How to Create a 30-60-90 Day Plan to Land Your Next Job
Table of Contents
First Step: Gather Information
What is a 30-60-90 Day Plan?
A 30-60-90 Day Plan usually describes your intended course of action during the first 30, 60 and 90 days of your new job. A manager could ask you to write one when you start a new job or you could be proactive and write one yourself and discuss it with your manager. It helps structure the first few months in a new job and prioritize tasks.
The other scenario you can use a 30-60-90 Day Plan for is when interviewing for a new job. It is the same plan, but lays out theoretically what you would do in the first few months if you got the job you are interviewing for. It can be a great deliverable to hand in during the interview process, to show you can think about the role in a strategic way, prioritize your time and, of course, set you apart from other people who might be interviewing for the same role.In this blog post, we are going to talk more about this scenario.
First Step: Gather Information
The interview process
Personally, I would only start thinking about creating a 30-60-90 Day Plan once you have made it to the interview process. The advantage of this is that you have made it past the first “barrier” and you can use the interview process to gather more information about the position which you can then put into your plan.
First, read the job description thoroughly and write down any questions you might have. During the interview process, ask any open questions you might have about the position or the company. For creating your plan, it is important to understand why the role exists and why the company is hiring someone for this particular role. Here are a few questions you can ask to find out more about the role and what the expectations are:
Why specifically am I interviewing with you?
What is necessary for me to be successful in this position? How can I make an impact?
How could we enhance the company?
The job description
The job description can give you valuable insights into your future daily tasks and responsibilities. Write down anything from the job description that might be important for creating your plan. For example, are they looking for someone with creative and analytical skills? Make sure you give an example for each one when creating your plan.
Your own research
Do as much research as you can on the company. Are there any articles where they talk about their mission, their future goals, what will come next for the company? For example, for a marketing role, check the company’s social media - what would you do differently, do you have any ideas? This might be easier to find out for some roles than others, but most of the time you can find out something that will help you with creating your plan.
Create the 30-60-90 Day Plan
Finally: You can start creating your plan! Make sure you include the most important things that you found out in the interview process, in your research and from the job description.
For more creative roles, I like using Canva to create the plan and put everything into slides. I also like using the company’s colors, fonts and logo on my slides. However, for other roles it might be better to create a document which is more simple or detailed. Whatever format you choose is up to you, but make sure it suits the role you are applying for. Don’t overload your plan with information: Make sure it’s structured and the information is on point.
It’s a good idea to focus on what you specifically can bring to the role: How do you bring your personal experience and skills to your new job? What ideas do you have? How would you measure success? An important note here: While it is great to include your ideas, don’t make them too specific. Keep in mind that you might not be chosen for the role in the end so you do not want to give away your best ideas.
What to include in a 30-60-90 Day Plan:
a timeframe
the actions you are going to take
goals
metrics
Present the Plan
I prefer presenting the plan during the final stages of the interview process instead of just sending it via email at the end of the interview process and before the decision is made. So make sure to clarify the timeframe for the interview process: If you are interviewing with different members of the team first and with the manager at last, you could present your plan after the initial interviews during your final interview with the manager. Are all of your interviews on the same day? Write your plan before you go into the interviews and, while presenting, add certain things you just found out in the interview process.
Of course, if there is no time to present during the interviews or if you finish it after all interviews have taken place, but before the final decision is made, you can always send it in an email afterwards. You could also record a short video of yourself explaining the plan and send a link to that. Loom is a great tool for that.
Here are the sources I used to write this article. They include inspiration and great examples of 30-60-90 Day Plans: