At the beginning of June my sister just put in her two weeks at the University of Michigan hospital, and decided that she wanted to move to San Francisco.
Her lease in Ann Arbor was up so she just packed up her car and drove her stuff out to SF.
My grandparents live out there so she stayed at their place for about a week and looked around for an apartment. This helped her out a lot... see if you have any friends or relatives or something in the area that you want to move to. See if you can crash at their place for a little bit, or even if they know people who can help you get a job...etc.
After finding a place and signing the lease, she sent out her resume to just about everyone and did interviews. She just started her new job a few weeks after she moved to SF. This part obviously took the most work.
The internet helped a lot. She used
www.Craigslist.org the most because there were listings for housing and jobs. It is originally SF/Bay area specific, but they have started up in a few different cities across the States. She also used the usual job hunting websites, but I'm not sure how helpful they were for her.
So if you're feeling lucky you could do what my sister did - pick a city you like and find a place to live before finding a job.