Career Finding a Job

Guide to Long-Distance Job Search

job search guide

It can be a challenging task to conduct a long-term job search and attract employers’ attention outside of your home area. Most employers consider local applicants as better options than those who have to relocate. Moreover, dealing with long-term candidates requires more planning and can also complicate the company’s recruiting process. However, there are few tips to make long-distance job search easier.

Here are some tips for a job search that can help pave the way for you.

Top Tips for Long-Distance Job Search

1.Focus Your Long Distance Job Search

Finding jobs to apply to in a new location is the easiest part of a long-distance job search. In the advanced search options, you can specify the location of all leading job boards and job search engines.

2.Designate a Specific Location in Your Resume

Your resume is another way to communicate your intentions to stay in the area where a job is being offered. Some job databases permit registrants to specify the desired location.

It’s better to conduct a targeted job search than to take “I’ll move anywhere” approach because you need to get to know the market, build connections and participate in networking activities at your desired location.

3.Explain in Your Cover Letters

In your cover letter, you can make it clear that you are planning to relocate to the city where the job is located. Mentioning a reason to move to the area, such as wanting to be closer to elderly parents or joining a partner, can be an effective strategy.

4.Know your industry

Start by combing online business journals and magazines to develop a rough target list of companies in your new location during your long-distance job search. Then check out the websites of the companies you are interested in to learn how long they have been in business, their average annual earnings, the market presence of each company, and who is in charge.

5.Know the job market

If you are looking at potential locations for your job search, do some research on the local economy. Not all cities are offering the same opportunity. Although you know that local unemployment rates differ from city to city, remember that the vitality of the industry is just as diverse.

One city might have a low unemployment rate, but your industry does not necessarily enjoy the same boom. Take a look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and browse localized information in the newspapers.

6.Phone Interview

Phone interviews usually come before any in-person interview, but the likelihood of them increases greatly when you’re searching for a long distance. In most cases, employers won’t expect you to fly out for a first-round interview, so phone interviews are the most common, and you shouldn’t take them lightly.

Practice speaking at a calm pace, make sure your phone signal is strong and do a few dry runs with your friend.

Perhaps the most important thing is that job seekers are often afraid to appear impolite when interviewers call and say, “Of course, I can talk right now.” If you’re caught off guard or if you’re in the middle of feeding your children and doing laundry, you can be honest. Even if you’re asking for 15 minutes to go to a quieter room, you want to create the best setting for your interview.

7.Decide if you’ll travel for an interview

Sometimes you get to a second or third round of interviews when the employer wants to meet you in person. Sometimes the company pays for travel, but sometimes it doesn’t. Set up a few basic rules for yourself to determine what opportunities you consider to be worth your time and money.

Also, if you’re asked to travel, find out as much information as you can about it so that you can make the arrangements that work best for you. See what dates are available (so you can book the most affordable flight) and how long the process takes (so you know if you can fly home that day and save your hotel fare).

You want to know as much as you can in advance so that you can make the most informed decisions possible.

8.Know your availability

Figure a timeframe when actually you can move. Are you going to sell your house in the first place? Uprooting the children in the school year currently halfway through? If you’re working at the moment, you’ll need to tie some loose ends with your current job before laying the groundwork for a new one.

9.Know your own relocation plan

The most important part of your long-distance job search is to have a flexible game plan. Without a job offer, you may not have a final move date, but you should have an idea of what is possible if you get an offer.

Employers know you’re not a local candidate, so they want to know how soon you can get started and when you’re planning to be in the city.

If you get an offer and then say that you need time to put your house on the market, find a good school for your children, and decide where you want to live, you’ll probably lose the chance. Most employers understand the complexity of long-distance job searches, but they don’t have six months to wait for you either.

A flexible plan allows you and the employer to negotiate a mutually acceptable start date while also showing that you are serious about relocation.

Top Long-Distance Job Search Websites

  1. Indeed
  2. Monster
  3. Glassdoor
  4. LinkedIn

Conclusion

Whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience under your belt, if you’re applying for international jobs, there are endless opportunities. With some legwork and some know-how, your next career move might be your best move.

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