“I got the job”: Top tips to organise your job search

“I got the job” – The four words all jobseekers strive for in their job search.

How do you get there? The secret is organisation.

The average jobseeker will apply for 10-15 jobs per week. As the CVs, cover letters, assessments, interviews, background checks and other requirements pile up, the result is often a complicated process difficult for talent to navigate effectively.

In this blog, we share our top tips to help talent organise their job search to help secure a new job.

1. Understand your goals

Ask yourself this simple question – What is your end-goal? Maybe you want to be CEO of multi-national company, a small business owner or thought leader in you specialised field. Whatever it may be, once you know what your end-goal is, you can focus your job search on the industries, companies and positions that will ultimately help you to get there. By understanding your goals, you can streamline your job search and work towards reaching your end-goal faster.

2. Do your research

Many candidates tend to over-complicate their job search by applying for every single role they see. They will apply for 50 jobs when in reality they’re only truly interested in five of them. We recommend using a far more selective approach in your job search by minimising the roles you apply for. Research will allow you to simplify your search and focus on specific opportunities.

In today’s digital world you have more tools and resources to inform your job search than ever before. Company websites, review platforms, ASX announcements, market research and job boards are just some of the resources at your disposal.

Research companies within your chosen industry. What type of company are they? What work do they do? What are their values? Who works there? Are they hiring? What skills are they looking for? Are there any benefits? etc. Research will help you uncover the companies you want to work for and the roles that align with your goals and needs. This means you can focus on the jobs you actually want rather than juggle the chaos of superfluous applications.

3. Create a schedule

An application process is a lot like a hurdles race. To win the race you need to overcome a series of hurdles. In a hiring process, these hurdles can get higher the further down the track you go. To overcome these obstacles, you need to be prepared for each one. How do you do this in your job search? You create a schedule.

Scheduling is a key component of an organised job search, and is often where some talent let themselves down. Sending CVs, attending assessment centres and doing interviews all compound when applying for multiple roles simultaneously. The application process is designed to test prospective hires including your ability to be organised and overcome each hurdle seamlessly. This is much easier to achieve when you’ve created a detailed schedule to organise your job search.

How do you do this? Utilise tools you have available to you. This can be done via an Excel spreadsheet, a word document, a Google calendar, a smartphone app or even physical sticky notes. Whatever medium you choose, you need to note the what, where, who, when and why of each hurdle to ensure your job search is organised and effective.

4. Track your Progress

Once your schedule is created, you need to track your progress. Relying on memory for one application process might be acceptable, but it’s a risky strategy across multiple application processes. Imagine the optics of confusing a final interview at company A with the second interview at company B. Or inadvertently discussing the assessment centre you did at company C during your final interview at company D. These errors are innocent, but it tells an employer you lack organisational skills which could translate if you were to be given the job.

So, to ensure this doesn’t happen, track your progress. Use detailed notes throughout each application step and refer back to these when you’re ready to move forward. These notes might detail what you did, when you did it, who was involved, how it went, what worked well, what didn’t, what is next and how should you prepare for it?

Jobseekers who track their progress throughout their job search will be far more organised and less likely to make a mistake that costs them a job opportunity.

5. Set up alerts

Another simple tactic to stay organised in your job search is to create job alerts. Seek, LinkedIn and Indeed all allow jobseekers to set alerts for new ads that meet your pre-selected criteria. You can also use alerts to help stick to your job search schedule. This will save you hours of times scouring job boards and help keep you organised while searching for a new job.

6. Stay positive

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is to stay positive in your job search and not give up. Whether it takes 1, 5, 10 or 50 applications to secure the job you want, it’s important to be resilient, persistent and consistent. Don’t look at an unsuccessful application as a failure but as an opportunity to learn for future success. Your efforts will eventually pay off and having the right attitude along the way will likely enhance your outcome.

Job searching can sometimes feel more strenuous than an actual job itself. It requires a concentrated effort and an organised approach to be successful. In this blog, we’ve shared some top tips to help you do just this to help secure a new role. At Ignite, we are passionate about helping individuals complete their job search. We’ve been facilitating employee-employer connections across multiple industries for almost four decades. Our Specialist Recruitment consultants are ready to support you in your job search and help you finally say “I got the job”.

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