Author Topic: Looking for work in another state? Have you done it? Have you hired some-one?  (Read 6524 times)

Melody

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I am looking to relocate to another state, 3 hrs flight away. So far I am not having much luck.
Just wondering if any readers have personal experiences in this area? If so, did you use a friend's address in a new city? What were your experiences?

Some background about me: I live in Perth (Australia) and am trying to move to Melbourne (Australia).  I am a recently qualified CPA, with 3 yrs of experience in Tax and 3 years as a management accountant, looking for management accountant roles. My understanding (from reading salary surveys) of the Melbourne job market it that it's generally weak (unemployment is 6.2%, but this number hides a lot of white collar underemployment) but improving and the easiest area to get employment in is the recently qualified space, due to many prior years of off shoring entry level roles and low graduate intakes due to a cautious economy leading to less recently qualified accountants. I have read the salary surveys and adjusted my expectations accordingly...

However I am getting very few leads. I have been using my local address on my CV, however when I have had a lead have been stressing that I am more than happy to pay for my own interview flights and relocation and that I am ready to hit the ground running with 4 weeks notice (standard notice period in white collar work in Australia applicable if the company is to hire anyone currently employed).  I really thought I would get more leads, I think I have a strong CV (started in Big 4 firm before moving to an well respected publicly listed company), feedback from the recruiters who have bothered to get in touch has been good. Is the address getting me screened out?

I have a flight booked for next week to get in the face of a few recruiters hoping that will speed to process up, and am reaching out to a contact on linked in who is from Melbourne originally and was very senior in an influential business there before I worked for him in Perth.

So, MMM'ers - what did you do to make your cross country job hunt work? Or if you are a manage who has hired an interstate candidate, what did they do?

Thanking you in advance.


JLee

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I moved ~2600 miles and found a job after I committed to moving. A bit riskier than you might want to do, though. :P

Melody

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After expenses I am currently saving approx 60% of my income... going to a negative savings rate freaks me out, and I am worried that it also lowers my salary negotiating position. How long did it take you after you moved? And did you try to find work remotely first, find out it wasn't happening for you and move any way? (something I am considering after my employee share scheme vests in October).

ShaneD

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Do you know anyone in Melbourne whose address you can use, Melody? My experience as someone on the hiring side is, unfortunately, that employers will only consider someone not local if they're desperate. There's too much risk that said potential employee's move won't come to fruition, and there's too much (perceived) headache for dealing with the logistics/circumstances.

If your market is anything like ours in the U.S., remember: hiring people are looking for any excuse to cut you from the running and reduce their workload. It's incredibly frustrating when you're looking for work, but unfortunately many employers are bombarded with too many resumes rather than too few, so any way to make the candidate pool smaller and more manageable for them will be jumped on.

Good luck. I hope things work out quickly for you.

pbkmaine

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Tell them you have family or a significant other in Melbourne. That will show that you have a tie to the area.

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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I found a job with a national company in Texas, where I was, and asked to transfer to Pennsylvania after proving myself to them. I paid for the move, of course.

alsoknownasDean

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Would you be open to doing temp/contract work for a while? Might be easier to make the move and start with a temp role or two, rather than get the FT job before moving.

Should be able to find work around EOFY too.

Good luck :)

Cathy

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There is no need to include a physical address (or even a phone number) on your résumé.

Top employers don't really care where you are located. If you are the best, they want to hire you, and they will pay for relocation (which is a trivial cost for an employer in the overall scheme of things). You may want to try applying for larger, more well-known employers, rather than small local businesses that are less likely to want to relocate people.
« Last Edit: June 04, 2015, 07:19:25 PM by Cathy »

HappierAtHome

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I was on a selection panel that recommended an applicant who was living in another state (she'd found another role in the meantime, though, so I can't say I actually hired her).

At the interview she explained she was moving to Perth because her partner had to move here for work. She was a great applicant. So we figured it was no big deal that she wasn't already currently in Perth.

To me there's a big difference between "I'm moving to X, and applying for this job because I'm interested in it" and "I'm applying for this job and if I get it I'll move to X" - seems minor, but if I was on the selection panel I'd have more confidence in someone actually taking the job with the first 'framing' rather than the second. So it's worth considering how you frame your move when you describe it to recruiters.

Sibley

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I moved from California to Illinois, did my job search from CA. I was open with recruiters, companies, etc - I currently lived in CA but had decided to move to IL to be closer to my family (the generic personal reasons I thought could come across as negative).

I'm also an accountant, and was helped by the fact that what I'd been doing is kinda uncommon. So while not many accounting firms do that type of work (auditing a specific industry), the ones who do have a hard time finding new experienced staff.

I also committed to moving very quickly once I did find a job. Once I accepted the offer, I started about a month later. It made for an interesting move.

Also, I was only at that job about 6 months. Turned out to be not the best fit, and now I'm doing something different and much happier. So, find a job, any job in your field and then you can job search again later and explain the fast search as "just isn't a good culture fit for me, but it's a great company overall."

JLee

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After expenses I am currently saving approx 60% of my income... going to a negative savings rate freaks me out, and I am worried that it also lowers my salary negotiating position. How long did it take you after you moved? And did you try to find work remotely first, find out it wasn't happening for you and move any way? (something I am considering after my employee share scheme vests in October).

I took a massive pay cut - went from a position with a police department to a supervisor at a security company. I turned my first trip out into a long road trip all over the US and found a job in about a week when I was out there. I then flew back to NH, finished up at work and then drove out again with a moving truck.

I've since changed careers into IT and now I would be much more cautious with moving (as I have discovered MMM/FIRE, I don't want to risk unemployment for an extended period of time).

Melody

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Lot's of good feedback in here!
Sibley: Yes I have been saying I am ready to start in 4 weeks time, which given the four week notice period at my current employer (reasonably standard for accounting, although some companies are 2 weeks) will make for a highly interesting move.
I'll use air bnb to stay in a granny flat so I can hit the ground running. My dad is going to come over with me and choose my apartment, wait for removalists, pick up my ikea orders and get my car registration switched over etc... all the things I won't have time for as I will be needed to impress in my probation period.  Yay for early retiree parents!
I am worried about taking "a job, any job" as my understanding is recruiters put most weight on your current position and your ability to negotiate depends primarily on your current salary, but I wouldn't hesitate to move jobs if the fit wasn't good. But I haven't even managed to get to the point of being offered a poorly fitting job.
HappierAtHome: thanks for the feeback - yes, maybe I should set myself an end date for this, for both my own mental health and that way I can confidently say to a recruiters, I'm moving in "month" although I'd love to move sooner if a suitable role came up.
Cathy: Yes, I have primarily been dealing with the big end of town, but even the big end of town isn't paying relocation packages right now... while 6% might not look like a bad employment rate it's looser than it's been for many years and employers know they can find a good candidate locally. I did consider no address, but worried it could make it look like I'm currently working overseas (my company has no Melbourne office, but does have international offices) which would be even worse. But maybe it warrants further consideration.
alsoknownasDean: Temp/contract work seems to be primarily in Financial Accounting which I don't have very much experience in.  Again I'm also worried it hurts my negotiating position in regards to salary as temp roles seem to pay quite poorly. But if a longer term temp role (12months) came up with one of my target companies I'd still give it serious consideration as a way to network internaly. But so far most temp work has been Financial Accounting.
 ShoulderThingThatGoesUp - good idea, although not as easy as it sounds. Australia is small (22million people) so many companies make do with only one or two offices, and the Perth/Melbourne combination isn't as common as you might think. It also means a minimum 12 month commitment in Perth (most large companies here will only provide an internal transfer after 12 months) possibly longer if it takes a while for a good role to come up. But still it's worth investigating...

DrJD

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My wife and I discovered the trick after multiple across country moves!

Use a local address on your CV, then apply away!  Most places are willing to wait a week or so to interview you, so you buy a last minute ticket and stroll in there for the interview.  Went from zero interviews, to many just with this change on her CV.  People don't want to deal with hiring from far away!

Melody

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Hi DrJD, thanks for the response. Did you own up to not being local or just say you weren't available until say Friday if they called you on Monday?
The other issue I am facing is that my industry has a limited number of "large" employers, perhaps 15 or so in total across the country and everyone in the industry knows where each of the 15 large employers are based. Even within related industries it's such a big name company that is well known for being in Perth. So just by stating I currently work for employer "X" it's clear to a lot of people I do not live in Melbourne.

lemonlime

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Moved from NY to CA. I was actually already planning the move, it was a definite thing - moving in with my boyfriend (now husband). In my cover letter I explained the date by which I would be in residence, and I gave my boyfriend's address on my resume. I was just going for one job (niche field) and I got it, with the help of an excellent reference from my boss of my job in NY that I was leaving.

deborah

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I'd take the four weeks thing out of your CV. If they are interested they will generally ask at interview.

Melody

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Update: I flew over for a meeting recruiters trip. Since then I have had some leads but no interview/job, though the issue is more about not having had quite the right experience for the role, than the tyranny of distance. Having met the recruiters seems to have given me sufficient credibility in the eyes of the companies that the distance is no longer seen as an issue.
Hopefully good things start happening soon.

HappierAtHome

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Update: I flew over for a meeting recruiters trip. Since then I have had some leads but no interview/job, though the issue is more about not having had quite the right experience for the role, than the tyranny of distance. Having met the recruiters seems to have given me sufficient credibility in the eyes of the companies that the distance is no longer seen as an issue.
Hopefully good things start happening soon.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

Melody

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Thanks :-)