Another strategy is to look for work in rural areas. A big reason non-local candidates are discarded is that, in large metro areas, there's a ready supply of local talent. Look for jobs in rural areas that are a couple of hours travel from a large metro area you're interested in. There's a good chance that, because a lot of tech people are reluctant to move to small towns, you'll get a relocation package. Once you're in, you can start looking for something in the metro area...if you still want to. ;)
Small town tech jobs are out there. I work for a rather large Telecom company whose headquarters is in a good sized city but whose operation center is in a small town. We're 2-3 hours from the nearest city which makes it nice for weekend or day trips but we don't have the high crime, high cost of living, rat-race life style, etc. We also don't have a large pool of technical people to choose from so the company expects to pay relocation.
Also on the plus side, since there is a tech company here, we do have high speed internet access (either cable or DSL), a couple of coffee shops, reasonable shopping in easy reach, etc. It's not 'Bright lights, Big City', but it's not bad considering that there are only 3 stop lights in the entire county.
Jack | [reply] |
Vonage and other VoIP services that let you have a local phone number regardless of physical location are great for this. When I was planning a move to the twin cities, MN area, I established Vonage service in St. Paul -- even though I was working contracts in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. I followed that up with neglecting to provide my full address on my resume.
Once you can actually talk to people on the telephone, you can explain the situation accurately, but the local phone number has already given them a "this guy is local" vibe. I simply explained to interested parties that I was in the process of moving to their area, and that I was working a contract job in a different area. I gave my then-current home address as a "temporary address" where I could be reached.
None of that was untruthful, but it did demonstrate to interested parties that I was a local candidate, even if I hadn't moved quite yet. As a result, I was never discarded for living out-of-state.
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