This is a guest post from Brian Horvath.
Brian is the Crossroads Career Tampa, St. Pete and Clearwater Metro Area Leader. Brian is an expert speaker, consultant, and coach who helps people know, live and love the purpose for their career and finances. You can learn more about Brian and his offerings at brianhorvath.com.

We all go through a career transition. 

It may not look or feel the same for all of us; however, one thing is true:

You will use technology during the time of transition, no matter if you are a technology novice or know-it-all. 

In this post, I share three phone apps and computer programs. In my personal experience, these technologies helped me maximize the time in my search and the learnings that came with it. I believe you will find the same.

By the way, these are not in order of importance. All have free availability; however, some may require a small investment.

Let’s do this!

Voice Memo

iOS/Android/WatchOS

The Voice Memo app may seem like a simple suggestion; however, one so simple is often overlooked. Depending on your experience (psst…your age. <smile>), you may have seen the old mini-cassette voice recorders. I used to use them back-in-the-day, too, but I would forget about it, leave it at home, and one time or another lose the darn thing altogether.

With today’s smartphones, we have this simple yet powerful app at our fingertips, and we don’t have to worry about finding the mini cassettes. Great, but what how do I use it? At a career crossroads, there are many thoughts, feelings, experiences that are happening. Some new, some not, and many times they all converge at once. 

How do you process the thoughts, feelings, experiences that come your way?

Do you pray, tell a friend or family member, or punch a hole in the wall (literally or figuratively)? These thoughts, emotions, and experiences are real. They should not be dismissed or buried but managed. No one will argue that career transition can be tough; however, its blow can be softened with journaling. The wins, learnings, losses, growing pains, frustrations, and fears all have a purpose. They are building your character and, when utilized, will help others (including your future self).

Ok, makes sense, you say.

What do I do with that, you ask?

Well, you could buy a beautiful (feminine) or burly (masculine) journal and never use it, like so many of us have done. Or, you can start (and maybe even stick with) the voice memo app on your phone. The voice memo app has been very helpful to me through the different seasons of my life. Heck, the voice memo helped me capture thoughts to write this blog post!

You can use the one with your phone or use the voice recorder program on your Windows or Mac-based computer. If you like to organize, you can even add them to a “Job Search” notebook in the next app, Evernote, right from your device.

Evernote

Windows/Mac
iOS/Android/WatchOS

Evernote is an app designed for notetaking, organizing, task management, and archiving. This freemium app, meaning free-to-a-point, has been a massive help to me and the millions that use it daily. While its utilities are numerous, I mainly use it to take notes.

On-the-go or at-home
Evernote is a cross-platform productivity dream. No matter where you are, you can capture ideas, goals, photos, to-do checklists, and even PDFs. These can be accessed privately or publicly. Like so many applications out there, it uses “the cloud,” however, Evernote has a way of making it clean, easy, and fun to use. You won’t dread opening the app no matter if it’s on a Windows, Mac, Android, or iOS device.

Organizing with notebooks and tags
Imagine having a card catalog at your fingertips without having to know the Dewey Decimal system? That is a way to describe Evernote’s organization’s functionality. Evernote is kind-of-like a large filing cabinet. In the filing cabinet are folders with notebooks in them. In the EN folder or notebook, you keep your documents, receipts, articles, keepsakes, and so forth.

Search functions
Evernote’s search is so smart that it makes me wonder if this is a distant relative of the Hal9000 (1968 Space Odyssey reference). 

Don’t get freaked out; I’m kidding!

But seriously, the search functions within Evernote are fantastic because it allows the entire note to be scanned for keywords that you type in the search box. Depending on your access level, it can even scan complete pdf documents that you have uploaded to a notebook. It’s helped me over the years, pull data, important stuff, when I needed it most.

Here is a practical example of how to use Evernote:

• Create a Notebook and call it “Job Search”
• Within it, you can create tags that apply to your Job Search. 
• These tags could be things like “resumes,” “networking,” “articles,” “interviews,” and even “receipts” for your job search write-offs!
• When you gather or need the information, you can save it to the notebook called “Job Search” and tag it appropriately. 

So, let’s say that I just left a networking event and want to download the things I learned, people I met, and follow-up to make. Grab your phone and do the brain dump.

Bible App

Windows/Mac
iOS/Android/WatchOS
Bible.com

We all need a light to guide us in our search. The Bible app is a torch, flashlight, and candelabra all-in-one! 

The Bible app will help you and your family immensely in times of transition, career, and otherwise. Some of the headliner features include the ability to choose from more than 1,200 Bible versions in over 900 languages on your computer, phone, or tablet — with many available as audio Bibles. It is 100% free, with no advertising and no in-app purchases. It’s been installed on over 400 million unique devices. You can use it at home, on-the-go, in a church service, or in the lobby waiting to be called for your interview. It provides the opportunity for us to highlight or bookmark our favorite verses, create shareable verse Images, and attach public or private Notes to Bible passages.

Devotions
In our fast-paced society, going without God is like going without coffee (if you are a high-volume consumer like myself). However, no more, can I wish I had my bible with me be an excuse. Voila! — the Bible app helps you always have the “manual for life” with you for the devotion you wanted to do at your lunch hour. One of my favorites and impactful devotionals is Jesus Calling. You can find it here.

Prayers
Prayers are a new feature of the app and have been long-awaited. The power of prayer can be a focus for you and those you pray for with this in-app feature. It also allows the ability to have your prayer shared. I am not sure about you, but I will take some exponential prayer power through the sharing of my prayers. I can also have prayers shared with me that serve as a reminder that I am not alone, and I do have the opportunity to pray with and for others.

I would love to pray for you. You can send me a message within the app by searching “Brian Horvath”.

Connecting in a Bible Study
No matter the season of life and its accompanying busyness, connecting with friends, family, and online communities in God’s word is enormous. There are thousands of bible studies available on the app. The power they bring to us as individuals is excellent, yet, with others joining in, it becomes priceless. Growing in the word of God is not easy. The world is challenging and brings about challenges daily. God created us, His masterpieces, to remain in community. The Bible app helps with that. No matter if you are in an online or an in-person Bible study, the Bible app guides participants together through the same study.

Download the app on the App Store or Google Play or at bible.com

Well, that’s it.

Three apps that I believe will help you not just in a career crossroads, but throughout your entire career journey.

I would love to hear from you on how you have benefitted from the apps. Please send me an email at brian@brianhorvath.com.

Bonus Sneak Peak

Crossroads Career exists to help people through crossroads in their careers. At the time of this blog post, Crossroads Career is in design for our first-ever smartphone App. I just want to tease you all a little bit about what’s to come. See the sample screenshot.

Oh, and btw, you are receiving this email because you are on our list. When the app is released, you will be the first to know about it!

Stay tuned! 🙂

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