Katherine Gramann ⋅ Milwaukee, WI VetsBridge.com ⋅ 5 years experience

Hi Ash,

While I think a lot of what was mentioned above is helpful, I also think that many hiring managers are open to candidates outside of the area when they get to know the candidate and have an idea of why they're hoping to relocate. I've moved from Wisconsin to Michigan, Michigan to California, California to Wisconsin, and pursued other out of state roles while in WI where location was not an issue. I've used various approaches - using my personal network (including outreach through email and LinkedIn), some cold-outreach to companies that I simply had interest in and talked through the details of my situation.

The others bring up some great points about various sites that can help you find employers in the desired location as well. Another great site to consider would be VetsBridge.com - as it matches employers and veterans based on core common criteria (including location). After you complete your profile, it does the matching for you and will let you know once you've made a match with employers (it will continually do so as employers join the system). And it's free for veterans.

That being said, I'd also consider keeping an eye on the local newspapers in the areas you're looking into (I often setup Google Alerts to automate the process) as you may hear of veteran-hiring initiatives of local companies you may otherwise not know of that are being publicized locally.

Best of luck!
Katherine

Barbara Stern ⋅ Boulder, CO Affordable Closets,llc ⋅ 35 years experience

Lots of great ideas here. Not sure what position you're looking for, so this may not be appropriate, for now.
I would identify businesses or companies that mostly fit your idea of the position. Find out who the HR person is or cold call to see who does the hiring. Ask to send your resume to that person and handwrite a note and send it attached to resume.
Establishing a relationship with the business, future job, can get your foot in the door either with this company or lead to one.
Good Luck

Richard Buck ⋅ Patterson, NY EY ⋅ 25 years experience

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Judy Tomlinson ⋅ Richardson, TX Energy Future Holdings ⋅ 30 years experience

One bit of advice.....if you are sending out your resume to out of state jobs, leave off your address. Many companies will toss resumes that look like you are relocating for they don't want to pay relocation expenses. If you are looking in a location where you have friends and family, use their address.

If a company reaches out to you for an interview, are you prepaired to risk the cost of airfare? You could tell them you have decided to relocate and they might pay to fly you to the interview....but that is typically for management positions and above.

I am available to help with your resume. Send it to tomlinsonjk@aol.com

Good luck and thanks for your service.

George Oestreich ⋅ Fort Lauderdale, FL First Service Residential ⋅ 40 years experience

During my professional life I have applied and have accepted many job offers in different states. Before developing my cover letter I would and generally found a hook that I could address in the letter which displayed other interests, e.g. family, prior travel to the area of opportunity, perhaps points of interest related to the opportunity, etc. things that would show my interest in being in the area other than just the job.
Thank you for your service and best of success in your search.

Dan Theno ⋅ Green Bay, WI Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (HBPA) ⋅ 30 years experience

Always indicate that you are willing to re-locate for the right job opportunity. It doesn't hurt to arrive a day early and explore the community that the job is in and indicate in the interview that you believe you would like to live there.

Ashutosh Mehta ⋅ Edison, NJ ⋅ 16 years experience

Ash, you clearly have great responses by now.

To add, location constraint while applying for job, depends on job type. Saying that, if you are looking for IT job, your location may not be constraint for an employer as many employers are okay with working remotely. e.g. QA job can be done remotely with need basis travel to meet the business people.

Also, if you are flexible with location, there can be cheaper relocation options available, especially for who have served. You can try finding best ways to relocate with minimum expenses based on to-from locations. LifeHacker.com may have good suggestions already or you can ask a question.

As many have advised to use LinkedIn, I would add that join groups in LinkedIn. LinkedIn is all about networking and especially as a job seeker, one should try expanding the network based on geographic, domain etc. e.g. If you are looking for job in marketing of some specific goods, try join LinkedIn group related to that field. Also, there are location based groups liked Linked N Chicago.

Few other high member count would be in groups like
- A startup specialists group
- Banking Careers
- Jobs
- Project Managers Community
- Telecom Professionals
etc.

While your question was primarily for out of state job, I hope additional details may help you going for next step.

Good luck.

Emanuel Carpenter ⋅ Alpharetta, GA SDR Master Class ⋅ 20 years experience

Ash:

Ken Bullard gave some great advice. However, instead of a pre-paid cell phone, you can get a free Google voice account. You can get a phone number with an area code in the area you're looking to apply. Go to http://voice.google.com . The call automatically gets forwarded to the number of your choosing. Or it goes to your Google voicemail if you prefer. You can listen to your messages online.

Make personal networking your number way to get a job, no matter where you apply. If you know someone at the company you'd like to work for, ask them to give your resume to the right person. If you have friends, family, or colleagues in the area you want to move to, send them your resume and let them know it is imperative that you find a job in that area. Get their help.

Job boards and classifieds are okay. Just don't make them your number one resource for job hunting. Not every position posted is intended to be filled. Sometimes recruiters will even interview you to get free consulting. (I worked for a startup that did exactly that.) Plus many of the companies that post jobs will have you wasting all kinds of time completing an online application.

Speaking of startups, if you're going to check job boards, check Angel List (https://angel.co/). It's a listing of startups looking for funding and employees.

If you're NOT expecting to be paid relocation expenses, be sure to make it known. Being less expensive to hire will make you look more attractive. When companies see you're coming from another state, that's one of the first things that come to mind.

Try to write a clever cover letter too, to make yourself standout.

For example, when I applied for a job in my hometown of Cleveland during the time LeBron James announced he was returning, this was my email subject line: If LeBron can come back, so can I...

I got a face-to-face interview because I just happened to be visiting for a wedding.

If you have no family or friends you can crash with while you're in the city you plan to move to, try www.airbnb.com or an extended stay type of hotel.

Best of luck to you.

STEVE SWENERTON ⋅ Boulder, CO SWENERTON CONSULTING, INC ⋅ 43 years experience

Especially for service people heading back to civilian life, that should be an expectation. If they have a question, it would be more about your willingness to relocate to a new place, but again, as a service person, you have seen many states and perhaps countries in your time in the service, so it should not be a question. Relocation is much less important than the content of your resume and how you and your experience fit with what they are looking for.

Amit Chaudhary ⋅ San Jose, CA Doordash, Silicon Valley Software Company ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi Ash,

Wow, lots of varied answers. This might help, so here it goes.

1. Reduce the friction and it works in our benefit.
-For example, on ACP advisor, Post that you are "Seeking a career in sales & client relations" in this question and your profile and you will get more on point answers
-Have the exact degree for any role and you have an heads up on others
-Know someone who will email or pass the resume to the hiring manager and you will be evaluated first
-Know who the current members are, what they care (most people tend to think they themselves are good for the job and hire people similar to themselves), it's a built-in bias

2. Go & live in the city you are considering for 1-3 weeks, apply in advance, use a local address, even phone number of a friend. Set interviews in that week. Travel across cities in your car if needed.
-I have done this in the past. It was a difference of 10 versus 2 onsite interviews and 1 versus 2 phone screens which are harder to get through
-Even in software\tech, there are companies like Facebook/Microsoft that fly candidates in, the bar is high and your application is out for those without the budget, the next facebook

3. lastly, I do not know the best site for sales, for tech dice is muddy bottom compared to linkedin, even craigslist

Msg me, if have any specific query.

All the best and be bold.

Amit

Tim Feemster ⋅ Dallas, TX Foremost Quality Logistics ⋅ 40 years experience

I think LinkedIn is the most powerful tool beyond just using the internet. You have to be careful in any search to keep your information away from contingency search firms as they can "flood" their contacts in business with your resume and then you have a "price on your head" since the company got your contact information from the head hunter. If you give your resume to one of these firms make sure you specifically instruct them they have the authority to give it to this one company and that they do not have permission to give it to any others without your specific OK.
I think the local paper idea is good as in most large cities you can find an annual listing of the top companies headquartered or just in the area. From this you can determine if they would utilize workers with your skills and network into these companies via LinkedIn or directly to their websites. Many companies today have job boards on their websites and you can "sign up" for alerts when certain jobs with your skills are posted.
In LinkedIn, you can connect with folks in the market you are interested and work through them to move your resume to their network. Make sure your friend's request does not ask they consider you directly for a job but asks "do they know someone in their area who is looking for someone with your skills". This is a much softer way to ask for referrals and avoids a direct no answer if the contact person's company is not hiring in your area.

Annette DiResta ⋅ Morgan Hill, CA www.annettediresta.vemma.com ⋅ 26 years experience

***Hiring former and/or current military***

650.477.9839 Annette

Bill Felice ⋅ Springfield, PA SWCA Environmental Consultants ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi Ash, I have personally found that Linked In does work. If you have an informative profile it will attract recruiters. As for job sites, Indeed.com seems to return the most applicable jobs to my search criteria. You can specify geographic locations and use word combinations to really target your search. Thanks for your service and best of luck!

Ken Bullard ⋅ Denver, CO British Telecom ⋅ 14 years experience

Ash. First step: Setup an account with a job site like Dice. Post your resume and make it unsearchable-for now. Do job searches in that area for your field. If they don't have a number of jobs in your field look elsewhere. One or two jobs won't cut the mustard if you land one, move there and find out the job has been open for months, and/or filled, re-filled many times, because the supervisor is a tyrant or it's the company from hell.

I usually avoid public sites like LinkedIn. First of all every telemarketer, scam artist and his dog will be contacting you. Second, with my background in information security and the prevalence of identity theft today I avoid posting information for "the world" to see. From my research those sites work best for high level execs or a last resort for recruiters with an unusual job to fill and they can't find the candidate anywhere else.

If the job site has a number of jobs available consider submitting your resume. The resume setup is key. As far as out-of-state addresses. It makes a big difference unless it is the LinkedIn scenario; unique job, unique skills, they're desperate. Get a three month rental of a PO Box from a local private mailbox company there. Put that address on your resume leaving off the Suite or PO box number so it looks like a real physical address (you'll still get mail). Then get a pre-paid cell phone with a local number there and put that on your resume.

Let all calls go to voicemail so you can screen them. Solicitors will be calling: "Apply to our college!". And you'll get lots of "fishing" calls from recruiters eating up your minutes while they try to find out where you have been interviewing so they can send "their" candidates there. ALWAYS make them email you a job description-no job description probably not a real job and of course required brain surgery experience may not be in your background so why waste time and money discussing the job?

IF you are contacted about a real job never reveal where you live. All hiring managers have been down the road of investing in a candidate in a far off state only to have them change their mind. Moving for something better always sounds good but when you get right down to it many people are terrified of breaking those family/friend umbilical cords and support networks.

Make sure you have the funds to live in a local hotel there for a month and that you can start work soon. The bottom line here is make it super easy for them to hire you.

Relocate to the motel there the weekend before the Monday interview. Even if you accept a position keep looking for a job and schedule more interviews. It is always better to have multiple job offers. It is often a different interview that leads to the real job. Examples:

You take a job only to learn later a key co-worker is insecure and jealous of your military background or a key female supervisor has something against men or you're working midnight to 8 in a space with no A/C in Houston in summer or weekends in a space with no heat in Denver in winter. Yes all personal experiences. But you have to take the job to find out these things. I have quit jobs the second week and had other jobs already lined up that were waiting for me to start. You don't have to get hit in the head many times with a soccer ball that people are kicking across the call center floor for you to realize it probably won't be a long-term career choice (think CBeyond).

If you have family they'll just have to tough it out back home for a month until you get the ball rolling.

Hope this helps.

Barron Evans ⋅ Ann Arbor, MI Customer Experience Change Management ⋅ 30 years experience

Ash...

Foremost, I'd suggest becoming a member of LinkedIn.com - if you're not already. It's a free service, the 'faceobook for professionals,' allowing you to create a brief summary, describe your capabilities, and list your background.

Once accepted (day or two), you can use the search tools on the site - with fields for location, job title, function, etc. That search will identify specific people to whom you can issue requests to 'connect' - after which you can engage them to provide guidance on their company, as well as others, in the area.

Another suggestion would be to put 'Executive Recruiters - State Name / City' in your browser, which will then provide company and contact names in those areas. You can then make an introduction to them, and either send a resume directly, and/or ask for a phone conversation so you can discuss specific interests with them.

It's really not that challenging to explore out-of-state options, just be prepared with a crisp way of describing who you are, what you're seeking, why (e.g., the 'fit'), and when.

Best wishes for success!

Prem Shanker ⋅ Bentonville, AR Walmart Stores, Inc. ⋅ 18 years experience

Ash - I don't have the background of what job you are exploring, but for most jobs, companies are not skeptical when someone applies out of state.

To ensure success, first break down all barriers in the mind. Companies are primarily interested in the "value-add" an individual can bring. So out-of-state, out-of-country etc are quite irrelevant. At most, it may be a casual "curiosity" when someone asks whether you plan to relocate, but I don't think it is a matter of "skepticism".

I myself relocated from Michigan to Arkansas when my present company needed someone with my experience/ skill profile. They did explore 27 candidates and I managed to be the one getting the job. So, what matters is (a) whether that company has requirements/ need for your skills (b) whether you are able to showcase your strengths during your interactions/ communication with the company and (c) timing.

(a) if a company does not have needs, you should still reach out to hiring managers, since a company may have future needs
(b) there are lot of free resources on internet to polish resume, polish interviewing skills etc
(c) call it luck or timing, but sometimes being at the "right place at the right time" helps. There is a saying "fortune favors the brave". I modify it by saying "fortune favors the person with never-give-up attitude.

Hope this helps....best wishes!