Getting Organized before You Begin Your Job Search
So you're ready to start your job search! Are you organized? While most people acknowledge that it's important to be organized for an interview, it's easy to overlook the importance of getting organized before you even get to the interview point. Taking an organized approach can help you stay focused and reduces wasted time and energy. Here are some suggestions and tips for getting organized before your job search begins.
Create a Spreadsheet
If you prefer to do this on paper or on a different type of software, that's fine, too. The point is to keep a record of where, when, and how you applied to various jobs. On this spreadsheet, you can include slots for the following information:
* Company/prospective employer name and contact information
* Hiring manager's name and contact information
* Date you applied
* How you applied (online, by mail, etc.)
* Position name/title
* Follow-up date
* Impressions of the company (this can be your personal opinion and impression of the company, or something unique about them to help jog your memory)
* Requirements for the position
* Anything else that will help you stay organized, such as driving directions, building description, etc.
Manage Your Resumes
As you apply for various jobs, you will be tweaking and fine-tuning your resume to fit that position - you'll want to emphasize your skills that are relevant to that job. That can mean you can end up with several different versions of your resume.
To help handle this large number of files, consider setting up folders in your word processing software to keep them straight. Depending on how many different jobs you're applying for, create a folder for each job field or each prospective employer. If you are applying strictly for sales jobs, for instance, then you might want to organize your folders by prospective employer. If you are applying for various jobs with different skill sets, such as a marketing, editor, and secretary, you could organize your resumes by job type.
Email inboxes can get cluttered fast. Before you start your job search, get your email set up to handle the correspondence between you and your prospective employers. Create a general folder for correspondence relating to your job search, and nest subfolders under this heading that are named for particular companies or job types. Don't forget to label and file outgoing emails as well.
As you prepare yourself beforehand, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and streamline the job search process. Hopefully, you will increase your chances of success, too.
