Out-of-state job search strategy?

[Anonymous]

I will be embarking on an out-of-state job search in the not-too-distant future. I've been out of the loop job search-wise for about 8 years, so I'm a little rusty on how folks are finding jobs these days. What are the websites I should familiarize myself with? I'm pretty deep into LinkedIn and plan on tapping my contacts. And I've heard good things about Indeed. Also, I plan on attending this year's national conference for my field and plan on getting more contacts there.

In the past, I have approached the out of state job search by setting up informational interviews and really trying to make contacts by staying with friends who lived locally. Twice before this has yielded results. However, now that I'm a mid-career professional, I'm not sure that's going to work. For one thing, I don't know anybody in the target locations. How will all these inputs impact my approach? How have you successfully managed an out-of-state job search lately?

[Anonymous]

I don't have any advice for your job search as I usually use Indeed, LinkedIn, and Craigslist, but perhaps you could get in contact with some recruiters in your industry in the city/cities you are looking to move. Your industry may have more specific job boards/sites but we don't know what your industry is.

Make sure that you mention in a cover letter or whatever space they give, that you are already planning on moving to the area because a lot of places won't want to pay for relocation and thus don't like considering out of state or non-local applicants. If you mention you're already planning on relocating, they'll know that they won't have to pony up for relo expenses for you and be more likely to consider you.

[Anonymous]

I recently job searched from 500 miles away. I used linkedin, glass door, indeed, and a few industry specific websites. I applied and booked interviews in waves, so each trip for interviews included 2-3 companies. The last bunch that I did and got hired from, I applied, came down for interviews a week later, and had to be in town and ready to start in 16 days. If you are certain you are moving, you should start boxing up things you don't need I used Uship to get all the boxes moved and put in a storage locker in the town, so when I moved it was a quick trip to the storage locker to get that stuff and the rest was shipped down to me or I bought new. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

You can also search for companies with satellite offices nationwide. It worked for me in the sense that I was able to interview locally via video conference in their DC office