My four months in our nation’s capital at an end (sorry lunch bunch!), I find myself in western Michigan in a one room apartment with no money and no friends within two hours.
But I’m not sad. I know I’ll have money soon and there is one perpetual bright spot — my girlfriend. However, she is in Texas. I, for at least three months, am in Michigan.
As luck may have it, it’s time for me to look for a real job to start in the fall. Since she’s got a year of school left and I can basically go wherever I want, I’ve decided I want to find a job near her in Texas. She’s more than special to me and I want nothing more than to make this one last.
I’m a newspaper reporter, so I’m applying to papers within a 2-hour radius of Austin, where she goes to school. But the newspaper market sucks right now, so I want to look at other options, too. Thing is, I have no idea how to look for a job that isn’t journalism, especially in a state where I have no connections and am thousands of miles from. I don’t even really know what my other marketable skills are, even though I know I must have some.
I come here asking for your help. While it’d be great if any of you could offer me a job, realistically I just want advice on how to find a job when you’re far away and don’t really know what else to do. All I need is something I can support myself with and do a good job with. I can wait a little bit for the newspaper job market to improve.
I open the floor to you, Dopers. All your help is appreciated.
Well, it all depends on what you’ve been doing all this time in DC. Do you have computer skills? A selling attitude? Can you flip burgers? I’m not really sure about Austin, but there are all sorts of entry-level positions in San Antonio. Best thing I can suggest is start mailing your resume. Look online (the Austin newspaper is the Austin-American Statesman) at classified ads, all that sort of thing. Find things you’d be interested in doing, and mail your resume to those companies that advertise. Look at the various job-finder websites as well.
At least, that’s what I’d do…
If all you need is to support yourself, rent and entertainment, you should be able to line up some temp work from Michigan. Try a national staffing agency like Randstad, they’re online.
Still, I’ve been surprised at how difficult it’s been for me to find a real job here. Houston was easy, but in Austin I seem to be totally unemployable. I’m looking for tech work and don’t have much experience, though. Now is not a good time.
Oh yeah, so you can budget, a decent one-bedroom apartment will run you about $450-500/month + electricity and phone. If you haven’t summered in central Texas before, get a place with central air, not a window unit.
-fh
Go to http://www.Austin360.com and click on jobs. All kinds of job postings. Another site you would like is for the local alternative weekly paper The Austin Chronicle. That one is http://www.austinchronical.com. They have job listings in lot of different fields. We have local offices of all the big temp agencys. Most of the good jobs around here with the big corporations seem to come throught the temp agencys. We have a shortage of low cost housing around here, but if you can afford 700 a month for an apartment, there are all kinds of specials and rent rebates to be found. Summers can be hot and humid, but winters are really nice. It almost never snows, but about twice each winter we get some ice and everything shuts down for a day or two.