JibberJobber Blog
advocacy for the job seeker
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Humanities ≠ Jobs… what?
When I was choosing my major I figured I should major in something that would help me land a job. I was pretty short-sighted and didn’t quite understand what that meant but I figured there were some majors that either didn’t get jobs or that got very low-paying jobs. I ultimately chose to get a degree in business with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems. The only other alternative I seriously considered was an emphasis in accounting, but I had ZERO intention of going that... |
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What Do Recruiters Talk About At Conferences?
I think it’s intriguing to learn about what recruiters talk, and learn, about. Understanding what they are paying money for and what they are trying to incorporate into their business can help you understand how to better position yourself, whether you are in an active or passive job search. Here’s parts of an agenda (full agenda here) from a recruiter conference… do you see a consistent theme? Browse through these and then I’ll make a conclusion at the end of the post: Kristin... |
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Age Discrimination, Old Job Seekers, Options
There’s a discussion I think we need to have that I haven’t seen elsewhere. I’ve been thinking about this for the last year or so, as the job market has gotten worse. The pink elephant seems to be those who are discriminated against for their age – specifically, the older worker (we can talk about age discrimination for younger workers in a separate post). Let’s assume a couple of things: The economy, and the job market, are in the crapper. Regardless of what strategies... |
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How to Prepare for a Layoff
This is what I get in my email every day… a Google Alert on the work “layoffs”: I wonder about those 2,000 employees for the Royal Bank of Scott (RBS), or the 130 employees of USA Today… did they see the writing on the wall? Did they ignore it, like I did? Or were they busy working hard, plunking on their keyboard trying to prove their value so their name wouldn’t end up on the list? Were they hiding in the corner, ignoring reality, or were they out doing stuff in... |
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No insightful blog post today
I flew into LAX yesterday and drove to Malibu last night – today I speak at Pepperdine’s MBA orientation. I’ve done this type of thing before and have really enjoyed it. I’ll be back next week – today I’m hanging out on one of the most beautiful campuses I’ve been to with some really cool people (This morning I got up early and walked the “horseshoe” which was very hilly… I saw some fun animals (deer, rabbits, etc.) and amazing trees... |
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Networking Doesn’t Work (part II) – agree?
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post called Networking Doesn’t Work. It’s a good post Just yesterday someone left the following comment: “Networking” is the most overused word since 2008 (right after “green”). It is not effective even with proper guidance for 90% of people. I have seen counselors, spoken to career advisors, spoken to recruiters, etc. and followed their advice to the letter, keeping an up-beat and optimistic demeanor. I was still jobless... |
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From Learning to Doing: Quantity vs. Quality
I’m finishing up SPIN Selling, a great book on sales techniques, and at the end the author talks about implementing the stuff you learn. He compares implementing what the book talks about with learning a new language. He says in the past, language courses focuses on the quality of learning, but when they switched the model to the quantity (talking more, writing more, and worrying about fixing errors later) the learning happened at 5 times the rate. This makes a lot of sense to me –... |
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JibberJobber Testimonial: “I will continue using JibberJobber…”
Last week I got this fantabulous message from a JibberJobber user. I really appreciate the time people spend to share this type of feedback. This was out-of-the-blue, unsolicited. Hi, I just wanted to thank the JibberJobber staff for helping me stay organized during my latest job search. I had been unemployed at other times in my life and it was much easier to stay organized this time with JibberJobber at my disposal. I found hunting for a job to be less grueling as I was able to organize contacts... |
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Why It Is Hard To Get Excited About Positive Jobs Forecasts and News
I have a hard time getting excited about all the jobs “created”… I already ranted about the fake census jobs. Here’s another example. From my local news station, in their article Where the Jobs Are, Part 2: Goldman Sachs & Co. is in the middle of a dramatic expansion in the Salt Lake City market. Two years ago, Goldman boasted 350 employees locally. By the end of the year there will be more than 1,150. That’s great news, right? A mid-sized city like Salt Lake... |
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Networking: How “The Fourth Degree” Works
On my JibberJobber user webinar I share a lot of job search, networking, branding and other career management ideas I’ve picked up along the way. One of my most favorite mini-ideas is this: You don’t find job leads from your first and second degree contacts. You find them from your third and fourth degree contacts. Same with sales leads…. this is the part about networking that can be hard… always asking “do you know someone that _________?” It could be someone... |
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Yes Indeed, You Do Have A (Personal) Brand
Every once in a while I hear the negative about personal branding. I’ve seen blog posts from really big/influential (in their space) bloggers who say that “personal branding” is a crock. Here’s a thoughtful piece called Personal Branding RIP by Mitch Joel, something of a god in the digital marketing space. Make sure to read the comments, which are very good. Yesterday I got a note on Facebook, in response to my blog post about Donald McMichael’s website… here... |
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Personal Branding – What Do You Do?
I recently came across a great blog by Donald McMichael (@DonaldMcMichael)… he’s a business strategist with a strong background in finance. His recent blog posts include: 5 Fav Business and Strategy Post – August 7th (this is a series he does) The Revolution of Content – Sponsored by Mobile Devices 7 Secrets of Running a Wildly Successful Negotiation 6 Best Business Development Pillars Every Company Is A Media Company Can you get a sense, just from the titles of those posts,... |
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Get. It. Done.
I just read one of my newly favorite business books called Bootstrap Business. It really was quite brilliant – even though it was longer than I normally read it was full of a lot of meat: advice, stories, case studies, practical ideas, etc. Highly recommended. Get Bootstrap Business here (amazon affiliate link). One thing that I’m almost positive I read in there (I read about 4 books at a time and might have gotten mixed up) was how to make sure you are getting things done. Not just... |
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Is The Job Search Kicking Your Butt?
Kimba Green recently wrote a great post called 10 Reasons Why Unemployment is NOT Going to Kick My Butt! Read it here, at Job Mob. How about you – are you getting your butt kicked? If so, do this feel-good exercise: write your own list of 10 reasons why it is not going to KICK YOUR BUTT. I know it is hard. I know it sucks. Despair, depression, feelings like a third class citizen. But you have to get back up, and you can win. You will win. What are your reasons the job search isn’t... |
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Birthday Reminders: How I find birthday dates
I used to get dates of birthdays by going into Facebook and seeing the list there… but I don’t go into Facebook enough to make that worth my while, and I’m not connected with enough real contacts that it is worth my time to check it out. My new favorite place to get birthday dates is, of all places, Plaxo. Weird, huh? I get less spam contacts on Plaxo and Plaxo sends me an email that has this: This is from a real professional contact… I had no idea his birthday was... |
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Job Search Alternatives
Let me try and related a story I’ve made up, just to prove a point. I hope this comes across well (I like telling stories but I usually need months go perfect them). Image you go to a restaurant every night for dinner. Every single night you have a nice dinner… sometimes there is something new on the menu that delights you, but you can always count on something that is just fine. Then, one night you go only to find out they are out of food. The doors are still open, the lights... |
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Am I really a Project Manager?
When I started my job search I was looking for opportunities with a few titles, including: Project Manager Business Analyst I don’t have a PMP but I had enough hours that I could have taken the test… just didn’t want to put the time into it, even though most of the job postings talked about getting the certification. A funny thing happened in my job search, though… when doing searches on a particular job board for “project manager” I came across, just by... |
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Networking Groups: Knowing when it’s time to leave
I’m not talking about when it’s time to leave a networking event, I’m talking about permanently leaving a group you are in. A few years ago I networked in a Yahoo Group (an excellent place to network). This group was run by someone with a beautiful smile and a seemingly helpful persona, but I had a different experience than most. My contributions to this Yahoo Group, with a lot of job seekers, were sincere and helpful. When someone asked a question that I could (or should)... |
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Lemons, Job Seekers & Opportunities
I like reading success stories so an artilcle on AOL titled Richest Americans You’ve Never Heard Of piqued my interest. Maybe it’s too cinderalla or pollyanna, but I found something interesting in the article. It talks about: Fred Deluca, who opened his first Subway (not called Subway back then) store when he was 17, as well as his investor, Peter Buck, who invested $1,000 to get Fred started. They are both worth 1.8 BILLION today (good investment, eh?) Jack Crawford Taylor... |
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Resume Objective Statements: Objecting to Objective Statements on Résumés
Today we have a treat – my JibberJobber Partner (career coach and resume writer) Julie Walraven answers some questions I have about the objective statement on a resume. You may have one of these on YOUR resume… if so, you’ll definitely want to read this. If you don’t, read it and you’ll have peace of mind about why you don’t have it. (Julie Walraven’s blog // Julie Walraven on Twitter) Jason: What is the objective statement? Julie: From my perspective,... |