The Next Best Career Move: Actually Moving

A Growing Number of Job Seekers Find Relocating
in Advance May Give Them an Advantage Over Candidates From Afar

From the WSJ | April 13, 2010 | by Elizabeth Garone

When James Marvin retired from the Navy Seals in September, he had
two choices: seek a civilian government position in his current state of
Virginia or pursue the unknown. He chose the latter. "We literally put
the 'for sale' sign on our home, packed up the minivan, and drove
cross-country," says Mr. Marvin, 44, who moved to Seattle with his wife
and daughter to pursue a position with an alternative energy company.

Mr. Marvin is part of a small but growing group of job seekers who
are relocating to areas of the country with stronger job markets or more
desirable living-but without the security of a job waiting for them.
Driving the self-imposed moves are personal desire and cuts in company
relocation programs that have forced hiring managers to look locally for
candidates.

So far the trend is visible at either end of the job spectrum: from
senior-level job seekers who have a financial cushion to weather the
costs of the move and the following transition period to more
junior-level job seekers, who have fewer fixed expenses and can move
easily.

Nancy Keene, a director in the Dallas office of executive search
firm Stanton Chase, calls it the "act local/be local" phenomenon, in
which job hunters are doing whatever they can to appear to be-or
become-part of a community. It's a career move that-if executed
right-can be a good investment. "People are looking to reposition for
the next phase of their career," she says. "If you're going somewhere
with a robust and diversified economy, it's a pretty safe bet."

Mike Kane for The Wall Street Journal

James Marvin moved to Seattle with his wife
and daughter with no job. He later landed a senior-level post at a
hydrokinetic turbine producer.

Tips for Making a Move

• Research
  companies in your sector to target your move


• Update
  your online profiles with your new address or location


• Take
  a "bridge job" to tide you over in the new city


• Consider
  a partial move, with one working spouse staying behind temporarily

Some who can't afford to make the move are
giving the illusion of being local by renting a mailbox, getting a local
cellphone number, and staying with friends and family nearby to attend
networking and industry events, Ms. Keene says.

Some job seekers don't feel like they have any choice but to take a
chance and move on their own, says Beth Ross, an executive career coach
in New York City. Over the past two years, companies are loath to pay
hefty relocation costs for out-of-state candidates. Being local can be
the difference between getting an interview and being passed over, Ms.
Ross says.

Some 58% of companies have reduced their corporate relocation
programs, 27% have frozen such programs, and another 17% have eliminated
them entirely, according to an October 2009 Society of Human Resource
Management poll of 371 people. "Companies want to pay less-not more-in
acquiring new talent," says Ms. Keene. She says many of her clients have
asked her to search for candidates locally, instead of nationally,
particularly in large metropolitan areas.

At 700-employee Campus Management Corp. in Boca Raton, Fla., local
candidates are preferred, says Kathleen Bocek, vice president of human
resources. "All other things being equal, we absolutely would hire the
local candidate," she says, to support the local community, to save the
company money, and reduce risk. "When you displace an individual, you're
usually displacing an entire family," says Ms. Bocek. "What if the job
doesn't work out?"

In some markets-like New York City-being local is critical for
entry-level or junior-level positions in some fields. When the Kansas
City, Mo. public-relations firm where Anna Tabakh was interning
announced a hiring freeze in September 2008, she knew her hopes of
getting a job there weren't going to be realized. Ms. Tabakh decided she
wanted to try to find work in New York and most people she knew advised
moving to the area if she wanted a shot at an interview. She started
the process-eventually moving without a job-with a cousin's Brooklyn
address to use on her résumé.

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"Relocating to New York is by far the best
decision that I've made thus far in my professional life," says Ms.
Tabakh, 24. "I was a lot more successful when sending out my résumé with
a local address on it."

Before she arrived in October 2008, she sent about a dozen
applications with the New York address, and once she arrived she says
she had three job offers within two weeks.

Some professionals have found that going home, particularly to
locations where the cachet of their former city is coveted, can be a
good move. One of Atlanta-based career coach Jodie Charlop's out-of-work
clients made an extended visit to her hometown, Philadelphia, from New
York City, to save money. The financial professional ended up staying
after she landed a position there. "She was considered highly valuable
with her New York financial firm experience, whereas in New York, she
felt like she was a dime a dozen," says Ms. Charlop, who has seen
similar results for other clients.

The best jobless moves are carefully researched and locations
targeted for the highest possibility of landing a job, says Stanton
Chase's Ms. Keene. Juju.com, a national job-search site, recently began
publishing a monthly "Job Search Difficulty Index" that measures how
hard it is to find a job in 50 major cities around the country. For four
months running, Washington, D.C., ranked the easiest city to find a
job. In March, it was edged out by San Jose, Calif. Detroit ranks the
toughest. You'll also want to target locations where your chosen
industry is hiring.

Mr. Marvin, for example, settled on Seattle because he had friends
and family in the area, along with job opportunities in alternative
energy and good schools for his daughter.

It's important to establish a professional network before arriving,
says Ms. Ross. In Mr. Marvin's case, he made half a dozen scouting trips
to the Seattle area over a six-month period before moving. In advance
of each trip, Mr. Marvin set up interviews with top executives at
companies he was interested in; his introductory letters detailed his
military background and interest in each firm.

While none of the interviews landed him a permanent position, they
did help him establish a network of high-level executives in the Seattle
area. Once he made the move, the people with whom he had met introduced
him to other executives, he says.

In the end, the move paid off for Mr. Marvin. Last week, he received
an offer from an alternative-energy start-up where he had an
informational interview earlier this year and accepted the position as
Director of Business Development and Field Operations at Hydrovolts, a
company that produces hydrokinetic turbines. "There is no way this
opportunity would have ever presented itself from afar. It took being
here to put it all together," he says. "[I] absolutely could not have
done it if I was not part of the Seattle community."

Write to
Elizabeth Garone at cjeditor@dowjones.com