Article

Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan Now To Boost Your Job Search in the Future

Topic: Interviewing SkillsFeaturing Peggy McKeePublished Recently added

Legacy signals

Legacy popularity: 3,051 legacy views

Legacy rating: 3/5 from 1 archived votes

A 30/60/90-day sales plan is a written outline for exactly what you’ll do in the first 3 months on a new job. It’s the goals you’ve set for yourself as a new employee for the first 30 days, the first 60 days, and the first 90 days. A30/60/90-day sales plan is tremendously impressive to a hiring manager because it takes a lot of effort to write one, and requires that you research the company and the job very well in order to be specific in your goals. (It takes the idea of “doing your homework” to a whole new level.) Very few people put this kind of effort into a job they haven’t even gotten yet. When a hiring manager sees a candidate with one of these plans, they think at least two things: (1) “This person knows exactly what I need here, and he can hit the ground running…I can see him doing well in this job” and (2) “Wow. If this candidate will work this hard before she gets the job, imagine what a go-getter she’ll be on my team.” (Either one means great things for you.)

If you’ve got lots of experience, your 30/60/90-day plan will show the hiring manger your energy, enthusiasm, drive, determination, and knowledge, setting you apart from the pack.

If you have little experience, a 30/60/90-day plan will show the hiring manger that you do, in fact, know what it takes to be successful at this job, and it’s not going to be a risk to hire you. (Click here for more tools to help you get into medical sales.)

OK. I said all that to say this:

Don’t throw away your 30/60/90-day sales plan after you get the job.

First of all, you’ll need to use it on the job. If it’s a good 30/60/90-day plan, actually following it WILL make you more successful.

Second, unless you’re already flirting with retirement, the job you’ve got probably isn’t going to be your last stop….so job searching, interviewing, and30/60/90-day plans will still be a part of your future.

With that in mind, here’s my big tip for the day: make notes on what worked for you in your 30/60/90-day plan and start a “Job Search” folder, where you keep notes on interesting companies, recruiter contacts, “attaboy” (or girl) emails, etc.–and put your 30/60/90-day sales plan in there for future job searches. Like a brag book folder, it’s going to be a personalized resource for you. You won’t need to start from scratch on your job search or your 30/60/90-day sales plan if you find yourself suddenly in the market for a new job. And, you can use what you’ve learned to improve your plan for each job you interview for….you’ll be more efficient, and you’ll become a better candidate.

Further reading

Further Reading

4 total

Article

Newspapers (or Craigslist) If you know that I’m not very fond of job boards as a job search resource, then you must be really surprised that I would talk about newspapers or even Craigslist in a series about the fastest way to find a job. I’m sure you assume that I think newspapers belong to the Dark Ages and Craigslist is just the online version of classified ads. Which it is…but bear with me.

Related piece

Article

Alumni Organizations Alumni organizations are great networking resources for you, which means they are also great resources to help you find a job.

Related piece

Article

Industry Organizations Industry organizations are some of the best job search resources anywhere. These can be fantastic because they are a direct connection for you to people in your field—including potential hiring managers, but that’s not your only benefit here. You can expand your network, you can learn a lot about your field, and you can often find out about jobs that aren’t necessarily listed on national job boards. For instance, I was a part of several organizations when I was in clinical diagnostics sales: The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC)r

Related piece

Article

What will you contribute to this job? This job interview question is very similar to “Why should we hire you?” Or, “Why do we want you over the other candidates?” The job interview is a sales process in which you are the product and the hiring manager and company is the buyer. Your salary is the price of the product, you and your skill sets. It’s fair for them to ask, “What are we going to get for our money?”

Related piece