If you are like most job searchers, you have more job search files on your computer than anything else. Keeping it all organized can be difficult as the information comes in quickly. But you may not need it for a while. I encourage my clients to keep their job search organized so that they can find the information they need quickly.
For each position you apply for, open a folder in your documents location. This will be the main folder for this position. Store the résumé, cover letter and a copy of the job posting in the folder. Placing a document with the job posting in the folder is necessary so that you can refer to it later when the posting may have been taken down. As you start collecting information about the company open new folders labeled with the type of information such as emails, articles, website, press releases, products/services, competitors, industry, contacts, etc. Set up a Google Alert for the different things you want to track about the company. Filing a link for these things are okay as they probably won’t be taken down.
you will be looking for this information when you have an interview, and it will all be in one place when you start preparing. Instead of looking all over your documents file for each document, you will have all you need ready and waiting for you.
Take some time to go through your documents file to create one file for each job you have already applied for. It may be a time consuming effort but well worth it when you get a call for an interview.
Photo credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net David Castillo Dominici
Really useful tip, Arleen, and may I say I love your tagline 🙂 I try to be this organised, but somehow I still end up with files all over the place. Working between two computers doesn’t help either, but using a cloud service such as Dropbox goes some way towards reducing the muddle.
That’s a good idea–whether for outside jobs or entrepreneurial ones.