i’m juggling classes, recruiting, and living life, so vague advice like “network more” doesn’t cut it. i pulled together community tips and created a weekly template aligned to typical ib interview cycles: research & prioritize targets on monday, send 6 tailored outreaches tuesday–wednesday, follow up thursday, prep coffee-chat questions friday, and use weekends to synthesize notes and update targets.
i also set simple KPIs: 12 outreaches/week, 2 scheduled coffee chats, 1 updated mentor note. that kept momentum without burning out. i’m interested in how others balance volume with personalization and which weekly rhythms actually moved the needle during peak recruiting.
what does your weekly plan look like during recruiting season?
your plan looks reasonable, but most people confuse activity with effectiveness. sending 12 templated messages won’t help. prioritize 6 highly personalized outreaches and spend the saved time on real prep for the calls you get. recruiters notice follow-through: show up prepared, send a short thank-you with a specific follow-up, and keep a running tracker of who promised what. quality, then quantity.
i did 8 outreaches/week + 2 deep preps and that worked better than trying for 20. tracking replies in a sheet helped me stay sane. anyone else use a simple spreadsheet?
aligning weekly activities to the recruiting timeline is smart. structure your week with a focus on both outbound volume and depth: allocate two short blocks for outreach (personalized, 6–10 messages total), one block for preparatory research on scheduled chats, and one end-of-week review for notes and follow-ups. maintain a single source-of-truth tracker capturing contact, message variant, reply status, and agreed next step. during peak cycles, reduce general outreach volume in favor of high-quality follow-ups and interview preparation. consistency and documentation are what differentiate hopefuls from hires.
this is such a solid start! stick to the rhythms, adjust as you see results, and don’t forget tiny breaks. you’ll get there!
over two recruiting seasons i tracked outreach volume versus conversion and found diminishing returns beyond eight personalized outreaches per week. conversion to a coffee chat plateaued, while quality (deal-specific mentions + one direct ask) remained the strongest predictor of reply. recommend a weekly plan: set a weekly outreach cap (6–8 personalized messages), reserve two focused prep sessions for scheduled calls, and run a weekly retrospective to recalibrate message variants based on reply rates.