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At Radify, we follow an important 3 stage process to searching for jobs and internships in an insanely efficient way,

There are three main stages to our approach

1. Prioritizing your target companies
2. Contacting people who work for those companies
3. Recruiting/connecting with those people

Today we are just going to focus on the first stage: prioritizing target companies.

As we go over this new strategy for the job search process, we want you to follow our directions exactly. At times, they may seem silly or counterintuitive but everything is the way it is in order to minimize wasting effort and to help accelerate the process.

Prioritizing Companies

First, look at this spreadsheet and make a copy for yourself. Save it to your Drive in a folder that you'll remember. Better yet, bookmark the sheet.

In this sheet, you'll notice a few columns:

Company - self explanatory, the name of the company that you will potentially be applying to

Motivation - this column indicates how excited you would be to work for this company it is measured on a scale of 1 to 5.

• Aware a score of 1 to targets you are completely unfamiliar with
• Award a score of 2 to targets you are familiar with but find least motivating
• Award a score of 5 to targets you find most motivating ("dream employers").

Posting - this column indicates if the company is currently hiring and is measured with a scale of 1 to 3

• Award a score of 3 for hits found when searching for the <Employer Name><Job Keyword>
• Award a score of 2 for hits found when searching for the <Employer Name> but not <Employer Name><Job Keyword>
• Award a score of 1 for no hits when searching for either of the above options

Alumni - this column indicates if any alumni from your current or previous school work at the company

• Y for yes, N for no alumni currently working at the company.

Step 1 - Make a copy of the spreadsheet

Step 2 - List 20 dream employers

In the first column, make a list 20 dream employers that come right to mind. After you have a few, think about common characteristics and start to list employers who meet those interests.

This shouldn't take more than 5 minutes, it's meant to be quick.

After Step 2, you'll have a spread sheet that looks something like this. Don't fill in anything in the other columns yet!

Step 3 - Add 20 more companies from your school's Alumni insights

Navigate your way to your school's linkedin profile page. It should look something like this. Again - even if you know the company has employees who are alumni of your school, don't put anything in any column other than "Company" at this stage.

With this step, you should be able to find 20 more companies!

Step 4 - Add 40 more jobs you find via job listing boards

There are tons of job boards out there. Choose one and search for companies.

Here are a few you can start with:

1. Handshake - most schools use http://joinhandshake.com for their student job board
2. Linkedin jobs - link
3. Angle.co jobs - link
4. Indeed - link

Important tip: During these steps, you should not be saving links or applying to any positions! You are simply making a list of company names to explore for later.

Step 5 - Add 20 more jobs from doing research on trends

Find a publication or blog that covers relevant trends and topics for your track. Scan their articles of quotes from people who work at companies in the space.

You should be able to complete steps 1-5 and have a list of 100 potential companies in 40 minutes. Congrats! Now we'll start using the other columns to start adding some sorting information to your spreadsheet.

Step 6 - Fill in the motivation column

This column indicates how excited you would be to work for this company it is measured on a scale of 1 to 5.

• Aware a score of 1 to targets you are completely unfamiliar with
• Award a score of 2 to targets you are familiar with but find least motivating
• Award a score of 5 to targets you find most motivating ("dream employers").

Step 7 - Fill in the posting column

This column indicates if the company is currently hiring and is measured with a scale of 1 to 3. To determine if the company is currently hiring, we'll use Indeed.com. Why? Indeed is currently best job board at scrapping other job boards and including the biggest set of open job positions.

To get through this step as efficiently as possible, make sure you follow this technique:

• First search for "Company Name" "Keyword" (ex: "Google" "Designer". If relevant positions are found, award a score of 3 and move to the next company
• If no relevant positions are found, search "Company Name" (ex: "Apple"). If positions are found (even if they aren't related to what you are pursuing, aware a score of 2 and move to the next company
• If nothing is found from the company, aware a score of 1 and move on to the next company

Work your way through this task and stay focused so you can complete it quickly!

Step 8 - Fill in the alumni column

Once again, navigate your way to your school's linkedin profile page and click the "See alumni" button.

Once you find yourself on the insights page, use the filtering next to the "where they work" column to see if your school has alumni who work at the companies on your list.

• Y for yes, N for no alumni currently working at the company.

Important tip: you should still not be saving any contact information or links! We will get to this later. These steps are simply to find the most effective companies that we should be targeting.

Step 9 - Sort your companies!

At this point, you should have a list of 120 companies that all scores for all of their relevant columns. It should look something like this

Now, we're going to sort this sheet so that we know which companies are going to be the most important opportunities for you to pursue.

It is very important to follow these next directions exactly and in the same order.

1. Sort the Motivation column (largest to smallest)
2. Sort the Posting column (largest to smallest)
3. Sort the Alumni column (Z to A)

BOOM! You know have a prioritized list of companies that may employ you!

Congrats on getting through today. We recognize that there was a lot to do! Submit your sheet today. Tomorrow we'll pick things back up!

With this step, you should be able to find 20 more companies!

Step 4 - Add 40 more jobs you find via job listing boards

There are tons of job boards out there. Choose one and search for companies.

Here are a few you can start with:

1. Handshake - most schools use http://joinhandshake.com for their student job board
2. Linkedin jobs - link
3. Angle.co jobs - link
4. Indeed - link

Important tip: During these steps, you should not be saving links or applying to any positions! You are simply making a list of company names to explore for later.

Step 5 - Add 20 more jobs from doing research on trends

Find a publication or blog that covers relevant trends and topics for your track. Scan their articles of quotes from people who work at companies in the space.

You should be able to complete steps 1-5 and have a list of 100 potential companies in 40 minutes. Congrats! Now we'll start using the other columns to start adding some sorting information to your spreadsheet.

Step 6 - Fill in the motivation column

This column indicates how excited you would be to work for this company it is measured on a scale of 1 to 5.

• Aware a score of 1 to targets you are completely unfamiliar with
• Award a score of 2 to targets you are familiar with but find least motivating
• Award a score of 5 to targets you find most motivating ("dream employers").

Step 7 - Fill in the posting column

This column indicates if the company is currently hiring and is measured with a scale of 1 to 3. To determine if the company is currently hiring, we'll use Indeed.com. Why? Indeed is currently best job board at scrapping other job boards and including the biggest set of open job positions.

To get through this step as efficiently as possible, make sure you follow this technique:

• First search for "Company Name" "Keyword" (ex: "Google" "Designer". If relevant positions are found, award a score of 3 and move to the next company
• If no relevant positions are found, search "Company Name" (ex: "Apple"). If positions are found (even if they aren't related to what you are pursuing, aware a score of 2 and move to the next company
• If nothing is found from the company, aware a score of 1 and move on to the next company

Work your way through this task and stay focused so you can complete it quickly!

Step 8 - Fill in the alumni column

Once again, navigate your way to your school's linkedin profile page and click the "See alumni" button.

Once you find yourself on the insights page, use the filtering next to the "where they work" column to see if your school has alumni who work at the companies on your list.

• Y for yes, N for no alumni currently working at the company.

Important tip: you should still not be saving any contact information or links! We will get to this later. These steps are simply to find the most effective companies that we should be targeting.

Step 9 - Sort your companies!

At this point, you should have a list of 120 companies that all scores for all of their relevant columns. It should look something like this

Now, we're going to sort this sheet so that we know which companies are going to be the most important opportunities for you to pursue.

It is very important to follow these next directions exactly and in the same order.

1. Sort the Motivation column (largest to smallest)
2. Sort the Posting column (largest to smallest)
3. Sort the Alumni column (Z to A)

BOOM! You know have a prioritized list of companies that may employ you!

Congrats on getting through today. We recognize that there was a lot to do! Submit your sheet today. Tomorrow we'll pick things back up!