Finding a job takes time and commitment. To land a job as a web developer, you must be an active job seeker. Below you'll see how active seekers operate as well as ways you can strategize and manage your job search.
There are two kinds of job seekers: passive and active
Passive (or hobbyist) job seekers try to cut corners when it comes to their job search. Instead of dedicating time to the search process, passive seekers feel entitled to a job. As a result, they often make excuses like, “There are no jobs out there.” Passive seekers do insufficient research and ultimately sloppy work. You don’t want to be this kind of jobseeker.
Active job seekers are committed to finding a job and put in the hard work associated with it. As an active seeker you'll block out time to search for opportunities, research companies and positions, network with influencers, establish a job search tracking system, and follow up with contacts.
Here are practices active seekers put into place:
- Building - apps, projects, etc. Ultimately, assembling a portfolio of work samples.
- Blogging - as a way to document learning or discuss news/events in the industry.
- Networking - going to meetups, conferences, and other events.
- Contacting people directly - asking for informal/coffee meetings, introductions, etc. from existing and new relationships.
Active job seekers are strategic in their system and outreach — like salespeople.
When it comes to closing deals, salespeople are strategic. They use tools to track their activity, set goals, and manage their workflow. One tool used for these purposes is called a “funnel”. Sales funnels start at the top and narrow as they head towards the bottom. They are the widest at the upper part because of the many initial contacts made. At the very bottom, the funnel is the smallest in size — reflecting the number of activities from the first points of contact.
Another term salespeople use is “conversion rate”. In simple terms, it’s the percentage of people who take a desired action. For salespeople, the desired action is a new lead purchasing what they are selling. Conversion rates are often used as a benchmark to see if they’re on track with hitting their goals.
As a jobseeker, you can also think about conversion rates as a way to measure your progress. When it comes to sending out emails, set a goal for a 25-30% conversion rate. Meaning that if you send out ten emails, you can expect 2 or 3 responses. This is why it’s important to send out a lot of emails as you’re job hunting.
Overall, funnels are a good way to budget how much time and outreach you should do. They also remind us that rejection is normal.
A job search funnel looks something like this:
Like a salesperson, you want to start off by making many contacts. Some of these will turn into phone calls and informal meetings. Sometimes, these connections will introduce you to a contact of theirs at a particular company. From these informal meetings, fewer will lead to interviews. That’s okay, that’s how the job search (aka sales) process works! And then all the way at the bottom of the funnel is a job offer — the fewest in number.
To help manage your job search funnel, you can use a job search tracker.
Successful salespeople track their work in a database so they know how much activity they must generate to achieve their goals. Think of your job search the same way. And, just like a salesperson, you can measure your progress with a job search tracker.
While there are various ways you can track your search (like with a notebook), one of best is in a spreadsheet. (Preferably Google Sheets so you can share it with your counselor.) When you store information in a spreadsheet, it’s easy to locate at all times...unlike a notebook which is easy to misplace or leave at home. Plus, you can access the information again down the road — like in a future job search.
Spreadsheets allow you to store all your job search related activities in a central location. You can even add filters to quickly sort information based on type. (Like by contact date.)
If you don’t track your progress, it may feel like you’ve done a lot of networking, but in reality only reached out to a handful of people. A job search tracker will show the progress you've made at a given time. With one, it's easy to see if you need to do extra outreach or not.
To make things easier, here is a ready-to-go job search tracker spreadsheet template that you can use. There is a specific tab to track your job search activity.
As a committed jobseeker you’ll:
- Dedicate the time required for an effective job search by scheduling specific activities in your daily calendar (e.g. 3 hours coding, 2 hours researching opportunities, and 2 hours sending emails)
- Build apps, blog, network, and actively outreach to your network
- Treat the job search process like a salesperson
- Create a special place to track your progress
If you don't commit to the job search in this way and don't track your activities, you're far less likely to get a job offer, and far less likely for an offer to be the one that you want.
Open this sample job search tracker, make a copy of it, and share that doc with your coach with edit privileges. Name your new copy “Your Name” + "Job Search Tracker”.
This tracker has 3 tabs that track the following things:
- The Career Prep Assignments you've completed; you need to manually track the dates you submit each assignment and link to each assignment in the designated area
- Your job search activity; the companies you're talking to, the contact names at those companies, the status of each of your interviews
- Your target leads/companies; these are companies/people you hope to talk to in the near future. Track whatever information is helpful for you, and once that conversation becomes real, transfer that data to the "activity" tab.
Email the link of your job search tracker url to your coach for tracking purposes. You'll be assigned a coach once you're through ~75% of the full stack web track so if you don't have a coach now, just keep learning to code and we'll get you set up with one when we feel you're ready to focus on career preparation in addition to technical curriculum. Once you have a coach, you can start submitting assignments. You are expected to keep this tracker up to date.
Remember in the subject line, to include your name and this specific assignment. Assignment titles will always be in the Assignment heading. If there is an assignment without a title next to it, that means these are action items for you to follow but you won’t need to submit anything to us. But always complete the action items!
In this case, your email subject line will be “Your Name” + "Job Search Tracker”
In the body of your email again include
Your Name
Assignment Title
Your City, State
Url link to this specific google doc
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