Settling into a job-search routine

One of the toughest things about a job search can be structuring one’s time. For those who are accustomed to non-stop deadlines, meetings, constantly chirping mobile phones and pulsating BlackBerries, places to be and people to see, the deadening silence of a job search can seem cruel. No other person or outside force is compelling you to do things, so you need to come up with your own structure and make that phone ring.

Experts say successful job hunters mimic the structure of their working lives through self-created deadlines, routines and networking. Though it’s not easy and at first may seem somewhat made-up, developing a structure that works for you will move your search along and help keep loneliness and self-doubt — a job hunter’s enemies — at bay.

Here are some tips:

*Develop a daily schedule and routine. Set your hours for the next day. Then be ready at your desk — showered and caffeinated — at the set time to start on your goals. Come up with specific, measurable goals for the day and week. For instance, plan to make so many contacts via email or phone and then invite them to meet you for coffee over the next week. Figure out how many resumes you want to send out for that day. Plan to research at least two openings and follow up with people in your network about them. Also, plan projects to sprinkle out over a few days or a week — such as updating your resume and contacting potential references. Be organized — schedule these plans in an electronic organizer or calendar with reminders and daily to-do lists.

*Mix it up. Don’t confine yourself to a few days — or even a single day — of sending out resumes for jobs you’re not sure you’ll get. That’s a recipe for despair. Instead, send out a few resumes and then make a few calls to well-networked friends in a quest to expand your network. When you start to feel blue, help someone else who needs it. If you can, try to do some real journalism work — writing or editing — most days, even if it’s just organizing your notes for an upcoming project. It helps remind you why you want a journalism job (or perhaps why you may not). During my recent job search, I tried to do some each day of the following: job-hunting work; free-lance writing, editing or training (and sometimes marketing for new free-lance work or trying to get paid for completed work!); networking; and what I called outreach — helping others with their searches and writing this blog. I acknowledge my short attention span, yet mixing it up helped keep me interested and gave me things to look forward to each day.

*Form a support group. Even if it’s just a group of two or three, find a job-hunting “buddy” or two with whom you can share your ups and downs. It’s good to find someone who is at a different stage of their career or who has a different specialty than you so you can freely share ideas and won’t routinely be competing for the same jobs. If you’re social, see about forming an actual group of job hunters that meets every few weeks to swap job-hunting tales and tips. Having to report regularly to someone on the progress of your search can be a powerful incentive to make that extra follow-up call or rework your resume. And a recent trend among employment specialists has been to bring together job hunters from different professions to support one another. Some evidence suggests that job hunters who work with those outside their professions cut down their job search time because they offer tips and especially contacts to one another that they wouldn’t have otherwise had. Why not try it?

*Reward yourself, even in small ways. Giving yourself breaks from your search of a few hours or a day — especially now that you have the flexibility and freedom to do so — can be refreshing and can also give you thinking time to consider what you really want to do with your career. Try to do things for yourself — in small measures so you don’t abandon your search for long — that you didn’t have the chance to do while holding down a full-time job. And often, when you’re not expecting it, that’s just when the mobile phone starts chirping!

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JOB SEARCH ROUTINE

TIME LINE

TIME	ACTIVITY	RESULTS	COMMENTS
8:00	Internet Things – Blogs Email Reading – Job Boards	No Email READ Blog – No Suitable Jobs	Make prints of blog story on Preparing to share with Job club on Thursday
	Respond to any Emails – Work Related only	No Emails Today	Spent more time on finding NEW job boards
9:00	Networking - Update Network list Contact via email or phone any contacts not reached last week or reminders to new contacts made recently.	Updated 3 contacts with new resume via email. Contacted 2 via phone and got 1 new lead.	Remember to send Joe a thank you note and let him know the outcome of the lead he gave me.

10:00	10 Minute Break for Coffee Applications – On Line or In Person. On-line – One Hour In-Person - Two Hours	www.xyzcompnay.com www.123company.com www.CBSNews.com	Applications copied and stored on Flash Drive in December Folder.

11:00	FLEX TIME – 1 Hour	Build in Flex Time for Personal Emergencies	NO-Emergency - Find a JOB SEARCH PROJECT you’ve been putting off and work on it for one hour.

12:00	LUNCH

1:00	In Person Visits One-Stop / DES / Temps / Employer Follow Up Calls	JOB CLUB TODAY	Add Chuck, Rosie and Samantha to my Networking List. Good Comments from each today.

2:00	More In Person Visits

3:00	Letter Writing / Resume Polish

4:00	FLEX TIME – 1 Hour	Build in Flex Time for Personal Emergencies	NO-Emergency - Find a JOB SEARCH PROJECT you’ve been putting off and work on it for one hour.