These days people are searching for jobs for lots of reasons. Perhaps they are one of the victims of layoffs or furloughs or cutbacks. Or maybe they love the work-from-home life, but their employer is bringing people back to the office.

Whatever the reason you might be looking around, we have tech help to make things easier.

I’m pretty much unhireable after all these years as a quirky speaker. But because I’m a writer, I’m often asked to help people with their resumes. Instead, I’m sending them to these resources. Most give you a taste of the capabilities for free, then ask for a reasonable fee to upgrade your results.

Resume Worded:
Online Resume Reviewer and Writing Service

I uploaded my old resume to the AI-powered review feature at Resume Worded. I scored a 20/100. Yeah. Unhireable. But I loved this service. Within about 30 seconds, the site had analyzed my resume for all kinds of features that recruiters seek, such as good bullet points, strong verbs and quantified achievements. Many of the recommendations to improve are free, but the specific feedback is behind a paywall that starts at $26 a month.

Zety:
Online Resume Creator with Wizard Interface

Resume Worded also helps you create a new resume and improve your LinkedIn presence. I’m fond of the wizard-type forms that ask you one question at a time instead of presenting you with a blank screen asking you to get organized. Zety helps you gather the information you need for your resume then craft it into something that looks great. If you’re feeling lazy, you can upload your existing resume, and they’ll pull the info for you.

Canva:
Everyone’s Favorite Graphic Tool with Resume Templates

If you don’t want to pay for a resume, Canva might be your best bet. The preformatted templates let you fill in the blanks with your info. Just be aware that working with graphic templates rather than flexible documents can be frustrating—like when you add just one more word, and the paragraph adds another line, and the line then covers up the next text box, and when you move the textbox the border moves with it, and then the whole resume is out of whack. I’ve done this before a thousand times.

StartWire:
Job Search Organization Tool

StartWire is a super-fast way to set up a job-search home base to track your applications, discover new positions and keep your searches organized. I hooked it up to my LinkedIn account, and within minutes, StartWire shared job leads for writers and offered resources to get my resume in order. Way cool. And free.

BrandYourself:
Reputation Monitoring Tool

What shows up on the first page when you Google yourself? Help improve your online reputation with free tools from Brand Yourself. The site shares tips on how to improve the quality of the first-page results and helps you keep an eye on the search results.

BrandYourself will also scan your social media sites to find questionable posts that you might want to remove if you’re looking for a job because you can bet your potential employer will check.

Another great reputation manager is Google Alerts. Google will send you an email when you are mentioned anywhere they index. For a long time I used it to watch for articles about one of my loved one’s bosses. The boss was in hot water for a long time, and I wanted to keep an eye on whether he was headed to an indictment.

It’s also a great tool to keep an eye on industry trends or your organization.