Finding a new job is never easy, whether you are a young graduate starting your career, long-term unemployed or just seeking new a challenge.
It used to be that you had to scour the newspapers, join an employment agency or rely on good old word of mouth to get wind of any new openings. The Internet, of course, changed all that.
However, it still makes sense to maximise every advantage that you’ve got and this is where your Nokia Lumia smartphone could make a difference.
There are many apps in the Windows Phone Store that are aimed at jobseekers – these range from finding jobs to helping you prepare for an interview.
Here’s my pick of the apps for your Nokia Lumia that could help you find a job. It’s no guarantee of success but what have you got to lose?
Job Compass
This is a US-centric job-searching app, so it’s particularly helpful if you are either a US resident or looking to relocate. You can search by keywords or location and add filters such as the latest adverts only.
Your searches can also be saved and specific jobs can be pinned to your start screen
Even if you’re not willing to relocate to the USA, this app has plenty to recommend itself. It uses official Department of Labor statistics to give you a wealth of information such as the top paid salaries and the most employed occupations.
You can type in any category of employment, such as plumber, and it will return the annual percentile salaries or hourly percentile wages. Endlessly fascinating.
Jobsite
Jobsite is like a British version of Job Compass. It claims to have a database of nearly 40,000 jobs and this app lets you search through all of them.
If you have previously registered through jobsite.co.uk and uploaded your CV, then you can even login and apply for jobs through this app.
One unique feature of the jobsite app is the interview tips, which are a series of videos presented by leading business figures. Again, it makes this app worth checking out even if you are not particularly looking for work in the UK.
Interview
There are several apps in the Windows Phone Store to help boost your interviewing skills but this is the one with the highest ratings.
As many of us get anxious for interviews it is perhaps a good idea to use an app like this that provides you with a checklist of things you need to do and a reminder of your key talking points.
This app includes some common questions that are asked at interviews and sound advice on how you can frame your answers.
While it’s not exactly a job-searching app, LinkedIn has become the social network for professionals seeking to make connections, share news and discover opportunities.
The thinking behind LinkedIn could very well be summarised as ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.’
We took a closer look at the LinkedIn app a few months ago.
Job Search
Although they were clearly lacking inspiration on the day they named it, this is the official Windows Phone app of indeed.com, which claims to be the number one jobs website in the world.
Certainly, their statistics make for impressive reading: 80m unique visitors every month making more than 1.5bn searches for jobs. They cover more than 50 countries and 26 languages.
This is a no thrills app and is lacking in any advanced or unique features but if they can harness those impressive statistics then there must be a good chance that you can find the right job for you.
getHired
This app is an aggregator of six different job search engines, so its major strength is that it will work in over 60 countries.
There are several options to pin favourite jobs and shortcuts to your start screen, and another useful feature is that each new search shows the number of new jobs that have been added since you last checked.
AlphaQuery – Jobs is another app that is very similar to getHired, so you may want to give both of them a try.
There are plenty more job apps in the Store that cater to specific countries, and even specific companies. Let us know of any that you’ve been using, especially if they’ve got some cool features and, most of all, good luck!