Find your Dream Job

Top Tips for Leveraging Your Smartphone for Your Job Search

We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners.

Job search is often driven by “time is of the essence” (those who apply later in the process will not get an interview). For every job opening, there are potentially thousands of individuals who are qualified. While the primary requirement is that you are a good fit for the job, it is only those qualified individuals who get their resume and application submitted within the first 100 responses that tend to get an interview (and ultimately, someone from this group will get the job).  Knowledge is power and timing is everything. Waiting until you get home from work (or whatever activity is keeping you away from your computer) will most likely keep you from getting the job.

It is only those qualified individuals who get their resume and application submitted within the first 100 responses that tend to get an interview (and ultimately, someone of this group will get the job)Click To Tweet

So what can you do to be prepared to send your resume from anywhere? Your Smartphone is the answer. Give yourself the tools to send your resume “on the fly” from your Smartphone.

Best Resources
CareerAlley Resume Review Partners

If you're looking for help in reviewing and updating your resume, we've created a list of our resume review and resume writing partners. Many will provide a free review of your resume.

Get Your Resume Review
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

This article assumes you have the basics: a smartphone and a WiFi or cellular connection.

How to Access Your Resume and cover letter from Anywhere:

You will need a cloud storage account where you can save your documents. The good news is that there are quite a few free services (with limited storage unless you want to pay a fee) you can use to do this. Most of them will work across your various devices (desktop, smartphone, and tablet).  We’ve listed a few of the services below (there are plenty more I’ve not listed). There are a lot of similarities across these applications, so your decision about which one to use should be based on what works for you.  Here goes.

Dropbox

One of the best-known cloud storage services (and one of the first to offer this service), Dropbox works across almost any operating system (smartphone and desktop). Setting up an account is easy, and once you’ve signed up, and loaded the app on your smartphone and desktop, the rest is easy.  On your desktop, Dropbox will look like another drive and it is simply a matter of saving or copying your documents to a Dropbox folder in your account.  Dropbox is available for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. From your smartphone, you can open your documents from within Dropbox or a number of editing apps (like Pages, Quickoffice, Evernote, and more). Depending on your smartphone, you can also email your resume from within the app.

Dropbox In 30 Minutes: The beginner’s guide to Dropbox
$2.99

Explains everything from basic Dropbox installation steps to best practices for Dropbox sharing.

Buy on Amazon
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
03/29/2024 01:56 am GMT

Google Drive

You will need a Google account to use Google Drive (no different than any of the other services) and, like Dropbox and the others mentioned below, Google Drive will work across most desktop and smartphone operating systems. One advantage to Google Drive is that any documents you edited and saved using Google Docs are now saved in Google Drive. If you already use Gmail or other Google services your account will be integrated. It is not as easy to email a document from within Google Drive as compared to Dropbox, but you can also open your documents in many of the popular editing apps (depending on your smartphone operating system) as well as create a new document.

Google Drive & Docs In 30 Minutes
$13.99

Do you have 30 minutes to spare? It's all you'll need to get up to speed with Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, the free online productivity suite and Microsoft Office alternative.

Buy on Amazon
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
03/29/2024 03:36 am GMT

Box

The basic functionality in Box is similar to Dropbox. You will be able to open a doc in a selection of applications on your smartphone or email the doc as well. You can use a web interface on your desktop to upload existing docs or to create new docs. Box starts you out with a higher free storage limit. You can create new documents in Word, Google Docs, Excel plus a few more on the web interface, although I did not see a way to edit docs on your smartphone from within the app (more on that in Part 2).

Evernote

Evernote is so much more than a cloud storage app.  It is a way to capture and organize just about any piece of information.  Evernote Basic is free, however, if you want to be able to access documents without a cellular or wifi connection you will need to pay the annual fee. If you can get by with just accessing stuff when you have connectivity, the free version works just fine. Similar to the other options above, you can open and edit your documents in a variety of applications. You can also email your document from within the app and, as the other options, there is a web interface, desktop version, and smartphone version. While the other apps are primarily focused on cloud storage/access, Evernote extends well beyond that functionality and supports a variety of apps and uses.

Other Choices

There is (what seems like) an endless list of similar services. You can also take a look at OneDrive  (a Microsoft product).

Job Search: Fundamentals of Effective Job Hunting, Resumes, and Interviews
Buy from Amazon.com
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.



What's next?

home popular resources subscribe search

You cannot copy content of this page