That’s awesome! Congrats! It might be useful to know that relative to other parts of the country, I guess we don’t have a super friendly culture. We’re pretty self contained, in general. If it’s hard to make friends, it’s probably not personal. It’s called the “cascade freeze.”

Port Orchard is pretty white. If you’d feel more comfortable with more diverse neighbors, Tacoma or many other parts of the Puget Sound region are the place to start. I’ll let others weigh in on the commute to Port Orchard.

However! WSDOT is super telework friendly, if you’re getting an office job. Plus there are lots of openings around the state as the boomers retire, so once you have your foot in the door you might be able to transfer to another position that’s in another part of Washington, if Port Orchard doesn’t turn out to be your jam.

Welcome! And good luck at WSDOT! I have several friends who work there, and they really like it.