Create a Career Action Plan Before Looking for a New Job

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Finding a job can feel like a full-time job. It’s easy to feel defeated when you feel like you’re sending your resume to the void and most of the time you get nothing in return. Whether you’re graduating soon, taking a turn in your career, or returning to work after some time off, finding a job humbles us all.

An action plan is the key to making your job search a much more manageable process – both in terms of your sanity and in terms of increasing your chances of getting a job. It’s no secret that I love good spreadsheets . Whether you are a Team Spreadsheet or not, you must create some form of Career Search Action Plan .

Why You Need a Job Search Action Plan

Your job search action plan is an organizational tool that allows you to keep all the elements of your job search in one place. Not only does this help you stay on top of things, but it also visualizes your progress when you need to boost your motivation after being banned from Indeed.com.

Your roadmap will match your specific career search, but there are three main tabs to get you started:

  1. Goal setting and preparation
  2. Progress Tracking
  3. Assessment and self-examination

Let’s look at some of the specific action plan elements on each tab. Again – I’m speaking in spreadsheet terms, but your action plan can take any form that suits you best. (But it would be remiss not to ask: Do you realize how wonderful spreadsheets are?)

Goal setting and preparation

The first steps are always the hardest. When your career search is just beginning, here are a few specific things you can do in the first main section of your action plan.

  1. List your career goals. What are you looking for in your next position?
  2. Research the types of roles you are interested in, taking into account the qualifications you must list on your application.
  3. Determine the keywords to add to your resume (which you should tailor to every job posting, no matter what ).
  4. Search for new contacts . Spend some time on LinkedIn, Twitter, and company websites to try and find anyone who can potentially help you with your search, whether it be through their insight and experience or their ability to connect you with someone else who is hiring.
  5. Clean up your social media presence , if necessary.
  6. Create and update an online portfolio or website for yourself, if applicable.

Tracking your progress

This is the essence of your action plan. With sites like Indeed and LinkedIn, it’s easy to submit application after application without thinking. To stay up to date with all the different job openings, get creative with all the ways you can monitor your job search process.

  1. Organization of links to job postings. Gather all the positions you are considering, working on or applying for in one place. Visualize this list with color-coded columns for your application’s status, level of interest, potential contacts for the position, and space for general position notes.
  2. Create a master contact list. Don’t hold back here: Brainstorm and make a list of family friends, former co-workers, HR managers, people with your dream job you’ve found on LinkedIn, and general networking opportunities as described in step four above. Not every person you talk to will want to talk, and not every person you talk to will get you to work. However, you never know what opportunities may result from starting a conversation.
  3. Get ready for the interview. Schedule any interviews you receive and outline strategies for preparing for them. Make a checklist to prepare for an interview: research the company, your interviewer, and write answers to common interview questions .

Assessment and self-examination

One of the biggest mental hurdles to any job search is maintaining momentum. Whenever something falls behind and the job market seems hopeless, this tab is where you can check your progress.

  1. Contact everyone you’ve been in contact with. Be smart – don’t push the same people over and over again every week.
  2. Consider learning new skills or volunteering to complement your resume while you’re looking for a full-time job.
  3. Analyze your goals and determine what you may need to adjust in the future. Write down what you are willing to compromise on and what is non-negotiable for you. This can lead you to apply for various positions, which can give your career search another boost of motivation.

For most of us, finding a new job is a daunting and daunting job. Your Career Action Plan is an organizational tool that is just as important psychologically as it is professionally. And if you find yourself staring at a long list of rejected apps, you can always delete that table and start over.

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