Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The job hunt

How do you search for a job from 11 hours away?
It seems I am being bombarded with advice, good advice, but irrelevant advice.

1-Use your social network-ok that's great but my "friends" in the area I'm moving to don't actually know me IRL I'm not comfortable asking them to vouch for my skills and abilities that would be at best risky for them not to mention dishonest, I wouldn't be their friends if they were liars so why would I ask them to lie? (tho once again of you know of a job in Hampton Roads in accounting please let me know!)

2-online job search sites, yep, great, using them. And my resume rocks but ya know what, online job aps are screened by HR people. Guess what HR peeps (generally) know about accounting, nothing. That means usually over qualified applicants that companies can't afford make it through the screening and people like me at the bottom of the experience pool (and therefore bottom of the salary range funny how that works!) don't get through even though we are kick-ass candidates!

3-use a professional recruiter. Yep, done. Problem with headhunters is they only send your resume to their clients, but every potential job you want to apply for has to be ran past them just in case they already submitted you. Guess what I just waited 3 days to hear back, guess what else great job was taken down yesterday UGH!!!

4-write a good cover letter...I'm not even going to roll my eyes at this one. It is by far the most important part of a job ap to me but believe me...I'm writing more than one, I have written 15 cover letters for the 16 jobs I've applied for in the past month. Yep I've got the cover letter thing down.


So I ask again, how do you search for a job 10+ hours away. Really all sarcasm aside what have you found to be the most effective tools for your job searches. Do you try to secure a job before a PCS or do you sit tight, move, then look in person? What has worked in your experience???

Also-I totally fell into my current job which is 8 hours away from where I lived at the time and was having the same issues looking for a local job the. So I guess what I am really asking is how do you make yourself stand out from the 800 other applicants so that you can make it through the initial screening and get an interview??

3 comments:

Wife of a Sailor said...

Get a Google number (it's free!) and make it a local number so they know you are serious about moving. It will, in turn, ring any phone you want it to without the caller knowing... you will, though, so you can be prepared for an interview when you say, "hello."

Get a local P.O. Box number so you have a "local" address to put on your resume, even if the mail is then forwarded to your current address. Same reason as above.

Shanon said...

Love it! What great suggestions! I've been using hubby's apartment as my address but hadn't even thought about the phone number (probably because I have not had a local phone number since I was in high school I've just taken the same cell number with me everywhere) :)

Sespi said...

My best luck has been through networking, but I have the benefit of having a lot of real life friends in the place I'm trying to go. I'm interested to see the other tips you get though!

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