How to Streamline Your Job Search in a Digital World

John Krautzel
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As a job seeker, you spend a great deal of time perfecting your resume and crafting personalized cover letters, but probably the bulk of that time goes into finding suitable job opportunities. Many times, job seekers waste precious hours each day sifting through dozens of job postings to find their dream job. Turn these wasted hours into a productive time for your career by streamlining your job search with digital apps, alerts and notifications that help keep you organized and on track.

Make Email Folders

Stay on track with your job search by creating a digital organizational system within your email. Instead of staring aimlessly at the number of emails piling up in your inbox, create folders and filters that sort your mail automatically. Users can train email programs to automatically identify spam, too, and send these emails off to another folder. Take some time to move emails from prospective employers into a folder titled "Follow-Ups" while also creating a folder for communication with your professional network. Keep track of resumes submitted with a folder for these emails. When your emails are organized, you can quickly access them when following up on your submissions.

Create Online Profiles

During your job search, you may easily forget that some employers are also actively looking for suitable candidates themselves, so make it easy for them to find you. Create professional profiles on websites such as LinkedIn to build your professional presence online. Include information about your skills, goals and professional experience. Use specific keywords related to your industry to attract job leads and employers that are in line with your desired position. Many networking and job sites also allow you to upload your resume file so that recruiters and hiring managers can browse your qualifications. With a strong online presence, you greatly increase your chances of being contacted by potential employers while reducing the time you spend searching for open positions.

Compile Saved Searches

Do some research to identify keywords that are relevant to your industry and create a saved search on job boards and employment sites. Many mobile-based applications and online platforms automatically send job leads to your email or via text that are in line with your skills and the keywords you have selected. You can also access the job platform and refresh your saved searches each day to see new positions that have been posted. Utilizing saved searches drastically reduces the amount of time necessary to search for jobs online.

Digitize Your Contacts

Eliminate the clutter on your desk and reduce the risk of losing business cards and contact information of people you have met while networking. Create a spreadsheet of names, numbers, emails and Web links of your contacts. You can also download apps that allow you to take a picture of a business card and store it in a database you can access later. To make the best of your professional network during your job search, keep your contacts organized and within reach with digital solutions.

Sign Up for Alerts

Signing up for automatic notifications lets you know when new positions are posted. For example, applications such as TwitJobSearch, Tweet My Jobs or Job Finder access multiple databases and scour social media to find positions in line with your skills and experience. The matches are delivered via Twitter, text or email. You can even apply for positions directly from your smartphone or tablet by uploading your resume and sending links to your professional social media profiles for employers to view. Simply set up an account, detail your preferences and geographic location, fill out your professional profile and sit back and wait for the job leads to roll in.

The digital world has drastically transformed the job search. As a result, you have access to mobile applications, online databases and networking opportunities that help you publicize your talents while connecting you with professionals in the field. Streamline the job hunt by taking advantage of resources that save you time while pushing you toward your dream job.

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  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    Thanks for the comments. @Jane try giving yourself a set amount of time to do the extraneous items and then back to the tasks at hand. For example digitizing your contacts. That's pretty much a one-time item on the to-do-list. After you have them, then it's just a matter of a few minutes daily or weekly to update it. @Abbey it's true that job alerts can lead to more time clearing out your inbox but you never know when just one lead will take you right to the job of your dreams. I don't like having to go through a ton of emails, either so I give myself 10 minutes at the beginning of the day to go through all of my personal emails and clear them out - respond, put them in a folder or delete them. Same process holds true for me when it comes to job alerts. I skim them quickly. If I see something that looks interesting, I will move that email into a job alert pending folder to look at after my work day is done. I, too, have cut down on the number of alerts I receive because many of them are either not relevant or a repeat from another job source. I won't get rid of my job alerts, though, because all it takes is one second to find that great next job.

  • Abbey Boyd
    Abbey Boyd •

    I really don't like the idea of signing up for notifications when jobs are posted. I understand the idea in that it may help you to find jobs more easily, but I also think that can lead to more junk to sort through. A lot of times, these alerts aren't very precise, and you wind up getting more irrelevent notifications than useful ones.

  • Jane H.
    Jane H. •

    As someone who fights the urge to procrastinate, I'm always on guard to minimize activities that are going to waste time. In the Dilbert business comic, they sometimes talk about "the sweet smell of unnecessary work." At what point do you think digitizing contacts diminishes from being a useful exercise to a way to avoid doing productive tasks?

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