Thursday, January 31, 2008

Long Distance Job Hunting: Not For the Faint of Heart

More people are looking for jobs away from their home territories in order to defeat regional issues that make it difficult to find work near home. They hope that their next employer will provide benefits that make it easy to move (some do; many don't), but forget that long distance job hunting is extremely difficult.

Here's why.

1. You are at a major competitive disadvantage with local talent. Local job hunters can come to interviews tomorrow or the next day. You may have to take a day off from work, drive 250 miles for the meeting, stay overnight, interview and return home. You may have to book a flight (at their expense, you are costing them money; at your expense, to get cheaper rates, you may need a few days to get a reasonably priced air fare).

2. Firms worry about you adjusting after the move. Even if you are 22 and living with a roommate, employers wonder about how you're going to find an apartment or new home, move your things and be able to perform given the stress of the move.

3. You cost an employer more. Look at these costs--flights, meals, hotels, a car to take you o their offices and to and from the airport, relocation, temporary living, travel to a second and perhaps third interview. Some firms don't want to bother, especially during slow economic times.

Ideally you don't want to be planning a move "under the gun" of needing a job. Hopefully, a move is a planned event in your life.

To help defray some of the costs and make more opportunities available to you with firms that do not pay interview and relocation expenses consider these alternatives:

a. Accumulate frequent flyer points and use them for interviews.

b. Group your interviews so that you can do several on your trip

c. Find a friend or family member with whom you can stay when interviewing

d. Make sure your wife, husband, partner and kids are OK with moving BEFORE you begin interviewing

If you are out of work, or if you making an interview trip as part of a job search, the more you can do while on a trip, the better (for you),

If firms in your new market don't usually pay interview or relocation expenses, the more you can do to erase their apprehension of hiring someone who is not local to them, the better off you will be,

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
 Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

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