How to Use StartWire

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Juliana Cox
7 years ago
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1 How to Use StartWire

2 How to Use StartWire StartWire is a free site you can use to manage your job search from getting recommendations on where to apply to getting automatic updates on the status of your job applications. Here s the story of StartWire job seeker, Joe Johnsonski and how he used StartWire to track his job search. Ten years out of school, Joe lost his job when his company went out of business. He was bummed; he d been working for them for four years and had broken a company sales record his first year with them. Because Joe s company closed, he did not receive any severance. He filed for unemployment and learned that he d need to keep careful records of where he applied in order to receive unemployment benefits. Everyday, Joe went applied for jobs online. He kept records of his job search on where he applied via post- it notes and on paper. 2

3 One day his four year old spilled a glass of milk all over his keyboard and his post- it notes. The next day, he got a call from a hiring manager. He d forgotten that he applied for the job. His papers had ink smudges and were still drying out so it was hard to search through his records. He didn t get past a phone interview with that company. He never heard back from several other companies he applied to. It became harder to stay motivated. He made a spreadsheet of all the sites he used for his job search; he had seven different passwords and a long list of login information. A former colleague, Bob, told Joe about StartWire. Joe went to StartWire.com and connected through his LinkedIn account to create a free StartWire account of his own. To register, Joe answered two questions: Once Joe got into StartWire, he saw that there were 4 things he could do to get started. 3

4 Bob said I use StartWire to keep records of my job search from everywhere I apply including jobs found on job boards and on individual company sites. He also said, StartWire sends me automatic text and updates on my job application status from at many of the companies where I ve applied. This is information I didn t even know existed though apparently I could have gotten it if I d taken the trouble to log back into the websites where I applied for jobs. Instead of looking at jobs right away, Joe decided to get organized. He watched a video in the Applications tab to learn how to track his applications. The video showed how to discover if auto updates were available for jobs he applied to and how he could create manual updates for jobs that could not be tracked. 4

5 Joe learned that he could login to StartWire and click Track a New Application directly from the StartWire homepage. After clicking Track a New Application, Joe could quickly see whether auto updates were available. If updates were available, all Joe had to do was enter in some basic information about where he applied including the and password he used to apply for the job. 5

6 Joe provided StartWire with permission to check his applications for status updates and signed up to get notified whenever his applications were updated. Joe also learned that he could track any job manually if updates were not available. Joe tracked a few jobs over the next week. He tracked an application to Medtronic manually, than got an update saying StartWire could give him auto status updates on his applications. Not all companies provide status updates to applicants, but StartWire is expanding to include as many updates for companies as possible. Joe was able to see all his job applications whenever he logged back into StartWire. 6

7 StartWire gave him information on: Companies where he had connections (based on his LinkedIn & Facebook connections) How long it had been since he d applied (a good prompt to follow- up) When Joe clicked on the job title for any job that he had tracked, he got: Links to salary information and interview questions that have been asked at that company before The ability to send Get Referral postcards to friends, LinkedIn and Facebook connections to ask for help (an important step as referrals are the number one way companies hire people they haven t known before) A drop- down menu that allowed him to update his application status, as well as the ability to add notes or delete any features. 7

8 During his job search, Joe tracked a total of 25 jobs that he d applied to by submitting information on where he'd applied to by StartWire. Some days were tough. One week, he received notifications when 6 of the jobs he applied for were no longer posted and was informed that he was no longer under consideration for 4 jobs all before Wednesday. He found more jobs through StartWire s Jobs tab and applied to 5 more. He only looked at companies where he knew people and used the Get Referral feature to get introduced to others and to let his connections know he had applied. He also watched a webinar through StartWire s Training Center and learned why it s important to apply early for jobs to get full consideration. (A StartWire survey 8

9 of 6,600 hires made in 2010 found that 50% of successful job seekers applied within the first week that a job was advertised.) So he went back to StartWire and searched for jobs by the Date when they were listed. He applied for 3 jobs that had just been listed. On Thursday morning his report of job search activity was due to his state s unemployment office. He used a short cut for record keeping using StartWire s Activities Tab that keeps notes on all job search activity in StartWire. He also sent a summary of all his activity for the month to friends who had volunteered to help him with his job search using StartWire s Activity Sharing features. He let his friends know where he applied, companies he liked, and where he d asked for help. 9

10 In the end, Joe got 11 phone screens, 7 interviews and 3 job offers. Of the job offers he received: 1 of them came from a job he applied to the day it was listed. (They told him later it had been listed for 48 hours.) 1 of them came from a former colleague who learned he was looking when she received a StartWire get referral get request 1 of them came when he nailed an interviewing question other candidates had not been able to crack. (He found the question on StartWire and researched the answer before the interview.) Joe got to choose the job he took. And that s what we hope happens with your StartWire story, too. 10

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