How Job Seekers Should Set Time-Management Priorities

How Job Seekers Should Set Time-Management PrioritiesHow Job Seekers Should Set Time-Management Priorities0As its been said, looking for a job is a job.If youre serious about landing a job, you need to take that saying seriously.It also means you need some judicious time management to ensure the job of finding a job is given your best performance.The first task with your time management is to prioritize your activities. Not everything you do has the saatkorn impact on your results, and in the case of a job search, youre looking to land interviews. You wont get a job offer without one so its the indicator of whether or not youre conducting an effective job search.This doesnt mean we ignore the crown jewel, which is the job offer.It means job search is a process, and if the process is well managed, your best indicator is whether or not youre getting interviews.Use these five tasks to help set your time-management priorities during your job search1. Craft a great resume.Most of your tim e investment for your resume should be up front or in your job searchs startup phase.Youll discover the resume is never really finished.Youll tweak it as specific jobs and situations demand and when that happens, you want time to edit it for the occasion.2. Manage a LinkedIn profile.This is THE most highly utilized site for recruiting and as such, you want to be as serious about a well-crafted LinkedIn profile as you are about your resume.3. Be sure to network.Your best method for landing a job is through other people. Obtain referrals and support from your network. This will be time consuming if you do it right as youre emailing, texting, calling, and arranging meet ups.You dont want to wait to nurture your network until you begin your job search as thats predatory. So, hopefully youve done a good networking job before you begin. If not, start today.4. Be mindful of follow-up logistics.This includes returning emails, voicemails, and texts from recruiters, employers, or your network . It also includes interview follow up. This has to be your highest priority.If youre typically lazy in this area, change your behavior for this group. People lose job opportunities because of poor contact management.5. Properly schedule interviews.This is kind of obvious but interviews can be tricky to schedule, especially when youre working.Figure out ahead of launching a job search how you plan to accommodate interviews, especially if your job search will be confidential.Follow these secondary time-management priorities during your job search tooApply for jobs online.You can do this work at midnight if you have to, but some of your high priority actions cant be done at any time of the day. Also, depending on the site and type of jobs youre pursuing, your chances of finding a job with this method are low so treat it that way.Its too easy to get lured into spending too much time with other job posting sites. If you have nothing else better to do, thats ok.But if your time is tight, give yourself a time limit per week or day.The exception to this is, which is ahighly specialized site with vetted jobs and employers.Participate in job fairs.These can be either really great or a waste of time, and you may not know until youre there. Be willing to go and be willing to leave if you think its just a PR event for local businesses.The second task is to determine the days, time of day, and amount of time youll spend working on your job search. If you allow yourself to simply figure it out on a day-by-day basis, you wont do it. Keep in mind, this is a job and like all jobs, you have a schedule. Make your schedule, put it into your calendar, and stick to it.If you determine the schedule doesnt work completely, you can tweak it but dont blow it off.Youll have things like networking meetings or events that wont completely coincide with your job search schedule. When that happens you can make a decision whether you will slide your standing scheduled time or if it needs to b e in addition to your schedule.Another time-management tip is to manage expectations of friends and family.These people are used to a certain level of availability from you and may make your job search difficult if you dont speak to them about what they can expect from you ahead of time. You want to get the most results out of whatever time you put into your job search. By following these suggestions, youll be focusing on the critical activities and using your time efficiently.Readers, what successful time-management tips can you share? Post your responses in the comments section below