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| Summary |
If you want to make a career move to another city, you need to do more than just pack up and go. Transferring to a different city requires careful planning and preparation. The following are key points to consider when moving your career to another city.
First and foremost, it's important to consider how the move will affect your current career. Consider which job opportunities the new city will offer, and how you can transfer your current skills and experiences to the new city. Make sure you research the job market in the city you are moving to, as well as the job requirements and salary ranges.
It's also important to prepare yourself financially for a move. Make sure you have saved enough money to cover the cost of the move, including moving expenses and temporary housing costs. Once you have relocated, you should budget and plan carefully so that you have enough money to cover your new living expenses.
Networking should also be an integral part of the moving process. Research the professional or industry organizations in the city you're moving to, and join them. Networking is a great way to make connections that can help you find job opportunities. Attend meetings and events to increase your visibility among employers and peers.
Finally, don't overlook the importance of transitioning yourself socially. Move to an area that offers social activities that you enjoy. Get to know your new community by exploring the city and familiarizing yourself with the local culture.
Moving to another city for your career requires careful preparation and planning. First, consider how your move will affect your current career. Research the job market, prepare yourself financially and network with professional organizations in the new city. Finally, don't forget to transition socially. Moving your career to another city can be a great experience if you are prepared for the move.
Moving Your Career to Another City
When considering a job change, many people feel changing cities is the hardest part. Making the decision to move can be overwhelming, and packing up your life and settling into a new area can be stressful. However, the rewards for taking the leap can be huge, including the infinite possibilities a new city can bring to your career. Before you make the move, research the new area and be certain that you will fit into the life of the new city.Research the City's Demographics
Before you move to a new city, it is important to research the local job market and its ability to support your career goals. Take a look at job postings and average salaries to consider if you will gain or lose income in the move. Researching reports on the region's demographics can help you decide if this is the right move. Finding a city with a respective economy gives you access to more job opportunities and diverse offerings.Consider Education and Resources
In addition to the job market, think about the educational opportunities that the area offers. Does the city have a college or university you can attend? Do they offer seminars or classes in your desired field? Are there any industry-specific organizations in the area? These are great places to find mentors and to network in your field.Evaluate the Cost of Living
Researching the cost of living in the area you are considering a move to is important in making your decision. The cost of housing, taxes, transportation, food, and other services should all be evaluated against wages for jobs in the area. Analyzing these figures will tell you if this is a move you can afford.Explore the City Before Moving
Before officially committing to the move, the best advice is to physically explore the city. Take the time to visit the city and explore the local culture and amenities. What is the transportation like? Are there parks or outdoor activities you will enjoy? Keep in mind your ideals and values when evaluating the city. The quality of life is just as important as career dreams when deciding on a new city.There is nothing more exciting than leaving one area of the country and going to a new area to start a new career and life. One of the advantages of having chosen a career in the fluid legal industry is that you do have the option of living in other parts of the United States or even the world. We have helped plenty of attorneys and other legal staff find jobs when they wanted to move from one city to another. We believe that we have made a positive difference in the quality of many.
When considering relocating, remember the first question you will always be asked is why? Deciding to relocate to a city with which you have minimal ties may not be attractive to a firm who is seeking loyalty and stability. You must think through the reasons that you have for relocating and whether those reasons will appeal to potential employers.
Before you pack your bags, however, it is important to distinguish the types of legal professionals that are likely to have the most success in relocating from those who will not have success. It is also important that you know which markets are going to most likely be receptive to your efforts to relocate there. If you've spent some time reviewing the jobs we have available, you've quickly realized that there are countless opportunities in many of the markets. As much as we hate to say it, your success in getting any of these positions will be dependent upon numerous factors which, in many cases, will have more to do with forces beyond your immediate control than with what you can control.
Several times on a daily basis, legal personnel in other markets who are seeking to relocate to a given market conduct searches on LawCrossing.com. We have found that a fair number of legal professionals wish to relocate to another area of the United States.
When relocating to a given market, it is extremely important that you have a good sense of how the relocation process works and the issues that affect it. Your success in relocating to a given market will be influenced by a variety of factors; however, we believe two of the more important factors are:
- What type of legal professional you are
- Where you are relocating to
Your success in relocating to a given market will generally be better if you practice in a given area of the law that is in high demand at the time. Before we go into some detail about this, you should know the following. First, if you have worked at a good law firm in the city you are in and have first-rate experience, you will have a very good chance of relocating if your primary experience is in a:
- Document Processing Jobs
- Administrative Job
- Marketing Job
- Human Resources Job
- Receptionist Jobs
- Financial/Accounting Jobs
B. The Challenge of Relocating as a Paralegal, Legal Secretary or Contract Attorney
While legal professionals are almost always in demand in both good and bad economies, it is often more difficult for legal professionals whose primary experience is litigation-oriented to relocate than other types of legal professionals for the most part. Second, legal professionals with corporate experience are extremely marketable when the economic climate is good and can easily be relocated to other areas of the country. Legal professionals with corporate experience often also have the luxury of being marketable just not in other areas of the United States but in other areas of the World. When the economic climate is failing, legal corporate-oriented legal professionals have a very difficult time finding work and may even be laid off. Third, the more specialized the practice area a legal professional is in, and to the extent those skills are transferable to another firm, the more marketable they will be.
The following are our observations about the success different types of attorneys are likely to have in relocating to a different market.
1. Legal Professionals in the Litigation Field
While litigation-oriented legal professionals are almost always in demand in a given market (even during recessions), they do have a slightly more difficult time relocating on an ongoing basis than other legal professionals. For the most part, then, a litigation-oriented legal professional must have outstanding credentials to consider relocating to a given market. There are some exceptions to this rule, however, and these will be discussed below.
First, the good news. When the economy slows down, many types of legal professionals, such as those in corporate-oriented environments, have a very difficult--if not impossible--time relocating regardless of the strength of their resumes. Conversely, lawsuits can drag on for years and even pick up to some extent when the economy cools. Thus, litigation-oriented legal professionals are almost always marketable to some extent regardless of the state of the economy.
The bad news is that it is far more difficult for litigation-oriented legal professionals to relocate.
One of the reasons it is more difficult for litigation-oriented legal professionals who are not truly stellar to relocate is because there are so many of them. There are far more litigation-oriented legal professionals than tax, ERISA and corporate-oriented legal professionals, for instance. The desks of administrative supervisors in major firms are littered with the resumes of litigation-oriented legal professionals, and for hiring personnel it is often far easier for them to hire local talent than attorneys relocating unless the litigation-oriented legal professional is stellar.
For litigation legal secretaries, for instance, there are also several less-than-obvious risks to hiring an out-of-state secretary unless the secretary has some really stellar qualifications. Finally, there are various rules for pleadings, filing requirements and all sorts of things that are unique to each jurisdiction and court that litigation secretaries may practice in. The learning curve is often far steeper for out-of-state litigation secretaries than for local secretaries, and such laterals who work in the litigation field generally need far more training than their counterparts practicing other types of law.
You must also be aware of the various requirements for paralegal certification from state to state. Many states such as California require paralegals meet certain requirements before they can work as paralegals. You should also be aware of the type of practice. If you have already had substantial federal experience, you know that federal courts are guided by the same general rules of procedure and evidence. Your skills in one state court may not be readily transferable in a different state, depending on their various rules of procedure and practice.
2. Corporate Legal Professionals
Corporate legal professionals are the easiest types of legal professionals to relocate. In fact, corporate legal professionals can generally pick and choose the types of areas of the United States they want to relocate to if they have solid experience and are coming from a top law firm. A corporate paralegal attorney in New York, for instance, could relocate to Detroit, Miami, or even Memphis if they were strong enough.
However, the negative aspect to this reality is that corporate legal professionals are not always marketable, and their marketability will be dependent upon the state of the economy to a greater extent than litigation legal professionals. Additionally, a corporate legal professional attorney coming out of a major legal market and law firm in a city such as New York or Palo Alto will be far, far more marketable than a corporate legal professional coming out of a lesser known legal market for the most part. The perception is that corporate legal professionals coming out of a major legal market and firm will have far better and sophisticated legal experience than corporate legal professionals coming out of lesser-known markets.
One reason that corporate legal professionals are very marketable is because the skills they learn--if they have the right type of training--are transferable. Additionally, depending on the type of experience, corporate legal professionals who become specialized often have skills that are greatly in demand.
A legal professional with specialized skills can be truly marketable if there is a firm that needs those types of skills. The legal professional could be marketable in Los Angeles, Austin, St. Louis, and all sorts of places, while her counterparts without those types of skills would not be. In fact, if that legal professional were one of only a handful of legal professionals in the country with her particular types of skills, she might even have close to guaranteed employment in doing that particular type of work.
Corporate legal professionals tend to be most marketable in large Metropolitan areas and also in growing areas. Certainly, being a corporate legal professional has some very real rewards because, as a corporate legal professional, you develop a skill set which is marketable in more than one place in the country at a time.
The downside to the marketing of corporate legal professionals is that when the economy slows, so does much of the corporate legal professional's work. In fact, when layoffs occur in law firms' corporate legal professionals are often the first to go. This manic up-and-down demand for corporate legal professionals means that a corporate legal professional's likelihood of relocating is extremely dependent upon the state of the economy.
