I found this article on About.com at the end of last year: Ten Keys for Taking Control of Your Career

#7 says to get organized.  I would definitely encourage you to use JibberJobber to get (and feel!) organized.

#9 says to boost work relationships.  From tracking and recognizing birthdays, like the author says, to other small gestures, you need to NURTURE relationships NOW.  Don’t wait until you are in transition.  Dig that well now!  Yes, JibberJobber is the tool to help with that.

Experts are talking about this stuff… JibberJobber is the tool to DO IT.

You know networking is what you should do.  What if you are doing it but it doesn’t work?  Sam asks:

I am having very poor results on my networking efforts and feel very concerned by the overall situation.   Is there any useful advise you could share with me to help me turn things around?

Sam, I feel your pain. When I finally bit the bullet and started networking, I was doing it wrong.  My first guess was that Sam is doing it wrong also, but I had to ask her what she is doing. From her reply I see that she is:

“…using Linkedin heavily. I reach out to people inside & outside of my network. No one answers. Whether these are school alumni or personal friends or contacts of contacts. No one answers or sends me a laconic:”sorry I do not know this person” or “I do not have any contacts in this industry”"

I wonder what her outreach looks like to get ignored (see below for an idea of what the problem might be). She is also asking for people’s time:

“I try to set phone meetings by emails when I can not find the info of the person I want to speak to. I look them up on the web and find their email and just email them to avoid cold calling and either interrupting their day or leaving a voice mail that stays unreturned. “

Again, I wondered what her message/request looks like. Sam sent me an email that she would send to a prospect where she is asking for time on the phone (what I would call an informational interview).  The introduction, which I’m not including here for privacy, is very good.  She ends with this:

“I would very much welcome the opportunity to speak to you informally over the phone 10-15 minutes just to solicit your advice and exchange about the working environment at (company name) and the hiring perspectives at the moment. Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Sincerely,”

The biggest problem I see with this request is that she is not asking for time.  Read that last bit again.  There is no invitation or call to action.  The second biggest problem is that she is saying “I’m a job seeker… do you have any openings?”  I’m a lot more informal than Sam is (she is an executive)… I would personally rewrite it like this:

“I have some questions about your company and the industry in general and would appreciate your perspective. Can we get on the phone for fifteen or twenty minutes?  My schedule is flexible this week and next week.  Is there a good time that works for you?”

That (1) has a call to action and (2) changes the conversation from “help me, are there openings” to “I’m a peer and colleague, let’s talk shop.”

The “fix” to this problem might be that simple… what do you think?

The book is getting close to going to the printer.  I am sending a draft to “the person” who will write the forword, and my graphics artist shot me three book cover ideas.

I would love your feedback on these three covers.  Will you please tell me which of the three you love, which you love the least, and WHY?  Thank you!

Idea A: Lightbulb Head

Idea B: Triangle Head

Idea C: Elephant on Tightrope

Please leave a comment of email me (Jason@JibberJobber.com) what you think. Again, I’d love to know your favorite, least favorite, and WHY.

I had a great call with Margaret Meloni a number of weeks ago.  She does “soft skills” training with professionals and organizations.  As we were talking told me she has a Congratulations You’re Out of Work program.

You can get her free audio and ebook here (scroll down to the bottom).  Oh wait, there is a signup form there.  She said if you don’t want to be on her list, you can download the goodies from this hidden page.  THANK YOU Margaret!  (everyone, send Margaret a thank you, and refer her stuff to project managers!)

I liked what I heard from Margaret because:

• Some people are out of work because they need to work on their soft skills, 
• Some people haven’t “needed” to but they have time to work on them now,
• Some people are having zero success in their job search because of their soft skills.

From her products page you can see she lives in the business world, helping people communicate better.  She has a soft spot for professionals in transition.

Check it out!

I found this article on Job-Hunt.org: How to Organize and Track Your Job Search. There is a link to another article about following-up in a job search.

I like everything Hannah is saying in her articles.  End your frustration, and impress recruiters by not sounding lost or uninterested, by staying on top of this.

Hannah suggests some systems, I used an Excel spreadsheet, but I don’t think there is anything better than JibberJobber.

Read her articles and just about everything she talks about can be done within JibberJobber… even the free level!

My little baby is all grown up and in second grade now!

Congratulations to JibberJobber, a little side gig that gave me hope during a long, depressing job search.

I hope that you continue to grow and in another seven years you’ll be a responsible teenager.

(I know, I know, that was weird.  Happy birthday to JibberJobber anyway!)

Old being 50.

I know, I know.  That’s not old.

But it is old enough to have discrimination.

Read what Nick says here: Over The Hill At 50?

Nick was recently an expert on my Ask The Expert webinar.  You can find his video in the Ask The Expert archive.

I have a blogger crush on James Altucher.  I love his story, his advice, and his writing style.  I’ve blogged about him before.

I was reading How To Go From $0 To $1,000,000 In Two Years on TechCrunch and wanted to share this with those interested in job search, career management and personal branding:\

Rule No. 5: Blogging is not about money. Blogging is about trust. You don’t sell ads on your blog (rarely), you don’t get the big book deal (rarely), but you do build trust and this leads to opportunities. In Bryan’s case it led to more inflow, rather than him going door to door, and it also led to his biggest early opportunity. My own blog has made me a total of zero cents but has created millions in opportunities for me.

Blogging is pull marketing.

Providing great content, relevent information, intriguing stories, tips and ideas will bring people to you.

They might end up reading your blog regularly, or they might be a flash in the pan, coming in from a google search.

But when you provide awesome content, you can “become a trusted source” (quoted from right above the excerpt I took out – read the whole article).

Want to have a strong personal brand?

BLOG.

Meg Guiseppi wrote a blog post with 10 blogs she recommends, although she says these are not necessarily her favorites… but she keeps coming back to them.

The JibberJobber Blog is on the list, as well as my LinkedIn blog.

That’s cool.  But what was really cool was this line:

“There are actually 12 in my list. Two of my favorite writers run two sites.”

I had to go through her list again and found that… yeehaw!  I’m one of her two favorite writers (in very good company with Susan Joyce).

I’ve read all of the blogs she listed.  They are all excellent suggestions, if you are looking for inspiring reading. Here is the list.

Thanks Meg, for the list, and for including me

When I first started JibberJobber I had a few marketing people who said I must promise that this would help people get a job faster.  Even, get a better job faster.

I could not claim that.  I know unscrupulous companies would claim that but I really had nothing to back it up with.  I was too new to have testimonials from people who had gone through a job search.

Unlike switching from a horrid resume to a clean and effective resume, I couldn’t say the purpose of JibberJobber was to “get a job faster.”  I didn’t want to be like some college career centers who, on the day of graduation, called their recruiting friends begging to get little Johnny into ANY job, even entry level, so they could say they have high placement.  Yes, this really happens.  The recruiters tell me about the frantic calls, just so the school can save face.

Let’s go back to one of my favorite concepts in marketing, branding and positioning: The Pill vs. The Vitamin.  I wrote this post in 2011 and it is one of the most profound concepts I think everyone in sales (that is, any entrepreneur and every job seeker) needs to understand.

I can’t promise JibberJobber will get you a job faster.  There are too many factors that I have no control or influence over.  The economy might stink, you might stink (literally), your resume might be folded up in your back pocket, you might be in a dying industry, your competition might be ten times better than you, you might be wasting your time on job boards like I did, instead of networking effectively… the list goes on and on and on.  And I can’t say JibberJobber will be the job search silver bullet for you.

I’ve blogged about the job search silver bullets various times, including here and here and here and here.

So what is JibberJobber’s Promise?  I’m not sure. After almost seven years I think it is:

Hope and Inspiration.  Not through blog posts.  These blog posts are my therapy more than help to/for you.  But I want you to remain hopeful, and be inspired, and that is why I do what I do.

Empowerment.  I felt so powerless and out of control as a job seeker.  JibberJobber should empower you, and make you feel more in control.

Career management has changed.  The Vitamins and Pills need to change, too.  That’s one reason why I am working on 51 Alternatives to a Real Job.  It is a new set of vitamins.

Venture Capitalists would hate that JibberJobber is not a Pill.  You can sell and monetize Pills quick and easy.  Vitamins are harder.  But that’s what we are, and I’m not going to make fraudulent claims that we are the Silver Bullet Pill that will make all your wildest dreams come true.

What is YOUR promise to an employer, or your career?