The job seeker is a lonely hunter

Jobs are tricksy bastards —  hard-to-get at the best of times and seemingly even more adept at melding into the wallpaper the more desperate you are to find them.

I mean, think of the contradictory truisms that accompany talk of a job search: it’s easier to find a job if you already have one — but the job search should be your full-time job. I guess the takeaway from that is if you’re going to be laid off, use the time while you’re still employed to find a new job, while doing just enough work to ensure you still get a good reference.

And it all becomes even more true whe you start looking for a job outside your geographic area. Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk’s advice for the long-distance job search is: don’t do it. Or at least, only do it if you’ve got something really special to offer and a support network on the ground.

That said, a layoff is a good time to relocate, if that’s what you’ve been wanting to do, especially if you have a severance package to cover some of your inevitable startup costs. But if you’re like me, you won’t want to move and then start looking for work; you won’t commit to the move until an employer has committed to you. I’m not saying that’s the best way to go — if I’d had less of a security fetish I’d probably be somewhere in Montreal right now, living the boho, louche life of a francophone intellectual. Woulda coulda shoulda…

Site for a Montreal French conversation meet-up group called Le Bistrot.

The long-distance job search is a tough slog but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. In the end, it’s not all that different, in its essentials, from the at-home search. You identify your preferred geographical location (in a perfect world), research the current job market, identify potential employers there, do your homework on the companies, find a contact and introduce yourself to them, via letter or email. And then follow up with a call.

Ideally, you’d have contacts in the place where you want to go, so tap your networks, because you never know — someone might know someone there. And again, ideally, you’d move somewhere that you already had contacts, that makes life in general, and not just the job search, a lot easier.

In a perfect world, a prospective employer will be blown away by your CV and cover letter, will want you on the spot and will pay for you to come out in order to give you the hard sell on the job. That’s unlikely to happen, just so’s you know. More likely, you’ll have to decide when to make the trip to your chosen city and pay for it yourself. One way to go about it is to send out your cold-call letters, follow up with a phone call and say you’re planning to be in town on such-and-such a date, could you come by for a chat? It shows a willingness on your part to make the move. And face-to-face is the best way to sell yourself.

Going on your own dime has its benefits too — you get an opportunity to explore the city your way, to see if it’s a place that you could live in or if maybe it’s best admired from a distance, or as a tourist. Some great tourist towns are less attractive to the locals.

As always, research, research, research, know what you want and then go get it.

 

Playing 20 (or so) questions

Nobody tells you this, but there’s a quiz.

The questions ebb and flow depending on the circumstances of your layoff, and there’s no one with a master answer sheet saying whether you got it right or wrong. But the way you answer the questions will have a direct impact on your job search.

Here are some starter questions:

1. Did I like what I was doing?

2. Do I want to find a job in the same field?

3. Are there jobs locally in this field?

4. Do I have the qualifications for jobs in this field?

5. Do I have contacts to help me find jobs locally in this field?

Depending on the answers to this question, some of the next questions would be:

6. Are there good jobs in my field somewhere else?

7. Do I want to move?

8. Can I move if I have to?

9. Do I have the contacts/skills to find a job somewhere else?

10. Does it make sense to take a lesser job and stay because my spouse has a good job?

Seriously, this question of moving/not moving is an important one, especially if your spouse is employed, your children are in a good school program, or you own a house in a slow housing market. And even if you’re single and don’t own your home, leaving behind your social safety net — family, good friends, places you’re familiar with — can be traumatic and empowering in equal measure, depending on where and why and how you go. If you were holding on to a bad job because you were afraid to step outside your geographic or social comfort zone, you could be pleasantly surprised if you land in a friendly spot with good money and the opportunity for new experiences. Or you could be homesick and never really fit in, I’m not going to lie. I’ve done both and you never know what you’ve got until you get there.

If you decide you can move, and you start applying for jobs outside your area, here are some other questions:

11. Where would I go? (This website can give you an idea of what kind of jobs would be available in other parts of Canada, and here’s one for Ontario).

12. Do I want to look from here, or can I move there and look on-site?

13. Do I need to upgrade my skills before I start looking elsewhere?

14. Is there some place I’ve always wanted to live and are there jobs available there in my field?

15. Do I know anyone there?

There are some other questions the homeowner has to answer:

16. If I sold my house, would I lose money?

17. Is my house ready to sell? (Does it need paint/repairs?) — A married couple I used to work with bought paint almost immediately after hearing about our layoff, on the assumption they’d have to move. And it’s a good thing — they did move out of the province and were able to sell their house fairly quickly for a good price.

18. Do I know a realtor?

19. Am I prepared to pack and leave?

20. Can I afford to pay my mortgage and keep the house going if I stay here and take a pay cut?

You will not be graded on this quiz, but it will be counted against your final mark…