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.<p>So.....What determines whether you accept a job out of state?<p>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.<p>My options:<p>a. stay in CA and keep looking for another job<p>b. accept the job in MN (75K)<p>c. accept the job in WI (70K)<p>d. accept the job in AR (80K)
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!<p>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.<p>The downside of moving is having to convert your friends to ‘remote friends’ who you can talk with on the phone but rarely see.<p>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.
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.
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.<p>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.