A few weeks ago I got an email linking to a story about a guy who did something different to land a job.  You can read the entire story here.

In short, they guy found a job he really wanted.  Instead of applying for it, he decided to:

… [pose] as a comparable employer and posted a comparable job opening online. He asked applicants to send a resume, cover letter and salary their requirement.

He got dozens of “applications” from poor, unsuspecting job-seekers. His little ruse allowed him to gauge his competition, and to identify an appropriate salary range. With this new-found omniscience,  he applied for the job. And guess what… he got it.

This rubbed me wrong, but I couldn’t figure out why.

Sure, I think it’s unethical (well there you go, the red flag).  But here’s the deal – while in a job search it’s easy to get in a position where you would do something you normally wouldn’t do… don’t you think?  I mean, if your ethics were in-any-way shaky, and you were between a rock and a hard spot, maybe you could bend the unwritten rules just once… don’t you think?

I finally figured out why this rubbed me wrong, no matter how desperate you are.

First, it’s wrong. It’s unethical.  You have violated a lot of people’s trust (not in you, directly, but still, trust was violated and you took advantage of unsuspecting people).  That should be reason enough.

If that isn’t, then here’s what I came up with this week:

Second, we don’t need more shady ethics in our world. It destroyed Enron (I think).  I can’t imagine that good ethics has helped GM get to where they are at today.  Ethics are a huge issue in our world – if you are going to stoop this low to land your job, what will you do to make a sale once you got the job?  Where are the boundaries?

Keep moving boundaries and I’m sure to not want to hire you… I can’t have unethical things going on in my business… can I?

Would you like to work for someone who is unethical?  (IT SUCKS, trust me)

Would you like to work at a company with shady ethics?

Then why would you land that job with questionable ethics?

I get the “I have to survive” thing.  Been there.  Working through it.  But lowering your standards should not be acceptable.

Think this is a black-and-white subject?  Read the comments – it’s polarized… unethical behavior is applauded by some and frowned upon by others.

Where do you stand?

Sorry to say, folks, we can’t be the job search silver bullet.

Sure, we solve a lot of problems and frustration in the job search, but we aren’t going to find you your dream job.  Or even a step job to get to the dream job.  We provide solutions to problems, but we aren’t getting you the job.

Here’s a note we got from someone who deleted their account recently:

“I’ve yet to find a job through you.  I’d do better sitting in front of the White House with a tin cup.”

Yeah, you know what, you probably are better off doing that… especially if you login to JibberJobber every day hoping to see a job offer pop up on your screen.

Seriously – what problems do we solve?  Here are the two biggies:

Organizing your job search. I used a spreadsheet to organize my job search, and I quickly outgrew it.  That means it was getting very, very messy.  Columns added here, data added there… it became a hodgepodge of junk that I was spending time trying to decipher.  Sound silly?  Spend a few weeks in an intense job search, networking, and applying to jobs, and your spreadsheet will get confusing – quick!

Managing a job search. Another user said that JibberJobber became his virtual assistant – allowing him to focus on the important stuff while JibberJobber simply kept his stuff in the right place and reminded him of important things he needed to do (like network).

Now, many people use JibberJobber to manage their own network (like a personal relationship manager), or to manage business stuff (like a customer relationship manager)… so it’s definitely not limited to being a job search tool… it’s all about the relationships.

Back to this person’s note to us, though… if you want to switch on the computer and have a tool that delivers jobs to you, good luck.  There will be hundreds of thousands of others who are sitting there waiting for the same job delivered to them.  And then the race is on, to be the person who stands out in a sea of resumes.

I finally set up the JibberJobber user webinars so that you can access them with the new GoToWebinar VOIP option – which means you don’t have to call into a number – simply listen on your computer speakers.   Hopefully this reduces any confusion about the audio portion.

I also set up a recurring webinar training, starting on Wednesday (June 3rd) and going every other week through the rest of the year (you can see part of that schedule here).  When I first starting using GoToWebinar they didn’t have this feature, so people would say “why is the webinar in December of 2009?”  This should be resolved now, also… hopefully.

To get on this next webinar (June 3rd), or any webinar after that, simply register at this link below.  When you register you will get an email back with info on how to get on the webinar.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/549339059

THE BIGGEST CONFUSION I’ve seen is the TIME of the webinar. These webinars are at 9am MST, which is 8am PST, 10am CST and 11am EST.  I don’t know how to do the higher level math and calculations that Arizona people can do, so I can’t say what time it is there, but I’m guessing they can figure it out based on 9am MST

Here are some other ways to get help with JibberJobber:

Written documentation in the WIKI.  This is a project we started a while ago – if you have any suggestions on what to add, just let us know.

JibberJobber Two Minute Tutorial Videos.  Some are more than two minutes, some are less than two minutes, but you get the point.  Many are years old, … we’re updating these in a different place, check this out for the most updated user tutorials.

As always you can use the Contact Us form to submit questions, suggestions, rants, raves, etc.

Note that all of these links are found from the HELP page, which is at the bottom of every page in JibberJobber, including this blog.

I’m very pleased with the LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD… the comments I’m getting about it in my email and from the Amazon reviews have been awesome!  If you haven’t gotten yours yet, you can get it from here… if you are a coach, outplacement firm, operate a college career center, etc. email me about bulk rates and site licenses.