courtneyandsam

Hi -

I am a US citizen living in the UK with my British husband.

We are in the process of filling in our I 130 and I know we have a long road ahead, but I was just wondering if anyone has any advice re: applying and interviewing for jobs in the US while abroad.

Are there any recruitment agencies out there that specalise in this? We are looking to move to NY/NJ area and my husband works in sales related industry in a manager/director type role.

Any and all advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Courtney

Jerseygirl

Welcome to BE.

I have moved your thread to our Marriage Based Visas forum. No doubt someone will be along shortly to help you.

ian-mstm

This should probably go in the open USA forum... it's not actually immigration related.

Ian

Jerseygirl

Yes you're right. Thanks.

jeffreyhy

I agree with Ian, and am glad to see the thread has been moved back to where it belongs.

May I also suggest that the 4 irrelevant posts dealing with the move, which include this post, be deleted from the thread to remove the distraction and keep the thread on subject?

Regards, JEff

Pulaski

Generally speaking it is hard, very hard, if not down right impossible in many businesses to get any attention if you are not in the country. It was more than a decade back, but I flew to New York at my own expense, and had a bunch of interviews in just a few days, but had had precisely zero interest while I was still in the UK. The unemployment situation now has likely made finding a job harder today than it was back then.

You may want to use a relative or friend's address on your resumes, or rent a UPS Store mailbox "street address", to create an appearance of being in the US, at least to get your job applications past the first cut screening. If called for an interview, you should be prepared to fly to the US at short notice, although I have found phone interviews to be the norm these days, certainly for the first round and even the second.

Michael

He should also have a VoIP system that also gives him a US and UK phone number and an American email address. Therefore if they contact him, he could fly over fro an interview on short notice if needed.

Pulaski

Good idea, I thought of that but have no experience of the practicalities of it, so decided to leave it to someone who understood it better than I do.

A gmail a/c should serve well enough as a US one, but I was disappointed to discover recently that Google voice wouldn't give me a British phone number.

Bob

LinkedIn and network to buggery and have people make introductions for you, to avoid that black hole that is HR.

Michael

Vonage in the US allows for phone numbers in many countries.

http://www.vonage.com/add-on-features/virtual-number/

Hotscot

I am currently looking for a job and I have tons of relevant experience so I'm also getting tons of interviews. I expect to have offers to chose between.

However the process is very intense.

Rarely will it be a one or two hour interview and then a job offer.
Expect a process than can last weeks if not months. Psychometric testing, skills testing, mathematics, business skills.
All day interviews where you have to give a presentation. Being interviewed by six different managers etc
You may make it into the top three then get called back again for more of the same.
You have to give 110%. It's very mentally taxing.

To find an opportunity I suggest LinkedIn and also attending trade shows in your specialty.
Also, make your international experience a strength, especially if you contact a global company.

(If anyone else needs more insight into the hiring process drop me a note.)

Orangepants

Sounds awful. I got my last job when I met a guy windsurfing at the beach.. Turned out he headed up a very prestigious hedge fund..

Hotscot

Yes, all very well, but as you know that's not a common process. Different folks, different jobs. Especially in my field where I have to interact with top scientists and engineers in the Aerospace and Defense sector.
I get my interviews via personal recommendations but you have to show you know your stuff. No boys network or anything.

It's not awful. Tiring yes...but intellectually stimulating. It's a good process for fine honing your own skills. At my level I very much enjoy these opportunities to discuss my work.

I use the process to interview the organization at the same time they're interviewing me. I want to make sure they're a good fit for me.

Gingerert

When I was in the process of emigrating in 2007/8, I put my resumé on Monster.com and just kinda left it there. I was contacted within a couple of weeks and had a phone interview in the UK before I moved over. It took a while for that step to happen, but because I wasn't able to move straightaway anyway, there was no urgency.

I think I started working for that company about a month or so after I moved, once my SSN and permanent resident card had arrived, and I'd had two in-person interviews.

Leaving my résumé on Monster.com but not actually applying for anything has scored me three jobs. (I wasn't in any rush to change positions in any of those cases, but I figured putting myself out there might show up something interesting.). Definitely the case where a strong résumé worked in my favour, so that's something you'll want to get perfect. Also, my husband was already in the US, so we had an American address and phone number ready to go.

courtneyandsam

Thank you everyone for your replies.