Hey everybody, it's Andy back for another week to help you build a career you love.
Today we're going to talk about how to get an out of state job, so what those best tips
are.
This is really your remote job search, so if you're like me and you're in the United
States and you're looking to change states, these techniques will apply, but I've also
used these tips for people who are outside the US who want to move to the US or want
to change countries.
These techniques will apply regardless, but it is about moving for a job.
I'm assuming as we go through this that you've decided you want to move.
This is not about a company who hired you who is going to relocate you.
This is about targeting opportunities in another state that you would like to move to.
It is more complicated than searching for an opportunity within your city.
Let's run through these.
I've got nine of them.
Some are a little more static, some are a little more dynamic, but let's run through
them.
I think you'll enjoy them.
The first thing is I would take your address off your resume.
It's subtle and simple, but we don't need to confuse matters if you are sending your
resume to a different city or a different state.
I generally recommend that you have an address of some sort or you let the employer know
what town or state that you're in, but in this particular case, I'm a fan of removing
it.
It will only cause you hardship to leave it on and reduce the chances that somebody's
actually going to give you a call back for an interview.
The first thing that I would do is I'd remove your resume.
The second thing is along the same lines.
If you have an opportunity or you know somebody in the city that you are moving toward, it
is kind of nice if you can have a home base in the city you want to move to.
I realize that that is not always the case, but tip number two, if you can get an address
in the target city, that will favor you.
I would put that on the address.
Those are just some things that you can clean up on the resume.
I also recommend on your LinkedIn profile putting the city that you want to move toward.
It will help as recruiters are searching for candidates in their area.
They're more likely to come across your profile if you have the city that you want to move
in on the LinkedIn profile.
Your LinkedIn profile is not a legal document.
In this particular case, it's okay to give yourself a leg up.
If you do get calls out of the blue from recruiters, it's always okay to say, "I put that on my
profile because I have decided I am moving there, so I started my search."
It's perfectly okay.
That's step number three.
All right, tip number four is I would start to put together a target list of companies
in the city you want to move toward.
I always recommend that no matter who you are, however junior or senior you are, that
you drive your job search based on your targeted company list.
It is never more important than if you're moving cities to make sure that you have a
list of great companies that you can reach out to.
If you want more information on how to put a target company list together, I did an entire
live office hours on that.
I'll put the link in the description so you can check that out.
There's 12 steps to putting together a great target company list, so I would start targeting
organizations in that area so you can connect up with them with your resume, your cover
letter, your LinkedIn in mails and however you're going to reach out to those organizations,
but I would definitely have a list that you are targeting.
That's number four.
Number five, I would then start looking at the job boards.
I wouldn't just look for positions that are available in the target city that you want,
but I also like using the job boards to evaluate which companies are hiring.
Even if they don't have a position that suits you perfectly, if the organization is hiring
people, it's usually an indication that it's in growth mode and it would be a great company
for you to reach into with your resume and your cover letter.
I've also provided some free cover letters about how to apply when there's no job opening.
You can check those out, but I would use the job boards to make sure that you're also servicing
positions that are available, but also companies that are hiring to augment your targeted company
list.
That's number five.
Number six, I recommend using LinkedIn to do some online networking with people in that
particular city.
Start following companies in that city.
Start looking for people who work at organizations in that city.
Start reaching out to them.
You can say, "Hey, I noticed you work for this organization in such and such a city.
I'm moving there and I'm trying to foster relationships with people who are there.
I'd love to know how you feel about the city, your organization," and so on.
It's okay to be upfront and honest, but I would start to plant the seed with people
who are in that area and see if you can strike up a relationship with them.
You never know.
They might be able to turn into an employer referral for you or at least give you some
insight, locations to live, organizations that are hiring, whatever it might be.
You'd be amazed at what the locals know, so I would use LinkedIn to do that.
Tip number seven, I would look at any meetup groups or online groups or organizations within
that city that you might be able to join, learn, start networking with people in that
town.
In addition to LinkedIn, I would still look for online networking groups or other types
of groups where you can get connected.
Maybe if you're going to take some visits, you might plan them around meeting dates,
things of that nature, but that's another great way to give you a leg up on targeting
opportunities in a new city.
That's number seven.
All right, so number eight.
This is really where the rubber meets the road.
This is as you start to communicate with the organizations in that target city.
You've looked at your target companies.
You've got your city that you want to move to.
You're going to start reaching out to them, whether you're applying directly through email
or through the applicant tracking system.
When you get your cover letter together, there are some messages that have to be conveyed
in the cover letter, but before we go into any of those, I want you to understand the
recruiter or the HR person's mindset when they're looking at somebody from out of town.
Sometimes, not always, but sometimes they're concerned about the relocation expenses.
They might not be able to afford the additional expense of moving you from a different city,
so that's one thing that some of them might be concerned with.
All of them, they're always concerned with whether you actually will follow through with
the move.
An out of town employee is a much greater risk than somebody that lives in the city,
so you need to put those fears to bed.
When you put your cover letter together, you need to be very explicit on a few things.
"I'm reaching out because I want to work for your organization and I've targeted your organization
because it's a great one and I have determined that I am moving to your city for sure."
You've got to leave no doubt.
You can't make it conditional, like, "I will move if I'm offered a job."
It has the same effect that they're just as concerned about the relocation expenses and
all these other things that are going to come up.
It needs to be solid, and you also might want to include your rationale for why you are
moving to that city, to the extent that you can add in extremely solid reasons, "I'm moving
there for family.
I'm moving there for friends.
My wife or my husband is getting relocated because of their job."
Whatever it might be, if you have that at your disposal, I would put it in the cover
letter because that will help them rest easy that you are truly coming.
The other thing that you might want to put in there is that you are coming no matter
what and you are happy to pay your own relocation expenses.
The most important thing is that you want to get with a great organization, which you
think they are, and so on.
You can check out some of my other cover letter templates that you can use, but you want to
make sure that you are adding these elements in because you want to diffuse those issues.
You do not want the employer worrying about that as an out of town person who's going
to relocate.
Number nine, I would also be very flexible on the interviews.
To the extent that you can, accommodate their phone screen.
Knowing that you're out of town, they're likely going to screen you on the phone.
They might do a video interview and after a couple of sessions, they're going to want
you to come in and be as flexible and accommodating as you can.
If you want some tips to handle the phone interviews and the video interviews and those
kind of things, I'll put those links in the description here as well so you can get some
tips on how to interview effectively.
Those are the nine tips.
I know that it's a little bit more complicated.
Some of these will apply, some of these won't, but you want to make sure that you're doing
all of the things that you possibly can, you're not just combing LinkedIn and a couple of
job boards to see what positions are available.
There's a lot more to it.
If you want more on the overall job search and how I would allocate my time, I would
check out my live office hours on why your job search is taking so long.
I would also check out that live office hours I mentioned about building a target company
list.
Those will both really help you.
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Until next week.
Have a great one.