Let’s get organised, Japan style – Applying the Marie Kondo Method to your Job Search
In this day and age, CVs are required to be readable fast and only have relevant info within a couple of pages. More, and recruiters will lose interest in your CV very fast! Mix this with the bullet-proof Japanese sense of organisation and you get the perfect solution: applying the renowned KonMari method to your Job Search.
Make a simple plan & Visualise – In her method, Marie Kondo invites people to visualise their ideal home, in order to help motivate them by keeping the successful end results in sight. Use the first few weeks of the new year to write a list of things you are looking for in a job. Take time to visualise the type of role and company you’d like to work in, based on your list so that once you start your search. This way you’ll have a clear goal in mind and can select the right roles and companies for you, based on your requirements.
Deep Clean your CV – You can’t start tidying up if you haven’t decluttered first, says Marie Kondo. Her method starts by putting all your belongings in one spot so you see what you have a start deciding what to keep and what to toss. Applied to your CV, this method will help you trim it down to the essentials. Open your CV and your LinkedIn profile and start removing non-essential pieces of information from your CV to put them on your LinkedIn.
Recruiters are said to make up their mind on a candidate within 20 seconds of reading their CV, so make it count. In this digital age, a CV is merely a shop window built to entice the recruiters to go into the shop, your LinkedIn profile, where they can find a bit more info on your experience and profile. This said, make sure your LinkedIn profile doesn’t become a dumping ground of information and keep this tidy too.
Quality over quantity – Decluttering KonMari-style means keeping the essential and focusing on it. In a panic to change jobs you may feel like you need to apply to all the roles you find that have a link, strong or less so, to your work and education background. But this is only a quick fix to dampen the panic. Instead, save all the roles that tickle your fancy without applying to them then go back and only select the few ones that are really relevant. This will also allow you to allocate more time to each application, customising your cover letter and CV to match the requirements of the job description.
Organise things by category – Marie Kondo recommends clearing one room at a time, one category at a time, so you can have all your focus on one task at a time. Keep track of roles you applied for and organise the applications receipt emails in categories in your inbox so you can go back to them quickly when you get a callback. There is nothing worse than getting called to discuss a role and not remembering what role or company it was for, a complete credibility buster!
Spark Joy – This concept might seem a bit naïve to some but retaining things that spark joy in your life is actually a very serious concept Kondo insists on applying to all things in the process. She drew inspiration from Japanese Shinto and Buddhist beliefs that you can find joy in the smallest things in life. So instead of predicting a big Doom & Gloom cloud over your Job Search, find the things in the process that make you motivated and excited. Researching companies, updating your LinkedIn profile, contacting new people to network, finding courses to add to your skill set etc… whatever floats your boat.
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash