• 30 days ago, I was driving from South Carolina to Los Angeles without a full time job.
• 20 days ago, I was on my first interview at a social networking company in Westwood.
• 10 days ago, I was on my third callback interview with a tech company in El Segundo.
• 5 days ago, I had three different job offers in my lap.

Today, I finished my first week at a job I absolutely adore.  My co-workers are fantastic, my boss is extremely savvy, the company culture is awesome and the work is refreshingly challenging.  It’s the type of job that I’ve always wanted, but never been able to find on the East Coast.  So how does one manage to pull this off in an economy supposedly headed for a recession?

There’s one simple rule to always keep in mind before attempting this type of transition.  Stay positive, no matter what happens! Opportunities will always come your way and you will be able to see them with a positive attitude.  Seems like new-age mumbo jumbo, I know.  I never really understood that mantra until recently.

Before moving, research the area you want to live in.  That includes the type of job you are going after, the size of the city you desire, the cost of living, the weather, the nightlife, etc…  Research it for weeks, perhaps months.  Call anyone that you know in the city to get personal opinions about the best areas to live.  Start building a network of friends through Facebook or another social network.  Post questions at the City-Data forums to get ridiculously detailed answers from locals.

Build up a sizable pile of cash before leaving your current part-time or full-time job; 3 to 6 months of living expenses.  If you have a hard time doing that, redefine what it means to sustain yourself.  Can you live on Ramen noodles or Mac & Cheese for a couple months?  Can you live with a couple roommates in a shoddy apartment for a month or two?  Plan out exactly how long your savings can last before you have to take a job that you may dislike.

If you are moving to a city like San Fransisco, Chicago or NYC, ditch the car if you own one.  Public transportation is obviously more efficient.  If you are moving to a city like Los Angeles, Seattle or Miami, you need reliable transportation.  I’m not saying that a bicycle is out of the question, but you really need a car for interviews in large, spread-out cities.  Figure out the logistics of driving the entire way versus flying.  Flying may be faster, but you can take vastly more belongings by driving.  Plus the road trip is a fantastic memory that you will relish forever.

Stock up some technology before you make the trip; a laptop, a smart-phone and a GPS unit specifically.  Turn-by-turn directions from a cheap GPS unit is INVALUABLE in a new city.  A smart-phone, like an iPhone / Blackberry, is going to be very helpful when it comes to keep track of contacts / email.  A laptop is vital for a mobile online job search when you arrive in the city.

If you don’t know anyone personally in the city, hit up Craigslist and start perusing the listings.  Search by the areas of the city that you know to be safer.  Use Walkscore.com to identify the listings with nearby stores.  Look for situations that don’t require a lease signing.  There are plenty of these in the temp housing section of CL.   You could also try marketing yourself as a potential roommate in the Housing Wanted section.  It’s a great way to land leads for roommates that haven’t even listed their place yet.

Be aware that you may have to end up living with a bad roommate for a month or two.  If that person has to find a potential roommate that’s 2,500 miles away, odds are that everyone else has turned them down.  Try to set up multiple appointments to look at places when you arrive.  Target furnished places without a lease.  Odds are that you will want to move after making friends in the city.

Before driving / flying across the country, go dish out the best $20 that you will ever spend and pick up Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters.  You may not use any of the alternative techniques in the book, but it will put you into the mindset of an aggressive job search.  Read it from cover to cover.  Every single iota of advice in that book is utterly brilliant.

So you’ve arrived in the city and need to start looking for a job.  Grab that laptop and hit the streets.  I typically spent a couple hours in the Coffee Bean (local coffee chain) and the rest of the day in a branch of the public library using the free wi-fi.  It’s a perfect place to work diligently in peace and quiet.  Dress for an interview every day of the week.  I was called to a few same-day interviews, some within a couple hours of the call.

As far as my job search went, I only targeted jobs that I knew would interest and challenge me.  I made small alterations in my resume to cater it to the job in question.  I sent detailed cover letters within my email message and included a letter of recommendation with each query.  I probably sent out my resume 30 times over the first two weeks and landed an opening phone interview 15% of the time.  I skipped all the major job sites like Monster and Careerbuilder.  I actually only used Craigslist and local company sites that listed jobs.

Some people hate going on an interview.  I’ve come to relish it.  I’ve been on so many in the past month that I feel like a professional interviewer.  The key to being successful in an interview is asking questions.  That’s it.  That’s the big secret.  Do you still have to be savvy? Yes.  Do you still need to relate your experience to the job in question? Yes.  But asking questions is your chance to shift the balance of power and grill the interviewer.  Don’t wait for them to ask “Well, do you have any questions for me?“.  Just fire away whenever the topic strikes.  Find a question that they can’t answer and they will remember you.  Go to Barnes & Noble and read a book listing interview questions if you can’t come up with anything.

Following up after the interview with a thank you is key.  I’m old school.  I like the hand-written note.  I interviewed with nearly all tech companies.  I’m sure a thank you email through have sufficed, but I’m also of the opinion that my note would stick out over other candidate’s emails.  It’s more personal and certainly more time consuming than tapping a few buttons on the keyboard.  Mail them out within 24 hours of your interview, no exceptions.

Finally, try to stay patient during downtime.  It’s easy to let the mind worry about the future after several interviews.  Offers take time to put together.  Keep plugging away at sending out the resumes and wait for the offers to come in.  If you nailed the interview and followed up with enthusiastic interest, it doesn’t matter if you aren’t the perfect fit based on experience.  When you get an offer from one company, let the other companies considering you know immediately.  It will speed things along in the process.  Be gracious

So that’s pretty much the truncated version of the past 30 days.  Life is good and it’s getting better every day.  Now I just need to take some surfing lessons.

I rarely post about politics, but something intriguing on the campaign front caught my eye today. A presidential candidate is advertising in Burnout Revenge. For those unfamiliar, Burnout Revenge is a car-racing video game owned by Electronic Arts.

Electronic Arts sells ad space on digital billboards within the game. When gamers hop online to play a little Burnout Revenge on the Xbox 360, they will see advertisements that have been digitally uploaded to the tracks. It’s a relatively new form of advertising and brand new to the campaign front. Pop it in today and you will see an advert for Barack Obama’s campaign.

Putting all political-position squabbling aside, it’s obvious to see that one campaign understands how to incorporate new forms of advertising to reach voters. And I’m not talking about the youth vote that gets tossed in Obama’s corner all the time. The new average age of video gamers is now 35. We are getting older every year and still playing video games. This form of advertising reaches a much wider audience than people think.

Where does that put McCain or the people advising his campaign advertisement spending? Why isn’t his team investing in new forms of media to reach the same demographic? He admitted in an interview last year that he doesn’t use a computer or email. And that’s completely understandable. He’s from a generation that simply didn’t use computers and his war injury precludes him from typing.

Let’s say for a moment that I completely agree with McCain on all issues. (I don’t, nor do I with Obama.) Putting issues like Net Neutrality aside, rapid changes in computer technology already influence an incredible amount of policy decisions. How in the world do I plausibly vote for someone that doesn’t integrate computer technology into his daily life? I use a computer every single day of my life. It’s integral to my job, my livelihood, my social network. It’s the same for millions of Americans. Why shouldn’t we expect the same of the next President of the United States?

I want a President that uses iChat, Skype and Google Talk to stay in touch with Senators and Congressmen. I want a President that’s got world leaders connected via LinkedIn. I want a President that uploads Flickr pictures from the iPhone and posts updates about his / her day on Twitter. I want a President that publishes Youtube videos about what’s going on with policy decisions. I want a President that answers a few topical questions via a weekly podcast that gets fed out to iTunes.

All political positions aside, I want a President that gets it.

It’s been about a week since I arrived in Los Angeles and I’m slowly starting to become acclimated to my new, frantic environment.  There’s a strange element of peaceful bliss about getting lost in the chaos of this city.  I’m getting a better idea of the city layout and have starting ditching the GPS just to see if I can find my way around the city.

All the grocery stores are completely different on this side of the country.  I’ve switched from the Publix, Bi-Lo, Ingles and Food Lions of the east coast to the Ralph’s, Vons, Trader Joes and Bristol Farms of the west coast.  The only constant was Whole Foods, but I’d have to sell a kidney to shop there on a regular basis.  Ralphs is the most similar to the east coast stores and there is a great one about a half mile away.  Definitely caters to the UCLA crowd.

I’ve taken some pictures that need to get up on Facebook and Flickr soon.  I’ll try to upload those this week.  I haven’t been keeping up with TV and iPhone apps lately, but I have really enjoyed the new Sunny in Philly

season.  It’s pretty incredible when a show can consistently stay hilarious season after season.  I’m also digging the new version of the Facebook app for the iPhone.  I can finally post to walls and return messages without logging into my computer.  Yay!

Digsby just keeps better and better.  They recently added LinkedIn support to the social networks.  I’m not interested in status updates so much, but it’s interesting to see the updates when people change their job.  Plus I never have to type in my log-in info anymore.

I don’t typically read Mark Cuban’s blog, but he made a great common sense post about building wealth this weekend.  There are too many people living beyond their financial means in this country.  I’d love to eat at Whole Foods and drink Starbucks everyday, but I don’t based on the same principles that he discussed.

So I moved again.  This time it’s Los Angeles.  I bought a new car (Mazda3 sedan) and started planning a trip across eight states to setup a new life in L.A.  I said my goodbyes, loaded up the new ride with my earthly possessions and started the road trip.

But before I left, I loaded up a few helpful road trip iPhone applications.  Travelocity was good for finding hotels near my GPS location.  Gasbag was excellent for finding the cheapest gas in the area.  Where was also decent for gas stations and Starbucks.  I relied on a separate GPS unit for turn-by-turn directions.  It was invaluable after stopping over in Memphis.

If you haven’t experienced Middle America before, there’s no better way to envelop yourself in the rural lifestyle than driving across the country.  It was a little disconcerting at times where driving across long, empty stretches of Texas and New Mexico, but still worth the experience.

Favorite Exit: Exit 237 in Oklahoma on Interstate 40W.  Do yourself a favor and stop at the Hungry Traveler.  The place is in a desolate part of Oklahoma, the epitome of the middle of nowhere.  I had a delicious mushroom and Swiss burger polished off with the best slice of blueberry pie that I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Favorite State: Arizona.  Perhaps it’s just the northern section, but the slow transition from rocky desert landscape to lush, green mountains is really quite breathtaking.  I stayed on Route 66 for one night after passing through Flagstaff.  It made me think of the Pixar film Cars.  (RIP Paul Newman.  He was awesome as the voice of the Doc.)  The gorgeous farmland of Oklahoma is in a close second.

Least Favorite State: North Texas.  The entire area smelled like cow manure from one end to the other.  My overnight stay in Amarillo was incredibly boring.

Favorite Overnight Stop: Memphis, TN.  I got to see some old friends and eat two delicious plates of sushi.

I made to L.A. after four days.  It didn’t rain one time during my trip.  I’m staying on Wilshire Blvd. near UCLA.  I might have lucked out with finding an excellent roommate and place to live on Craigslist.  Only time will tell.  It’s going to be interesting to see how well I can acclimate to the city.  It’s overwhelming and exhilarating all at the same time.

- Caught this little indie flick with Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega (the female lead in Spanglish). What a quirky little movie!  Freeman plays an out of work character actor that’s dropped off in an predominantly Hispanic neighborhood to study a grocery store manager for a role in a movie.  He latches onto Paz Vega, the girl running the 10 items or less line.

The whole movie is nothing more than a conversation that continues for about 90 minutes.  Freeman and Vega play off each other in a very human manner.  There are nice bits of comedy interspersed in the film as well.

- The Google / United Airline debacle was an extremely interesting technology screw-up this week.  Basically a single person accessed an article, around 1:30 A.M. last Sunday, about United declaring bankruptcy in 2002.  Since it’s a low traffic time for accessing news, Google bounced it to the Popular Stories section on the main Google News page.  Bloomburg picked up the story as new and the ensuing financial panic caused shareholders to sell a billion dollars worth of stock.  The price on the stock dropped by 75% in a matter of hours.  Yay computers!

- If you haven’t seen it yet, watch the political opening for SNL this week.  The remainder of the show is complete drivel, but the Sarah Palin / Hillary Clinton skit is absolutely hilarious.  Tina Fey nails Palin’s look, mannerisms and accent.

I watched the first episode of Dexter season 3 this week.  It doesn’t air for another two weeks on Showtime.  No story spoilers from me, but I will say that the ending will leave your jaw on the floor.

I was studying Jimmy Smits character the entire episode.  He has an odd interest in Dexter that I’d imagine is going to leak over into Dexter’s favorite pastime.  I think they both have a thirst for justice and Smits is going to take part a killing somewhere along the way.

I really didn’t care for the new guy in the detective unit, but the girl in Internal Affairs has my interest peaked.  I like the direction that they are taking with Batista’s character as well.  It’s going to cause a rift with Laguerta down the line.

The spontaneity angle is extremely intriguing.  I’m wondering if Dexter will develop a need for spontaneity rather than his deliberate planning stages.  It makes for sloppy work, but he seemed to have gotten a thrill over the whole mess.  Anyway, the first episode catapults several story lines into play.  I can’t wait to see how Dex handles them.

• I enjoyed the premiere of The Shield’s final season this week.  It was a slow start considering the pacing of the previous episode, but it laid some brilliant groundwork for future story lines.  I’m thinking Shane lives, Ronnie goes off the deep end, Vic and Acevada take down the Mexican cartel in a very bloody fashion and Dutch finally goes to jail for strangling neighborhood cats.

• Finding a new place to live on Craigslist has been disappointing to say the least.  Trying to make a long distance connection with a potential roommate is somewhat dampened by the anonymity of the Internet. Ugh…

• I had some of the worst sushi in my life today.  Japanese marinated mushrooms might sound tasty, but the ones I ate were the consistency of rubber and completely flavorless.  Yelp is going to get a mouthful of unhappy words from me this week.

• True Blood on HBO was an offbeat show.  It reminded me the feeling I got when watching Carnivale for the first time.  The oddball choice of setting in the deep south is strangely interesting.  I doubt it will make it past a couple seasons though.  Entourage was excellent as usual.  Eric looks a bit like a clone of Ari though.

• I’m really crossing my fingers for iPhone’s 2.1 firmware this week.  It’s rumored to be coming out with the new version of iTunes on the 9th.  I’d love to see turn-by-turn GPS implemented, but any other super secret iPhone powers will be welcome.

• My favorite Hulu video of the week: Taco bed!