Get a Job in a New City
“After many years of being in the work world (I’m 39), I decided to make a career change a few years ago and go back to school, full time, for a year. I’m single (no hubby, no kids), so it was no problem for me to move literally across the country to a much smaller city to attend university. I moved from Toronto, the largest city in Canada, to Victoria, BC, a city on Vancouver Island (approximately 90 nautical minutes northwest of Seattle).
“I loved island life so much I ended up staying in Victoria for almost two years. I only moved back to Toronto because the job market in Victoria is small – and is even smaller during a recession. I’ve been back in Toronto for about 9 months and found my current job only 2 months after arriving, but I, surprisingly, miss Victoria and would love to move back. The only deal-breaker is I will never move there without having a job first, my finances won’t let me do that again.
“Are companies now willing to use Skype, MSN Messenger, etc. to interview people who aren’t local?”
Companies do hire long-distance. They almost always pay for the candidate to fly in for an interview. But this is for the rare candidate—the type of person who would be nearly impossible to hire locally. It’s about how in-demand you are, how specialized(LH to why to specialize) you’ve made yourself.
Most people who want to relocate are like you. They try a big city, and then eventually they want to go back to where their roots are, or where they feel more comfortable.
Here’s what people typically do. They tell the hiring manager they will be in the small city on x date, and could they stop in. If the hiring manager says yes, then go there. The idea is to make the person think you’re in town for something else so they don’t think they are flying you in for an interview.
Companies don’t want to bother with video interviews, and they don’t want to go through the trouble and expense of flying someone in for an interview if there are good local candidates available. You’ve got to make yourself virtually local from the hiring manager’s perspective.
-Penelope