I feel like the locations are both great honestly. I absolutely fell in love with Sedona when I went for my interview. I know a lot of people think some people that live there are kind of loopy for believing in energy vortex and I'm all about science. But I honestly did feel a rejuvenation when I was there, especially after coming out of a terrible and toxic work environment working in managed care in one of the biggest health plans in the country. As soon as I left North AZ, I felt almost better cause of the beauty in the scenery.
The benefit of my rent is that for now I am living with my parents (I know it sounds weird, but it's totally normal in my family for a single woman to live with her parents before she gets married-don't laugh). This would also help me pay off any remaining student loans too, without worrying about rent costs. But I do have the option of eventually moving out if I want to and rent is a burden in some areas of So Cal but I can manage.
I can't believe the same redditor helping me out on another forum is helping me yet again here :). I read that Tucson and Sedona have major differences. I wouldn't mind moving to Phoenix and Tucson, and had several interviews with agencies in downtown Phoenix but we'll see. They're government jobs and take a long time to process. I think at this point, it depends on where I want to go in my career. My job offer in Sedona relates to working for a health plan again and monitoring doctors, which is very similar to what I used to do and it was a nightmare since they're always pissed at the health plan and understandably so. The difference is that this team seems to be better, and more collaborative rather than the silos that I was previously working with.
Now the offer in CA, it's completely research oriented and I'm working with a national and state program that delivers services and studies the efficiency of the program with low-income children in regards to their access to nutrition, medical, dental, educational and social programs and whether or not it makes an impact. There's more policy, legal and advocacy work involved and I really like how it engages in working at a level and helps me use my grad education in the way that I originally intended to go to grad school for. It's a direction away from working with health plans and health insurance and hopefully towards something more positive.
I had no idea you were in the AF, and thank you for your service! I wanted to join the USAF but I can't handle it lol I heard they only recently bumped off the cut-off to 39! Where did you pick up to after Tucson?
The last question is a good questions. If I want the glitzy, yuppie job I was working for with health plans in Downtown L.A., I believe the highest I can go is a program manager with pretty good pay ultimately around 80k. But with the added corporate environment stress and working long hours, it's not really worth it to me. Deep down in my heart, I know it's going to interfere with my work-life balance. This job is very similar to my job in Sedona too, but I would probably become a manager faster over there cause that boss is offering me that position once I pass the probationary period for the specialist. This is the 40k job. I can also always come back to L.A. to continue this line. I'd be a quality improvement specialist here but I am trading off my work-life balance.
The 42K job is state funded and I'd be a research analyst, so who knows but the organization has been around since the 70s and it thrives even more during recessions cause of the fact we would have to support children and families where the bread winners lost their jobs. If I go in that direction, I am considering advocacy and research management work and potentially a PhD or JD related to food policy and public interest law. It's a shame that a diet coke is cheaper than water, and children in schools can access Cheetos faster and cheaper than vegetables. Since this agency is involved with children, they allow their employees to take time off for their kid's activities, which would be awesome if I do decide to have kids later. The work-life balance seems more appealing and it's just 10 minutes away.
Good idea- I should be looking around in more areas :X