Applying to Out of state jobs

Hey Roberto,

Just like you I am a resident of New York State. I began my coding journey roughly 6 months ago, and I just accepted for my first developer job last week. When I applied to jobs, I applied to jobs in New York, DC, Austin, Seattle, Boston, and of course the Bay Area. While I only heard back from a few employers, they all required me to attend an in person interview. Unless you have the means to fly out to these locations for interviews, then there is not much to gain. I received an interview in Washington, DC and I drove down 4 hours in order to interview and 4 hours back. I did not get the job but the interview experience was priceless. So based on my experience, most places not local to you wont pay much attention to your resume. I would say based on my numbers you are 5x more likely to hear back from local jobs than out of state ones. Also, you must be able to pick up and drive/fly to these places. In the end, try and get a local internship/apprenticeship/job, before moving out of state. It will be a lot easier to get your second job after your first developer job. If you are set on living in a different state, you may be better off relocating there first in order to increase your odds at securing a job there.

Best of luck Roberto - Your friend, Robert

There's an old adage that you should apply for every job that you think you'd like to do and worry about the details if you get it. I think that applies here.

For one, many companies have multiple offices - it could be that even if they don't hire you for the job you applied for, you'll be offered another locally (that happens A LOT - I was even talking to a guy here in Melbourne who said they don't even bother to advertise junior dev jobs anymore because enough people who should be applying for junior positions apply for higher level jobs they're not qualified for, so they have a constant stream of junior position applications coming through the door - remember you can solicit companies that aren't openly advertising. Don't annoy them, or sending generic resume's, but reaching out to them and saying hey, this is what I'm doing, I really want to work for you one day, please keep me on file (and show how you're working towards that goal) can click with the right hiring manager, and I know people in serveral fields that have gotten jobs this way. Just.. you know... not spammy!

Now down to moving. I would say it's unlikely that a company will pay for moving costs for a junior level new starter. They'll often make a lot of allowances for you and do what they can to help, but fronting you the money for moving services, temporary rent, etc is unlikely. Moving is also a big deal, especially if it's interstate, so decide in advance how willing you'd be to move, what it would be worth moving for, etc.

At the end of the day, for the first job, you should be applying for anything and everything. It says junior/grad front end dev, but then also says needs java, and you don't know java? Who cares, apply. It says needs 2 years experience in similar role? guess what? If someone had 2 years experience in the same job, why would they be applying for this one? Job requirements are wishlists. If you apply for a job you're not qualified for (but are totally honest about what you can do) the absolute worst case scenario is you don't get the job. It's wasted like... 45 mins to an hour tweaking your resume and cover letter for the job.

If you want to move states, if the opportunities are great enough, but the financial reality isn't there yet, I would say just keep applying, take something local , get 6 months on your resume, save for the move and apply again. Just apply to out of state jobs as an addition to applying for every local job you can find, not instead of.

Ultimately you will get there. I know it's daunting and just.. argh applying for jobs is the worst, but even the ones you only get an interview for prepare you for the next. Just keep applying and treat every call back like it's google/microsoft/apple on the phone. Most of all just keep applying. I've met so many people at meetup groups now who've been studying for 6 months or more and say "I'm just trying to get ready to apply for jobs" or "I've been applying for a couple of jobs a week for a month now (so, like what? 8 jobs total) but haven't heard back yet". My advice, at lunch search today's job listings and find 3 jobs you'd like to apply for, when you get home pick one of the three and apply. If you have time do another, etc, repeat until sucess