>I'm assuming you have done the whole draw a circle around where you live that represents your maximum willingness to commute and then apply for jobs in that circle thing? It was very popular in silicon valley during the dot com boom. When the commute circle comes up empty though, what do you do?

Well, no. There isn't many companies that need SE around me, let alone companies that pay well or do interesting stuff.

Before WFH I've worked for a few years at one company and then WFH arrived and I've started applying for interesting offers.