Organizing Your Daily Job Application Strategy
Organizing your job search is one of the most important tasks in your job hunt strategy or job search process yet. We don’t give so much importance to it. Whenever you start job search, you’re going to spend about one to two hours every single day. You are going to apply to 5 to 10 companies every single day. And that is roughly about 25 to 50 job applications and roughly 100 to 200 job applications per month. That is a lot of job applications to remember which company you applied to. Which company is doing what, when is your interview 7 and keeping track of all of this in your head is impossible.
Why Your Brain Needs a Second Job Search System
That’s why you need to create some form of job application tracker or organize this job search in a much better way so that it gives you mental clarity and helps you focus on what you need to do next. There are two reasons why you should organize your job search. Number one reason is you will be applying to about 100 to 200 job applications. And sometimes something you applied on week one you might not even get interviews until week five. And by that time you have applied 200 job applications. And you don’t even remember what was the job description of that job. If you’re someone trying to keep all this in your brain, it’s too much to remember. Learn More
Improving Your Interview Performance Using Historical Data
You can’t go back in your brain and recall what was this role and what was this position. Maybe you will try to look up online and maybe you’ll try to look up which job portal you had, because each company might have a different job portal they are using for you to fill out your profile and all of that. It’s going to be really hard to remember your human brain is not going to be capable to remember all of these details. That’s why you need to create a second brain or job application tracker. Number two reason is to iterate and improve on your job search. As and when you start getting interview calls, you want to remember questions and answers they asked you.
Creating a Question Bank for Interview Success
Creating your question bank and listing down your answers is important. As you list down your questions, every single time an interview happens you can refer back to the notes this is what they asked, this is what you said, it didn’t work out, so improve it. If you have 10 interviews you have plenty of questions to go back and forth. No matter when you do your next job search, you have the question bank in this document ready to refer to anytime.
Using Google Spreadsheets for Basic Application Tracking
There are multiple ways to organize your job search using different tools, but starting with a simple Google spreadsheet is recommended. This is a simple tracker, and it is recommended to have at least these columns, with the option to add more. This is a basic version there is a more advanced version as well. The first column is job posting URL; it’s easy to just copy paste the URL so you have it. Sometimes they will remove that posting so this will become irrelevant, but at least while they have it you can keep it here.
Filtering and Managing Your Job Application Statuses
What is the role which you are applying for, and the company’s name all the companies you are applying for. You might have a list of 100 companies and you can list down every single company you want to apply for. There is a dropdown feature in Google spreadsheet which you can use for statuses it can be like negotiating, applied, rejected and you can create a filter to only show the ones you are interviewing right now.
Building Relationships with Recruiters and Managing Professional Networks
Location where is this company located, is it in Bay Area, East Coast, Arizona, wherever it is. This next column is very important a lot of people are so excited that they forget about it. Thinking short-term about only the time of their job search. This is how you build relationship and network. You have the recruiter’s name and recruiter’s email. Because you keep in touch with them even though it didn’t work out. Maybe six months or a year later you want to reach back out to this recruiter. And you can just email them directly.
Organizing Reference Contacts and Advanced Tracking Features
This is where it gets interesting where you have a reference contact. If you have one or multiple, then use it. Use the name and then link that LinkedIn profile so you can quickly go to their profile. If you have their email, use that email. Phone number put their phone number if you get it. These three columns are super important. In the advanced version you will also see when was the last time you reached out to that contact. What did they say, and the cold email technique. This is a simple version to get started.
Tracking Resumes and Interview Response Timelines
When did you apply for that job application, when was the last contact. When did they talk to you or when did they respond to you. You might have different resumes one for program manager. One for product manager so each resume you can attach here. And that way you can go back and review it. If you are interviewing already, add your interview date. If you start getting offers, add offer details so it will be easy to compare.
Reviewing Job Descriptions and Refining Your Answers
The job description column is very important for example. If a recruiter calls you back you can quickly look at this. And see what they are looking for, like market research or agile. So when you are answering you know what they are looking for. Another useful column is interview questions and answers. If they asked 10 to 15 behavioral questions, especially for product manager or program manager roles. You can write down the questions they asked and the answers you gave.
Prioritizing Applications for Maximum Productivity
You can reiterate next time and it creates a question bank. With about 100 plus companies listed, you might not want to apply as soon as you see a posting. Maybe you want to read the description. Tweak your resume a little bit, or reach out to the contact before you apply. You can filter down your not started list. And then the next day you have five positions you are really interested in and you go at it. Versus browsing LinkedIn and figuring out which ones to apply to and which not to.
Final Advice for an Organized Job Search Process
This is going to make you productive in your job search. It is highly recommended to start doing this. Just get started with some form of organizing your job search it could be as simple as a spreadsheet tracker. Many people do it and it works. Just get started on this process.
Upcoming Resources and Future Tracker Updates
More resources are coming recruiters, hiring managers, and a lot more on the job search process. An advanced tracker is coming very soon. Organizing your job search is one of the most important tasks in your job hunt strategy or job search process yet we don’t give so much importance to it. Whenever you start job search, you’re going to spend about one to two hours every single day and apply to 5 to 10 companies every single day. Read More