I have seen [Jason (me)] change over the past few years.

Oh boy… here it comes… what exactly has changed?  I’m still the same brilliant (lol) person I was three years ago.  He continues:

He’s more confident, which is probably a far cry from where he was when he started JibberJobber.

Hm.  Interesting observation. I thought that when I started JibberJobber I was pretty confident (or, cocky).  But Thom has seen me in various network settings and lunches over time, and he’s got a different perspective than I do.

As I’ve thought about it I wondered where my confidence level was at back then… and where it is at today.  I admit today I’m more confident because I’m three years into my business, and I have accomplished a lot.  Back then I really had no idea if could measure up to the challenge.

I wonder what people would say about YOUR confidence level, right now?

If you are in a job search, or an extended job search, I bet your confidence level is lower than you might think.

This week at my networking event I met plenty of capable, accomplished executives who seemed to have low confidence levels.

Do me a favor – go read one of my favorite blog posts talking about this very issue – it’s called I Smell Blood.

And think about how you can change your confidence level – because it really does make a difference.

Nick recently came out with a new book called How To Work With Headhunters.  I’ll write more about that later.

I sent Nick a LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD and hoped he would weigh in on it.  I was more than pleasantly surprised by the in-depth and two-thumbs-up report he gave on his blog.  You can read the entire post at LinkedIn for Job Seekers: A personal tutor.  Here are some things from his post that I really liked:

“I don’t write about many products or services because it’s rare that I find one worth writing about. Let’s face it, the Net is rife with hyped-up garbag-io.”

Totally – we’ve been beyond information overload for a long time.

“I expected a slick video of Jason in a suit lecturing me. (I dunno about you, but I can’t stand scripted videos and droning talking heads.) What makes this video so effective is that it focuses entirely on the LinkedIn screen while Jason stands over your shoulder and walks you through every important page, screen, feature and tool LinkedIn has to offer. There’s no droning…”

I hear this a lot – people expect me to be on a stage telling you what to do… in fact, you can see a short preview here, or a long preview here – you don’t see me speaking at all – it’s all my screen as I walk you through Linkedin, with my commentary and advice.

“My plan to skip around and get a feel for the DVD was dashed. I wound up taking my time and taking notes!”

There is a ton of meat in the DVD…

“I’m not job hunting, but I learned much of what I need to know to use LinkedIn for my business.”

Great point – I say it’s “not just for job seekers.”

“I think this product works so well because Jason Alba is immersed in JibberJobber and he spends all day long thinking about what helps job hunters.”

Another great point.  I actually think about social tools from two perspectives: (1) from the professional in career management, whether they are in a job search or not, and (2) from an entrepreneur/marketing perspective, so I can figure out how to grow my own business.

“LinkedIn for Job Seekers costs $49 (if you catch the current promo price). An hour with a tutor will cost you more than that.”

I charge $250/hour for consulting.  My DVD is over 2 hours long. The math is simple on this one

Nick, thanks a ton for this review, it really made my week when I saw it in my Google Alerts

I hadn’t heard of it because the company that laid me off doesn’t do outplacement.  When I got let go I got a very small severance and advice to go to a free resume clinic.

Outplacement, I learned, is a service provided by a company to help an employee who is being terminated to land on their feet.  Outplacement services typically include some coaching (individual or group), learning opportunities (seminars, webinars, etc.), and sometimes office space.  There are other perks of receiving outplacement, but those are at the core.

Outplacement packages typically start around $1,200 and commonly are more than $2,000.  Executive outplacement packages can easily be five figures.

As I was learning about this industry I thought about how cool it would be to offer something to companies like mine – there is no way they would have spent $1,200 per termination, but perhaps they would spend a few hundred dollars on each of us.  To that company, outplacement was too expensive.

Interestingly, traditional outplacement firms are not interested in going below a certain price point – there is a lot of overhead associated with traditional outplacement and they just can’t go that low.

My idea was to create an offering that could satisfy that price point.

Fast forward three years… I got an email from a recruiter a couple of months ago saying he was just let go and did I know of any opportunities.  After not doing anything with my idea for three years because (a) I didn’t have the mental bandwidth, and (b) I’m not a sales professional, I thought I’d throw the idea at him.

And here we are today, with a new website called Affordable Outplacement.  We’re definitely not going head-to-head with traditional outplacement, rather we are going where they have chosen not to go.

There’s more to the story, but I’ll leave it at this for now.  I think it’s quite exciting, and I’m anxious to see how things unfold over the next 12 months!

Oh yeah, I should mention, YES, we are looking for talent to help us move this forward.  Specifically (and only), right now we are looking for inside sales reps:

First it was to start a crazy job search organizational website… JibberJobber.com.

Then it was to write a book that might sell a few copies… I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???

Then it was to actually become a professional speaker (got dragged into that one) … this is what prompted the redesign of JasonAlba.com.

Then it was to develop other informational products like the LinkedIn DVD: LinkedIn for Job Seekers.

Look where all that got me :p

Well, here’s the next one.  This met all of my criteria for doing a new thing (complement the other stuff?  Check.  Fun?  Check.  Rewarding? Check.)  Let me tell you how this all started.

Alison Doyle is the Job Search Expert at About.com.  When she comes to Park City with her man, who is the Ski Expert at About.com, she lets me know so we can hopefully have lunch together.  About a year ago I went to lunch with Mark Newman, CEO of Hirevue (a very cool company) and we were just chatting… no agenda, nothing planned, just chatting.

Somehow we got the idea to start an industry blog/site that talks about the plethora of job search tools (and stuff)… new ones, old ones, etc.  The idea was to create a place where we talk about what there is, what we think of it, how they could improve, and stuff like this.  Something like TechCrunch for the job search world.

Of course, we are not going to be, or compete with, TechCrunch. But we thought there was an opportunity to fill a gap.  We were SO EXCITED!

And then we all went back to our day jobs and got busy :p

Until recently… we finally pulled it together and decided to make it happen.  This week we came up with the name Job Search Talk, bought the domain, set up the blog, and started moving forward.

We’re jazzed, and hope to be able to provide value to people in the job search space (HR, job seekers, recruiters, software developers, etc.) – but we don’t want to (or, can’t) write all of it!  So, if you have any opinions on what is out there, or what should be out there, let us know – we’d love to have experts (whether you are a job seeker with expertise as a product user or a career coach or a software vendor) help us put up information and opinions about what is available… !

Cool, huh?  Crazy but cool.

I have a question for you Jason … and if anyone can answer, you can, seeing as how you have an IT background. Do you know how long it took for the IT industry to realign when that bubble burst? I’m sure there wasn’t 15 million IT professionals (was there?) unemployed back then, but …

Very interesting!  I remember the time well but I was in a secluded little town with a nice stable job… I could essentially watch from the sidelines and be glad I didn’t pursue my original dream of heading straight to Austin, Texas to work at Dell or something like that (I heard there were a ton of unemployed IT people in Austin during that time).

I asked my friend Heather Gardner, who is a recruiting professional in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area – she gets a terrific perspective of what’s going on in the job search world from that perspective.  Here’s what she had to say:

I’m not sure what the “right” answer is to Teena’s question, but here’s what I would say if we were having a chat. First, there has never been such economic downsizing since I became a recruiter…. Even the dot.com bust does not compare with what we are currently experiencing.

Unemployment is high, job losses are growing with more to come and what’s not being reported but has an effect on the economy is the companies cutting back on people’s hours (furloughs) not only in State & local government but the private sector.  This drastically affects a household on the financial edge to begin with….. regardless of what happened with the dot.com bust, this is much different.

Okay, now for the good news.  Just because it’s bad out there doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find a job. There ARE people getting jobs, finding multiple opportunities for employment and entrepreneurs who are thriving in this market, yep, thriving.

What I see working for job hunters who are successful is that they think outside of the box, understand that they are in a sales role now and they don’t give up.  If something’s not working they make changing, they qualify openings to make sure they can position themselves as the “right” candidate and they are stealth networkers.  The IT Manager who just got laid off, he/she needs to have several versions of his/her resume:

1. A resume to position himself/herself as the perfect candidate for another IT Manager position
2. Another resume to position himself as a software developer – something he/she has experience in and can do again.  This resume now downplays the management background so that he/she can easily be considered for another completely different role.
3. A resume that might be geared towards IT project management.  He/She many have done it in their IT Manager role, but not necessarily had the title.

Now this IT Manager can open up doors for a variety of different career roles.  The good news now is that this IT Manager that just got laid off has increased his/her chances of landing a role that they are perfectly qualified to do.

I think the best approach to this job market is NOT to compare to anything we’ve experienced before, but rather think outside the box. The more resourceful you are the better your odds are of landing that perfect role, even in this down economy.

I know people getting jobs right now…. I know companies that are hiring…. It’s possible!

Isn’t Heather Gardner a breath of fresh air?  You can follow her blog here or follow her on Twitter here.

I was talking to my unemployed cousin about doing this and I said:

I guarantee you, as you knock on doors, whether you get the job cleaning the garbage can or not, people will ask you what kind of work you are looking for.

Think about it… if you do this you are showing a good, strong attitude, work ethic, creativity, humility, etc.  These are things that employers look for.  I’d gladly introduce someone like this to a networking contact.  I’m not positive that this person would be the right hire, but this person is out doing something to make it happen, rather than wait for the job to come in.

This might be one of the best networking tactics you employ – and you can make some serious money each day!

Thom has four points that he calls “four common job hunting mistakes.”  Here they are (in red) with MY commentary (in black)… read his full post for Thom’s no-nonsense thoughts.  Of course, he’s spot on.

1. Pride Kills Opportunities. Never be afraid to reach out to your network. If you have properly invested in establishing real “mutually beneficial” relationships with others, they will be there to help you in your hour of need.

When I sat down with a job counselor, after I finally admitted I couldn’t do this job search on my own (it was about a month into my job search), he asked “who do you know?”  I had mentally disqualified everyone (family can’t help, friends can’t help, past coworkers can’t help, I can’t reach out to past clients, etc.) and said “no one.”

I was so wrong to think that… but I was also too scared/proud to approach those people.  Humility will go a long ways in your job search, and pride will allow you to see all of the fake barriers that prevent you from moving forward.  Read Thom’s comments on this point.

2. Blindly sending resumes does not work. No matter how good you are, a blind inquiry will most likely not produce interviews.

Getting your resume (or LinkedIn Profile, or business card, or whatever) is going to be a lot more effective if you have someone hand it to the hiring manager or decision-maker – as opposed to a cold email.  There is one tactic I’m exploring that might produce different results, and that is having a targeted resume distribution sent out to recruiters and HR who are in your space… more on that later.

I was amazed that I sent out dozens and dozens and dozens of recruiters and got NO response.  It’s like my email was directed to the BLACK HOLE.

Then I came to understand that recruiters can get hundreds of resumes a day… what set mine apart from all of the others?  NOTHING.

Network your way into the job!

3. A bad attitude will keep you unemployed. How you think about your own situation will have an impact on your success.

SImilar to #1, of course… your attitude will have a huge, significant impact on your success.  Have a bad attitude?  No one you network with will want to introduce you to the person you need to talk to.  They don’t want to risk their “relationship capital” by sending someone so negative and hurt to their contact.

The perfect post to read with regard to your attitude is also one of my favorites: I Smell Blood is where I share a time when I had a bad attitude and an HR exec called me on it.  Favorite line?  “HR can smell blood from a mile away!”

4. Don’t just focus on yourself. Help others. Even when you are having a tough time, finding ways to helps others can make you feel good and bring good karma.

I stopped focusing on myself after I had read Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone.

Know what?

That’s when my job search got FUN. Seriously.  The stress started melting away as I focused more on helping others, and feeling the rewards from that type of service.  Try it – it’s almost magical.

Thanks Thom, for your four points!

“How can I find the best companies to work for?”

That’s a question I hear almost daily from job seekers.

It’s hard to answer … because it’s the wrong question.

Here’s the real issue beneath that question: “I don’t want to have to think hard about finding the best companies to work for.”

Admit it. You — like me and all humans — hate to think.

It takes time. You have to pick and choose. You might make a mistake. And it can give you a headache.

But unthinking behavior is a sure way to stay unemployed.

So, let’s re-phrase the query, because a well-phrased question is half-answered.

If you’ve been job hunting for more than 4 weeks, ask this question instead: “What have I NOT been willing to do to find the best companies to work for?”

That’s better. And easier to answer. In fact, I can think of 4 things you can do TODAY to find the best employers to work for …

1) Look at your connections on LinkedIn.

I mean really look. Pick 5 people you admire, view their profiles, and look for the following:

• Where do they work now? (Could you work there?)
• Where did they work before? (Could you work there?)
• Who are their clients? (Could you work there?)
• Who are their competitors? (Could you work there?)
• Who are their vendors? (Could you work there?)

Do this for 5, 10, or more people, and you’ll surely find 5-20 prospective employers.

2) Make connections at your last employers.

Specifically, think about everyplace you’ve worked before. Now ask yourself the following questions:

• Could you work there again? (Could you work there again? Don’t snicker — getting re-hired happens every day.)
• Could you work for your former clients?
• Could you work for your former competitors?
• Could you work for your former vendors?

3) Find companies in the news.

Spend 15-20 minutes researching the Business section of your local newspaper, looking for fast, smart, growing companies. Can’t find any? Consider moving (or looking harder).

4) Ask 5 people you admire.

I saved this for last, but it really ought to come first. Because, the more conversations you have, the more people will know about your job search — and the faster you’ll get hired.

So, ask the 5 most-connected people you know for advice.

Tip: Take them all out for coffee, bring a legal pad, take notes. In 30-45 minutes, you’ll surely come away with answers that will shorten your job search. Total cost: Less than $30.

Resource: If you’re in the job market and want to try something new, you can see Guerilla Job Search secrets caught on video and learn more here.

Kevin Donlin has partnered with Dave Perry, one of my all-time favorites in the job search world.  I had dinner with Kevin last year in Minneapolis, and got to know him pretty well – he’s a very cool guy, and quite passionate about helping people get results in their job search.  Kevin and Dave have a Guerilla Job Search Boot Camp and I hear great things about it from people who have finished it.

Also, here’s a P.S. from Kevin’s email: If you know anyone looking for a job in the Detroit area, please tell them to come meet David Perry and me in person on Sept. 17 — http://www.PutMichiganBackToWork.com. Doesn’t that look cool?

(some of the links in this post are affiliate links)

Liz is a pretty awesome person with a lot of networking advice… you can learn more about her here.

Sadly, this is much needed information.  Recently, on Depression Clouds Everything someone left a terrific comment.  Thanks to “Struggling To Stay Positive” for this comment:

Dear Friends:

Here’s a list of resources that have helped me, and maybe they might be useful to you and some other people reading this message thread –

Books (mostly available on http://www.amazon.com as paperbacks for pennies if you buy a used copy. If you can’t afford to buy one, even for pennies, ask a friend or family member to purchase it for you):

1. “Getting Up When You’re Feeling Down,” by Dr. Harriet Braiker — a wise book, written for women dealing with a depression, but men can benefit from it as well.

2. “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy,” by Dr. David Burns — a collection of useful techniques for dealing with depressing moods and shifting into a more positive outlook.

3. “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living: Time-Tested Methods for Conquering Worry,” by Dale Carnegie — an “oldie but goodie” written during the Great Depression and WWII, full of basic techniques for diminishing worry thoughts and focusing on solving problems.

4. “Happy for No Reason,” by Marci Shimoff — summary of her interviews with “100″ people, many of them now “New Age” teachers, who had various techniques for being happy even in really, really bad situations.

5. “The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want,” by Sonja Lyubomirsky — summarizes basic optimistic thought techniques that have been tested by rigorous scientific research — the author is a research psychologist — the techiques are very simple and almost ridiculously easy.

The author summarizes research that shows that positive thinking, even in very negative situations, improves your life. Brain research indicates that as you shift to positive thoughts, new neural pathways are created in your brain, gradually making negative pathways less powerful.

6. “Learned Optimism: How To Change Your Mind and Your Life” by Dr. Martin Seligman. One of the first books of the new scientific “positive psychology” movement, discussing how to shift a person’s pervasive pessimistic thinking to optimistic thinking.

7. “The Miracle of Mind Dynamics,” by Rev. Dr. Joseph Murphy — for Christians and other people inclined to spirituality, an “oldie but goodie” connecting prayer and meditation with ways to increase positive thinking.

8. “Building Your Self-Image and the Self-Image of Others,” by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin — for Jews and other people inclined to spirituality, a very good mix of practical instruction on maintaining positive thought patterns in a spiritual context, even in really bad situations.

Websites:

1. The Good News Network — good news not covered by the mainstream media –

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

2. Positive Thinking Radio — really good free podcasts to listen to when times are tough –

http://positivethinkingradio.com/

3. Positive Psychology News — free daily email newsletters on positive thinking techniques from the new scientific positive psychology movement

http://positivepsychologynews.com/

4. American Happiness Association — provides free resources, such as teleconferences, for people who are having a tough time –

http://www.americanhappiness.org/

Finally, for everyone who may be feeling so depressed that suicide is looking good or someone you care about may be reaching that point:

1. “Suicide: Read This First” — a no-nonsense website that speaks directly and respectfully to peoples’ pain

http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/

2. “Lifeline Gallery: Stories of Hope and Recovery” — a website containing podcasts from people who either attempted or survived suicide attempts; also contacts podcasts from family and friends dealing with the aftermath of suicide attempts and completed suicides of friends and family members.

Website is sponsored by Dr. Phil, the podcasts are free to listen to, and other resources are provided on the website.

3. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — practical, common sense website filled with free resources for people dealing with a suicidal crisis, including a free 1(800) line to call.

http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/GetHelp/Default.aspx

4. Suicide.org — a very kindly, warm website jammed with resources for people feeling suicidal and people trying to help suicidal family members

http://www.suicide.org/

Discouraged [referring to someone else who left a comment on the original thread], I hope that you and anyone else reading this resources list may find some of them helpful. I wanted to “give back” as this message thread as been so helpful to me.

Many blessings to everyone on this message thread.

Hopefully this continued discussion helps someone – a job seeker, a spouse, a parent, a child, a neighbor, who faces this today.