Job Seekers: Three Powerful Ideas to Amp-up your search efforts today…
Jobseekers often hear that their job search should be their “full time job.” It turns out that is awful, impractical advice to implement. Sure it sounds reasonable. The assumption is that if you’re unemployed, you’ve got all day to dedicate to the task. But is that how it works in real life?
Most job seekers struggle along in isolation — no team support for brainstorming or commiseration. Most of their carefully crafted applications to job board “black holes” yield nothing more than a courtesy auto-response, if that. It feels like there’s no forward traction. And the unfeeling, robotic rejections can grow overwhelming. This is the kind of soul-draining “full time job” that effectively transforms you from champion of your own brand to feeling like an unemployable loser. How long would you last?
What to do instead -
1) Jeb Blount’s 30 Day Rule -
In his book Fanatical Prospecting, Jeb Blount describes a salesman in a slump. Turns out, it all tracked back to his decreased activity level. He had stopped prospecting. And that came back to haunt him.. Blount’s 30 Day rule hammers home what every salesman knows: the prospecting you do in this 30 Day period will pay off for the next 90 days. There are parallels here for job seekers. It’s easy to become distracted and discouraged. There are always more fun, more interesting things to do than prospecting. However, focusing on your pipeline will ultimately yield more opportunities. So how do we manage it?
2) Prospect Five People Daily
There is a senior executive, or manager out there who you know how to help. That’s who you must talk to! Find them, reach out, and try to engage them in a live conversation. Usually they’ll have titles, like COO, VP, or Director. Sometimes it’s a business owner or investor. Linkedin is a great tool for sourcing these individuals. Very quickly you can find appropriate prospects by sorting for industry, geography, and functional specialty. Prospecting five new people every day may not be easy, but it is doable. And when you do, it adds up. Your five-a-day habit turns into 25 a week, and that’s 100 new contacts in just one month. Pretty soon you have the best challenge a jobseeker could hope for: Tracking problems!
3) Track Your Progress Daily — Use Jobtrack.io
Sure, you could use an old-fashioned excel spreadsheet. It may even make you feel productive. But Adam Bedford’s new free CRM tool for job seekers — Jobtrack.io makes older methods seem primitive, and exposes them for the time-sucks they are. Bedford is a British software developer, now transplanted to California. A few years ago he was in the middle of a rigorous job search himself. The data was getting overwhelming. Out of necessity, he created Jobtrack.io for himself. He experienced the market need and pursued it. Now, just out of soft-launch, he’s experienced impressive viral growth! Adam plans to grow Jobtrack into a larger career management platform with paid premium levels. But he will always offer a free base level plan. And that free plan offers a lot –
-Track Applications
Jobtrack’s Chrome extension has an import feature that integrates with leading job boards (Indeed, Glassdoor, Monster, SmartRecruiters, Greenhouse and Lever). It’s a smart, quick way to build your tracking list. From there you can update the status of all your applications.
-Track Contact Names (referrers, influencers, decision-makers) –
You can add individual contacts using their Linkedin profile link. Additionally, like any good CRM you can keep notes on your conversations and follow up plans.
-Reminder Pings & Analytics
Jobtrack tracks your progress with a quick dashboard-view of your search progress. Plus, Monday-Friday email updates sent to your in-box. It’s efficient as it is engaging!
The Mental Game –
Finally, don’t underestimate the psychological aspects of the job search process. Be extra mindful of your health — pay attention sleep patterns, eat right, exercise regularly. Practice courage and reach out!
