Making contact with potential employers who are thousands of miles away is not always an easy matter. Conducting your job search from within the United States itself can work out more satisfactory. You then have a chance to see what conditions are like, assess job prospects and employers, and understand what you are letting yourself in for.

However – and I cannot stress this point too much – in order to be able to work in the United States you need to be in possession of the appropriate kind of work visa. If you are not, before you take up a position you must seek to regularise your status with US Citizenship and Immigration Services. (The local offices are listed in Appendix G.) This is no mere formality, and there is no guarantee that you will be granted the necessary permission.I

f you possess a Permanent Resident Card (the ‘green card’) there is no problem. This document indicates that you have been granted permanent residence, and allows you to get a job anywhere without restriction. In most other situations, the employer will have to obtain permission to employ you, and since it can take months to get the necessary go-ahead, many firms will think twice before taking you on.

The subject of visas has been dealt with in Chapter 2. This chapter is aimed mainly at people who have the necessary permission to work in the United States. However, it will also be of interest to anyone who decides to visit America for a holiday or business trip and carry out a job reconnaissance at the same time.

You may be fortunate enough to come across an employer who offers you a job on the spot, but it is just as valuable to glean information about the jobs market that will be useful to you in the future.As in the UK. there is no one certain way of finding a job, and you will achieve success sooner if you try a variety of approaches. Where you base yourself is also crucial.

Generally speaking, you need to position yourself in an area where there are plenty of opportunities in your particular field. This will normally mean in or near a large and expanding commercial or industrial centre. In this respect California, New York and parts of Texas are better bets than Wyoming or South Dakota.

Should I Approach An Employer Direct?

The direct approach can be very productive, especially if you research the jobs market thoroughly beforehand. You need to identify employers who could make use of your expertise, and in particular ones that appear to be expanding and taking on extra staff. Among the useful sources of information are:

• Commercial and professional directories (see Bibliography). Dun & Bradstreet’s Employment Opportunities Directory is particularly useful because it gives details of the recruitment practices and requirements of different companies.

 

• Reports and articles in newspapers and journals, on radio and TV, particularly the business news.

 

• Professional associations, careers counsellors, friends and acquaintances.

 

• The Internet. Many companies have their own websites.

 

You then need to see if you can identify individuals within the organisation who might be interested in your expertise and have the authority to recruit personnel. In small outfits this could well turn out to be the managing director himself. Otherwise, contact the personnel officer, who in larger firms is likely to have the title Vice President of Human Resources.

This step involves one of the following procedures:

A Personal Visit

If the organisation is in the locality where you are staying, you could call in and ask about current and future recruitment needs. If things look promising, see if you can make an appointment with the relevant person and leave a copy of your résumé (American style CV). If the firm is a small one you may be lucky enough to see someone straight away, but normally you will have to make an appointment for a later date.

Be prepared to ask questions about the organisation itself and how a person with your experience and qualifications would fit in. Before leaving, see if you can pick up brochures about the organisation. Such information could prove useful at some future meeting.