Psychris - I am in the exact same situation! I have sold, given away, or stored all my belongings. I've rented out my house. The only thing left is to sell my car and I have exactly 1 week to do it. So far no serious nibbles but the inquiries are starting to come in. To top it all off I parked it in a local business parking lot by a busy street where lots of people park cars they're trying to sell. Unfortunately the business owner in the last month decided to crack down on this and had my car impounded. Cost me $311 to get it back. A VERY expensive lesson learned on my part! I have given my mother power of attorney so if worse comes to worse she will sell it for me after I leave.

Thanks anon. I knew the USPS would forward mail for 6 months but I didn't know you could extend it to 1 year. I'm not going to have anything forwarded to my international address. I'm going to have everything forwarded to my mom. Then she can throw away or open things at my discretion.

Thank you so much for the advice so far. I hope more people post about this.


In light of the fact that I'd really like to continue getting some more advice, let's try to keep the bickering between psyguy and everyone else to nil as I've noticed this kind of thing tends to hijack many threads and divert them away from the original question. I'm intelligent enough to take all of the info into account in making my decisions.

I'm leaving soon for my first job abroad. I need advice about driver's license and what address to use. I am going to rent out my house so don't want to use my current address. I'm planning to use my mom's address in another state as my permanent U.S. address for bank accounts, etc. I have a current driver's license in my state. I need to have a current license so I can drive when I come back on vacation and if I want to rent a car abroad. However if I'm using my mom's address in another state, I don't think I'll be able to renew my drivers license online from my state. And then when my license expires I'd have to go through the whole testing process to get licensed all over again in another state when I come home on vacation sometime. What do you guys do about driver's licenses? Would getting an international driver's license solve this problem?

Any other advice about using an address of a family member in a different state from where you originated while you're abroad?

[quote="heyteach"]What are the terms for shipping from your school in Thailand? If they will ship to your next destination, you can use them to ship from Thailand to say, Russia (would that be cold enough for you?). Then use your new school's shipping allowance to ship from your home country to there.[/quote]

Oh, thank you heyteach! Being a newbie I didn't realize my Thailand school would probably pay to ship stuff out after I leave, if I'm going to another school. I knew they paid to ship back to original home if I'm repatriating. So if I combine that with a shipping allowance from my next school, that could be pretty good. Kind of a hassle to have stuff coming from two places, but doable if need be.

I'm headed to my first international job in Thailand where it's very hot 365 days a year! I was only planning to bring my small wardrobe of hot weather clothes and buy the rest there. I am coming from a cold & rainy climate so I have lots of clothes for that kind of weather that I was going to leave behind. I was planning to bring a small amount of cold weather clothes in case I travel to cold weather places. However someone just advised me that if I think I might move on in a few years to a place with a colder climate, I might want to go ahead and include my cold weather clothes in my shipment to Thailand now. Because that way when my next school pays to ship me from Thailand to wherever, I can ship it all together. However if I leave them at home in the USA, then I have to ship some stuff from Thailand and some stuff from USA and it becomes a big bother. And I hear schools don't tend to pay for you to ship stuff from multiple locations. So, for those of you who have worked in several different climate places, how did you handle this? And guys, think female packing here. I'm not gonna just throw a couple pairs of pants, a couple sweaters, and a pair of boots in a suitcase and call it a wardrobe! :) Thanks for your advice!

Hmmmmm. I can't access that link now. Can anyone else? Maybe someone didn't like it that you found it and posted it for us.

I'm heading to Bangkok, Thailand and would love to get advice from people there about transferring money to my credit union or brokerage account in the USA.

Congrats iTeach314 and davey!

It would be fun to have a way for everyone to check in on here and say where they ended up getting jobs. After we've all been picking each others brains and acting freaked out on here for the last couple months!

Whoo hoo, got a job at my #1 choice. I will be in Bangkok next year! So if you're in Bangkok and wouldn't mind conversing with me, please email me at dreamgiver23@yahoo.com. Was also offered great jobs in Tokyo and Beijing. In fact, signed the contract on Thursday before the fair even started. So I get to spend the weekend sight-seeing Boston instead of attending the fair!

Lesson learned: Plan to arrive at fair 1-2 days early. The week before the fair contact schools that have expressed interest in interviewing you at the fair (I had already done screening skype interviews with some of them) and set up interviews for the day and morning before the fair. Many recruiters were there a day early and doing this as much as possible! Wrap everything up, skip the fair, and then sightsee! If you can't manage to get the job by Skype, this works great! Although I only think it would work if you are a very competitive candidate and they're truly interested and want to nab you before everyone else does. I was offered 2 contracts the day the fair started. My only issue with this for me was getting two great offers with an answer deadline before I even got a chance to interview with all the schools that put interview request slips in my box. I didn't want to loose either of these jobs but I was nervous about what great unknowns I might be missing out on. But a Search Associate was super helpful in talking this through. They were familiar with the schools I hadn't interviewed with yet and were able to tell me if I would be missing out on the opportunity for something better. They verified none of them would be a better salary/package or reputation! So I felt 100% at peace about accepting the early offer and buying a 3 day hop on/hop off bus tour of Boston![/url]

Thank you everyone. Your responses are truly appreciated!

I'm currently at a job fair. What do I tell a recruiter when they ask what other schools I'm considering or what other schools I have interviews set up with? I have been asked this question several times so I assume it's standard. It feels nosey. I can understand they want to know if I'm entertaining other offers so they know how quickly they need to act. But to just ask what other schools I'm interested in or have an interest expressed in me doesn't make much sense to me. Do they want to know how in demand I am and with which caliber of schools?

On one hand I think it's good to let them know I have interviews lined up ASAP with several elite and tier 1 schools. It helps them know they've got a very competitive candidate in front of them and they'd better get a move on if they want me! But is there any reason why I should keep my cards close to my chest and not be too informative?

Western Europe, Middle East, Asia. All actually are in very desirable locations - to me anyway. Two I think are 2nd tier schools, and one I'm not sure about but based on ISR reviews isn't too high! I know none are tier 1 schools! Probably because my position is more specialized has something to do with it.

[quote="BookshelfAmy"]. . . but the thought of leaving my new washer/dryer makes me sad. But adventure trumps clean clothes, right? :)[/quote]

LOL! I can relate! I am struggling with the plan to leave my beautiful newly remodeled (post flood) house! Can't stand the thought of how a renter is going to treat my gorgeous new hard wood floors!

I have had several requests to interview from schools I never applied to. They accessed my information from the recruitment agency website. I did not apply to these schools for various reasons. However I am always open to possibilities and interview practice! For the schools I am most interested in, I applied and I imagine so did hoards of other people! So my question is to find out if my gut instinct is correct: the schools that found me on the recruitment website and contacted me are probably less desirable schools to everyone and so they didn't get as many qualified applicants. So they have to go find them for themselves. Accurate or not?