Out-of-State... How did you get hired at your job in Houston Metro??

[Master Shake]

I see a lot of job openings for the Alief ISD. Is that because it has high turnover? Or is there another reason? What is your personal experience working at Alief ISD?

[databasegeek]

I was born and raised in Houston, TX. After grad school I moved from Palo Alto to West Hollywood for a job. Worked there for more than a year and determined Cali is too expensive (especially L.A.) and was starting to miss my family and hometown (Now I miss all the beautiful women in L.A.).

After a year I started looking up Houston jobs online. Had many phone interviews with different companies and recruiters. After a month of looking I flew out to Houston 4 times for 3 different companies (2 Oil and Gas and 1 Investment Bank). I accepted one of the offers and was helped with relocation. The company allowed me to have one month before my first day. I immediately gave my two weeks to my current employer and then after that I moved to Houston.

The whole job search, accepting offer and moving process took about 3 months. I didn't need to find a place since my mom lives in Houston so I just moved back in with her. I do need to move out now.

[Jiasay2012]

Thank you ALL for your answers. I appreciate it sharing your experience

@swopoe: I was wondering the same thing... If i can plan a trip to Houston and visit a couple of recruiters (they usually offer Temp. to hiring, sometimes direct hiring), and hopefully will help. I also saw online some job fairs scheduled in the first couple of months of 2013, may be something to consider.


@MNCold: how connection work? you send you resume to your friend, who s/he give to the HR of the company? or does the connection let you know when there is an opening in the company?...

@crbcrbrgv: what field Alief ISD is recruting if I may ask?


@databasegeek: wow, good for you that you scored a job in houston and was helped with the relocation expenses as well. How did you get the phone interviews? did you have a local phone number in your resume? or did you use skype? or did they call you despite your out-of-state number? can you please describe more how it worked with the recuiters?

The ideal scenario is to get an offer by summer, so i can start just when my kid starts the school year wish me luck !!!

[databasegeek]

Originally Posted by Jiasay2012

Thank you ALL for your answers. I appreciate it sharing your experience

@swopoe: I was wondering the same thing... If i can plan a trip to Houston and visit a couple of recruiters (they usually offer Temp. to hiring, sometimes direct hiring), and hopefully will help. I also saw online some job fairs scheduled in the first couple of months of 2013, may be something to consider.


@MNCold: how connection work? you send you resume to your friend, who s/he give to the HR of the company? or does the connection let you know when there is an opening in the company?...

@crbcrbrgv: what field Alief ISD is recruting if I may ask?


@databasegeek: wow, good for you that you scored a job in houston and was helped with the relocation expenses as well. How did you get the phone interviews? did you have a local phone number in your resume? or did you use skype? or did they call you despite your out-of-state number? can you please describe more how it worked with the recuiters?

The ideal scenario is to get an offer by summer, so i can start just when my kid starts the school year wish me luck !!!

The phone interviews were easy to get. I basically went on job search sites like Careerbuilder, Monster, Indeed, simplyhired, and etc. I individually applied to jobs that interested me. A lot of people just put their resume publicly on the site waiting for someone to contact them however I did the opposite and made my resume private and only sent it to the openings that i was interested in (I don't like having a public resume because of all the spam mail I use to get from recruiters). Most recruiters and companies responded to me via email or phone within 1-3 days to set up a phone interview. Fairly easy process just go on the career sites and apply to jobs that interest you.

As for phone number I still have a Northern Cali area code and I still use that number to this day. I don't think they care what area code you are in. Companies do business all over the world so long distance call shouldn't be an issue. I never had a skype interview (although I know a few who did).

For the openings that interested me posted by recruiters (not by the hiring company directly) it was pretty much the same, I sent them my resume and they got a hold of me. I notice some would try to sell me a job different (or in addition) from what a I applied that was kind of annoying. I know what I want so why try to sell me something else right? Recruiters are just salesmen trying to sell a candidate to a company so keep that in mind but sometimes it might be helpful if you are open to any opportunity.

In the end I accepted a job that wasn't advertise by a recruiter but by the hiring company. Moving Expense is always negotiable unless the job is advertised with no relocation. If there is no mentioning of it in a job description or advertisement then bring it up. But if you bring it up, don't bring it up in the beginning because they will be quick to say no to cut cost. What I did was after receiving an offer, I told them I'd have to think about it because of the relocation cost and all of them immediately came back to me saying they will help with the cost because by that time they already decided they wanted me and would probably be cheaper to pay for my relocation then to have the opening extended.

My employer gave me a limit of $5k for relocation

Hope that helps

[Glossa]

Originally Posted by Over

Talking to a couple of HR reps, they mentioned that when they receive "out-of-state" resumes, they usually get tossed into the trash..

I think that's a good thing. First consideration should be given to the qualified applicants who already live here.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by Master Shake

I see a lot of job openings for the Alief ISD. Is that because it has high turnover? Or is there another reason? What is your personal experience working at Alief ISD?

I would say it's because the law states all jobs for a public school (non charter, I believe) must be posted for x amount of days.

Also, are a lot of racial/cultural dynamics in play there.

I'm in an interracial marriage and used to work in very poor neighborhoods in Chicago. I understand many different cultures.

I've seen white Teach For America teachers get eaten alive in Alief.

And yes, some of their schools (especially middle) are tough.

[Norlan]

Got an IT job here in Houston, got discovered by recruiter on Linkedin, first phone interview, then flew in for in person interview, received offer letter.

BAM

what's down the road in Houston in the future? down to how well you can network with the locals in here.

[DejaBlue]

No offense but in reading through the responses it sounds like everyone who found a job in a snap here did so because they're in a specialized field. You said you're just looking for a regular office job in a lot of different areas. Do you have a specific field where you have a lot of experience or is it typically an administrative assistant for a lot of different areas?

Those jobs are all over the place and it's interesting to watch. Admins types do a lot but it's not rocket science for basic offices. Now law, engineering, IT firm, etc you can't be just out of high school but they'd probably give the job to a BA/BS a few years out of college struggling to find a job in their field. At least of the people I know.

I rarely see people relocate for a job like that. Relocation IMO is for a specialized field and a hefty paycheck because it's a struggle. Those job postings are everywhere and expendable.