Conducting a job search can be tiring -- it takes a lot of effort.

Why?

Because you don't know exactly when you'll actually accept a job offer, or even what job you'll actually take. If you knew the "what" and the "when," then you'd just work backwards and plan out your job search, right? If you knew you'd have a job in 3 months, then you could predict that one week before that, you'd have a final interview. And two weeks before that, you'd have a first interview. And three weeks before that, you'd send in your resume.

Hmmm, so maybe you can actually use a future start date and work backwards to plan your job search. In other words...let's map out a simple job search strategy...

(1) By what date do you intend to have a job?

Now, just work backwards.

(2) What do you need to do to make that happen -- to actually land a job by that date? Here's a SAMPLE job search plan, in reverse. Just GUESS the steps, in reverse...what do you do last? Then one step before that? And one step before that? And so on...until the present moment.
11 Accept the job
10 Have a second interview
9 Have a first interview
8 Send in your resume for the job you ultimately land
7 Tailor and send in resumes to 100 other jobs
6 Hear about 101 jobs
5 Network with 300 people
4 Write your baseline resume and cover letter for the type of job you want
3 Find a job description for the type of job you want
2 Talk to people to clarify what kind of job you want
1 Write down some preliminary ideas of the type of job you want

(3) Next, put dates next to each of these activities. Again, these are "guesstimates" -- what you imagine will happen. You can start to plan your strategy with a calendar, and see how it maps out. Some of the activities may be ongoing.

(4) Finally, set daily goals! What will you do today to support moving ahead?

But many us resist setting goals. Why? We feel awful when we don't achieve our goals.

Well, feeling awful is NOT a good thing during a job search. So, how you can avoid that?

Set TARGETS instead...

Basically, set a "promise" and a "go for" each day. What this means is to PROMISE yourself you'll do some minimal amount...something that feels reasonable. Then, if your energy perks up, or you're feeling motivated, you can "stretch" yourself and work towards your GO FOR (as in "I'm going to really go for it!"

So, your target for a particular day might look something like this:
April 16
CALLS
Promise: 6 calls to recruiters
Go for: 10 calls to recruiters

WRITING
Promise: 2 cover letters and resumes written
Go for: 3 cover letters and resumes written

Post your goals in a place where you can see them...and review your progress daily and weekly. Applaud yourself for meeting your promises...and celebrate those successes...as well as your stretches.

Try out this strategic planning process to accelerate success in your job search...and let me know how it goes for you!

Strategically yours,
Susan

Susan Bernstein, MBA MA
Job Search Coach & Founder
The Job Search Gym
www.JobSearchGym.com