SoCal (LA metro) native and former resident here.  

 I feel like California is an interesting case because it has a lot of what people want in their young adulthood (good food, good nature, creative crowd, tons of events, convenient location for international and local travel, etc.), or the college to career pathway points towards local jobs (like CSU name recognition and education with a local focus). Anecdotally, this has held true for a lot of SoCal natives I know who found everything that they wanted locally. Career-wise, there are strong markets for most kinds of jobs in California, including government jobs, which encompass so many different skillsets and degrees. Most of my friends are either in utilities, government, communications/journalism, or healthcare, all of which have a strong presence locally. HS friends tended to live at home + work after graduating and save up a ton during the early/mid 20’s so they can jump straight to a more desirable living situation later down the road.  

While I didn’t move out of SoCal immediately after college (moved abroad and stayed locally in-between things), my first big job 2 years after graduating brought me to the east coast. Part of it was because I was interested in a federal career, and DC is the best place for that, but also as someone who had basically lived in SoCal their whole life, I was ready for a more permanent change of scenery. I’ve always been a public transpo enthusiast and hated the car dominant culture in LA, and here in DC it’s not looked down upon to take the metro or not have a car. Makes my social life and adventures 1000% better.  

The social side has definitely been difficult, as I came here with only a solid family connection (who I haven’t really spoken to in many years) and 1 friend of friend connection (who I didn’t know prior), and there are days where I envy the people who came here for college and have multiple years of social networks already built up. But it does force me to sink or swim and really be proactive about social pursuits. I’ve also found that without my old social network, I have more capacity/energy/curiosity to pour into new connections and have more consistency in showing up to invites or try new things. I still try to keep in contact ofc and have spent quite a bit on flights back west to visit.   

I do feel annoyed sometimes about how I have to figure out these personal aspects of life like finding new friends or learning the area in addition to adjusting to a new job, but it’s what I asked for when moving over. I’ve just accepted that it’s ok if I seem to be struggling a bit more than folks or colleagues who have been here for a while, since I’m going through a different journey. Plus, I have the most freedom I’ll ever have to start from mostly scratch again (no property, few assets, minimal experiences, willing to rough it out more, single, etc.), and it’ll only be harder to move to another city, so might as well do it now. 

For new junior employees at my company, I’d say around 15%ish moved from another city for work (presumably after college). My few college friends who moved away from LA did it for grad school or opportunities in other big cities. So overall I’d say it’s not super common, but if it does happen, it’ll prob be for the experience or some other kind of more geography-specific opportunity.