Remote work has made it easier to live far from the office, but the strongest networks, events, and career opportunities are still concentrated in industry centers.
Over the last few years, remote work went from a dubious hypothetical to the largest global workplace experiment in history. The results are in: remote work can work. Millions of people took advantage of the newfound flexibility by moving away from their former office locations. Whether it was to a sunny beach, cheaper cost of living, or being closer to family it seemed like nothing but upside. However, there are long-term implications to being so far from your office that many workers don’t consider.
In the past year, some companies have reversed course and mandated a return to the office, including at such household names as JP Morgan, AT&T, and Amazon. Others are using what Fortune calls “hybrid creep” to get people back in by slowly incentivizing reasons to be in the office. (For those finding themselves in such a situation, I recommend the article “And You May Find Yourself Trapped Like a Frog in a Pot.”) The results have been mixed, noted in the Wall Street Journal article “The Rush to Return to the Office Is Stalling” and Business Insider’s article “RTO mandates have a space issue.” Employees also haven’t been happy about the mandate and have tried to push back, although with the weak labor market they have little leverage.
Even if your job allows you to be fairly remote, be it the other side of the world or just a few hours away, there are meaningful downsides. I’ve written in the past about “Why Your Boss Is Less Excited about Remote Work Than You Are,” “Networking in a Hybrid Workplace,” and “The Downside to Commuting by Plane.” All of these (and a few other reasons) will lead to the boomerang relocation I’ve mentioned on many of the podcasts I’ve been on. As a result, many people will start returning to the office more often, even if it's not mandated by their companies.
One of those reasons goes beyond the company itself, to your industry. Historically, there are physical locations for certain industries. Silicon Valley was the heart of the computer age. New York, Seattle, Bangalore, and Hyderabad may not be number one but are certainly other good locations for tech workers. Finance centers are found in New York, London, Zurich, and Hong Kong. For research it’s Boston, Silicon Valley (for tech), and Triangle Park among others. Actors needed to be in LA or New York City historically, although Vancouver and Atlanta are not bad options.
The choice to live in these physical locations or not has a significant impact on your network. While many meetings can be done online, personal connections in your network are often better created and further strengthened through in-person events. For long-term connections, it's easier to sustain electronically (e.g., think about catch up calls you may do with friends from college) but newer connections will not grow as fast, or even peter out if managed primarily online.
Events, too, are more prevalent in industry centers. And while I can get the content online, events are very beneficial for networking. In NYC I can find a tech event most nights of the week, whereas in Juneau, Alaska there are far fewer. For classes, your classmates matter. You’re more likely to get a stronger scene partner in an acting class in LA than Des Moines, Iowa. Certainly, there can be very talented actors in Des Moines, but the ones who are committed professionals will leave the latter for the former. Access to the people and networking at these activities can be critical at many stages of your career.
Finally, there’s the size of the network and potential for serendipity. If you're an aerospace engineer in Fargo, North Dakota, you can probably count on one hand how many peers you have in the city; but if you’re in Huntsville, Alabama or LA, there are thousands of others, and tens of thousands in roles in the larger aerospace industry as a whole. The odds of meeting new people at events or having a friend introduce you to a connection in your space is much higher. The reason people go to Emerson, Juilliard, and USC are because those schools specialize in theater and music and students there have more access to resources, which also includes access to peers. It’s not just colleges where you find such benefits.
Even interviewing access matters. Most companies will start with virtual interviews over video. For many roles, especially more senior ones, a company would like to meet you in person. It’s easier to do that when it involves a thirty-minute car ride than a three-hour flight.
To be fair, such cities also confer certain disadvantages like higher cost of living and more traffic. The cost of living in Des Moines is far cheaper than in LA. There may also just be lifestyle preferences, such as preferring mountains over beaches, rural versus city, or being closer to family. Career decisions are part of larger lifestyle decisions, and so for some people these tradeoffs are worth the reduced networking.
Hybrid work has extended the radius of metro areas. A commute that’s two hours each way five days a week is a huge burden. Such a commute once or twice a week (or maybe once a week and a cheap hotel to give you two days in the office with half the commute), changes the calculus of how far away a job can be. Being hundreds of miles away so that you’re rarely in the office cuts down on those industry connections. Going to industry events or meeting other industry peers at social events in the cities do matter. The less time that you’re in such a city, the lower the chances of you maintaining and growing your professional network. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it is often easier when you can do it in person.
When thinking about where to live, remember that there are some benefits to industry centers that are much harder to quantify (as opposed to cost of living). Your network is a resource that tends to compound over time; investing early and often pays dividends. There’s no question that being in an industry center makes it easier to both meet new people in your industry and grow the relationships you have with them. When deciding where to live, you need to consider the holistic picture, including the long-term impact on your career from networking, not just the benefits of the remote location you enjoy today.
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