Have you been late for a job interview? The nervous drive to our interview can start us off on the wrong footing. How can we walk in confidently to an interview if our nerves are in tatters from the fretful drive?
It’s not much fun. We need to know we will arrive on time, with time to spare, taking account for current traffic conditions (and have a route around jams if they’re in our way.)
This is why I recommend Google’s Waze as my preferred satellite navigation solution.
I discovered Waze a couple of years ago and I haven’t looked back since. The most useful function of Waze is its smart routing based on social information. Waze encourages users to report traffic jams, accidents or roadworks that will slow us down, and it automatically updates our ETA, and route if possible, around the problem.
When I have an interview or meeting, I enter my destination into Waze the day before or earlier in the day. So that upfront, I have a good idea of the journey time. So I set off, leaving a good 15-30 mins spare in my journey.
En route, Waze updates me on emerging conditions, and will change my route if there is a faster way to my destination. Ace!
My BMW SatNav solution uses traffic data to direct me, but it isn’t reliable as Waze. Because traffic conditions are reported by everyday people like us, I put greater trust in the information.
Best of all, Waze is free and is available as an app on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The iOS version works and feels better than the Android version, interestingly – as Android and Waze are both out of the Google stable. Even so, all versions get you to your interview in reliable fashion.
You’ll like the other features of Waze too. You can find gas stations (and compare their prices) to reduce the cost of your journey, find and send your contacts your ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) automatically, and use voice-activated navigation. It even syncs up with your calendar events, and as long as your events have locations stored against them, it will navigate you to your events without searching for the location.
The only downside to Waze, unlike some SatNav apps you can commercially download, is that it requires sustained internet access. If you’re out of network coverage, then it’s not going to work for you!
Download it before your next job interview
You can download it from the App Store, Google Play or Windows Phone Store. For free.
