Q: Thank you for continuing to run your "ask the recruiter" Web site, as I am sure it has helped many people.

I would be very grateful if you would take a moment to consider a couple questions I have about my career -- and a situation others probably face, as well.

I have spent three years at a 200,000+-cir. paper. However, I live 3,000 miles away from my family. I have been unable to get a job with my hometown paper. And, given the current job market (buyouts, high volume of applicants, poor financial outlook), I do not feel I will get a comparable job in the region where my family lives. At least not within the next year or so.

I refuse to wait another year (or longer!) for the market to turn around. I need to go home.

My questions: With three years' experience, could a steady flow of freelancing in my hometown keep me eligible for jobs until the market improves?

In addition, I have been offered a three-month technical writing gig for a start-up Web site. Is that going to help me at all when I want to re-enter the newspaper biz?

Moving

A: If you are determined to move anyway, you'll have to make the best of things.

I would be concerned, though, that newspapers in your target area might not have the job you want -- or might feel that they have better candidates or candidates whose commitment to journalism is stronger. The three-month technical writing gig will not likely help position you for a newspaper job as the writing is different from what you're presently doing for the newspaper.

But you sound pretty serious to me -- as though this move needs to happen and might take precedence over career considerations right now. Go ahead and make it and establish some long-term relationships at the papers where you'd like to work so that you can develop an inside track or some advance knowledge of openings.