Your Job Search daily battle plan: do you have one?

If you understand this one thing about job searching and adjust your mindset to it, it will help you much better withstand all the bumps on the road along the way:

Job Searching is a job in and of itself.

Read that again and remind yourself of that DAILY.

Job Searching is not some task you perform once or twice. Its not fixing up your Resume. Its also not submitting your Resume for the 10th time. Its not interviewing. Its not negotiating.

Its ALL of that. Its an actual Job with tasks, duties, responsibilities (networking, applying online, submitting your resume/applications, etc) you need to carry out in order to achieve a desired outcome/ROI (i.e. getting a job).

And if you're not treating it like a job, you will run into difficulty and your wins will be sporadic or based on luck or chance. And I don't want you depending on luck and chance - and I'm sure you don't either.

So in the same way in your career or your job (or your most recent job, if you're unemployed) you need to be having a plan of action every single day of your Job Search.

Every. Single. Day. No exceptions!

So what I want you to do is take out your calendar and put in time blocks specifying exactly what you'll be doing - and I want you to plan out activities to suit your way of doing things.

Now for myself - I get bored doing the same thing over and over for an extended period of time. So I like to throw in some variety to spice things up - here's an example of how I would plan out my "Job Search work day":

9AM - Check emails/LinkedIn messages for responses to applications

9:30AM - Identify Recruiters specializing in my field I can connect with on LinkedIn and introduce myself. Follow-up with Recruiters I've already reached out to

10:30AM - Identify companies I want to work for and research potential Hiring Team members I can reach out to

11:30AM - Do a post on LinkedIn sharing something of value to my network but which also demonstrates my expertise in my industry

12PM - Lunch hour

1PM - Research virtual industry events I can attend to meet others in the industry

2PM - Work on personal project/portfolio which I can leverage at interviews to showcase my ability

3PM - Research any skillset/knowledge improvements to stay on top of my industry / Training

4PM - Apply for Jobs on Indeed / Monster / Etc

5PM - Reach out to someone also struggling in their job search who might need my help/advice and share my best practices from Job Searching so far

And etc etc

Now this schedule wasn't written in some strict, specific order - this is just how I would do it. But hopefully you get the point. You have to plan out your day.

Control your day, or your day controls you.

So I want you to, right now, take out a sheet of paper or get out your calendar app and block out those time slots designating what you'll be doing. If you're currently employed, you want to schedule these outside of work hours and perhaps on weekends as well.

Whatever your situation: treat your Job Search like its a job, until you get yourself the job!

Stay proactive!

Dean Kulaweera

P.S. Struggling with your online job application strategy? Applying for jobs online and not getting responses from Hiring Teams? Check out my FREE Masterclass to learn why this might be happening and what you can do about it.