A job for lifestyle

Don't just follow the crowd to London, says Hazel Davis. You can find a good career and better quality of life outside the capital
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday April 23 2008

If you want to get ahead, get a London flat. That's the overriding message of most graduate careers centres. By all means eventually live somewhere else, they say, but if you want a "career" or any sort of life, the bright lights and big city are where you should be.

But for many of us that just isn't the case. I live in West Yorkshire and manage to do a job which involves me explaining nearly every single day that, yes, the invention of the laptop and kettle means I can live "rurally" and also write articles, and that Stephenson's brainwave means I am never that far from a major city when I need to be.

There are several things you can do early on to ensure your career allows you to achieve the kind of life you want outside work.

1. Prioritise
When you are a new graduate, bear in mind that the world is more or less your oyster. Rather than pitching your lot in with all the other 10m people in the capital, think about how you want to spend your days and consider making your life somewhere else. If you like museums and cafes and late-night culture, you're probably best off avoiding Crewe. But if you eat, sleep and breathe surfing, for example, don't bag yourself a Wimbledon flat and a job in the City, however appealing the pay packet.

Anne Wollenberg (27) graduated from Exeter University in 2005 with an MA in English and a BA in English and sociology. "When all my coursemates immediately decamped to London to work in publishing I wasn't that keen," she says. "After spending my university years living in Exeter, close to countryside and the ocean, I didn't see living and working in London as something to aspire to, but as a potential necessity."

That necessity never arose and after working for a magazine in Exeter, Wollenberg moved to Bath to work for an entertainment website. "Bath is easy to travel to Oxford and Cardiff, where I have family, and Devon where I have friends, and easy to get to London if I book cheap advance tickets," she says. "I can walk everywhere, I can see fields and the river from my bedroom window and quality of life comes much cheaper when you don't have to worry about London rent."

2. Do your research
When she accepted the job, Wollenberg had only been to Bath once - for her interview. She says: "I didn't have much time to prepare, but I did a lot of internet research while looking for somewhere to live, because I wanted to make sure I was living in a nice area with decent public transport and wasn't being overcharged on rent."

Wherever you decide to live, research is important, says Hebden Bridge-based personal life coach Jan Scott. "If you like the sound of somewhere, go on a mission around the shops looking at notice boards," she says. "'Get hold of the local paper, scan the 'What's On' pages - make sure you've got a notebook and pen with you."

Scott suggests you use social networking sites to find out more. "Contact all your Facebook friends to find out who and what they know," she says. "Make contact in a warm and friendly way with anyone who lives in the new town. Keep in touch with them and buy them a coffee once you're settled in."

Many workplaces have a social calendar and it's worth checking this out when you're researching potential employers. It may be old-fashioned but, says Scott, "don't forget the local library; a great source of information about what's going on in the town".

3. Look for a flexible employer
If work-life balance is your priority, don't think you have to sacrifice career advancement to get it. Multinational companies frequently support staff mobility. At Tesco, for example, during annual face-to-face career planning sessions with managers, employees can indicate their level of desired mobility. Their employers record whether they are unwilling to move at all, or willing to move globally.

Lorna Bryson, Tesco's head of resourcing for its UK operations, says all its employees have the same opportunities for development, regardless of where they are based. So if you wanted to work your way up the corporate ladder but fancied a scenic passage, you could check out Tesco's farthest-flung UK destination in Thurso on the northern Scottish coast.

4. Don't be afraid to settle down
Wherever you end up in your first job, it's worth noting that once you've moved there it could be difficult to leave. The capital resounds with the echoes of once-new graduates saying: "I'll just stay in London and work my socks off for a bit, then I'll get a garden in the countryside." But that might not matter. If you can get your work-life-location balance in place when you start your first job, you might not want to go anywhere else.

In Saturday's Graduate section, Hazel Davis will be talking to graduates striving for good work-life balance, even in their first jobs

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