Heck, I had a bunch of out of state interviews at a time when I really
needed to get a job anywhere in the field, as well as an excuse to get away
from a job that I really hated. (Long story short: left a job at a living
history site for a variety of reasons, personal as well as professional and
wound up back in retail when job offers didn't come in as I had sort of
hoped.) In all cases, I did preliminary interviews by phone. We talked and
we got a fairly good idea of each other from the phone interview. One place
really wanted me, and I would have gone to work for them in a heartbeat. But
I knew what they were offering and couldn't move my family nearly 1,000
miles for what they were paying. It would have been a great opportunity if I
was younger and single.
The places that did ask me to come out for a face to face were a mixed bag
of who paid what. One site, for which I interviewed for a director position,
paid my airfare and took care of my lodging. They asked me to get the
cheapest airfare I could find. I managed to get a decent fare, which they
picked up, and I was put up in a $200+ suite. Very nice.

Another place, for which I interviewed for an assistant director position,
put me up in their on-site guest site for two nights, but I had to pay my
own airfare. They met me at the airport.
Fortunately, I got a good fare again.
When all was said and done, it didn't matter whether I got offers or not as
a result of these interviews. The positions and locations would not have
been the right situations for my family, and the interviews allowed me to
better make that judgment. But the trips also gave me a chance to get away
and have badly needed mini-vacations just to clear my head.

I did have one other out of state interview. This time it was for an
interpretation director's position at a state park in a place I thought I
would like to move my family too. In this case, the state park couldn't pick
up the airfare, but they did spring for a hotel room. The airfare, however,
would have been near $1000, which was just not going to happen from my
wallet. So the decision was made to drive. Since it was a position that
sounded very good and in a location we thought would be good for us as a
family, and the phone interview seemed to go very well, we decided that my
wife and son would come with me. The site said no problem and we made the
trip a long family weekend. The high hopes we had going down were
disappointed once we had a chance to visit and look around the area. The
position and the site were not quite what I expected, and I wasn't
comfortable with the idea of working there after I visited the site. We also
had pictured the area a bit differently and were very disappointed to see
that the surrounding communities were very similar to what we didn't like
about county in which we were already living. The opportunity to go down and
see the place, as a family and for only the price of food and gas, was
invaluable in giving me a better idea of where to focus my job search and
what to expect in the future.
I desperately needed a job, but as we learned, we would be better off just
getting by until the right position came along than to make what could later
prove to be a big mistake if we moved to the wrong place for the wrong
position.

Scott D. Peters
Research Director/Archivist
Ocean County Historical Society
26 Hadley Ave., P.O. Box 2191
Toms River, NJ 08754-2191
(732) 341-1880
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"Telling the Stories of Ocean County"

Historically Speaking
ALHFAM -FPIPN vice-chair for trivia, errata and miscellany
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"The ordinary distinctions in society are often vague, and imply no just
pre-eminence: rank and titles are
adventitious things and instead of designating merit or virtue, are
frequently the baubles of imbecility, or
the sparkling decorations of meretricious pageantry"

William Griffith, on behalf, and by order of the New-Jersey Society for
promoting the gradual Abolition
of Slavery, Twelfth Month (December) 20th, 1803
----- Original Message -----
From: "Belinda Nickles" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2002 1:35 PM
Subject: Re: long distance job search


> I should have clarified.  My last job search was when
> airplane fares were much higher.  For example, I had a
> museum in North Dakota who wanted me to interview.
> When I checked the price of a ticket, I found I would
> have to pay over $1,000 for round trip.  The reason
> given was that I wasn't booking at least two weeks
> ahead of time.  We were in northern Illinois at the
> time and it was cheaper to drive.
>
> Of course things are different now.  Still, when my
> husband and I drive to an interview, we ask
> for reimbursement on gas instead of a per mile amount
> that includes wear and tear on the car.  We consider
> it a chance to be alone and a chance to see some
> more of America.  But I don't advise that everyone
> do the same.
>
> I have negotiated with museums where I am interviewing.
> Often, they will pay for gas or lodging in a modestly-
> priced motel when they can't afford to pay for
> everything.
>
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