Conteplating a move and have always lived in the Eastern time zone
Not necessarily a “time zone” thing, but more of a cultural thing.
From a media perspective, things are less important on the West Coast than the East Coast.
For example:
A storm knocks out power from British Columbia to Northern California. You’ll likely never hear about it unless you’re local.
If it’s slightly colder than normal in New York City? Suddenly National News.
A few things to consider if relocating from east to west:
The seemingly endless open space in the west can have a physical effect. I’ve known east-to-west transplants who were unnerved by what they perceived as a sense of desolation. They felt more at home with dense cities, skyscrapers, a faster pace, urban noise, and an absence of distant horizons.
The west has a lot of dry and brown land. Unlike the wetter east, most people need to use sprinklers or irrigation. Water is a concern in the west.
Generally speaking, east communication is more abrupt and unmistakable. West speak can have layers of innuendo that can feel treacherous to people who are accustomed to blunt language.
Sports on the earlier side so you can go to bed at a decent time.
People are pretty chill.
Edit: Some disadvantages are pizza is meh and if remote then you may have to work some odd hours to collaborate with colleagues.
In my frequent visits to Hawaii in the winter months they are 5 hours behind EST. So NFL games would start at 8AM
Perfect for mimosas and then a day at the beach. 😊
This is an east coast vs west coast thing more than timezone pacific, but the ocean on the east coast is way warmer thanks to the Gulf Stream. I’ve been surfing in SoCal in the middle of summer and the water was freezing vs surfing in NY in May and it was tolerable (still cold tho).
I just explained why Oregonians “go to the coast”, they don’t “go to the beach”.
This is the most accurate way to sum up a PNW beach. Except Washington beaches are rocky.
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If you’re just wondering about time zones — not many advantages: the stock market is already moving at 6am and closes in the early afternoon. If you have east coast family, they’ll text you when you’re asleep in the morning. Then, when you have time to text them at night, they’ll be asleep. Big events like presidential debates and addresses start when you’re just leaving work or commuting, so you tend to miss out on them.
One major disadvantage if you work remotely for an east coast company is that you have to start work 3 hours earlier than everyone else. The advantage I guess is that you get off with a couple hours left in the business day, so you can run errands after work.
Sounds amazing.
Start work 5 or 6. Stop work 1-2, have daylight for afternoon/evening activities. Sleep by 9.
Sure a 5am start would suck. But if you can adjust and pull it off, daylight after work all year would be worth it.
Usually it’s more like 7 am - 3 pm, but yeah.
Work culture is earlier to accommodate east coast offices. Weather is WAY better due to lack of humidity. And if you are in the PNW, a noticable lack of bugs. I once heard someone say if the west cost was discovered first, no one would live on the east coast. Worth a visit to see if it is right for you.
West Coast is best coast! People are generally a lot more chill than east coast. If you’re of a particular age, just consider Tupac vs. Biggie. Their personalities sum it up nicely.
Work-wise, business in the US will already be underway when you get to work, and starts dying down after your lunch. If you interact with people on the east coast, mornings are busier and afternoons are much quieter.
West Coast is generally more racially/ethnically diverse, depending on where you’re comparing. It’s also a lot more liberally aligned. Conservativism hits differently too. There’s less evangelical “Jesus is my personality” types and more “get off my property and leave me alone” conservatives. It’s how legal weed was passed in CO first; conservatives joined in on the yes vote because what you do in your own home isn’t the government’s business.
The weather is generally better, IMO. It’s drier and sunnier year-round, except for the PNW region. That means less vegetation though. The dense deciduous forests of the south/east have their own appeal, and you just won’t get that out west. The land is a lot more open and sparse.
Not timezones related, but i found California to be a work hard/play hard culture. You’re 100% on 8 - 5 and then all off, but still very active. Lots of people would go surfing or biking before work. Fruit stands and good fresh food and wine options made for frequent gatherings and much less ‘chill alone at home’ time. Nice free nature activities so almost every weekend= beach or mountains. That was pre-covid, in our 20’s, and with young kids, so that was part of the activity too.
That’s true. Washington is kind of like that, but only during summer. After that most people retreat into their holes and don’t come out again until spring. Of course there are winter sports people, but I don’t know any of them.
You don’t need to stay up until 3am if something is launching at midnight.
Most of the Formula 1 races fall on a Sunday starting between 7-9am, perfect to finish watching the race and to get on with your day.
Sunday night football would be done about 9:30pm
In the streaming world of TV/movies everything is available “sooner”. Shows that air at 9pm EST are available at 6pm PST. Shows that are available at midnight are actually available at midnight PST and not 3AM EST.
Americans are bad at geography but shit are people from the east Coast some of the worst. They have “center of the universe syndrome” and have no idea about the rest of the country. I was looking to relocate to the East Coast about 10 years ago and had 3 interviews with different companies in NY, DC and PHL where the company failed to call me at the correct time, sometimes multiple instances, as they couldn’t understand the time difference.
Doesn’t everyone fucking learn about the 4 continental time zones in school? Why is it confusing?
Wait. So you knew you were applying to companies on ET, they said they wanted to set up an interview at some arbitrary time without specifying a time zone, and you just rolled with the assumption that it was PT instead of asking to clarify? That kind of feels like it’s on you. If I was living in ET, I applied to a job with a company located in SF, and I missed the interview bc I assumed it was ET instead of PT that would totally be on me.
No, we agreed on PT. They just didn’t know what the time difference was and couldn’t be bothered to look it up. I finally just started scheduling in ET and then realized I didn’t want to work with people who couldn’t count to 4 and decided not to relocate.
Well then yeah they sound ridiculous.
People here keep saying folks are more chill on the West Coast, but I’ve lived in NYC for two years and around California for 8 (mostly the bay area), and this hasn’t been my experience at all. If anything, I’ve noticed the opposite of the stereotype. The California folks tend to be very un-“chill” when I deviate from some social norm by accident, while New Yorkers are generally pretty accepting. I also find when I ask folks out west to be direct because I really need that they way my mind works, they still often don’t, but New Yorkers will. I’m not sure what others mean when they say the West Coast is more chill since it was so much harder for me to get by there-- maybe they’re talking about something else.
I don’t know if NY’ers are more accepting, but they certainly have more DGAF or are hardened against non-normal things because of exposure to a lot of different things as part of metro life.
I do find people out west to appear to brush off non-normal behavior but start talking about the faux pas as soon as the perpetrator is out of earshot and get judgy. NY’ers might make eye contact, shrug, and/or have a short laugh, then move on.
CA “chill” is just the result of that brush off. Things are NBD because of that appearance, nobody really invests anything in interaction.
PST is a big place with a lot of variation. I have lived in CA & WA and found that in both things are way more chill than out east. However the biggest disadvantage of this is when you try to hire tradespeople to fix things at your home. Both states I’ve had lots of bad experiences with people who couldn’t give a shit. I know this can happen anywhere but I’m talking about a larger tend I’ve observed after living both places. Out west I’ve really struggled with finding someone to do a good job fixing anything at my home so I ended up learning to do a lot more stuff than I wanted just to get it done halfway decently.
