5 Best Resources to Kick-start your Career

When it comes to our career, plethora of thoughts started running over our mind. Every person has some plans and dreams related to his career. Specifically when we are going to complete our education, a huge need to figure out our passion arises. Everyone tries to find the best opportunity as per his qualification, knowledge and skills. And it is really important for you to think early about some strategies that can kick-start your career. In this article, I am going to discuss some resources that will help both students and job seekers to build their career in right direction.

LinkedIn

The largest professional social networking site, LinkedIn has 645+ million users in more than 200 countries worldwide. It is free to become a member and post a summary of your qualification, skills and work experience. Recruiters and HR managers are now using LinkedIn more than any other platform to post their job requirements and connect with candidates.

Moreover, LinkedIn is constantly improving its UI and features to provide a great user friendly experience. You can now showcase your skills and projects through a video or PDF to get more visibility. It has also an online learning platform with the name of LinkedIn Learning (Previously known as Lynda) that helps you to develop your skills with more than 9,000 courses and personalized recommendations. An avenue of personal branding, LinkedIn is a great venue for professionals to build network and widen their professional circle.

Indeed

Indeed is the most popular Google-like search engine for jobs on the web. Being the most efficient sites for job listings Indeed features an advanced search function that enables users to drill down on a location, keywords and salary range. By simply posting a resume and specifying what kind of jobs you are looking for, candidates can apply with one click.

Naukri.com is also a popular job portal operating in India and Middle East. If you are an Indian citizen, then you can also build your profile and upload resume on both Indeed and Naukri. Job seekers will also get email alerts on both of these sites if new job postings are added that match their search criteria. They also offer number of career resources and information on employment trends to assist with your job hunt. There is a huge possibility to find better opportunity and kick-start your career by applying directly through these sites.

edX/Coursera

Most of us might be not aware of the beauty of this information age that it offers. Yes, I am talking the huge amount of information available on internet for free. Coursera and edX are such online educational platform providing huge number of university level courses to upgrade your skills. Both of these sites provide the most effective learning opportunities across business, creative or technology topic from the world’s best universities. You can even get the recognition of your skills by paying a nominal amount and going through an online certification exam.

The skills that got you to where you are today are not the skills to prepare you for tomorrow. So, it is always necessary to continuously develop your knowledge and skills in order to kick-start your career.

Internships/Internshala

Internship is also a very great option to develop your skills and acquire some industrial experience before entering into a corporate world. It will also help you figure out your real strengths while working in the real corporate environment. It allows you to do an experiment in a career that interests you. By going this way, you can discover your passion before you fully enter the workforce.

To get an internship, you should create and grow your digital identity using sites like internships.com, internshala.com and most of the platforms mentioned throughout this article. Setting up your profile is both simple and free at all of these websites. You can even take this free 15-minute career test by Assessment.com to discover your strengths and find your true calling. This will really help you to discover and kick-start your career as per your interest and skill set.

Glassdoor & AmbitionBox

Just after uploading resume and creating your profile on these sites, you need to do some R&D on the companies where you want to build your career. By doing so, you can save yourself from falling into the trap of any job scam. To research a company before you apply or to prepare for a job interview, try using resources like AmbitionBox and glassdoor.com for checking company reviews & ratings. It is a great way to read true stories about people who have already gone through this whole process. This approach will let you know the actual insights of an organization including its work environment, reviews by other applicants, salary breakup, benefits and much more.

Interviews for tech jobs are more conceptual and subjective, so you can once go through the sites like leetcode, geeksforgeeks, and carrercup.com to prepare yourself for technical questions. And if you have still not created your resume, then you can also use the platforms like zety, canva, and visualcv.com to quickly build an eye-catching resume and kick-start your career.

We are living in an age where our practical skills and a fruitful career strategy matter more than our university degree. There are so many sites available for learning and guidance apart from these resources mentioned here. Though, I have carefully curated all the best possible resources available online but you can still explore from yourself. Whether you know exactly what career you want to pursue or you aren’t sure yet, these resources are available to help point you in the right direction.