According to my friends I have wanted to move to New York my whole life. Turns out Sex and the City, Seinfeld, Friends and GIRLS had been infiltrating their way into my brain for three decades (OK maybe only two decades, let’s face it, I probably had no idea what or where New York was before I was ten).  But to be honest I had never put much stock into it; moving to New York was a pipe dream, something impossible to negotiate, plan and execute – unless you are one of those #blessed people whose office is international and are offered the chance to move to the US. Yeah, great, good on you, really happy for you. No, seriously, more power to you – if you get such an offer, take that thing with both hands and run fast.

To me the most daunting question was ‘how can I get a job there? What visa would I even be eligible for? I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to land a job in NYC right? Wrong. You can totally move to New York from Australia – for me some of it was luck and just good timing, but the rest I put down to some planning on my part. Below are my tips to prepare for and land a job in New York. Not foolproof obviously, but I’d say somewhat helpful. Helpful in the way that you should spread the butter before the vegemite. It’d probably still work if you did it the other way around, just wouldn’t be as smooth.

Before you leave

Check out your visa options: Find out what visa options are available to you (artists visas, visas for study or internships, sponsored visas etc) and check that you match all the criteria. Seems an obvious one, but until I visited New York in October 2015, I had no idea the E3 visa for Australians even existed (thanks semi-drunk Aussie girl in the Standard elevator who was about to move here from London on the E3, you opened my eyes wide). It wasn’t until I got home that I realised there was also a J1 visa I might be eligible for (turns out I wasn’t, cause those SOBs like to get you on a technicality, but damn, so close).  This research will also tell you what you need to take with you should you be lucky enough to land a job. It’s no use finding a great job, only to realise you didn’t bring your university transcripts with you because you didn’t know you’d need them for the visa.

Join Australian in New York social media groups: These groups are great if you have any visa questions (but do a quick search of your topic in the group first – often someone has recently asked the same question as you and you can find the answer without double posting), accommodation needs, job opening queries, want to attend networking events or buy some cheap furniture. I found my first three month’s accommodation, and my first friends through just such a group (nawwww my first friends).

Get your resume ‘Murica ready: Tip one; they call them resumes, not CVs over here. Tip two; they like them to be one page long but still give heaps of info. Good luck! Tip two is not applicable if you send your resume to a recruiter though – the more pages and detail for them, the better. I had a designer living in NYC (a friend of a friend) design me a beautiful one page and fuller five page resume as well as a cover letter template and it was the best money I ever spent.  It pays to have a few people who live and work in America look over it to see if passes the American test, so see the point above about social media groups and the point below about being despo for friends.  You’ll find people in both of these groups willing to look over our resume and give some advice. And of course, all the advice will conflict and you’ll be back where you started. Yay!

Reach out to anyone and everyone you know in New York: The more connections you make now, the better. If one of your friends says “Oh I have a friend I met in Spain years ago who lives in New York I think, I can put you in touch if you like?” take them up on it. The connection might seem tenuous, but that person will be able to answer any New York questions from the perspective of someone who has been there, done that. Make sure you buy them wine or coffee or beer when you land for their trouble. It shows respect and thanks and also gives you a social outing in a city where you are most likely a loser with no friends. Jokes! You are definitely a loser with no friends.

Suss out the job options: Look, the chances of a firm wanting to interview and then hire you by skype before you even get to New York are slim, but it does happen. Either way it doesn’t hurt to get on the job sites and see what’s out there. Without an American phone number (see below) you probably stand less of a chance as someone already based in New York, but it can’t hurt. Some good sites are idealist.org if you are into non-profits or jobs that do good for the community, mediabistro.com for a lot of creative and communications roles, and monster.com if you feel like being overwhelmed. Go on, a little overwhelming never killed anybody.

When you land

Get an American phone number: I did this the morning I landed. Without it your job applications stand the chance of going into the “too hard (to contact) basket” and you look like you don’t live in New York yet (also off putting, see above).  Add the number to your already-designed resume and you’re ready to apply!

Be clear what your strengths, niche and speciality are: Well, OK, you’re nearly ready to apply. First think about what your speciality in your field is. I mean really, you should have already been thinking about this before you left, but I wasn’t, so I won’t judge you if you hadn’t been either. In Australia, we often don’t need to have a niche or speciality – in fact it often works in our favour to be a generalist and have a broad range of skills. But Americans are used to people having a speciality. If you are truly a generalist though, with outstanding skills in a variety of areas, definitely talk this up – just make sure that you can back it up with examples. It’s worth nothing that if you work in HR or a form of legal services that you may have to pitch yourself as a generalist until you learn all the particular US nuances of your field.

Apply for the jobs: Obvs this is the next step! But I mean do it right away, like the day after you land or the day after that. It’s a bloody numbers game and the more you can get under your belt, the better.  Send that brand new beautiful resume and tailored cover letter off as many times as you can and sit back and wait for the emails and phone calls to flood in (or sit back and listen to the sound of silence because these things can take time). In your cover letter include a simple and succinct sentence about your work history and visa at the end. Something like “Please note that while I have international experience, I am eligible to work in the US under the E3 visa” or similar should do the trick. It helps put their mind at ease if all your work history is from another country and also subconsciously soothes any visa worries that pop up for them.  You’ll have more time in the interview process to explain your particular visa sitcho in full.

Once you get phone interviews and face to face interviews.

Understand that the phone interview is a real thing and act accordingly:  I don’t know about other countries, but in Australia, while quick phone screenings are a thing, they are rare, and a full 20 minute or half an hour phone interview is not something that happens on the reg. But in New York they are. So prepare for it like you would any other interview. Make sure you’re awake and alert (yes that means getting up at least a half hour before the call, ugh, I know), have the job specs in front of you as well as your application and make sure you’ve done your research by checking out their website and be prepared with something interesting to say. They’ll ask you the same sorts of questions you’d get in a face to face interview: why do you want this job (to pay my bills and buy pizza obviously), give us some examples of how you would do this or avoid this (at least your scared, ‘quick think of something’ face cannot be seen when on the phone) and why are you the best fit for this job (‘cause I’m AWESOME, of course!).

Don’t trust google maps timeframes: You’ve got a face to face interview, great! Now you have to get there. Google maps is great, a godsend for figuring out directions and public transport options, but it isn’t always on the money when it comes to train schedules. Or if it is on the money, the trains don’t care, they will run when they want to (NYC trains are actually not too bad, but I digress from my important advice). Google maps also doesn’t take into account the time you will spend waiting for your train to turn up or the time it takes to walk up and down all the stairs in and out of the subway. When going for an interview, tack on 20 mins to what google directions tells you.

Play down the visa stress:  You need to be honest obviously, about time frames and if there are costs involved, but where possible play down your visa need. Is it not sponsorship? Say so. Can you wear any of the cost? Let them know. Do you need time off work or travel to complete your visa? Be clear but also be flexible – if they need someone urgently you could offer a week of volunteer work while your visa gets processed. Anything you can do to let them know the process will be simple is always helpful.

After you’ve had that sweet face to face time

Follow up: Send an email to everyone you interacted with during the interview process. It can be one nicely worded group email thanking them for their time, or better yet, an individual email to everyone who took the time to meet you and interview you. This way you can tailor the email individually and include (interesting AND relevant) links to articles about things you discussed during the interview.  Make sure you grab their business cards and / or check their email address formula before you leave so that you can do this.

Send your email towards the end of the day: People reading the email will have more time around 6 or 7pm when the rush of the day is over and it shows that you are still actively working on your employment goal after the regular work day is done. I can’t take credit for this trip, a lovely girl named Cara gave me this tip not long after I first arrived.

No news is good news?: It’s hard to tell here. I was offered one job a full two weeks after they had asked for my references, with crickets in between. I was also offered a job one day after I interviewed. But in general the time frame in NYC is much longer than in Australia. If you haven’t heard anything within a week, it doesn’t hurt to follow up asking them if there is anything else you can provide. As Australians we are used to sitting back and waiting patiently, but in America you need to shout if you want to be heard. Well don’t actually shout – the humble Aussie attitude does count for more than we think – but there is no shame in touching base and letting them know you’re thinking about them, and hopefully they’re thinking about you too.

OK so that’s it! 2,000 words of mostly useless advice on how to even think about getting a job in New York. Now go forth and conquer, flat white in hand.