Organizing a Job Hunt

scottalanmiller

Something that many people, I imagine, do poorly when job hunting is managing contact and prospects. When I talk to other IT professionals they often have no idea who got them their current job and little to no continuity exists in their processes. They work with random recruiters who spam them with LinkedIn requests and see them as generic entities with no names or faces. This does not help their prospects at all. And tracking things through email is pretty rough.

I recommend OneNote! If you have a personal OneNote like me for all of the random stuff that you want to document (that isn't appropriate for my family wiki which I also have) then it is easy to make a New Section just for Job Hunting and then make a Page for each prospect that you are considering. Track conversations, details, status, etc. Make things easy. All the info in one place, easily organized.

Minion Queen

OneNote saves the day once again. I love OneNote for pretty much everything!

nadnerB

Yep, I use OneNote for tons of stuff.
I find it's really useful for documenting stuff as you can screen clip straight to it.

gjacobse

Onenote being MS product, and I do see that it has a free download.

But how is it different then EverNote?

scottalanmiller

@g.jacobse said:

Onenote being MS product, and I do see that it has a free download.

But how is it different then EverNote?

It's FREE! And it is integrated with the MS Office suite, Sharepoint, etc. That's the big thing. And it has been around much longer (if that matters.)

gjacobse

@scottalanmiller said:

@g.jacobse said:

Onenote being MS product, and I do see that it has a free download.

But how is it different then EverNote?

It's FREE! And it is integrated with the MS Office suite, Sharepoint, etc. That's the big thing. And it has been around much longer (if that matters.)

Free is a good thing. It's not so much to bash MS and Office. however I myself (personally) don't own a current copy of Office, therefore I don't have the Suite or SharePoint...

Now here in the office. I have Office 365. But that is now, and at the office.

coliver

I've been thinking about this for some time now but how do you develop the necessary relationships with recruiters? I've talked to two in the past and both seemed to not understand:
A. What my focus is
B. Where my talents/skills lie

Both recruiters have sent me in the past and now several CS style jobs (programming and web-dev) and few if any IT jobs. Just looking for ideas on how I can develop relationships with people so they understand what I am/would be looking for in the future.

thanksajdotcom

I was expecting that your answer would be a wiki...LOL

scottalanmiller

@thanksaj said:

I was expecting that your answer would be a wiki...LOL

A wiki is certainly a good option. I think OneNote or EverNote is probably better because you are unlikely to ever want to share that information. A note app is good for your notes, a wiki is good for shared documentation.

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

I've been thinking about this for some time now but how do you develop the necessary relationships with recruiters? I've talked to two in the past and both seemed to not understand:

Work with headhunters, not recruiters. There is a big difference. I was talking with some of my "hiring team" about this several weeks ago. They have the same issue in reverse, they struggle to find potential candidates who care about relationships with them.

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

A. What my focus is
B. Where my talents/skills lie

I pinged my guys to jump in here to discuss this from their perspective. But when I was working with my team we had talked for seven years before I had them look into something for me. And when we did that we spent a few months talking regularly to get a feel for what I wanted, who I was, what they covered, etc. It was a LOT of prep work. Then, when they were confident that they knew who I was, what I needed and that we were all ready - we only had a handful of companies that we looked at, because they had put in months of filtering out ones that didn't make sense either because they wouldn't want to hire me or because I wouldn't want to work there. Where we got down to three candidates, one was a dud, two were great and one made an offer and I accepted before the other had a chance to react. So the success ratio was super high.

Part of the system is lining up the resume, the recruiting team, getting the relationship established BEFORE you are job hunting. Don't do it when time is critical. Do it when there is time to develop a relationship.

Dashrender

Do you change companies so frequently that you would need/want a relationship with a Head hunter?

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

Both recruiters have sent me in the past and now several CS style jobs (programming and web-dev) and few if any IT jobs. Just looking for ideas on how I can develop relationships with people so they understand what I am/would be looking for in the future.

Picking the right recruiters matters, a lot. I had many that I tried once and never used again. You have to find both people AND companies that you like working with. And you need to stick with them. And they with you. You likely need more than one. They tend to focus, as do IT workers. If you work in medical, for example, you'll want a recruiter that specializes in medical IT placement. Or if you only care about being local, you will want a recruiter that focuses on the local metro area.

coliver

@Dashrender said:

Do you change companies so frequently that you would need/want a relationship with a Head hunter?

No, but it is always good to have the options open. I don't see having employment at any company as an end-all-be-all of a career.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said:

Do you change companies so frequently that you would need/want a relationship with a Head hunter?

This is IT. Absolutely. I can't imagine it any other way.

scottalanmiller

If you change jobs every five years, you need a team ready to go. When the time comes to find your next job, having a relationship can be the difference between one month of searching and finding a great job and three months and taking "what comes up."

thanksajdotcom

@scottalanmiller said:

If you change jobs every five years, you need a team ready to go. When the time comes to find your next job, having a relationship can be the difference between one month of searching and finding a great job and three months and taking "what comes up."

I don't feel like I'm at the point in my career yet where this is something that is really feasible...

gjacobse

My first computer experience was in in 1976-77.
My first 'home computer' was in 1985... And I've been working on / with them since.

I've seen them evolve over the years,.. and after 29 years of them - have just about reach my EOL point.... And I still have another 20 years till retirement. .. Just have to go one day at a time....