So this was inspired by an infuriating phone call I had this morning. I had applied for an office assistant job in Pittsburgh, since I lived in eastern Ohio and it would be a logical place for me to move to if I got the job. I managed to land an in person interview on Tuesday, and overall I was just glad to be getting somewhere.
But then today as I was getting ready to drive over I get another call from the SAME PERSON, telling me that they wanted to cancel the interview. I was confused and asked why, and the reason she cited was that I lived too far away. I tried to explain that I was going to move once I got the job but she had already made up her mind.
I'm sure there was probably some other reason involved for why she didn't want to hire me (God knows I've stopped caring about what any given employer thinks), but it highlighted a serious problem. Anytime someone tries to get a job “outside their place” they're put at an immediate disadvantage. Employers don't care if you're going to move to them, if there's ANY candidate closer than you then you can forget about that job.
Now some may suggest why not move before getting a job? Well I'm currently young, single, and living with my parents after working abroad and it's hard to beat the price they're offering (just doing some chores, god bless them). I worked abroad teaching english in korea, and obviously I had to move halfway across the world to do the job. But my employers there were reasonable about that, and I was able to adjust to living there for an extended period.
So in theory I should be an ideal candidate for moving. However if I want to move out I'll need to rent somewhere. But because of landlords being bastards renting anywhere that's not a slum now requires proof of income.
So guess what? You can't get a job too far from where you live because you're to far away, and moving there before the job is near impossible because you can't get a job for proof of income. So unless you can bum off someones couch for a bit or find a craigslist landlord (anyone who's not corporate) who's willing to waive the income requirement, you're stuck where you live.
Basically we're slowly moving back to feudalism where workers are tied to the land. Not only is the American dream dead, the whole pioneer ethos of “Go west young man” is dead too. Killed by small minded employers and landlords who can't even imagine that someone would be willing to move for work anymore.