Check out this email I get about, oh, once a day (edited to take out the person’s name who sent it):

The problem with this is that you look like a spammer when you send this.

I know, I know, you didn’t do it on purpose.

What can you do about it?

• Be careful what networks you sign up for.  I know people how sign up for every new network that comes around, and I regularly get emails from them that I just delete.  Maybe even legitimate emails… but they send so much noise, I don’t even pay attention to emails from them.  You don’t want people to think of your emails like this, do you?
• If you sign up for a new thing, don’t do anything that might send emails to your address book (including uploading your address book).

I think many people do this by mistake, but it makes email from you look like spam… and you don’t want that – be careful

December 15, 2006: My Christmas Present to You

This was the first December of my company – I had been laid off for almost a year.  JibberJobber was a few months old, and people were still asking me for a job search spreadsheet.  I would point them to JibberJobber and say what I designed there replaced the spreadsheet, but they still wanted a spreadsheet :p

So I wrote this post where I link to the old spreadsheet I used, but also talked about why I would rather use JibberJobber.

This was a fun post to find :p Enjoy it here.

Some of you have noticed the old “Manage Columns” link is now gone… and there’s a new icon in its place:

When you are on your List Panel page, click on the icon the red arrow is pointing to, which allows you to:

• add or remove columns on a List Panel,
• reorder the columns in your List Panel,
• add/remove icons on the right,
• change the number of rows to view,
• reset the “order by”

While we’re here, a little reminder:

Search box A does a search on your entire database… including Contacts, Jobs and Companies.

Search Box B does a search just on the the List Panel you are in… so if you just want to search for companies, go to the Company List Panel and then search in the B box…

Enjoy!

A few weeks ago my wife and I were running errands.  We had been to several stores and were deep in conversation when we were finally entering Barnes and Noble.  There was a nice guy holding the door open for us, as he was leaving.

I was seriously deep in conversation with my wife when we walked through the door, and didn’t think twice about him.

As I walked through the door he shouted “YOU ARE WELCOME, A-HOLE!”

I was totally shocked.  His 15 year old son looked totally shocked and embarrassed, too.

He continued to walk towards the parking lot, shaking his head, and complaining loudly that my wife and I didn’t even acknowledge his good deed.

As I was trying to make sense of what just happened I thought “man, if he was waiting for a thanks, which we should have given him (but didn’t), he was holding the door for the wrong reason.  He should have relished in giving the service and not been offended at the lack of (expressed) appreciation.”

I couldn’t believe he was SO offended, and that our lack of reaction caused an eruption from him.

I thought: how juvenile for him to let our actions dictate his reaction.

As I thought about all of this I found my own reaction getting uglier and uglier.

And then I realized I was letting his actions dictate my own reactions.  My mood changed, all because of him.

While I didn’t want his reaction to change my demeanor and affect the pleasant afternoon with my wife, I could see myself slipping into a bad place.

With a lot of effort, I tried to push him, and that event, out of my mind, and be back with my wife.

It was hard, but I knew that I couldn’t let him ruin my day.

Many times things happen to us, but they don’t have to dictate how we react.  How we react is OUR choice.

Don’t let someone, or something, make you worse, even for a minute!

(Yes, I’ll be working on this idea for many, many years :))

This weekend I’ve spent plenty of time kayaking on a lazy river  with my family. It has been a long time since I’ve been on a boat of any kind, and the first thing I wanted to do when I got on was to paddle everywhere I could.  Near and far, always going fast.

It was like a contest to see how far and how fast I could go.

Then, something happened… instead of being in contest mode I switched to chill-out mode.

I paddled less, and just floated and enjoyed more.

In the quiet floating time I could think, reflect, enjoy, and see things I wasn’t seeing when I went fast.

I’m reminded of my job search, where I was paddling frantically week after week.

It’s hard to tell a job seeker to slow down and relax, because they feel like they are drowning, and have just a few moments of oxygen left.

But I wish I would have slowed down.

I wish I would have taken time to “think, reflect, enjoy, and see things I wasn’t seeing when I went fast.”

There’s more to life than being in a rat race.  So many people I meet have had unfulfilling careers in jobs they wouldn’t want to go back to, but they are anxiously trying to get back to unhappiness, because it carried a regular paycheck and some false sense of security.

They paddle fast, and miss all of the opportunities to change their life, and reflect on what is really meaningful, and make decisions that will lead them to where they really want, and deserve, to be.

Unfortunately the panic weighs for than the need to retool, but if you can, please take some time today, and tomorrow, and for the next few months, and slow down, and really figure out where you want to head.

November 3rd, 2006: Hot off the press! LinkedIn milestone!

Wow, a walk down memory lane!

Almost five years ago I was so excited they had gotten to 8 million members.  Now they are supposedly over 110M.  I had some thoughts, including (see post for details):

• How come they haven’t grown as fast as MySpace?
• How helpful is this, really, for my networking and job search efforts?
• Should I get an account now, and really beef up my networking?
• When I get an account, I’m done, right?
• What about … the others??

I really wrote too much back then… very long blog posts. But this was a fun bit of history to stumble upon

See the entire post here.

You have heard you should tell stories in an interview, right?

I say you should tell stories in your LinkedIn Summary.

Why?  Because when I tell you a story you can connect with the story, or me, in a different way.  It’s usually an emotional connection, as opposed to just listening to facts and figures.

A few nights ago my son and I were talking about a wasp nest we were going to take care of.  I asked him if he remembered when he got stung by wasps about six years ago, when he was about four years old.

It’s a pretty funny story, from my perspective, and I wanted to see what he remembered.

He told me the entire story, including what day it was, what time it was, and exactly what happened and what he was thinking.  He gave me more details than I would have guessed.

Why did he remember all this, even to this day, after not telling the story to anyone?

Because he connected emotionally to the experience.

And he’ll never forget it.

Can you craft your stories so people can put themselves into the experience?  So they can relate to the type of boss you had, or the problem you were facing?

If you can create those stories, and tell them CONCISELY, you’ll communicate on a different level, and people won’t forgot you, or your story.

Maybe they will forget parts of your story… but they won’t forget how they FELT when they heard your story.

It’s that powerful.

Here’s a great job posting… if you are interested you can mail the guy (no email, of course, for someone as sophisticated as this):

Pretty funny stuff. I’ve seen this before, and I crack up every time I see it :p

At the same time, it is sad.  There are many fake postings up all over the internet.  Whether it’s something to lure an unsuspecting person into physical harm, or financial harm (a fraudulent investment), or identity theft, they are out there.

Please be careful!  Apply only to real postings.  If something is too good to be true, it probably is.

Ask others to check it out, network into the right person who will know if it is real, and trust your family and friends if they see warning signs.

Too many people are getting duped by the thieves and crooks, and I hope you can be more astute and not lose everything.

Lately I’ve run into a number of singer/songwriters who are interested in moving forward in their careers.

I’ve randomly seen a number of songwriters sign up for JibberJobber (not because of my wife’s songwriting journey).

Why are these people getting on JibberJobber?  Or, why shouldn’t they get on JibberJobber?

JibberJobber is a personal relationship management tool.  It is a database that helps you keep track of your relationships.

Originally designed for job seekers, JibberJobber helps you keep track or your target companies and your professional contacts (as well as your personal contacts).

Does this sound like something a songwriter would need?

ABSOLUTELY.

In some of the workshops my wife has been to they stress the importance of networking and branding.

Songwriters are doing the same things that job seekers need to do.

• They need to keep track of who they meet.
• They need to keep track of what they talked about.
• They need to set up reminders to follow-up with people.
• They should have a place to store the contact info and relevant links to contacts.
• They should wordsmith their own 30 second elevator pitch.
• They should network into companies.

All of these are things that JibberJobber offers, and perhaps that’s why songwriters are heading over to JibberJobber.

It’s simply a relationship manager.

November 8th, 2006: Carnival input from Heather and Seth

Many years ago, when I was just starting, I did something called a Blog Carnival. I think they have gone the way of the Dodo bird, but back a few years ago they were pretty cool.

I invited a Microsoft recruiter (Heather Hamilton) and Seth Godin to participate – they both responded via email (not the normal way to respond).  Regardless, I was elated they spent a few minutes with their answers.

Click here to see Seth Godin and Heather Hamilton’s responses to my question about networking and job search.

In typical Seth style, he starts off with “Well, the bad news is that the _______”

Enjoy!