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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?

#131

Post by yoyohn »

Winterflow3r wrote: post #128
kharak wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why did you choose Sweden? Why not move back? Is there an expat community you could mingle with?

I did a pros/cons analysis and figured out that it would be my best bet since I knew the language at a around a B2/C1 level and there was no other EU country that spoke English (my preferred language). However, I severely underestimated how difficult it would be to establish a social circle without very fluent Swedish and without existing connections. There is certainly an expat community that I've tried to interact…

> there was no other EU country that spoke English (my preferred language)

you've missed a whole country named Ireland which is in EU

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

#132

Post by pcardoso »

cpursley wrote: post #86
pcardoso wrote: post #45

Yes, I lived in Lisbon, Portugal and after starting a remote job I decided to move back to my hometown. All my family lives here, the kids have a quieter environment to grow up, housing is much cheaper. Some downsides, but very happy with the change.

Home town in Portugal?

Yes. Aveiro/Portugal.

Sorry, should have made that clearer.

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

#133

Post by oceanplexian »

I left SF for Utah right before the pandemic once I got permission from my previous employer. Once I left that position, I stayed and got a new job fairly easily with a few different offers since COVID has transformed the remote-work situation. While I'm not exactly in the "countryside" I can be in the mountains in 20-30 minutes. My quality of life went from 2/10 to 10/10, some examples:

- I save the equivalent of a Tesla payment in income taxes each year, and thus save more money

- I bought a new construction, 5 bedroom house for the price of a condo in my old city

- My new location has fast, inexpensive fiber-optic internet with lots of ISP choices, which ironically I didn't have in the big city

- World-class skiing and hiking, off-roading, camping, deserts, etc. Obviously California has some of those things but they always seem like a 4-5 hour drive away

- I'm a 20 minutes away from a great International airport with direct flights to most of Europe, 1-2hr flights to anywhere on the West Coast (LAS, SF, SEA, LAX)

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

#134

Post by giantg2 »

throwDec21 wrote: post #60
giantg2 wrote: post #5

I would love to move. My wife doesn't.

This is the truth and most disappointing part. I can now live anywhere but wife likes big cities, and best school districts are usually cities.

In my experience, the best school districts are the affluent suburbs just outside the big cities.

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

#135

Post by emperorcezar »

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…

Do you have teams that tend towards younger ages? I'd throw out there that what trends you see will be heavily dependent on that.

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

#136

Post by physicsguy »

netizen-936824 wrote: post #127
physicsguy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That sounds like you're implying that black Americans aren't actually American.

That you read that into it says more about you than it does me given that I’m not American…

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

#137

Post by epage »

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…

In visiting other countries, I realized how little I interact with the people around me because of the language barrier. I know there are places its worse and some where its better. Still, made me reconsider to another country.

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

#140

Post by codingdave »

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…

That doesn't match my experience in the slightest - I've been on a remote team for almost a decade now. Most of the team moved when they got the chance, as do most new hires. Some move to the mountains, some to the ocean, some to rural homesteads, others to different cities, or simply to the home they want instead of the home dictated by their commute. A few have moved again over the years when they change jobs, but we're talking less than 10%. Even as most of us have all moved on from that original team, we still live where we choose because remote jobs are even easier to find now vs. a decade ago.

You are right about one thing - my grocery shopping is now 15 minutes away instead of 5. As I sit at my desk, looking over the countryside and watching my boys play in the snow while the birds flit about my window... I'm 100% satisfied with that trade off.

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