Many are asking should I move for a job? Even during a time when remote work ruled the corporate culture. As someone who’ve moved cities to start a new job, I considered many things before making the move. It’s very important because it’s not just your career.
I used to work in Houston, TX for about five years until a company came swooping in and whisked me away. Now I am currently living in Austin, TX, and I know that I made the right choice with no regrets. However, before I moved, there were things that I considered.
You don’t want to make a rash decision because a career is a BIG decision. it doesn’t matter whether it impacts someone else in your family or not. What matters is that it’s a huge, life changing decision with consequences for you. Imagine taking a job to move to a completely new city.
Then find out it’s not what you wanted at all and you’re miserable in a new city. Then it feels like you’re stuck because going back to where you once were is not as easy as it seems. Even if you know giving up is not an option, it’s not as easy as everyone makes it out to be.
Even if you get the job offer of a lifetime, you still have to ask yourself. Should I move for a job? It’s one thing to move to another company within the same city. It’s completely another to move to another company in another city.
There are big things to consider.
Should I Move for a Job?
One thing to remember when you’re asking should I move for a job? is to SMASH that social share button and post to your favorite social media! This is a big decision that not many know how to think about and consider.
So with that said, let’s go over if you should move for a new job opportunity!
1) Is the Opportunity Exciting?
Aside from the money, do you feel happy and excited about the job opportunity? Is it work that’s going to help you grow and move up in your career? Is there an exit opportunity plan afterwards? For me, I knew it was the opportunity of a lifetime when I felt goosebumps thinking about the offer.
I couldn’t stop smiling about the job and meeting my new coworkers and boss. And that’s how exactly it worked out even after taking the job. The boss and coworkers are just amazing, perhaps the best coworkers I’ve ever worked with. People are actually happy at the company.
If you’re asking should I move for a job? and you just know the opportunity is exciting, then it’s worth the risk. Every new job comes with new risk. Your coworkers could be bad and the new boss may even be worse.
However, if the opportunity excites you and will motivate you to get out of bed, then it’s a good thing.
2) Is it a Pay Increase?
This is the second most important thing when it comes to answering should I move for a job? Aside from the standard cost of living increases or changes, you should change jobs if there is a real pay increase. People think “high pay always comes with high stress”. That’s not true.
$200k jobs working only 40 hours a week ARE out there. No matter what other people think. There are jobs that pay more but you may work even less than what you are working. There’s a reason why people go from investment banking to corporate development.
Sometimes, the corporate development jobs pay even more than being at an investment bank with less hours. If it’s a good pay increase, then it’s worth considering. It may not even be better pay overall. If it’s better per hour, then that’s a raise as well.
However, moving from a low cost of living (LCOL) to somewhere like NY is another thing. It has to be a PHENOMENAL pay increase.
3) What’s the Long Term Outlook of the Job and Company?
There are jobs where it’s not a career, it’s just a job. In 2021, I had another job offer where they offered a better title but the salary was a pay cut. They wouldn’t budge. The coworkers were great and the boss was great, someone I could get along with. But I couldn’t see the upside potential.
Therefore, I declined the job offer.
When it comes to answering should I move for a job? you have to look at what the long term outlook is. Is it a job that has upward mobility potential? One of my coworkers took a job knowing he couldn’t move up within the company. They flat out told him that during the interview.
And he was OK with it because he wasn’t interested in moving up. However, if you’re interested in moving up, then evaluating whether there’s potential to move up within the company matters. You don’t want to feel stuck. That may even be worse than moving backwards.
4) Should I Move for a Job: Are There Perks Beyond Money?
Money is great but there are other perks that make a job worth it. The least of which is a good working condition that lets you come in to work when it’s convenient for you and leave to see your family at a reasonable time. These days, remote work is a huge perk companies offer to employees.
Or it may be that they offer very good benefits for their employees with vision, dental, and health. Should I move to for a job? Yes, if it logically makes sense to. For me, one of the biggest perks to my new job is that I get to to work physically in the office.
The office is a very good office to work in, as well.
I personally cannot stand working from home anymore and my prior company forced us to work from home. Working in the office was a big perk that I could not give up because I craved the separation between work and life. If not mentally, at least physically.
There are perks that go beyond money.
5) Can You See Yourself Working for Your Boss?
Your coworkers, salary, or benefits don’t make the job. Your boss makes your job. He or she has the sole power to make your life miserable and kick you out. That doesn’t always work because enough employees may have the same complaints about the same boss.
The company may even fire and get rid of that boss if that boss becomes so bad it drives employees away! If you can’t see yourself working for your boss, you shouldn’t accept a job. I left a toxic boss to go to another toxic, worse boss. That was a horrible experience.
Should I move for a job? Yes. If the boss makes your work environment a good one. You don’t want to work for a boss that takes credit for your ideas, yells at you for doing a bad job when it was because they just weren’t aware of the whole situation, and the like.
You will be miserable.
6) Are the Coworkers Great?
Next to your boss comes your coworkers. You generally get to see the kind of culture the company employs as you observe how the coworkers act. Make no mistake. How the coworkers act is a very good indicator of how you will feel working alongside them.
It makes a huge difference. There are coworkers out there whose sole purpose is to go out and get you. One of the prior companies I worked at, the coworker literally went to my boss and yelled at her for not approving a deal, even if it didn’t make business sense to approve.
He was swiftly reprimanded by his bosses. But it highlighted just how much I hated working there. Should I move for a job? Yes, if your coworkers are good. They’re a good indicator of how you’ll act and feel when you’re working there for real.
They will not hide how they feel during the interview process.
7) Will You be Happy In the New City?
I, absolutely, CANNOT, without a doubt, work in California or New York. It’s not about the politics, it’s about the cost of living and the quality of living. There’s too many people in California. I had a job offer to work in LA before. I turned it down and I’m glad that I turned it down.
The congestion, cost of living, and too many people there is not something that I want for myself. Same goes for New York. When asking should I move for a job? ask yourself if you’ll be happy living in the new city. Some cities will absolutely be the opposite of your personality, wants, and desires.
You don’t want to feel alone and out of place. You’ll already get a sense of the city when you go through with the interview process. The vibe of the city is inescapable. Personally, I love any city within Texas. Therefore, any city within Texas gets an OK from me.
The feel of the city is important in making your decision.
8) Think About Your Own Personal Life when Asking Should I Move for a Job?
You may not be the only person who is affected by your career move. You may have a family to think about as well. When I first came to the United States, my dad moved his entire family into a completely new and foreign country.
I have no idea how he saw the foresight to do such a thing but he accomplished it. Should I move for a job? It completely depends on your own personal life as well. Maybe you don’t want to move until you are settled down or maybe you do want to move to experience the adventure of a lifetime.
Or maybe you are going through a depressive period and moving just isn’t good for you right now. Think about your own personal life because it matters. It’s not the simplest thing in the world to sell your house and move to a completely new city. Adjustment periods take time.
Some people had relationships to think about before moving for a job. That’s another big factor to consider as well. Personal life really matters.
Should I Move for a Job? It’s a Life Changing Decision
If the recruiter ever pressures you to accept the job then and there, you can respond to them that it’s a life changing decision. You’re literally asking the life changing question, should I move for a job? That kind of decision should not be taken lightly.
There are many companies who offer international assignments to its employees. That kind of a move just isn’t something to be taken lightly. Companies won’t always stay true to their word as well. One company promised and asked an employee to move to London for a job.
The employee accepted, even went through the process of selling their house and the husband quitting his job. Then the company pulled the rug underneath them and said, “oops, never mind!”. We don’t want it to happen to us but it does happen to us.
You don’t want to take this much of a life changing decision lightly.
Should I move for a job? The answer can be a resounding yes if it meets the important boxes above. When I moved to a new city in 2022 for a job, it checked the boxes above. I’ve been happy with the decision ever since and I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner.
You spend a third of your life working. It takes up a lot of your time, equally to sleep and personal life. People always tell you, “you can always just go back if you make the wrong decision”. However, it’s not that simple. Consider the decision carefully.
