Your career is a lifelong work in progress. From the time that you begin working after the completion of your schooling to the time you retire nearly fifty years hence, you’ll make a long string of decisions that will impact upon your standing and status in your job. Sometimes, all you’ll need is a smart piece of advice, or a certification in a specific skill, to be eligible to make progress in your career. With the online realm so packed with information and opportunity, this article recommends the top five resources to keep an eye out for to help build and further your career.

Resume and Cover Letter Advice

Top of the heap is advice concerning how you apply for jobs. This should be sought towards the beginning of your career in order for you to secure a solid and respectable first position. If you apply for jobs haphazardly and without direction and professionalism, you’ll likely find your job hunt takes longer than you expected.

There are thousands of blogs and websites that offer resume advice. Some are far more astute than others. The trick with your CV is to try and tailor it towards the industry that you’re attempting to enter. As such, the best way to go about finding resources for resume and cover letter advice is to either:

• Go through your higher education institution which will have intelligent and applicable advice
• Look at industry-specific pages that list tips based on what employers in your sector will be looking for
• Type into your search engine the name of your chosen career path followed by ‘CV advice’ to find tips from professionals, hiring executives and educators who are adept at getting talent into roles
• Post on a relevant forum asking for specific tips to help your resume stand out

Even with a tailored and smart resume, you’ll still need to attach a charming and impressive cover letter to most job applications. Ensure that this is to the highest quality by likewise researching astutely for tips and advice on how to compose the most elegant and persuasive cover letter possible.

Job Interview Advice

You might think that once you’re in a role, you’ll never have to interview again, but this is far from the case. In fact, if you’re able to maintain ambition, drive, and energy throughout your career, there may be no end to the interviews you conduct intermittently to either secure a promotion or a sideways move into a different company.

As such, finding a way to stay sharp and well-versed in interview techniques and the answers to tricky on-the-spot questions will help you always be at the top of your game should you ever be required to interview. This advice is everywhere on the internet but, yet again, some is more trustworthy than others. Look out for:

• Advice hosted on top recruitment company blogs, written to help job seekers and promotion hunters
• Advice ‘from the horse’s mouth’ – from interviewers who give tips on how to come across given their vast experience of what works and what doesn’t
• Tips from CEOs and chief executives, and others who’ve made the long climb to the top through a litany of different successful interviews

Note down the top advice that you feel you can act on, and ensure that you practice answers with a friend, colleague – or even in front of a mirror – before you head into an interview.

Job Sites

It’s difficult to imagine a world in which you have to rely on the local newspaper and signs in shop fronts to find a job. That’s because the internet has proven such an immensely important tool for job-hunting professionals that you’ll not have to leave the comfort of your couch to find some of the most exciting job opportunities across the world.

Generally speaking, some job sites are regarded as better than others. Some mostly advertise general job postings, while others are industry-specific or tailorable to your skill set. The trick with your online job hunt is to avoid time-wasting trawling: you want to be presented with all the jobs you’d apply for in your area – and thus you want a job site that offers responses and advertisements tailored to you.

Online Courses

Taking a qualification online is a wonderful way of getting a new skill under your belt that’ll help in your future career. More and more impressive courses are being hosted online in the modern era, including both free and paid-for certificates of merit. Some are hosted by universities and colleges, and others by educational institutions that cater to those searching for vocational knowledge and wisdom.

It’s not difficult to find specific resources online. For example, find a lean manufacturing online course if you’re looking to supplement your pre-existing knowledge of manufacturing with a new set of skills and know-how. Use language-learning apps to increase your ability to communicate across borders, or take YouTube tutorials in working methods to increase your efficiency in whichever role you’re working in.

Software

The final resource that can be of immense usefulness on your path to the top is software to download to your computer or laptop. Whether that takes the form of a useful time-keeping calendar app or an organizational flow chart, there’s so much out there on the market – much for free – to help you work smarter, faster and more thoroughly.

If you’re looking to keep tabs on multiple projects, why not check out the Gantt charts available online that help visualize all your tasks. If you want to present data, there are a host of exciting and intuitive to use software programs that’ll help you squeeze the very best visualizations from your data. And if you’re looking to design high-quality marketing material, you can either use online templates or download the Abode suite of software in order to keep everything you produce looking impressive and professional.

Software is the tool with which we further our careers and plan our futures – it’s something you should always be on the lookout for in order to build a more efficient and successful working life.

With the above five resources, you’ll be able to supplement your skills, perform better in job hunts, and build more professional and efficient working habits that’ll all help you secure an outstanding and impressive career.