TL; DR: The company: its people and its mission. Everything else is secondary.

I recently moved from San Francisco Bay Area to join Farmlogs in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here is how I thought about it:

I derive majority of my happiness from what I do, not necessarily from the money that I have in my bank account or the social ameneties that are provided by the city that I live in. This is not to say that it will not be nice to have more money in my bank account or to live in a big city like New York or San Francisco, but my self-realization that I am most happy when I am satisfied at work.

I feel that you first need to pick the company you want to work for. I chose FarmLogs. It just happened to be in Ann Arbor. It would have been nice for me if it was in San Francisco but it wasn’t. Now I was not going to let that opportunity go just because it was not in San Francisco. For me, doing meaningful work has more importance than living in a specific city.

People have mentioned a lot of cons about working in the midwest but here are some of the pros:

1. Lower cost of living: I am not kidding when I say that I save much more in Ann Arbor in dollar amount as compared to when I was living in SF. I have been able to purchase my own house as compared to spending a fortune on rent in SF.

2. Better Negotiation: You can negotiate a better deal from your employer just because they are in midwest and want to hire you.

3. Experience of living in a new place: I, personally, have never lived in a place where it snows and I am looking forward to that experience. I don’t know if I will like it or not. If I don’t, I will know snow is not for me and will go back but I have to try.

So in short, I feel one should pick a company they want to work for. Everything else seems secondary. You will spend most of your time at work, and at least for me, if I am not happy at work, I am not happy in life.

In addition, I can go back to SF anytime if I wanted to.

Thats what I have to say about that.

user:	mayankag
created:	March 20, 2011
karma:	11