Should I stay or should I go?

Well, I’ve been unemployed for a full week now. I’ve sent out a several resumes and am currently waiting to hear back on a couple opportunities. I’m having a hard time finding any other opportunities in the area. I am waiting to hear back on a possible opportunity (will know more Wed or Thurs), but that is more of a long range one.

Being unemployed makes you reassess your goals and plans. The one thing that I do know is that I want to continue to work as a web developer/programmer. There is no question about that. I do NOT want to change careers again. I really enjoy this type of work. I think I like it so much because it is structured … but it does leave room for a little creativity. And I’m always learning something new.

The one thing that I REALLY want is to stay in the Fargo/Moorhead area. Despite all my bitching and moaning about the cold winters, I do like this area. And my friends and family are around here. My parents are only an hour away and other relatives are pretty close as well. And even though I said that I wanted to live in a more “high tech” town, I’m finding more and more techie people on Twitter from around here. I’m sure if I dig far enough, I could find tech groups around that I could join or maybe even try to organize some Twitter meet-ups.

But with the limited opportunities I’m finding, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stay. Even though I’m waiting to hear back on some things, I can’t just sit around and wait. I need to keep looking. I really want to be back at work somewhere. I just want that somewhere to be around here.

My biggest decision right now is when to start expanding my search area. I’m already thinking about looking for opportunities in Grand Forks. That’s only an hour to the north. And I live there for 4 years during college. I would still be within 2 hours of my parents and the majority of my family and an hour of my friends. I could visit them or they could visit me on the weekends. We don’t do much during the week right now anyways.

The other place that I was considering is the Minneapolis area. I’m sure there are lots of opportunities there, but I would be quite a ways farther away from everyone. Still within driving distance, but only for weekend trips. I’ve only visited the Minneapolis area, and I’ve never driven there. That’s one of the main things that freaks me out about moving there. I know that is something that I could overcome, so it’s not a deal breaker.

I just don’t know when I should start looking elsewhere. I don’t want to give up on the opportunities here. But I don’t want to force myself into a box with no way out. How long do I wait to hear back from the current opportunities and when is it time to give up hope that there might be new ones?