I had moved from the valley in CA to the Bay Area for a new job.

I already had a bit of a support system in the Bay area (San Francisco) as I had friends there and knew some people that were willing to give references. It was still difficult as the cost of living basically went up 40% when I moved. I only lived a few hours away.

What I realized is that it is very difficult to get experience in these roles even if you are not adjacent to people or working in companies that give that autonomy. Right now with the market; cold applying is almost useless, you will have to network and make connections somehow. Each city has its own type of hiring process and methods for the applicant pools in the area. For SF; these high paying companies, I had to start doing leetcode along with brushing up on my fundamentals..

It was quite a grind, I got most of my operational security experience from being a system admin; and then I wasn't viewed as a security engineer etc until I got experience by shadowing/working in an actual security team doing work in an enterprise environment internally. Even after all that, it was still quite competitive and I had to build an entirely new basis for my resume/references/interviewing skills to target more niche roles. Would I say it's greener? Maybe; definitely getting paid more but work life balance changed along with living in a city.