What if you land your dream job, and you’re not ready for it?
Once you get the job, you’re going to be learning a LOT during that first month. And the less your prospective employer has to teach you, the more appealing you’ll be as a hire, and the more time you’ll have to learn other things!
With that in mind, allow us to introduce career coach Lauren Berger. Lauren’s the founder of Intern Queen, where she connects tons of young people with internships and dream jobs every day, and she asked recent hires the same question:
What are the things you wish you knew before you got your job?
Responses came back in the form of online tools, and she found a lot of overlap in their answers, compiled below. In some cases, these were nice-to-haves; in others, new bosses often expected new hires to already know them. In her online class, Preparing for Your Job Search, Lauren recommends that anyone on the job hunt should have a basic understanding of these online tools. All of these sites let you get started by setting up a free user account!
Spend a few minutes on each of these sites, and you’ll be ready to knock ‘em dead! You can thank us later.
1.Dropbox: The flash drive’s greatest nemesis; your best friend. Dropbox syncs all your files across your devices and to the Dropbox website, so you never have to stress about leaving your flash drive at home, or worry about whether you’re working on the most current version of a file. Lots of companies use Dropbox as a company-wide file sharing system. To use it to its full potential, download it to any device you want to use it on.
2. Bitly: At its most basic, Bitly is a URL shortener. Companies use Bitly to generate cleaner, shorter, more shareable links, and to use it as such, you don’t even need an account! Just go to the site, paste in a link and have it automatically shortened so that it’s easier to copy, paste and share. With an account, you can save and track clicks to all your links. Same but different: Goo.gl and TinyURL.com
3. HootSuite: Despite appearances, companies like Brit + Co and POPSUGAR aren’t actually live-tweeting from the break of dawn until bedtime. Most rely on social media planners like Hootsuite to schedule posts in advance. This one’s a huge time saver and an insightful analytics tool, and knowing how to use it says you’ve got efficient workflow on lockdown.
4. BaseCamp / Trello: Collaboration is one of Lauren’s “Top 5 Skills You Need to Hone Before Landing the Job,” and if you’re a company with more than one employee, this is where sh*t gets done. When you have to work with multiple people across multiple departments to get a job done, things get messy. There’s a lot of moving parts. Project management systems like BaseCamp and Trello rally everyone together and keep things organized.
For the other four “Top Skills You Need to Hone Before Landing the Job,” take Lauren’s class on Preparing for Your Job Search.
5. Google Analytics: GA lets you pull back the curtain of your website to look at all the fun data on how your pages are performing. It’ll give you a better picture of how people are experiencing your site, and it’ll change the way you web browse forever. If you don’t have a website of your own, ask a friend who has one if you can use theirs in exchange for some free analytics insights.
6. Evite / Eventbrite: If you’ve bought concert tickets in the last five years, chances are you’ve encountered Evite or Eventbrite. When you need to organize or attend an event, these event planning sites manage all the logistics: sending invitations, planning, hosting, marketing and selling tickets.
To learn more about becoming the best candidate for your dream job, check out Lauren’s classes, Preparing for Your Job Search and Nailing Your Job Interview, available for purchase in the B+C Classroom!
Questions? Reach out to Lauren @internqueen on any social network.
