Staying Organized During Your Job Search

Stay Organized
Sarah Thompson
Job Search, jobs, Uncategorized Apr 26, 2019 1 Comment

If you’re in the middle of a job search, it can feel like you’re applying to a million jobs and hearing back from a fraction of them. And when you do hear back, you might have forgotten about the position you applied to. Sending out resume after resume and trying to keep track of if you applied on the company website or on Indeed or LinkedIn or a different job board can be insanely confusing. Staying organized is the name of the game and it’s actually a lot easier than you think.

First, make a spreadsheet with all the jobs you’re applying to. If you’re someone who hears the word ‘spreadsheet’ and immediately quivers in fear, there is nothing to worry about, it’s simply just going to be a table you use to keep track of all your jobs. You could technically do it in a notebook or a word document if you wanted to, but in a spreadsheet, you can easily copy and paste the information from the application.

You should put the date you applied, the Company, the Job Title, where you applied (Job Board, company website, sent an email), and if possible, the link to the application site. Whenever you get a call back or an email, you’ll be able to quickly check and see what the job is that you applied for. If there’s any contact information listed, make sure you save that as well so that you can follow up with your application.

Since you ideally should be rewriting your resume for every position you apply to, and writing a new cover letter, keep a folder on your desktop called “Job Applications” or “Job Search” and save all of your resumes, cover letters, and other important application files. If you’re a user of Google Docs, keep the folder in Google Docs so that you can easily go back and download your resumes when you need to. This will come in handy for when you’re interviewing with companies, you’ll be able to know exactly which resume you used to apply to the job. Meaning you can reference it while you’re on a phone interview, or print the correct resume to bring to an interview.

When it comes to scheduling interviews, no matter how confident you are that you’ll remember where or when they are, write them down! Whatever type of calendar you use, your phone, a notebook/planner, outlook calendar, write down every interview. It’ll ensure that you won’t accidentally double book yourself and that you can properly get back and forth to interviews without running late. Putting them in an electronic calendar will also give you a reminder when the interview is getting close. Even if you have a photographic memory, writing things down is never a bad idea.

Hopefully, you’ll be able to organize your job search better after these tips. If you’re still in the hunt you can search our jobs here or give our recruiting team a call at 866-352-3337.

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