Announcing: JibberJobberUSA.com

This week we will be sharing news and announcements as we celebrate our two year anniversary! We are also offering a buy-one-get-one-free offer for a one year upgrade to JibberJobber – click here for more info!

JibberJobberUSA.com should not have taken this long to get out, or announce! But it has been an interesting path. First, let me share what it is, then I’ll share the history.

The most important thing is, it’s live, available and ready to help those who may need it most!

What is JibberJobberUSA.com?

JibberJobberUSA.com is a site dedicated to helping servicemen and servicewomen (can I just say “serviceman?”) transition back home from deployment. If you are deployed, have been deployed, or will be deployed, we give you twelve months of premium services at no charge, from the time you get back home. In fact, if you aren’t home yet, we’ll start your premium service now, which allows your friends/family to help beef up your network contacts and target companies, while you are gone.

This is not a political statement, it’s just our position as a company who could, who should, help individuals who are serving their country. The offer was made in July of 2006 and will not be rescinded. It applies to any US serviceman, or any serviceman from an ally country.

Please help spread the word about JibberJobberUSA.com, and encourage anyone in the military to signup, whether they are deployed or not.

What is the history of JibberJobberUSA.com?

Back in July of 2006 we released an announcement about this offer through the blog and PRWeb.

We had a rather clunky process, requiring you to click on a certain link to signup for the free twelve months, and then have two e-mails sent to us to verify that you were indeed deployed. We managed, though, and this was fine… for a while.

This press release led to our first big podcast interview by the podcast giant in the HR/career space, Peter Clayton from Total Picture Radio. This interview was a blast for a number of reasons:

• he requested (er, made me :p) get a real picture taken for his blog post,
• it was a full 39 minute program just on JibberJobber and the JibberJobber story,
• it put us on the map in HR, outplacement, with recruiters, etc, and has led to some awesome deals and relationships.

I tried to network my way into various places where I could get the word out about the military offer. I went to at least one military base and made a presentation. I approached sites like military.com, who specialize in getting information to those who needed it most.

I got nowhere.

I’ll attribute this failure to a few things: (a) the fact that our site was brand new, and who wanted to help champion something that could go away overnight (JibberJobber was barely three months old), (b) I’m not in sales, marketing or PR, and probably went about it wrong, and (c) immense layers of bureaucracy (yuck).

I started a blog called TransitioningHome.com, but we had some server glitches and this was something that was lost in the shuffle. Everything else with JibberJobber was taken care of, but when the server stuff happened, and we lost TransitioningHome, I felt I just had to move on. I couldn’t spend the time and effort kicking against a brick wall trying to push the idea to various groups and getting nowhere, especially while there were other things happening with JibberJobber.

But the offer never went away. And the idea was always on my mind.

I met two of my users for dinner in the Salt Lake area, and we talked about this offer. The husband had served three times in the Middle East, and right after dinner I came home and bumped him up for 12 months. It was gratifying to give a tiny, tiny bit back to someone who had left their family and safety to serve his country.

They had a brilliant suggestion: make a separate site, that looked patriotic and would resonate with a serviceman, and make it look more on purpose. I tell people all the time to have their career be on purpose, and I knew I had to do this.

So we launched JibberJobberUSA.com. I got some graphics help from Andy Osier, a freelance designer, who helped prepare the logo (thank you Andy!).

I talked with military and ex-military about the signup form, so now you don’t have to send two e-mails to us.

And then, a most fortunate thing happened. I was at a conference (a few weeks ago) and met someone who is a PR expert in the military space. He has been for 25 years. I was able to steal some of his time and we talked about JibberJobberUSA, what it is, why we are doing it, and what I need. And he enthusiastically said he would help! I couldn’t believe it… for almost two years I had tried and tried, getting nowhere. And then I end up, sitting next to a guy who can really help me get this moving.

And we are moving, and it’s exciting! I’m proud to share this re-opening with you during our two year anniversary week.