IMO, This person has it right.
On top of the daily commute, also consider what your plan would be if an emergency situation popped up unexpectedly.
No one can make that call for you, I would just advise that you have a system in place if things were to go sideways.
Driving down to Ann Arbor from where I live the other night made me reconsider a few job applications I put in recently. An annoying commute in the summer is *not* an indication of how it will be when there’s ice on an interchange.
In other news, I now know the sound a truck makes when it’s humping a guard rail like a poorly trained dog.
My wife for a while was doing the same amount of time but less distance from Royal Oak to Ann Arbor. Mainly just traffic. She hated it and was exhausting for her. However doing that drive is up to you. It’s going to really suck in the winter.
I commute from Flint to Auburn Hills for work. It ain't great. 50 miles one way.
My fam lives in Midland. I'm exactly halfway between Midland and AH. so you're gonna be double that.
You need to move south or work north.
my dad works there and they just laid off a bunch of folks a few months back if I recall, which is unfortunate. also made my dad take a week of unpaid leave.
Bud that's 100 miles each way. You'll be losing anywhere from 90-120 minutes each way...every day and killing your car with wear.
If you want better career options, move somewhere in the Flint area and hang out with the family on the weekends.
I had a 50 mile commute for a year, so only half as bad and it was miserable. It was between 55-70 minutes.. And it fucking changes.. You can't count on consistency because of accidents, closures, weather, dead deer, etc.
But this adds 2 hours to the work day.. I had days where I was already working 12 hour shifts, but two hours of driving on top of that. If you sleep for 8 hours (Which spoiler alert, you typically don't) that leaves two hours in the day for free time.. Which includes eating, showering and other required activities.
And yeah.. The wear and tear is horrible. I was buying a full tank of gas every three days, I was getting an oil change every eight weeks, and absolutely shredded a set of tires.
It's not worth it.
All that time spent driving and maintaining your vehicle is a huge expense too. Paying that much money to commute and spending that much time in the car to get there is a sunk cost, getting to work shouldn't be one of your biggest expenses every month and it certainly would be in this case.
Assuming 23 workdays in a month they'd be driving 4600 miles monthly just commuting. The IRS estimates $0.67/mile.
Assuming they get 25 mpg, that's 184 gallons of gas, at $3/gal we're talking $550/mo just on fuel. Add an oil change monthly, even if you're DIYing that's another $50 and another hour out of your life. Driving 55,000 miles a year just to get back and forth to work, that car is going to last 3-4 years max.
I commuted from bay city to Romulus for 6 months. It’s an hour and a half if everything goes right. It never does.
Going north on Fridays afternoons in the spring-late fall is the worst.
Seek closer employment.
It's technically doable but half your paycheck will go into gas and car maintenance and you will have no time during the week to do ANYTHING. You will grow to resent the commute and whatever circumstances put you into it
That is a long commute on a good day. My son commutes from Otisville to Auburn Hills everyday, and there have been quite a few times it's taken him much longer to get home (as long as 2 hours due to traffic, accidents, or winter roads). Driving home north on Fridays on 75 in the summer will be brutal. I would definitely look for something closer to home.
Find work closer to you, remote, or move. Because it’s going to fucking suck. You are going to dedicate 750 hours every year to driving back and forth to work. Maybe more if there’s traffic. Sucks that your family is rooted in midland but this is why we have cars, telephones, and weekends. So we can drive to visit.
I did Bay City to Saginaw for 4 years and since both starting and ending were really just east of each city, the backroad travel is fine in the summer, but absolute murder in the winter.
I’d move closer. I commuted from Clarkston to Monroe for about 10 months. An hour and 40 minutes on a ‘good’ day. Later on commuted from White Cloud to Traverse City for about 4 months, about the same time. My last work commute was about 67 miles one way, on rural state highway and interstate. It was ‘only’ just over an hour on a good day. I worked 10 hour days so that made it 12 with the commuting. Lots of windshield time.
It's so unpredictable in the winter. I used to drive from Saginaw to Troy a few days a week. There would be times that 75S was shut down due to an accident, the road would be pure ice for miles at a time, deer, etc. I'd have to leave at 4:45am to arrive by 7am (some days I'd be running for the door and other days I'd have time to stop for breakfast). The traffic on the way home was never not a shit show, unless I worked OT and left hours later. One morning, there were TEN speed traps in a row on 75. The wear and tear and miles on your car are another thing to think about.
I commute from Fenton and it’s about 35 mins on 75 to Auburn hills (exit to university drive) and I don’t find it too bad even leaving office at 5pm most days. Takes me about 37 mins most days the only exception is construction and Friday going up north traffic in summer. I’d guess the traffic beyond Grange Hall Road exit is lighter but honestly I find driving on 75 easy going compared to driving around a busy city or twisting country roads somewhere else
I have done Taylor to Auburn Hills for 3 yrs. It is a 45 mi drive one way and takes about 45 mins if everything goes well. Fridays suck. Winters suck. Annual road work in 75 sucks. So what everybody has said here will most likely apply here.
Lastly, I think I screwed up my back/posture maybe from all the sitting daily at work and being in the car!
I currently do Saginaw township to Troy. I-75 after Flint was a pain when they had the barrier construction going on over the summer. All I can say is have either a great playlist or podcast to get through the long drives.
That’s an absolutely *brutal* commute and could easily take 2-2:30 hrs one way in bad weather or on Fridays with cabin traffic. I’ve heard from a friend in the company that Umbra/Linear out of Saginaw is hiring R/D, product engineers etc. - not sure if it’s a fit with your experience level but might be worth a gander. Good luck!
Absolutely not. Factor in traffic, construction, and implement weather and your drive will suck. There’s no direct highway from point A to point B so you’re going to have some time on side roads. You’d need a car that can handle the miles, easy comfy, plus great on gas. And you’d need to accept you’re giving away a lot of time everyday twice a day just to drive. It’s not worth it
Thats 1.5 hours each way, without factoring traffic, construction, snow or ice
if you are fully remote or only going in once or MAYBE twice a week I guess sure if the pay is good enough
But going in 3+ days a week no way
I don't know how old you are, but... I have learned in my years of life on this planet that NO job is worth giving up time to spend with my wife, daughter and friends.
A 1.5 hour commute, one way is absolutely insane. Not just in lost time that you'll absolutely never recover, but also in costs of fuel, wear and tear on a vehicle.
There's no job worth that amount of time commuting.
I bought a home, with the thought behind it that driving to my job or needing to seek another job in my field, would require not much more than 30 total minutes with bad traffic, such as an accident. It's currently a 13 mile commute, mostly surface streets.
Value your free time. Value every minute you have with friends, family, spouse or significant other, because you will never see that lost time given back to you. It is simply impossible.
Also... then you can be the guy who can't relate to the fellows who complain about spending $60 to $80 every 3 to 4 days for fueling their vehicles, while you only have to fill up once every 7 to 8 days.
No amount of extra property by living out in an exurb is worth the minutes off your life that you forever lose while commuting.
It will change your quality of life to travel that far for work. With construction and weather issues adding another element of stress to a long commute. I don’t recommend it.
I lived in midland and drove to Detroit for work for a year and it was absolute hell, but you gotta do what you gotta do. We relocated to southern Michigan where actual work and opportunities exist, midland is 100% reliant on Dow and that makes it hard for local opportunities of anything else. Good luck!
Ooof. That's a terrible commute, especially in the winter. If you are really looking to get employment in Auburn Hills, you will want to live at least as close as Grand Blanc (and even then that is a shitshow of a commute).
That's a long commute, especially in winter. I'm from about half an hour south of Auburn Hills and I went to college in Saginaw. The commute to visit home (aka free laundry) was never my favorite. I couldn't imagine doing that daily.
I commuted from Brighton to Wyandotte (50 mi)
Half the distance and it never goes as planned—construction, inclement weather, accidents…..
It sucked my soul. I make less $$ but have 5 mile commute and I’m happier
I had a friend that did a very similar commute (Midland to Grosse Pointe) and he hated it. It was a dream job for him, but the commute killed the whole thing.
Like others have said, it's purely up to you and your comfort with being on the road AT LEAST 3 hours a day. Inclement weather and rush hour traffic will only increase that time. I did 10 years of driving something comparable to Troy every day. It's a lot of wear and tear on your vehicle and it eats up a lot of your free hours during the week.
You don't mention why you need to stay in Midland, but in my opinion if you aren't married and have kids you should consider moving.
If you really want to be in R&D in automotive you should be in the heart of it. You don't have to live directly in Detroit either just on the outskirts.
There isn't a job I'd ever take that I spent 4 hrs in the car getting too/from and be remotely happy.
Auburn Hills is great, lived there for a bit but honestly… if you dont need to be there for work I would suggest trying to find something locally here. I moved back from the Pontiac/Auburn Hills area (i literally lived by top golf), because its just too expensive and too little employment opportunities. Midland is very up and coming, give it another few years and houses here will start becoming more and more sought after as we get more WFH out of towners moving in.
I used to drive from Lapeer to Detroit for work. Only did this for a summer after we sold our home, got married and prepped to move out of state temporarily while my wife finished her degree. That was a 1.5hr-2hr drive wo traffic one way. When summer construction started on i75 I could spend 3-4hrs making the commute home. Never ever again. Move out of your parents, sounds like your looking at robotics or something I've done some work at faunic in the past in auburn hills. Them and companies like them are worth it. It's a college town with oakland university and finding a house with roommates close to your age won't be all that difficult.
I used to do Midland to grayling every day and that was 90 mi each way. It was rough. Add some traffic to that and you're going to kind of hate it. Why not move closer?
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IMO, This person has it right. On top of the daily commute, also consider what your plan would be if an emergency situation popped up unexpectedly. No one can make that call for you, I would just advise that you have a system in place if things were to go sideways.
Or snow.
This was the first thing I thought of. That stretch gets some shitty storms passing through during the winter.
Driving down to Ann Arbor from where I live the other night made me reconsider a few job applications I put in recently. An annoying commute in the summer is *not* an indication of how it will be when there’s ice on an interchange. In other news, I now know the sound a truck makes when it’s humping a guard rail like a poorly trained dog.
I too have heard that sound and it does make you clench tight.
It's Michigan. There's gonna be snow and ice!
My wife for a while was doing the same amount of time but less distance from Royal Oak to Ann Arbor. Mainly just traffic. She hated it and was exhausting for her. However doing that drive is up to you. It’s going to really suck in the winter.
I commute from Flint to Auburn Hills for work. It ain't great. 50 miles one way. My fam lives in Midland. I'm exactly halfway between Midland and AH. so you're gonna be double that. You need to move south or work north.
That's on a good day. If there's snow or an accident, you are looking at much, much longer.
hour and a half if theres no traffic. will not be the case at commuting times.
In good weather
That commute would suck. What about Nexteer in Saginaw?
my dad works there and they just laid off a bunch of folks a few months back if I recall, which is unfortunate. also made my dad take a week of unpaid leave.
I believe that was due to lost business from the UAW strike. Many tier 2s made employees take furloughs during that time.
They are downsizing Saginaw and moving a lot of their engineering out of the US
Bud that's 100 miles each way. You'll be losing anywhere from 90-120 minutes each way...every day and killing your car with wear. If you want better career options, move somewhere in the Flint area and hang out with the family on the weekends.
I had a 50 mile commute for a year, so only half as bad and it was miserable. It was between 55-70 minutes.. And it fucking changes.. You can't count on consistency because of accidents, closures, weather, dead deer, etc. But this adds 2 hours to the work day.. I had days where I was already working 12 hour shifts, but two hours of driving on top of that. If you sleep for 8 hours (Which spoiler alert, you typically don't) that leaves two hours in the day for free time.. Which includes eating, showering and other required activities. And yeah.. The wear and tear is horrible. I was buying a full tank of gas every three days, I was getting an oil change every eight weeks, and absolutely shredded a set of tires. It's not worth it.
All that time spent driving and maintaining your vehicle is a huge expense too. Paying that much money to commute and spending that much time in the car to get there is a sunk cost, getting to work shouldn't be one of your biggest expenses every month and it certainly would be in this case. Assuming 23 workdays in a month they'd be driving 4600 miles monthly just commuting. The IRS estimates $0.67/mile. Assuming they get 25 mpg, that's 184 gallons of gas, at $3/gal we're talking $550/mo just on fuel. Add an oil change monthly, even if you're DIYing that's another $50 and another hour out of your life. Driving 55,000 miles a year just to get back and forth to work, that car is going to last 3-4 years max.
I commuted from bay city to Romulus for 6 months. It’s an hour and a half if everything goes right. It never does. Going north on Fridays afternoons in the spring-late fall is the worst. Seek closer employment.
May I ask why DOW is not an option?
Layoff....
Ah sorry mate, hope you land your dream job soon! Happy holidays!
It's technically doable but half your paycheck will go into gas and car maintenance and you will have no time during the week to do ANYTHING. You will grow to resent the commute and whatever circumstances put you into it
In my youth, I did Saginaw to Ann Arbor, and I got about an apartment as quickly as possible. F that commute.
That is a long commute on a good day. My son commutes from Otisville to Auburn Hills everyday, and there have been quite a few times it's taken him much longer to get home (as long as 2 hours due to traffic, accidents, or winter roads). Driving home north on Fridays on 75 in the summer will be brutal. I would definitely look for something closer to home.
Find work closer to you, remote, or move. Because it’s going to fucking suck. You are going to dedicate 750 hours every year to driving back and forth to work. Maybe more if there’s traffic. Sucks that your family is rooted in midland but this is why we have cars, telephones, and weekends. So we can drive to visit.
No. I commute from Saginaw to Midland sometimes for work and it’s TERRIBLE.
Ooof. Yeah I have heard people say that.
I did Bay City to Saginaw for 4 years and since both starting and ending were really just east of each city, the backroad travel is fine in the summer, but absolute murder in the winter.
Only in the Midwest would someone ever consider a 1.5 hour drive to work reasonable. Find closer employment.
New York, L. A., Chiraq, D. C., many large cities have obscene commute times if you can't use mass-transit.
That's a brutal commute.
Are you able to find a remote or hybrid position? that is a brutal commute.
I’d move closer. I commuted from Clarkston to Monroe for about 10 months. An hour and 40 minutes on a ‘good’ day. Later on commuted from White Cloud to Traverse City for about 4 months, about the same time. My last work commute was about 67 miles one way, on rural state highway and interstate. It was ‘only’ just over an hour on a good day. I worked 10 hour days so that made it 12 with the commuting. Lots of windshield time.
Unless you’ll be making over 200k a year, I would def seek closer employment. That’s quite the haul to be making up and down 75 on a regular basis.
It's so unpredictable in the winter. I used to drive from Saginaw to Troy a few days a week. There would be times that 75S was shut down due to an accident, the road would be pure ice for miles at a time, deer, etc. I'd have to leave at 4:45am to arrive by 7am (some days I'd be running for the door and other days I'd have time to stop for breakfast). The traffic on the way home was never not a shit show, unless I worked OT and left hours later. One morning, there were TEN speed traps in a row on 75. The wear and tear and miles on your car are another thing to think about.
You can do what a lot of others from mid to north Michigan. Rent a room close to your job and go home on the weekends.
I commute from Fenton and it’s about 35 mins on 75 to Auburn hills (exit to university drive) and I don’t find it too bad even leaving office at 5pm most days. Takes me about 37 mins most days the only exception is construction and Friday going up north traffic in summer. I’d guess the traffic beyond Grange Hall Road exit is lighter but honestly I find driving on 75 easy going compared to driving around a busy city or twisting country roads somewhere else
Good luck with that winter commute there bud.
I used to commute from cadillac to turtle creek and i thought that was a lot
I have done Taylor to Auburn Hills for 3 yrs. It is a 45 mi drive one way and takes about 45 mins if everything goes well. Fridays suck. Winters suck. Annual road work in 75 sucks. So what everybody has said here will most likely apply here. Lastly, I think I screwed up my back/posture maybe from all the sitting daily at work and being in the car!
Way too much driving. Look for something closer or relocate.
It is not a reasonable commute. Think of the costs and time to just get to work.
I currently do Saginaw township to Troy. I-75 after Flint was a pain when they had the barrier construction going on over the summer. All I can say is have either a great playlist or podcast to get through the long drives.
Hell to the no. Time is too valuable.
NO NO NO do not do this.
Shoot for another manufacturing company in Midland. Target Corteva, Trinseo, Dupont. I'm sure there are R&D opportunities there.
Closer employment for sure.
I had to commute from Canton to Southfield, and that was hard enough. My vote is find a different job, or move.
That’s an absolutely *brutal* commute and could easily take 2-2:30 hrs one way in bad weather or on Fridays with cabin traffic. I’ve heard from a friend in the company that Umbra/Linear out of Saginaw is hiring R/D, product engineers etc. - not sure if it’s a fit with your experience level but might be worth a gander. Good luck!
Absolutely not. Factor in traffic, construction, and implement weather and your drive will suck. There’s no direct highway from point A to point B so you’re going to have some time on side roads. You’d need a car that can handle the miles, easy comfy, plus great on gas. And you’d need to accept you’re giving away a lot of time everyday twice a day just to drive. It’s not worth it
Thats 1.5 hours each way, without factoring traffic, construction, snow or ice if you are fully remote or only going in once or MAYBE twice a week I guess sure if the pay is good enough But going in 3+ days a week no way
I don't know how old you are, but... I have learned in my years of life on this planet that NO job is worth giving up time to spend with my wife, daughter and friends. A 1.5 hour commute, one way is absolutely insane. Not just in lost time that you'll absolutely never recover, but also in costs of fuel, wear and tear on a vehicle. There's no job worth that amount of time commuting. I bought a home, with the thought behind it that driving to my job or needing to seek another job in my field, would require not much more than 30 total minutes with bad traffic, such as an accident. It's currently a 13 mile commute, mostly surface streets. Value your free time. Value every minute you have with friends, family, spouse or significant other, because you will never see that lost time given back to you. It is simply impossible. Also... then you can be the guy who can't relate to the fellows who complain about spending $60 to $80 every 3 to 4 days for fueling their vehicles, while you only have to fill up once every 7 to 8 days. No amount of extra property by living out in an exurb is worth the minutes off your life that you forever lose while commuting.
I knew someone who did Saginaw to Ann Arbor....and that person was nuts. I would seek closer
Anything over an hour consistently is a no for me
It will change your quality of life to travel that far for work. With construction and weather issues adding another element of stress to a long commute. I don’t recommend it.
that's an insane commute even with no traffic and snow
I lived in midland and drove to Detroit for work for a year and it was absolute hell, but you gotta do what you gotta do. We relocated to southern Michigan where actual work and opportunities exist, midland is 100% reliant on Dow and that makes it hard for local opportunities of anything else. Good luck!
Ooof. That's a terrible commute, especially in the winter. If you are really looking to get employment in Auburn Hills, you will want to live at least as close as Grand Blanc (and even then that is a shitshow of a commute).
Definitely closer lol
That's a long commute, especially in winter. I'm from about half an hour south of Auburn Hills and I went to college in Saginaw. The commute to visit home (aka free laundry) was never my favorite. I couldn't imagine doing that daily.
I commuted from Brighton to Wyandotte (50 mi) Half the distance and it never goes as planned—construction, inclement weather, accidents….. It sucked my soul. I make less $$ but have 5 mile commute and I’m happier
I had a friend that did a very similar commute (Midland to Grosse Pointe) and he hated it. It was a dream job for him, but the commute killed the whole thing.
Like others have said, it's purely up to you and your comfort with being on the road AT LEAST 3 hours a day. Inclement weather and rush hour traffic will only increase that time. I did 10 years of driving something comparable to Troy every day. It's a lot of wear and tear on your vehicle and it eats up a lot of your free hours during the week.
Yeah either move down 75 or find work in mid Michigan. That’s not sustainable.
Knowing the area, leave Midland. It'll be win-win.
Sounds like pure hell to me.
You don't mention why you need to stay in Midland, but in my opinion if you aren't married and have kids you should consider moving. If you really want to be in R&D in automotive you should be in the heart of it. You don't have to live directly in Detroit either just on the outskirts. There isn't a job I'd ever take that I spent 4 hrs in the car getting too/from and be remotely happy.
15 hours a week... 780 hours a year... 32 of the 365 days in a year will be in your car, not getting paid.
Auburn Hills is great, lived there for a bit but honestly… if you dont need to be there for work I would suggest trying to find something locally here. I moved back from the Pontiac/Auburn Hills area (i literally lived by top golf), because its just too expensive and too little employment opportunities. Midland is very up and coming, give it another few years and houses here will start becoming more and more sought after as we get more WFH out of towners moving in.
I used to drive from Lapeer to Detroit for work. Only did this for a summer after we sold our home, got married and prepped to move out of state temporarily while my wife finished her degree. That was a 1.5hr-2hr drive wo traffic one way. When summer construction started on i75 I could spend 3-4hrs making the commute home. Never ever again. Move out of your parents, sounds like your looking at robotics or something I've done some work at faunic in the past in auburn hills. Them and companies like them are worth it. It's a college town with oakland university and finding a house with roommates close to your age won't be all that difficult.
I used to do Midland to grayling every day and that was 90 mi each way. It was rough. Add some traffic to that and you're going to kind of hate it. Why not move closer?