What should my tactical approach to job searching be?

November 29, 2021 3:17 PM

I am currently in a position I'd like to leave... help me figure out a specific plan for getting a new gig that is relatively efficient, could be scheduled onto a calendar, and is not maddening.

So I am in a job I've been coasting in for a few years, and I'd like to get a new one. I don't need to leave immediately, but I really should in the next 6 months, as changes are coming organizationally and I am personally not happy. But I'd love thoughts on the actual steps I should take to do so, and how much time I should spend and what tactics I should emphasize.

I'm a mid to senior level non-profit staff person, having done a lot of program planning and management, and currently in a communications role. So on paper I am not a superstar, but I have a reasonably deep resume, and I am imagining I'll find a new job in the non-profit / advocacy / policy world.

In the half year or so, I've put a few applications in - 4, maybe 5? - and got very, very close to a job I wanted, but came in second. I've reached out to a few people, but I haven't been a consistent networker, and I find applying to posted jobs to be really inefficient - writing a cover letter takes so much tiiiimmmmeee, for often zero response. I also am trying to be available for my family, so trying to figure out how to reasonably schedule the job search into my life, without spending every evening on a second shift searching for job postings, looking at websites, or crafting cover letters.

I'm a real list maker and trying to think about this sort of quantitatively, so I am sort of looking for suggestions like "apply to five jobs a week" or "take 30 minutes a cover letter" or "forget cold application, only do networking" but also give me how much time I should be networking, or how many lunches, etc. Is there a faster way to do a cover letter? If you think it does take spending hours a day, let me know, too! Really, I'm looking for insights as to what kind of time/energy I should be spending, and how to do it the most efficient way.

posted by RajahKing to Work & Money (4 answers total)

Best answer: I ended up making sort of a modular cover letter during my job searches. Rather than rewriting it from scratch each time or reusing the exact same one, I'd plug relevant information into a few key spots (I think usually an introduction saying I'm looking for [type of job in posting], a line saying what part of the posting caught my eye and how it relates to my past work, and a few of the most relevant pieces of experience from my resume for the position.

I eventually ended up saving a few versions for recurring variant job types (e.g., marketing vs copywriting vs editing etc.) and using them as templates highlighting the right experience into which I could plug some key details from the job posting. After I built up a few of those variants, each fresh cover letter was essentially 1-2 unique sentences to prove I read the job posting and took about 5 minutes.
posted by space snail at 3:27 PM on November 29, 2021 [8 favorites]

Writing a cover letter should not take so much time. Finding a job coach to help you with the cover letter writing skills, perhaps through a university career center or other place you have connections to, might be time well spent.

The United Way where I live has an excellent job site for non-profit jobs. In fact, I would say pretty much all of the non-profit jobs in our metropolitan area get posted there. This is a great resource. You might check to see if United Way in your area has something similar.
posted by furtheryet at 3:29 PM on November 29, 2021

Best answer: Networking is the biggest bang for the buck, I've found from my recent job hunt. I did 2 to 3 calls a week when I was heavily active with it. Make sure you have something to offer and not only an ask, which can be hard, but it might be the rest of your network, expertise in a specialized area or something else.

LunchClub can be a great way to add some randomness to to reach those outside your current network.
posted by chiefthe at 5:06 PM on November 29, 2021

Best answer: You got a great result from a relatively tiny number of applications. If you put in one application per week, I bet that would get you there.
posted by Threeve at 8:53 PM on November 29, 2021