Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
relocateme.substack.com
Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
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Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#2"I did not plan to relocate, but the opening at $your company made me reconsider. I then delved into $location history and culture, and found it really fascinating. Since I am [young|experienced in $oldcareer], I decided it would be worth trying out something new."
Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#3The advice can be generalized even more. When communicating with an employer or potential employer:
-> Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas.
-> Suppress the self.
-> Become a true human resource. You are seeking to sell a large chunk of your life, and the buyers don't want scratched or dented goods. Desires of your own are flaws in the product you are selling.
This is, sadly, sound advice, but I think it's important to reflect on what this means about how incidental human flourishing is in our current political economy.
Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#4Sutton's Law.
Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#5This feels like generically good advice when interviewing in general - show an interest in your potential future employer.
Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#6The advice can be generalized even more. When communicating with an employer or potential employer: -> Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas. -> Suppress the self. -> Become a true human resource. You are seeking to sell a large chunk of your life, and the buyers don't want scratched or dented goods. Desires of your own are flaws in the product you are selling. This is, sadly, sound advice, but…
I don’t think the post says this at all. It’s mostly just common sense, like “don’t tell the interviewer you just want the job for the money and the ability to live abroad.” Instead be interested in whatever the company is doing.
This seems pretty straightforward, but I guess people like OP are exposed to a lot of bad interviewees by nature of their job.
Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#7The advice can be generalized even more. When communicating with an employer or potential employer: -> Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas. -> Suppress the self. -> Become a true human resource. You are seeking to sell a large chunk of your life, and the buyers don't want scratched or dented goods. Desires of your own are flaws in the product you are selling. This is, sadly, sound advice, but…
Well I guess this is an overstatement for the sake of explaining your point and as such it's very effective, but I don't agree with this perspective. The advice tells you to remember that the person hiring you has also put work into that conversation, and that they'll appreciate realizing you have put work into it too. So i think there's an instance of letting our humanity flourish in this, since you're doing an exercise in empathy. There might be too few of these opportunties/spaces left tbh
Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#8This is very good, practical advice. I would go even further and say that you shouldn’t even allow yourself to get into a position where you need to manipulate your answers to interviewers for this question. If the primary reason you want a job is for the relocation, you might be signing up for a job you don’t even like!
I’ve been part of a small number of hiring decisions where relocation was involved. There were a lot of failures exactly like this article talks about: Candidates who will say anything in the interview and even signal that they’ll accept any average salary as long as you’ll take care of their relocation were, in my experience, not interested in doing the work after they got here. Taking the job was a means to an end (getting to their destination) and once they arrived they were either looking for the next job or too busy traveling around their new location to do work.
We tried to mitigate this with clauses requiring them to pay back relocation expenses if they left within N months of arrival, but this didn’t work. They would resign the week after that timer expired or, worse, would start trying to get laid off through poor performance as a way to avoid that clause.
The best fits for relocation were opposite of what I would have thought: The people most hesitant to relocate were the most successful, both at the job and in establishing their new social life outside of work in the new location. They were relocating and taking jobs for the right reasons.
Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#9The advice can be generalized even more. When communicating with an employer or potential employer: -> Subordinate yourself to the desires of capital in all areas. -> Suppress the self. -> Become a true human resource. You are seeking to sell a large chunk of your life, and the buyers don't want scratched or dented goods. Desires of your own are flaws in the product you are selling. This is, sadly, sound advice, but…
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Re: Answering "why do you want to relocate?" during interviews
#10If you are in tech, never move for a job immediately. Work there for 90 days before you even touch a UHaul form. I have been at companies where within 20 minutes I hated my coworkers (playing EDM on high all day in office). Just get a hotel at motel 6. If you are loving the job then the move is a less stressful and enjoyable.