A High-Activity Process-Based Job Search
The job search itself boils down to this: You take Your Brand (who you are) and couple that with the amplification potential of Your Network (who you know and who they know) and insert them into a High-Activity Processed-Based job search.
The more action steps you take, the better organized you are, and the better you will do. Progressive action steps keep momentum in your court. They are logical steps to advance the conversation closer to your objective (next interview, internship offer, job offer). They keep the dialog going. This is why you should always plan on what you want to happen when you next connect with the hiring manager or recruiter.
You make sure you are always getting closer to what you want. Also you don’t want to fall off the hiring managers top of mind and you want to always be advancing the dialog and it betters your chances for getting the role.
If you search is effective, you should be having this positive dialog thread with at least three recruiters.
Remember if you are a college senior then you have invested 16 years in your formal education. Your objective must always be multiple offers. A great search-process will better your chance at just that. He or she who engages in high activity will have the best chance of getting these offers. Formal jobs or internships, same story.
One other point prior to drilling down on this and I will put it in capitals to gain its appropriate emphasis. THE PATH TO A GREAT JOB IS MOST OFTEN PAVED VIA INTERSHIPS. Internships are where you learn, network, and get a feel for what you like and do not like. You should try to get them every summer (Freshman to Sophomore are the hardest but it can be done and you should try). If you do three over you college career, or even two, and you nail them (remember they are 60 day job interviews) you should always have the objective of getting an offer from that organization upon graduation (again, if you like the company and your fit).
First lets dig into High-Activity:
There are many activities you can engage in to positively affect a job or internship search in order. The key is by way of example: