(no subject)
EVERYONE PARTY, it's time for Sam's Guide to Job Hunting!
Woo.
I got an email from someone this morning who wanted to ask me about my system for jobsearching, so I wrote them a probably overlong letter and then realised, yes. It is time. I've been jobsearching for six months and I've reached the deadline where I switch over from "find a new job" to "find housing closer to where my current job is moving to". And I have learned a lot from being able to jobsearch while not having to stress about actually having a job, because I have one already, so I thought I would share my system.
It's important to note at the outset, though, that the specifics of this system may not work for everyone. You have to find what works for you. That being said, this system is designed to minimize the amount of a) work and b) thinking you have to do. The latter is important because thinking is hard and causes anxiety and if you have depression, you are likely to find any reason you can not to think. This isn't a character flaw; it's brain chemistry. So. Minimal thinking required. Whatever your system, spend each day wondering "how can I do less work?" and you will find yourself getting more done.
I've got an outline at the end for people who don't want to read every damn thing I say. :D
LET'S GO JOBSEARCHING. Hold on tight.
Sam's Job Hunt
1. Finding Jobs
Setting Limits
If you are being super-aggressive about jobsearching, which is totally justified if you don't have a job, it's good to choose how many jobs you are going to apply for per day. When I was unemployed, four was all I could manage. Employed, I only apply for one a day. This takes a while to work out, so just apply to as many as you can in a day, and when you find yourself getting tired, stop. Track how many you do a day (we'll get to tracking in a moment) and at the end of your first week, figure out your limits. Even if you have fifteen jobs to apply for, do your set number for that day and leave the rest open in tabs to do tomorrow, or the next time you're short a day, or the next time you have a burst of energy.
When you set a limit, that means you have to pick which jobs you want the MOST, which means you are automatically prioritizing and putting the most energy into the jobs that are most important to you. So know your limit, work to your limit, and then go do something that makes you happy for a while.
Bookmarks
Whether you are looking for one specific position or a variety of positions, the best way to start is to create a folder of bookmarks with all your jobsearch websites. I began by listing places I wanted to work, finding their careers-search page, and bookmarking it. Then I thought about any professional groups I belonged to, and I looked there -- in my case, places like APRA (the Association for Prospect Researchers in Advancement). I looked at sites dedicated to not-for-profit jobs, and then I looked at general websites like indeed.com. Many general sites will let you bookmark the search page, so I can go to indeed.com, search Prospect Research, and then bookmark the results page, which will update every time I visit. (You do usually have to manually sort by date, because you always want the newest jobs on top.)
Every day, as part of your daily reading, open every bookmark in a new tab. I know this is scary but it won't be once we're done.
Most of these search pages don't require you to fill out everything. Often I don't fill out anything except selecting my field (Development) and "full time". Then I hit search, sort by date if necessary, and I have a list of new jobs. Every job that looks like I could do it, I open in a new tab, and then I close the search window. Then I go to the next SEARCH page, and search there, and so forth, until what I have are no search pages, and every tab open is an actual job description.
Then I screw off and do something else for twenty minutes. This isn't just a break; it also helps create a divide between "light evaluation" and "deep evaluation". All you're doing is reading the job title. If it looks good, open it; you can read the full description later. Right now just open every job that looks good, and if you don't like it later you can close it. It keeps your mind in one mode, which for me is important -- it's ONE task, and I do it, and then I'm done, and I can do the NEXT task later.
Caveat: if your mind works better frequently switching tasks -- if you have trouble focusing, or you have an attention disorder and need to change frequently -- ignore this. Find what works for you. Having one task at a time tends to help people who have depression or anxiety, because it's ONE THING. It also helps me because I'm multitasking at work, and I can easily come back and see which "step" I'm on.
Jobs In Tabs
So now, instead of a bunch of really complicated searching, you just have a bunch of jobs waiting for you to evaluate them. You're not even applying, you're just skimming the description looking for reasons to a) apply or b) not apply. I read over each job description and if it's not the right job for me, or not in a location I want to work, I close the tab. What I am left with are a bunch of jobs I KNOW I want to apply for. (Or in my case, usually, somewhere between zero and two; jobs in my field are present but not plentiful.) If there are no jobs, congratulations, you're done for the day! There are no jobs!
Then go do something else before you start applying. Again, this is a break, but it also separates "evaluation" from "applying". All you're doing is picking jobs, which should be cool and exciting. These jobs are for ME!
Remember: if your limit for applying is four jobs a day, just choose the four you want most, and then leave the rest for a slow day or a burst of energy.
Applying!
Tracking Your Applications
Before you do anything else, before you build a resume/CV or write a cover letter, make an excel spreadsheet. If you don't have Excel, use googledocs. You're going to have several columns, and those may vary by preference, but these are my columns:
DATE - COMPANY - JOB TITLE - NOTES
The "notes" section is not for the job description or memorable talking points, but for information you need to retain. Almost every jobsite has its own login, so "notes" is where you're going to mark down your login information. If they give you a confirmation number, write that down in notes. If you had to apply by mailing something in, put that in the notes section along with the email address where you sent it. If there's something especially weird about the job, you can add that too. Notes is NOT for details of the job description, location of the company, or any of that stuff. You'll be keeping that elsewhere.
Before you apply, just enter the date, the company name, and the job title. You can always delete it if you end up not applying, but it's important to have that stuff. This spreadsheet is a great help to me not only in remembering a) when I applied for stuff and b) what that stuff was but also in tracking my accomplishments. Look at how many jobs I've applied for! This is how I worked out my ratio of applications to interviews, too -- counting total rows and then counting highlighted rows. You can even move jobs where you didn't get an interview to a separate spreadsheet, so they don't clutter things up.
In addition, if you have multiple interviews going on (lucky you) you can highlight the rows with the places you're interviewing, and keep track of them that way.
The Cover Letter
Everyone says to personalize your cover letter to the job, but that does not mean writing everything from scratch. It means having a template and altering it appropriately. If I had to write every cover letter from scratch I would be climbing the walls by week two.
For me, because I'm basically applying to the same job over and over, I have a single template. If you're applying to an assortment of jobs, create a template for each -- administrative, retail, sales, communications, whatever. The idea is to have a letter where you enter the job title, the company name, and the date -- and that's all.
My cover letter has the date (auto-updated in Word) and below that, the address of the company. You can use "To Whom It Concerns" or "To the Manager of Human Resources" as a salutation, but it's better to find a name to address it to -- because my job involves researching people, I generally HAVE to have a name or they'll think I'm a slacker. Try to find someone at a high level in the department where you're applying, if you can. It's not always possible -- it's easier with educational institutions, harder with big corporations, etc.
The first paragraph is easy. "I am writing to apply for [position] advertised on the [company] careers website. Attached with this letter is my [resume/cv] [and any additional materials they wanted.]"
Bam. You just personalized your cover letter.
Below that I have a paragraph about my experience, focusing on the areas the new job is asking for. This is the part that changes from template to template. Mine goes something like "For the past two years, I have been a project manager in prospect development at [my company], where I have [things I've done the new job wants me to do]. In addition, I have [things I've done that they'd love if I did, or that prove my ability to do stuff.]" This is by far the longest paragraph.
Third paragraph is -- in my case -- previous position, but mostly focused on education; mine is usually about how my arts degrees taught me to complete work on time and maintain a high level of quality in blah blah blah.
Fourth paragraph is "I would be pleased to employ my skills as a [job title] for [company]. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you."
BAM YOU JUST RE-PERSONALIZED YOUR LETTER. OH SNAP DOUBLE PERSONALIZATION. And all you did was plug the name of the company and the job title into it twice.
Make sure you always hit the bottom paragraph though. I haven't yet sent out a cover letter with one job up top and another down bottom, but I'm sure it could happen easily.
Then you add sincerely, your name, your email address, and sent it on its way. Make sure when you do, you title it "Name - Job Title - Cover Letter" unless they specifically ask you to title it something else. I send mine as PDFs, but word documents are the next acceptable. Also make sure you're using a professional font and everything is the same size. I use Garamond, because it looks professional without standing out.
Readability is a big deal in cover letters, so make sure you don't have huge paragraphs with no spacing between the lines. Make sure that it is, above all else, EASY TO READ.
The Resume/CV
I am applying in the US exclusively, and I don't know if there are super-formal formatting rules for other countries, but in the US it seems like the rules change from day to day. So throw out the rules and aim for one thing: READABILITY.
Not just in terms of fonts, but in terms of getting the information across fast and easily. When I was reading resumes to help in a jobsearch, I wasn't choosing the prettiest ones; I was choosing the ones where I could look at them and immediately know they were qualified.
You can do a one page or two page resume, so I'm told, but the rule is EITHER one OR two -- not one and a half. My work experience is limited and I'm not applying for executive-level positions, so I do a one-page.
So. Name at the top, address underneath, phone and email underneath that.
Then I go straight for Relevant Skills. This is, shockingly, a bullet-pointed list of the skills you have that are relevant to the job you want. This tells the person reading it that your skills match their requirements. Again -- I just have one template for the one kind of job I'm applying for; you should have a template for each kind of job. This list is stuff like:
Those are drawn directly from my personal resume (though my list is longer). The bullet points make them easy to read and keep separate, and the list means they don't have to hunt through your job experience for it. Also, don't use fancy bullet points. Just use small circles. You want to keep their eyes on the text. Unless you're applying to be a graphic designer, a resume is not a graphic design competition.
Next I have "Employment History" covering my last five jobs. I've only ever had five jobs, so that works out nicely. Each entry looks like this:
Job Title, Employer, Dates (This also is one font point larger than what's below, to make it stand out)
[Most major thing you did.] [Other really great things you did.] [Thing you did that is not directly relevant but obviously could help.] [Thing you did that is not relevant but impressive.]
For example, one of mine reads:
Managed office operations. Created profiles and participated in news aggregation on donors and prospective donors. Worked with multiple departments to coordinate information flow. Generated charts and spreadsheets for the Executive Director.
The "impressive" part of that last one is that I did it for oooooooh, the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. Who in my case is also my direct superior, and is not that demanding really. But it looks awesome.
Keep sentences short and declarative. You are just restating how you did the things you list in Relevant Skills. You don't have to list everything you did, just the relevant stuff and the impressive stuff. My Graduate Teaching Assistant position, I add on the end the award I got for best GTA; not relevant but impressive. That kind of thing.
Last section is Education. Easy-peasy:
[Degree] in [Major], [Date Graduated]. [School], [Location of School].
If you have other qualifications like certifications, you can list those; if you don't have a degree you definitely should list those. You can also list schools you attended but didn't graduate from; better some college than none, though there are people who argue you don't want to announce you didn't complete something. Up to you to decide, on that one. I don't judge anyone for noncompletes; there are too many good reasons (poverty, family illness, mental illness) not to complete your degree.
At the bottom you can say "references available on request" but I've stopped bothering because I found I get the same results without it. Most places will either ask you for references during the application process or ask you for them once you have a job offer, because they just need to check that you are who you say you are.
A Note: I'm going to say something here and it's super fucked-up that I have to say it, but I'm going to anyway because applying to jobs is a game, a terrible game with terrible rules, and I want you to have every advantage in this game no matter how unfair this is:
If you are male and you have a name that could be mistaken for female, either use a "masculine" middle name or make it clear, somehow, somewhere in your cover letter, that you are male. If you are female and have a "feminine" name, consider using initials so that the reader doesn't immediately guess gender. If you are female, DO NOT mention whether you are married or have children in your cover letter. There have been studies that women, or men who are percieved as women due to a "feminine" sounding name such as Kim, are less likely to get called for an initial interview. The major reason for this is that hiring managers assume women, especially married women or women with children, will work less, take more vacation, and leave sooner to care for children.
It's really, really messed up, and I'm sorry and you shouldn't have to do this, but I can't not mention it.
Online Applications
Most applications nowadays don't necessarily want just a cover letter and a resume. They also want you to enter, by hand, all the stuff that is already on your resume. This is so their sorting-bots can presumably sort you and tell whether you are Gryffindor or Slytherin qualified for the job. It is a gigantic pain in the ass and sometimes you can lessen that pain with auto-fill, but you still have to check everything. So, have your resume open, and make sure you're entering information that matches your resume. Keep a file of your references and their contact info for when they ask for that. They will probably have you attach your cover letter and resume at the end.
I KNOW. But you have to do it.
And there is one final step once you have sent off your application...
Filing All This Information
It's important, at least to my mind, is to create a system for storing your cover letters and resumes for the jobs you've applied for. Here is mine.
You can see I have a folder for all applications I've finished, but you can also see that there are folders underneath that for applications where I'm currently interviewing. Every job application has its own folder, titled after where I'm applying (hence the blurs). This contains three things:
-- A copy of the job description, saved as HTML or printed as a PDF
-- The cover letter I sent them
-- The resume I sent them
That way, if I'm prepping for an interview, I have everything they've given me, and everything I've given them, in one place. And if they never call me for an interview, well, out of sight, out of mind in the "finished applications" folder, where everything lives until I get called for an interview, when it moves up to the main folder.
(Yes. I do call my file "Life Skills". It has a folder for my finances, my job search, and my medical history. I am a little compulsive.)
You can see that one of the folders is titled "Re Try". It was my second application to that company, so I built it a second folder with Re Try on the end so I'd know it was my second attempt. (That's the Jesuits btw. I really want that job.)
Now, if you do get called for an interview, you don't get overwhelmed just trying to find the job description again, or the resume you sent. You just open up the folder, and there is all you need for prep. You can store other documents here too, like any information they send you, or copies of the emails they sent if you want to be SUPER anal-retentive about it. (I do store copies of the emails but I store them in gmail in a folder called Job Apps.)
Conclusion
All of this seems like a ton of extra work, I know. But it's extra rote-work. Everything I've talked about -- keeping a spreadsheet, making folders, making templates -- is stuff that you can do on autopilot once you get into the habit. It's mindless work that you don't have to expend any actual brain effort on; plug names in here, get output there. This replaces the difficult, messy, confusing, anxiety-inducing mental work that jobsearching usually requires. It takes about the same amount of time and much, much less energy, so that you can get more done and be less afraid.
Reading this, however, is a lot of mental effort, so here's a quick breakdown. This is also a good checklist until you get into the habit.
Finding Jobs
Set Your Limits: know how many applications you can do a day
Make Bookmarks: keep a bookmark file of every jobsite you check and check them daily
Initial Filter: open every job that looks appropriate, and don't look at them yet
Break: Go off and do something fun
Deep Filter: review all the jobs you opened, close the irrelevant ones
Break: Seriously, have lunch or something
Applying
Tracking: enter every job you apply for in a spreadsheet
Cover Letter: alter the appropriate template to personalize the letter
Resume: alter the appropriate template to show the skills relevant to the job
Online Application: fill out the online app using information taken directly from your resume
Post-App:
Preliminary: Build a folder for "Completed Applications"
Filing: File cover letter, resume, and job description in a folder named for the company
Tracking: Remember to check your tracking spreadsheet and add any info you didn't before!
Break: Give yourself some fucking kudos and take a break, you've earned it.
So, there you have it. Good luck jobhunters, particularly those of you who are unemployed or fresh from school. Remember that even if you do everything in this post, you may not get many interviews; right now is one of the worst times since the Great Depression to try to find a permanent position that pays a living wage. If you are sending out applications, you are officially doing your best; the rest of the responsibility lies with the employer, and their failure to hire you is not your failure as a person.
It's a hard grind, and I wish you all the best.
Woo.
I got an email from someone this morning who wanted to ask me about my system for jobsearching, so I wrote them a probably overlong letter and then realised, yes. It is time. I've been jobsearching for six months and I've reached the deadline where I switch over from "find a new job" to "find housing closer to where my current job is moving to". And I have learned a lot from being able to jobsearch while not having to stress about actually having a job, because I have one already, so I thought I would share my system.
It's important to note at the outset, though, that the specifics of this system may not work for everyone. You have to find what works for you. That being said, this system is designed to minimize the amount of a) work and b) thinking you have to do. The latter is important because thinking is hard and causes anxiety and if you have depression, you are likely to find any reason you can not to think. This isn't a character flaw; it's brain chemistry. So. Minimal thinking required. Whatever your system, spend each day wondering "how can I do less work?" and you will find yourself getting more done.
I've got an outline at the end for people who don't want to read every damn thing I say. :D
LET'S GO JOBSEARCHING. Hold on tight.
Sam's Job Hunt
1. Finding Jobs
Setting Limits
If you are being super-aggressive about jobsearching, which is totally justified if you don't have a job, it's good to choose how many jobs you are going to apply for per day. When I was unemployed, four was all I could manage. Employed, I only apply for one a day. This takes a while to work out, so just apply to as many as you can in a day, and when you find yourself getting tired, stop. Track how many you do a day (we'll get to tracking in a moment) and at the end of your first week, figure out your limits. Even if you have fifteen jobs to apply for, do your set number for that day and leave the rest open in tabs to do tomorrow, or the next time you're short a day, or the next time you have a burst of energy.
When you set a limit, that means you have to pick which jobs you want the MOST, which means you are automatically prioritizing and putting the most energy into the jobs that are most important to you. So know your limit, work to your limit, and then go do something that makes you happy for a while.
Bookmarks
Whether you are looking for one specific position or a variety of positions, the best way to start is to create a folder of bookmarks with all your jobsearch websites. I began by listing places I wanted to work, finding their careers-search page, and bookmarking it. Then I thought about any professional groups I belonged to, and I looked there -- in my case, places like APRA (the Association for Prospect Researchers in Advancement). I looked at sites dedicated to not-for-profit jobs, and then I looked at general websites like indeed.com. Many general sites will let you bookmark the search page, so I can go to indeed.com, search Prospect Research, and then bookmark the results page, which will update every time I visit. (You do usually have to manually sort by date, because you always want the newest jobs on top.)
Every day, as part of your daily reading, open every bookmark in a new tab. I know this is scary but it won't be once we're done.
Most of these search pages don't require you to fill out everything. Often I don't fill out anything except selecting my field (Development) and "full time". Then I hit search, sort by date if necessary, and I have a list of new jobs. Every job that looks like I could do it, I open in a new tab, and then I close the search window. Then I go to the next SEARCH page, and search there, and so forth, until what I have are no search pages, and every tab open is an actual job description.
Then I screw off and do something else for twenty minutes. This isn't just a break; it also helps create a divide between "light evaluation" and "deep evaluation". All you're doing is reading the job title. If it looks good, open it; you can read the full description later. Right now just open every job that looks good, and if you don't like it later you can close it. It keeps your mind in one mode, which for me is important -- it's ONE task, and I do it, and then I'm done, and I can do the NEXT task later.
Caveat: if your mind works better frequently switching tasks -- if you have trouble focusing, or you have an attention disorder and need to change frequently -- ignore this. Find what works for you. Having one task at a time tends to help people who have depression or anxiety, because it's ONE THING. It also helps me because I'm multitasking at work, and I can easily come back and see which "step" I'm on.
Jobs In Tabs
So now, instead of a bunch of really complicated searching, you just have a bunch of jobs waiting for you to evaluate them. You're not even applying, you're just skimming the description looking for reasons to a) apply or b) not apply. I read over each job description and if it's not the right job for me, or not in a location I want to work, I close the tab. What I am left with are a bunch of jobs I KNOW I want to apply for. (Or in my case, usually, somewhere between zero and two; jobs in my field are present but not plentiful.) If there are no jobs, congratulations, you're done for the day! There are no jobs!
Then go do something else before you start applying. Again, this is a break, but it also separates "evaluation" from "applying". All you're doing is picking jobs, which should be cool and exciting. These jobs are for ME!
Remember: if your limit for applying is four jobs a day, just choose the four you want most, and then leave the rest for a slow day or a burst of energy.
Applying!
Tracking Your Applications
Before you do anything else, before you build a resume/CV or write a cover letter, make an excel spreadsheet. If you don't have Excel, use googledocs. You're going to have several columns, and those may vary by preference, but these are my columns:
DATE - COMPANY - JOB TITLE - NOTES
The "notes" section is not for the job description or memorable talking points, but for information you need to retain. Almost every jobsite has its own login, so "notes" is where you're going to mark down your login information. If they give you a confirmation number, write that down in notes. If you had to apply by mailing something in, put that in the notes section along with the email address where you sent it. If there's something especially weird about the job, you can add that too. Notes is NOT for details of the job description, location of the company, or any of that stuff. You'll be keeping that elsewhere.
Before you apply, just enter the date, the company name, and the job title. You can always delete it if you end up not applying, but it's important to have that stuff. This spreadsheet is a great help to me not only in remembering a) when I applied for stuff and b) what that stuff was but also in tracking my accomplishments. Look at how many jobs I've applied for! This is how I worked out my ratio of applications to interviews, too -- counting total rows and then counting highlighted rows. You can even move jobs where you didn't get an interview to a separate spreadsheet, so they don't clutter things up.
In addition, if you have multiple interviews going on (lucky you) you can highlight the rows with the places you're interviewing, and keep track of them that way.
The Cover Letter
Everyone says to personalize your cover letter to the job, but that does not mean writing everything from scratch. It means having a template and altering it appropriately. If I had to write every cover letter from scratch I would be climbing the walls by week two.
For me, because I'm basically applying to the same job over and over, I have a single template. If you're applying to an assortment of jobs, create a template for each -- administrative, retail, sales, communications, whatever. The idea is to have a letter where you enter the job title, the company name, and the date -- and that's all.
My cover letter has the date (auto-updated in Word) and below that, the address of the company. You can use "To Whom It Concerns" or "To the Manager of Human Resources" as a salutation, but it's better to find a name to address it to -- because my job involves researching people, I generally HAVE to have a name or they'll think I'm a slacker. Try to find someone at a high level in the department where you're applying, if you can. It's not always possible -- it's easier with educational institutions, harder with big corporations, etc.
The first paragraph is easy. "I am writing to apply for [position] advertised on the [company] careers website. Attached with this letter is my [resume/cv] [and any additional materials they wanted.]"
Bam. You just personalized your cover letter.
Below that I have a paragraph about my experience, focusing on the areas the new job is asking for. This is the part that changes from template to template. Mine goes something like "For the past two years, I have been a project manager in prospect development at [my company], where I have [things I've done the new job wants me to do]. In addition, I have [things I've done that they'd love if I did, or that prove my ability to do stuff.]" This is by far the longest paragraph.
Third paragraph is -- in my case -- previous position, but mostly focused on education; mine is usually about how my arts degrees taught me to complete work on time and maintain a high level of quality in blah blah blah.
Fourth paragraph is "I would be pleased to employ my skills as a [job title] for [company]. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you."
BAM YOU JUST RE-PERSONALIZED YOUR LETTER. OH SNAP DOUBLE PERSONALIZATION. And all you did was plug the name of the company and the job title into it twice.
Make sure you always hit the bottom paragraph though. I haven't yet sent out a cover letter with one job up top and another down bottom, but I'm sure it could happen easily.
Then you add sincerely, your name, your email address, and sent it on its way. Make sure when you do, you title it "Name - Job Title - Cover Letter" unless they specifically ask you to title it something else. I send mine as PDFs, but word documents are the next acceptable. Also make sure you're using a professional font and everything is the same size. I use Garamond, because it looks professional without standing out.
Readability is a big deal in cover letters, so make sure you don't have huge paragraphs with no spacing between the lines. Make sure that it is, above all else, EASY TO READ.
The Resume/CV
I am applying in the US exclusively, and I don't know if there are super-formal formatting rules for other countries, but in the US it seems like the rules change from day to day. So throw out the rules and aim for one thing: READABILITY.
Not just in terms of fonts, but in terms of getting the information across fast and easily. When I was reading resumes to help in a jobsearch, I wasn't choosing the prettiest ones; I was choosing the ones where I could look at them and immediately know they were qualified.
You can do a one page or two page resume, so I'm told, but the rule is EITHER one OR two -- not one and a half. My work experience is limited and I'm not applying for executive-level positions, so I do a one-page.
So. Name at the top, address underneath, phone and email underneath that.
Then I go straight for Relevant Skills. This is, shockingly, a bullet-pointed list of the skills you have that are relevant to the job you want. This tells the person reading it that your skills match their requirements. Again -- I just have one template for the one kind of job I'm applying for; you should have a template for each kind of job. This list is stuff like:
- 5 years of experience in [desirable skill], including 1 1/2 years specifically in [most desirable skill].
- Trained in [specific software or techniques desirable to the employer]
- Thorough knowledge of Office Suite and [other software you use]
- 6 years of administrative experience, including [administrative stuff you'd have to do]
Those are drawn directly from my personal resume (though my list is longer). The bullet points make them easy to read and keep separate, and the list means they don't have to hunt through your job experience for it. Also, don't use fancy bullet points. Just use small circles. You want to keep their eyes on the text. Unless you're applying to be a graphic designer, a resume is not a graphic design competition.
Next I have "Employment History" covering my last five jobs. I've only ever had five jobs, so that works out nicely. Each entry looks like this:
Job Title, Employer, Dates (This also is one font point larger than what's below, to make it stand out)
[Most major thing you did.] [Other really great things you did.] [Thing you did that is not directly relevant but obviously could help.] [Thing you did that is not relevant but impressive.]
For example, one of mine reads:
Managed office operations. Created profiles and participated in news aggregation on donors and prospective donors. Worked with multiple departments to coordinate information flow. Generated charts and spreadsheets for the Executive Director.
The "impressive" part of that last one is that I did it for oooooooh, the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. Who in my case is also my direct superior, and is not that demanding really. But it looks awesome.
Keep sentences short and declarative. You are just restating how you did the things you list in Relevant Skills. You don't have to list everything you did, just the relevant stuff and the impressive stuff. My Graduate Teaching Assistant position, I add on the end the award I got for best GTA; not relevant but impressive. That kind of thing.
Last section is Education. Easy-peasy:
[Degree] in [Major], [Date Graduated]. [School], [Location of School].
If you have other qualifications like certifications, you can list those; if you don't have a degree you definitely should list those. You can also list schools you attended but didn't graduate from; better some college than none, though there are people who argue you don't want to announce you didn't complete something. Up to you to decide, on that one. I don't judge anyone for noncompletes; there are too many good reasons (poverty, family illness, mental illness) not to complete your degree.
At the bottom you can say "references available on request" but I've stopped bothering because I found I get the same results without it. Most places will either ask you for references during the application process or ask you for them once you have a job offer, because they just need to check that you are who you say you are.
A Note: I'm going to say something here and it's super fucked-up that I have to say it, but I'm going to anyway because applying to jobs is a game, a terrible game with terrible rules, and I want you to have every advantage in this game no matter how unfair this is:
If you are male and you have a name that could be mistaken for female, either use a "masculine" middle name or make it clear, somehow, somewhere in your cover letter, that you are male. If you are female and have a "feminine" name, consider using initials so that the reader doesn't immediately guess gender. If you are female, DO NOT mention whether you are married or have children in your cover letter. There have been studies that women, or men who are percieved as women due to a "feminine" sounding name such as Kim, are less likely to get called for an initial interview. The major reason for this is that hiring managers assume women, especially married women or women with children, will work less, take more vacation, and leave sooner to care for children.
It's really, really messed up, and I'm sorry and you shouldn't have to do this, but I can't not mention it.
Online Applications
Most applications nowadays don't necessarily want just a cover letter and a resume. They also want you to enter, by hand, all the stuff that is already on your resume. This is so their sorting-bots can presumably sort you and tell whether you are Gryffindor or Slytherin qualified for the job. It is a gigantic pain in the ass and sometimes you can lessen that pain with auto-fill, but you still have to check everything. So, have your resume open, and make sure you're entering information that matches your resume. Keep a file of your references and their contact info for when they ask for that. They will probably have you attach your cover letter and resume at the end.
I KNOW. But you have to do it.
And there is one final step once you have sent off your application...
Filing All This Information
It's important, at least to my mind, is to create a system for storing your cover letters and resumes for the jobs you've applied for. Here is mine.
You can see I have a folder for all applications I've finished, but you can also see that there are folders underneath that for applications where I'm currently interviewing. Every job application has its own folder, titled after where I'm applying (hence the blurs). This contains three things:
-- A copy of the job description, saved as HTML or printed as a PDF
-- The cover letter I sent them
-- The resume I sent them
That way, if I'm prepping for an interview, I have everything they've given me, and everything I've given them, in one place. And if they never call me for an interview, well, out of sight, out of mind in the "finished applications" folder, where everything lives until I get called for an interview, when it moves up to the main folder.
(Yes. I do call my file "Life Skills". It has a folder for my finances, my job search, and my medical history. I am a little compulsive.)
You can see that one of the folders is titled "Re Try". It was my second application to that company, so I built it a second folder with Re Try on the end so I'd know it was my second attempt. (That's the Jesuits btw. I really want that job.)
Now, if you do get called for an interview, you don't get overwhelmed just trying to find the job description again, or the resume you sent. You just open up the folder, and there is all you need for prep. You can store other documents here too, like any information they send you, or copies of the emails they sent if you want to be SUPER anal-retentive about it. (I do store copies of the emails but I store them in gmail in a folder called Job Apps.)
Conclusion
All of this seems like a ton of extra work, I know. But it's extra rote-work. Everything I've talked about -- keeping a spreadsheet, making folders, making templates -- is stuff that you can do on autopilot once you get into the habit. It's mindless work that you don't have to expend any actual brain effort on; plug names in here, get output there. This replaces the difficult, messy, confusing, anxiety-inducing mental work that jobsearching usually requires. It takes about the same amount of time and much, much less energy, so that you can get more done and be less afraid.
Reading this, however, is a lot of mental effort, so here's a quick breakdown. This is also a good checklist until you get into the habit.
Finding Jobs
Set Your Limits: know how many applications you can do a day
Make Bookmarks: keep a bookmark file of every jobsite you check and check them daily
Initial Filter: open every job that looks appropriate, and don't look at them yet
Break: Go off and do something fun
Deep Filter: review all the jobs you opened, close the irrelevant ones
Break: Seriously, have lunch or something
Applying
Tracking: enter every job you apply for in a spreadsheet
Cover Letter: alter the appropriate template to personalize the letter
Resume: alter the appropriate template to show the skills relevant to the job
Online Application: fill out the online app using information taken directly from your resume
Post-App:
Preliminary: Build a folder for "Completed Applications"
Filing: File cover letter, resume, and job description in a folder named for the company
Tracking: Remember to check your tracking spreadsheet and add any info you didn't before!
Break: Give yourself some fucking kudos and take a break, you've earned it.
So, there you have it. Good luck jobhunters, particularly those of you who are unemployed or fresh from school. Remember that even if you do everything in this post, you may not get many interviews; right now is one of the worst times since the Great Depression to try to find a permanent position that pays a living wage. If you are sending out applications, you are officially doing your best; the rest of the responsibility lies with the employer, and their failure to hire you is not your failure as a person.
It's a hard grind, and I wish you all the best.