The Layoff Series: 7 Tips To Organize Your Job Search

Did you know that job seekers who apply for between 21 and 80 positions have the highest likelihood of getting a job offer? In our current economic climate, it’s even more. That’s a lot of applications to create, personalize, and keep track of. When you’ve been dealing with a layoff, the last thing you want to do is make your job search more stressful than it has to be.

We’ve got 7 tips to help you organize your job search so you can focus on highlighting how great you are, rather than tracking down that file that you swear was on your desktop yesterday.

This post is part of The Layoff Series, a series of blog posts built to help jobseekers get back on their feet after a layoff. Be sure to check out the first article in the series, What To Do After a Layoff, to learn how to handle a layoff from the moment it happens until you’re ready to job hunt.

How To Organize Your Job Search

For many people, job searching becomes a full-time job. When it carries that much weight in your life, it deserves just as much care and attention as a full-time job would. Staying organized can help to reduce stress in the job search process and make applying for roles easier and faster, but it takes some habit-forming.

Tip #1: Create a Tracker

Let’s face it: If you’ve got 80 job applications floating out in the world, it’s going to be pretty impossible to keep track of them without some level of tracker set up.

You have a couple of options when it comes to tracking your efforts ranging from as simple as a spreadsheet to as involved as a project management platform.

If you want to keep it simple, try using a spreadsheet. Create a column each for:

• Company name
  • If you’re working directly with a recruiter or referral, add in a column with their name and contact information.
• Job title
• Date you applied
• A link to the job posting
• A link to the resume and cover letter you applied with
• Status
  • You can have statuses like, “Waiting for Response”, “Interview Scheduled”, “Rejected”, “Declined”, etc.

Then every time you apply for a role, simply add it to your tracker so you can follow up as needed. 

If you want something a little more in depth that can help you assign tasks and due dates, try a tool like Notion where you can download a premade template with a tracker already set up. You can also try a project management tool like Monday.com or Asana. 

Tip #2: Make a Top 3 List and Connect on LinkedIn

We know it can feel really uncomfortable to network so remind yourself that this is exactly what LinkedIn is for and when 80% of job offers come from networking, use that network! Remember to add this outreach to your tracker to keep track of who you talked to and what information you shared with them and what they shared with you.

Tip #3: Have an Easily Editable Resume

While we know that a 360° view of a candidate is unbelievably valuable, hiring teams often rely on resumes to organize their own hiring process. Since they’re so important in the hiring process, resumes need to represent the best parts of your work experience. It’s good practice to have a resume that is more of a template that allows you to edit and change any of the contents to align with the particular role you’re applying for.

Remember: When sending in your resume, send it with a file name that has your first and last name in it like John_Smith_Resume. If the job posting requires particular formatting rules, follow those too. 

If you need help getting your resume started, we’ve got your back. Our Resume Builder is a completely free tool that will guide you through building your resume so you can overcome that fear that comes from staring at a blank page!

Tip #4: Timeblock Your Calendar

Remember how we mentioned that job searching often becomes a full-time job? Treat it like one!

That means, having working hours and breaks on your calendar, tasks to complete each day, and blocked out time to prepare for interviews and follow up. Job searching is stressful enough - don’t add more to your plate by working at all hours.

If you want to learn more about how you can timeblock, check out this how-to guide from Todoist.

Tip #5: Set up Job Alerts

What if you could job hunt without actually job hunting? Job alerts are available on most major job boards (including CareerCircle) to help you get jobs that fit your needs delivered directly to your inbox.

To set up a job alert with CareerCircle, simply login to your account, select “Your Jobs” from your dashboard homepage, and click “Create Job Alert.” You can even set up alerts based on your certification!

Setting up job alerts means that you won’t have to scroll through endless pages of new positions and instead make sure that you’re focusing your search on the roles that most closely align with your career goals.

Tip #6: Clean Up Your Inbox

Build out some folders in your inbox that make it easy for you to track your applications and job opportunities. 

You can organize by the action you need to take and have a set of folders like “Application Submitted”, “Interview Scheduled”, “Second Interview Scheduled”, etc. Or you can organize by the role and create a folder for each position you’ve applied for.

You can also set automations within your inbox, like with Gmail’s Snooze function, to remind you to follow up with any roles you haven’t heard back from. 

Remember: Your email address should be easy-to-read and understandable. Consider making it your first and last name or your first initial and last name. 

If you don’t already have a professional email address, create a new one before beginning your job search. Some people even create a new email address for their search simply to keep it separated from their personal emails. Whatever works for you is the best route to go!

Tip #7: Draft Your Answers to Common Interview Questions

There are some questions in the interview process that will come up again and again. By taking the time to think through these questions and what your answers are, you can feel more equipped to handle any interview that comes your way.

Some common questions include:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why do you want to work here?
• Tell me about a time when you faced a difficult situation at work and how you handled it.
• What do you think you can bring to this position?
• How do you handle multiple projects going on at the same time? What keeps you organized?

Remember: Use the STAR method when you are answering questions that are behavioral-based like, “Tell me about a time when you faced a difficult situation at work.” The STAR method helps you discuss the situation, task, action, and result of whatever you’re describing.

For example, “As a project manager, I was tasked with implementing a new project management tool across all of our departments. My goal was to train all of the department leads as well as hitting a 60% usage rate across all team members. I coordinated training times with our implementation manager to get all department leads trained and then scheduled and led training sessions on a one-on-one basis with each of the departments. I created a user guide for how our team members would be expected to use the tool and scheduled standing check-ins on a biweekly basis to go over any issues team members were expecting. By the end of the three-month implementation period, all department leads felt confident leading the usage of the tool and we hit a 80% usage rate across all members - a 20% increase over our goal.”

Jot down your answers in a note-taking app and, while you can always refer to notes during an interview, it’s particularly impressive to have a couple of talking points memorized. 

If you want to take your interview preparation to the next level, check out our Interview Prep tool!

Job searching is incredibly stressful, especially after a layoff, but being organized could make all of the difference for you.  

Do you have a favorite tip to organize your job search? Let us know about it over on LinkedIn!