Moving across the country with no offer lined up. Anyone had success?

Interested In people's experience with this as well, particularly moving to London or Singapore.

Depends on what your other options are. Are you currently employed? What is your resume like? It could vary somewhere between a great idea and disastrous.

Depends on what your other options are. Are you currently employed? What is your resume like? It could vary somewhere between a great idea and disastrous.

Currently employed, decent resume (internships and full time experience) with recognizable names. Need a change of pace in a more of a finance hub.

bump for your thoughts

I personally wouldn't because employers may tend to write you off if they see that you're currently unemployed.

don't do it. use that money saved up to pay for travel expenses to interviews. seen too many friends try this, hasn't worked out once.

What would be considered a long gap in employment given that my prior job would be from a different state.

Also, I am 25 years old and figured if I don't do it soon I probably won't ever be able to do it.

Finding a job will probably take at least 3-4 months from start to finish. If you need a Visa longer.

It could take longer than that 6-8 months and you could start to get into dangerous territory... longer than a 6 months to a year is a long time. My brother moved country with out a job but he had already setup two interviews before he flew out and got two job offers so he was lucky. You can make your own luck. Do as much as you can from here first before flying out.

Can you move abroad internally? That's what I did and it's the easiest way.

If your living expenses are going to be lowest in Stamford, CT, then move there. You have easy access to firms in NYC, CT. My advice would be to email alums in the Tri-state area and arrange informational interviews as often as possible.

Frame the requests to meet as a desire to learn more about their industry, not nag them for a job.

Hopefully, the MBB thing works out but for now, keep hustling.

If I were you I would accept a lower position... any kind of analyst at any kind of firm, not just IB stuff... analyst with a less prestigious bank, consulting firm, insurance company, f500 company... with your stats you should be a shoe-in. Since the vast majority of those positions only require a 40-50hr/week time commitment, you will be free to spam your contacts after hours, or straight from the office if necessary.

And yes, move to stamford for easier access to the big names.

I say all this because you are getting close to the "wtf have you been doing for the last year?" range for interview questions sir.

First off, sorry about your situation. Sucks to have done that well at a good school and not have it lead to anything. As MissingNo mentioned above, I think one of your biggest concerns is about the "wtf have you been doing for the last year?" question. So, anything you can do that can provide a half-decent experience to discuss would be huge.

With networking, I really think meeting face to face is the way to do it so positioning yourself in a location to make that more realistic is a good move. Also, moving to make this more feasible really shows your hunger for breaking into the industry that I think people will respect. Anyone can talk about how much they want to be in banking/consulting, but this will help to back up those statements.

Finally - with the health insurance thing, only you can determine that. I think its pretty risky to go without it as you never know when some freak accident might happen. I had a month or two after graduation where I wasn't on the parents plan any longer but was able to find some temporary, minimal coverage for ~$50 a month.

Hey Guys, Thank you for the helpful advice. This seems like what I'm going to be doing come end of Christmas. I'll move down there and try to land temp work while looking for a more stable lower tier company job (to answer the "WTF have you been doing???" Question). Overall, I will be continually networking to break in off-cycle into a major firm or look into a solid boutique firm. Armed with my resume, networking knowledge, and hustle, I'll be able to position myself well for a solid role (hopefully in Mgmt Consulting or IBD), something that I will feel is worth all of the effort I've made. And hopefully in a few months, I'll be able to post a WSO Success Story.

Thanks.

I just wanted to give everyone an update. I moved down to the area in the beginning of 2011. I had been maniacally searching for a month. Finally, one day I decided to go door to door at PE/HF firms around the area. Last week, I got a call from the partner at a PE firm I walked into and they offered me an internship. I started working there last week and they're having me do some real quality work so far (hit the ground running with updating valuations, DCF modeling, and other good stuff).

I wanted to share with everyone that even if the job search sucks dick for a while (7 months since I graduated.......), something will come up if you push hard enough. With that in mind, I'm looking to have a great 10-12 weeks here, then going to lever my experience into a FT IBD position ideally.

I did have some questions regarding this though. I've talked to a couple people associated with WSO and they've given me some great advice so far, and I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on what steps to take to best position myself for IBD?

Thanks guys.

It would be better for your savings account for you to try and network and search for an IB job in the bigger city and then upon getting an offer, move to the new city.

what I moved to the bigger city already still doing audit? Do you think it's good idea to look for IB jobs right away for wait a little?

Why wait? As soon as you get to the big city, start networking your ass off.