Pay my own relocation... (movers, job market, school)

[bchris02]

I am preparing to graduate from college in a rural area and am sending out resumes to big city employers without any hint of a response. If I state that I will pay my own relocation in the e-mail or cover letter, should that enable me to overcome most employers' tendency to immediately throw out non-local resumes? Or do employers always insist on hiring locally unless for management or upper-level positions.

[lizziebeth]

I think it depends on your field. In professions where there are plenty of local people, it doesn't necessarily make sense to look for people from elsewhere. I, on the other hand, recruit for a healthcare company and am always happy to entertain resumes from people who would like to relocate.

I would definitely state that you'd pay your own relo but if a company does relo anyway, you may not have to do that. The amount of relo that companies offer can really vary however....from a flat figure (like $1000) to enough to cover a U-haul plus expenses (often looked at as the option for new grads with assumed limited stuff to move) to the best plan where they'll have movers pack and move your stuff plus temp housing, etc.

I would also figure out who you can talk with directly to make sure that your resume doesn't get lost in the shuffle. And, perhaps, if you have specific cities in mind, tailor your resume to those cities (one per resume/cover letter). I would feel more confident in your resume if I had some background as to why you want to move to my city and why we should consider you over someone local who we won't have to do as much legwork for. You know, there are people who send out hundreds of resumes for any job that is even remotely in their field. Be specific about what you want and what you can offer.

Also, if you haven't, check with your career center to see if they have ideas. I'm sure you're not the first grad of that school who wants to relocate to a bigger city.

[bchris02]

My degree field is IT, which complicates things because the job market is oversaturated right now. How close do employers consider local anyways? I am approx two hours in each direction from a major regional city (Tulsa to the west, Little Rock to the east). May not be my dream city but there are jobs there and anything is better than here. Is that local enough?

I grew up moving around to different cities every 2-3 years before my dad retired so it has come as a shock to me that relocation is such a huge obstacle with employers.