Anyone in Boston / MA?

[Player0]

I'm moving in a week to Boston for a new job. If you had asked me two-three weeks ago if I would ever be in Boston, I would have told you you were crazy. I found a really good opportunity at a place in the North End of Boston, I think the little Italy area. Has anyone ever lived there before?

I have the job squared away but no solid housing yet. Boston is about twice as expensive as Buffalo which hurts. I don't know how much more expensive everything else will be. Internet, gas, insurance, etc. Hopefully I can find a decent place to move in to quick and hopefully I can still land a moving truck.

It's not bad enough that most houses/apartments are $2000/mo but most of them require a realitor fee/last month/second months rent. You're talking $6000 just to move in to a place. For you rich people thats no problem but it makes me want to kneel on a bed of salt.

I hate throwing all this stuff away. Computer parts, kitchen things, housewares, books, appliances, electronics. Most of it still works and I don't have time to sell most of it. I've sold my car and hopefully my subwoofer off craigslist. If anyone wants to drive to Buffalo to take stuff, let me know! :)

[Synthohol]

hey, if i gave you my UPS account # i'd take anything you want to part with?
LMK, even if i just stored it for you until you were in the area or such. i also hate to throw good stuff out, you have seen my basement so you know its true :)

[Synthohol]

Snowman lives about an hour away from boston, you can stalk him ;)

[Snowman]

Hay Tom welcome to Taxachusetts, yes living in Boston sucks I think you be better off looking for a place out side of Boston as rent is lower and you can ride the 'T' But if you planed on living in town be prepared to pay up the a$$ for rent!! Where I live in Fall River rent for a 3 bedroom is about $400 to $600 a month.

Anything I can help with just ask

[Player0]

Fall River sounds like my kinda place but the commute might be killer! :D

[Snowman]

Its about an hour by car 40 min if you can use the zipper lane 2 people (info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrier_transfer_machine)
in the car

Here is a quick page i look up for housing in FR

http://realestate.wickedlocal.com/properties/search/results.php?qTerms=rent&qSearchTab=sell&qAction=search&qZip=02720&qRadius=10&propertyType%5B0%5D=Apartments&pagesize=20&view=brief&qtotal=61&qSortBy=Price&qSortDirection=DESC&page=1

click on the price for a Description

And the Fall River home page

http://www.fallriverma.org/

Good luck with your new job

[DAVE185]

I live sort of close. I could take the train in pretty quickly(less than an hour). Yes, be prepared for high prices and a crappy basketball team. Also, if the RedSox make it to the world series, don't leave your house that day(week).

Boston is pretty badass though, I might be moving in the area in a year. Goodluck in finding a new place.

[Player0]

Well, I got a nice affordable place up in Arlington, MA. Of course, the company I worked for went chapter 7 bankruptcy today and everyone was laid off. It was my fourth week there and I just moved all my stuff up two days ago. Loverly.

[Nettik]

lol, $400 for a 3 br rent! OMG! CAN I COME THERE! I am about to go to UCLA and pay $500 to share a room with three other people in a 1 br apartment!

I live about an hour and a half north of there too and the rent is usually about $1200/mo for a 2br in nice neighbor hood.

:Nettik

[unacceptable_risk]

Wow, thats just too much. You don't even want to know what I pay here.

[WackyComputer]

Well, I got a nice affordable place up in Arlington, MA. Of course, the company I worked for went chapter 7 bankruptcy today and everyone was laid off. It was my fourth week there and I just moved all my stuff up two days ago. Loverly.

Damn, Tom. Awful luck dude.

[unacceptable_risk]

Sh!t, I managed to miss that bit! That sux the most!!

[Player0]

Haha yeah... speaking of rent here, affordable in Boston is about $1500 and means an hour commute to just about anything of interest. Still better than the $1800-$2200 I was looking at most other places in the burbs.

Without a job though that $1500 sure looks looming :) I'm hoping that this place going under isn't bad luck. It's not like I picked a start up or something. They've been around for nearly a decade I think and have been in the black for a long time. They were really investing in the business. They were hiring all sorts of new people, built a new server room, were buying all sorts of new productivity software, commissioned a new intranet, etc. Nothing about this place ever said bankruptcy. It wasn't even that the place went broke. The board decided that the future of the business wasn't stable enough. Investors pulled out and that was that. They got scared so 100 of us are looking for work. I moved to Boston cause it seems to have a strong job market for developers so I'm hoping something else comes along quick like. Even with unemployment I can't pay my next months rent unless I have an income lol. Might have to go get a McJob :D

[illmatik]

If you can code really terse c# and understand basic automated trading strategies, I might be able to hook you up @ my former employer ConvergEx. The financial engineering team is based in Boston. They share space with the software vendor we bought, Eze Castle Software. I know they were looking for level 3 support people which double as sales engineers who customize the trading system, interfaces, databases etc to meet their needs and integrate with other systems. Lotta custom report building stuff much of which is web-based.

I decided to take a package to leave as I need a break from the financial industry. I think it's stifling my creativity. I'm actually going to go to a startup shop based in Pearl River who is developing some really interested stuff in one of my big interests: Virtualization and bleeding edge storage systems. Luckily these guys came from a successful former-startup. Normally when I hear startup+stock options I'd say I dont believe a word, but one of the partners who is dealing with the financial part of things was one of the candidates to run the World Bank before they gave it to paul wolfshitowitz. Their structure is impressive and well laid out since they've all been around the block, and are using this as their last gig before retirement, so exit strategy was mentioned a lot and got enough in their first two rounds of investing to cover over 2 years. How can I say no to making more than I did in nyc living in middletown doing something I'd do in my spare time anyway?

lmk if you want me to put some feelers out in beantown tom..

It's not like the typical investment bank uptight environment in the ny office. I think they're in a hip area I think they call it the back bay (? I always forget where I am when I'm there.. I go purely on landmarks I have in my head when I'm in boston) in an old factory building setup startup company loft style. The cubicles are multiples larger than the space they're cramming two senior executives into in nyc. That was the thing I really digged about the space up there which would be a big selling point to me if I was considering a gig there. Depending on the what part of the floor you're on (the bldg is an odd shape) the cube is centered around one or two windows that run floor to ceiling and can be opened to get fresh air. The largest cubes can accommodate 4 people comfortably but would usually have 3, kind of extreme programming style like a lead or mgr and 2 devs, or architect, dev, and quant. Floor plants, hanging plants, rolling white/corkboards and short bookshelf/locking drawer units give you adjustable privacy on demand without feeling boxed in. The 4th corner often has your test rigs, printer, fax, those high tech electronic whiteboards, office toys, sometimes minifridge and space to put stuff while the middle will have a round table for lunch, meetings, conf calls, or chillin out. The core of the floor has data/comm rooms, conf rooms, and large support desks. I noticed a bunch of lunchtime DS Lite action one of the times I visited, wonder if its still goin on :) The firm as a whole has been in a massive growth mode since breaking off from BNY, hopefully they havent started slicing and dicing the work areas cuz it will totally kill the corporate culture, morale and inevitably productivity.

The startup I'm in talks with is actually going to be taking a much larger space in the building they're in and will be asking all us who accept our offers to submit layout/design/decor ideas when they receive the floor plans for the available spaces. I think it's a pretty cool gesture as they're trying to emphasize the first round of hires (there will be 8 of us I think) will be considered company founders who should make their marks from the start. My idea will be largely influenced by the one above if the space can facilitate it (minus the opening windows unfortunately). I've also been asked to design their data center since a large part of my candidacy is based on my hardware skills (overclocking and hardware hacking were the topic of almost 2 hours of talks so far and yes I name-dropped the LN.com!!) as I will be heading up the manufacturing of their devices and this will double as a showroom and training center. I'm pretty psyched!

[Player0]

Oh yeh, I forgot to mention, I got a job again on Monday ^.^

[Synthohol]

:thumbsup:WOOT!!!!:thumbsup:

[WackyComputer]

Here I was picturing the Player#'s Family living on the streets of Boston.

[Player0]

I'm not having the best of luck in Boston so far I guess. But I gotta say, there is a SHITLOAD of jobs here. I don't think computer guys worry about work in this place. So if you're in IT, Boston is a good East Coast alternative to the Valley.