How To Stay Organized During A Job Search
Missing an interview or forgetting to follow up with a recruiter might mean losing a job offer. But it’s hard to avoid when you’ve sent out over a hundred applications and you have a dozen interviews happening around the same time.
Staying organized is key during the job search process.
Immediately after sending out your first application, you should start a list of all the companies you’ve applied to and other important information like recruiter contact information and your current stage in the interview process.
Keep a list in Excel or Google Sheets.
If you really want to get into the weeds, you can use a free CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software like Pipedrive or HubSpot. CRM software is what tech sales professionals use to keep track of their leads and prospects.
It’s an added benefit to get CRM experience because it’s a software you’ll be working with in any tech sales role. It will also give you an answer to another common tech sales interview question: Do you have any experience using a CRM? If so, which one?
But it may also end up just being a distraction that saps your energy from the rest of the job search. Excel works just fine.
Here’s a simple example of what your list of applications should like in Excel or Google Sheets:
| Date Applied | Company | Position | Recruiter | Stage | |
| 04/01/2020 | Salesforce | SDR | Jane Doe | jane@sfdc.com | On-site interview |
| 04/01/2020 | SAP | Senior AE | Joe Schmo | joe@sap.com | Rejected |
| 04/01/2020 | Oracle | Cloud Platform Sales | John Doe | john@oracle.com | Phone interview |
| 04/15/2020 | Account Executive | Kate Spade | kate@google.com | Rejected | |
| 04/20/2020 | Adobe | Inside Sales Rep | Coco Chanel | coco@adobe.com | Waiting |
| 04/20/2020 | Yelp | Account Executive | Marc Jacobs | marc@yelp.com | Waiting |
The important thing is that you’re keeping track of the companies and positions you’re applying to. Once you have more than a few outstanding applications, organization will be essential to sending follow-ups and staying in touch with the recruiter for each position.
You’ll also have a bird’s eye view of all your applications in one place so you can check your progress and make decisions about sending out more applications, aligning interview timelines, etc.