What if I told you that the way you track your job search can directly control the length of your job search? It can, and I’ll prove it.
Have you ever seen the TV show “American Ninja Warrior”? If not, I’ll explain. It’s an obstacle course built for very seriously in-shape people. The obstacles range from steeply angled boards the contestants must run across, to 14 foot warped walls. All of the obstacles are above water, so if you fail, you fall in.
It’s interesting to see that the same people keep coming back every year, and they get a little farther each time. Why do you suppose that is? Do they just get luckier and luckier every year? Of course not! It’s because they identify which obstacle keeps throwing them in the water, and then they work on it until they learn how to beat it.
It’s the same with job search. Instead of being faced with the Quintuple Steps, Spider Jump, and Warped Wall, you’re faced with a different set of obstacles.
Your first challenge is to find enough companies who are hiring people like you. Are you finding enough? How do you know? Keep a spreadsheet that tracks how many jobs you applied to each day this week, and every week. Look for dips in performance. Ask others who do what you do how many positions they feel they are applying to and gauge yourself. Are you beating this obstacle, or are your toes dipping in the water?
When you send your resume out are you getting a good response rate? How do you know? Are you keeping a submittal to interview percentage?
What about your interview success rates? How many phone interviews turn into face to face interviews? How many face to face interviews turn into 2nd interviews? How many get to the reference checking stage?
While tracking WHERE your resume is going and the responses you get is very important, that simply doesn’t give you the data you really need to progress forward. You need to know which obstacle keeps knocking you in the water so you can work on it!
If you don’t have enough positions to apply to, learn how to find more positions!
If your resume submittal to response rate is too low, then you need to work on your resume. If your resume is good, then you need to adjust WHO you’re sending your resume to within each company.
If you’re getting good responses, but getting stuck in the interview process, you need to study some advanced interviewing strategies.
Your first step is to identify what’s stopping you. The only way to do that is to deliberately track your production numbers every day. Once you identify the trouble spot, learn how to beat it, and move on to the next obstacle.
You’ll be amazed how you get farther and farther with each company’s hiring course. Just be sure to take note. You’re not getting luckier and luckier, you’re mastering the art of job search. It’s not as much a game of chance as you might think.
If you want to learn the process from experts rather than through trial and error, falling into the water over and over until you figure it out, check out our Recommended Books page, or consider signing up for this site.
1 week prior to writing this blog, someone wrote a letter to me explaining how she had been searching for a job for 7 years, yet on her 26th day as a member of SpeedUpMyJobSearch.com, she accepted an offer at a senior level within her field of choice.
The process of Job Search can be learned. If you don’t learn from me, buy a book and learn from someone. There simply is no reason to fall in the water so many times.
Check out the guy in the picture standing on a wall in his yard. He built it to practice on. Do think when he attempts the wall in competition it will be a lucky break that he beats it? No chance, and so it is with your obstacles.
