Strategy for your Job hunting: organisational skills are key to your success.

Searching for a job, it is a JOB! So make a cup of tea or coffee, sit down and start browsing job portals. It’s important to dedicate some time to this task; perhaps 2 hours per day or more if you can.

Please read carefully job descriptions and make sure you are a good match to the role. We don’t recommend applying while being on a bus, talking to some friends or being at work. Attention to detail is essential when introducing yourself for the first time and you are more likely to make mistakes if you are not 100% dedicated to the task.

Have you ever considered creating an Excel or Word document to improve your job search strategy? Do you actually keep track of all your applications? It may sound unnecessary but first impressions on the phone counts more than anything else.

We often speak to candidates who don’t have a clue of the job they have applied for, despite the fact that they recently applied for the role, perhaps the same morning or some minutes before our call. One of the first things they say is “Do you mind telling me what job we are talking about as I have applied for so many jobs in the last week”. There is nothing worse than commencing your sentence in this way. First of all, you are unconsciously telling us that your interest for the role is not really strong. If you can’t remember the job / duties and industry, what message are you giving the recruiter?

This leads to the second point: if you have applied for so many jobs in the last week (sometimes we hear up to 100 applications), how thoroughly have you read all the 100 job descriptions? How many hours have you dedicated to each application? Perhaps not hours but only minutes. If you send an application in a bunch of minutes, then you are doing something wrong.

So our advice is to prepare either an excel sheet or a word document where you can list all your applications, inserting details such as Job Title, recruitment agency contacts, salary range, major key skills required and industry. It’s also very useful to save the link of each job description so when the recruiter will call you, you can quickly identify the role and highlight all the relevant skills you can offer to the company (remember, it’s all about selling your skills!).

Lastly but not least, keeping track of your applications will help you understand what are the roles for which you receive more calls and therefore, you are most successful with.

Try it, it works!

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