Organizing Your Search
Organizing a search can feel daunting and this week we’re focusing on one thing: choosing a system. Not a perfect system, or one that may last the next decade of your career, but choosing a system that works for you, today. Choosing a way to organize roles not only keeps you stay on track but also allows you find some control while also helping you tell your story in the right way, to the right opportunities.
Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Pexels
Pick One System
Whether you’re compiling postings forwarded by a friend, roles that catch your eye, or recruiter messages, if you’re not putting these leads in one place things can feel a bit chaotic and before you realize it, your browser has 17 tabs open. Choosing one place to store and sort the roles you’re considering will help you not only stay on track, but also help you draw themes and parallels of what the market is asking for to how you present your story when you’re applying and interviewing. Seeing all of your jobs of interest in one place can help you identify patterns to what companies are searching for. These patterns can then be used to ensure you’re emphasizing the right themes (not just keywords!) in your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn content.
There are digital platforms built specifically for this, such as Teal, which allow you to save postings and track applications in one dashboard. Teal also offers you “customized” resumes targeting specific job description keywords, but that’s a whole other article for another time! If the idea of learning a new system feels daunting, you can choose to keep your search organization beautifully simple by using a spreadsheet. You can build this in either Notion or Google Sheets. The tool matters less than the consistency.
What to Track
Yes, it’s important that you track obvious details like the job URL and company information:
Company name
Job title
Where you found it
Application status
Date applied
Who you know at the company
However in addition to this basic information, it’s important to also include a column indicating why you are a strong fit for the opportunity. When I work with clients, we use a simple spreadsheet not just to track jobs, but to make connections between:
What the role requires
What the candidate brings
Where the overlap lives
That overlap is where you start to translate how your skills, industry, and expertise translate to opportunity.
Start Adding: Don’t Perfect
As you get your search organized, you don’t need to build the world’s most advanced tracker this week or invest in a tool (even if you’re not investing monetarily, you’re investing with your data!). Choose a tool that you feel you’ll most likely access on repeate and then create your framework. Start small to build confidence by adding just three roles, that’s enough. Explore the process of researching the role to better articulate your fit to the role so that when you talk with a hiring manager there, they see the fit too.
Organization reduces anxiety because it replaces the stress of haphazard postings saved across multiple systems with clear, visible progress. When everything lives in one place, your search becomes more strategic helping you feel more in control. Select a system or method and use it consistently, adjusting as you go. One thing at a time. You’ve got this.