The Department of Labor Tools for America’s Job Seekers Challenge
January 6th, 2010
In this post I’m asking you to take a few minutes to recommend JibberJobber to the U.S. Department of Labor.
This is like “voting” for JibberJobber, but it’s not for a web award, or to be listed on a blog… I’m guessing the implecations of this recommendation will be that JibberJobber will be recognized by the government and broadcast as a job seeker resource to many workforce service departments.
In short, I think this can be the think that legitimizes JibberJobber to the US Government, which will be a big win not only for us but for the people who need something like JibberJobber.
I’ve had many talks with government people, but the problem always comes back to one thing: since there is an OPTION to upgrade, they say they can’t recommend it. I think this is either a super-lame policy, or a misunderstanding of policy. Nonetheless, many government people I talk to say something like (I really heard this):
I LOVE this! I’m going to tell my daughter, who is just graduating from college, to get on and use JibberJobber. But I can’t mention it at my office because there is a fee (NO, there is an OPTIONAL fee). And we can’t endorse anything that is for-profit.
Oh. My. Gosh. Choke me now.
Guess what… LinkedIn has an optional upgrade. Monster has optional upgrades (or levels).
A major disappointment when I first started JibberJobber was seeing a great divide between the government trying to create their own stuff, and not promoting anything else, and private industry creating really strong, powerful tools.
Guess who lost? Anyone who went to a workforce services office who wasn’t told about what they really should have been using as a resource.
Okay, didn’t mean for this to be a rant… let me get back on track.
I think, I hope, that if JibberJobber gets enough recommendations then we’ll finally get that quasi-endorsement from the government that will help hundreds thousands millions know about this very useful tool.
Here’s a quote from a comment from yesterday’s post – I found this to be really powerful:
I just “stumbled” across JJ today. After 9 months in the job search, talking with “career coaches” and recruiters as well as other job seekers and this is the first I’ve heard of it. This should be the first place a job seeker is led to.
Thank you, Gary Donnelly, for sharing that (see his entire comment here). It is a damned shame (says Steve Gallison) that he had not been pointed to it earlier.
We have tens of thousands of signups, but with last year’s economy we should have had millions.
Please recommend JibberJobber to the DOL and hopefully we’ll get the respect we deserve, and job seekers won’t have to waffle around for almost a year before they “stumble upon” this very helpful resource.
To recommend JibberJobber simply:
- Click on this link (or any link on this page, they all go to the same place)
- Click on the Recommend Tool Image on the DOL page
- Click Signup on the top of the popup window
- Apparently you have to click the Recommend image again (thanks @ecaron for the heads up on this fourth step)
Follow the process from there. I’m guessing it will take you all of three minutes.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
January 6th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Tried and got an error. Reported it as requested. Will visit tomorrow and try again.
Don’t you just LOVE when technology works as expected (i.e., it does NOT work when needed)! Now folks will have to remember to go back. (Not everyone has a “Read Later” widget.
Argh!
January 6th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Reinkefj, I was successful in submitting my recommendation for the tool. You’re right – technology working as expected is lovely, isn’t it?
January 6th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Jason, I just voted for JJ (or at least I think I did!)
January 6th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
DOL website is a bit wobbly … sometimes the site takes a posting and the next minute it rejects it, so Billie check is out later. Jason has such a great product I wonder why a big web site like Monster hasn’t given Jason $50 million to acquire JJ. Maybe they have and the dollars weren’t big enough
January 7th, 2010 at 6:08 am
[...] Recommend JibberJobber to the Department of Labor. Read why here, or Recommend here. THANK [...]
January 7th, 2010 at 6:44 am
DONE! And with a glowing comment. I cannot agree more that this should be THE FIRST resource new jobseekers should be referred to — would have saved me 5 months of painfully trying to manage the whole paper / excel spreadsheet jumble. It’s definitely the first thing I recommend to anyone I find out is in job-hunt mode.
Good luck, Jason!
January 7th, 2010 at 7:17 am
JibberJobber actually has three entries at the DOL tool challenge site. I searched and found all of them, and voted in favor of each one. I presume, or hope, that they will collate the entries when they are totalling the results.
January 7th, 2010 at 8:01 am
at trying to get things done at that website.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Hi, Jason,
I voted for you yesterday, Jan. 6. I do hope you get a nod from the government and a contract to provide services to them. Jibber Jobber is a powerful tool for any job seeker.
One thing I learned by voting, is that you have to sign up to be a voter first.
The list is a long one to wade through, but if viewers keep scrolling through, they will find Jibber Jobber and others, such as Job-Hunt.org by Susan Joyce – a fan of yours, I believe, Jason.
Wishing you all the best,
~Kathy
January 7th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
You can just search for jibberjobber and it will come up.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Jason,
Vote Accepted = 59!
Good luck with this project!
Best Wishes! ~ Jayne
January 8th, 2010 at 9:33 am
[...] Recommend JibberJobber to the Department of Labor. Read why here, or Recommend here. THANK [...]
January 8th, 2010 at 9:42 am
WOW – I really didn’t expect this many – sure I have lots of readers and users but when I ask for votes for something I usually don’t get many (you know, you could vote for stuff all day long :p). But I do think this is quite different, as you can see from my post, and I really, really appreciate each of you “recommending” and evangelizing… AND the comments… WOW, the comments on that page are unexpected and quite flattering.
Humbled and thankful,
Jason
January 8th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Just recommended Jibber Jobber! Love what you’re doing with this! Good luck Jason
January 11th, 2010 at 6:01 am
[...] Recommend JibberJobber to the Department of Labor. Read why here, or Recommend here. THANK [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 9:10 am
[...] Career Management on January 11th, 2010 Please Recommend JibberJobber to the Department of Labor. Read why here, or Recommend here. THANK YOU! I really want to do a bunch of giveaways this year… I want to do [...]
January 12th, 2010 at 8:48 am
[...] Recommend JibberJobber to the Department of Labor. Read why here, or Recommend here. THANK YOU! I write this from my heart, not to offend anyone. Read [...]
January 13th, 2010 at 6:12 am
[...] IT IS ALMOST OVER – Please do this TODAY. Recommend JibberJobber to the Department of Labor. Read why here, or Recommend here. THANK YOU! This was the last day at the job I got let go from, four years [...]
January 15th, 2010 at 6:32 am
[...] Recommend JibberJobber to the Department of Labor. Read why here, or Recommend [...]