Obviously, I have not posted anything for many days. I have been busy addressing issues that develop when a couple or family relocates for the job. Specifically, I am focusing my job search on the local area. Prior to relocating, this area had received little of my attention.
While I am in the process of changing careers, I feel it is only prudent to continue keeping the doors open to other opportunities. We are fortunate my wife has found a great job and for right now, we can get by on the one income plus my very limited earnings. I am returning most of my earnings to developing the business.
However, if you are not planning on striking out on your own in a new business venture, and you have relocated due to your partners new job, then you are going to have to make some decisions about your career. Obviously, since you have relocated with your partner, you either determined that there would be opportunities for you in the new area. Or, your financial situation required taking the job and hoping to find work for yourself, once in the area.
Of course, you have another option. If you fell into the latter group above, you may not have many opportunities in the new area. I have encountered this situation. There are few job openings for my skills in the area, with tremendous competition from younger candidates. So, if I had to find employment to remain solvent, it would mean accepting a job outside my skill area, or broadening the search to more distant locations.
Since you have relocated with a partner, you are obviously in a relationship of some sort. Obvious questions are, will the relationship withstand the pressures of separation? Or, is the opportunity more important than the relationship?
During part of our marriage, my wife relocated to another area, for her job. I remained behind while continuing my job search and developing another career path. We found both positive and negative aspects from that experience.
Our relationship grew by forcing us to develop a stronger trust in the other. We seldom took for granted, our time together. The time we spent together, whether on the phone or when she came home on weekends, became more focused on sharing, and enjoying each other. But, we had also recognized that everybody needs some time for himself or herself, so we benefited by having our own space or personal time. So you can see, separation due to relocating for a job does have some positives.
On the negative side of the equation, the cost of traveling for weekends, strained our finances. There were many times during each day, when we could have each benefited from the others council, but distance prevented that immediate access. However, even in the best situation, if both partners work in the same area, there are times when access to each other is restricted. We learned to work around that by using email and discussing the issues during our evening phone conversations. Those phone calls were important.
I suppose the lack of physical closeness, was the most difficult part of that time. Just like Donkey, in the Shrek movie, there are times when we all need a hug. Our situation may have been more difficult because we were both still coping with a recent family tragedy. But through that adversity, I believe that our relationship did grow stronger, and each of us found and developed greater inner strength.
So, from personal experience, I know some relationships are strong enough to withstand extended periods of separation. If you have no doubt about the strength of your relationship, then broadening your search area is certainly an option. However, if you have doubts, what can you do?
The most obvious answer is take the first available job offer in your location, regardless of how it may or may not utilize your skills. This has advantages of keeping you and your partner together, and earning adequate money, while you continue searching for your target job. Remember though, working a job you do not like also strains a relationship, whether or not you immediately recognize it.
You should view this secondary job as survival employment only. Your primary job is searching for your target employment opportunity. This means, rather than spending each evening and weekend enjoying your relationship, doing fun things; you will spend considerable time job-hunting. However, this can be a shared experience, if your partner participates in the job search with you. Shared activities could include Internet searching, or helping customize cover letters and résumés for you, before sending them to prospective employers.
Whether you choose to stay together and work through some lean times or try working separately, your relationship will suffer some bumps. The way you handle those bumps will determine whether you made the right choice. That is the whole point here. It is your choice. Unless you both agree, the arrangement is beneficial; you must realize that, like the survival job, working separately is a short-term solution. Since either choice will probably place some strain on the relationship, eventually it all boils down to each or you making it work.
© Copyright 2005 by David Posival
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Relocating for the Job – Part 2
In my previous post on relocating, I gave you just a few solutions to issues you may face when it is time to move. But, an even more fundamental question has to be answered first. That question is, “do you want to search for, and possibly accept a job in a different part of the country or even the world?” First, if you don’t want to relocate for the job, doing so anyway could make you miserable in the new job and location. However, if your employment opportunities and financial resources are running out, do you have a choice?
The situation my wife and I faced fell into this last group. Our resources were running out and the job market for my wife was flooded with qualified and even overqualified candidates. After being out of work for over a year, I knew that my opportunities, in that area, were few and very low paying, so I decided to change careers. (A possible future topic for this blog) We reached a point where relocation was a necessity.
If you are in this situation, then your choices are limited. If you have decided you do not want to move, then a survival job may be your only alternative. Survival jobs will possibly be a topic for a future post, so I will not cover them here, other than to say, you may be as miserable as you if you had relocated, against your desires. The only difference being the survival job hopefully will be short term, while relocating will likely be a longer-term situation.
However if you decide that relocation is an option, your next decision is “where?” There are so many variables affecting this choice, that I will only cover the most important. For each person the relative importance is different. Just to help get you started analyzing your choices, I’ll give you some variables I considered.
Since my children are grown and live on their own, I did not have to consider the schools in the target area. However, if you have children, this should be high on your list of priorities. Just as important, is the crime and drug abuse characteristics of the target area. One thing I have learned is not just inner-city schools have drug and violence problems. Suburban campuses can be just as bad, but affluence can hide some of the problem.
Other factors you may want to consider are cost of living, state and local taxes, and in the current economic situation, other things like fuel cost, rent or home ownership. Another factor might be climate, if temperature or environmental extremes create problems for you or family members. Susceptible to allergens? Look at environmental conditions in your target area.
In this day and age of political polarization, you may even want to consider the local political majority. Intolerance for divergent political and core beliefs and views, can make living in some areas uncomfortable. Sometimes it is just easier to move to a new area, where you will feel accepted. This is especially true if you have no friends or relatives anywhere near the area. This is unfortunate, but it is just an example of the questions you need to resolve in the decision process.
From this brief list, hopefully you get some idea of factors to consider if you are relocating. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but only food for thought. And of course, each location will present unique challenges to your evaluation process.
For most relocation questions, the Internet can be a terrific information source. Use Google, Yahoo, and any other of your favorite search engines to locate information you need. For instance, to find out about crime in a certain city, enter “crime statistics” and the name and state of the city. You can use the quotes around the subject, as I did above, to filter out a lot of unrelated information. To broaden the search, remove the quotes.
Of course, relatives and friends can be a great source of all types of information, for your target area. Obviously having friends or family in another part of the country can also make the relocation decision easier. But lacking friends or family in your target area, you still have other sources for information.
For instance to locate crime statistics, you can also contact the public information officer of the local police department in your target area. Ask for overall crime statistics for the area, and more specific to the location you are considering for relocation. If they are unable or unwilling to assist you, search the online versions of the area newspapers.
Some newspapers also sell back issues, allowing you to learn much more about the area. I recommend getting at least four issues of their Sunday edition. Selecting some weekday and Saturday copies will also help fill in some gaps in your information. When you purchase papers from your selected areas, reviewing ads for apartments or housing should give you some idea of that expense. If store circulars are included, compare prices with those in your current area.
There are also COL (Cost of Living) or salary calculators on the Internet. This is just one of several I used from Realtor.com. These can be helpful but should not be your only source of information, on that subject. Contact the local Chamber of Commerce for your target area, if you have time for them to respond. Remember though, their focus is to present the best side of the community, so you’ll probably see little negative information.
When my wife had opportunities for interviews in areas requiring relocation, we also used another great method of determining cost of living. We were fortunate to have resources available to allow me to accompany her on some interviews. This allowed me, the grocery shopper, to do price comparisons of common grocery items. I was also able to get real estate and rent information, first hand. From this information, it was easy to determine the relative expense of the respective items in each area.
If your resources are more limited, when you get an interview in your target area, try to arrange for extra time to investigate. You may be able to arrange for the interviewing company to fly you in early enough to spend some time scouting the area, before going to the hotel for the evening. This also demonstrates your seriousness about relocating for the job. A company that is interested in hiring you may be willing to work with you on this, but you’ll never know unless you ask.
The final aspect to cover is the prevalent rate of compensation you can expect in your target area. Using the COL/salary calculators mentioned earlier, you can determine the difference in buying power between your current earnings, and the going rate in the target area. Some job listings will give you salary information, but most will not. However, many low skill jobs are posted with pay information. Comparing low skill jobs there and the comparable back home can also give you some indication of relative worth.
Hopefully, what I have given you here will jump-start your thought process in relocating for the job. If you have discovered other aspects to consider or other sources of information, please post them. There are other aspects to relocating that we may cover in future posts. In the interim, my web link is given below. There you’ll learn more about benefits of getting a new or revised resume.
© 2005 David Posival, All rights reserved.
The situation my wife and I faced fell into this last group. Our resources were running out and the job market for my wife was flooded with qualified and even overqualified candidates. After being out of work for over a year, I knew that my opportunities, in that area, were few and very low paying, so I decided to change careers. (A possible future topic for this blog) We reached a point where relocation was a necessity.
If you are in this situation, then your choices are limited. If you have decided you do not want to move, then a survival job may be your only alternative. Survival jobs will possibly be a topic for a future post, so I will not cover them here, other than to say, you may be as miserable as you if you had relocated, against your desires. The only difference being the survival job hopefully will be short term, while relocating will likely be a longer-term situation.
However if you decide that relocation is an option, your next decision is “where?” There are so many variables affecting this choice, that I will only cover the most important. For each person the relative importance is different. Just to help get you started analyzing your choices, I’ll give you some variables I considered.
Since my children are grown and live on their own, I did not have to consider the schools in the target area. However, if you have children, this should be high on your list of priorities. Just as important, is the crime and drug abuse characteristics of the target area. One thing I have learned is not just inner-city schools have drug and violence problems. Suburban campuses can be just as bad, but affluence can hide some of the problem.
Other factors you may want to consider are cost of living, state and local taxes, and in the current economic situation, other things like fuel cost, rent or home ownership. Another factor might be climate, if temperature or environmental extremes create problems for you or family members. Susceptible to allergens? Look at environmental conditions in your target area.
In this day and age of political polarization, you may even want to consider the local political majority. Intolerance for divergent political and core beliefs and views, can make living in some areas uncomfortable. Sometimes it is just easier to move to a new area, where you will feel accepted. This is especially true if you have no friends or relatives anywhere near the area. This is unfortunate, but it is just an example of the questions you need to resolve in the decision process.
From this brief list, hopefully you get some idea of factors to consider if you are relocating. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but only food for thought. And of course, each location will present unique challenges to your evaluation process.
For most relocation questions, the Internet can be a terrific information source. Use Google, Yahoo, and any other of your favorite search engines to locate information you need. For instance, to find out about crime in a certain city, enter “crime statistics” and the name and state of the city. You can use the quotes around the subject, as I did above, to filter out a lot of unrelated information. To broaden the search, remove the quotes.
Of course, relatives and friends can be a great source of all types of information, for your target area. Obviously having friends or family in another part of the country can also make the relocation decision easier. But lacking friends or family in your target area, you still have other sources for information.
For instance to locate crime statistics, you can also contact the public information officer of the local police department in your target area. Ask for overall crime statistics for the area, and more specific to the location you are considering for relocation. If they are unable or unwilling to assist you, search the online versions of the area newspapers.
Some newspapers also sell back issues, allowing you to learn much more about the area. I recommend getting at least four issues of their Sunday edition. Selecting some weekday and Saturday copies will also help fill in some gaps in your information. When you purchase papers from your selected areas, reviewing ads for apartments or housing should give you some idea of that expense. If store circulars are included, compare prices with those in your current area.
There are also COL (Cost of Living) or salary calculators on the Internet. This is just one of several I used from Realtor.com. These can be helpful but should not be your only source of information, on that subject. Contact the local Chamber of Commerce for your target area, if you have time for them to respond. Remember though, their focus is to present the best side of the community, so you’ll probably see little negative information.
When my wife had opportunities for interviews in areas requiring relocation, we also used another great method of determining cost of living. We were fortunate to have resources available to allow me to accompany her on some interviews. This allowed me, the grocery shopper, to do price comparisons of common grocery items. I was also able to get real estate and rent information, first hand. From this information, it was easy to determine the relative expense of the respective items in each area.
If your resources are more limited, when you get an interview in your target area, try to arrange for extra time to investigate. You may be able to arrange for the interviewing company to fly you in early enough to spend some time scouting the area, before going to the hotel for the evening. This also demonstrates your seriousness about relocating for the job. A company that is interested in hiring you may be willing to work with you on this, but you’ll never know unless you ask.
The final aspect to cover is the prevalent rate of compensation you can expect in your target area. Using the COL/salary calculators mentioned earlier, you can determine the difference in buying power between your current earnings, and the going rate in the target area. Some job listings will give you salary information, but most will not. However, many low skill jobs are posted with pay information. Comparing low skill jobs there and the comparable back home can also give you some indication of relative worth.
Hopefully, what I have given you here will jump-start your thought process in relocating for the job. If you have discovered other aspects to consider or other sources of information, please post them. There are other aspects to relocating that we may cover in future posts. In the interim, my web link is given below. There you’ll learn more about benefits of getting a new or revised resume.
© 2005 David Posival, All rights reserved.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Professional Resume Writer or D.I.Y.
I promised more information on relocating for a job in my last post. However, I read a short response to a reader's question, in the local daily newspaper, that I thought needed to be given further consideration. I promise, there will be more on relocating in future posts.
Now back to the aforementioned article. The reader was questioning whether it was necessary to spend money on a professionally written resume, or do it yourself. The very short, and I feel poorly thought out response was: “Go to the library…find a book…and do it yourself.” The response came from a journalist, who is promoting a new book about finding and keeping a job. Obviously, she was never a hiring manager or worked in the real world, where the right resume, is the difference between getting interviews or reject letters and notices.
The truth is that for some people writing their own resume is a viable option, while for many more, it is just bad advice. People, who are well motivated, organized, and very knowledgeable in the job market, may be able to develop a good resume. But, there has to be a willingness to spend time researching and identifying information that should and should not be included in a resume. Then there is the actual process of writing the resume, using the right words in the right places to get prospective employer's attention.
When you work with a professional resume writer, you have someone who has all of these resources, to use in presenting you and your SKA's (Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities) in the best way possible. Truthfully speaking, most of the people who use my service lack some part of the successful equation, given above.
Many clients do not have time to research and think through the necessary steps to creating a great resume. Others, realizing how important a resume really is, do not want to risk a mistake, that will stop them from getting interviews, and eventually cost them a job opportunity.
The fear of failure has probably been the greatest reason for using my service. Writing a resume can be confusing and seem like a huge task, when you’re facing the challenge alone. However, under the knowledgeable guidance of a resume professional, each step in the process is accomplished methodically and with a minimum of confusion.
Additionally, during the process, the client has gained many new insights into what they want in a job and the type of job they are honestly qualified for. Several have realized that they had more than one career track available, and have multiple resumes, optimizing their job opportunities. Some have found that their original job desires did not match as well with their personality type as did other jobs, for which,they were equally qualified.
I have edited and expanded resumes, originally created by the client, resulting in their complete satisfaction. Primarily these clients no longer had doubts about accuracy, style, or form. Also, I do know that in almost all cases, when a client gets the final version of the resume, there is a new confidence in their ability to get interviews and a job. From a hiring managers perspective, confidence is one of the most important benefits, when you are interviewing for a job.
Part of the question, posed by the reader, included the concern about spending a “lot” of money on a resume. While it is true that you may not have money for anything but essentials, when you consider what is at stake, a resume becomes an essential. Some resume services are expensive, but shop around. You can find resume writing services that offer reasonable prices and will give you a definite edge in the highly competitive job market.
I suppose for each person using my service, there is a unique set of reasons for their purchase decision. You will have to determine whether or not a professionally written resume is an option, and how much you can afford, if you choose to use one. It’s your choice but a professionally written resume can be a great investment in your future.
Many more benefits of using a professional resume writing service can be found by clicking here.
Now back to the aforementioned article. The reader was questioning whether it was necessary to spend money on a professionally written resume, or do it yourself. The very short, and I feel poorly thought out response was: “Go to the library…find a book…and do it yourself.” The response came from a journalist, who is promoting a new book about finding and keeping a job. Obviously, she was never a hiring manager or worked in the real world, where the right resume, is the difference between getting interviews or reject letters and notices.
The truth is that for some people writing their own resume is a viable option, while for many more, it is just bad advice. People, who are well motivated, organized, and very knowledgeable in the job market, may be able to develop a good resume. But, there has to be a willingness to spend time researching and identifying information that should and should not be included in a resume. Then there is the actual process of writing the resume, using the right words in the right places to get prospective employer's attention.
When you work with a professional resume writer, you have someone who has all of these resources, to use in presenting you and your SKA's (Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities) in the best way possible. Truthfully speaking, most of the people who use my service lack some part of the successful equation, given above.
Many clients do not have time to research and think through the necessary steps to creating a great resume. Others, realizing how important a resume really is, do not want to risk a mistake, that will stop them from getting interviews, and eventually cost them a job opportunity.
The fear of failure has probably been the greatest reason for using my service. Writing a resume can be confusing and seem like a huge task, when you’re facing the challenge alone. However, under the knowledgeable guidance of a resume professional, each step in the process is accomplished methodically and with a minimum of confusion.
Additionally, during the process, the client has gained many new insights into what they want in a job and the type of job they are honestly qualified for. Several have realized that they had more than one career track available, and have multiple resumes, optimizing their job opportunities. Some have found that their original job desires did not match as well with their personality type as did other jobs, for which,they were equally qualified.
I have edited and expanded resumes, originally created by the client, resulting in their complete satisfaction. Primarily these clients no longer had doubts about accuracy, style, or form. Also, I do know that in almost all cases, when a client gets the final version of the resume, there is a new confidence in their ability to get interviews and a job. From a hiring managers perspective, confidence is one of the most important benefits, when you are interviewing for a job.
Part of the question, posed by the reader, included the concern about spending a “lot” of money on a resume. While it is true that you may not have money for anything but essentials, when you consider what is at stake, a resume becomes an essential. Some resume services are expensive, but shop around. You can find resume writing services that offer reasonable prices and will give you a definite edge in the highly competitive job market.
I suppose for each person using my service, there is a unique set of reasons for their purchase decision. You will have to determine whether or not a professionally written resume is an option, and how much you can afford, if you choose to use one. It’s your choice but a professionally written resume can be a great investment in your future.
Many more benefits of using a professional resume writing service can be found by clicking here.
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