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3 Productivity Hacks to Streamline Your Job Search, with Jeremy Cline

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Finding a new job can be an exhausting process, but it doesn’t have to be. Find Your Dream Job guest Jeremy Cline says there are some simple ways to streamline the process to make it more enjoyable, as well as more efficient. Jeremy suggests setting up templates, creating a set of standard operating procedures for your search, and batching tasks that need to be done. Jeremy also encourages the use of AI technology, such as using ChatGPT to update and tailor application materials. 

About Our Guest:

Jeremy Cline is a career, business, and executive coach who helps you understand your unique talents and values so you can accomplish more. Jeremy also hosts the excellent Change Work Life podcast.

Resources in This Episode:

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 509:

3 Productivity Hacks to Streamline Your Job Search, with Jeremy Cline

Airdate: July 9, 2025

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.

You could easily create an endless to-do list when you look for work.

But there are only so many hours in a day.

Jeremy Cline is here to talk about three productivity hacks to streamline your job search.

He’s a career, business, and executive coach who helps you understand your unique talents and values so you can accomplish more.

Jeremy also hosts the excellent Change Work Life podcast.

He joins us from the United Kingdom.

Well, let’s jump right into it, Jeremy. We’re talking about productivity hacks when you look for work. What do you mean by a productivity hack?

Jeremy Cline:

In the context of what we’re going to talk about, it’s about streamlining those tasks which become quite repetitive.

Because if you are up to your eyes in a job search, then chances are there are going to be things which you are doing over and over again. Whether it’s CVs, cover letters, whether it’s certain types of research.

So what I’m talking about here is some ways of making those a bit more manageable and so that they take a bit less time, and it’s ways to make them a bit easier for yourself, frankly.

Mac Prichard:

And what kind of difference do you see these hacks that we’re gonna talk about make in both the job searches and the careers of the clients you work with?

Jeremy Cline:

One of the things that it’s really helped me, in many different contexts, is reducing mental load. It’ll make more sense when we come on to talk about the specific hacks.

But it stops you feeling like you’ve got this obligation to remember how you did things. And if you have to remember each time what the process was that you followed, then it, yeah, it just adds to the mental load and takes away time which you could otherwise spend on more productive things.

So, rather than spending your mental energy on recollection, you spend it more on ideation and more creatively.

Mac Prichard:

So you get more energy and save time.

What are some other benefits of using these kinds of productivity hacks?

Jeremy Cline:

It also means that you can develop more of a consistency around the actions that you take.

Now obviously, the processes and approaches you take, you can tweak, you can evolve. But once you’ve got them down to pat, then if you’re doing the same sorts of things repetitively and you know what it is that you’re doing, then you can streamline that approach, and you don’t have to recall what was the best way of doing something over and over again.

Mac Prichard:

More energy, more time, and consistency.

Well, let’s talk about these hacks. You’ve got three we’re gonna dive into today.

And the first one, you’ve already touched on this, is talking about streamlining your job searches. The first one is to use templates.

What kind of templates do you have in mind here, Jeremy?

Jeremy Cline:

The obvious ones in terms of job searches are resumes and cover letters.

I’m guessing that many people already have a resume which they have on their system somewhere. You might find in the context of a job search that you want, if you’re applying for several standard types of positions, having two or three standards helps you, rather than necessarily tailoring the one resume for every application.

You might say you’re going for two particular types of jobs, you might find that you can tweak one of them so that it’s better suited for the other type, and then use that with fewer tweaks when you make job applications in that kind of sector.

The same applies to covering letters. Again, obviously, cover letters need to be tailored. But you can include a lot of standard provisions, and also, if you’re approaching career searches with a more proactive approach.

So if you follow the approach where, rather than seeing a job on a job board, on LinkedIn, or wherever, and applying for it, you instead reach out to companies that you’re interested in working for. You get in touch with people who you’d like to speak to. You’re more proactive about it. Then, the ways that you communicate with those people, you can create a template for those.

What I found I was doing in many contexts was that I was scrabbling around to find the most recent email I had sent someone, which kind of asked the same question already. And I realized that I was wasting time with that, I’d have to go through several emails, struggle to find the one I wanted. And so by putting it into a template, I just knew it was there and then ready to go.

Mac Prichard:

So you shared three examples of templates: resumes, cover letters, email communications with people at companies or organizations where you might want to work.

You also mentioned having standards, especially for resumes.

How do you, if you’re going to work from two or three standard resumes, for example, Jeremy, how do you create those, those master resumes? Or the master template for a cover letter?

Jeremy Cline:

I guess I would start from a place of not overcomplicating it. I’m conscious that I’m speaking to a master of resumes here. And so you’ve probably got better advice than I have.

But I mean, you start with, I would say, a reasonably bog-standard template that tells the story that you want. You know, there are plenty of services and templates out there; services that will give you guidance on how best to structure a resume.

So yeah, it’s probably not rocket science. Start with something simple where you just start with your sort of summary at the top, and then going through your relevant job history, education, and so on and so forth.

Mac Prichard:

And is it also driven by your goals?

Sometimes people might be interested in two very different kinds of career paths and pursue them simultaneously.

Is that also a factor when you’re creating these templates for your resume that you’ll adapt for particular jobs?

Jeremy Cline:

Yes, I think so. And one of the important factors here is, what’s the story that you’re looking to tell to the person who’s going to read the resume?

I very much think of resumes as being marketing documents. They’re effectively your own personal marketing document. It’s like having your own personal landing page. So it’s really got to be written with a lot of focus on who is likely to read it.

So if you are exploring two different career tracks, then in those resumes, kind of explaining who you are and what it is about you that makes you suitable for one track or the other. Which could include quite a different focus in the experience that you choose to highlight.

I was speaking to one advisor who suggests one approach, for example, if you’ve had lots of the same positions. So suppose that you’ve been a marketing executive in three different companies. Rather than listing all those positions separately, you would kind of say, marketing executive, and then give examples, or rather list, list all of the skills and requirements and experience that you got in just one place, and then list the places that you did it.

So you tell that story one way. If, on the other hand, there was something different you wanted to draw out from those three positions, then that’s, that would be something that you’d do if that was more relevant for the second type of job that you’re approaching.

Mac Prichard:

Terrific. We’re gonna take a break, Jeremy.

Stay with us. When we come back, Jeremy Cline will continue to share his three productivity hacks to streamline your job search.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Jeremy Cline.

He’s a career, business, and executive coach who helps you identify your unique talents and values so you can accomplish more.

Jeremy also hosts the excellent Change Work Life podcast

And he joins us from the United Kingdom.

Now, Jeremy, before the break, we were talking about the first of your three productivity hacks to streamline your job search.

And you were encouraging listeners to create templates, especially for resumes, cover letters, and common communications with employers and networking contacts.

Your second hack of your three for streamlining the job search is to set up standard operating procedures.

Tell us more about this. What do you have in mind here?

Jeremy Cline:

It’s a very grand way of saying basically checklists. It’s, there are, this applies to job searches, this applies to all different areas, where you do something several times, but it’s a bit more complicated than just one task.

You and I are recording a podcast. There are lots of tasks that go into setting that up. And so what I’m talking about here is having a checklist of things that one needs to do, as we’re talking about in the case of a job search procedure.

So, for example, you see a job which interests you. Your S.O.P. might include a list of the websites that you want to do in order to carry out due diligence on the company. So you might want to look on LinkedIn, see who you know, see who your second-degree connections are. See whether there’s anyone who can make an introduction to someone in the company.

You might check out sites like Glassdoor, look at the reviews there. Maybe you’ll look at one of the sites that gives you an idea of what pay is typical for the sort of position you’re applying for.

Then it might be tailoring your resume and then writing the cover letter. There might be specific things that you include in the S.O.P. around that. Maybe you include in that setting a reminder, so if you haven’t heard anything within three days, seven days, whatever you think appropriate, then you factor that in.

It’s all about helping you not to have to remember each time you do it, the process for doing the thing.

Mac Prichard:

How do you decide which job search task to require their own checklist?

You mentioned resumes, cover letters, and applications. But what do you say? Which tasks require checklists or standard operating procedures, and which might not?

Jeremy Cline:

Any task which has multiple steps attached to it. So, preparing a resume, I suppose you could set up a checklist for that, but a checklist to my mind would look more like the list of sections. So there’s perhaps less scope there for creating a checklist.

Whereas a process like an application, going from seeing the advert all the way up to hopefully getting the interview and receiving an offer, there’s many more steps there. And so recording what those steps are, so that you don’t forget anything along the way, that’s where this sort of thing really comes into its own.

And one of the beauties about it, and this is the case for all three of the hacks, is that you can tie it into the first hack. So your, if you want to get whizzy and very organized about it, your S.O.P. could include, your S.O.P. document could include some of the templates which you know that you’ll need as part of the process.

Mac Prichard:

How do you keep your standard operating procedures and your checklists up to date? What have you seen work, Jeremy?

Jeremy Cline:

If I find that there is something that I’ve done differently, maybe twice, sometimes once, but maybe twice, then I’ll think, okay, this is something which I want to start incorporating in the future. And so, going to the S.O.P. and make that amendment.

Or sometimes it might just be that you hear a suggestion, going back to the podcast example. I remember listening to, I think it was Tim Ferriss, talking about what he does for his podcast. And he made a couple of suggestions for questions which he routinely asks his guests. And I thought, ooh, I like those, I’m gonna nick those.

And so they went into my S.O.P. It’s just getting inspiration from that kind of place.

Mac Prichard:

The third of your three hacks for streamlining your job search is batch processing.

How does batch processing work?

Jeremy Cline:

The idea is that the more you repeat something in one block, the faster it gets.

So maybe you are writing ten outreach emails, for example. You’ve identified ten people that you’d like to speak to, you’ve got their email addresses, and you’re in the process of sending out emails to them.

You might want to tweak and tailor the emails a bit, but they’re probably going to be saying much the same thing. What you could do is send out an email, and then go and do something else, and then come back and send out another email. And then you take a look at some job listings, and then you come back, and you find with the task switching that there’s this mental reset.

Whereas if you send out one, and then do the next one, and then you send it out again, and then you do the next one again, you find that just the practice within that concentrated period of time helps you to get quicker and quicker and quicker.

Yes, there’s an argument that it can get a little bit tedious, and I’d definitely recommend building in breaks where you can. But otherwise, yeah, if you’ve got these similar processes and you can do them over again, then you just naturally get quicker doing them.

Mac Prichard:

Any suggestions for the amount of time you should devote to a group of the same tasks when batch processing? Is it something you should do for an hour, or for several hours?

When might that fatigue that you mentioned a moment ago set in if you’re doing it, say, all day long?                                      

Jeremy Cline:

I am a fan of moving at least once an hour. In fact, I recently got myself one of these smartwatches that tells me if I haven’t. So for my own sort of health and sanity, I’m a big fan of doing that.

And sometimes I will feel like I’m in the middle of something and get a buzz and then, you know, there is a bit of a decision then as to whether I want to be a slave to technology and move around or whether I want to carry on, staying in the zone.

I think it’s gonna be different for everyone, but you will notice; you will notice when your concentration starts to wane. You will notice when it starts to get a bit draining, and you’ll find that just getting up, moving around, walking up and down the stairs, or whatever you do, just gives you that little bit of a reset.

Another way of thinking about it is to set yourself a goal. So, say you’ve got twenty emails to send, then you can say, okay, well, I’m going to do a batch of ten, and then my reward for that is going to be giving myself a bit of a break, and then I will do the next batch of ten.

Mac Prichard:

Well, we talked about your three hacks: templates, S.O.P.s (standard operating procedures), and batch processing.

Let’s see if we can get a bonus tip here, Jeremy.

How do you see AI tools, like ChatGPT, helping job seekers today streamline their searches?

Jeremy Cline:

Yeah absolutely. I think we’re still just scratching the surface of what AI can do. I believe that you need the paid plan to set up your own custom GPTs, but if you’ve got that, then getting ChatGPT to run some of these routine tasks for you is a great way of using AI.

So, for example, you could already have given chaptGPT your standard resume, cover letter, outreach email, and then you could say to it, here is the job listing, here is the LinkedIn profile of the person I’m going to be contacting, tailor these documents for this particular, this particular case.

It’s probably not going to get it perfect first time. But it will give you a starting point and save you time. And I mean one of the benefits of having these templates, S.O.Ps, well certainly the templates and S.O.Ps, is it does make it much easier to delegate. And of course, AI is effectively just a form of delegation. So rather than giving a job to an assistant, you’re giving it to your, your AI assistant to do that.

So yeah, I can definitely see chaptGPt helping people to save a bit of time there as well.

Mac Prichard:

Well, it’s been a terrific conversation.

Now tell us, Jeremy, what’s next for you?

Jeremy Cline:

Well, I am focusing on my coaching practice.

So my ideal clients work in professional services. So we’re talking lawyers, we’re talking accountants, we’re talking wealth managers, bankers, and the like.

And I, I really help them through career inflection points. So maybe it’s a promotion. Maybe it’s taking on line management responsibility. Maybe it’s, in the case of a law firm partnership, taking equity partnership, making that decision to invest in the business.

Maybe even starting to wind down at the end of a career; what happens next? What do you do after you’ve been working these sixty or seventy-hour weeks?

So yeah, for me, what’s next for me is continuing to build and develop that practice.

Mac Prichard: 

Terrific. I know listeners can learn more about you and your practice by visiting your website, that’s changeworklife.com. We’ll be sure to include that in the show notes.

And you also invite our listeners to connect with you on LinkedIn. When you do reach out to Jeremy, I hope you’ll mention you heard him on Find Your Dream Job.

Jeremy, given all the great advice you’ve shared today, what’s the ONE thing you want a listener to remember about your three productivity hacks to streamline your job search?

Jeremy Cline:

The thing to remember is that your brain is a factory and not a warehouse. By which I mean, your brain is there to be creative, to produce things.

The idea of these hacks is that you don’t then store the things that you’ve created. You, you take those things, those remembering things, out and put them somewhere else so that you basically free up more space in your brain to be creative.

So yeah. Treat, treat your brain like a factory rather than a warehouse.

Mac Prichard:

Next week, our guest will be Tatiana Graham.

She’s a certified leadership and transformational coach.

Tatiana helps you find your voice and lead a wholehearted career and life.

Looking for work can be tough for menopausal women.

Common menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, brain fog, and fatigue can slow down your search and affect your performance while networking or interviewing.

Join us next Wednesday when Tatiana Graham and I talk about job search and menopause: what to do.

Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.

This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.

Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.