Track Your Job Search Progress
Are you someone who has been working the Internet and other
areas for telecommuting work or home-based businesses?
Confused, yet not sure what you have done or where you are
going with it. I have been there and still am sometimes. I
have worked out some
tips and suggestions that can help you
navigate these waters.
I have found that one of the most useful things I started
doing was to keep track of everything I am doing. I use a
simple spreadsheet, like Excel. And I do mean everything. I
have one file where I enter all the information from any job
sites that I join. Information such as the username and
password I created, what type of job site is it û freelance
or regular or specialty. The date that I joined and whether
I posted a resume to the site or filled out their own skill
assessment list goes in the file too. After about the fourth
or fifth one joined anyone can be forgetful. Some
information to keep in mind while doing this, can you
control what personal information is being viewed by
employers, do the employers pay a fee to post jobs since
this can keep a lot of scammers away.
In another file I keep track of jobs that I have actually
applied for. Write down the date you sent it in, whether you
mailed it or emailed or applied directly to the employer's
site. Don't forget to add in all the contact information
such as a web site address, the email used to send your
application, any phone numbers, addresses or person's names
that were given. This is very important for follow-up
inquiries. Something that can separate your resume from the
rest of the batch is to put a little work into it, read
their web site and mention why you would be a great fit for
thei.company or call them to get the hiring managers name
to personalize your cover letter.
Another page to add to your job search folder is one for
classes you have taken. I'm mostly referring to the online
tutorials that you can find. This is a great way to beef up
your resume and get some experience and skill in a
particular area that seems to be a "hot" topic for the
industry you are targeting in your search. I like to record
the web address, any username/passwords that I created and
what the tutorial was about for easy reference.
If you are looking into affiliate marketing that is another
page I keep. There are literally hundreds and thousands of
opportunities out there. Tracking your research lets you
categorize the various offers that you are interested in and
by saving all your information that you gave them to join
like usernames/passwords and emails you can easily see how
it is going. I especially track how my returns are doing to
see if it is worth keeping or if it needs to be replaced by
another potential
Opportunity.
A silly thing I overlooked was the use of various keywords
on the job search engines. I was using like 'telecommute'
and that was it. So of course it was hard to find hits.
Branching out with other phrases will find you more
opportunities such as "home-based", "off-site", "virtual
office", "freelance" and "work-at-home".
It may also help you to do different things on different
days. Job-hunting is intense work and there are a lot of
ways of doing it. Look at doing searches on job boards two
days a week. Another two or three days spend researching and
contactin.companies that are known to be flex-friendly,
this one can really pay off as a lot of jobs aren't posted
on the job boards anyway.
Keeping multiple copies of your resume is a time saver as
well. We all have various strengths and emphasizing certain
areas which target a particula.company's job listing will
improve your chances by focusing their attention on what
benefits you can bring to thei.company. And just don't send
a generic cover letter with a bland statement, I'll mention
again to at least read some of thei.company information to
personalize it and show the hiring person that you spent
some of your time researching them and that you mean
business and aren't just throwing your resume out to the
wind. You will save time in the long run if you keep your
applications to jobs that you are actually qualified to do.
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Authored by Traci Pederson of Jill of Trades and Spiral Web
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