A job search funnel
Finding the right balance of activity
This article presumes you already have a plan in place:
If you’ve worked in a commercial setting, you may be familiar with the term funnel, although it has a number of definitions.
Here I use a visual one, which is a funnel you pour all your activities into, in the hope that at the other end a suitable job offer appears.
Every activity you do is part of your funnel (I realise Carry On fans in the UK may oo-er a lot at this article) and contributes to your goal.
The closer to your goal, the later in the funnel it appears.
The problem is, your funnel has a lot of holes, and those activities might drop out at any time, in the most unexpected of ways.
Therefore, you should keep topping up your funnel, so that the flow of activity continues to contribute.
A scenario to prove the point:
You’ve a final interview coming up.
It’s been a long slog of a job search, and you are knackered.
But this is the job, and you know you’ve a great shot.
You put all your energy into the interview, so much so that you neglect the other activities you’d been doing all along.
And then you don’t get it.
You aren’t just back to square one, you’re there with a significant knockback.
A job offer that slipped through a hole in your funnel, which hasn’t been topped up in some time.
Of course, it’s easy to write, but harder to maintain action.
If you detach yourself from the outcome, and focus on the process, then you might have done the opposite of letting things slip.
You might have used the positive energy from expected good news to galvanise the rest of your job search, and even use ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ to prompt action elsewhere.
A job search has a variety of activities, which you can categorise as time-laden:
short-term - something that may pay off in 1-4 weeks
medium-term - something that may pay off in 1-3 months
long-term - something that may pay off in 3+ months
At the start of an urgent job search, you may focus on the short-term - job boards, agencies, that kind of thing.
But if you neglect other activities, what happens when the short-term doesn’t pay off?
Short-term activities include applying to jobs, speaking to agencies and networking.
Networking, because you might just get lucky and speak to a contact who is primed to give you a job. It happens, though it’s predicated on right person, right time, right opportunity.
The best time to start networking was 6 years ago, because it isn’t actually about looking for work - it’s about building a network, so that when you need it, it’s there for you.
Your need might be business related, so it’s a smart activity when in work.
If you haven’t started networking already, you might put it off because you see it as a longer-term activity. Consider that even in unlucky situations, luck can change on a penny, especially if it’s luck precipitated by the work you do.
Medium-term activities include networking.
Because people might not have something for you now, but that doesn’t mean nurturing the relationship won’t produce an opportunity in future.
It also includes building relationships with those agencies you saw as a short-term opportunity.
Personal branding is a medium-term activity, because it takes time to feed the algorithm on whichever platform you are. You might strike lucky too, with your first post.
Longer-term activities include networking. Such as the contact who pays off from the relationship you started six years ago.
It could also be personal branding and content - do it over time, and it builds much like networking.
Or it could be looking back over the longer term. You didn’t get that job six months ago? Why not drop them a line?
The point of a funnel-based approach is that you plan for the long term with the hope that it pays off soon.
You keep drip feeding those activities into your funnel - mix it up!
30 applications, 3 posts, 5 networking catch-ups, 5 doorknocks - it’s up to you.
Plan-do-check-act: Use a continuous improvement approach to continually review your work and find improvements.
Set yourself simple, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebound activities and do them week to week.
If you’re still sceptical, try some negative visualisation.
What does the future look like in your job search, in six months, if you hadn’t done those medium and long-term activities, and the short-termist plan hasn’t worked out?
There isn’t a guarantee of a job in any job search, just odds.
But I think improving your odds by say 30% by using the right strategy, plan, tactics, and steps is a fine thing to do, which is what this substack has always been about.
Don’t forget to check the archive if you are a recent subscriber. I’m told it’s valuable content.
https://jobseekerbasics.substack.com//archive
Simon and I are doing our next LinkedIn live next week. Drop me a line if you’d like a link to the session when it’s ready.
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Greg