Knowing where you’ve been and where you’re going is crucial to your success
➔ Never before in history has finding a job been more demanding. Recruiters and hiring managers have never had so many tools for evaluating candidates and today’s tools enable them to find out more about you quicker and in more depth than ever before imaginable.
Of course, the same could be said of the job seeker. Want to research a potential organization? You’ve got Google, Glassdoor, LinkedIn and various social media — not to mention AI – artificial intelligence. What’s more, you can use those same tools to find out about your target organization’s competitors as well. You can even research the background of the person with whom you’ll be interviewing.
That’s a lot to process
If it sounds overwhelming, you’re right. It can be; but it doesn’t have to be.
You need a powerful weapon to keep everything in place and organized so that nothing – or no one – slips through the cracks. You need a top notch tracking system.
An old friend – very old – maintained his contacts literally on index cards which were held together with a rubber band. How 20th Century! By today’s standards, primitive but it was effective.
Fortunately, today’s technology makes this sort of tracking a relatively simple task. There are systems that you can implement right off the shelf. Some are even free or ridiculously inexpensive. There are numerous contact management systems (or CRMs) from which to choose. Given that this level of tracking is such a personal endeavor, you can choose a system best suited for you.
Or, you can go the really simple route and use an Excel spreadsheet.
Of course, your system is only as good as you make it. Well, what to track? Companies, recruiting firms, non-profits, etc. for starters. Contact names at those various organizations. Hiring managers. Informational interview contacts. Referral sources. Anyone who has played a part in your job search. Of course you’ll want to include their contact information – office phone, mobile phone, email, LinkedIn profile, etc.
How about the date when you last contacted them and what happened? Left a message; suggested calling back in two weeks; etc. Perhaps most important would be a section devoted to “next action.” Whether by you or your contact, you need to keep on top of what is supposed to happen next. Some CRMs will automatically sort them for you by date, in effect creating a daily schedule of things for you to do.
Whatever tool(s) you use; however you use them; it’s part of the job search that must be done.
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