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Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

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Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#61

Post by markphip »

I have been fully remote since 2007. I already live in a rural area so for me I was just grateful of the better work opportunities that remote has offered. The rest of this story will be about a friend and co-worker that I have managed.

We had worked together for years at this small company. He moved to northern CA and still worked for us but was the only remote employee. He was a founder though so no one was going to question it. Anyway, after the company sold, I got a remote manager job at a SV company (not FAANG) and lured him to join me. Once his daughter graduated college, he moved to a house he had bought in Spain and worked from there for most of the year. Our team was mainly East Coast and Europe so it worked better having him in Spain anyway.

He spends roughly half the year in Spain. He owns a small cottage on a lake in NH and will spend a couple months of the summer there. His daughter lives in DC so he will spend a month or so with her. His wife's family lives in Atlanta area so he will spend a month or so with them. Before Covid, he also listed his Spain house on a house sharing site and used that to spend a month here and there in lots of cool places like Paris, Nice, Croatia and the Canary Islands among others.

It obviously helped that I was his manager and knew that this nomadic life would not impact his work but other than that I think it is a model for what a lot of people would like to do, especially in the back part of their careers.

Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#62

Post by dougmwne »

Winterflow3r wrote: post #50

I did and I regret it deeply. I was working remotely even pre-covid times and I decided to leave London (where housing was becoming a nightmare) to move to Sweden. I have never been this deeply lonely in my entire life. I love the nature, I love the winter, even the darkness, but socially this was a very bad move. Working remotely when you live close to a big city where you are very fluent in the language is not even…

Did you move there on your own without knowing anyone? How did you choose Sweden? Do you feel like hosting some HN nomads?

Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#63

Post by dougmwne »

thelastknowngod wrote: post #29
pnut wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you bouncing between countries as your tourist visa expires in each place, or are you a citizen of somewhere other than the US?

Pre-covid I bounced but also set myself up to have relatively stable home bases. This includes resident visas in countries that do not require me to spend a lot of time in those specific countries and international real estate. At the moment I am mostly stationary but I still have projects and/or goals in at least 4 different countries.

Where is your base? Any recommendations for setting up this arrangement?

Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#64

Post by physicsguy »

No, but it's made my decision to stay in my home city more viable long term. I live in the UK Midlands, which is cheaper to live in but has less opportunities than London. I have had good jobs here, but less choice than I'd have liked. I started a job search and while I've ended up working for a local branch of an international company again, in my search I found many more remote positions. I think it'll mean that in future I'll be able to leverage my experience for a job at more like ~London salary. Right now, I'm probably at 80% of London salary for my job, which is fine as my cost of living is very low and I live in a very nice area of the kind that would be difficult to achieve as an owner and not a renter in the South.

Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#65

Post by pilom »

I started working remotely about 7 years ago. After I'd been with the company for about 3 years they trusted me enough to move into an RV and drive around the country. We took 18 months and drove all over the Western us and parts of Canada. You can read about my story on https://therecklesschoice.com

Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#66

Post by stevenleeg »

danuker wrote: post #56
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #36

Definitely not. Remote work was the key to letting me not move for a job. I’ve managed remote teams around the world. I know this violates the popular narrative, but remote hires generally either stayed exactly where they were or moved to bigger, expensive cities. We paid them more than they made locally so they often used the new income to move up. I’ve only known a few people who used remote work to move to the mou…

> moved to bigger, expensive cities Why did they do that? Did they share to you a main reason? Is it access to groceries, as you mentioned? or better schools for their kids? medical care? I find it hard to justify the increased rent and general cost of living.

There are advantages to living in cities! I live in an expensive major city (working remotely) and find it hard to imagine life outside of it (at least in the US). All of my friends/family are here, I have restaurants from practically every cuisine in the world, there are plenty of interesting cultural events, and best of all I don't need a car in order to do things.

Rent sucks, yes, but I live here because I like it here, not because I need to for my job.

Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#67

Post by physicsguy »

sofixa wrote: post #59
refurb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the diversity thing but depending on the small town you can get more than SF some times. My neighborhood in SF is 90% white. But the tech things rings true. However, my only counter is that having a strong community that has nothing to do with work is pretty cool too.

> My neighborhood in SF is 90% white White is not a culture. Skin colour is orthogonal with cultural diversity. Amsterdam is also 80-90% white but is incredibly diverse with all sorts of people from all sorts of places and backgrounds.

It's a bit facetious to say that when most white people in America are "American" culturally which is quite clearly what they meant.

Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#68

Post by dougmwne »

lsiunsuex wrote: post #17
pwarner wrote: post #9

Yes, moved from SF North Bay / wine country to Buffalo NY to be closer to extended family, lower cost of living. I miss wine country, but it's been a good move. My company is based in EST so it's easier. I worry a bit about next job but it'll be OK I suspect. I work in IT management and software development in the past. It's no easy choice, but since we had kids the family factor won out.

I moved from Buffalo, NY to just outside of Tampa, FL lol... Being far from family hurts a bit; covid didn't help either. I've been here for about 3 years now and can't imagine ever moving back. The snow / crappy weather, the slow progress on building up downtown / the waterfront, the super high taxes, no beaches, no sun, etc... (edit - lived in Buffalo since I was born + 38 years) It's December 29th. I'm in a t-shir…

I spent the past 2 months in the Tampa area. I was really pleasantly surprised. There are so many nice little communities in the area.

Re: Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

#69

Post by Jenk »

danuker wrote: post #56
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #36

Definitely not. Remote work was the key to letting me not move for a job. I’ve managed remote teams around the world. I know this violates the popular narrative, but remote hires generally either stayed exactly where they were or moved to bigger, expensive cities. We paid them more than they made locally so they often used the new income to move up. I’ve only known a few people who used remote work to move to the mou…

> moved to bigger, expensive cities Why did they do that? Did they share to you a main reason? Is it access to groceries, as you mentioned? or better schools for their kids? medical care? I find it hard to justify the increased rent and general cost of living.

Better job prospects. I'm not even being facetious. I manage remote teams and see the same, people apply/join whilst residing in rural areas but almost invariably migrate to cities, attracted by the job market (and by nightlife etc but not as much)

There is the occasional outlier, that is someone who prefers to freedom to work from anywhere and keeps on the move, hopping about the globe whilst working remotely, but they are rare.

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