And here we see nerfhammer@ point being made. Your question is good. And that shows that the laws discourage people from seeking work far from where they currently live.

I'm relatively fresh out of school (just over a year full-time at my current job) so I don't know that it'd be as easy to just switch now without looking like I hop job to job.

Moving jobs after a year is very common in tech. If you have any co-workers who left, asking them for referral (if they like the new gig) is a great way to go about it. Lots of companies pay referral bonuses so your old co-worker will be happy about it too. I'm on my third job after graduating and have more than doubled my income in 3.5 years.

A year in is a perfect time to hop IMHO.

maybe you could swing 3 remote days a week at some point?

Possibly; my manager basically already does that, but then he's a manager so he has the rank to do it.

You should use the long commute as leverage, i.e. you need to either work one more day a week from home or start looking for something closer to SJ. You won't come off as looking disloyal to the company because everyone understands how brutal that commute is.

You're asking: what's the advantage of being willing to look farther afield to find your perfect job? That's what people in this thread are talking about when they say "labor mobility".

In case you want me to answer, there are myriad advantages: the chance to work with your most preferred tools, on a product that's more interesting you, with maximally compatible coworkers, etc. All the normal reasons people go somewhere besides where they were born for a job.