Ask yourself a simple question:

Can you remember every application you’ve sent out in the last 2 months?

NO well a lot of people can’t and that’s simply because they either forget to make a record or just don’t see the importance of keeping records of job search.

Why bother to record my job search?

Put simply to save you time in the long run, we all know that many companies don’t bother letting people know that they haven’t been successful in their application, and a few weeks down the line they advertise the same job again and you waste your time applying for the second time.

But if you had kept that record you could be saving that valuable paper/ink and postage cost in applying for the second time. The other advantage to keeping records is that you can analyse the market place and monitor recruitment trends in your area for yourself, and the information you have gathered in your records can help you spot trends in your local employment market and maybe enable you to get the jump on your competition and get an application in before the company get their adverts out.

Another good reason to keep accurate records is that if you are in the unfortunate position of having to claim Job Seekers Allowance Benefit you will be asked to prove what you are doing each time you visit a Jobcentre Plus office.

So what information/records should I keep?

1. The contact name/company name and address

2. The job title of the job you applied for

3. The date you applied

4. What you sent them

5. The closing date for the application

6. Any information supplied by the employer on the follow up process

7. If possible a copy of the job advert

8. Any follow up you have done or plan to do

All this sounds logical and many of you may think you’ll get a job so quickly so there is no need to worry about keeping the records, but the reality is less than 5% of people find a new job from the first company they apply to, so be prepared and keep those records it will help you in the long run.

If you would like a copy of the WoWMyCV(UK) designed Job Search Record Sheet, just send an email to theengineer@wowmycv.co.uk and we will send it to you FREE

© The Career Engineer
WoWMyCV.co.uk

        

Tags: career, Career Advice, Careers, Employment, Interviews, Job Interview, Job search, Jobs, Skills, work

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 9:59 am and is filed under Articles, Career Engineer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.