<story><title>Thank HN: 127 days since I asked for your advice.</title><text>127 days ago I posted: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2005314 which asked for some specific assistance going corporate, and generally stabilizing what was a precarious scenario.  (moving to a new city without full-time employment, with $100k in debt hanging over me.)&lt;p&gt;Since that time, things have been going well.  One of willheim&apos;s suggestions was to reach out to alumni of my alma mater, and that one turned out to be the winner.&lt;p&gt;I felt strange at first, but I started sending emails and LinkedIn messages saying &quot;I&apos;m new to Philadelphia and I see you also graduated from my alma mater.  Would you mind grabbing a cup of coffee with me, and maybe giving me a little bit of your local wisdom?&quot;&lt;p&gt;I did this a ton of times, and wound up with three very positive outcomes:&lt;p&gt;1) I got a social life, which was emotionally fantastic.&lt;p&gt;2) One of my fellow alumni works in HR and they gave me great, honest feedback about my resume and some of the cover letters I&apos;d written that (I believe) made it much easier for a hiring manager to understand what I bring to the table.&lt;p&gt;3) Another one of my fellow alumni tipped me off about an unadvertised position in their firm that&apos;s a great fit for me as a first step back into corporate life.&lt;p&gt;tldr; 127 days later I have a network of local friends and acquaintances, a great job, and my debt is shrinking at a $6k/month clip.  And a large part of this is because I took willheim&apos;s advice about reaching out to alumni networks that (honestly) I never would&apos;ve thought to tap.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>throwaway267</author><text>I&apos;m working as an IT Director.&lt;p&gt;We&apos;re living extremely frugally when it comes to absolutely everything other than career-related expenses, and my fiancée is covering all of the shared bills.&lt;p&gt;If you saw our apartment, you&apos;d probably guess that our combined income is around 10% of our actual combined income.  (It&apos;s terrible, but it&apos;s a short, well-lit, heavily populated walk to the Broad Street Line, so it seems safe.)</text></item><item><author>danilocampos</author><text>Out of curiosity: Damn, $6k per month? What kind of work are you doing to have that much left over for debts?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mhartl</author><text>This one fact alone means you have &lt;i&gt;WINNER&lt;/i&gt; written all over you. Bravo!</text></comment>
<story><title>Thank HN: 127 days since I asked for your advice.</title><text>127 days ago I posted: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2005314 which asked for some specific assistance going corporate, and generally stabilizing what was a precarious scenario.  (moving to a new city without full-time employment, with $100k in debt hanging over me.)&lt;p&gt;Since that time, things have been going well.  One of willheim&apos;s suggestions was to reach out to alumni of my alma mater, and that one turned out to be the winner.&lt;p&gt;I felt strange at first, but I started sending emails and LinkedIn messages saying &quot;I&apos;m new to Philadelphia and I see you also graduated from my alma mater.  Would you mind grabbing a cup of coffee with me, and maybe giving me a little bit of your local wisdom?&quot;&lt;p&gt;I did this a ton of times, and wound up with three very positive outcomes:&lt;p&gt;1) I got a social life, which was emotionally fantastic.&lt;p&gt;2) One of my fellow alumni works in HR and they gave me great, honest feedback about my resume and some of the cover letters I&apos;d written that (I believe) made it much easier for a hiring manager to understand what I bring to the table.&lt;p&gt;3) Another one of my fellow alumni tipped me off about an unadvertised position in their firm that&apos;s a great fit for me as a first step back into corporate life.&lt;p&gt;tldr; 127 days later I have a network of local friends and acquaintances, a great job, and my debt is shrinking at a $6k/month clip.  And a large part of this is because I took willheim&apos;s advice about reaching out to alumni networks that (honestly) I never would&apos;ve thought to tap.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>throwaway267</author><text>I&apos;m working as an IT Director.&lt;p&gt;We&apos;re living extremely frugally when it comes to absolutely everything other than career-related expenses, and my fiancée is covering all of the shared bills.&lt;p&gt;If you saw our apartment, you&apos;d probably guess that our combined income is around 10% of our actual combined income.  (It&apos;s terrible, but it&apos;s a short, well-lit, heavily populated walk to the Broad Street Line, so it seems safe.)</text></item><item><author>danilocampos</author><text>Out of curiosity: Damn, $6k per month? What kind of work are you doing to have that much left over for debts?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>KevinEldon</author><text>Congratulations!  Way to not only capitalize on your talent, but to make sure you&apos;re not encumbered by debt in the future.  Best of luck to you and your soon-to-be-wife.</text></comment>