Another reason why recording job openings is vital is prevention. We have a habit of sending resumes through social media, email, fax and company websites that we forget where we applied to. This forgetfulness will have us applying to the same job more than once. Applying to the same job more than once is a bad idea. The company is aware of you; if they weren't interested in you the first time, the second, third and fourth time will not change their mind. The company also gets the impression that you are desperate.
Our minds isn't going to remember everything, so record as much information about the job as possible. List company name, address, contact information, job listings, job description, how you applied to job opening, if you get an interview and additional notes of importance.
Now, onto the record-keeping:
- Create a chart manually. Use word processing or spreadsheet software to manually create a job seeker chart. Include the information above as headers. Fill it out and save it. Save it to your computer or mobile phone. Create a backup copy on flash drives, cloud software or email it to yourself. An option is to print out a hard copy of the information. You can store them in dividers, manila folders, envelopes or other filing accessory.
- Create a profile on job sites. In addition to searching for jobs on their website, you can create a profile too. The profile will keep up with the jobs so you don't have to. Apply for jobs using the provided information and retrieve the information when a job interview arises. Monster, CareerBuilder, Dice and SimplyHired are examples of this.
- Pay for job seeker web software. If you're willing to pay some cash for coordination, you can find websites that will keep you organized. Fill out information using their website and it does the rest. It keep track of contacts, keep information categorized and offer many features to play with.