The sports director at a radio station that covered one of the premier college football programs in the country was torn. He loved the people he worked with and covering the team. The tradeoff was the job didn’t give him as many play-by-play opportunities as he wanted.
He wondered if it was justifiable to move down in market size.
Here are three reasons why moving to a smaller market is understandable:
1. To get reps
If your station doesn’t offer the opportunities you want, its logical to move to where you can get them. If you want to be married but the person you’re dating doesn’t want to be, you don’t continue dating that person because it would keep you from your goal to be married.
It’s the same in the job market.
2. Exhibit your ambition
The sacrifice in moving to a smaller market demonstrates ambition. Someone who is so passionate about an aspect of their career that they would move to a smaller market to get those opportunities will impress most employers.
3. It increases your happiness
You can’t put a price on loving life. Moving to a smaller market might give you the opportunities you want or move you closer to family. Whatever the reason, you can’t put a price on the enthusiasm you will have for going to work every day.
A TV sportscaster was considering a lateral move to the city where they attended college. If upward mobility was their only consideration, the move should not have been considered. But if happiness was more important, the lateral move, or one to a smaller market, is understandable.
You’ll do better in opportunities and in situations about which you are most passionate.
