Good luck. I've never lived anywhere but a rural area and don't honestly think I'd cut it in a subdivision. Two more years and I'm retiring, I've had enough of these 12 hour swing shifts.
I've worked 10-12 hours a day all my life. Many weeks were 6 days a week. I'm done with that, I'm not the machine I used to be.
Working for people SUCKS! I left my last job designing control systems and programming industrial machines. I had been there 25 years. The more senior I became the harder the jobs were till the point they were impossible but had to be done yesterday. My last "project" I was told to travel to Mexico (DEADLY) and completely reprogram a machine that was designed mechanically wrong. It had to be done in 2 days INCLUDING TRAVEL. I said EFF THAT to the owners. The company hired a contract company that threw 3 guys at it and charged $20,000. 2 weeks later they asked if I could go do it now pretty please. It didn't get finished. Had to be shipped back to Michigan to be rebuilt correctly. LOST $200k I left a few weeks later. Had ENOUGH of that ship after no raise since the great recession, the greedy bastards (but could WASTE $220k?!?!). Ugh. I left the coffee mug on my desk. After 25 years. That felt weird. Working for someone when there were literally 3 of us. The company grew to 50 people but I never "accumulated" anything. Now that I have my own biz, which don't get me wrong is a lot of work but I'm telling you its LESS stress and aggravation than working for someone. But at least now I have 2 industrial building, machines, trailers, hilo, tooling, truck, etc. In 10 years I've accumulated 5X what I made working like an animal, traveling 1/3 of the year, working holidays "or else", working 60-70+ hours, working 2-3 days STRAIGHT many times (but getting paid SALARY) doing the impossible. The TWO guys that replaced me quit recently. Yep I'm smiling. It's getting harder and harder finding VERY technical, mechanically knowledgeable, computer savvy guys to do industrial controls. And the Detroit area is the industrial automation center of the country so the demand is great. When looking at help wanted adds for guys to do this work companies want them to know every industrial computer system, every language, IT, MSEE, 10 years experience, have been published in technical magazines, to make $100k. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.
Good luck to you and happy for you!!!
