Job Hunting Help (Publishing/Out of State)
 

So I got laid off from my local publishing job in January. I almost immediately got an interview with a local ad agency/PR firm, but got turned down after the second interview (the position is still open on their website :().

I live in a major-ish city in the Midwest, but there's not a lot of interesting publishing stuff around here (I moved back after college and lucked into a cool, exciting job. Most of the stuff around here is technical publishing, which I worked in for a while and really hated).

I really want to get involved with book publishing, but that pretty much requires a move to SOMEWHERE (Chicago, Boston, NYC, pretty much). I'm submitting resumes, and I'm well qualified and honestly good at what I do, but I'm not getting any responses.

What can I do to make myself more attractive? I know it's going to be really hard to get hired somewhere I don't live, but I'm not willing to move without a job in hand, and I'm also not willing to falsify my address and say I live somewhere I don't.

Does anyone have any advice? Are recruiters/headhunters worth it in publishing? I looked at my college's networking, but there's not a lot in the areas I'm interested in, and I've never met any of the people who do work in those areas. Is it okay just to send them an email or something?

I'm really lost. And sad. Any help/advice/words of encouragement?

1) Take your address off of your resume for out of town positions. It's 2013, and you can get away with phone/email.

2) My favorite career advice blog is Ask A Manager. There's tons of good advice over there on resumes and cover letters.

3) This is a really tough industry right now; I'd try to brainstorm around how you can use your existing skills in a broader range of jobs.

While continuing your job search in your preferred field, I would definitely look at alternatives. I'm afraid print publishing is a shrinking field and maybe getting harder to enter the field.

Something else to consider: while nobody WANTS to, there is no rule that says you can't take a job and dump it as soon as a better one surfaces. I would consider moving to the city where you want to live, and get A job as soon as you can. Temping is a great option to introduce you to a wide variety of career options. People have made a parlor game of the number of fields I've worked in as a result of being a temp in Chicago. And it's how I found my perfect match, previously completely off my radar, of travel agent. I can provide you a mountain of advice on how to be a successful temp if you're interested.

And DBB is right; just leave your address off. Just like during rush, you shouldn't lie, but you don't have to vomit out your life story either.

Well, unfortunately, many of the job have a full application that also requires an address. But I will take it off my resume and cover letter, thanks.

The problem with moving and temping is that 1. I'd probably have to move to NYC, and that scares the pants off me and 2. I have a pretty serious boyfriend who doesn't want to move at all and will only do it if I land my dream job. I don't want to uproot us both for a maybe.

I'm doing copy editing, so it's something that will still be needed even if the "print" part of publishing disappears.