Note: Lots to write here, not enough space. I was planning on giving this award to 60 people this month, which would be worth $3,600. Alas, it only goes to a fraction of that. Read on…
So I’ve been following the Jobster layoffs for a few weeks (sorry to bring it up again – it had pretty much died down), and found a most intriguing thread on Matt Martone’s blog. The big question boils down to “So these guys get terminated and we’re supposed to jump to action to help them? What about the billions of others that lose their jobs?” You can see my response in there, the 17th comment. I think its pretty brilliant :p
It doesn’t really matter what your position is, the bottom line is there are about 60 people that have been put out on the street (that’s what I heard, not sure what the final numbers were), and they have to find a new gig. It is interesting because Jobster is the company to watch, and it has been watched. The CEO gets criticized for his blog style (I think his style is great, and he makes no excuses for the transparency (although he does kind of apologize for calling Monster a crap product), and news like this layoff has lots of people talking (lots of recruiters that blog, that is).
I’m not taking a position. I think its a cool tool, and its definitely different. But back to the winner of the month… I have found a number of ex-Jobster professionals that I want to feature as winners this month. Note something different this month is the use of their LinkedIn profiles, which I need to blog about in another post. There would have been 60 awards this month, if all 60 of them “got it.” But read on, for the interesting outcome.
Dana Bos – Co-founder and Editor of ThreeImaginaryGirls.com. Freelance Content Guru. Dana’s LinkedIn profile and her ThreeImaginaryGirls are totally complementary and scream “I know my stuff! I know web content. I know podcasting. I know how to communicate online.” The fact that she had the role of “Website Producer/Content Manager at Jobster” tells me that she could cross industries easily. You need to check out her LinkedIn profile and constrast it with her Jobster profile – it is very interesting (and something to consider based on your target companies)! While she doesn’t have a blog or her own personal branding website, she’s posted these profiles on comments of at least one other blog.
Rob Humphrey – talent professional – if you want to see You Get It in action, go check out Rob’s profile. He blogs in multiple places (DigitalRecruiter, TriangleAtWork and CareerCowboy) and uses the SquareSpace.com very effectively to present himself and his achievements. You can’t spend 10 minutes on this guy’s sites and NOT get an appreciation for his breadth/depth. Terrific stuff, presented very, very well.
Sara Elkins – Strategic Account Manager – no website, no blog but she’s obviously spent some time on her LinkedIn profile – it looks very nice (read: its way more fleshed out than mine). This is a topic for another post but you can learn a lot by comparing your LinkedIn profile with hers, as she has all the right stuff. If you are in the mode of improving yours, check hers out and then read this post about improving your profile by Guy Kawasaki.
Heather Gray – Sales and Marketing VP – this took a little poking around – I got her resume from her Jobster profile page, and then found a blog address (it isn’t active). But she does have a LinkedIn profile – yahoo! Interestingly, her resume does a ton more for her personal brand than her LinkedIn profile – but at least she has one. I’ve just looked at 10 other Jobster profiles that don’t have a LinkedIn profile, or a blog, or a website, or… well, anything more than their Jobster profile. Heather can do some more work here, probably have an excellent blog a la Kent Blumberg style – and be the thought-leader in this area – her resume is super impressive and I’d love to learn more about her breadth and depth through a blog … hint hint!
Ariel Stallings – two writers in one – on her website there’s a section to go to see about being an author, and one about being a copywriter. And she advertises other services (like blog consultation — hm, I wonder what she’d do to change my blog!). Her website is great, has lots of information about her passions, skills etc. This is a good time to highlight the way Jobster has profiles – its kind of like an interview where she has questions, and she has responses. These are NOT dry questions, mind you. They are more like “casual conversation” or regular conversation that you would get into the first time you met.
Kalindi Kunis – Marketing Communications and Product Management – Kalindi had a resume on her jobster profile that had a link to her LinkedIn profile. Feel like I’m stretching here, as far as substantiating her personal brand? I do too… but that’s okay – it goes along with the theme this month. Her LinkedIn profile has interesting information, and I learned a lot about her from the resume+LinkedIn profile. At least she has two instances of using the web to help her brand…
and finally… that’s it. That’s all I found :(. Out of supposedly 60 reductions (love the term?), only 40 had their profiles on the Jobster site in this category. And out of these 40, this is all I found that had any substantiation of their personal brand.
I’m amazed to not see more blogs. Actually, I was amazed that so many (past) employees of a web 2.0 company that has a very active CEO blogger haven’t done much to substantiate their personal branding online. Before I went through the 40 profiles I thought I’d have a TON of reading to do, going over each of their blogs. But I guess the reality is that too many people are spending all of their time on their job and no time on their career management.
Sorry for the morbid note, I won’t end on that!
For all those mentioned here, you get the exceptional prizes of a cyber-high-five, a link on my blogroll (if you have a site – so far this is just Rob and Ariel), and six months of premium access to JibberJobber! Good luck to each of you (and those not mentioned here), and please continue to pay attention to your career management even after you land your next dream job!