The job search checklist
Everything worth doing, in the order that works.
Most job-search advice arrives as a pile of disconnected tips, which is why people bounce between tactics without ever building momentum. This checklist is organised the way a search actually runs: the setup you do once, the rhythm you repeat weekly, the checks that belong to each individual application, then interviews and the offer. Working in that order matters, because effort spent on applications before the setup is done tends to be wasted effort.
The setup phase is the part people skip and the part that determines everything downstream. Decide your three or four non-negotiables and rank them, because you will have to trade. Build one master resume containing every bullet you might ever use, so tailoring later becomes reordering rather than rewriting. Check the document actually parses. Fix your LinkedIn headline so it contains the words recruiters search for. Write five STAR stories that between them cover most behavioural questions. Set up a tracker. That is a day of work that saves weeks.
The weekly rhythm exists to stop a job search consuming every waking hour, which is the fastest route to giving up. Fixed hours, a realistic target of well-matched roles rather than a maximum, scoring before tailoring, applying on company career pages, a couple of genuine networking messages, one round of follow-ups, and ten minutes of out-loud interview practice a day. The final weekly task — reviewing where in your funnel you are actually dropping off — is the one that turns a repetitive search into an improving one.
The per-application checks are short and high-leverage. Confirm you clear every knockout before investing time, because failing one ends the application regardless of everything else. Make sure the genuine skills the posting names appear in your resume in the posting's own words. Put your two strongest quantified wins in the top third of page one, where the six-second scan lands. Fill the optional form fields that demonstrate a real match. Write a cover letter only where it earns its place. And look for one person at the company worth a genuine conversation, because a referral out-converts a cold application several times over.
The interview and offer sections cover what people most often improvise and most often regret. Predict the questions for that specific role rather than a generic list, rehearse out loud rather than in your head, prepare real questions to ask them, and test your camera and microphone on the actual platform beforehand. After the interview, send a short specific thank-you within a day, and write up what you actually said while it is fresh — that single habit is what makes ten interviews teach you ten times as much as one.
For the offer: get the package in writing before resigning from anything, decide your target, acceptable and walk-away numbers in advance rather than in the moment, make one well-researched counter justified by the value you bring, and check the equity terms properly — vesting, cliff, and what the shares are worth today rather than at a hoped-for valuation.
Tick tasks off as you complete them and your progress saves on this device, with a percentage and a per-phase breakdown so you can see where you are. Nothing is uploaded and there is no signup. If you want the reasoning behind each phase, the job-search strategy guide explains why quality beats volume, and this diagnostic covers what to do when applications go unanswered.
- ✓35 concrete tasks across setup, weekly, per-application, interview and offer
- ✓Progress and percentage saved on your device
- ✓Built around what actually converts, not generic tips
- ✓Free, no signup, nothing uploaded
Part of JobStraight — the honest AI job-search platform. Runs in your browser; your data stays on your device.