Before going somewhere to live it helps to visit first. That advice goes well for careers too, take a tour, do some interviews, visit before committing. I live

Before going somewhere to live it helps to visit first. That advice goes well for careers too, take a tour, do some interviews, visit before committing. I live in the USA, it's a place of wealth and a place of poverty(Ex. homeless camps in San Fransico), two different worlds within a block of each other in the same city. So one who isn't from here or even one who is but lives pretty one sidedly from one side of those two worlds may not see it clearly. I've not even touched on how different it is from state to state, living in Kansas is vastly different from New York. Most of my friends who have moved here or were thinking of moving here have found out that it wasn't as good as they thought, meanwhile a lot of my friends that have grown up here are looking to immigrate to europe, the pay is less (sometimes as low as half) but the life is better is the short answer. But in many ways if you want to make a dent in the universe or make a lot of money, the US is still the place to be. So just to reemphasize the first point, before commiting; do research, ask questions, take a trip to visit. As for career vs family, is anyone happy with choosing career first? That would depend on the quality of the family vs the quailty of the career. Like that quote from "stranger than fiction" I'm paraphrasing but "between choosing life and pancakes, it depends on the type of life and the quality of the pancakes". One needs money to live, but how do they live once they have money, why did they want money in the first place? As for pressure, I have no idea, but I do know that if it has caused you burnout, then one should ease up from then on.