Looking for employment from an out-of-town location presents an extra hurdle to a job searcher, and one that is not easily overcome. It is a challenge especially on my mind at the moment, as I am presently located in South Korea, and will relocate to Toronto, Ontario at the end of this month. Finding an apartment was fairly straightforward. Finding employment to pay for the apartment is now the top priority.
Let's look at some of the key challenges associated with job searching in a different city.
ADDRESS
Believe it or not, it may be to your advantage to have a local address on your resume and cover letter, even if you don't currently live in the city to which you are relocating. There are HR departments and hiring managers who will pass over applicants whose addresses are not local, simply due to the trouble of arranging interviews and not wanting to be asked to help with the cost of relocation.
If you have a good friend or family member whose address you can use, ask them if you may use it before putting it on your documents. Then at least you won't be screened out immediately. No doubt the employer will notice that your current employment is in a different city, but if you have written a solid resume, they should be interested enough in you to consider you as a candidate anyway.
DISTANCE
If you are not too far away, you can keep your real address, and you can offer at the end of your cover letter to come for an interview. I have been offering to do a tele-conference via internet at the employer's convenience. I've had a few bites, and a few "please be in touch when you're back in the country" requests. I'll follow those up as soon as I'm back on Canadian soil.
NETWORK
Or should I say, lack of network, is a very significant problem when you are relocating to a new city. This might be the biggest challenge of relocating. If you don't have any connections in your field in your new city, you have nobody to help you understand the proverbial "lay of the land," and assess what kinds of employers are present and feed you potential job openings from the hidden job market. You should make sure that friends and family are keeping their eyes and ears open for you, and if it is appropriate to let colleagues in your current location know about your job search in a new city, it may be to your advantage to let them know about your search. They may hear of opportunities and can pass them on.
So if you're having difficulty getting job interviews from an out-of-town location, don't despair. Do what you can to improve your chances, and if you haven't secured anything by the time you move, put your all into the job hunt immediately after the move. Finding a job is a full-time job, so get up early and work on it intensely.
Take a look at my previous articles:
When the job search is going nowhere
Writing effective applications
