JibberJobber Blog
advocacy for the job seeker
|
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... |
|
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... |
|
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... |
|
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)... |
|
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... |
|
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,... |
|
How to create a log entry without going into JibberJobber (video)
This really is one of the MOST exciting features in JibberJobber because, well, it helps keep you out of JibberJobber. Doesn’t make sense? Look, I’m not trying to get eyeballs to JibberJobber, like many of the other websites. I just want to provide a useful tool that helps you get the job done. I use JibberJobber all day long (it is my personal relationship manager), and I want to use it in a smart, effective, efficient way. That’s why we came up with this new feature…... |
|
Anthony Kanner made my day last week!
Out of the blue I got this email from Anthony Kanner (@a_kannerCPA): I’m a big fan of JibberJobber and I have used it since May 2008. It helped me then to get an audit job in public accounting in NYC and I have relocated to Los Angeles this year and am looking to work for another CPA firm. Thank you Anthony! I noticed he has logged in more than 150 times since he got his account. Very nice! Anyone have any contacts for him in L.A., especially at a CPA firm out there? |
|
The Tool Works… When You Use It
I have been working on my basement over the last year… some stuff we’ve outsourced and some stuff I’ve tried on my own. I’ve gotten to know my tools better over time. I’m not a handy person so my idea of a complete toolset has about 5 tools (hammer, saw, plyers, screw driver and that whats-it-called thingy). Many times the tool just sits there. Either on the floor, by me, or on the unfinished window sill, or in the toolbox. Just sitting there. Doing nothing.... |
|
When I get to brag about JibberJobber…
Recently Vincent Wright, founder of My Linking Power Forum, asked me to reintroduce JibberJobber to his network. Here’s what I wrote to them. Can you tell I love what I do? ah, my love… let me tell you about my love… I started a job search a few years ago. It was a really bad job search, and one of the problems was trying to keep track of three things: - network contacts (LinkedIn couldn’t do this for various reasons – still can’t) - target companies –... |
|
3 Things That Kill CRM… and Your Job Search Organizer
I like to learn about CRM issues in the sales world because those issues might translate over to issues with JibberJobber users. I don’t tout JibberJobber as a CRM (customer relationship manager) even though that’s how I use it. It is, however an awesome personal relationship manager for YOU (that is, anyone who is still concerned about their career, job security, etc.). Todd Youngblood has a post titled Three Things that Kill CRM (…and how to counter them). The second... |
|
Free eBook: What I Know About Getting A Job
Rich “Corn on the Job” DeMatteo asked me to contribute to his ebook called “What I Know About Getting A Job.” I was happy to do it. You can download the free ebook here. There are a bunch of people in the career space who contributed. I’m the 8th person (geesh, why didn’t they do it alphabetical order?? j/k) and I just read what I wrote – they edited it pretty good! Take about 20 minutes and sift through it… no cost to you. Here are the contributors: Rich... |
|
Government Thinks Job Seekers are Lazy
I don’t even know where to start on this – I’ve had the web page open for days just trying to figure out how to handle it: Unemployed Working Hard To Find Jobs, Despite Depiction as Spoiled Brats. It is a disgusting generalization that shows how out-of-touch lawmakers are with the current state of affairs that we’re dealing with. I’m sure there are some people who are abusing unemployment “benefits.” However, most people (anyone who reads my blog) are... |
|
Favorite Friday: Follow-up (Keith Ferrazzi)
Here’s a favorite post for various reasons: The idea comes from Keith Ferrazzi, who says that you can be better than 95% of your competition by just following up. I totally agree. I actually got some response from Keith or someone on his team… which is like one of the first times ever that they’ve given me a head nod (even though I recommend his book and blog about his stuff all the time). I created a quick video reaction to his post – I think this is the only time I’ve... |
|
JibberJobber Rocks (right?)
I don’t often get emails like this… the kind that make my entire week. Unsolicited, from Crystal in California: Dear JibberJobber folks, I want to thank you for giving me (and everyone) two extra Premium months**! I’m jobless (duh) and every penny counts. Thank you for your generosity. I have found JibberJobber to be an invaluable tool in keeping track of my job search. It certainly beats my makeshift Excel spreadsheet all hollow. JJ makes it so much easier to see where I’ve... |
|
Resume Massacre, Job Search Advice, Ignore
I read a really interesting post yesterday that evoked a number of thoughts/emotions. Pretty ranty today :p Kimba Green is a project manager who is in transition. She writes that 8 months into her job search she… had the good fortune to be “made over” by some of the leading experts. I was over the moon! The makeover, however, wasn’t a makeover, it was a critique. You can read her reaction and thoughts on her post: I survived a resume massacre! I’m reminded by a friend... |
|
Getting Help From Your Career Center
Yesterday I spoke at a conference for alumni career services professionals. Some of the people in the audience have a strong career services offering while others were learning how to put one together. Everyone at the conference was very interested in learning how they could help you, their alumnus, in career management. One comment I heard was that they have received more in-bound contact from alumni in the last six months than they had in the last 6 years! This economy is driving people... |
|
Improve Your Interviews by 1,000,000%
So I came up with this arbitrary percentage… I don’t know if you’ll improve by 100% or a gazillion percent… but I bet you will improve SIGNIFICANTLY (that’s a term we used in the MBA program that meant “enough to care about”). How? Should you: Study common questions and prepare answers ahead of time? Make sure you dress right and floss your teeth? Have a strong first impression (great handshake, flashy smile, etc.)? Tell stories? Relate to the interviewers? Perhaps... |
|
Email Signature: Make It Count!
I am a HUGE fan of crafting an email signature that helps communicate your brand (or value prop, or whatever). Help people understand who you are and what you do and how they can help you by crafting a sharp email signature! I recently mentioned this on a webinar and I had an attendee (Kim) email me asking for my advice on her signature… and I gave it to her! I told her to “take it with a grain of salt” because I am responding based on my initial reaction, but I know I come... |
|
1,000 Blog Posts!
I started blogging in June of 2006. This is my 1,000th blog post (that image shows 999 from before today). How cool is that? I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I started blogging. But I was sold early on, and there’s NO looking back. Thank you, to each of you who have ever read a post, passed something to a friend or group, left a comment (joined the conversation!), or otherwise supported me. I don’t really get paid to blog, but it supports my business objectives,... |