username.exe

Do you have a friend or family member over there whose address you can borrow?

I was in a similar situation, and simply used the closest address to the job I was applying for. No prospective employer checked whether I was residing there, or sent any physical mail... it simply prevents your application getting tossed in to the bin at square one.

FWIW I think I used a similar statement on my resume re:GC holder. Got interviews and a job. (That was on the advice of a recruiter).

Dust off your LinkedIn profile, and make sure you get written 'Recommendations' on there from your current colleagues before you leave the UK. These are invaluable, and US recruiters love to use LinkedIn.

I was contacted by a few as soon as I simply changed my 'location' setting on LinkedIn. Once you do that, you may find a few contacting you - if you're no in the country they won't touch you with a barge pole. If you can swing it, bring yourself over with a deep pool of emergency funds, contact recruiters, and apply to everything with a local address.

Good luck!

danheath

I think a US citizen would be unlikely to have an entirely foriegn-based educational and employment history. I guess I could go for the US PO box address along with a local US phone number and hope that my resume's work/education history doesn't make people think I'm probably foriegn. Or, I can assume that they will and address it concisely in the cover letter with the phrase "fully authorised to work in the US".

I certainly agree that not mentioning "green card" or "visa" would be beneficial.

danheath

Thanks for the advice. I think I need to commit to either Austin or Irvine, then I can change my location on LinkedIn. Totally agree about the endorsements on LinkedIn and I'm in the process of getting current and previous colleagues say some (hopefully) nice things about me.

Nearest address I could use would be in California which would be a bit far away for Austin. Just looking into setting up a PO box address with UPS but it looks like you need to go the store that hosts the box to show 2 forms of ID.

I'm definitely leaning to taking a pre-immigration trip out there to get things sorted. Thanks again.

petitefrancaise

Link to Indeed
External Careers

recruiting heavily for Austin.
Use "allowed to work normally in the USA"
They do their own recruitment and are used to dealing with people from all over the place.

Austin is great......

Pulaski

/channeling Nutek.

mandela

In a pretty similar position myself. Also looking at the IT sector for Project Management.
I've sent my resume away to a number of places but haven't even had a reply. It was just my CV, as-is, though as I didn't realise they were different. From what I now understand they don't want a 3 page word document over there so I need to change it.

I did apply for a couple of jobs online and got a response from both. Neither positive but at least it was a reply.

I land in 3 weeks so in a week or so I'll contact the Agent I was put in touch with and see if I can build that relationship.

I didn't plan on working straight away as a couple of months off sounded quite appealing but now it's getting closer realism is usurping idealism and I think a job ASAP is the better move...even from a purely practical standpoint i.e. securing credit, etc.

Owen778

I guess it doesn't help you now, but while there are still differences, UK CVs shouldn't have been a 3-page Word document for at least of couple decades either.

mandela

The reality is that they are though. As a contractor my CV has served me well in Scotland. My application:interview hit rate has been pretty high and I've never been short of contact from Agents so it's done its job here. It's clearly not doing it stateside though so will need to change it up. That said, my Scottish phone number and non Americanized spelling won't have been helping either.

Been looking at a few examples and they're really short and generic. Not much scope to differentiate yourself so looks like I'll need a bit of luck and play the numbers game.

danheath

Regarding securing credit; if you have an Amex, it can be transferred to the US via their global transfer program. It doesn't move any credit history across but it does mean you get a credit card without having US credit history and can start building your US credit score. I think you have to have had the UK account for a minimum of 3 months prior to transferring.
We still have a couple of months until we head out. Best of luck finding a job. Let me know how you get on.

Pulaski

To some degree you need to have a résumé that you are comfortable with. Most that I see are two pages, as is mine, actually mine is slightly more, but the difference is a bullet point list, at the top, of key skills, experience, and qualifications, which I re-edit and re-order for each job that I apply for.

IMO the biggest problem you likely have is a lack of US address and phone number, and to a lesser degree British spellings and phraseology.

mandela

Aye, i seen that on here so I applied for an AMEX and have been using it for the past few weeks.

I actually used to have an AMEX but it was a corporate account. Technically it was in my name and I was given the option of keeping it when i left the company but chose not to. I tried to reactivate that account so I had the history with them but they couldn't find my details as I couldn't provide them with the information they were looking for to verify as it was years ago and I couldn't remember the details.

I'll chance my luck when i get over with a telephone call but I'll probably have to wait a few months. I'll be getting the secured CC asap though.

Cheers, if I find anything useful in my search I'll pass it on in here.

mandela

I'm going to edit it and include a VOIP number. I've recently changed all the spelling too so hopefully I get a bit more success over the coming weeks.

Like Dan said, it'd be nice to have something lined up for soon after i arrive. It wasn't my initial plan but as I said pragmatism is taking over as the move draws nearer.

ian-mstm

You aren't obligated to list your education (beyond your highest degree) on a resume, and you don't need to list where you got your work experience. You might want to try thinking outside the box. For example if you have a BSc, that's a dead giveaway that you're not from the US... because in the US you'd have a BS... or BA, or MS/MA.

I agree with the comments about getting a US post office box or similar.

Ian

livinginnyc

Just chipping in here - as I posted something *very* similar about a week or so ago from an NYC perspective, as I'm in a similar position.

On the phone front -
As others have mentioned, VOIP until you get here - I had a US number connected to my Skype account that I could take calls on, after moving here I changed it to a GB number so friends/family could call me on a local rate number. It's pretty stable/reliable as long as you have good cell signal and/or WiFi.

On the resume front -
Under recommendation from this forum, I found a resume writer online that specialized in my field (media), and I connected with her to discuss my situation, past and ideal positions here. She reviewed my current resume (for free), and provided a ton of feedback. I ultimately paid her to do a total rewrite and I'm still working with her on some tiny tweaks.

I can't say for sure if this will work for you, but definitely something to consider - I'm really impressed with the work I've got back so far and am going to start using it hopefully next week to attract recruiters.

She did dramatically re-do my entire work history - if you're interested, I can detail some of the changes but its way more case-study focused now rather than previous lists of responsibilities.

I did raise the point about concerns on putting down if I have work authorization or not, and we ultimately agreed to put in a one liner on the bottom of the second page: Work authorization: US green card holder - The ideology behind this was that If the recruiter had scanned down to the bottom of the second page, I was of interest and it avoided the question of 'Oh you have a British accent?' on the screening call.

Long story short - It's looking less likely I'm going to have to fall back to 'Plan B' of dancing in Times square... Hope this helps!

dj6372

The company I work for is on a big recruitment drive (strange really we just let 22 go....but anyway)

This is how we assess all applicants.

Resume, short and sweet!
Start with current job title and company (leave out the UK part) and work down your previous history.
Any language skills (we look for fluent in English, Spanish a bonus, may sound odd but this is Cali)
Qualifications/Schooling, Managers are always 'required' to have a Bachelors.

That's pretty much it, any more than 2 pages it won't get read. Don't waffle about how you turned around the whole company around by hard work, there's a time for that further in the process.
Personally I wouldn't mention that you have a GC or are authorised to work, this will get checked pre employment anyway. The assumption is you ARE authorised!

Also important is a cover letter, if your resume goes in the yes pile, the next filter is the cover letter, Brits may not be used to these, but this is where you sell yourself, your achievements, goals, and salary expectations. A good cover letter will get you into the interview pile. Be prepared to brag/big yourself up, don't be a modest Brit, this is AMERICA!! Lol
Now the requirement for a Bachelors with Managers is to prevent all and sundry sending in resumes, we will look at experience, 5+ years as a manager will get you in the maybe pile.

Don't use terms like 'reliable', 'hard worker', 'good timekeeping', 'result driven' This is all useless tattle that is expected anyway.

Interviews will be different, and you may have 3 or more, be prepared to discuss salary expectations, do some research and find out the going rate for the job and make sure its within the state you are applying, Salaries vary widely across states, add 5-10k on to what you really want.

I will emphasize again, sell yourself big, Brits are appallingly modest, you don't want to lose out because a loud mouth, big headed American sold him/herself better.

Don't get disheartened if you don't hear back, with 100+ applicants for a job, it ain't happening!!

Good luck to you all.