I was going to copy my favorite lines from Liz Ryan’s LinkedIn article into a post, but there were too many of them. Almost the entire post. I remember using online applications in my job search, back in 2006, and it went something like this:
- Upload resume to job I wanted to apply to.
- Spend 45 minutes to fill out a form, which basically asked questions that were all in my resume. So, a lot of copy/paste, and 45 minutes of wondering why they didn’t just take the info from my resume I just uploaded.
- No kidding, this happened more than not: after I finished, get some kind of error message that the process failed, and to come back and do it again.
This happened enough that I dreaded the online application process. I got anxiety when I got to the point of filling one out. Yuck.
Liz’s post (read it here) talks about what to do instead of filling out the form online. She is spot-on.
The thing I don’t agree with is her point #8:
“8) Log your sent Pain Packet in a simple spreadsheet you’ve created to track your job-search activity.”
JibberJobber is clearly the right place to log any job search activity. A simple spreadsheet, even a complex spreadsheet, is a waste of time and effort. Check out the comments she put in her article from Arthur, a little bit lower:
“I’m never going completely off the job market again!”
and
“I completely forgot about my second Pain Letter.”
and
“Now that my eyes are opened about managing my career, I figured ‘Why waste a potential contact?'”
Each of these statements support using a more robust, long-term tool than a spreadsheet. When you are at this point of realization in your career management, you’ll know that a spreadsheet is NOT a long-term career management solution. Not only is it a pain, and not as functional (or feature-rich) as JibberJobber, it’s not going to last as long as a SaaS solution will.
What are you waiting for? It’s time to get serious about JibberJobber!