Advanced Career Transitions Blog

Activity - The Key to Success in a Job Search

The more activity you generate the faster you will move your job search forward and the sooner you will find that job. So how do you know if you are generating the right kind and amount of activity? I have a simple metric that you can use to gauge your activity level.

You know that 70 to 80% of all jobs are found through networking. That means that 70 to 80% of your time needs to be focused on networking. Here is a point system that a very smart lady shared with me several years ago.

Give yourself points for your activities as follows:

     Responding to a job listing - 1/4 point

     Talking with a live human being on the telephone - 1 point

     Setting up a one-on-one networking meeting - 2 points

     Attending a one-on-one networking meeting - 3 points

     Going on a job interview - 4 points

The object of the system is to get 4 points every day, five days per week.

You can see that the points are heavily weighted towards networking. Score your activity every day and record it in a log or on a calendar. If you are not getting 4 points every day, you need to examine what you might need to do differently to increase your score. For example, if you are not getting enough networking meetings, you might need to increase the number of telephone calls you are making daily. Perhaps you are not growing your network fast enough. Are you asking for referrals n your networking meetings? Maybe you need to review your daily routine with a mentor to get some idea of what you are doing right and what you might improve upon.

The more you do, the stronger your search. The stronger your search, the sooner you will be successful.