At some point in your career, your are going to be looking for your next job. It is an inevitability. There are a million blogs and posts on this subject and what to do.
This blog post is not about what to do.
It is about how to do it.
You see, in the summer of 2019, I was at a moment in my career where I was looking for my next position, and I had a pretty clear vision for what I was looking for in my next job. But as I first started to launch into the search process, I started to grow frustrated with not having line of sight into the recruiters and hiring managers that were most interested in me. My thought was: if I could spend more time on the jobs and recruiters that were most interested in me, I could maximize the time that I spent in my job search on the positions I was most interested in and that I was most likely to land.
So I decided to sign up for a free version of HubSpot to manage my career search, and run the process like I was trying to make a sale.
You see, in sales, the CRM is the tool that you use to manage the entire process. And, unlike in sales, I didn’t have to make a monthly or quarterly quota in my job search.
I just had to make one “sale”.
So I decided to set the “deal stages” (aka the job search stages) up like this:
What was my thought process with each process stage? Here is how I defined each one:
- Job Prospects – when I came across a position on a job board, or when I networked with someone that let me know about a position, I would apply for the job and create a new deal in HubSpot and name the deal whatever the job title was.
- Recruiter Activated – these were the jobs where an action was taken on behalf of the company. Most often, that came from (or comes from) a recruiter in HR. Once there was clear interest on the part of the company and they reached out to me about scheduling a first interview for a position (which is most often a phone screen), I would update the deal stage of the job accordingly.
- Interview Scheduled – Once the back and forth process of with the recruiter was complete, and we had an interview on the calendar, I would move the deals (or jobs) to this stage. Once this conversation was completed, I would try and have clarity not only on the title of the role and the role itself, but also on the expected salary or OTE (on-target earnings).
- 2nd Interview – This deal/job stage is exactly like it sounds. If I made it past the initial phone screen and onto a 2nd interview with a hiring manager (or decision maker like in the sales process), once that conversation was scheduled, I would move the deal (or job) to this stage.
- Onsite Interview – Most often, companies are going to bring you in for some sort of onsite/final interview. That could be in the form of a 2nd interview, but that all depends on the type of role that you are searching for. Because most of the jobs I were looking for were at the management level or above, and in another state (Texas), I decided to separate this stage of the process out.
- Negotiating Offer – If I got this far down into the process, by now I should definitely have a clear picture of the offer, expected close date (or start date for the position), and all of the other information that was necessary to make a decision on the position. Moreover, if I had multiple offers at this stage, I could use this deal stage as a way to manage that process and maximize my earnings and package based on my goals and what was important to me.
- Job Accepted – Ring the bell my friend. You just got yourself a new job. 🍾🎉🥳
- Job Lost – The stage I used for jobs as I determined that employers were not interested, or as I personally removed them from consideration. Remember, you don’t need a yes or a no. You just need to know so you can focus your time, energy, and effort on the positions that you are mostly likely to land and that you are most interested in.
Really, setting up the process was that simple. In part II of this blog, I’ll show you some examples of how the process played out, as well as the most important feature in HubSpot I was able to take advantage of to determine if a company was actually interested in me as a candidate.
Do you have any questions about setting up HubSpot or the deal/job stages? Let me know in the comments below. I’d be happy to help!