Should I take a high paying job in a remote town?
A massive financial jump can fast-track major goals like buying a house, but it comes at the cost of living in small, harsh environments. The real difficulty is sacrificing years of your normal social life, which means missing out on relationships, weddings, birthdays, and time with aging parents.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Taking one or two dedicated vacations a year to maintain sanity and escape the isolation.Did this help you?
- 2Picking up solitary, healthy habits like exercise, reading, and journaling to pass the time.Did this help you?
- 3Actively avoiding camp vices like heavy drinking and drug use caused by extreme boredom.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The part I’m stuck on is the actual lifestyle. Small remote town, brutal winters, not much to do, and I’d basically miss two years of normal life back home. Birthdays, weddings, random weekends with friends, parents getting older, all that stuff.”source ↗
“Right now I make about $82k, so obviously the money is a massive jump and that’s the main reason I’m even considering it.”source ↗
“I did something similar for 2 years in Alaska. It sucked, but I came home and bought a house (well 50% down).”source ↗
“I worked a similar job for a bit under a year (Covid shut us down outside of a maintenance crew)... The only reason I didn’t go back to it post covid was because I was in a relationship and decided to go back to school during covid.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Should I take a lateral job offer?
- 2Should I leave a stable remote job for a risky startup?
- 5Is a long commute worth it for a stable job?
- 2Should I take a higher-paying job if money is going to be tight?
- 2Should I still do internships after getting a full-time job offer?
- 12Should I quit my demanding job for a simpler, lower-paying one?