Hey there!
Welcome to Work in Progress, a how-to series that's meant to help you with everything from
prepping for a job interview, to boosting your confidence, or negotiating a raise.
Here's today's question:
One of the first things you want to do when you're thinking about your job search to a
new city is updating the location on your LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn is one of the number one ways that recruiters search for candidates today, so
if you change your location—for example, when I was living in Portland, Oregon and
I wanted to move to Los Angeles and get a job there, I changed my location on my LinkedIn
to Los Angeles.
One of the reasons why you want to do that, is that recruiters can search for the profiles,
based off of a location.
You want them to find you, because maybe you're a great fit for that role, and you know you
have plans to move, but you don't want them to ignore you, or not even see your profile
because the location doesn't pop up.
I'm sure you're wondering—"But hey, isn't that dishonest?
Are they going to care about the fact that I'm not in that location yet?"
Here's my compromise.
I would encourage you to write in your summary section of your LinkedIn profile when you're
planning on moving to the city, or the fact that you have plans to move to that city and
relocate once you find a job.
That way, you're being honest, but you're also going to show up in the search results
for that city.
The next thing—in case you don't know what city you want to move to, in my example I
knew I wanted to move to Los Angeles, but let's say you live on the east coast and you're
like, "I just want to get anywhere but here.
Specifically, I want to move to the west coast, but I'm open to anything."
One of the things that you can do with LinkedIn is you can actually list your location as
just the United States.
You'll show up in more search results with recruiters, because you now open your location
to a much broader range.
Keep that in mind, that you'll probably get reached out to for jobs in locations maybe
you're not interested in, but that's a nice way to find a balance if you're looking to
relocate but you don't know where you want to relocate to.
I would also encourage you to still stick to the goal of making sure that you're being
honest about that in your summary.
You might say something like, "I'm looking to relocate in 2018", or, "I have plans to
move in June of 2018" or something like that.
My next tip when you're thinking of relocating for a job is create a list of target companies.
Again, when I was moving from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles, I didn't want to just apply
to every and any job in Los Angeles, because that could have taken all day every day for
who knows how long.
What's really helpful is if you start researching what companies exist in that city—what companies
exist in that city that align with maybe where you think you're going to live, the industry
you're interested in working in, or the job title that you think you want to go after.
This is really important too, because when you are searching for a new job, it can feel
like it's going to take forever, and you're kinda just applying to everything and anything.
This will really help narrow your search so that your energy is being spent on things
that are really aligned with what you're looking for.
My next tip is make sure that you research those target companies—you can go on careercontessa.com,
LinkedIn, GlassDoor, those are all great options.
You can even find people on LinkedIn that you think work for great companies, and learn
more about those companies after that.
Okay, now that you've updated your LinkedIn profile and you've created a list of target
companies, my next tip for you is to network.
That networking could be done via phone, email, or even in person.
And when I say in person, another thing that I think is a great idea if you're thinking
about moving to a new city, whether you have a job lined up or not, is go to that city
and spend about a week.
Go and drive around different neighborhoods so you have an idea of maybe where you would
want to live.
Some of those people at those target companies—see if you can have informational interviews with
them.
Do your best to kindof get the hang of the city and maybe what those companies are like,
before you apply or move your whole life to a new city and start working there.
That's the in person piece.
Let's say you can't network in person or you're still not really sure where you want to go
so you don't want to take trips to a whole bunch of cities.
I understand that.
You can also do your networking via email or over the phone.
Find people at really cool companies in the cities that you've deemed potential options,
and see if they'll get on the phone with you so you can learn more about those companies.
And, while you're there, or talking to them, ask them what the city is like.
What's their favorite part of the city, what neighborhood did they live in?
You can do a lot of great research online as well.
So you probably noticed that throughout this video, I didn't make any mentions of resumes
or cover letters.
But they are really important, so please don't ignore them.
The good news is that I have an entire video on how to launch a job search and you can
get to it right here.
In that video, we cover everything from A to Z.
So make sure you watch that as well, and then include the tips we talked about today, to
find your job in a new city.
The next thing I want to mention is that we have a free downloadable worksheet, it's a
checklist on everything you need to do to launch a job search, so go ahead and grab that as well.