Articles

How to organize your job search using Google drive and CutePDF

by Duda Trickovic, Head Editor, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick

How to organize your job search using Google drive and CutePDF

dudat1There are two things I use for organizing my job search. One is Google drive and the other is Cute PDF.

I am already using gmail for my mail. With your g-mail account you have almost unlimited space available for your e-mail. When I started using gmail back in 2005 gmail was offering 1GB of space, today it is 10.1GB and growing. That practically means that with gmail you can keep all of yours gmail messages for life. With your G-mail account you also have a Google drive.


Google Drive

Googledrive  offers you 5GB of space, on a cloud to keep your files, for free (or you can upgrade to more space for a reasonable fee). As a part of Google drive you get a basic word, spreadsheet, presentation, forms and drawings editor. All this operates on a cloud, meaning that on your computer you don’t need any software but a web browser. With your files on the cloud, you can access them from any computer (or smart mobile device) in the world. Google drive also offers app for PC/Mac. Once installed on your laptop, desktop, mobile device, tablet (or any other mobile device) Google drive automatically synchronizes whenever you are connected to the internet. From now on you will always have only one version of your file, regardless of the device you are using to access your documents.

With Google drive app you will have your files on the cloud, and same files on any of your devices. No more confusion with different versions of your resume. Google drive is very easy and convenient to use, and it is free. Just keep in mind that security and privacy of Google drive on the cloud is not the same as security of your own computer.

Now back to how to use a Google drive to organize a job search.

1.  Make a separate folder for every job posting you apply to. I usually name folder by the Company name – job title – deadline to apply. Those folders you can group together based on the date, or type of job or something else.

2. Within each folder keep a copy of everything you sent when applying for a job. Resume and cover letter tailored for that particular job posting. List of references, thank you notes, and anything else specifically used for that particular job application.

3. After the interview, I make one document containing names and titles of persons who interviewed me. I would also write some of the unusual interview questions, and what answers I gave.

4. Job posting itself. Job posting are available on the web page for the limited time. One of the ways to save job posting is to use a Cute PDF to print a PDF.


CutePDF

CutePDF is a free PDF writer. When installed it will show in your print menu as another printer. This allows you to print from any application (with print option). In case of a job posting you will just print a web page in to a PDF. This PDF will preserve everything appearing on the web page at the time you printed your PDF. Having a PDF of the job posting saves you from printing job postings on paper, and it makes it easier to find when needed. When preparing for an interview I always start by reading the job posting again. This helps me answering interview question by focusing on my skills and experiences relevant to particular position.

 

Naomi House

Naomi House, MLIS, is the founder and publisher of the popular webzine and jobs list INALJ.com (formerly I Need a Library Job) and former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of T160K.org, a crowdfunding platform focused on African patrimony, heritage and cultural projects. INALJ was founded in October 2010 with the assistance of her fellow Rutgers classmate, Elizabeth Leonard. Its social media presence has grown to include Facebook (retired in 2016), Twitter and a LinkedIn group, in addition to the interviews, articles and jobs found on INALJ. INALJ has had over 21 Million page hits and helped many, many thousands of librarians find employment! Through grassroots marketing, word of mouth and a real focus on exploring unconventional resources for job leads, INALJ grew from a subscription base of 20 friends to a website with over 500,000 visits in one month. Naomi believes that well-sourced quantity is quality in this narrow job market and INALJ reflects this with many new jobs published daily. She has also written for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 LexisNexis Government Info Pro and many other publications in the past decade. She presents whenever she can, including serving on three panels at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Las Vegas; as breakout presenter at OCLC EMEA in Cape Town, South Africa; as a keynote speaker at the Virginia Library Association annual meeting; at the National Press Club in Washington DC; McGill University in Montreal, Canada; the University of the Emirates, Dubai, MLIS program and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Naomi was a Reference, Marketing and Acquisitions Librarian for a contractor at a federal library outside Washington, DC, and has been living and working in Budapest, Hungary and Western New York State. She spent years running her husband’s moving labor website, fixed and sold old houses and assisted her husband cooking delicious Pakistani food. She is preparing to re-enter the workforce and is job hunting. Her husband is now the co-editor of INALJ, a true support!  She has heard of spare time but hasn’t encountered it lately. She pronounces INALJ as eye-na-elle-jay. 

Tags: