Having a process in place to measure your job search outreach is essential for seeing your progress, who you have connected with, and who you need to follow up with. In a Forbes article about keeping your job search pipeline full, Caroline Ceniza-Levine mentions that a job search is a numbers game and that job seekers must have enough sources for finding leads. She also notes that job seekers need to talk to their connections enough to generate good job search results. It’s important to have a way of keeping all of this job search data organized. In this article, we discuss tips on tracking your job search outreach to keep your pipeline full.
Identify Who to Target
To get the best results from your job search, identify exactly who you want to target. Here are some things to consider:
● Industries that you want to work with.
● Relevant keywords to use when doing searches.
● Whether you want to find a remote position or in-house position.
● Cities where you want to find work.
● Seniority level and titles of people to contact.
● Company sizes.
Track Each Referral Source
In her article, Caroline describes ten sources for job leads such as recruiter relationships, company websites, and personal networks. LinkedIn is an excellent source for leads. You could set up tracking sheets for each of these sources to keep your data well organized. This will also help you to identify which sources work best for you and where to put more of your efforts. Below, we review some of the elements that you can include in your tracking.
Measure Your Daily Activity
Use a sheet for tracking your daily search activities and focus on getting referrals. According to a Medium.com article by Kristina Martic, “82% of employers rated employee referrals above all other sources for generating the best return on investment (ROI)” and “88% of employers said that referrals are the #1 best source for above-average applicants.” Below are some examples for what to track for LinkedIn outreach. This type of outreach can help you to get job referrals:
● The search terms you used to do a search.
● Name, title, and profile link of a person you want to connect with.
● When you sent the person a connection request and whether or not they connected with you.
● When you sent them your next message, whether or not they responded, and when.
● When you sent them a follow up message, whether or not they responded, and when.
Track Your Metrics
As part of tracking your job search, set up metrics to track for each of the job lead sources that you will be using. As an example, here are some metrics that you can track for a LinkedIn outreach:
● The number of connection requests sent, accepted, and percent accepted.
● The number of outreach messages sent, meetings set, and percent of meetings set.
● From the number of meetings you had, the number of referrals and the percent of meetings that led to offers.
● From the number of meetings you had, the number of requests for a second or third meeting, and the percent of these meetings that led to offers.
● Who you sent thank-you notes to, if they replied back, and when.
At 2Actify, our clients use a tracking form to identify their activity and stay in touch with their network for opportunities and referrals for a relationship building process using a systematic approach.
Take a look at this short interview with Roneet, a Marketing Communications Professional. Having a system has changed her search approach and she provides insight on her new skills and confidence level.
Once you have secured a meeting with a connection, prepare for your meeting so you can develop a relationship that leads to job referrals. Download our free guide on how to prepare for introductory calls with new connections:
