Looking for high-quality career advice and materials available online, but don’t have a large budget to work with? The Briefcase Coach has compiled a list of the best digital career resources you can access—right now—for every step of your job search. The best part: they’re free.
This post walks you through resources broken up in several sections, from professional development courses to resume checklists.
Take advantage of these opportunities to level-up your job search at zero cost!
Professional Development Courses:
One way to boost your resume or develop additional skills is through online learning.
LinkedIn Learning: LinkedIn has unlocked a free career “learning path” for job seekers. It includes videos on digital networking strategies, improving body language for video conference interviews, and building resilience.
One month of LinkedIn Learning is free for unemployed job seekers or anyone using their LinkedIn Premium trial month.
Ivy League Courses: Several Ivy League schools—Harvard, Yale, Penn, and others—offer their most popular courses online, for free. If you’ve always wanted to develop a transferrable skill, now’s a great time to check out their course lists.
15-Day LinkedIn Profile Challenge: This free course from Gala Jackson will be sure to take your LinkedIn profile from “blah” to “WOW!”
Pluralsight online courses, free during April: Take advantage of this offer before April runs out. Courses on Pluralsight include topics like UX, HTML, data science, and so much more.
Upskill with free marketing and SEO courses: Now is a great time to inventory your skill set and look for gaps. Many websites offer free certifications or online training. Some of our favorites include: HubSpot Academy for inbound marketing and sales enablement training, SEMRush Academy for SEO training, Google Developer training for learning how to build responsive web apps and programs and Academic Earth for many open source classes including an MIT competitive decision making course.
Resume Guides and Job Search PDFs:
Mastering the Informational Interview: Katrina Horner, founder of Along Came Katrina, posted a free guide to mastering informational interviews.
Job Interview Research Workbook: Mark Gavagan has made this impressive, step-by-step guide completely free to job searchers. In the midst of COVID-19 uncertainty, take advantage of this $25 value!
YouMap LLC: The YouMap career profile assessment book is currently free on Kindle Unlimited. The YouMap website has several free worksheets as well.
Advice from Career Coaches:
LinkedIn is a GOLDMINE for finding free resources from career coaches. Yes, people who make it their business to help you find a job are posting free advice online!
While checking out these options, keep in mind that LinkedIn live sessions are another great free career resource. Austin Belcak, Hannah Morgan, Andrew Seaman and Adam Posner are great examples of content creators using live sessions to answer job seeker questions.
Interview Preparation Slides: Nicole Jovicevic has easy-to-digest slides about interview preparation and remote job search during COVID-19. Find these posts here, here and on her LinkedIn page.
Resume Cheat Sheet: Rosie McCarthy’s Badass Careers cheat sheet is a great way to refresh your tired resume.
Freelance Assistance Flowchart: Alison Doyle, founder of CareerToolBelt.com, has this free graphic on how to apply for aid if you’re a freelancer out of work due to COVID-19:
Career Advice on YouTube:
Lots of career coaches post videos on YouTube in addition to creating content on LinkedIn. If videos are more your style, here are some of the best channels for job search advice right now:
Other Valuable Resources:
Live hiring updates: Candor.co is keeping a live list of companies that are still hiring during the coronavirus outbreak.
Job Search Master List: Vincent Phamvan created a master list with job search information. It’s a Google doc that is going to be updated regularly with employers with immediate hiring needs.
The Job Search Secret Weapon team (disclosure: Briefcase Coach is a part of this group) has taken their best resources and bundled them into kits with templates, scripts and videos. Right now, they’re offering a BOGO 75% off.
Ryan Rhoeten, the author of CareerKred, is giving away free digital copies of his bestselling book. Simply reply to his LinkedIn post with the words CareerKred.
With so many valuable resources online for zero cost, there’s no barrier to improving your career prospects in the month of April. You’ll be glad you started brushing up on your skills today!
For more updates on free career resources and best job search practices in 2020, follow the Briefcase Coach on LinkedIn.
Have free tools that we can add to this list? Email Sarah@Briefcasecoach.com
