It’s no secret that the job market is a tough one. For every job that goes onto the public listings, there are 100 job applications that get put into it. The competition is fierce and with the record level of applications for every role available, employers can afford to be picky. Pickiness leads to long, drawn-out interview processes with up to four stages before an offer or rejection. It leads to being pitted against fifty other applicants and ultimately, the process of looking for a job has become stressful, depressing and simply mundane.
A job is a luxury to have in this world, and it comes as a result of being given a chance. The thing is, when you spend months on end searching and applying for thousands of jobs, sometimes only having one or two interviews and never really getting past interview stage, you could feel like it’s time to give up. Fortunately, you have options. The job search may be a mountain to climb, but if you’re only looking into the local mountains it’s going to be rough, right?
Most people who relocate elsewhere do so because they follow the work. Their job may take them to new towns, nearby cities and even entirely new states, but if that’s where your skills are in demand then that’s what you must do. Packing your things into storage facilities and making a long journey across the country to start a job immediately may seem like a daunting task. Actually, it’s quite the opposite: it’s an adventure. The time you’ve spent running out of savings and hunting for jobs in your local area has been exhausted and as there’s been no results from all your hard work, then looking further afield isn’t going to be a bad thing. If you have a family to consider, there’s even more of a reason to look further away for work. Yes, uprooting them will feel like a huge job; especially where schooling and daycare is concerned. But most jobs come with a relocation package and if they want you that badly, you can do really well out of relocating for a job offer.
Of course, there are other avenues. You could decide to go back to school to study something else so you can break into a new career area. This, however, doesn’t solve the immediate issue of zero cash available to keep paying your bills and rent! You need to make money and if there are no jobs around, you can’t make money, no matter how much you try. Making a huge change is going to be worth it, and one day if you decide you want to move back to your original town you can, because there will be other jobs opening up and you’ll have further skills under your belt to ensure you can secure work. Hunting for work can feel demoralising, but keep that chin up and carry on, because you WILL find work.