7 Things You Can Do for Your Job Search in One Hour

Conventional wisdom says, “Make looking for work your full-time job,” but very few job seekers actually follow that career advice. The dirty little secret is that searching for work can often be tedious, so it’s difficult for many individuals to get motivated to dedicate a lot of time to their job hunt. The good news, however, is that there are plenty of things you can do to stay on top of your job search in just one hour a day.

In fact, each of these seven quick job search tips can be done in less than 10 minutes, which means you should be able to get through the entire list in the time it takes to watch an episode of The Voice. For professionals in need of job search help and looking for ideas on how to manage time better, the one-hour job search is your answer!

One-Hour Job Search Task #1: Set up, Adjust, and Save Searches

Looking for work involves many basic tasks that can be boring and painful. Searching for open positions on job boards falls into this category for a majority of job seekers. However, this is a very important part of the process, and—when done correctly—can greatly improve the efficiency of a job hunt.

Many websites, like iHire, offer the ability to save a search, which cuts down on the amount of typing you have to do. Sites like iHire will even email your results on a regular schedule. Simply select the job title you’re looking for along with your location and search radius. You can also increase the focus of your search by adding keywords, salary information, certifications, experience level, and even specific companies.

Setting up or modifying a previously saved search only takes a few minutes, but it can make a world of difference where job search time management is concerned. Plus, if you sign up for saved search alerts on iHire, you can sit back, relax, and let the jobs come to your inbox!

One-Hour Job Search Task #2: Review Job Postings

Once you’ve established a saved search, the next step is to sift through the job openings sent to your inbox. Deleting jobs that don’t look good is easy, but it’s a little more time consuming to thoroughly review the postings that closely match your dream position.

This is one area where iHire’s iMatch technology can offer some serious job search help. iMatch learns from the actions you take and uses that information to optimize your future results. Deleting, saving, and applying to specific jobs helps iMatch refine your search so that you only receive the jobs you really want. Quick job search tips won’t help much if you’re not getting good search results, so if you’re wondering how to manage time better, start by using iMatch to reduce the amount of jobs that don’t fit what you’re looking for.

In 10 minutes or less, you can delete a bunch of postings you’re not interested in or go through a few promising leads to learn more about an open position and identify keywords to add to your resume.

One-Hour Job Search Task #3: Perform Quick Resume Modifications

Plenty of career advice articles have been written about how important it is to tailor your resume for each application. Your chances of being called in for an interview greatly increase if you pay special attention to the language an employer uses in their job ad and try to work some of those keywords into your resume. If you have written and organized your resume correctly—including a 3–5 sentence summary paragraph and core competencies section highlighting your skills and technical expertise—it should only take you a few minutes to revise those critical areas of the resume.

One way to streamline this process and enhance your job search time management is by using a tool to evaluate your resume against the skills and qualifications mentioned in a particular job posting. iHire offers a resource called iScore Resume Match that measures how closely your resume matches the job ad and provides a list of keywords to add to the resume. Also, if you used your iHire portfolio to create your resume, you can optimize the document with the click of a button.

Whether you customize your resume the old fashioned way or use a tool like iScore Resume Match, make sure you take a few minutes to analyze job postings and add keywords to your resume. Those two simple steps will boost the amount of interview offers you receive.

One-Hour Job Search Task #4: Contribute to LinkedIn

Networking is a critical aspect of any successful job search, and managing your personal brand and reputation is equally important. One way to do this is simply being active on social media and participating within industry groups.

Get your name out there by creating and posting content. Writing something from an insider’s point of view can be helpful for people outside of the industry or you can author a piece that allows you to share your expertise with your peers. Other ways to stay active include commenting on posts that others have written and engaging in conversations with colleagues.

Depending on the amount of time you have to dedicate to LinkedIn, writing a lengthy article may not be realistic (it would definitely make running a one-hour job search almost impossible). In 10 minutes, you can easily review and comment on a post or reach out to fellow industry members to promote yourself.

One-Hour Job Search Task #5: Update Application Spreadsheet

Staying organized is one area many job seekers struggle with. When you’re completely focused on finding, reviewing, and applying to job postings, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and lose track of which ones you’ve submitted resumes to and when. To avoid this, many professionals create a spreadsheet to track their application activities as well as specific companies and jobs they’re targeting.

iHire has taken this idea a step further by creating the Job Tracker tool. Job Tracker enables users to manage their search in one place. With this resource, you can save jobs you’re interested in, easily update your list when you’ve applied for a role or been invited in for an interview, and add notes to specific opportunities so that you don’t forget key details you learn throughout the hiring process.

Taking the time to update your job search spreadsheet or spending a few minutes to manage your applications in iHire’s Job Tracker tool is critical to keeping your job hunt organized. Not everyone enjoys taking care of administrative tasks, but this is one chore you shouldn’t ignore.

One-Hour Job Search Task #6: Research Companies/Industries/Positions

Many job seekers don’t take the time to evaluate potential employers. If that sounds like you, here’s some free career advice: you’re doing yourself a disservice. Researching companies, industries, and positions will put you in a much better position to get the job you want. Performing no investigation whatsoever leaves you flying blind when it comes to important steps such as customizing your cover letter or preparing for an interview.

By taking a few moments to check out the company’s website, review their presence on social media, and investigate their reputation, you’ll have a much better idea of the organization’s culture and day-to-day operations. You might even discover that it’s not the type of business you would want to work for, which will save you a lot of time, effort, and stress.

You can learn quite a bit about a company, industry, or role in just a few minutes. Don’t neglect this important step in your job hunt.

One-Hour Job Search Task #7: Correspond with Prospective Employers

With today’s digital job search, the personal touch has largely been lost. However, read any career advice article or ask any hiring manager for job search help and they’ll tell you: following up with potential employers after a phone or in-person interview makes a great impression.

The key, though, is to use restraint. If you take 10 minutes or less to reach out to a handful of recruiters and hiring managers, you’re guaranteed to avoid writing lengthy emails that run the risk of sounding desperate. All that’s needed is a quick message thanking them for their time and/or inquiring about next steps.

You’ll be surprised how much following up helps your job search and makes you stand out from the crowd with relatively little effort. Don’t forget to add notes to your Job Tracker so that you don’t follow up with one employer a whole bunch of times!

Running a job search can become an overwhelming experience, but it doesn’t have to take over your life. In fact, if you take advantage of the many tools at your disposal and dedicate yourself to learning how to manage time better, you can master the one-hour job search. By employing the suggestions above, and dedicating only 60 minutes of your day, you’ll find yourself closer to your dream job.