Corporate Relocation Specialist Career

Corporate Relocation Specialist Career

The Real Poop

In today's world it's common for people to move to a new town or city (or even country) for their job. Whether it's moving from one corporate hub to another for a promotion, or a medical professional moving from one hospital across the country to another, super busy people don't have time to work and plan a move. 

 
This move needs professional help. (Source)

That's why there are jobs—entire companies even—that specialize in relocation. A corporate relocation specialist is part real estate agent, part travel agent, and all-around expert in moving lives from here to there or there to here. And they make it look incredibly easy.

Moving can be a stressful time, even for people who actually wanted to move in the first place. Corporate relocation specialists often work with people who are reluctantly relocating because that's where the job is telling them to go. They work to make everything move as smoothly as possible, and are paid pretty well for it.

Fifty thousand dollars well, as a matter of fact (source).

Corporate relocation specialists must be very detail-oriented and observant. They do everything they can to understand the families they assist. A married couple with young children will have different requirements than a single person who's pulling up stakes for a big move. 

And once you factor in other considerations such as pets, budget limitations, and proximity to work and school, these moves can get more complicated than that IKEA bed your parents forced you to put together.

Corporate relocation specialists are likely to come from a real estate background and usually hold a CRTS (Certified Relocation Transition Specialist) certification, which costs less than $100 (source). But there's no specific, across-the-board requirement needed to enter the field. If you're a go-getter and (preferably) have some personal experience with making big moves, you can get some on-the-job training assisting in a relocation business or a similar department in a corporation.

Many corporations require a four-year degree for all professional positions, so it's possible you'll need a human resources degree if you want to work for a large multinational company. Corporate relocation specialists need to know about buying and selling property, financing, mortgage requirements, school enrollment, any ordinances concerning parking, inspections, and utility transfers. 

Phew. By the time you've finished helping a family with every detail of their move, you're going to know more than you necessarily want to about their life. You're likely to be working with high-end clients, so details and discretion are a big, big deal.

 
I'm guarding this box until you order pizza. Order it. (Source)

No two days on the job will be exactly the same, which means you'll experience little to no boredom. Kind of like when you're learning on Shmoop. Each and every day you'll work on solving a puzzle for your clients. You take each of their must-haves, add-in the pieces they haven't thought about, and fit it all together. 

Before they even know what's happening, they're unpacking boxes in their new home where you've already arranged for all the utilities to be turned on (including the almighty Wi-Fi), ready to try an extra-large pie from their new local pizza place.