Finding a Job in America

Jobs as a result of specific advertisements have the advantage of someone in your corner to prepare the paperwork demanded by the US authorities. Removal expenses and help with finding a house and car may be available too (if only on a semi-informal basis).

Once the job's accepted, though, there's little or no choice as to which part of the country you'll have to live in. Having no job to go to does at least enable you to consider a wide range of possible places. Nevertheless a bird in the hand remains better than two in the bush.

Check out the Travelling

An extended visit if you have no job arranged could enable you to see not just a particular city, but to check out feasible commuting. Freeways may imply swift movement between, say, downtown Washington DC and central Baltimore, but rush-hour traffic may in practice suggest otherwise. Riding the buses may show how slow public transport really is unless you can live and work near an express route (or a stop on the underground if you are considering one of the few cities to have one).

Checking out the Area

An extended visit can be used to:

• check out whether or not an area appeals
• check out whether housing costs are appropriate
• check out schools, public and private.

Think in terms of why you are considering the USA:

• Can your love of the Rockies be met by living in Boston?
• Could you afford to ski if you lived in New Orleans?
• You may love New York City 's television, but could you live with only three stations in the mountains of North Carolina?
• You may relish the cultural diversity of the USA but what if you were to find yourself stuck in an almost all-white, Bible-belt town on the one hand or the racial battlefield of the South Bronx on the other?

It's very risky going to the USA for the first time after arranging a job. Ideally a month is needed to get the feel of the country, including at least a week at the proposed job location and a week in the surrounding area. A car is essential for getting about except perhaps in New York City, Washington DC and San Francisco. If you want to visit the suburbs away from public transport routes a car is still essential.

Beginning to Job Hunt

Job hunting is hard enough at the best of times. Trying to do it at a distance can be next to impossible.

• A reconnaissance trip to start with can pay off handsomely if only to get you a toe in the water.
• A lot of letters will have to be written. This is true in the UK, and it's going to involve a far higher failure rate doing it from overseas, so you'll need to send off that many more enquiries.
• You'll need as large a source of names and addresses as possible. This book can only hope to start you off. You'll need to do considerable detective work in your own field to dig out more. You can always write any of the association names from the following pages into your favourite search engine and see what emerges. Though Web page information is rarely as up to date as people expect, it is usually far more recent than anything in a printed directory.
• Read 'Selling to the Americans' in James Hogan (ed) Exporting to the USA, Market Link Colchester 1988-89 for a useful overview of US business culture.
• National Business Telephone Directory , published by Gale Research Company of Detroit Michigan since 1956 (available in large city reference libraries).
• National Fax Directory also by Gale (has addresses, faxes and phone numbers for 180,000 fax users across the USA). Published annually.

• City Business Library, 1 Brewers Hall Garden, London EC2 (Tel: (020) 7638 8215 for opening times).
• CIEE, 52 Poland Street, London W 1 V 4JQ (open for directory consultation 9.30-5.30 Monday-Friday).
• Price-Jamieson (www.priejam.com) is an international recruitment agency that uses a straightforward site gathering job opportunities into a dozen categories such as IT, PR, Health. You can create your own CV or Price Jamieson can inform you of their latest vacancies matching your submitted details.