My Christmas Present to You

Well folks, I’ve gotten various comments about signing up or upgrading in JibberJobber. After thinking about it we’ve decided to give you two Christmas presents. If you don’t celebrate Christmas then let’s just say its a gift from me to you (but I’m still referring to it as Christmas below) :p

First, for those that think that they can manage their job search using an Excel spreadsheet – go for it! As a matter of fact, I’m linking to my old spreadsheet that I set up in January when I got laid off! I cleaned up as much as I could without taking away from the idea, but this was a pretty cool tool that I used for about 250 hours… then things started to get complicated. I left some data in so you can see how convoluted it began to get… but it is very useable, and a great tracking system. Here are some comments about this spreadsheet:

1. There’s a reason why I thought this would be way cooler on the web. How many spreadsheets do you have from 10 years ago? Do they make sense? Are they outdated? … I know I’ve lost a bunch of them. Also, how many computers have you gone through in the last 10 years? This spreadsheet is an okay one-time tool, but if you want real career management, and track data over a long time, use JibberJobber. What a shame it would be if you build a nice network, and strengthen relationships now, only to lose track of the data and relationships over the next couple of years! My spreadsheet kept changing and changing and after a while it was A MESS …. I just can’t say enough why the spreadsheet IS NOT a long-term career management solution – whereas JibberJobber is (more than anything else out there (including your trusty spiral notebook!).
2. The first sheet is Business Listings. This is the main sheet that I tracked where I applied to, important dates, etc. May seem simple but its way better than other stuff I saw (notice that I linked the first column to another sheet, if I started another sheet – see the VSPRING tab for more explanation on this). Also notice that i used color coding and the comments feature on cells.
3. The second sheet is SLCCompanies. As I found out about new companies to check out locally (I did this job search in Salt Lake City) I added them here, with notes and a URL if I had it. You’ll see that I had it subdivided into various cities in the SLC area.
4. The third sheet is NonSLCCompanies. I think this was for companies that were headquartered outside of this area – which would have an impact on possible promotions, travel, etc. Working close to HQ has benefits and working away from HQ has benefits 😉
5. The fourth sheet is boards_recruiters. This is where I kept track of job boards I was on, and what recruiting firms I had contacted. (notice in the login name column it shows something else… this is part of the “getting out of hand” thing…)
6. The fifth sheet is for UI Tracking for unemployment insurance filing. I had to “contact 2 new companies each week” and this is where I kept track of it. Lots of intersting thoughts on that whole process, but that’s for another post. I still have this data in case I get audited.
7. The last six sheets are what I called company detail pages. This had the general information at the top and then a place to log contacts, thoughts, info, etc. Again, I left info there so you get an idea of how I used it.
8. Finally, you heard it here first, this is a little bit of JibberJobber history, and we’re proud of it 🙂

Merry Christmas – eat your heart out! Use this spreadsheet as long as you want! And when you get frustrated, or want the data to last longer then come on over to JibberJobber! The free version is WAY better than this sweeeeet spreadsheet 😉

My second Christmas present to you, as a regular user, is… drum roll…. I’m bumping the free network contacts from 75 to 250. What???

You now get 250 contacts in the free version!

Have a happy, safe, prosperous and family-filled December (well, unless you don’t like your family, then skip that last part)!

Why the bump in contacts? Because it just needs to be that way. That’s why. Who’s da man?