After discussing the basics of his transition from Canada to Seattle, Jay Sirju, who recently moved to work as a SDET with the Windows Live Shared Data Experience Team in Redmond, Washington, gave me the scoop on his experience with Microsoft’s temporary housing.

JobsBlog: Okay, so tell me about temporary housing. Did you have options, or was it assigned?  Where did you decide to live? Now that you’ve lived there for over a month, tell me: What is it really like?

Jay: I was given a form to fill out when I was ready to book both my travel and temporary housing arrangements. In regards to the temporary housing, I was asked if I would like to live in Seattle, or on the Eastside, how many bedrooms would be needed and if I had any special requests. A few of my friends and former co-workers suggested that I would enjoy myself more in Seattle, so I requested a one- bedroom apartment in Seattle. I figured that I could use this as a trial to see if I wanted to stay in Seattle permanently, or if I would rather live on the Eastside closer to Microsoft. Once I filled that out, the relocation specialist forwarded me the address of the housing and instructions for picking up my keys.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the apartment. The only items I had with me was a week’s worth of clothing and my laptop computer, so I was nervous that I would not be able to live comfortably out of the suitcase for the first couple of months. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the temporary apartment. The apartment was fully furnished with a couch, HD TV, queen size bed and a dining table. It also had a kitchen with a full dish set, cutlery, pots and pans and cooking utensils. This set was not extensive, but it was good enough to live off of for a couple months. The apartment also included full cable television  and Wireless Internet access. Obviously, I would be needing to do laundry quite frequently, so I was extremely pleased that it included both a washer and dryer in unit. The apartment building also included secure underground parking and a basic gym facility.  The company that handles the temporary housing was great. They are able to accommodate some special requests like asking for additional furniture and so forth. The apartment came with more than enough amenities for just myself, so I did not need to request anything.

JobsBlog: You mentioned to me earlier today that you’ve found a more permanent place and are getting ready to move again. I know people have a lot of choices within the Greater Seattle area. What places did you consider and where did you decide to settle in? What were the factors which lead to that decision?

Jay: When I first moved to Seattle, I tried to be quite proactive with learning about my new surroundings. I actually wanted to secure a permanent place as quickly as possible, as that would help me get settled in faster. There were quite a few factors that played a part in selecting where I wanted to live. Since the campus is east of Seattle, the main tradeoff I had to really think about was the ease to get to work every day vs. the social aspect of living in Seattle. 

I considered moving to either Bellevue or Kirkland since they are approximately equidistant to both Seattle and the MS campus. However, over the next few weeks while I was meeting people and regaining a social calendar, I found that I was out a lot in Seattle. As a result, I decided that it would be better for me to live in Seattle. 

Since I had brought my car with me, I found that driving between Seattle and the Microsoft campus could take quite a long time depending on traffic and weather conditions. As I became more familiar with Seattle and Microsoft, I learned about the commuting options that were available for me. The main highway between the east and the west side has an HOV lane, so any mode of transportation that utilizes that would cut down on commute times. Microsoft does offer the Connector shuttle service from various locations in the Greater Seattle Area. It is quite popular, so sometimes it was difficult to make a seat reservation from downtown Seattle during the popular commute times. However, Microsoft does try to expand the Connector service, so this may change in the future. As a perk, Microsoft also offers a bus pass for all King County Metro and SoundTransit bus services. I also looked into these services to see if they were viable commuting options, and found that there was an express bus that runs between Seattle and Redmond. Finding a place close to this bus route would be a huge benefit, and luckily it did happen. Once I moved, it would eliminate my need to drive to work each day.

-Kenji