Looking into the Sacramento area

Suture This · Aug 27, 2020

1. visit first. stay at minimum 2 weeks.

2. look at neighborhoods, apartments, demographics, traffic patterns

3. if you decide to move there, get a job FIRST. it's a catch 22 with them--if they know you're already there you get lowballed big time--if they know you're from out of state, they will still lowball you, then they'll refuse any relocation assistance, and this is if your resume makes it to the top of the "friends and family only" stack. which is all of the hospitals there. especially kaiser.

4. you will not get into kaiser. period. you go through AMN as a traveler, do their 6 month "interview" and if you pass their personality test and their "keep your mouth shut about the red bugs crawling across the pyxis screen" and "no tube stations" and "no fulltime hours but we'll set your part time hours to where you can't possibly work anywhere else"--you will be a shoe in! ;)

5. sutter is the same but different. still on the friends and family plan.

6. be prepared for Meth City. each and every bus stop/station is camped with homeless. the entire downtown park is covered at all hours with encampments. Cue the baseball bat attacks, frequent (sometimes 5 a day per caller) 911 calls to get drugs or a meal, skyrocketing mental health problems that you can't even imagine.

7. what was your question about you considering moving to sacramento? money?

8. taxes. you will bring home 45% of your earned pay. local, state and federal taxes are the remainder. do the math. just because you're offered $54/hr or $72/hr---do the math.

9. learn to Google "cost of living analysis" from your point of origin to your landing spot.

10. can you fight fires in your spare time? make sure your renters' insurance is up to date, you have no pets (air quality and fire hazard effects them too while you're working).

11. do you like green lawns? sac isn't for you. water police make sure you can only have that sprinkler on for 10 minutes, but your landlord requires that you keep that lawn lush.

12. rent. make sure you understand the actual cost of living there. and the laws that say that if you break a lease you are on the hook for the entirety of that lease. covid, rats, no ac, break ins---you have zero recourse for a bad landlord or tragic life circumstances.

13. I forgot....what was your main reason for wanting to live there? money?