Does leaving the big smoke ruin your career?

I spent my first 34 years in Sydney before doing 4 years in Melbourne and the past 5 years on the Gold coast, a move made after going through the Covid lockdowns in Melbourne in 2019. I loved a lot about living in Melbourne but there’s no doubt that year of being stuck at home for most of the year was a factor in our move.

That was when remote working first became a thing, the first time that had ever been an option for me. In agency recruitment you had to be where the jobs and people were, you were meeting with clients and candidates in person everyday - people might forget that Zoom interviews weren’t really a common thing until Covid came - so moving to a cheaper city was something I was thinking might be part of retirement.

We did the maths, our small 2 bed apartment in Sydney was worth more than a 4 bed house on the Gold Coast and Melbourne wasn’t really that much cheaper than Sydney (without moving to Point Cook, no offence Point Cookians), our kids were just starting school and we had a few friends up here already. It was a pretty quick decision and I decided that if I couldn’t find remote roles in the future, I’d either try and find a few career or go out on my own.

But that risk to me was worth it to get out of the jail of having to work my butt off JUST to avoid a mortgage in Sydney in a place that was going to be pretty tight for 2 kids.

Sydney is beautiful - if you can afford to live where you want to and don’t have to spend 10 hours a week on Public transports. I’d spent over 15 years doing commutes to offices 5 days a week, at the worst 1.5 hours each way and then in Melbourne I was spending 1 week of each month in New Zealand, so to have those hours back at home with my kids at ages 3 and 7 was extremely appealing.

But even in the boom of companies going to remote working, I knew it wasn’t a guarantee this was going to continue and that moving to a smaller city like the Gold Coast was a risk, I mean I recruit for a living so I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go over the years.

So when I first came to be looking for a new role at the end of 2022, I did see my predictions were correct. More than one company or contact had said they were interested in talking to me but they could only consider me if I moved back to Sydney or Melbourne.

Now I’ve been lucky in that time to have been able to find remote roles but I definitely had less options than I would if I went back to Sydney or Melbourne and we’ve already had a cycle of people moving north to the Gold Coast only to move back to the big cities when they couldn’t find work up here.

And it’s not that there are no jobs here, there’s actually a booming startup ecosystem here but most of those companies are in the small to mid size. There’s not really a CBD here, so most of the people I’ve met are either Founders or remote workers for larger tech companies.

Was it a mistake? No, not for me. Do I miss parts of living in Sydney and Melbourne? Definitely. Sydney especially for the friends I have there and also the events I’d like to be able to go to, Melbourne for all the great food and things to do. I’ll never miss the hayfever in Melbourne though, it’s the only place I’ve ever had it and there must have been 90% hay in the air because I had it bad.

In general though, would I recommend someone leave big cities to move somewhere like the Gold Coast? I think it would depend on the following:

• What are your work options? If you have a role that can be done remotely, how buoyant is that job market and how hard would it be for you to find another role?

• What’s your social life/circle? If you don’t know anyone, are you great at making new friends? Are you working remotely in a new city is different to working in an office where you’ll more likely have socialising outside of work.

• What do you like to do after work? In general there are less gigs, bars, restaurants - the GC actually surprised me in how many good ones there were but compared to Melbourne, you can’t actually compare.

• Single/married/kids? If I was single and curious about moving to another city, it’s way easier to give that a try and if you don’t like it 6 months later, just move back. Moving your partner from their role, moving kids from school and their friends - this all becomes much harder to undo.

• Cost comparison - the GC isn’t as cheap as it used to be so what would your rent or mortgage be in the new city vs where you’re coming from?

• Family - this isn’t a simple one as I know a lot of people that stay in Sydney just to be near their family. For others, putting some distance between themselves and their family might actually be a good thing.

Whether it’s the Gold Coast or another regional city, it can be a great move and many of us love it but it’s not without its sacrifices.