No matter what kind of job you’re looking for, organizing your job search can save you time and streamline the process. Let’s look at some easy ways to keep your job hunt organized so you can spend more time preparing for interviews.
Know what you want
Knowing what you want from a position—whether it’s remote work, a specific salary, a title, or certain responsibilities like managing a team—can help streamline your job search so you’re only applying to jobs you would take. Before you even start looking, assess what your career goals are and what kinds of a role you want next.
In addition to responsibilities, ask yourself about your salary and benefit expectations. Employers typically offer health insurance, dental insurance, vision, and life insurance (which is different from an individual policy you might have, like whole life insurance), but what other benefits or perks do you want? Do you want to be completely remote? Is it important that the company has a very creative, open culture or that management promotes work-life balance?
Create a tracker
Staying organized means having some sort of centralized location to document and track everything you’ve applied to so far. Create a spreadsheet or table where you can log all the jobs you’ve applied to and when. Include details like a link to the job description, date you heard back, the company name, hiring manager or contact, and other relevant information. This can let you know how many jobs you’ve applied for and, once you’re called for an interview, you won’t have to search the internet for specifics about the job. Update the tracker as you get responses or set aside some time each week to make sure it’s current.
Set up alerts
Use online job boards to your advantage—set up alerts for the kinds of roles you want so they’re delivered to your inbox as soon as they’re posted. This can save time you would have spent searching. Most job boards will let you filter by location (including remote), and might also let you filter by other specifics, like level, years of experience, or salary range.
Have a few versions of your résumé and cover letter
Once you know what types of jobs you’re looking for, you’ll likely end up with a few versions of your résumé and cover letter that you can tailor to different job postings. You may even want to create these at the outset to streamline the process. Have these clearly labeled and in an accessible folder for easy access.
Stay positive
Finding the right job can take time. Employers can take a while to get back to you, positions may be filled internally, and you might have to prep for several rounds of interviews when the time comes. It’s important that you keep going and stay flexible and positive throughout the process.
Source: iQuanti
