Motivation | JobTabs Job Search & Resume

January 15, 2009

Job Search Warning – Do not do this by yourself

Filed under: Job Searching,Motivation,Sell Yourself — Tags: Job Search, JobTabs, Networking, resumes — admin @ 12:07 am

Some of the best advice I could ever hope to offer any individual job seeker is not to be an individual job seeker. By this I mean, do not engage the job search process alone. In most every city or town of any size there is a local networking group that is helping people transition their careers or get back on their feet after losing their job. These groups are powerful resources and can do much to send a job seeker in the right direction. They often have guest speakers addressing many facets of the job search process. There are people there to critique your resume and offer suggestions on what you can do to sell yourself.

Most job searching networks are free and are held at community centers or churches. There is no need to be of a particular denomination and typically there will be no discussion of faith. These are people helping people and it is a beautiful thing. Even if you are trying to move across the country a local support group can help you in many ways. Most likely, you will also meet some new friends. The job search is a draining experience in so many ways. When people brave harsh circumstances together, a certain authenticity comes to the surface. People tend to be more sincere and open as to who they are and what they are up against. It will not be a waste of your time.

Lest you believe that the networking groups are for losers, you will be amazed at the considerable number of tier one, top-notch, alpha males/alpha females, that are looking for jobs. These people will remind you that you are not alone. The typical job seeker will look for a job every 3-5 years. By going to these support groups you will be assured that it is perfectly okay to be looking for a job. You are molting professionally and when you emerge from this cocoon you will have the wings of a butterfly.

A great resource for finding Job Networking Groups in your area can be found at job-hunt.org. job-hunt.org was founded by Susan Joyce after she was laid off from Digital Equipment Corp. Take a gander at this resource page,

http://www.job-hunt.org/job-search-networking/job-search-networking.shtml

The job search – do not do it alone!

Can you share any other sources of job networking groups? Please post them below.

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January 13, 2009

3 Mind Boggling Ironies of the Job Search

Filed under: Job Searching,Motivation — Tags: Job Search, JobTabs, Motivation — admin @ 12:21 am

Think you’re ready for the job search? I’ll bet you’re not. The job search is laden with upside down, mind numbing, ego jolting ironies. Allow me to apprise you of a few.

#1. The more you search the tougher it gets
“Huh? Don’t you mean, ‘The more you do it the easier it gets?'” Nope. That’s why its called an irony. The longer the job search takes, the longer you have been scrutinized, probed on very private matters (annual salary, reason for departure, who are you, etc.), rejected, let down, dead ended, passed over, etc. Ouch. You can’t possibly expect yourself to be as resilient after six months of this as you are in the beginning. Invest in the right tools and resources that will make the journey easier.

#2. Just when you get good at it you have to stop
When you finally get good at identifying opportunities, researching the employers, tailoring your resume, and interviewing – when you have finally mastered all of this – you have to stop. This is because you finally got the job offer you want. Wouldn’t it be great if once we got good at it, we could keep on doing it for a couple more months in case there are hard times ahead? Yes, that would be great but that is not how it works. When you get that job offer, you close the books on any other irons you may have in the fire. You are now among the employed and unless you can work two full time jobs you will have to let other employers know you have accepted a job offer.

#3. Work all day. Get no reward
The job search is a 0% commission proposition. You do not get paid to look for a job. In fact, all of the work expended in the job search is just to have the opportunity to walk into a company for the purpose of reestablishing the work to reward process. Yet, most people will tell you that they work harder at their job search than they do at the job they get paid for. An irony indeed.

What is really creepy is that this is the irony where the head games begin to seep in. Who would otherwise be hard working men and women have trouble getting out of bed. The job search begins to give way to those cob webs in the corner of the room that have for the first time in the past four years become really annoying. And look at the dust in the back of this filing cabinet! The aversion to your computer will be particularly acute, but you won’t know why. And then you won’t care.

The job search is an emotionally taxing endeavor. It is riddled with too many ironies to mention (Did I forget that you have to smile and exude confidence even though you don’t even have a job?) It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you use all of the resources you can so that the transition will never be difficult again.

All of this served as the foundation upon which JobTabs was built. Allow us to show how JobTabs flips some of these ironies.

The more you search the easier it gets
Every time you apply to a job with a perfectly tailored cover letter and resume, you at least have that cover letter and resume to serve you for the next position. I am not talking somewhere on your hard drive, in the newest email application, zipped up files stored on the web or anything like that. I am talking right there in JobTabs in a hierarchical tree so that you can identify exactly how that resume puts your best foot forward for each kind of job. The more jobs you apply to the larger your arsenal of perfectly, tailored resumes becomes. Moreover, the more jobs you apply to the less work you have to do to perfect each resume to the specifics of any new job posting.

When you get good you will be able to begin right where you left off
We believe that if you want to stand on the shoulders of giants, the best shoulders to stand on are your own. Simply put, JobTabs has powerful facilities to create your own personal job search knowledge base. This includes file attachments, hyperlinks and even entire web pages. What’s more every contact and every single conversation you had with everyone along the way is chronologically ordered for your review. You will never forget a child’s name or a contacts favorite vacation destination ever again.

Work all day and get no reward
I would love to tell you that we can pay you while you are looking for a job – I can’t. However, I can assure you that you will get more benefit for the work you expend than you could have ever imagined. I know because I imagined and derived the benefit of that labor for fifteen years. Its your turn now.

Are there any ironies we overlooked? We would love to hear what they are, so please share any ironies we over looked in the comment section below. Thank you!

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC. Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers. JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude. John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, and by phone at 404-255-0248.

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January 2, 2009

The JobTabs Story

Filed under: Job Searching,JobTabs,JobTabs Story,Motivation — Tags: Career, Employment, Job Search, JobTabs, Resume Writing — admin @ 12:57 am

My name is John Coffey and I have the distinction of having been a professional job seeker. For fifteen years I was an IT Contractor and made the process of landing a new job every three to twelve months part of my life. I was generally pretty good at getting a new gig and then I learned how to be really good at getting a new gig. Then I got even better. Along the way, I also learned to be an expert programmer. The convergence of these two skills formed the basis of JobTabs, LLC and this is my story.

In the summer of ’02, I was between contracts. This was a rare thing for me as I was usually able to roll off of one contract and roll onto another. It was almost like a game to me at times to see how well I could minimize down time between contracts. However, in the midst of the dot com bust the IT market was in a state of turmoil. Some friends of mine from my church were organizing a men’s Mastermind Alliance to serve as a job networking/support group for those who had been affected by the downturn. I figured the camaraderie would be healthy and fun, so I decided to join them every week.

Wow. What an eye opener. It was as if I had been thrown back to my college days when I didn’t have a clue as to what to do to get a job. The resumes were appalling. What was worse is the sense of futility and complete lack of motivation. While there were exceptions, many of the guys honestly weren’t sure what it was they were supposed to be saying. It was as if their career to date had been some kind of accident and they really weren’t qualified to do anything other than what they had been doing for their former employer. My exasperation with their despondency vaulted me to the position of Group Facilitator and I quickly set about guiding the group through a regimen of action. The Mastermind Alliance was so successful that the attrition into new jobs was happening faster than we could find newly unemployed people to take their place. The Mastermind Alliance disbanded within a year for lack of people looking for jobs.

One of the key elements of my success as a job seeker had been my ability to deliver a tailor made resume that really brought out everything the employer was looking for. My networking skills and my ability to use information wisely were also huge assets. I had written a computer program to manage this process and it evolved into an indispensable tool to my success in landing jobs. In addition to delivering a bull’s eye resume with minimal effort, I was able to log every conversation with every recruiter, employer and networking contact I had worked with. I was able to convert every job I had ever been considered for into a bevy of inside intelligence. Even when I didn’t get a job offer, I was always able to get the names of the people who worked there, the type of project that was being undertaken, the hardware/software environment that was in place, the gist of the company culture, the money they were willing to pay – you name it. In addition to helping me be a better candidate for future openings, it allowed me to help the other contacts in my network. The more I helped others the more they helped me. When my IT contracting peers asked me about this company or that, I could share information that they could never hope to find elsewhere. Even if I didn’t have any intel on the company I would still jot down which job seeker was interviewing with which company. By doing this, I would be able to refer my other networking contacts to them to get key information. John Coffey kept tabs on everybody. I will unabashedly state that this program was a cornerstone of my success. After transitioning the program to a commercial grade product, the initial release in March of 2005 was focused on IT Contractors. Before long, regular job seekers started trickling in and soon their numbers eclipsed the IT contractors who had been our target market. Upon the release of JobTabs 2006, I abandoned any bias for contractors.

JobTabs has been a tremendous success and an endeavor that has allowed me to grow in ways that I never expected it to. JobTabs has evolved into Job Search & Resume Builder which is a job searching powerhouse. The job seekers who employ JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder are collectively known as the taberatti and they are a formidable force. Your average job seeker is in contention for a job against someone,

who knows the people on the inside of the company or at the very least knows someone who knows someone on the inside,
who knows the details of the job beyond what is publicly posted,
who spent a fraction of the time qualifying himself as the ideal candidate the employer is looking for,
who is exuding all of the confidence of someone who has more options than this position alone.

Who do you think is going to have an advantage? The taberatti are evolving as a game changing force in the job search space. Look closely at JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder and we believe you will agree. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Stand on the shoulders of the giants who have come before you. You can join the taberatti by investing in a license via our online store at,

http://store5.esellerate.net/store/catalog.aspx?s=STR4089852848&pc=

Alternatively, you can download a trial of JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder by clicking

http://www.jobtabs.com/Download/tabid/56/Default.aspx

Welcome to our world. Join us as we navigate one of the most emotionally draining endeavors you can expect to go through – the job search.

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