What would it take to get you to move?

[downtown]

I was discussing career paths with some of my buddies a few days ago. We're all somewhat recent transplants to Chicago from other parts of the Midwest. We've all grown to love the place, started to set up roots (friends, membership in various community organizations, church leadership, etc). Howeva, since we're also all in our mid-late 20s, we know that career changes can come fairly quickly.

I like where I live a lot, but I think I could be persuaded to move somewhere for a special oppertunity. Last year, I think I would have been much more open to a move (I was actually pretty close to accepting a job in Colorado)..but now I own all this...STUFF, and moving is such a pain. Plus, almost all my friends are here.

How much more money would you need to move say, at LEAST 4 hours away from where you live now? If you're still in college, could another college put together a package good enough for you want to transfer?

Poll coming.

Note: Assume a fairly standard relocation assistance package...2-4,000 bucks.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It would have to be enough money to completely cancel out any moving expenses within the first year for me and then some.

A college would have to offer a full ride and walking money.

I work full time and go to college, so I get to answer both.

Edit: Just saw your edit....so I'd say...I'd move if the difference in salary was half the cost of new car. (over the course of the year, not per paycheck, lol)

 

[Integral]

I have two very different answers.

1. In four or five years, I will move to an unspecified part of the country. Where I go is essentially determined by the state of the job market in 2016; I have little locational control over my first appointment. I don't particularly mind that, and so it's not going to take anything for me to move. Whatever the market rate is.

2. Moving now, as in within the next six months? I'd seriously consider any private- or government-sector job offer north of 140% of my current shadow wage (take notes, JH!). That feels about right. I'd seriously consider moving if my advisors left en masse (it happened to UCLA just seven years ago...) or if for some deluded reason a top-20 professor cold-emailed me and offered to advise me.

A 40% pay boost might sound ludicrously high, but I have it on good authority that it's approximately where I'd be on the GS scale if I quit right now. So that's my benchmark. Plus I like my current arrangements.

Probably a boring answer, but there you go.

 

[JollyRoger]

I have the opposite issue . . . how much of a temprorary cut would I take to move elsewhere. The place I want to move would cause at least a temporary loss of my client base and due to population issues, it might be a very long time before I recovered it, if I recovered it at all. Plus, the cost of living would be higher.

 

[galdre]

I don't like the place I'm living now, so as long as I got to move somewhere I liked better I would do it for less money than I was making at my last job.

 

[downtown]

Where would you like to move JR?

 

[Antilogic]

Also a grad, so I'll be moving according to Integral's first case in another year, two at the most. I like being in cities like Boston, and so long as its a comparable place and not some rural snoozefest I'd take as little as a 5-10% raise range for a move. If I hate my new job, as much or less to move to a new place.

My friends have already moved away or picked different paths, so the only thing holding me back is the expense of moving my stuff. And that's pretty low at the moment and will likely remain so for the future.

 

[Vortilex]

Considering how I want to be a diplomat, it wouldn't take much at all to make me move. After graduating college, I'd move to DC, and then move wherever I was assigne, most likely Lima or Mexico.

 

[JollyRoger]

Where would you like to move JR?

Got my eye on a paricular coastal cliff on Kauai, HI.

 

[Zelig]

I'd move for the right opportunity and location regardless of salary; salary isn't particularly important to me.

There isn't anywhere within a 4 hour drive of where I currently live (and more than a 30 minute drive) that I'd be interested in moving to. If I get a new job within my city (where I can drive to anywhere within 30 minutes), I'll move to be located next to that job, otherwise the next closest location I'd be interested in living in is ~12 hours away.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

Where I live right now, I have a sweet deal of less than 300 rent a month and live close, very close to both my workplaces. There is no way I'm getting such a sweet deal if I move somewhere else, so it's going to take a SUBSTANTIAL raise of 30% or more* to justify moving.


*: Cost of living adjusted, of course.

 

[Ajidica]

Given that I want to work in foreign affairs, it is pretty much assured I will have to move out of Minnesota and probably to either DC or New York.

 

[Antilogic]

There isn't anywhere within a 4 hour drive of where I currently live (and more than a 30 minute drive) that I'd be interested in moving to. If I get a new job within my city (where I can drive to anywhere within 30 minutes), I'll move to be located next to that job, otherwise the next closest location I'd be interested in living in is ~12 hours away.

That's because you live in the Glorious Democratic People's Republic of Canuckistan.

 

[Grisu]

Apart from having all my family and friends around here I just built a house, which further reduces my mobility.

Besides, I get by well on my wage, so I'm somewhat stuck between option >30% and 'no way'. Since I don't like to say 'never' I picked the former option, but my new wage would have to be at least twice what I earn now for me to seriously consider it.

 

[The_J]

Would for me more depend on the quality of the old and the new job than the salary.
If the old one is good, and the new one doesn't result in better career chances, then a 30% raise would not get me to move.

 

[Virote_Considon]

I'm already looking for work in both London and Eastern Europe, so I guess the answer is "a job which I can live on over there".

 

[shadowplay]

I'd take less to live and work in a small town. I'm growing really tired of the city.

 

[Cutlass]

I'd move to some places for a reasonable salary, but the situation would have to look like it had a potential to be a long term career move. Some places I would only go for a LOT of money, like Long Island. Norther New England would wouldn't take as much money as that. I do have some family obligations here that I would have a hard time rearranging unless it was a really nice opportunity.

 

[Eat_Up_Martha]

I'm actually looking for work in other parts of the country at the moment. I'm hoping first and foremost for a job in Vancouver, because it seems like a happening place and is close to novel things like the ocean and actual elevation changes.

 

[GenMarshall]

For me, any job offer would convince me to move.