This convo really hits home for me, but I have about 10 years of experience as a designer and design manager. I gotta say, go with Option 1, hands down, and “pay your dues”. Living in NYC while doing this will outweigh living in the sticks any day and compensate, for a time, the fact that you’ll be a “drone”. The networking opportunities in NYC alone will probably make the effort worth it. The key is to not treat the position as a rite of passage or take on the attitude that you’re just a drone, news flash, most design grads will have to go right into a position like this, humble yourself, learn, don’t be a dick, and in turn you may realize that it is an opportunity to lead by example.
Lots of fresh design grads come out thinking they can tackle anything and lead the way, don’t succumb to this false pride unless you really are a bad-ass designer and a natural leader. Option 2 isn’t just about being a great designer, it’s about being a design leader, and you probably don’t have the chops, with my experience I feel that I would barely have the chops, so don’t fool yourself.
If anything else, listen to Yo:
This all hits home for me because I am looking the possibility of an amazing position which would be very satisfying in a dead location vs. staying in a dead position in a very satisfying location…