Ask HN: How far in advance should I look for a job in the SF Bay Area?

I can speak from my experience, coming to SF from Europe and finding a design job at a corporation: As long as you are not here, or about to come here, you are exponentially less interesting to companies. If they like your email, resume, portfolio, whatever, they want to invite you, talk to you, see whether you are a cool person. And they want to do it fast. This must especially be true to small companies. Also: You will be able to make so many new PERSONAL connections here, which will make the job search much easier. It's not unlikely to fire off 100 emails to every potential employer and not get much back. But meet one person that you get along with well on a personal level, and you might get your interview right there. Everybody here knows someone who knows someone who wants to hire somebody like you.

(if you need someone to sponsor a visa though, it's a completely different story)

Good luck!

About a week before my contract for my job in New York City was up, I decided to take the plunge and try my hand in landing some work in the Bay Area. In less than a week, I had been contacted by four companies here, and was offered a position by one of them, which I accepted. I asked them to give me three weeks to be able to move - This meant selling whatever I couldn't afford to move, flying out here to find an apartment and preparing to start a totally new life by myself. They had no problem with that, and let me know that if I needed more time, that I could let them know.

I'd say you should start approaching companies about a solid month before you're going to move here. That should give you enough time to find a good fit, enough time for your new employer to prepare for you, and enough time to for you to begin preparing for the long move. Best of luck!

I would say start applying 2 to 3 weeks before you move to SF. Most companies want their employees to start immediately - but realise that most have a 2 to 4 week "notice period" for their previous employer.

Apply more than 4 weeks in advance will just be a waste of time, most companies wont wait that long (unless your REALLY something special).

If you're good, you can get a job in a matter of days. There's plenty of hiring out here all the time. We can't hire good programmers fast enough.

I moved out here over ten years ago with pretty much no place to live and a small contracting job. My only regret was waiting so long.