You’ve been job searching for a while, and finally get an offer for your dream job. The only problem? It’s more than a two-hour drive to get there. It might be tempting to accept the offer right away, but that’s at least four hours every day stuck in transit. If you need a bit of assistance in figuring out if a longer commute is worth it for you, we can help. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
- How Do You Feel About Transportation?
If your commute involves public transportation, how do you feel about being on the bus or subway for four hours a day? If you’ll be driving, are you someone who loves to drive or is it just another chore? And don’t forget driving for four hours a day is going to result in some serious wear and tear on your vehicle (as well as an increased chance of getting into an accident and more spending on fuel), which means higher repair and maintenance costs. Definitely something to bring up in salary negotiations.
If you find yourself annoyed just getting to your first interview, that isn’t a great sign for how you’ll feel about the commute going into the future. But if it doesn’t bother you, this might be the job for you!
- How Will it Affect Your Family?
If you’re single and ready to put in the hours to climb the ranks in the company, a long commute might not be so bad. But if you have a spouse, kids, even a dog, it might be hard to justify being away from home for such a long time. You might be getting back home just as the kids go to bed.
Before accepting a job with a long commute, talk things over with your family. They might reveal pros or cons you hadn’t thought of.
- What are the Job and Company Like?
If taking on a longer commute now could result in you accomplishing your career dreams, that’s certainly something to consider. It’s possible you’d only need to take the longer commute for a year or so before you could afford to move closer to where the work is.
You might even be able to work this position for a few years and gain experience until a similar position opens up in your local area.
Once you’ve taken these questions into account, you can test the commute out yourself. It can be for an interview, or just as an exercise to see how you feel about it. If it’s the latter, try to test during the times you’ll be making the commute. After all, you’ll never really know what a long commute feels like until you do it for real.
Do you currently have a long commute? How do you feel about it? Let us know in the comments section below!
