[tierone]

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!

[evandavid]

Yeah I had thought about that fact - I wouldn't want to get into a lesser position by applying for a job remotely than what I could achieve applying in person. I think I will follow some of the other advice mentioned here and do a sort of email/Skype blitz in the 3-4 week period before I arrive, and just make sure that I use any responses to schedule in-person contact for as soon as I get there. Thanks for your advice.