Tech Tools to Empower a Successful Job Search
Are you looking for a job? First impressions matter; you’ll want to put your best foot forward. Today’s apps, tech tools, and AI-powered technology can be an intelligent way to get the job done! Consider the edge you might get using resources like these.
Grammar Help
No matter who you are, it’s helpful to have a tool like Grammarly to assist you with spelling, grammar, and punctuation in your written communication. Grammarly’s desktop app for Windows and Mac can help you avoid email, word-processing apps, and browser content errors. You can also opt for browser and keyboard extensions that cover your messaging from Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Google Docs, and your phone. They also have a version for iPad. The free version even has a tone detector to nail your intended impression; it helps you finesse the language to reflect how you desire to come across.
Online Resume Builders
While Zety won’t write your resume for you, Zety is a tool to help you produce a sharp resume optimized for applicant tracking systems (ATS), and it leverages the benefits of AI to edit and polish your content. There’s also a CV option for roles where the Curriculum Vitae is the preferred standard.
Other popular resume builders include kickresume, VisualCV, ResumeGenius, Resume.com, Resume.io, and myPerfectresume.com.
Cover Letters
Rezi is an AI Cover Letter Builder that makes it easy to customize letters for each application. It also creates resumes aligned with targeted job descriptions. The platform includes 255 letter samples that are written to align with ATS.
Digital Portfolio Websites
Depending on the work you do, you might want to consider a digital portfolio. It’s certainly a must for graphic designers, interior designers, animators, video editors, writers, artists, photographers, and others doing creative visual work.
- Adobe Portfolio is free with Creative Cloud and includes the hosting of unlimited pages.
- Creatives tout Wix for its easy-to-use, pre-designed templates for showcasing creative work.
- Clippings. me is an excellent site for journalists, bloggers, and writers who weren’t born with a designer bone. You can easily choose a background photo and upload PDFs, link to online articles, or embed audio or video files. The site includes a way for visitors to get in touch.
- Vimeo video creators to showcase a collection of videos without building a separate website. Videos can be shared publicly or privately with password protection.
- Photographers have many options; strong choices include Squarespace, SmugMug, and PhotoShelter.
Email Finder
Slik Prospector is a data finder app that can search for emails and other data sourced from LinkedIn profiles. You save searches and compile data relevant to your target area. This can be very helpful if you want to identify people in roles managing teams or departments where your skills fit in. This tool supports a direct outreach strategy, and you should consider LinkedIn Premium to connect with people outside your immediate network.
Interview Rehearsal Tools
If your interview skills are rusty, it makes sense to practice and prepare. That sounds easy, but your inner circle of friends and family might not be your best choice to ask for feedback about how you answered questions or even to anticipate the kinds of questions you might be asked for the role you’re going after. Here’s a selection of free interview practice tools to try:
- Google Interview Questions If you are interested in working for Google, or a similar environment, Google provides some “interview warm-up” questions and insights on your answers.
- LinkedIn offers Interview Preparation available in two ways:
- You can either Choose a 1st-degree connection with whom you’d like to review your practice responses and message them for feedback, or
- Get instant AI-powered feedback after recording a video response. This feature is accessible from the Jobs page immediately after you apply for a job from LinkedIn or the Jobs Tracker dashboard when you view jobs you’ve applied for. This is a free feature, but Premium subscribers get exclusive expert sample answers.
- Free Virtual Interview Preparation This is a pro-bono interview prep service led by professionals in different industries and graduate students. You can sign up for a free mock interview if you’re a student or make under $40,000 a year, and you’ll get live feedback on your interviewing skills.
- Candorful: Military Transitioning Candorful offers free interview coaching to veterans, transitioning military personnel, and military spouses. Get started by scheduling a call to set up a personalized coaching plan.
- Glassdoor. Glassdoor doesn’t offer rehearsal feedback, but it’s a helpful resource about what kinds of questions employers may ask. It has a handy search tool for interview questions.
With all the tech tools out there, it’s easy to find ways to help highlight your best assets. Embrace technology in your job search and learn how to present your best self during the interview process.