As I suggested in my last post, updating my list of contacts seemed even more important to me than updating my resume. Furthermore, as word spread that I had been laid off, people all around me began referring me to job postings, companies, and people they knew. It became clear that I had to have some way to track all of this. Otherwise, I might forget to follow up in a timely fashion on opportunities and let them “fall through the cracks”. I also wanted to be able to thank and update people as I progressed on leads they had generated for me.

A couple of people with experience with the job hunt had tracked their progress in a spreadsheet.

The need to track progress on multiple leads and opportunities reminded me of what a sales organization faces. So why not look at a salesforce automation (SFA) tool?

Sure enough, Salesforce.com offers significant SFA functionality for free to a single user. This allows you to

• store contact information for individuals,
• synchronize contact information with Outlook,
• automate the sending of e-mails confirming contact information,
• store information about companies I am interested in as "accounts",
• store job postings as "opportunities"
• track progress of an opportunity through different stages
• store notes from phone calls or meetings. (When you call or meet some one, it's always helpful to remember what you last discussed!)
• record tasks to follow up on opportunities

Not everything is relevant to the personal job hunt. For example what does it mean for a job opportunity to be “new business” vs. “existing business”? However, if you think of the job search as selling your skills, expertise, and services, then Salesforce.com is a great way to stay organized and on top of things.