Long-distance job hunting sucks.
 

Planning to move to Wisconsin later in the year, so I'm starting to snoop and see what might be available job-wise.

What I'm discovering is that being 2000 miles away kind of hampers the search.

What part of WI are you looking for a job?

Yeah, I remember that experience. Not fun times.

Want to do a state exchange? :D

Warhammer - probably in the Appleton area.

Izulde - you're more than welcome to move to California, I ain't stoppin' you. :D

!!!


Job changes can be good...the wife got an offer today for a job she interviewed for earlier in the week. I'm very excited...not only does she get out of a job that she hates, but she'll be making an extra 10k a year. Woot!

It's not a change of jobs that sucks, it's trying to find one from 2,000 miles away. I'll be out there in April and plan to pound the pavement then as well, but I'm trying to narrow down my general options at the moment.

Affiliation with Lawrence University at all? I know it's supposed to be one of the top schools in the state, but it was an extremely depressing and overrated school when I checked it out, at least as far as my major went.

No affiliation with Lawrence.

Once I'm back in school, it will probably be UW, as I can't afford $23k/year on my own, and my grades in the last 5 or 6 years haven't really been scholarship-worthy. :)

Besides, thought process goes "Lawrence, Lawrence...Lawrence is in Kansas, and home to the damned dirty Jayhawks. If I go to Lawrence, it would be like going to Kansas.

Ohgodnosomebodyholdmeplease."

:D

The first question is, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO MOVE FROM CA TO WI?!?!? WTF?! :D

I'm in pretty much the same spot. We've got a goal of getting back to North Carolina by next Thanksgiving, but trying to figure out how to pull it all off without inducing chaos is tricky. If it weren't for the fact that the housing market up here continues to go down in flames (hey, look, another set of layoffs...), I'd be more confident about selling and moving. My father-in-law has offered up his old house (he's got a second house he can move to) to us to live in and my wife's eager to go there, but we're not in a position where we can handle two payments at once. I'd love to move back ASAP, but it's going to be a tough thing to do.

It builds character?

Well what helps me is I don't have a real estate investment here holding me back. If I find what I'm looking for, I can pick up and go.

What type of job are you after?

Something full-time that won't result in body parts getting mangled, really.

Ideally I'd be able to use my writing ability, but it's not the end of the world if I have to do something else to pay the bills.

We've done this 3 times already and it doesn't get easier. What part of So.Cal do you live at SackAttack?

Dodgerchick, you know that place that got nuked on 24 a couple weeks ago? :D

I'm in that neighborhood. Close enough to Dodger Stadium to see a few games a year without hassle, and I'll definitely miss that.

Ahhh how nice! Goddamn I miss L.A. :(

Before we moved to Phoenix, I had my resume on monster.com and happen to get a phonecall from a prospective employer the day we were out there! Complete stroke of luck; I interviewed with them and got a phonecall when we got back to San Diego that I got the job. They were aware of the situation we were in and were very flexible.

Anyway, I don't know what advice to give you other than to keep your head up and if you can, try to schedule an interview in advance so it coincides with your stay there.

Oh yeah, why are you leaving L.A.? Actually, there's a whole lotta people leaving. Now if I could only get my family to move out of there as well. There so hard-headed they wont budge.

Yay Wisconsin!

I am moving back to Appleton in a couple months and I cannot wait.

If there's an actual, tangible reason you want to move there, or if you have connections, you really have to emphasize them. Many employers won't want to bother talking to someone 2k miles away if they're just testing the waters, because they'll assume you'll be there 6 months and leave. But if there's a reason you need to go (family, etc.), you'll be taken more seriously. So even if you don't have a real reason, make one up.

Girlfriend's out there. I'm 26. Time to act like an adult.

I know it. The trick is going to be finding something I'm qualified to do that's available that'll also bring in enough money to support myself. That's where this whole long-distance hunting thing makes it suck.

It's basically impossible, and I've done it before. Honestly I would try to transfer within Bestbuy, and then look from there. That way you keep making money in the meantime. Not having a job after moving sucks....the money goes a lot faster than you think, and sometimes it is very hard to even get a callback.

I am not ruling that out. That's my fallback, but the thing with Best Buy is that as a part-timer, hours can be hard to come by. I'd LIKE to find something with more security than that, but that is my safety net if all else fails.

Good sign you don't want to work for a company:

They put a Glendale, AZ job listing in an Appleton, WI job search. That's either one hell of a bait-and-switch or gross incompetence.

You should use your girlfriend's mailing address when you apply for jobs. Then, try to get a couple of interviews within a week of each other or so, and make the trip out there. If you get an offer, it'll be a quick turnaround, but they'll never have to know. Of course, they could check your job references, but if they're only interviewing you because they don't know you're in California anyway, that's no big loss.

$300 a pop to go out there for an interview isn't going to work out so well (which is why I'm well aware that transferring within Best Buy might be the short-term hafta until I get moved out there).

What would be sweet is if I could get an interview lined up for when I'm going to be out there in April anyway. I'd imagine that's more likely to happen with something that's open much closer to then, but it won't stop me looking anyway.

Oh, that's what you were more or less suggesting anyway. Difference is, I already have the trip lined up as opposed to going after an interview is lined up.

Yeah, acting like an adult blows, put it off for a few more decades.

Right, when trying to land some interviews for that week you're out there, it wouldn't hurt to use the girlfriend's address for at least some of them. And $300 wouldn't be worth it for 1 interview, but if you could line up 3-4 over a week, then who knows.

Job hunting sucks.

The problem is, $300 can be a couple weeks' net pay at Best Buy, which is why I'd either like to land something/line up some interviews for the week I'm out there, or else find something right quick once I move.


This'll be really only the third job I've ever had (I love umpiring, but apparently that's not going to transfer real well as the Appleton area doesn't seem to have a PONY organization).

Placed a phone call, got called back the same day.

Gotta figure out how to put a resumé together, and they have an online application system, but at least the hiring coordinator seemed receptive.

Hold on to yer butts.

Submitted the application and my resumé.

Probably gonna toss the resumé up on one of the various job sites as well and see what kind of response I get.

BTW, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT put your cell phone number on your resume and post it on a job board. I made the mistake of putting it on there and they haven't stopped calling.

Thanks for the tip.

Only number that's on my resume is my home phone.

Are there any headhunters you can use? They're free (sort of). Also, you could try contacting the HR depts of the companies you want to join.

I don't even know exactly what it is a headhunter does.

A headhunter is someone who works with companies to locate qualified applicants for jobs. So if you're looking for a non-entry level, salaried, 9-5-type, position, it might be worthwhile.

A general thought - you are probably going to have to make a decision at some point to either "put up or shut up" and move without having a job already lined up. Most companies will want to know you are living in the area, not that you are planning on living in the area, unless they are the ones trying to get you to move. It doesn't sound like you are in the latter situation, so...

I'm not saying it can't happen the way you are going about it, but it will take a lot longer and I think the odds are against it.

Looks for Wookies.

When I used headhunters, I went to a job conference, conducted about 8-10 interviews and then received a follow-up interview from one company. A few notes here:

1. If you use a headhunter, go to his location for the job conference. If he says that you can go a conference closer to you and one of his buddies will take care of you, that's not necessarily true.
2. Wanting to go to a specific part of the country limits you greatly.
3. The follow-up interview is free. The company flies you out there, pays for your rental car, and hotel. Usually they'll buy you lunch as well.
4. The headhunter will get you only one interview. That's so they can place more people. Good for you if you suck; bad for you if you are good.
5. The headhunter makes his/her money off your salary when you're hired. They get a certain percentage; it's invisible to you, but the company that hired you pays them the percentage...this can affect them paying you a signing bonus, relocation costs, etc.

I'm not expecting miracles. I will not be surprised if I transfer within Best Buy and go through this process all over again.

But the odds of it happening are worse if I don't even try than what they are now, so what can it hurt?

Ahh. Thanks for the explanation. I don't think the jobs I'd be likely to get would warrant a headhunter, but I'll file that in "the more you know."

I have this feeling that prospective employers look at current location and not desired job location when using Monster.

I mean, I figured it would be like that in terms of the employers in Wisconsin, so that's not surprising.

But I am getting an insane number of places in central and southern California calling/emailing/etc.

Because somehow Calabasas is this magical, exciting destination that's going to enthrall me away from where I'd rather be.

I'm sorry, what kind of job are you looking for again? Another thing that might help is registering with an employment agency that has an office in your area now, and an office where you're gonna be that way all they have to do is transfer the information from one place to another.

I'm too lazy to read the whole thread but are you looking to have a job lined up before you move there or are you moving in with your girlfriend then finding a job?

Looking to find something reasonably stable before I move out there. There's Best Buy as a last resort, but I wouldn't call that stable. If I have to transfer to the Appleton Best Buy location, I'm going to need to have a lot more cash in the bank before I make the move, because I wouldn't trust part-time hours at Best Buy to remain stable any further than I could throw them.

See about a temp agency. I did that once and the first job they offered me was a customer service rep for $10.25/hr. Wasn't bad at all full-time. I don't know if that's enough p/h (was for me) for you, but I mean you said anything to pay the bills.

The type of work - F/T vs P/T - is less at issue than the stability of the hours. It's impossible to construct any kind of budget around a job where you can go from 4 hours to 35 hours to 8 hours to 20 hours to 6 hours in any given five-week stretch.

Especially if you're living on your own.

Dola,

Same goes for the pay. How much I make is important, but it's less important than how reliably said pay is coming in.

Is that in response to me? I was given a full-time job where I got stable 40 hours same time going in and leaving for the entire time I worked there, though the hours were somewhat strange 11am-8pm