In late 2019 I was giving a keynote address for the Phoenix Audit and Security Conference. The title of the presentation was Architecting the Career You Want. One of the things I discussed in that presentation was to think strategically about geography in architecting your career. As an example, I noted that someone intent on pursuing a career in tech would be far better off in the Sf Bay Area, whereas Phoenix was a great market for financial services.
When I revisited this presentation for another organization a couple years later, this section no longer seemed relevant. In the early years of the Pandemic and the broad adoption of remote work, careers could now be geographically agnostic. There were many people who thought this would be the new normal – never again would be tethered to an office – and with that, many deserted the larger employment centers for a lower cost of living and a higher quality of life.
Related, during this period, the percentage of people relocating for work decreased dramatically. Anecdotally, in our recruiting practice, pre-pandemic, in any given year, 30-40 percent of our placements involved relocation. A certain percentage of those placements involved intentional relo – a desire to live in a new city, a trailing spouse, or other reasons that motivated a relocation. But the majority of those placements involved a candidate relocating specifically for a new career opportunity. And it would not be uncommon for those striving to the highest steps on the corporate ladder to move half a dozen times over the course of a career.
Since 2020, however, the number of placements involving relocation has decreased substantially. In each of the past four years, the percentage of placements involving relocation plummeted to less than 10%, and factoring out intentional relocation, those numbers were negligible. But, time may have arrived where we will see that trend reversing.
Death of the geo-agnostic career:
As they say, all good things must come to an end. And, while there are still many people operating under the assumption that careers are location-agnostic, there are a number of reasons why I suspect that is no longer the case.
First, it is very clear that the moment for fully remote work en masse has ended. Corporate America as spoken and, like it or not, the clear directive is “butts in seats.” In the space in which we recruit, Audi/GRC/Security, the apex of remote work arrived in late 2021 or early 2022, at which time I would say that 20-25% of positions were eligible for remote work. These days, that number is likely closer to 5-8%, and trending downward.
That is not to say that remote roles are going away completely. There are still a number of organizations, albeit shrinking, that embrace remote work as part of their culture. There are other organizations that will consider making a role remote, if, and only if, they cannot find a particular skillset/background in any of their hubs. But make no mistake, these exceptions are typically reserved for people with deep areas of SME and/or specialized backgrounds.
Second, we need to keep in mind that the average tenure with a company in Corporate America today is likely to be somewhere between 3-5 years. This means that the average individual will work for 5-10 different organizations throughout one’s career. And, while company A may have been ok with you working from rural North Dakota, your next prospective employer almost certainly will not be. And moreover, as many have discovered since the market turndown in 2023, that remote role certainly may not available when you most need it. And even if it is, you are going to have many more candidates competing for it.
Third, not only has the percentage of roles eligible or remote work decreased, but the number of days required in office for hybrid roles has been steadily increasing. While hybrid work in 2022 may have meant 1-2 days/wk in office, in 2025 that is much more likely to be 3-4 days/wk in office, with some companies pushing for five days a week in office.
Fourth, and I can’t emphasize this enough, even if you are able to find a remote role, there is no guarantee that it will remain that way. Over the past several years we have placed a number of people in a companies that touted their remote culture, now it looks like that at least some of those organizations are reversing course. All it takes is a new CEO, CFO, or CHRO to make a radical change in policy.
So, what does this mean for you?
The first step is acceptance. This will be hardest for those who made investments in real estate, having put down roots in remote locations, often at historically low interest rates. But the sooner one realizes how the market has shifted; the sooner you can give thought to how you might adapt in the current environment.
The second step is aligning your career with a geographic market that makes sense for your background and aspirations. Look, I get the appeal of rural living, but I have long been an advocate of locating oneself in at least a midsize, if not a large, market when it comes to career. The more companies in a given geography, the more opportunities for you to find a role that is a great fit, the more opportunities for career advancement, or alternatively, to find a safe port in a storm.
Also, if you have an industry focus (something that is advised to sustain continued upward growth in your career) you will want to choose a market that makes sense for your industry of choice. Someone in banking would be wise to choose NY, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas metroplex, Los Angeles, or Chicago. People in bio/pharma would be best served by living in NY metro, southern California, Chicago, or the SF Bay Area. The SF Bay Area still dominates the tech industries, with NY, Boston, greater Washington DC (DMV), Seattle, Atlanta and Austin also having emerged as alternate tech hubs. While manufacturing and distribution are plentiful in the Midwest and Northeast.
Conclusion:
The moment of the fully remote workforce has passed, and with it, for most, the opportunity to sustain a fully remote career over many years.