (how time flies!). However I'm in a bit of a life dilemma right now. I actually think it's the opposite dilemma as most of my colleagues. I hear a lot of people hate their jobs but love their current geographical location. I LOVE my job, but am increasingly unhappy with my location.

I live in the periphery of the Bay Area in California right now. I grew up in California but as time passes I am increasingly unhappy living in this area. A remotely nice house is 700K to $1 million dollars. My wife doesn't work (she's a stay at home mom with our new baby), I'm paying off my med school loans and her college loans, we're living in a 2 bedroom apartment that we pay ~$2000/month for. And this is in a rural exurb of San Jose. In San Jose it'd be $2500/month. The housing market has recovered, and prices are rising rapidly. People are out-biding each other. It may be another decade before the market crashes again. Taxes are so high. I am also a firearms enthusiast and love target shooting, and the politics of this state make it increasingly impossible for me to pursue my hobby. Also we have no family here. My wife is from Kentucky and would love to move back there. My much smaller family is in Los Angeles. I would love to live in Arizona, which would be much cheaper than CA but equally close to my family in Los Angeles compared to my current location. Or we could go to Kentucky.

However, I absolutely love my current job, I truly doubt could get a better one anywhere as a psychiatrist. My staff love and respect me, and I love and respect them. I get along great with them. Literally as I was typing this post bitching about California, my HSR (front desk clerk) came by to give me a Christmas present and I had to give her a big hug. I get a ridiculous amount of vacation a year. I've never heard of any other psychiatry job with as much vacation + education time. I get great benefits and a pension. I have tuition reimbursement for CMEs and licensing fees. I work for County so I get a lot of no-shows, and I get to relax when they don't show up. I get a full 30 mins with each f/u, 60 mins for new patients. I have no call! The pay is not that great by Californian standards but it's not really bad for the amount of work I do. I feel like I scored a dream job, SO HAPPY and relaxed at my job (90% of the time), but so upset when I come home to my 900 sq ft apartment that I'm paying $2000/month for, not even in San Jose.

What would you do in my situation?

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Job vs. Location

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