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Ask HN: What determines whether you accept a job out of state?

3 points by tonym9428 ↗ HN
I'm a 33 year old single male who lives in CA (SF), and am in the process of being laid off. In around four weeks, I have got three job offers. While each of them has some appealing aspects, I'd still have to relocate outside of california to Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Arkansas. I'm from the midwest and lived in Minneapolis previously, so the location is not the issue. Instead, I am in a convenient location in my life and like where I'm at in terms of location, friends, etc. And so while I HATE California, I find myself not wanting to jump so quickly at accepting a job offer.

So.....What determines whether you accept a job out of state?

or would you keep looking for another job given that I got three offers in four weeks. I should be able to find a role here in CA in the next month or so, even if it's not optimal.

My options:

a. stay in CA and keep looking for another job

b. accept the job in MN (75K)

c. accept the job in WI (70K)

d. accept the job in AR (80K)

11 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 38.9 ms ] thread
auslegung
The biggest factor in my happiness and personal growth is always the community I’m in. Are they close knit, good people who I can count on, who will encourage my growth and I encourage theirs? If I already had that in SF I’d stay put. I’m assuming you’re in the tech field so it shouldn’t be hard to get another job PDQ.
tonym9428
Thanks for your input.

I'll be laid off next week.

I am in tech, but work in advanced analytics and data science, which is an insanely competitive space in the Bay Area.

byoung2
Why do you hate California? In your field (analytics and data science) remote work should be an option, then you could live anywhere.
tonym9428
I rarely talk with companies who are open to remote work.

CA (SF): high taxes, unaffordable, crazy progressive politics, unfriendly people, pompous/arrogant tech bros, mass immigration, etc

brudgers
Arkansas is probably the most consistently different from California in those areas.
tonym9428
Actually, Minneapolis is probably the best lite version of San Fran.

Liberal but not crazies

Economically vibrant

Low unemployment

No real "ghetto"

Reasonable taxes

Assimilated immigrants (i'm indian american and the one thing I really hate about the Bay Area is the large number of culturally unassimilated immigrants)

It's just so damn cold though

byoung2
I rarely talk with companies who are open to remote work

I have only searched for 100% distributed companies, ignoring companies where remote is not the default situation. I even avoid companies that offer remote but have a central office because you get tied to their working hours.

mark_l_watson
This is a tough question. My wife and I were very happy living in the mountains of Central Arizona in Sedona for 20 years (Except for some time at Google in Mountain View and a gig in Singapore, I worked remotely for 20 years). Almost two years ago, I interviewed for a job in Central Illinois managing a small machine learning team. It was tricky talking my wife into the move but we have really enjoyed living in the Midwest- change is good!

Because change is good, you might consider the Arkansas job. Life is short and having many different experiences is fun and slows down time so the years don’t pass as quickly.

The downside of moving is having to convert your friends to ‘remote friends’ who you can talk with on the phone but rarely see.

BTW, my wife and I took a long road trip through the south this winter and we liked all the areas we visited. I grew up in Berkeley, across the bay from SF, and I know many people who think that California is the only place to live, but I think the truth is that there are many wonderful places to live in the US, so be adventurous.

howard941
> I HATE California ... I'm from the midwest and lived in Minneapolis

Try to get more $$$ and take the MN job

ryukoposting
The Minneapolis housing market is really easy to get into right now, I have family who just moved up here and they found plenty of good options pretty much immediately. Might be something worth keeping in mind.

What do you not like about CA? As a fellow midwesterner and current Minneapolis resident (who will also be looking for a new job pretty soon), I'm curious to know what it's like out there.

tonym9428
There are certainly positives, namely the weather and access to a lot of outdoorsy activities. However, my issue is more that people are unfriendly, it's much more expensive, the tech scene in the Bay Area is full of pompous/arrogant douches, etc. I definitely likes minneapolis and chicago much more than the SF Bay Area (east bay is nice though). I also like San Diego and Santa Clara as they're "sleepier" and not as fever as the SF and Silicon Valley areas.