When I started my job search, about 6 years and three weeks ago, I knew what I wanted:

• More than I was making in my last job (I had forgone three years of raises and salaries, and really felt I was underpaid (long story)).
• A short commute from my house.  The commute I had just left was 30 minutes, which I didn’t like.
• To stay in my house. I didn’t want to uproot my family.

I’m sure I had other criteria, but those are the three that I am remembering right now.  As the weeks went by, and my job search got more pathetic, my criteria changed.

I was okay to not have such a senior level title.

I was okay to commute into the city (yuck – I cringe as I write that!!).

I was started to look at jobs that would require me to move.  And I figured if I would move outside of my town, I might as well look anywhere in the world.

What would I entertain?  I was more excited about moving overseas and working in the high tech space.  For example, I would have loved to work at TomTom… here is a link to some cool TomTom jobs.  Doesn’t that look freaking awesome?

Honestly, if I found a job a couple of hours away from my house, I might as well move 20 hours away, right?  A job at TomTom, working on that awesome technology, in another country, is exciting to me, even now

What was on YOUR list of requirements when you first started your job search, and how has your list of requirements changed?

Yesterday I did some research on a company that should acquire JibberJobber.  I’m not in talks with them, yet, but if it happens, I want to know who I’ll be talking to.

I went into LinkedIn and did a search on the company, narrowing it down to executive titles.  I opened up six LinkedIn Profiles that I want to keep track of.  I was going to put them all into JibberJobber today, one by one.  But then I thought it would be faster to import them. So I did

First, I created a very simple spreadsheet. Note the first row:

In the first row, each column starts with what I’m putting below.  First Name, Last Name, Title, etc.

Then, I saved it as a CSV.  That is critical!

Then, when I imported this very small spreadsheet, in the last column, I chose which company to associate them to from this dropdown:

And then, just to double-check, I went to the company page and they were all there… beautiful!

I could have taken extra time to hand-enter them into JibberJobber one-by-one, but instead I opted to create a simple spreadsheet and enter them all in at once.  Easy!

This is a premium feature.  $9.95/month

On the user webinar this morning someone asked my thoughts about their situation: two advanced degrees, and not even able to get an entry level job.

I have a few thoughts on that:

The idea of a career and job has changed.

I’ve blogged about this quite a bit.  No longer are we shooting for a long-term career with retirement benefits.  We’re happy if we find a place where we might settle in for a few years.

My recruiter friend Robert Merrill told me a couple of years ago that he thinks we’re getting closer to becoming a world of 1099 workers.  What’s that?  1099 workers are contractors.   No more FTE (full time employees).

Have you seen a trend moving in that direction?

Even if you are hired as a FTE, the company treats you as a 1099, with frequent layoffs and rehiring.  Crazy stuff.

That’s one reason why I’m writing the book 101 Alternatives to a Real Job.

Whether we are out of the recession or not, employers are going to be cautious/skeptical.

Until they feel really good about their market and customers, they aren’t going to commit to the salary and overhead of a new employee, unless it’s critical. (So, how do you prove you are critical?)

The pending election will probably make employers wait on big (hiring, strategy, product line, etc.) decisions.

What impact would Romney or Gingrich have on our economy, trade, markets, taxes, etc.?

What impact would another Obama term have?

Whatever you think it will be, each employer has their own opinion, and they might be waiting on big decisions until… the end of the year :s

Trivia: One of the biggest spikes in JibberJobber signups was when Obama was elected President, through the inauguration.  I was amazed to see how many people started to seriously take career management into their own hands upon hearing that news.

If that’s the case, what does 2012 mean for job seekers?

January 8, 2008.  The Other Hardest Question: How Can I Help You? I was about 18 months into my business and networking like crazy.  Meeting lots of people, becoming a “power connector,” and having fun.

But people would ask: how can I help you?

And my response was usually something like “nothing for now, I’ll let you know.”

It was a bad answer, because people wanted to help me, but I wasn’t letting them help me!  Crazy, I know.

Here’s my post about it, where I actually answered in a much better way: How Can I Help You?

My advice to you: figure out how to best answer that question (and it’s variations).  And maybe you, too, can find out how close you are to Mr. T (read the post for more :p)!

(Read this letter as if I was that hiring manager that isn’t returning your calls and emails)

Did you see the post last week about why I delete your emails?

Now I’ll tell you why you think I don’t ever read or reply to your emails… but first, you think I don’t read or reply because:

1. I’m too good for you,
2. I’m too busy with more important things,
3. I’m a jerk.

That’s what I’ve thought before.  I’ve felt brushed off, or “less than” the person I’ve sent the email to.

How could someone be so incosiderate and rude?  How hard is it to reply to an email??

Seriously.

Jerks.

Right?  I’ve thought that…. I’ve felt that.

And now I think I’m the jerk.  Because I have over 2,200 emails in my JibberJobber email (inbox) that I haven’t replied to.  And I have about 12,000 emails in my gmail inbox that are just sitting there, waiting for me.

Why don’t I respond to them?  Here is some insight that might be helpful:

I am, and I get, overwhelmed!

With everything.  With life, calls, other emails, deadlines, projects, etc.

I don’t ignore you because I’m a jerk.  Your email just falls through the cracks because I’m not good at time management, and managing the inbox.

It’s as simple as that.

WHAT THAT MEANS IS SOMETHING AMAZING:

Don’t give up on me.

Sometimes, I all I need is a gentle nudge, or another email reminding me of the first one.

Be persistent without being annoying.  Remind me, because your email might be sitting on Page 3 of my inbox, and I’m not going to see it since I never get to Page 3.

If you take it personal, and get offended, I’m sorry…. but sometimes all I need is for you to remain top-of-mind… do that with a simple reminder.

Cool?

I recently “replied all” to an email conversation where I noticed a person significant to the conversation was in the CC field.

When I replied, I moved her to the TO field.

Is this a big deal?

Actually, it is.  And I just figured out how to describe it better:

Imagine there are three people standing around talking.  If two people are talking, and one is just kind of listening and not really relevant to the conversation (but it’s nice for her to know what’s going on, and a trusted “ear” in that meeting), it’s okay for the two main people to not really look at her as they talk.

Imagine, though, they start to ask her questions, and draw her into the conversation… Imagine they do that WITHOUT LOOKING AT HER.   In this setting, it seems bad etiquette to ask someone a question and not look at them (looking intently at someone else).

That’s the difference between the TO field and the CC field.

Use TO when you are including that person in the conversation, and want them to give input and feedback and be involved.

Use CC when you don’t expect them to respond, or communicate… but you want to include them in the loop just so they know what’s going on.

Here’s the key: ONCE THE CONVERSATION SHOULD INCLUDE THEM, MOVE THEM TO THE “TO” FIELD.

Let’s go back to the example:

I’m talking with Joe for a few minutes, and then it’s evident that Sally should be in on the conversation.  We haven’t looked at her, but now that we bring her in, we both look at her, and the eye contact is split amongst the three of us.

That’s the difference between TO and CC.

I see this mistake ALL THE TIME.

What do you think?  Valid analogy?

More on writing better emails at my Effective Email Communication

Recently I put together a video series I titled “Effective Email Communication,” because I see so many emails that are, well, crappy.

I know that isn’t a professional word, but I can’t think of another word that captures what I’m trying to say.

I’m telling you, they are bad emails.  And “bad emails” don’t discriminate… I see them from old people (who should know better), young people (who think emails are going the way of the dodo birds), educated people, executives, professionals, and branding and marketing experts.

We need to do better at our communication (remember the 2012 theme for JibberJobber?), and we can start with our emails.

Here’s ONE tip on writing better emails: write a subject line that will decrease the chance of me deleting your email before I read it.

When I come into my office every morning, here’s what I do:

1. I open my email.
2. I look at the subject lines, and select all the ones that look like spam, or are not personal, or that I think I know about already.
3. I delete all of those from step 2, without reading them.
4. Then, I go through whatever is left over.

I’ve been doing this for more years that I can remember. I did it with Outlook, I do it now with Gmail.

And I bet many of you do the same thing… do you open that email from the Nigerian spammer, or do you delete it?

That’s what I thought.

I bet there are others that you automatically judge, based on the subject line, that you simply delete.

Here’s some unsettling information:  You are sending emails to people who are doing the same thing, to your precious emails!

Ouch, right?

My message: write BETTER email subject lines! That is the topic of my 7 minute clip titled “Compelling Subject Lines: Want your email to be read?” (the forth clip in the email series).  You can get the entire video series here for $50.

JibberJobber is a relationship management tool.

In Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi said something to the effective of “it’s not enough to collect names and number (and email addresses), we should know how strong the relationship is with our contacts.”

He suggested a system where you rank each contact as an A contact, a B contact, or a C contact.  In JibberJobber we have a 0 through 5 star ranking system.

Debbie (who I saw has logged in more than 1,000 times – congratulations Debbie!!) asks this question:

There are the stars for rating the strength of relationship. One time you shared your one star criteria” room for improvement and want to move it forward”. Can you share your criteria for the other stars?

Right under the star section on the add/edit page (of Contacts) there is a link that says “Click Here for more info on this.”  When you click that link it shows you this:

First, you must understand that you can use this feature however you want… here is an example of what many networking “experts” suggest.

Imagine you have a friend from school, named Joe, that you’ve kept in touch with for years. You follow eachothers careers, and when you are in town, you get together for dinner or to hang out. This is a person that you trust with anything, and if you were in a bind, they would help you out in any way that they could. This person would get five stars. 

Let’s say that Joe introduces you to a friend of theirs. You can tell that this friend, Sally, has a great deal of respect for Joe, and Joe is highly endorsing you. However, the casual introduction to Sally is brief, and you don’t really have the basis of a good networking relationship. When you enter Sally into your network, you would probably give her two stars. 

Now, let’s say you go to a convention and there is a terrific guest speaker. You introduce yourself after her speech, but so do dozens of other people. You really don’t have any relationship with this person, but you know you want to develop one. Give this person one star. 

Note that the goal is to CULTIVATE the relationships with each person, so just because someone is just a  or a  that isn’t bad. You need to work on your relationship with that person, and their rank will eventually increase.

Now, almost 6 years later, here’s how I use it (mine is totally on a whim, and subject to change… you can use the stars however you want):

0 Stars: If I hear  about you and want to put your name in the system.  If I haven’t met you.  This is so I can get you in my system, but I know I have no relationship and probably have not had any communication with you.

1 Star: If I met you in person, or we have been introduced via email, and I’m not sure if there’s a relationship there, or if we don’t really have something significant to pursue.

2 Stars: If I met you in person and I really want to pursue something… we’ve had a good conversation, even if it was really short, and I think there is something there.

3 Stars: When we’ve had a few conversations, or when I can tell that you are a networker and would value the relationship (ie, if you do me a favor, or are an evangelist, etc.)

4 Stars: When our relationship has moved forward and I feel it is really strong.  This is a great place to be – I am confident that goals align, or that you love what I’m doing and will be a champion/advocate for me, etc.

5 Stars: When our relationship is awesome, and I feel like I can call on you for anything and you’ll respond and help… and that I’d bend over backwards to help you if/when I can.

So that’s how I kind of use it… what do you think?

I don’t know why I’ve had this on my mind lately. Maybe because of things I’ve personally been working through. But it keeps getting in front of me, again and again and again. So it must be a message I need to put out there.

Hopefully this post will save someone’s life.

Isn’t that an overly egoistic thing to write?  That a post I’m writing today might be a lifesaver for someone?

How crass of me to even write that.

Except for one thing: I lived through my own deep, dark depression (even though I didn’t recognize it, and wouldn’t have admitted it).  I wrote about it on my post Depression Clouds Everything, which at this time has 524 comments (my most-commented post). I thought NO ONE would comment.  But many did, along with private emails, saying “I thought I was alone, feeling this way.”

No, you are not alone.  And when you are depressed, others sense it. They usually don’t know how to help, and worse, they are reluctant to help in your job search (see this post: I Smell Blood!)

Alison Doyle, of About.com, pointed me to this fantastic post: Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression.  This is an absolute must-read.  Print it out.  Share it.  Re-read it.  Go to the links that each of the 8 Tips have.  Don’t disregard any of the 8 as “oh, I tried that.  Didn’t work.”  This is real stuff that can have real impact.

Then, browsing Facebook this morning I saw a share by Pam Slim, of Escape from Cubicle Nation, who shared a post from Jenny Lawson (aka, The Bloggess), about her battles and victories with depression.

The post is titled The fight goes on. It has 2 parts… the first part is a letter that she wrote after a successful round battling her depression.  And then the second part… where she gets more into the nitty gritty of what depression is.  She talks candidly about the battle.  About “self-harm.”  Yes, that kind of self-harm.

She ends with this line: “I haven’t hurt myself in 3 days.”  What have you done in the last 3 days?  Celebrated a new year, enjoyed the victories of last year, and thought about what you’ll accomplish this year?

For every person how enjoys and celebrates and remembers, I wonder how many Jennys there are out there who are hurting so bad that a 3-day victory is a major accomplishment.

They are in your life – you might not know about them.  I hope they can have their own 3-day victory.  And I hope we can somehow be an inspiration, or a channel to help/success, for them.

This is such a relevant topic.  It affects those who are experiencing failure and success, good and bad… please, keep them in mind, and help them with a smile, or an act of kindness, or a non-judging gesture.

And share these links, which just might provide the support or tools or ideas to help them make it one more day:

• Depression Clouds Everything (my story, my post)
• Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression
• The fight goes on, by Jenny Lawson
• The Call song – which Jenny Lawson says helps her

Just one more day.

Last year the first post of the year was titled The Job Search Rabbit Hole.  I think I should make a (kids) book out of it.

I’ve used that idea as the 2011 theme, and focused a lot on job seekers chasing something that doesn’t exist (read the post for the story/analogy).

This year I want to talk about something I’ve realized as I’ve spoken to thousands of professionals and executives  across the U.S.  I have started to say that “the job search is 99% communication.” Written, verbal, body language, etc.  It’s all about how we communicate.  And we can communicate A LOT better.

I just finished a life-changing book written by friend and mentor Mark LeBlanc titled Never Be The Same.  It is a fast read, and completely intriguing.  It was written after Mark finished a 500 mile walk across Spain… the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage.  Get the book here – I loved Mark’s unique style … it was just delightful to absorb.

Mark gave me permission to share this excerpt from his book… I LOVED this story as it illustrates the communication problem that I want to help YOU think about this year.  Mark talks about going to a networking event and sharing his elevator pitch. It had all the bad, junky, jargon cliche yuck that most elevator pitches have.  One day, though, he wasn’t in the mood to share it, so he shook things up (almost accidentally).  He writes:

It was my turn-my minute-to stand up and introduce myself, again.  Only this time I didn’t blather on about my broad range of services and menu of presentation topics.  None of which, you might recall, had I provided to a single client or audience since Small Business (No-So-Much) Success was born.  My calendar was empty from Day One. Instead, I simply got up and shared my dream. In a monotone, mind you, with nary an inflection of enthusiasm whatsoever.

“My name is Mark LeBlanc, and I run a company called Small Business Success. I work with people who want to start a business and with small business owners who want to grow their business.”  Period, end.  I shut up and sat down.

There were about twenty five business people at this meeting, and when it was over, seven of them came up to me.  Now, this was a total surprise, because for ten months, no one-and I mean no one-had any interest in what I did or had to offer. Instead of repelling people, as was my habit, I seemed to be attracting prospects. There was a line, for heavens sake!

“I want to start my own business,” said one woman.

“My wife has been wanting to start her own business; give me your card,” said a business man.

“I’ve been in business ten years, but seem kind of stuck. I’d like to know more about growing my business, cranking it up a notch. Can you help me with that?” came from another.

My favorite response was a friend’s: “I’ve been listening to your introductions for ten months, and I had no clue this is what you do. I think I can refer a few people to you.”

Within thirty days, seven prospects wrote me a check and engaged me in the process of helping them start of grow their business. It was as if the floodgates opened and soon prospects came in faster than I could handle. Okay, maybe not that fast, but when you did not earn a nickel for nearly a year, this new-found success felt like I was sipping from the fire hose.”

WOW.

I had a similar experience, which I blogged about here: Substantiate Yourself.

I am convinced that the canned 30 second pitches job seekers are coached to work on lead to really, really bad results.  The pitch sucks. No one responds.  Mark changed his, focusing on the outcomes of his work, and he got results.

Small, minor, easy changes can change the results.  He didn’t throw in bigger words, fancier phrases, or more stuff.  He whitled it down to the core message, and he got results.

This is a theme that will be on my mind all year.

Will you join me this year, on our journey to better career management?