Wedded to the City or Ready to Go Local?
Wedded to the City or Ready to Go Local?
Increasingly I am hearing a section of our candidate community say things like “I’m not enjoying the City anymore” or “the City isn’t what it was”. For some, the outsourcing, deskilling and offshoring of what were typically City based activities has taken the shine from working in the centre of town.
Some of these candidates are now exploring career options closer to home and finding that, once they have taken the inevitable salary hit on board, there is life after the City.
So, why would you leave the country’s main financial centre to take a lower paid job in your local area? Some of the answers are more obvious than others:
Goodbye to the train! Enjoy the comfort of your own individual metal box to commute to work. The sound of Chris Evans on your car radio every morning may grate with some, but other radio stations are available
In most cases you’ll have a shorter commute and, even after a long day, be home before the kids are tucked up at night
Use your experience – particularly for certain back office specialists, you might find that your knowledge and background is in demand from local outsourced operations
Get your mojo back – a career that might be in danger of going stale in the City could be revived within a growing, dynamic set up in the local area
Work more productively – my experience of local specialist employers is that you’ll still work hard, but you’ll have less meetings and be more productive
Make some new local friends – the commute by car provides less opportunity for the quick one after work, but some of your locally based colleagues could become friends for life.
Some people are wedded to the City and there is no denying that there is a cultural shift to be considered when making the move to work locally. However, for some the work life balance that can be offered by working nearer home is itself a goal worth achieving.