Hello, everyone.

A few months back this forum gave me incredibly insightful wisdom on my potential career move. All some of you asked in return was to report back, and I didn't. I'm sorry for being lame.

My wife and I started binge watching HBO's "Big Love" and it hit me that I never responded. Long story short, we didn't take the offer. We're still in Brooklyn and actively exploring options.

I've worked at start-ups before and understand that a certain level of "fake it 'til you make it" is required. The firm in Provo took that concept and brought it to a whole new level. The many "clients" advertised were actually non-paying beta-testers. The technology was vaporware - buggy, still a proof-of-concept, nowhere near production ready. The management structure (more below) was a mess.

To the credit of the young founders, when I (aggressively) pushed to know more about the status of the company, they acknowledged the challenges, risks, and had a decent vision of what it would take to succeed. Unfortunately, they seemed to have outsourced management of the company to a "Chief Revenue Officer" - some non-tech BYU MBA lacking any technical foundation. That was the big red flag. One week later I declined the offer. It was an amicable breakup and we agreed to stay in touch.

It's a shame. Utah is BEAUTIFUL. Wow. We thought we were going to get into a car accident because we couldn't stop staring into the distance. Utah is CHEAP. We were shocked at how affordable housing, food, entertainment, etc. was. The people were friendly and we look forward to visiting again soon.

Cheers!

I'm glad that the company levelled with you when you questioned them--sounds like it would have been a bad move, at least with that employer. At least you and your wife got a trip to Utah and got a better idea what it is like in case you ever have another job offer there.

By the way, as someone from Silicon Valley/SF Bay Area, I can relate to how stunningly CHEAP everything seems in Utah, or for that matter almost anywhere else in the country. My husband and I also love Utah's natural beauty. Still, after reading this board for the last several years, I'd be leery of moving there as a neverMo, other than to SLC.

I wish you and your family the best!

I hope you'll come back and visit. And, very best wishes finding the position you're searching for!

To me, the Four Corners region is the most interesting and beautiful part of Utah. Even the TBMs seem more genuine. For fun, google "church rock, Utah" and be prepared for some juicy local gossip from a long time ago. The Boner.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2017 12:21PM by BYU Boner.

Thanks for letting us know.
I actually think it's *great* that your decision was based on company issues and not mormonism. I also think you made a good choice.

One more thing: yeah, the people are friendly. When you're thinking of moving there. For a little while after you get there. And then, when you won't join their church...after a short while, not so friendly :)

Good luck with the job search.

Thanks for reporting back! Do let us know where you land up should you accept another offer. Sounds like you dodged a bullet.

I think Joseph Smith invented that phrase and has been taken-up by nearly every Mormon missionary.

Did you ever tell us what you do? Some of us have startups...

I suppose it's safer to comment now that I've declined the offer ;)

I'm a FPGA developer, which in NYC or Chicago means you're working in high-frequency/high-speed trading. There's a ton of interest in the application of this technology to "big data" which is what the Provo firm was interested in.

And can you do signal processing?

Is your background electrical or more softwarey?

As it relates to FPGA, purely logic design and high-level prototyping. I'm well versed in microwave/high-frequency signal transmission, long-haul network infrastructure, etc.

My elevator pitch is that I'm constantly fighting against special relatively's pesky speed of light ;)

We should talk.

Send the Eric, the site admin, your resume and contact information and I'll get it from him: erickett@wingnet.net

Will do! Thanks.

Isn't DSP coding a job for MATLAB? As Tim from "Tool Time" used to say, "More Power!".

Depends on the requirements. If latency isn't a big concern, Matlab or even Python are great for digital signal processing.

In modern securities trading where nanoseconds matter, FPGA has become the standard.

I don't know how much change you're looking for, but if I wanted to start a new career I'd look into becoming a blockchain developer. The next big disruption is coming to the legal and financial fields from things like Etherium. You might have a head start with your trading experience.

Sorry to go off-topic, but "Big Love" is crazy! We're hooked.

Rhonda: "The greatest freedom we have is obedience" when discussing her underage marriage with the prophet of Juniper Creek.

We're probably going to start another thread on this show, though I'm sure it's been discussed to death.

Glad you avoided a job that might have been a problem. Good for you for pushing for facts. Good for them for being honest.

As for a low cost of living, there are lots of options:

https://www.missourieconomy.org/indicators/cost_of_living/

Don't care how cheap it is, you'll never get decent bagels or pastrami west of Hackensack.

And you won't get decent funeral potatoes and green jello in Hackensack.

I was just this very morning trying to describe funeral potatoes to a co-worker.

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And you won't get decent funeral potatoes and
> green jello in Hackensack.

...or anywhere else :)

funeral potatoes haters gotta hate.