As you begin or continue your job search, it can feel a bit like a roller coaster. One moment you are excited about an opportunity and optimistic about your chances of landing a job and the next, you become worried or anxious.
Uncertainty can cause this in any situation. A good way to combat the ups and downs of uneasiness is to take control of things that you can and work on an effective, well-thought-out plan of action. One way to do this is by using a weekly job search plan.
At a high level, a weekly job search plan is a tool you use to build momentum in your job search to reach your ultimate goal of landing a job. However, at a more granular level it is also a time management system, activity log, and accountability device. Even though the idea of a weekly plan might seem simple, once you use it you’ll see how effectively it helps deepen your productivity and sharpen your focus.
But why do you need a weekly job search plan? According to a recent study at the Dominican University of California Department of Psychology, there is a strong correlation between writing down goals and successfully achieving them. Also revealed in the study is that having action items for each goal will also help you become more likely to succeed. There’s a third finding that can help increase your odds of accomplishing your target goal, which you’ll learn about at the end of this article.
Outside of just the results of this one study, writing down your goals can help you solidify and focus them, and help you remember the tasks at hand and better manage your time and resources to accomplish them.
Start a Job Search Action Plan
To begin, download our free Weekly Action Plan Template.
You can use it as a starting point as you develop your own ideas. The first thing you’ll want to do is establish a goal for each type of strategy you’ll be engaging in during your job search (applying to jobs, networking, going to job fairs or open houses, professional associations—whatever strategies are right for you). The Weekly Action Plan template has a couple of common strategies listed and a column for others. For each of these strategies, establish a S.M.A.R.T. goal using the following qualifications:
- Specific: A goal is specific if it is well defined and can be objectively assessed. If your goal is vague it may be hard to tell if you’ve accomplished it. For example, “I want to get a job,” is vague, but “I want to apply to a job in clinical research,” is more specific.
- Measurable: A measurable goal will have elements that you can quantify and measure. For example, “I will apply to one job each day,” is a measurable goal.
- Actionable: An actionable goal is one that gives you the opportunity to complete tasks that are within your control. “I will get three interviews a week,” is a goal that isn’t within your control, however, “ I will apply to five jobs a week,” is more reasonably within your control (depending on availability of jobs in your field).
- Realistic: Setting realistic goals is the key to setting yourself up for success. It is okay to set goals that make you work hard, but don’t make your goals so difficult that they become unrealistic. As you review your plan each week, you’ll get a better idea of what is realistic when it comes to your own job search.
- Time-bound: Keep your goals defined within a certain time-frame. Giving yourself deadlines and benchmarks along the way will make it easier for you to break this large task into smaller, more manageable tasks. It will also give you many opportunities to celebrate your successes along the way.
Activities
Once you’ve established your weekly goal for each strategy-type, you’ll want to assign yourself some activities or action items. For example, if your goal for “Applying to Jobs Online” this week is: To apply to two jobs each day. Your action items might be:
- Prepare and revise my resume.
- Research and save 10 jobs for which I’m qualified to apply.
Think about each goal carefully and write out as many steps as you think you’ll need to accomplish it. Add additional steps later if they become necessary to help you keep track of your activities and manage your time.
Notes
As you are working on your plan throughout the week, take notes. Your notes related to applying to jobs could be to keep a list of completed and in-progress applications. Another example would be for networking; keep track of who you’ve reached out to, on what date, and what topics you discussed. These help you keep track of what you’ve done, so that later you can use them as a reference point when planning out next steps.
Review
Each week, set aside some time to review your goals. Check to see if you met the previous week’s goals. Review your accomplishments and assess what tactics worked and what didn’t. Here are some beginning questions to ask yourself as you review the week:
- Were your goals realistic?
- Was the time-frame reasonable?
- Could you be more specific with your goals next time?
- Do you need to focus on a different strategy?
- Would these goals work for the following week, or do you need to move on or progress to a new set of goals?
- Have the circumstances of your search changed since last week, and how will that affect your plan?
- Are you at a different phase in your search than you were before?
- Do you have commitments outside of your job search that you should factor into your goals and activities for next week?
Next Steps
Once you’ve reviewed your performance for the week, you can begin developing next steps. Examples of next steps can be extensions of activities from this week, such as following up with an HR representative about an application or with a contact you were introduced to last week. This is the chance to turn your thoughts forward and see what needs to happen in the next week, this includes following up, completing unfinished items, and creating new goals and action items. Be thorough with your planning so that when you start your week, you have a clear idea of what needs to be done and what you can do to accomplish your goals.
Customize
Your weekly action plan is yours to customize to fit your field, needs, circumstances, and personal goals. Add new columns and/or strategies to the Weekly Job Search Plan to make it fit your search, but also augment this approach by adding more tools to track your activities, such as a job application log or calendar, as is appropriate for your search and organizational style. There’s no one perfect way to manage all parts of your search, but working to find which way to pro-actively manage yours is a great place to start.
Bonus – Power Boost
If you use the Weekly Job Search Plan and want to make it even more powerful, then according to the same study mentioned at the beginning of the article; be sure to share your goals with someone else—whether it is a member of a job club, coach, trusted friend, family member, or mentor, and regularly share your progress. These are the final two elements that greatly increase your odds of successfully accomplishing a goal: sharing it (open commitment) and accountability (progress updates).