I have the choice of one team, in a field I've always wanted to learn more about (health tech) but unfortunately is located in Seattle, and will require people to come back to the office for 3 days of the week.
I have another team that will actually support remote work, and the whole team will be working remotely. I’m interested in their product, definitely not as cool as the Seattle team but it wouldn’t bore me, and not having to move is a huge plus in time savings. I have some ideas for side projects that I’ve been wanting to work on but haven’t had the time to tackle yet.
The big question I have is, If my goal is to start a successful startup (not unicorn status but a product that people love), should I prioritize learning and growth on the technical side, by staying where I am, take a less ambitious remote team, and have more time to work on my side projects and grow as a builder? Or should I move to Seattle, since it would probably give me a better ability to develop relationships and network with the tech scene there, possibly finding a cofounder?
My technical skills I would say are not that great, I only have 1 year of experience as a developer, which is why I was leaning towards staying and focusing on projects. However, people talk all the time about how important networking is. Does living in an expensive place like Seattle really matter for networking as a dev, if 90% of your time is at work with the same coworkers anyway? I was thinking I could drive out to conferences occasionally to build out a similar network, but let me know what you think!
Are both possible? Can you network the way you want while working from CA? Networking has never been easier. Can you travel to WA once in a while to scout the tech scene? Is the time commitment acceptable for you?
Can you instead network with people closer to where you live? Isn't there a huge health tech industry in CA? Can you make something out of that?