[dannyr]

"Two years later, I got laid off due to economic factors. This led to getting a job in the Bay Area. I had multiple phone interviews and a short programming test before getting the job, but I didn't have to fly over to California once."

Personally, I'd be wary of a company wanting to hire me without having to meet me in person. Inversely, if I'm running a company, I won't hire somebody I haven't even met.

[dennmart]

Granted, it can be a crap shoot, as the author of this article pointed out on his site. But I suppose this need has diminished a bit recently, with so much information - both work and non-work related - about people and companies available out there now. As soon as my current employers showed interest in me, I went through the Internet to grab any piece of information about the company I could find. I wasn't going to move 2500+ miles away without getting a good idea what I was getting myself into. The company had been recently well-funded, seemed stable and was heading in a good direction that interested me. Three months in, it seems I was correct.

I asked one of the higher-ups this same question after being hired, and they said that they scouted my blog, Twitter and Github accounts, among others, and with what they heard over the phone, they felt I was a really good fit in their company. Had I not taken the time to build my online persona, I doubt I would've had been hired. This doesn't just apply to job-hunting in remote locations, but nowadays it should be a big part of it.

[PonyGumbo]

Why?