(3) Create a Plan B before you move. You may decide you absolutely, positively cannot live in your new location. Your personality and lifestyle may be at odds with the local culture. You may lack access to something you didn’t realize you needed for your physical and mental well-being.
Don’t assume that you are safe when you move with a company to take a higher position. Every career coach has worked with at least one client who moved for a new job, but found that the job was not at all what was promised.
Worse, career coaches have stories about executives who moved and then were laid off less than six months after the relocation. Sometimes companies cut back departments. Other times you realize you are just not a fit with the new department or company.
When you consider moving for a job, consider working with an objective coach or counselor. Executives often try to talk themselves into a job that requires a 2-hour drive each way. They honestly believe they can cut back from a house to a small two-bedroom apartment or move from an intensely urban area to a rural town.
For more information about relocation, see my unique guide to the psychological aspects of moving. You can also set up a consultation.