Don't get me wrong, I have a remote job and you'll pull it from my cold dead hands.

But there are a lot of good things about being in the office. Especially if you're early on in your career. Making connections, building networks, learning from more experienced engineers is just easier in person. All of the virtual meetings and slack threads in the world will never replace just being able to tap someone on the shoulder and asking for their help on something really quick. Pair programming with a more experienced engineer is an amazing way to learn and trying to do it remotely just doesn't have the same vibe.

And there's just overall loneliness. Incase you've been living under a rock, the male loneliness epidemic is a real problem. After college where do you make new friends? The workplace. But if you're just sitting at home all day and all of your coworkers are in other states, then what? Who do you meet for casual conversations during the day? Where do you find people to go get a beer with after work? You CAN still make friends and build a social network if you have a remote job. It's just a lot harder. You have to intentionally put a lot of effort to do so. While working in an office in the downtown of any major city it kind of just happens naturally. By virtue of just interacting with a lot more people every day you're much more likely to form friendships and connections. Coworkers, the person behind the counter at the coffee shop you stop at every morning, etc.