In a recent post on WSJ’s Laid Off and Looking Blog, Kenneth Jones, an IT Operations executive laid off in March 2009 from Nortel Networks Corp., described his daily job search routine in Building a Job-Leads Pipeline.
He noted that his focus is split between uncovering quality leads and leveraging those he already has.
Mornings, he spends one or two hours qualifying, updating, and reviewing prospects with a spreadsheet he’s created, from which he maps out and tackles that day’s activities.
Afternoons, he updates his spreadsheet and responds to people with whom he didn’t connect earlier. At this point in the day, he asks himself how he’ll fill his funnel with the best leads, and how many promising leads he can reasonably juggle for the best return on his efforts.
Kenneth’s most valuable leads are usually uncovered through recruiters and former colleagues.
“In these discussions, I gain information about the role and the hiring manager, and place this information into my spreadsheet. In addition, I try to close these discussions with an action for me to perform (like apply for the job) coupled with another action to meet in the future. This process helps me maintain several dialogues at once regardless of whether the current prospect under discussion pans out.”
For those of you trying to sort through and manage an abundance of prospects, I recommend using Jibber Jobber, a personal/professional relationship manager to help you optimize your network relationships in job search and throughout your career. A basic account is free.
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