JobTabs Job Search & Resume | Job Search Software for Job Seekers

March 3, 2009

Job Searching – Employ A Tool

Filed under: Job Searching,JobTabs,Motivation — Tags: Career, Employment, Job Search, JobTabs, Motivation, Resume Writing — admin @ 12:32 am

The job search can be a maddening experience for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is the organizational burden it imposes. Consider all of the jobs you will eventually apply to. Whether they are sourced from your professional network, the web, or the newspaper you are going to have to have to keep track of exactly which job you applied to. Then we have the research that applies to each and every employer. That needs to be collected, catalogued, and readily available should they decide to interview you. Which resume did you send them? And all of those cover letters that you crafted with pain staking detail. Keeping those at the ready is just as important as managing your resumes. With all of the paper work it can be extremely taxing for even very organized people to keep track of. If it is tough for organized people to manage it all, what are normal people supposed to do?

Employ a tool when job searching. You can google “job search software” or go to download.com and type in “job search” to evaluate packages as there are lots of them out there. We suggest keeping the following key points in mind when weighing the value of different packages.

MS Word. A first rate tool will be seamlessly integrated with MS Word or employ a word processor that will create MS Word documents. In addition to making you look more professional, many employers prefer resumes in MS Word format. You should make this a consideration a priority when looking for a tool.

Manage Resumes. As you pursue different opportunities, there will invariably be some shade of gray of the job requirements that you will need to include in your resume. The likelihood of finding a job that mirrors your experience exactly will be few and far between. A professional caliber tool will be able to manage all of the different resumes you have created to qualify yourself for different positions. A tool that will keep a history of each resume as it changes over time will be an added plus.

Employ Templates. We firmly believe cover letters should be tailored to each and every job. However, do you really want to type your salutation, address and closing paragraph every time? The repetitive nature of the job search can sap job seekers of their motivation and you should consider a tool that will allow you to side step any work that smacks of repetition.

Jobs. Whether you find the job on the web or through your professional network you will need to capture every detail you possibly can – permanently. If the employer gets enough resumes and they pull the job posting off of monster.com will you be able to remember the details of the listing? Consider a tool that can capture listings and save them permanently.

Details. If you are serious about your job search, you will want to have a copy of every email you send anybody during the course of your job search. This should include notes of every conversation you have as well. You should be able to catalog all of your research on each employer and have it at the ready as well.

Automatic. This final consideration, we cannot emphasize enough. Employ a tool that automates the job search as much as possible. In other words, if you have to log every job search activity you do, aren’t you just working with a glorified spreadsheet? Isn’t that what you were doing before? If you send an email and you have to make a note of it aren’t you just adding to your burden? If you change your resume and have to make a note of it aren’t you encumbering yourself unnecessarily? We emphasize this, because most people are not prepared for the considerable amount of effort they are going to have to put forth to find the job that is going to bring them the happiness they are looking for. Repetitive, mind numbing work is what so many people dread when looking for a job. Employ a tool that can do it for you. Unless you can nullify much of the administrative burden, you are going to be belaboring yourself unnecessarily. To summarize,

When you find a job you want to pursue, there should be no cutting and pasting. You should be able to save it automatically.
When you create a new resume from an existing resume, it should be added to your arsenal of resumes automatically. When you change a resume, you should be able to continue your job search without having to record any changes you made to that resume. Yet you should still have all of the details of the prior versions in case a prior recipient wants to review it with you.
When you want to edit your resume, it should open up in MS Word or a word processor of that caliber automatically and keep a record of the changes so you don’t have to.
Every time you send an email it should be logged automatically. This will allow you to focus on your job search.
You should have a bird’s eye view of your status of every one of your job applications – based not on your ability to log events – but based on what you have accomplished in your job search.

Above all else, you should not have to log a single thing, because to do so would be to tax yourself even more. No doubt this is a tall order to fill, but these tools are out there and they can be had for less than $50. Our favorite is JobTabs Job Search & Resume. JobTabs fulfils all of these requirements and then some. Alternatively, you can google “job search software” or go to download.com to search for options. Liberate yourself from the administrative conundrum of the job search. You will be able to apply to jobs more easily, gain more confidence, and ultimately get better job offers.

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC. Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers. JobTabs Job Search & Resume 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, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, as well as by phone at 404-255-0248.

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March 2, 2009

The Job Search Spreadsheet – You Have Choices

Filed under: Job Searching,JobTabs — Tags: Employment, Job Search, resumes — admin @ 12:13 am

Alison Doyle’s blog is one of my favorite destinations on the web. Alison always has great advice and her articles are concise and to the point. Recently, I read guest author Traci Pederson’s article on tracking your job search via a spreadsheet and it took me back to when I tracked my job search via a spreadsheet. The article is dead on as to what you should track and why you should track it, however I couldn’t help but feel exhausted after all of that administrative shuffling. I know how taxing it is because it was the impetus that lead me to write a computer program to do it all for me.

Let’s have a look at how Traci keeps track of her job search and let’s see how JobTabs Job Search & Resume can help you do the same thing.

I have found that one of the most useful things I started doing was to keep track of everything I am doing. I use a simple spreadsheet, like Excel. And I do mean everything. I have one file where I enter all the information from any job sites that I join. Information such as the username and password I created, what type of job site is it freelance or regular or specialty. The date that I joined and whether I posted a resume to the site or filled out their own skill assessment list goes in the file too. After about the fourth or fifth one joined anyone can be forgetful.

The great thing about JobTabs is it allows you to keep track of everything. And I do mean everything. 🙂 The JobTabs Search Agents not only keep track of which site you search on, but also all of the search terms you use when you return to the site each time. In many cases, you don’t even have to have a login, because if you have access to the Advanced Search page you can create repeatable searches without having to create an user account at all. This can be a big time saver as well as add a little stealth to your job search.

In another file I keep track of jobs that I have actually applied for. Write down the date you sent it in, whether you mailed it or emailed or applied directly to the employer’s site. Don’t forget to add in all the contact information such as a web site address, the email used to send your application, any phone numbers, addresses or person’s names that were given. This is very important for follow-up inquiries. Something that can separate your resume from the rest of the batch is to put a little work into it, read their web site and mention why you would be a great fit for their company or call them to get the hiring managers name to personalize your cover letter.

Great advice, but ugh! All of this tracking, writing, mailed versus emailed, can be an exhausting undertaking. Why not have it all, yet do none of it? Every time you apply for a job with JobTabs, it will do all of the tracking and logging and detail writing for you. For example, if you apply to a job by sending your resume by email, you just open the email form, attach your resume and send it. You’re done! JobTabs will automatically pickup on this and log the company, your contact, the exact resume you sent, the date, exactly which job you found on the internet or otherwise and whether you applied on line or by email or by post automatically! Even if you edit the resume fifty times, JobTabs will still avail you of the exact resume you sent to the employer. Our goal was to allow you to focus on getting a job while we did all of the administrative work behind the scenes!

Another page to add to your job search folder is one for classes you have taken. I’m mostly referring to the online tutorials that you can find. This is a great way to beef up your resume and get some experience and skill in a particular area that seems to be a “hot” topic for the industry you are targeting in your search. I like to record the web address, any username/passwords that I created and what the tutorial was about for easy reference.

One thing we knew when we rolled out JobTabs to the public is that we had to give them powerful tools to pursue jobs in a systematic way. We also had to allow people to have enough elbow room to do their job search their way. While we do not have a folder per se for classes you have taken, JobTabs has a free form Resources tab that allows you to keep information in any number of formats. You can keep notes and you can also attach any number of documents in any number of formats to include in doc, docx, ppt, xls, , xml, pdf, rtf, html or practically any format you can come up with.

A silly thing I overlooked was the use of various keywords on the job search engines. I was using like “telecommute’ and that was it. So of course it was hard to find hits. Branching out with other phrases will find you more opportunities such as “home-based”, “off-site”, “virtual office”, “freelance” and “work-at-home”.

Again, here is where the JobTabs Job Search Agents come into play. Should the search agents ever fail you, you will always have access to to your searches via the built-in RSS/Atom feed reader. This can serve as a veritable library of great job searching tips.

Keeping multiple copies of your resume is a time saver as well. We all have various strengths and emphasizing certain areas which target a particular company’s job listing will improve your chances by focusing their attention on what benefits you can bring to their company. And just don’t send a generic cover letter with a bland statement, I’ll mention again to at least read some of their company information to personalize it and show the hiring person that you spent some of your time researching them and that you mean business and aren’t just throwing your resume out to the wind. You will save time in the long run if you keep your applications to jobs that you are actually qualified to do.

Traci, shows all of the signs of a prudent job seeker given the details she keeps track of. You absolutely need to have multiple copies of your resume and it is a huge time saver. Our position is that you should let a software program do all of the tracking so that you can focus on your job search. Enter JobTabs. JobTabs can keep track of a virtually infinite amount of resumes. Moreover, all of your resumes can be previewed with a single click. No searching in folders, network locations or even websites. All of your resumes are conveniently stored in a hierarchical tree so that you develop increasingly more refined resumes depending on the job you are applying to.

Your cover letters are as easily maintained. Enter in the contact information one time and the cover letter will show as if it had been tailor made for the job to which you are applying. It really is that easy. You can develop your cover letter template to be as brief or as detailed as you see fit.

JobTabs Job Search & Resumes is a tool that was initially designed for professional job seekers, i.e. IT Contractors, and you would be served well if you took some cues from the pros in your job search. Simply reading the help file will do much to enlighten any job seeker and we invite you to be our guest.

In closing, the article written by Traci Pederson is well written and we tip our hat to her for her demonstrated prowess in identifying the details that job seekers need to keep track of. We do not differ with her in her wisdom or the practical advice she has chosen to share with job seekers. We are only demonstrating how JobTabs can serve as a next generation alternative that warrants a closer review by anybody who chooses to stay on top of the details in their job search.

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 20, 2009

You Are Your LinkedIn Profile

Filed under: Job Searching,Networking — Tags: JobTabs, LinkedIn, Networking — admin @ 12:42 am

The news story was gripping. The pilot had ditched the Airbus in the Hudson River and everybody had emerged relatively unscathed. The broadcast on CNN named the US Airways Captain that had landed the plane safely as the Hero of the Hudson.

And then CNN really blew me away . . . .

Not having access to the pilot so soon after the landing, CNN had to do the next best thing. CNN broadcast C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger’s LinkedIn profile on national television. I was almost as amazed by this act as I was by the heroism carried out by the pilot. See Captain Sullenberger’s LinkedIn profile here.

Whether you realize it or not, LinkedIn is a source of information as to who you are as well. What does your LinkedIn profile say about you?

For the uninitiated, LinkedIn is a social network with a membership numbering in the tens of millions. What distinguishes LinkedIn from other social networking sites is that LinkedIn has established itself as the premier site for professional networking. It is focused on connecting people through business related information and focuses mostly on collecting information one would typically find on a resume. Here are some guidelines for using LinkedIn as well as some pointers to other resources.

Professional Presence

If you have succeeded in garnering the interest of a prospective employer and that employer has decided to gather a little more information on you before inviting you in for an interview, most likely, LinkedIn will be the very first stop. You want to present yourself professionally under any and all circumstances.

Connect Judiciously

Every person you know can act as a key source of information regarding a company or a job opportunity. It does not matter whether you know them from high school or your bowling league. If they would help you and you would help them, they should be considered for your LinkedIn network. There will be people who have thousands of contacts on LinkedIn. As to what their goals are and as to what they hope to accomplish with such a vast network of people they can’t possibly know well is beyond us.

Commend and Be Commended

The testimonials your colleages can grace you with are very important. Lots of high quality compliments will bode well for your candidacy, so we encourage you to gather as many as you can. Do not be afraid to ask your former colleagues for a recommendation. If you have to write it yourself and forward it to your friend as a template, then do so. Get the commendation. Companies are increasingly looking to these commendations as a means of moving forward with a candidate and you should leverage this movement to the best of your ability.

Now Network

When you are ready to begin networking for a new job, LinkedIn will be a fantastic place to start.

While networking is reputed to be the best means for getting a job, we do not always recommend you start there. Like many things we begin anew, we will make some mistakes. It is better to make a mistake in the anonymity of cyberspace than in the close confines of personal networking. Get used to talking about yourself, your accomplishments and what you have to offer via recruiters and job applications before you embrace networking in your job search. You will be more confident and more convincing when you do.

We think the best thing any job candidate can do to get an interview is have a bull’s eye resume for the job they are applying to. When you find a job you want to apply to research the company thoroughly. Leveraging your contacts on LinkedIn for inside information as to what the company is doing and what kind of person they are looking for can be extremely valuable information. Reword your resume so that your experience is conveyed in the context of the employers goals.

Using LinkedIn with JobTabs

The contact particulars is a free form field. Whenever you have the opportunity to add a contact’s LinkedIn profile, do so. When you want to preview thier profile, just click the link on the contacts page and you’re there. In a future build, JobTabs will have dedicated tab for each contact’s LinkedIn information as well as support a host of other social networks.

LinkedIn Resources

http://www.linkedintelligence.com/ – Scott Allen’s Linked Intelligence is a resource for LinkedIn resources. Scott documents over 100 creative ways to use LinkedIn and advertises his site as the smart source for all things LinkedIn™.

http://blog.linkedin.com – LinkedIn’s LinkedIn blog.

LinkedIn Videos – YouTube videos on LinkedIn.

Did I forget anything? Please comment below . . . .

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January 19, 2009

Job Search Lessons from a $50,000,000,000 Dirt Bag

Filed under: Job Searching,Sell Yourself — Tags: Career, Employment, Job Search, JobTabs — admin @ 12:22 am

Dirt bag

Bernard Madoff is one of the biggest dirt bags in history. He bilked individual investors out of their life savings. He bilked retirement funds out of money to pay pensions. He bilked noble charities out of every last dime they had.

I cannot imagine ever learning anything from a low life such as Bernard Madoff. All the same, when he wanted to be someone’s investor he had no trouble getting the interview and then getting the job. As a mentor to job seekers, it is incumbent upon me to assess how he was able to get one job offer after another.

1. Madoff had a track record of success. Consistent returns year over year. Granted, Madoff was not good at being an investor. The returns were all a pack of lies but in the absence of being arrested or being outed by someone who did their due diligence his track record was accepted at face value. Does your resume reflect your success in your professional capacity? Are you making sure that your references are attesting to your talent? Are you mentioning those commendations you received from your superiors?

2. Everybody knew that Bernard Madoff had the outstanding track record. Because he blogged? No, Madoff’s returns were public and he paid on his returns as well. Sadly, he didn’t pay from yields of prudent investments, but paid out using the money of new investors. Our message is that Madoff was visible. Personally, I had never heard of Madoff until the scandal broke out, but in the investment community he was a superstar. Is there something you as a job seeker can be doing to make yourself more visible? Are there articles you can contribute to magazines or online forums that can heighten your visibility as a knowledgeable professional? Have you considered blogging in your area of expertise?

3. He networked very well. Madoff did not win new clients with fancy ads on TV or in the newspaper. Madoff was connected to the people who could help him advance his agenda. He was a was a member of the Palm Beach Country Club among many others. He hobnobbed with the rich and famous and he milked his network for all it was worth. Are you connected to people in your area of expertise? Are you respected in that network? Are you offering to help others as well as asking for help?

4. He exuded confidence. Madoff had the grace and charm of of a pedigreed royal. People wanted to be associated with him. He smiled. He was cool, calm, collected, and confident. Would that describe you? Are you crying in your beer or are you beaming with optimism because you are so jazzed about those seven jobs you applied to just yesterday? Are you helping others feel better about themselves and encouraging them to be positive? Are your actions and your words in sync?

5. He did not disqualify himself. Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, yet accepted billions from investment firms, banks and otherwise prudent business people. Wouldn’t investors with this kind of money have armies of accountants and financial analysts descending on Madoff’s firm every quarter or at least watching his every move given they had billions invested with him? Obviously not. Madoff did not disqualify himself from managing the resources of financial juggernauts even though he was completely illegal. Assuming you are a law abiding, hard working professional, are you disqualifying yourself from jobs could be applying to? Are you rationalizing as to why they will never hire you? Are you disqualifying yourself from applying to jobs you find exciting? Are you afraid to put your best foot forward and let them know how good you are at doing what you do?

In closing, Bernard Madoff is a good-for-nothing crook. If he had been legal he really would have been a superstar investor. The scrutiny that the media has put on him shows exactly how he would have attained that success. If you are good, people know you are good, you are well networked, you exude confidence and you will not impose limitations upon yourself; you can take control of your destiny and get any job you apply for.

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January 16, 2009

Get a Job Offer and Lose $50,000?!

Filed under: Job Searching,Motivation,Sell Yourself — Tags: Job Search, JobTabs, Motivation — admin @ 12:44 am

As we often tell our clients, it is very likely that you will eventually get a job in your field. That is rarely the challenge. The challenge is getting a job in your field in the place that you want to live and with a salary that would make you happy. If you love living in Tallahassee, Florida then how are you going to feel if the only job offer you can get is in Waxahachie, Texas? Would a move across the country cause a disruption in the lives of your spouse and your children? Of course it would. Would accepting a 35% cut in pay to stay in Tallahassee make you feel any better? Maybe, but it certainly wouldn’t make you feel good.

Take a moment to consider the true cost of a move in this economy. If you make $80K in Tallahassee, Florida and you get a job offer in Waxahachie, Texas for $80K, you may be looking at a $50K capital gains loss. What?! How so? If you bought your house for $250K and are trying to sell it in the worst housing market since the Great Depression what do you think you will be able to get for it? Wow, and to think that house could have sold for over $300K just a few years ago! You may have to sell your home for $50K less than you paid for it if you have only been living in it for a short time.

Our message is that you will want to have choices when considering a job. To have choices you need to have offers. To have offers you need to work on your job search with unbridled discipline. It is too expensive not to. The job search can be a real downer. Staying motivated and productive every day is absolutely essential to having an outcome you can be happy with. Sometimes just starting your job search is all you need to do to be productive all day and this is what we are encouraging you to do. Committing to working at it every day, at a certain hour and for a certain duration is extremely important. Share your regimen with your spouse and your children and let them know how important it is that you be allowed to work hard at your job search. If the prospect of writing one more resume or one more cold call makes you nauseous, commit to a smaller work window than you normally would. Commit to as little as two hours if you have to, if that is what it will take you to just start your job search. If you are still nauseous after two hours, you met your goal and can stop for the day. However, refrain from committing to a duration that you cannot fulfill or will discourage you from just starting your job search the next day. You will be amazed at how long you will stick with your job search if you can just bring yourself to the table. Again, it is not easy, but this works because so many have succeeded in overcoming this dilemma so often.

We also encourage you to invest in a solution that will minimize any aspect of the job search that you find so distasteful. Job search tools can do a lot to eliminate the tedious, repetitive work that drains the energy from so many job seekers. They can also serve as a means to set goals every day and stay focused, ultimately leading you to becoming an energetic, motivated job seeker.

The cost of not having any choices is too expensive to ignore and you do not want to have to pull up your stakes to move to another part of the country. This is what we are talking about when we encourage you to control your destiny. This economy has put a lot of people in an extraordinary circumstance that will call for some extraordinary discipline to weather. Simply starting your job search everyday can be the linchpin event that will lead to the job that will provide the security and happiness we are all looking for. Stay regimented in your commitment to land a job and you will truly find yourself in a position to control your destiny.

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