Cool Apps for Job-Seekers
Imagine how cool it would be if you had a tool at your fingertips that shows you instantly which of your current LinkedIn or Facebook contacts is currently at the Expo or Career Conference and how nice it would be if you had a tool that gently shows you when you are falling out of touch with someone.
I would like to introduce you to four tools out of my JobSeeker toolkit which you should use wisely and only when you need them. I don’t want to promote gadget time. That is far from what I do here in this blog. Use these apps when you need them and ensure to set up your settings in a manner that you are not constantly fiddling with your tools.
These four tools can help you to manage your digital life or collate information for your next job interview or client meeting. Oh, and if you think you have a better tool, let us know about it! I’ll test and re-post your gadget or app if it will help my Blog’s audience.
So here they are – My TOP 4 JobSeeker Apps
Brewster: Instant Rolodex Between Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, not to mention your email client, you likely have hundreds, if not thousands, of colleagues or customers you interact with. Brewster is a handy mobile app that pulls in contact info and other details from all of those platforms and creates eye-catching, in-depth profiles for each and every person. Using a “relationship algorithm”, the app automatically sorts contacts into “favourites”, “trending” and other lists, and even sends out gentle reminders when you’re falling out of touch with someone. Another benefit: Brewster is fully searchable – not just by name, but keyword, location and even photo.
Here on Biz Meet your LinkedIn contacts in real life – Virtual connections are great, but nothing beats a face-to-face meeting. With Here on Biz, you can instantly see which of your LinkedIn contacts (as well as other LinkedIn users) are physically nearby, segmented into visitors and locals. Request a connection and you can chat directly via the app, ideally setting up the kind of in-person encounter that gets results. Here on Biz proves especially useful at conferences when trying to make sense of a sea of new faces and maximize meeting time. The app is free to use, though it is somewhat limited by the fact that only LinkedIn users actually running the Here on Biz app show up in searches.
Evernote Junk drawer for your digital life – Another indispensable classic, cloud-based note taking app, Evernote is quite possibly the world’s most incredible junk drawer. You can throw all the random stuff of life in it: photos; voice memos; attachments; clips from the internet; typed and even handwritten notes; and it makes everything searchable, synced and accessible across all of your devices. The uses seem to be limitless.
- Record a sound bite at a conference on your phone and listen to it later on your work computer.
- Jot down some inspiration on your tablet on the bus, then finish the thought later on your home computer.
- Take a photo of a business card or handwritten Post-it note, then, courtesy of Evernote’s OCR handwriting recognition, search its contents at a later time.
The free mobile app lets you upload up to 60 megabytes per month. Upgrade to Premium ($5/month, $45/year) and you get a gigabyte of uploads, collaborative notebooks (which colleagues can log into and edit) and access to your notes even when offline.
Summly: If you have a short attention span, then Summly is simply the most intuitive and elegant tool to collect news and information on almost anything. Summly summarises content from hundreds of sources and delivers it back to you daily so you have fun reading clear, concise, short and relevant information without the noise and clutter of other information platforms.
