
Published in partnership with AC Lion
Looking for a job is like a full time job in itself, so today here I’m going to show you how to set yourself up with a CRM for your job search. There are many options popping up with various solutions for staying on top of your job search, but they tend to be complicated, and end up requiring you to put more effort in managing the system than using it. After 3 years of working with Hubspot, both as my go to CRM, and setting it up for clients, I decided to use Hubspot to power my Job Search.
Hubspot is an extremely dynamic CRM made for small to medium businesses to manage their relationships with their clients. Out of the box they give you many features which can be useful for helping you stay on top of your job search. Let’s go through a run down of those features, and how they can be modified for your use.
Note: This post is about the TOOL. Here is an awesome resource by Yam Regev on the STRATEGY behind an executive job Search
Setting up Hubspot
Open a free Hubspot Account – This one is easy, go to https://www.hubspot.com/products/get-started and click on “Get free CRM” There you will use your personal email address to sign up.
- Link your email account
Settings →Integrations → Email Integrations: Then click on “Connect an inbox” By linking your email account to Hubspot, you can send emails from hubspot through your email. It’ll also monitor your inbox so incoming emails will be logged into the system. That means all your correspondence with different people in a company will be organised in the system. - Install google chrome plugin
Once you link your calendar you’ll get a popup to do this. This will let you track emails you send directly from gmail or outlook, as well as let you know if someone opened your email. - Link your calendar
Settings → Sales → Meetings: Then click on Connect an inbox This will let you utilise the meeting link, so you can send people an email with the link, and they can book a call or meeting or interview directly on your calendar based on your availability. - Configure Deal Properties
Settings → Properties: Click on Create property
In this step we’re actually configuring Hubspot to work for your job search. We’ll be treating open positions as deals.- Add Job link URL
- Applied – On website / Via contact
After the deal stages are complete, scroll up. Under “Set the properties your team sees on deal records.” click on “Go to properties. In the search bar choose the new fields you created and click on them so they are added to the default view.
- Deal Stages
Settings → Deals
Here you will add the stages based on your industry. Stages for example can be:- Need to apply
- Applied
- Phone screening
- Interview
- Offer Taken
- Offer Rejected
Using Hubspot as a Job Search Engine
- Find a position – There are many jobs out there, always. The hard part is finding the right one at the right time. Linkedin Job search is a great place to start. Once you find something you’re interested in. Also make sure to check the company website to see if you can find the job listed there. There are usually jobs there that are not on linkedin, and you’ll have a direct link to the job listing.
- Create a contact. Ideally you want to find someone in the company who can pass your resume on. Once you create a contact Hubspot will automatically create a company based on the domain name ( Creating a contact Brian@Hubspot.com will create a company Hubspot.com)
- Tracking a job listing. Create a deal using the job title as the deal name. The deal stage is “Need to apply” unless you have already reached out in which case you should choose the stage it’s in. For the amount you can put in the monthly or annual salary. Just stay consistent.
This is important. At the bottom choose the company and contact to associate with the position. The reason we’re using deals to track the position is so that you can associate multiple positions with one company, as well as multiple contacts with one company in case you interview or correspond with multiple people in the company. - When you send the email to your contact, Hubspot will track the outgoing email, and you will be able to see who opened it, and how often, this will give you an indication of who is interested in your resume.
This is a quick and simple tutorial how to set up Hubspot in 15 min to use it for your job search. Once you have this set up it will help you make the search much more organised, which in turn will help you land that next job.
I like this idea a lot; makes sense to use a world class CRM for free to showcase your technical skills and coordinate all the information you need
Can you please add screenshots or more explanation for Configure Deal Properties? It is not clear to me how exactly to achieve this step. This will be a great way to keep track of business correspondence, not just for job search. Thanks!
Hi Robin,
If you watch the step by step video, at around 7:40 i show you exactly how to do this.