I agree with Sundance, when it comes to BJJ, be as humble as possible and if you are not, someone will make you humble pretty quickly. The one thing a lot of people don't seem to realize is how long it takes to get good at BJJ. Sure there are the people who have gone through and gotten belts quickly, but for the majority of people it is a very slow process, especially at a good school. I see people come into my school all the time and they never return after a week. They are the ones who expect to be an MMA fighter and BJJ expert in no time. I seriously heard a guy ask after he did 1 BJJ lesson and 1 Muay Thai lesson when he would be ready to get in the cage and fight someone. As far as the BJJ part, there are usually plenty of gi and no gi tournaments that you can go to and get some experience at. For MMA, there are some amateur shows to try and fight in but I wouldn't try those until you have some serious training under your belt. Usually a combination of BJJ, Muay Thai and wrestling is a good solid base to have. Anything else you can get like boxing, etc is just more things to add to your game. Just don't expect to become an expert in everything or an expert in anything over night.
As far as schools, I used to live in the NW suburbs of Chicago for most of my life before moving out to the DC area. Depending where you are moving there is Jeff Curran's school in Crystal Lake. I believe it's named Curran's Marital Arts and is supposed to be a decent school (I suggested my brother go there since he lives close by.) There is another place in Schaumburg that Clay Guida and some other guys train at, the name is Midwest Training Center. I know one of my brothers friends trains there. I have not been to either school so have no personal experience. I just finally got into BJJ training about 6 months ago out here.
BJJ will definitely help get you into shape, especially once you start rolling with people (one of many reasons I got into it.) Muay Thai will as well, I have not started taking Muay Thai classes yet as I am focused on BJJ right now. I have seen the classes and sparring and seen some people who are in great shape and do great when it comes to BJJ rolling look like they were about to die after a strenuous Muay Thai class.
I think the best advice I was given so far besides stay humble/keep your ego in check was for the first year or so when you do tournaments, go out and have fun. Try to learn from your mistakes, don't worry so much about wins and losses. Many times people learn much more from a loss than a win.
On a side note, I do IT as a career too but I am doing BJJ (and some MMA training) more for the fun of it. To old to be trying to change careers now. Only regret I have is that I thought about doing BJJ for several years before getting into it, I wish I had started sooner.
Hope I helped answer a few questions. I know I haven't posted before but I have been lurking on the forums for well over a year.
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