Amazon Alexa was first released in November 2014 as a simple voice activation technology used to play music, make to-do lists, check the weather, and set alarms. In the last six years Alexa has greatly advanced with more skills and features than ever before. Now, people are finding more uses for this technology that improve their daily lives and keep them organized and on task.
Amazon Alexa has increasingly grown in popularity since its first release in 2014. A recent nationwide survey found that 255 million adults in the U.S. own a smart speaker. The typical users are young adults.
GradLeaders recently performed it’s own survey of job-seeking students and alumni around the country. We asked them a series of questions about how they currently use Amazon Alexa and how they’d like to use it in the future for career-related tasks. Listed below are the results of the survey.
There was a total of 241 respondents with 91% being current students. The remaining 9% are college graduates. 90% of participants said that they would use Amazon Echo for quick updates on career-related news, career fairs, advising appointments, new job postings, and internships.
When asked what they would be most interested in asking Alexa, they said for activities on their calendar, overdue and upcoming tasks, job and internship postings near them, and important announcements. Other things they’d like to ask related to their job search, internships, or career development include:
- Alexa, what’s on my activity calendar for today/this week?
- Alexa, what overdue and upcoming tasks do I have to complete?
- Alexa, what are some job postings near me?
- Alexa, what are some job postings and internships that match my profile?
- Alexa, read the announcements from my school/career center.
- Alexa, what advising meeting appointments are available today?
- Alexa, what companies are going to be at the career fair?
- Alexa, what career development workshops are coming up on campus?
- Alexa, what is the time and date of the next career fair?
- Alexa, what employers are coming to campus this week?
- Alexa, what’s the address of the career center’s office on campus?
- Alexa, what’s the name of my advisor?
- Alexa, accept/decline calendar invitations.
- Alexa, what’s the average pay for my career?
- Alexa, how do you write a cover letter?
- Alexa, what are some practice interview questions?
GradLeaders recently launched a new Alexa skill to help both students and career centers quickly receive voice-prompt updates from their GradLeaders Career Center accounts. Several of the tasks desired by students has already been implemented in the first release of this new skill for Amazon Echo devices. Students and admin can start by securely linking their GradLeaders account then simply say:
- “Alexa, open/start GradLeaders.”
Once you’ve activated your GradLeaders portal you can receive updates on activities, company events, and job postings by saying the following phrases:
- “Alexa, ask GradLeaders what the most recent job postings are.”
- “Alexa, ask GradLeaders what is on my activity calendar for today?”
- “Alexa, ask GradLeaders what company events are this week.”
As GradLeaders continues to include more tasks for Alexa, be sure to check out this new feature because it’s the perfect work from home solution for both students and career center staff!