Commuting for the right role.

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I am interested in hearing from people who have had to sacrifice precious hours of their life either stuck in traffic or squashed onto an overcrowded train or bus to get to the right role for them in their career.

My problem at the moment is that all the decent jobs seem to be coming up an hour or more away from me by car. Now naturally like most people hate public transport, so car would be the option unless I had to travel into the city in which case it would be the overpriced sardine tins they call trains!

Now a job has come up about 1 and a quarter hour from me, sounds perfect with a leading ISP in networking, how many people would make the travel sacrifice for the right role considering expense and time to get there everyday?

 

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I hate commuting in any form.

But, the odds of a job opportunity appearing on your doorstep are slim - especially the 'right' one.
So unfortunately you have to go to the job as it's not going to come to you.

The other factor I find is traffic. My last job was about 13 miles away in Cardiff. It took me the best part of an hour to get to work. My current job is in Swansea, 50 miles away. It takes me the best part on an hour to get there...

I'd say it's what goes into the hours between commuting that is more important. The travel is just something to tolerate as a necessary evil.

I'm not tempted by trains because I don't like the idea of my arrangements being in someone else's hands, although there are some times when I can see the attraction of sitting there with a good book rather than looking at a strip of tarmac.

 

I currently spend approximately 5 hours a day commuting, this started out as a contractor role and I went perm a couple of months ago. Why? The package offered to me was fantastic, infact I would say that with all things considered my package was on par with what I earned as a contractor (obviously I am not on the same rate but take into consideration paid holiday, paid sickness etc it's on par).

Prior to this role I spent 10 months working in Norwich, that commute (by car) took between 3 - 4 hours a day, occasionally it took in excess of 5 hours a day (snow, traffic accidents etc.. it's predominantely a single carriage way for 2/3 of the journey).

The difference between my current commute and the previous one is that I now travel by train, I can sleep if I want to (I do occasionally), I can catch up with various TV (thank god for my iPad) or training (Kindle App ) or Podcasts (iPhone), most of which I couldn't do if I was driving.

How long can I put up with this?? I honestly don't know, my colleagues all think I am mad and none of them think I should be doing it long term.

Unfortunately for me this was a necessary evil, after all it's better to be in work than out of it.

 

Generally you have very little choice if you want to work, are early in your career and live outside a major city.

Its either move to a city or suffer a long commute. Occasionally you might get lucky, however IT jobs normally only good for 2-3 years before you need to move to progress or the role stagnates.

I'm currently hoping to get a role with significant flexibility therefore avoiding some of the commuting issues.

I think trains and subway can be an excellent mode of transport, also cycling in the right context.

However a lot of the time all three simply don't seem to work in practice in the UK, maybe they do in other European countries.

Buses are a nightmare since deregulation, I guess some bus lanes and park and ride schemes may help in some places but generally its a slow, unreliable and very unpleasant experience.

Generally I love the idea of trains, I've done the the trans-mongolian railway, euro-railing, and the bullet train in Japan. In the UK trains can be ok, but when I last used them for my commute trains could be an hour late, cancelled for half a day or too full to get on. This made simply turning up for work at all Russian roulette.

Cycling or moped probably best option if small commute, can avoid traffic and keep fit. Pretty dangerous on most UK roads though.

 

i ride my motorbike into work, even on days at other offices, i.e cardiff or birmingham i'll take the bike.

Plus it's free to go through most toll roads on bike, and i get mielage from work

always quicker, can navigate through any traffic jams

 

Commuting is the absolute worst if it is by car. It is nothing but a hopeless waste of your life. I used to have to travel about 26 miles RT, and could take anywhere from 45 - 75 mins to each way. Recently moved closer to the office and i'm home in about 8 minutes on a bad day. It makes such a difference to how you feel when you get home.

I can imagine still hating it if had been doing it by bus/train, as they are rarely on time, but i would at least be able to be slightly more productive.

 

For the right job then i would possibly travel max 3 hours a day and then it would also have to be of monetary benefit. If it was to turn out to be a permanant thing I would probably end up moving closer to where my place of work is.

As mentioned it also depends on your mode of transport as I just couldnt really on trians. Have tried this in the past and they always let you down by either just cancelling it or it being delayed.

 

I wouldn't agree with that myself.(but thhen again, I haven't experienced your commute )

I have commuted before by train, bicycle & car and by car has always been the best for me. Trains on the route I was on were quite unreliable and more often than not I had to use a coach replacement service because of works on the line etc... My current commute is 16miles and it takes about 20mins by car. On the very odd occation there may be a car crash that holds things up, but generally ny daily experience is pretty good. I do tend to go in a bit earlier than necessary because there is less traffic though.

 

What makes it worse than the nose to tail traffic at several parts of the journey is the fact it's wasted time. Radio on but can't study/watch anything. that's the only reason train/bus are slightly better. But they have their own drawbacks, so it is only slightly better!

 

Annoying thing is the agency I have been speaking with today questioned my ability to do the commute to this role, I dont think thats their judgement call to make! I have commuted before and dealt with it so why question me?

Annoys me that with willing and desire to further my career they are more concerned with that, any way cheers for the comments peeps, it seems that lots of peeps are willing to do this for their careers, its a normal part of life now even in a country as small as ours!
But I do hate the trains, so expensive I mean it would cost me over 3 grand to get into London from here to work and its only an hour away!!

 

I guess they have to assess if you are serious about taking on the commute because it can definitely wear people down and sap motivation. It would reflect badly on them if they didn't take it into account, but then someone quit after 6months because of the commuting guess...

 

I have customers in different parts of the country. It can take 3 hours to commute to see one of them located on the other end of Switzerland, just to give an example.

However, most of my customers are located in either Geneva or Lausanne, and I live right between the two cities. So for me, the commute is 20-40 minutes (1 way) depending on the customer and traffic conditions.

I'm ok with this, doesn't bother me too much, but over 1 hour (1 way) every day would be too much.

 

My commute is only a couple of miles in the week, but with 150 miles on a Monday and Friday to and from the town I work in.

It sucks living away from 'home' in the week, but something I've got to do to be able to work in the areas I want to.

 

I'm lucky at the moment. I've been working on a support contract based in Scotland - which means being in south Wales I can work from home. I've been here for approaching 2 years and depending on how long it takes for the project team to roll out Server 2008 possibly another 12-18 months more.

I used to work in Swansea, which is a 35-40 mile commute from my house. It started to get annoying, especially considering the miles you end up putting on the car. If there was a direct train route (that also didnt cost an arm and a leg) I would have done that.

I wouldn't mind a commute on the train, like someone said earlier - you can have a read, get a laptop out, have a sleep or just generally chill out for an hour. When you drive you have to do the whole 'concentrating on the road' thing.

 

I'm guessing you've got a pretty good wireless mouse and keyboard then.

Probably for the best, all things considered.

 

I spend an hour travelling door-to-door one-way and have done over the past 4 years - as my job is in Central London and I'm in Zone 6 (the outer-most ring for those non-Londonfolk) - and I can't stand it! I hate it actually, that said I hate the whole London thing anyway, but you have to go where the work is!

As for the tube - which is my mode of transport - it can be hard to fully get into something, but it reading a chapter or watching a video because you have to change trains often - a 15 and 25 min journey - as well as constantly (every 2/3 mins) having people moving around - it doesn't make a great environment to try and learn in. I imagine it would be different in what I would class a more structured carriage as well (ie, normal train carriage and not a tube).

The role I'm currently battling for is about 35 miles away from me by car, and on a good day that takes 40 minutes. I've yet to see what happens when it goes wrong!

 

Yes I would consider a longer commute. Personally I live in the country and all the major areas are at least 45 mins away by car on a good day with the wind in the right direction. I have taken roles before that would advance my career and also roles that offered more money ( not necessarily the same thing). I've got kids and my wife does not work (well in the sense of working for money that is although I suspect she works alot harder than me really). I hate the thought of spending too much time away from the family and missing out on those important bits in life, but with my situation, I and my wife understand that I need to work I may need to work further away than I would like just to keep things ticking along money wise.

That being said were I a younger chap with not so many ties, then I'd happily work where ever a cool job came up be it 10 minutes away from my door or 2 hours away, time would be my own!!