Graduate? Keen to work in the startup sector? In the next few months, with a shrinking economy and COVID-19 still part of our new normal, it could be the extra professional skills and abilities you’ve built up that could make you stand out to a prospective employer - ultimately making you more hireable!

Following on from our recent article on the top places for extra online learning, we’ve now selected a number of apps and platforms, well used in the startup and tech industry, that you can download, learn about and use - so that you and your CV become that extra little bit more special to tech employers on the hunt for entry and graduate-level applicants!

Social Media Management

We already know that millennials and generation-z are well able to use the internet, and social media platforms come second nature. But, in the world of work, the likelihood is that alongside using individual platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, ye-olde Facebook and so on, businesses make life easier by using a streamlined social media management platform to manage those platforms in one single place. The ability for businesses, tech startups or big corporations to manage and pre-arrange their brand message is key here.

Buffer and Hootsuite spring to mind as two social media management platforms you should familiarize yourself with.

Communications and marketing

Once a tech startup or business captures customers/users, they will need to effectively market to that audience.

Mailchimp is the most well-known marketing platform for small businesses and startups. Using their platform you can create signup forms, customizable forms and pop-ups, newsletters, customizable email automation and so on. Using these tools you are not only looking after your existing customer base but aiming to capture new potential customers as they visit and return to your app or website.

Alternatives to Mailchimp include Send in Blue and Constant Contact - to name just a couple.

Goodlooking graphics

Look no further than Canva. A great way to design your company graphics, posters, social media banners and the like without having to be a total art and technical whizz.

The Canva design tool has an integrated marketplace that offers both free and paid stock photography, fonts, illustrations, and thousands of templates, to make your life dead easy when needing to create company marketing material. Give the free version a go and you’ll be surprised how professional you can make things. PicMonkey is a well used alternative too. Of course if you’ve experience in using platforms such as Photoshop make sure that is on your CV too.

Customer and client management

Always wondered how a business captures customers, then records those customer updates and conversations? Perhaps you’ve always wondered how a tech startup manages the work they do with their growing client base?

Hubspot is a good software solution for managing these business requirements, as are the likes of Zendesk and Salesforce. Check them out, perhaps download the free trials or versions when available and watch their explainer videos on YouTube. This knowledge and the ability to understand the types of software you might be using working for a tech startup could be key - especially at a job interview when you can name-drop the homework you have done.

Alternatively, and we are assuming you have an up to date and optimized LinkedIn profile, don’t upgrade to a premium Linkedin account, but do check out their sales navigator tool as it also has some great functionality for doing business development.

Chat and events in this new normal

The chances are in this new normal that you have got well used to using video calls anyway. To be fair this is not new to gen-z or millennials anyway, but for more seasoned employees not used to perhaps a more remote job working future, we’ve added them anyway. Apart from Zoom, perhaps check out Skype, Google Hangouts, Whereby. For virtual events and webinars, apart from Zoom, the tech startup community have been using online events platform Hopin. Sign up to a couple of online events so that you can get used to using the platform.

Team communication

In this new remote-working norm, tools like Slack must have been absolutely rocking it. Slack brings all of your work software tools and essential communication into one place to make your workday easier and more manageable. Alternatives to this could include Microsoft Teams, Asana, Flock - again just to name a few. Most will have a free version or trial, so there is no reason why you can’t set up a group with your friends and see how it works.

Again, you might use these platforms already, but not to leave them out, check out platforms like DropBox or WeTransfer - they are mighty good at sending large documents and video files across teams or to external business clients.

Project management

And with employers currently onboarding new and existing employees to at least work from home part-time, alongside more effective workplace communication, lots of tech startups and teams will use platforms like Trello or Monday, both visual collaboration tools that offer teams a shared online space and overview on any team project. These are not new software tools in the tech industry but do expect them to grow in popularity, even if we go back to a full-time in-the-office work environment.

For more planning and idea generation, employers will use platforms like Miro and Lucidchart - tools that offer an online virtual collaborative space - a whiteboard of sorts! If there are free trials or versions available, why not give them a go and learn how to use them. Adding IT Skills like this to your CV could ensure an employer does that all-important second read of your CV.

Finally, whilst tech startups are all about collaboration, grouped cloud tools and effective flat team management, we all still need something that offers us that personal nudge and reminder! Wunderlist is gone - but Microsoft’s successor To Do is worth a look. This is where you can manage your own to-do list online, helping you keep an eye on your tasks and duties.

Now go forth and learn! Adding these software skills to your CV will certainly help make you stand out - especially in a jobs market that will become busier with CVs, but perhaps less so busy with available and exciting jobs.

~~

Who we are

TableCrowd Talent is a startup focused recruitment agency. If you’re looking for a role in a startup... tell us some more about your career plans.

Get in touch.