Advantages to moving Cities

Fireseed

Hey y'all I'm fairly new here but I was wondering if anyone employed in the industry could answer how beneficial it is to move to a different city to find work. I live in Niagara Falls, NY and their really isn't much in terms of studios around here. So I've been thinking about moving to California or Chicago so that I can be closer to various studios.

Is this a bad idea?

Joost

Cost of living will be higher. Location isn't THAT important anyway. I'd probably just work on my portfolio and apply to studios instead of moving to a game hub.

Stromberg90

Move when you get a job.

laforced

Get the job first, and make sure you have 1 or 2 years of
living expenses in savings for the NEW location.

McGreed

Yeah, I'm in the category of "moving to where ever I get a job" kind of people. Better to be flexible and move AFTER you got a job, then move and be limited to the location you are at.

RaptorCWS

move after they hire you. Its to big of a risk to up everything to move into a city with a high cost of living and not even have a job lined up. If they like your portfolio where you live is not going to prevent a job offer.

clinington

Definitely move after getting hired You are limiting your options otherwise.

Fireseed

Thanks for the replies everyone! Yeah I kinda figured that staying put for the time being would be the response. But I couldn't help but wonder if there was something I was missing after seeing a lot of my colleagues move elsewhere before finding work.

Jonas Ronnegard

yeah I think the contrast between someone you want to hire and not is very big, from experience I have seen studios spend tons of money on getting a person to the studio, moving costs free housing for long periods etc, but when this ok guys portfolio come in, live in the city, willing to basically work for free they say no anyway, depends on the studio ofcourse.

Kevin Albers

'Get the job first, and make sure you have 1 or 2 years of
living expenses in savings for the NEW location.'

Wow. I wonder if anyone is actually able to ever do that. It certainly would be a nice way to lower 'potential layoff stress', but seems like a very high goal to reach for most people.

ironbelly

I think this answer depends on how steady the person can get virtual work. If you can get contract art or other gigs fairly consistently it doesn't matter where you live, other than the cost of living is going to be significantly higher. The advantage is you'll be an easier hire if you are local and there's simply more to do (though you'll be poorer, so maybe you wont actually be able to do more!)

As my friend put it- There's a ton to do in NYC every day. For free you can walk into Christie's Auction House and tour what is literally a museum that has new things every day. If you're clever you can find a way to enjoy a big city a lot on a budget