Reply #4: Pretty much do really

[dmallind]

Ironically I just got off an interview call in California (I live in NY) and even though it's a job for which I am eminently qualified and have lots of relevant experience the one big concern is relocation investment (and this is in the Central Valley, not the high priced real estate of the coast, and for a company where such expenses would be a rounding error on a financial statement). I'm at the career level where relocation is the norm - I'm on my seventh state - and it's never been raised as even a passing concern in my three other job searches at this level.

I am not whining either as I would certainly be doing the same thing in their shoes - there are so many well-qualified candidates who are unemployed or underemployed who are either local or at least much easier relocations more familiar with the area. To get a relocation now you have to be a highly specific fit in desperately short supply or so overqualified that normally you would be seen as too much of a risk. I'm seeing a bit of both and getting some nibbles, but obviously a much tighter market than before where I had a choice of three different locations all of which were relocations of at least 800 miles.