"The Twelve Months of Job Search"

A Year's Worth of Job Search Activity - Unwrapped / Unraveled

2023 - What a year! I began my job search on December 1, 2022. Regardless of what experts say about the best times of the year to do a job search, I'm not sure there are any "best" times. I was encouraged early on by some immediate interviews and I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could secure a new role within a short period of time. However, that was not to be the case. Six months ago I published an article providing a 6-month update on where I stood. Well, now I have an entire year's worth of data under my belt. You say you're looking for job search tips, tricks, advice, etc. on how to get employed quickly? Well, you've clearly come to the WRONG place! LOL

Everyone Likes Data (when it tells a story and supports a narrative)

I'm not super geeky, but I have been keeping track of certain metrics that I thought were useful. In addition to providing a historical perspective on what actions I took and what I did with my time, the metrics have also served to keep me on track. We've all had days (employed or not) where we feel we could have been more productive. Job search is no exception. Minutes turn into hours, hours turn into days, etc. etc. I've found it useful to look at my own performance as a means of getting back on track if I felt like I was slacking off.

The information I captured required one criterion - I needed to be able to have control over it. Sometimes people like to count things they can't do much to influence (i.e., likes, impressions, responses). There is a place for those, but they are the result of the work that you put in. Here are the nine categories that I chose to track and compile:

1. Calls & call attempts | 2. Text messages sent | 3. Emails sent out | 4. LinkedIn connections and communications | 5. Jobs applied to | 6. Individual meetings | 7. Networking meetings | 8. Interviews | 9. Articles published

I used an Excel sheet to keep track of everything (I'm aware there are other tools out there). A separate tab for each month, and an extra tab to keep track of every company that I applied to. In that tab I kept track of the company name, the job title, the date I applied, the date I was contacted - whether that was from a rejection email or I was contacted for an interview. I also calculated the number of days from the time I applied to when I heard back from a company (if I heard back).

On the twelfth month of job search, my statistics meant to me...

• 2,372 LinkedIn communications (invitations and messages)
• 665 emails sent
• 563 resumes blasted
• 322 calls made
• 292 Networking Group meetings attended
• 252 working days of job search
• 179 Individual meetings
• 114 text messages
• 39 Job Interviews
• 6 multiple rounds
• And a 1 job offer that didn't make sense to accept

These numbers are nice to be able to report, but they really only mean something to me. Each job seeker needs to determine their own path, their own activity objectives, and establish their own benchmarks. What was more meaningful is when I compared the first 6 months to the whole year. Here is what that looked like. The first number is from the 6 months mark, the second number is from the full year:

So those numbers are a window into the activity. What about the results? I also tried to keep track of things like rejection emails and the timing of such things. Here's a summary.

Writing Articles / Posting on LinkedIn

I decided back in late December last year that I was going to start writing again on LinkedIn. I had done it five years ago during a prior job search, and I found it to be therapeutic. It allowed me to use my mind, be a little creative, and it was a nice counter-balance to non-stop job search. While I'm not being compensated (monetarily at least), it's provided a good way to share thoughts on a number of different topics. Since LinkedIn seems to like when I write about job-search related topics I've angled much of my writing in that direction. It feels good when you see the number of impressions increase. It feels better when you see people engaging and commenting on an article you've written. It feels the best though when people saw something of value and thought enough of it to share it within their own network.

What Have I Learned? What's Ahead?

You would think after one full year of job search that I would have learned something - and maybe I have. I've gotten connected to some really good networking groups. I've seen some really good presentations delivered by some very skilled job search professionals. And, I've met a number of really good people from all across the country that are striving to find their next role.

I'm continuing to seek out new opportunities, but I expect there may be some elevated "Plan B" activity in my future. I'm not sure I have it in me to pull a "George" (George Costanza from Seinfeld) and do the opposite of everything that makes sense, but my "cheese" has definitely been moved, and it's time I moved with it.

Have a great weekend!

Dave

About David Shultis

I am a senior level B2B marketing and product management professional with experience in the life science/med device/manufacturing space. A return to a leadership role (formal or informal) where coaching and mentoring a team or working with a cross-functional team would also be an important component of the position. This could be in the form of a director of commercial excellence, marketing director, a group product director or as an individual contributor in a senior product management capacity. I'm especially interested in under-performing departments, startups or rebuilds where I can contribute by making a positive change through leadership and the implementation of procedures and metrics.

When not in pursuit of my next opportunity you can find me biking in and around New Jersey (8,500+ miles so far in 2023) or trying to get my walking in with a 15k step goal each day.

Photo(s) of the week. Each year Allenwood, NJ (Wall Township) lights up this tree right near the Allaire Bike/Walking Trail and the Allenwood General Store. It brought a smile to my face on Monday morning when I was riding early in the morning and saw it lit up.