recruiters can be helpful - and frustrating. It's a mixed bag, but there have been a few good ones.

Be patient, do other things in the meantime. Anything you can get locally will have a better chance than remote.

Use something like resumasters.co to polish up your resume and linkedin.

Otherwise, don't get discouraged!

Do not let companies set you up for failure with a ridiculous travel schedule. I was flown from MD->CA for a big-five tech company, on a flight with 2 layovers, that arrived at 11PM, with interviews starting at 10AM the next day. I have never screwed up an interview so bad as that one, and to some level I still blame the whirlwind schedule for being super-fried coming into that interview setting.

You'll probably get much better suggestions from the rest of the group here, but hopefully this still-painful-12-years-later story will bring some amount of levity. Best of luck! :)

It seems that might be harder than just telling one of them that I’ll already be in the area on such and such date.

A good remote culture is something you should look for. Remote-first if you can find it.

For example, where I work (Abstract) we are based in SF but 70% of employees are remote and we do not change the pay scale based on geography. The center of gravity is remote and not at HQ

I actually found my current position through HN. Check The Who’s hiring threads.

I also recommend WeWorkRemotely.com and CyberCoders.com, two of the most user-friendly sites I've seen for tech jobs.

Hired.com was mentioned earlier, and they are quite good. I've had a very pleasant experience so far.

Lastly I'll also mention TopTal - I haven't tried them yet but have heard good things.

I just went through the same process - moving to London from New Zealand. I found that I had the most success when I directly applied to companies that I had a very very close fit with, rather than the more generic jobs. My feeling for more general jobs was that the companies weren't really interested in putting the time in if they couldn't meet me in person - but for jobs where I was a good fit they went out of their way to make it easy for me to interview.

I would recommend just picking a random company and putting some effort into an application for them, then rinse and repeat.

Recruiters will be able to tell you very basic information about the working place (i.e. office hours, dress code, number of holidays, size of the team etc.) - all the things that you can easily find out for yourself. And keep in mind they are NEVER going to say something bad about the company. They are trying to sell the job to your so they can get their commission.

On top of that, the recruiter needs to be paid one way or another (in the UK they usually get paid a percentage of your salary over 1-2 years). Although recruiters are usually paid by the employer and not the candidate, it still means that to an employerer a candidate costs less to them if they come directly rather than through a recruiter. Hence you will have a harder time getting a higher salary if you go through a recruiter.

They are nothing more than middlemen and you are doing yourself a disfavour by using them if you do.

The vast majority are crap. The really good ones are worth their weight in gold.

I've had the best luck searching for very specific roles / job titles that fit me and reaching out to companies I have a special / good fit with. It's been working well, and serious companies have already begun offering to fly me out for the final interview. This is standard.