Dear CareerBabe:

My name is Stephanie. I am a Canadian citizen, and I want to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area. How should I get started?

Thank you for your assistance.

Dear Steph:

Thank you for your letter. A job hunt is a job hunt is a job hunt. But usually to get a job long distance will require even more proactive work on your part to establish a network of people in your new target local area . . . Since you are already a computer user, you are well ahead of the game.

Here are 10 Tips for Getting A Job -- your first, second, or even third jobs. Many involve the Internet:

1. Check out your VISA status with the US Government. Will you be allowed to work in the US? Under what circumstances? What permissions/visas do you need? What will a company need to do legally to hire you? What will it cost them?

2. You won't get a job just by using the Internet - but it will help a lot. To learn how to use the Internet for job hunting, read: Be Your Own Headhunter Online (Pam Dixon & Sulvia Tiersten) and Finding A Job On the Internet (Alfred & Emily Glossbrenner).

3. Using a search engine like Infoseek or AltaVista, search for companies in your target geography and target work area that you think you want to interview with. Example: Software companies in Texas. Do these companies have web sites? If so look at each site. Read the press releases for each company. These will help you research the company's market position and give you the names of someone important to write to.

4. Search out Usenet newsgroups on the Internet that relate to job seeking. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are:

"ba.contract.jobs", "ba.jobs", "bay.jobs.offered", "biz.jobs.offered", "ca.jobs.offered", us.jobs.offered", and many, many others

5. Go to the super career sites: www.search.com or to www.jobsmart.org to reach other sites.

6. START READING! This means the newspaper and other papers that relate to what you want to do. Some areas have more than one daily paper, so for the San Francisco Bay Area (for example) you'll want to read The San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle. There are also other good business days you'll need to identify that discuss local companies or job fairs. If you're a computer user, you might want to find the local computer newspapers. These can help you network by listing user groups (and usually there's a person to contact for each)!

7. Start reading the ads in the Wall Street Journal classified.

8. Contact your college or graduate school alumni organization, your church, sports club, etc. and ask for people who have moved to the geographic area that interests you. It is even more ideal if they are alumni who work in your target employment field.

9. Contact the Chamber of Commerce and the Toastmasters clubs in your target geographic area. Contact the CONVENTION CENTER! You'll want to know the conferences that are being held.

10. Tell absolutely everyone this move is your heart's desire. You'd be surprised how many people will want to help you.

Good Luck!