How to Ask About Remote Work Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm staying anonymous because my username is my name but I'm probably going to out myself here anyways since this is pretty specific info, but I'm going to risk it for the biscuit. Please don't quote so I can delete later just in case.

I did my 2L summer at an F100 company. The gig was supposed to be in NY, but the program went virtual with COVID. I think I did pretty well in a virtual setting, and my end-of-summer review reflected that. My supervisors specifically said that my personality came out much more-so than my colleagues over remote work, and were generally super positive about my work product.

I received an offer to return and I'm almost 100% going to accept it. It's great money for in-house, especially for someone with no firm experience ($115k base, $10k signing, $8200 performance, top-of-the-line benefits). The company does a lot of interesting work in various fields and I'd get to jump around a little bit until I find something I want to stick with. Also everyone I worked with was awesome. I could definitely see myself sticking it out there for the long-haul, with maybe, at most, a brief stint at a firm just to have it on the resume. I'm graduating with $0 debt so while firm $$$$ would be nice, it's not something I absolutely need.

The problem is, my partner is likely heading off to grad school in the Fall. We don't know where yet as she's still filling out applications, but anywhere she goes won't be close enough to my job that we'll be able to live together anymore. We're not married or even engaged yet but we will be sooner rather than later. We talk about it all the time and the only thing that's kept us from doing so is the fact that we don't know what our living situation will be for the next two years (also we don't want my salary and other assets messing with whatever financial aid she would get).

I want to ask my job if they'd let me go remote, at least part-time, post-COVID. When I was there for the summer, they were talking about the future of the company involving a significantly more flexible work schedule. I'm talking regular remote work, 4-day work weeks, etc. So obviously as an organization they're open to it, at least somewhat, but I don't know how they'd feel about it for a fresh graduate.

I'm worried that they'll think I want to bounce for something that's in-person closer to wherever my partner will be in grad school. Which is somewhat true, but her most likely destination is in a secondary market with limited legal opportunities in the corporate/transactional space, so most of the jobs available there wouldn't be worth leaving a big NY-based company for. I'm also from NY originally so it's not like I don't have ties wanting to keep me there. I'm currently applying to things in the markets where she's applying, but I would only take something that's as good or a better job than what I have lined up. So it'd have to be something like a mid-large firm paying ~COL-adjusted market, a similar in-house role, or maybe even a fed gov field office.

What do you people think is the best way to approach this? Should I ask the Early Careers point person about it? Should I ask my supervisors? My mentor? I'm thinking my best approach would be to start in-person, work for a couple of months, and then ask. If my partner and I end up having to live apart, I think my easiest path would be to just live with my parents for a while, so I could easily go back and forth to wherever she would be without wasting money on a place I'd be leaving as often as I could.