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In a paper-based system, you have a tabbed binder or accordion file folder, with different sections corresponding to different areas of your search. You can have a section for each target company, as well as for your overall search. You can also have a separate sheet for each person related to each target company and log your activity with that person there.
A paper system has several positive traits:
- It is visual.
- It enables you to easily capture thoughts, ideas, and asides
- It is easily portable, so you don’t have to carry a laptop or find an Internet connection
A paper system does have some downsides:
- It is difficult to search. What if your research turns up a name for a senior executive at one of your dream companies, who happens to be an alumnus of your school? You don’t want to contact him right away because you want to do some other lower-level informational interviews first. Several weeks later, you know you want to go back to this contact, but what was his name? You would have to page through your whole paper system to find it.
- It is hard to back up.
- It consumes more space when you have a lot of leads.
- It lacks flexibility. If you arranged your filing by company, where do you put your general networking contacts or other people who may be relevant across companies?
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