Quintessential Careers:
Long-Distance Job Search Do's and Don'ts
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
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Here are the keys to a smooth long-distance job search. Follow these simple rules and you should avoid many of the stresses of job-hunting from a distance.
- Do research your new city to make sure it suits you. See our
expanded
relocation resources, especially the sites that rate various cities.
- Do read our article,
New City,
New Job: How to Conduct a Long-Distance Job Search.
- Do devise an overall strategy for relocating, including timing,
a relocation budget, and planning for any scouting trips in advance
of your move.
- Do determine your job opportunities in your new location. Check
out geographic-specific
job sites. For books that
tell about job opportunities in various cities, see the Adams JobBank
book series in our
Quintessential
Careers bookstore or in your library.
- Do look at the career-planning Web sites of colleges in the area
you plan to locate to.
- Do explore the possibility of reciprocity agreements between
college career centers if you're a new graduate. Your own college
likely has a reciprocal agreement with colleges in your new locale
that will allow you to use the resources of those colleges' career
centers.
- Do make a list of employers to target in your new city and
identify key people to contact. A list of about 20 employers is a
good goal to shoot for, and you should conduct additional research
into these target companies using our
guidelines to researching
companies.
- Don't forget about using our
Quintessential
Careers Directory of Company Career Centers to
help you research and contact major targeted companies.
- Do plan to "cold call" any employers at which you don't have a
potential contact. Cold-calling consists of writing (and then
calling) hiring managers at these organizations and ask about job
openings and possibilities. You may want to read
Cold Calling: A
Time-Tested Method of Job-Hunting.
- Do make sure your cover letter is in good shape and briefly
explains your relocation to employers. For help with cover letters,
visit Quintessential
Careers: Cover Letter Resources, which includes a link to our
Cover Letter Tutorial.
- Do include headhunters/recruiters/executive-search firms among
those organizations you contact in your new city. You can search for
these professionals by location using
Oya's Recruiter Directory.
- Do consult newspaper employment ads online, which can be
accessed through Quintessential Careers:
Classified Job Listings Sites.
- Do read the non-classified portion of your new city's newspaper,
particularly the business section, to learn about employment trends
and especially new businesses opening in or relocating to the city.
Most newspapers can be perused online.
- Don't forget that networking is the best way to get a job, so
brainstorm ways you might be able to network in your new city using
professional associations, friends, colleagues, and alumni
associations, not only of your college but your sorority/fraternity
or other college clubs.
- Do tap into your significant other's network if you're
relocating to be with a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, or fiance/e;.
If you're moving because a spouse or fiance/e has been transferred,
check into whether your significant other's company offers any
consulting or monetary resources for your job search.
- Do plan at least one trip to the new city before your actual
relocation, including a preliminary exploratory trip in which you can
conduct informational interviews to expand your network in the new
city. Find out more about how to set up and conduct
informational
interviews.
- Do offer the employers the possibility of conducting a phone
interview with you in advance of an in-person meeting. You may want
to read our article,
Phone Interview Etiquette Can Propel You to the
Next Step in the Hiring Process.
- Don't be afraid to ask if the employer plans to play your travel
expenses for coming to an interview. It's better to know beforehand;
employers shouldn't be offended by the question.
- Don't state in your cover letter that you will relocate at your
own expense. Moving expenses don't enter the picture until a job
offer is in the making.
- Do make the most of your second -- or perhaps only -- trip to
your new city, by having as many interviews lined up as possible.
- Do investigate the possibility of any career fairs, relevant
professional conferences, or trade shows planned for your new area
and perhaps plan your trip based on the date of the scheduled
event(s).
- Don't scrap a trip to your new city if you are not successful in
lining up job interviews before your trip there; instead line up some
informational interviews.
- Do ask for relocation help as part of the negotiation of your
compensation package, but don't count on getting your relocation
expenses paid. do remember, however, that relocation expenses for
work are tax deductible. See our
Salary Negotiation Tools for more
assistance.
- If the planned date for your move is looming and you still don't
have a job lined up, do consider temping in your new city. It's a
great way to get your foot in the door in a new locale. See our
article
Temping
Offers a Way to Build Your Resume -- and Much More and our
Temping Resources.
- Don't, however, accept a lower-level position in your new locale
just to have a job. You probably won't be happy, and you may be
digging your career's grave.
- do see our expanded
relocation resources for assistance with the actual move. You may also want to check out one of the
relocation books in our relocation books
section of the Quintessential Careers Bookstore.
- If, after researching your new city or after an unproductive job hunt there, you should decide you want to stay put, be sure you don't burn any bridges in your current city or place of employment! An amicable break also will serve you well if you ever want to return to your former city and employer.
Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.
Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate
publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author,
and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers,
edits QuintZine,
an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling
in the job search at A Storied
Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior
from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic
Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking
Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press),
as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with
Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your
Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her
personal Website
or reach her by e-mail at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com.
Read all our job-hunting do's and don'ts.
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