Organize Your Job Search

Julie Shenkman
Posted by in Career Advice


Nothing is worse than not being prepared to receive a phone call from a company that you've submitted your resume to. As a Human Resources professional, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I call someone about their resume and they have no idea who I am.

If I call you and you don't have any recollection of sending me your resume, I will probably end the call pretty quickly and not schedule a face-to-face interview with you - no matter how great your qualifications are. The fact that you don't know who I am, or that you don't remember sending me your resume tells me that you are looking for just any job, and that you haven't done any research or put much effort into your job search. And that, is a big no-no in my book. It speaks volumes about your work habits and what we can expect from you as an employee. I want candidates that know my company and applied to the company - not just the job.

Chances are good that when you are conducting a job search, you are sending out many resumes. So how do you keep it all straight? Simple - stay organized!

Every time you submit your resume, you should do some research on the company you are applying to. These days, it's so easy to do that - almost every company has a web site. It doesn't take long to check out a web site and read some information. You should look at the web site and see what kind of feeling it gives you about the company. Do you like the colors? Does it look professional? Check out their mission and values statement. Do they even have one? If not, that might be a red flag. Does their mission make sense? Does it fit in with your values, and what your long-term career goals are?

You don't have to memorize the company history, but give it a glance and see where they've been and how much growth they have enjoyed over the time they've been in business. Also, check out their news page. See what they are working on, or, what their recent accomplishments have been.

Another thing to do is print out their home page. Doing this research will not only give you insight into the company, but it will help you remember them once you have sent in your resume.

Now that you have determined that this is a reliable, reputable company, go ahead and submit your cover letter and resume.

Always tailor your cover letter to each job that you are applying for. Don't ever use a canned response. You run the risk of quoting the wrong job description, or worse, the wrong company. When I see things like that (and it happens more than you can imagine), I don't even look at the resume. It tells me that the candidate didn't think enough of my company to really look at the job requirements or do any research. And, it tells me that the person is careless and sloppy if they didn't even edit their cover letter. If that's the case, why should I waste my time reading their submission?

Be sure and use the company's preferred method of applying, and if they require information from you like salary requirements, include that in your response. Also, if they ask you to reference a job code when applying, use it. In other words - follow instructions. If you don't, it tells the recruiter that you do not pay attention to details, and that may be enough to get your resume passed over before the recruiter even lays eyes on it.

Once you submit your resume and cover letter, print them out, along with the job post. Put all of those things, and the company's home page into a file folder and file it somewhere that you can grab it quickly when the company calls you. Nothing impresses me more than when I call a candidate and they know exactly where I'm calling from and which position it is that they applied for. It's also impressive when they tell me they've read through the company's web site, and they have a couple of questions for me. Most of the time, when this happens, I call the candidate in for an interview - and that's the goal of submitting your resume in the first place!

 

 

 

About the Author:

Jenn Givler is owner of J. Givler Consulting – http://www.jgivler.com. My mission is to help you become empowered, put yourself first and be centered and grounded in who you are and what you want out of this life. Visit my web site and sign up for Clearly You! An informative newsletter full of practical advice to help you get where you want to go!




Read more articles by: Jenn Givler

 

Comment

Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.

  • helen wilkins
    helen wilkins
    keeping a spreadsheet is a great idea, printer ink is expensive so I don't think printing every company web page you apply to is not practical if money is tight. A spreadsheet can be kept on your computer and print a hard copy once a week or so - computers can and do crash - Murphy's Law!
  • elvira
    elvira
    thanks for the information regarding this topic its a big help for me as a job seeker.
  • Connie L
    Connie L
    A simple way of tracking your job applications would be to use a spreadsheet.  Enter the date you applied, name of the company, job title, a link to the website, and a note describing how you heard about the position.  You can also do this on a piece of paper.  
  • Dee
    Dee
    What bugs me the most as a job seeker is when a company representative calls me back over a month after I first applied for the position. By that time I have pretty much given up that they will contact me and so when they call I am surprised.
  • Beulah Hancock
    Beulah Hancock
    Very good information and I admit that I could be more organized. One of the issues I think we run into is the time it takes for some companies to get back to applicants.  After a couple of months, we kind of put those applications on the back burner assuming they have been filled or cancelled. How long should we hang on to these files?
  • Rich Fallis
    Rich Fallis
    Basically, you need to tell your story...to the right audience (THE RECRUITER, THE HIRING MANAGER). As a story-teller you need to know your character(s), what they do, how they have managed conflict (all good stories have conflict) and how they got to slay the dragon, win the money and got the girl at the end. But you've got to be organized. A good way to organize yourself is to consider using the ZOHO CRM system. It is FREE unless you get into hundreds of contacts (and even then it is cheap). They also have a FREE note taking system that integrates with the CRM that now works as an extension to the Chrome browser. You can clip text, video, audio. Whatever you need to remember about a company, contact or prospect. These tools can help you organize at no cost. And best of all, you can access information from anywhere, rather than being locked into your lap-top or desk-top.  Rich Fallis
  • Brenda Vargas
    Brenda Vargas
    Yes, this has happened to me where I have received a call or email and forgot what companies I had applied to. I would love to be organized and keep track of the different companies that I have applied to. In addition, I have several different cover letters that I would love to have a CD or a way to keep all my information together seperate from my other personal files.I just graduated with a Masters degree in Career Counseling and I can't find work. I am starting my own private pracitce. I would love to guide my clients with this useful information.
  • Yvette London
    Yvette London
    while the article on organizing your job search certainly makes a very good point and included a good organizing idea, the fact is that today the job seeker very often doesn't know either the company they are applying to or the recruiter who is representing it.  Many listings are job descriptions with the company and often the recruiter kept confidential.  So it seems a bit harsh to reject someone out of hand if they don't know who the HR person or recruiter are or which job they represent.  Perhaps the author has a suggestion as to the best way to handle situations such as these?
  • Kelly
    Kelly
    I had this very thing happen to me, yesterday.  I recd a call from a Company that I did not recall applying for.  So we set up a phone interview today and I went back to my particular job board Ive been using for my field and found one that it could possibly be.  The Company was posted as Confidential.  And a lot of them are like that.  Any suggestions on how to keep track of jobs you apply for that are listed as confidential?  Luckily I was able to find it and research it by the interview this a.m.
  • Alba Guerra
    Alba Guerra
    Thumbs up for this article.  Impressive and educational.  Thank you, please continue educating thousands of people like myself, jobless
  • Clifford Floyd
    Clifford Floyd
    I am unemployed after finally earning my BS in Business Management from Univ. of Phoenix in December 2008 (2 mos. ago). I have done a lot of jobs in my life and finally am leaning towards a financial bent of maybe financial consulting like stocks or a financial planner. But I am still not totally sure what to do about a career. I am a flighty type of person, I get bored easily and am off to new things. I need to narrow things down for a job or career. Any suggestions. Should I email you my resume so you can see why I am the way I am? Thanks in advance for your help. P.S. I really enjoyed your article on how to be organized and suggestions on how to not turn off HR people when they call us job hunters. Thanks for the tips. Clifford Floyd (Cliff)

Jobs to Watch