Monster.com’s latest iPhone app – Monster Interviews — just hit the App Store in time for spring job hunting. This counts three iOS apps for the company, including its first iPhone app, Monster.com Jobs, released last summer and Monster.com Jobs for iPad released this January.
This latest app from Monster acts as a coach in helping you prep for your interview all the way through providing you with tips for negotiating your salary. Encouraging you to do everything from practice answering questions over video to mapping your route to the interview and identifying coffee shops and printing services around it, this iPhone app becomes a virtual personal assistant for helping you ace your interview. In their own words, “it’s everything but the handshake.”
The app kicks off with an interactive walk through of its features. With cues like speech bubbles and ‘Eye of the Tiger’ music playing in the background, this app seems to be aimed at a younger crowd. The app allows you to keep a calendar of your scheduled interviews (company, location, name of interviewer, etc.) and is split into three main sections: pre-interview, interview day, and post-interview.
Pre-Interview provides interview how-tos you can flip through, such as how to dress for success and do research on the company you’re interviewing with. Perhaps my favorite part of the app, this section also prompts you with about fifty practice interview questions (select from entry level, management to executive level) — encouraging you to record your answers in text, through voice recording, and even over video. It even has an Outfit Picker section where you can snap a photo of what you plan to where so you’re really prepped for success.
The Interview Day section includes fun multiple answer brain teasers to keep you fresh, last minute tips like make sure to make eye contact, and the ability to map your route and find local services around you (copies, coffee, clothes, and more). The Post-Interview section includes similar recording features, allowing you to make a quick note before you forget (e.g., send follow up writing sample).
In the Post-Interview section, Monster is helping you not forget the little things in the interview process that go a long way — like sending a follow up thank you note or email. The section provides other features, like sending the job along to a friend and recording your overall feeling after leaving the interview, as well as a set of resources around what to do when you get an offer — like how to negotiate a salary and make counteroffers. This pulls in articles already created and published on the Monster.com website.
Overall, I’m really impressed with this new and unique offering from Monster, which will be helpful and useful for keeping you organized and on the ball in your job interviewing process.
Download the Monster Interviews iPhone app here, and the company tells us an iPad version should hit in the next couple of weeks and Android will be on it’s way thereafter.
So job seekers, especially you college students finalizing internships and starting to look for jobs, will this new Monster Interviews app and all its features be your new virtual personal assistant for the job search?
