JobTabs Job Search & Resume

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.

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.