Location Location Location: Lots Changed in Your Job Hunt

 Hustlers, the flexible and those with skills in demand used to be smug about location. Just move there and you will be hired. No worry if you're not based there let them know you will relocate. And about the latter, more recently let them know (since they're no longer reimbursing relocation) that you will pick up the tab for the move. 

Less likely is that job-search strategy effective. 

A sign of the shift in how employers assess applicants is a post on Reddit.  A laid-off graphic designer (a sector hard hit by AI) requests feedback on where to move (yes, on their own dime) for work. 

Immediately, the advice is: Don't move unless you already have a job lined up. That is sound, given the decline in opportunities for that skill. 

Actually, as a coach I add to that: Even if you have an offer you could get there, sign a lease and have the job cancelled. That had been common during the Great Recession. It is emerging again currently.

However, the soul-withering irony is this: Employers probably won't consider you, not even for contract remote work, unless you are based near to their operations. One response reads:

"this market: you don't get any interviews for places that you apply to if you don't live in the same city. even freelance "remote" gigs arez 90% of the tine "hybrid" with at least 2 days a week at the office."

To you, who have been operating remote successfully for years this doesn't make sense. But reality is determined by those with the most power. Right now those are the employers. Some law firms have been requiring the return to four-days-a-week-back in the office. Along with that is establishing penalties for non-compliance. 

Of course, there are exceptions. I have clients with in-demand-skill sets who are based off-the-grid. They can still pull that off. If their arrangements dry up they're out-of-the-box enough to come up with another way to earn a living, on their terms.

However, overall, you have to get into reality fast about the law of supply and demand and the power of those hiring. BTW, it is becoming irrelevant "how good you are" in your expertise. That can be irrelevant if no one will pay for that. Or if you're caught in aging bias.

Given how the work world has changed, yes, you should listen to the recommendation: Start your own business. Identify a gap in what people need and want and then fill it better than any other entry into that category. In college, a client noticed the need for used brandname clothing. They launched an online business and later extended to brick-and-mortar.

Careers. Forget all that. It’s about earning a good living, no matter what.

Complimentary consultation with Jane Genova, StreetSmart Coaching (janegenova374@gmail.com)


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