My colleague over on the AOL Jobs and Careers Channel, Lisa Johnson Mandell, just wrote a post about the ten toughest and easiest cities to find a job in. St. Louis, Detroit, and Miami top the list for worst cities for finding employment and Washington, D.C, San Jose, and New York are at the top of the list of best cities for finding employment. CNNMoney.com recently ranked the top ten cities to live in and cities with low unemployment rates were the ones that made it to the top including Eden Prairie, MN, Columbia/Ellicot City, MD, and Newton, MA.
In the past year I’ve noticed that many more of my clients are flexible about the geography of a particular position. They are either willing to commute longer distances or relocate for the right position. But I’ve also noticed that geography is becoming less of an issue for employers as the world of work becomes a flatter place and more work can be done remotely.
If you found your dream job in another state would you relocate or explore the possibility of working remotely? If you could consider one of these options, think of how quickly your potential company targets would expand. Maybe it’s time we stop thinking so much about location and start thinking about the value we could add to an employer regardless of geography. This may not be feasible for every position right now, but thinking differently about how we work is the first step towards change
Close to 20 years ago I created a pilot for a work at home program for operations positions for a large financial services firm. This was considered cutting-edge at the time. Remember, this was before the Internet and before we had anywhere near the capabilities we have today for monitoring productivity and performance. The pilot was put in place to retain a group of high performers who were considering leaving the company because of work/life balance concerns. The company made the program work, despite the obstacles because they recognized that these employees were too valuable to lose. Could you prove to an employer that you are too valuable not to have?
Think of how much the world of work has evolved in the past 20 years. Jet Blue’s entire reservations staff works from home. Who would have imagined that such a thing would be possible 20 years ago? Is it really that unrealistic to live in St. Louis but work for a company in Newton, MA? Maybe not.