How I Super-Charged my Job-search with Analytics
You’ll probably agree with me on this one — job-search is a pain. You send out hundreds of e-mails, receive no replies or get outright denied, and default back to eating a bucket of ice-cream on your couch while binge-watching Netflix. As a recent graduate / aspiring (free, or not so free lance) writer with only several published articles under his belt, this holds especially true.
Except, after resorting to the Netflix-esque desperation multiple times, I’d realized that I’ve been doing something wrong all along. Sending e-mails with a resume is all fine and dandy, but I’d never actually gotten a reply as to WHY I wasn’t being responded to.
Did they even get to see my e-mail among the other 200? Was my cover letter a testament to my atrocious writing skills? Hell, maybe even the best of my articles were actually horrible since I (secretly) suck at writing, or possibly the resume was just oh-so-terribly irrelevant?
So, I did something any true #startupguy would do.
I made an app about it.
Just kidding. I actually decided to figure out how to fix the problem, since I’m not a complete tool.
E-mail Analytics
About a year back, I’d done PR / content marketing for one startup or another. The gist of it was, whenever we’d release a new feature, I’d send out e-mails to a bunch of journalists to see whether they were interested in writing about us. If you’ve never done PR, the answer to this is usually a mix of “No” and “Very No.”
Journalists tend to get thousands of e-mails on a daily basis, so catching their attention can really be a pain.
So in most cases, I would get only a reply or two. Until, of course, after reading countless guide, I discovered the magic of E-mail analytics.
Streak, Bananatag & Docsend
As it turns out, in the current year, there are countless e-mail analytics tools around. What’s an e-mail analytics tool, you might ask? You really shouldn’t since it’s in the name. Ba dam tss.
Jokes aside, there are 2 tools I’d end up liking: Streak and Bananatag. Both are CRM extensions for Gmail and do (almost) the same thing.
First,
and most importantly, they let you measure click-through-rates. The tools let you see whenever the e-mail is opened. Now that’s already a boat-load of insight right there. First, you get to know whether or not the receiver got your message or not.
Then, you can act accordingly and send them a follow-up. This automatically kills the whole lost-in-the-inbox trope forever.
If they do see it, however, and don’t reply, then there’s something wrong with either
a) your cover letter;
b) portfolio;
or, c) resume.
Now, you’ll just need to figure out which one.
PR Bonus Points: While this doesn’t apply to job-search as much, the tools can be used to measure how effective your subject lines are. Think, A/B test on a small sample of 10. See which one has a higher CTR and stick with that.
Second,
Link click-through rates. Now, this one specifically works only for Bananatag. You can use Link Tracking to get notified whenever someone opens up your links.
So let’s say you include Article #1, #2, and #3 in your e-mail as samples (or design assets, or whatever you do). If none of the articles are opened, then the cover letter is at fault. You get to Googling how to make one, and come back to this step.
If, however, you get a notification that someone opened up the first, ignored the later 2, and didn’t get back to you, then you can conclude that your first sample was either just not that good or very relevant to whoever you’re writing.
So, you can always try switching them around to see which of your work is best, and which is subpar.
Third,
So let’s say the cover letter worked, all of your sample links were opened, and there’s still no reply. Then we have the last stage — your resume.
While you could use the same link tracking for the resume, there’s a better tool for that: DocSend.
The way that works is, you upload whatever document, and get a link in return. Whenever someone opens it, you get the exact analytics for how long they’re viewed it & how much time they spent on each page.
Mini-case: Applying For a Remote Startup
Recently, I applied to a startup that seemed pretty much perfect in terms of culture-fit for me. The first e-mail I sent was left unanswered. But, since I’d used Streak, I realized a few days in that they still hadn’t opened up my e-mail. So, I sent them a reminder. The next e-mail was followed by the guy taking a look at my resume.
For context, the resume was 2 full pages, with the first being packed with more concrete work experience, while the later was more about soft-skills and university-related activities. Sadly enough, I still didn’t get a reply.
I did, however, learn 2 things from the whole experience. Since I didn’t get a reply after someone went through my work in detail (the average time a recruiter looks at an e-mail is 6 seconds), I figured that probably I’m not experienced enough for the job.
On the other hand, the fact that the second page only had a single glance might mean that no one really cares about my university experiences, and I should’ve either made the resume more concise, or talked more about my work experience.
So here’s a takeaway:
Without DocSend, you’d sit clueless wondering why no one’s replying.
With DocSend, you can confidently say that your resume doesn’t work and just Google how to make it better.
Bonus Points #2: If you’re going for a job in a bigger company, this might seem a tad bit more complicated, since you usually have to go through a lengthy online application process.
Or, you know, you can just bypass the whole process by using the above-mentioned methods to e-mail whoever’s in charge of hiring directly.
How? Tool #4: ClearBit Connect, which is a chrome extension for finding e-mails for any given employee in a company. Now, I won’t get into too much detail about this, since the tool is pretty straightforward. So, here’s a Walk-through instead.
Step#1: Clearbit conveniently pops up in the top-right corner of your G-mail interface
Step#2: Search for the company you’re applying for.
Step #3: Grab the e-mail of whoever you’re contacting for the job (usually HR or team lead)
But Nick, i did all of the above and still didn’t get a reply…
And that is a-OK. At the end of the day, there’s always the chance that maybe you’re just not experienced enough. But hey — at this point, you’ve done LITERALLY everything you could to super-charge your job-search.
Keep playing the numbers game, and eventually, you’ll get whatever you’re aiming for.
I write a bunch. Want me to write for you? Drop me a line at nickiamnot@gmail.com
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