We are all road warriors now - or are we?

I write this week's blog post from the 7:34 train from Market East to Wilmington, where I have a job interview at 10 a.m. To get to this interview, I arose at 6 a.m., hopped on a bus for the seven-minute ride to the Market-Frankford Line, spent 20 minutes riding the El to 11^th Street, then caught this train, which will deposit me in Wilmington 55 minutes after I boarded it. From the train station, it's another 15 minutes on a DART bus to the interview site.

So that makes a total of 97 minutes riding the buses and trains, almost the length of a typical Hollywood feature film. And I haven't even added in the waiting time, which adds at least 30 minutes to the total.

Hmmm. Two hours spent commuting to an interview for a job that I've been told I have a 50-50 chance of getting, and which will last six months if I get it. And if I get it, I will have to rise a half hour earlier to make it to the office by 9 a.m.

Would you say this is worth the effort? I think it's pretty clear how I answered that question.

In the real estate business, brokers and lenders speak of something called "drive to qualify." What this refers to is the distance a homebuyer must travel from the city in order to be able to afford a home. In expensive cities like New York or San Francisco, this distance can be considerable: some New York City workers now drive from as far away as the Lehigh Valley to get to their Manhattan jobs, for instance. What I am engaging in as I write this blog post is the job market equivalent. Lets call it "commute to hire."

In a strong economy, chances are good that a given job seeker in a large city will be able to choose from an ample number of jobs within a reasonable commuting time or distance of one's residence. When jobs become scarcer, on the other hand, job seekers may be forced to look beyond their commuting comfort zone to find suitable employment. Thus, just as a worker in San Francisco may have to consider moving to Altamont in order to afford the mortgage payments, so a person living and looking for work in Philadelphia may have to consider openings in New Brunswick, or even New York as an architect friend of mine did, in order to secure a suitable job. (Then he shortened his commute by moving there.)

Its good that this region has multiple employment centers with good transit service, for it allows carless folks like me to cast a wider net when job hunting just as the drivers do. For now, I am willing to become a road warrior - or, in my case, a transit marathoner – in order to get the job I want.

How about you? Are you looking further afield for work? Have you reconsidered how far you are willing to commute to work? Share your thoughts in the comments.

By Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith is a veteran freelance writer, editor and public relations professional who lives in Philadelphia. Besides blogging for PhillyJobs.com, he has written for numerous publications and websites, would be happy to do your resume, and is himself actively seeking career opportunities on Beyond.com. Check out his LinkedIn profile and read his other posts on PhillyJobsBlog.com.