Looking for a job is not complicated, it’s just tedious. The more jobs you apply to, the better your chances of getting one. But this also means that you have more steps to consider and more deadlines to track. You can take the stress out of the job search and avoid mistakes by using some of these applications.
Use Google Calendar
Google’s free calendar is a great simple way to stay organized. If you don’t already have a calendar on your phone, use this tool. Google Calendar comes with your Google Gmail account. These accounts are free, and you most likely already have one via your school.Here are some ways to stay organized:
- Enter deadlines. Write down dates when you need to submit applications or sign up for campus interviews. Set yourself at least a day’s reminder to that you get a notification with enough notice so you can prepare for the specific deadline. You don’t want to miss out on an opportunity because you forgot about the application date.
- Set goals. Are you putting off writing your résumé? Enter a date and time when you want to start working on it. Carve out one to two hours on your calendar and force yourself to start working on your résumé and cover letter.
- Create follow-up reminders. When you apply for jobs or have interviews, set future follow-up reminders for yourself, a week or two ahead of when you want to follow up with a recruiter to ask about the status of your application.
Save time and lower your stress. Enter interviews dates on your calendar along with the address of where they’ll be held and the name of your point of contact. You don’t want to be scrambling the day of the interview to figure out where to go.
Take notes with Evernote
Take notes. Whether it’s on a sheet of paper, on a notepad, or on a text file on your laptop, it’s important to write down what you learn at information sessions, interviews, and career fairs. Try a tool called Evernote. The basic version is free, but you can pay a premium to get extra storage and to access your notes from more than two devices. With Evernote you can write ideas down on your phone and then access them on your laptop and vice versa.Having a tool where you can write things down quickly and reference them later is very helpful.
Use Google Sheets
Spreadsheets are great to make lists of items you want to compare — for example, job offers! Try Google Sheets because you can save your work online and access it from anywhere.Here are some examples of how you can use Google Sheets:
- Write a list of jobs to which you want to apply with notes and deadlines next to each one.
- Create a spreadsheet of job offers along with the components of the offer next to each so you can more easily compare and contrast them.
- Make a sheet of the cities you would consider moving to along with the cost of rent and food for each, so you can calculate your true cost of living once you get offers.
Visit the Cheat Sheet to get ideas of how to create a comparison of job offers and how to track your applications.
