Organizing your job search

At today's CCPL Job Club meeting Jim brought up the topic of organizing your job search.

Web Sites

Jim mentioned an interesting online link that can help you called Jibber Jobber, that organizes your information in a spreadsheet like table. Click here to see videos explaining the service and here to read the FAQ. As with many web sites, there is a free portion and a priced portion. Click here for an explanation of their premium service.

Jibber Jobber Update: Its interesting to see the CEO noticed this post several hours after it was made (sounds like Google Alert) and commented here. Such personal involvement is rare. Click on his Blogger name to see his profile and the blogs he's involved in. Want to see what the press is saying about Jibber Jobber, take a look at the bottom of their home page and click on the trade press logos.

I am intrigued by this new web service, stay tuned for updates to this post and an upcoming post with more details. Thanks to Jim for taking the time to find this site and tell us about it. I'd like to point out the value of our LinkedIn discussion group as a means for sharing this information with members who missed the meeting.

Another web site Resume Spider was mentioned in a recent CVJS post. Stay tuned to that message thread for other people's experiences. If you aren't a member of CVJS, you should look into becoming one. CVJS (Chagrin Valley Job Seekers) is one of the oldest, largest, most organized job seeker groups in the area. After attending a meeting and filing out a registration you can be granted access to their very active discussion group and many informative files on their Yahoo Group site. Click here for meeting information.

Here's a few of my ideas, I'd love to hear yours too, as a comment here, at the CCPL Job Club LinkedIn discussion or as a discussion on the companion group page.

PC files

Build a directory structure to hold your files, rather than have them intermingled in My Documents. Under the top level JOBSEARCH directory you may want to include the following subdirectories.

• Communication - resumes/letters sent
• Companies - info on target companies
• Contact/Network - info on people related to job search
• Jobs - job leads
• News - affecting the job search or target companies
  
• Resources - info on how to conduct a jobsearch, articles, etc.
• Skills - skills inventory, Success stories, info to draw on for cover letters and customized resumes
  

Word

Obviously you use word for your resume and cover letters. But you can use it for more things too.

Rather than print job descriptions from the web, I create a word document to hold the information. I copy and paste from the web site into a word document. I add an outline structure (using Heading n styles) so that I can expand, collapse or drill down. I indent, highlight, make bullet lists, change font size, so that the description is more readable than one large block of text. I add sections on company research, contact, and interview preparation. Rather than lots of different printouts that are hard to read, I have one comprehensive document to refer to before or during an interview.

Excel

Excel is a convent way to make a simple flat data base. If you define it as a data table, you can have auto filter headings that allow you to filter or sort the data.

Applications

I use an outliner application that runs on my PC and syncs with my smartphone/PDA. For any Palm users, the software I use is Shadow by Codejedi Inc.. This software allows me to easily make a hierarchical checklist with start/target/completion dates and easily filter the outline to see items I would like too. Updates and filters can be done on a PC or the PDA.

PDA/Cell

Today's phones are becoming smarter, many have calendar, todo lists, address books, etc. I set up a separate jobsearch category for my job search in my calendar, to do list and address books for quick and easy access. I also setup a Callback category in my address book to park contacts that need a callback.

Usability

The important thing is that it has to be your system, easy, convenient, low maintenance, and accessible.

Well that's a few of my ideas, lets hear yours.... Please!!!

Any experiences on those two web sites Jibber Jobber or Resume Spider would be very helpful.

Status: First Draft - Last update 01/09/09 10:30 PM

Computer Skills

Today, computer skills are needed for nearly every job. Not having basic computer skills is like not having a high school diploma. Luckily, there are many ways to obtain these skills at little or no cost. The trouble is many people who use a computer may have poor habits that are not up to workplace expectations.

There are so many stereotypes, don't be one of them. If you are a young video gamer, that doesn't make you computer competent. You may be an expert in your field or have many pre-PC methods for dealing with things, that doesn't mean you can avoid using PCs properly. Certain segments of Lawyers seem particularly prone to this, but when it takes 5 times longer to produce an unmaintainable document or when spreadsheets contain errors, an outside observer can see this is a serious business problem. Just because someone is an older worker doesn't mean they can't learn PC skills, nor should they think they can slide to retirement without needing them.

Basics

Everyone should be comfortable with the basics, USB connection, small flash (thumb) drives, mouse use, windows menus and shortcuts, cut and paste, task switching, etc. Take the time to actually learn these skills.

Internet

The Internet is a critical and very helpful skill. The Internet isn't just for surfing, its a powerful research and communication tool. Understanding how to do advanced searches, understanding major resources to go to first rather than a general search, and knowing about online networking (LinkedIn), publishing (Blogs), and forums (Groups) at a minimum will help you get the most from this tool.

The Internet is a very dynamic structure and new functions and techniques are introduced at an astounding pace. That means you have to keep learning and exploring it so you aren't using yesterday's methods.

If you are a long time Internet Explorer user, tabbed browsing may be unfamiliar. Get used to this feature.

Use the right tool

Do you swat flies with a baseball bat, drive screws with a hammer? No? Stupid? Then why do people use Excel for to produce tables of text? Or try to use Excel as a relational database (RDB)? Sometimes you have to bend the tool a bit, but knowing several tools and fully how to use them, helps you pick the best one and achieve the best results.

Word

Mastery of word processing is helpful as you create customized correspondence for your job search. But don't confuse word processing with a typewriter, it is much more.

Take the time to learn to use Word effectively. The outline feature (remember writing papers for high school) helps you organize thoughts, work on segments of the document, and restructure the document as needed. In order to use this feature, simply use the HEADING n styles and then you can view your document in Outline format. You can select how deep the levels are displayed.

Know how to find, use, and make your own templates and styles. Think about your document in advance, a little pre-planning can produce a much better document in less time. The big payoff is a more maintainable document.

When you format a paragraph, you can define a style based on it. Why is this better than the format painter? Well if you change your mind or need to adjust something, you just redefine the style and all the paragraphs of that style adopt the new format.

When positioning text, don't use the tab, space, and enter keys endlessly, use the options on the format paragraph to indent, hanging indent (for the lines other than the first), and the skip before and after. Use the P icon to show the control characters so you can see behind the scenes.

Excel

As you want to consider job offers, bills, budgeting, a spreadsheet is well suited for this task. Excel can also be used as a simple flat database for tracking issues related to your job search.

Just because you are using a spreadsheet doesn't ensure correct answers. If you tell Excel to do something wrong, it will !

Use formulas, don't calculate things outside of the spreadsheet. Hidden columns and calculations are OK, they can help ensure that the data and calculations are correct. Important variables should be in named cells, sheets should have meaningful names.

Learn and use auditing techniques. Data validation, cell protection, tracing precedents, =IF checking, cross totals, conditional formating and charts. There are many functions that are useful. You should become familiar with what's available.

Do you have several possibilities? Then setup control variables and use the Scenario Manager Add-In Tool to name, define, and select various scenarios rather than duplicating sheets and introducing errors and inconsistency.

Advanced Excel

Depending on your job field, advanced excel features may be useful. One of the advanced features are the flat database features (V & H Lookup, D Functions). If you are using these functions you should learn relational database functionality so that you can understand Excel's limitations and when another tool should be used. See Database paragraph below.

Another powerful and complex feature is the pivot table for summarizing and drilling down to detail of large data tables.

Become familiar with latest usage techniques such as management dashboard reporting.

Database

People often use Excel as a simple flat, tabular database. But real database technology is much more powerful. Sometimes this is called relational database (RDB) technology. The idea is that rather than a single row as a record, a database is made up of record segments that are connected by a key or ID. Why does that matter? In a "flat" database of rows the record segments can only have a 1 to 1 relation and all the info has to be in a row. In a RDB, the record segments are not confined to a 1 to 1 relationship, they can have a 1 to many, and the info does not have to be repeated for every row.

An Example -- Consider keeping track of orders. You have customers, who place orders, which consist of individual products or services. What would you put in the record or row, the entire order? If you did you'd repeat company info for each order and you'd have an unknown number of columns for multiple items on the order.

In a RDB, there would be four separate records linked together. Each customer would have a customer number (key, index, ID) that would contain info about the customer (name, address, contact...). Each order would have an Order Number, a customer number, and info about the entire order (shipping address, order date, fulfillment status). Each product ordered would link to the order number, shipping status (date, shipped/back ordered). The last record type would contain a product number and the product details like a description, price, quantity on hand.

Some of the major power of RDBs is the ability to write complex queries that feed report templates that produce just the info you want in the format you want it in. So what do you want to know? How many customers ordered a certain product? Which customers haven't ordered anything in a while? How often do customers order and which customers are over due to order? What products are most/least popular? Trying to do this in Excel would be impossible.

Microsoft's personal product is called Access and it is rather expensive. An alternative is to use OpenOffice's BASE component at no cost. Microsoft's business product is called SQL Server (Structured Query Language). A free business product alternative would be MySQL.

Status: Second Draft - Last Updated 12/07/08 2:40 AM

Alternatives to Microsoft

I personally don’t like Microsoft software and often look to Open Source or other authors for lower priced, better quality solutions.

Office

Microsoft has finally made Office more affordable so that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can be obtained for less than $150 (for personal use). These are the industry standards and are recommended if affordable.

If you are using the latest Office 2007, be aware that many companies have not converted to it, so you may want to save files in the previous Office 97-2003 format. If you are using the more popular Office XP or 2003, you can look at Microsoft's web site to find viewers to allow you to read the latest 2007 files.

However OpenOffice is a free alternative that not only proves to be fairly compatible, it also includes an Access like database (which would be very expensive on its own). OpenOffice V2 is compatible with Office for XP while the newly available V3 is compatible to the latest Office 2007.

Install OpenOffice in Microsoft compatibility mode so files can be exchanged with Microsoft users. One notable option missing in the OpenOffice V2 word processor is the Outline feature which is very useful for building larger documents and reports. There are also minor differences in functions available in the spreadsheet.

Email

Microsoft Outlook Express is the most frequently used email but has its short comings and security flaws. Eudora is the major competitor to MS Outlook and is a great alternative. To get the best spam reduction with Baysian Filters you will need the paid version of Eudora. The next best alternative is Mozilla Thunderbird at no cost.

Browser

Until recently MS Internet Explorer was very behind its competitors. Mozilla Firefox has strong security and a wide variety of enhancements. Opera is another very worthy IE alternative and has a unique email client built in.

NotePad ++

Microsoft’s NotePad application is primitive, this simple free notepad replacement has improved features, including tabbed files, remembering open tabs on next invocation, code highlighting, enhanced Search, and advanced TextFX.

Goto http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Making business cards

Earlier I mentioned carrying several business cards for various purposes. Now here is how to make then.

Office 2003

• Click Tools on top menu then Letters and Mailings then Envelopes & Labels
  
• Click on the Labels top tab then click on the label in the lower right corner to select a 2.5 x 3.5 business card (8377), then click OK.
  
• Type the content of your business card into the Address box
• Click the New Document button on the right side
  

Office 2007

• Click Mailings on the top menu to activate that ribbon
• Click Labels on the far left of the Ribbon
  
• Click on the label in the lower right to select a 2.5 x 3.5 business card (8377), click OK.
  
• Type the content of your business card into the Address box
• Click the New Document button on the bottom
  

Final Touches

• Always print on plain paper and look through it with label stock behind it to verify that labels line up and don't overflow
  
• Match the label paper stock to the printer (inkjet or laser)
  
• Load the label paper stock into printer
• Card stock could be used as an alternative but then you'd need to cut the cards evenly
  

Status: First Draft - last updated 01/08/09

Help

Here are some important links for the newly unemployed...

First Call for help here.  Need new Link

The Career Center Survival Guide here.

A west side web page has a handy list here.

The first day of the Career Workshop contains very good info. This may be available online under the Employment Connection Tools (first square, see previous post).

Do you know of others? Please comment here and share them.

Employment Connection

Our Unemployment Office in Cleveland, Ohio is called Employment Connection.

These specifics only directly bear on people in the Northeast Ohio area . For other's who came here from the net, this post will be a basis for you to ask questions of your own Unemployment Office.

Resource Center

This gives you access to computers, printer, fax, and phone. At my center there isn't a copier which is inconvenient, nor do they have wireless or Internet jacks for laptops. The job postings are what the local person thinks will be of interest, it in no way is comprehensive. More can be done with your own job search profiles.

To get access to the resources of the center you will need to register, attend a two day orientation and a four day workshop. Then you will be allowed to schedule a meeting with a career coach (on their business card, called a "case manager" by some of the staff).

Orientation

The first day they breeze very quickly through the programs. You will be lucky to keep up. The second day is TABE testing which will determine what workshops may be required of you before you can access some of the services. See my other post on this test.

Career Workshop

The four day workshop covers the following topics

1. Stress and Preparing for the Job Search
2. Skills/Accomplishments
   Skills Review, 30 sec commercial, Skills Talk, Star Stories
   
3. Job Market Skills
   LMI/Onet, Resumes, Cover Letter, Interview
4. Self Marketing/Networking
   Professional Dress, Building Skills
   

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Initial Career Coach Meeting

After completing the workshop, you should gather the following things to bring with you for the initial meeting.

• Completed "Guide to Employment" or "Power Packet" from the Career Workshop
  
• Idea of any job retraining you may need
• Resume
• Cover Letter

If you can't show that you have a decent resume and cover letter than you may be required to attend these two workshops too. There are a variety of related workshops in this area. You should review them and your current resume and cover letter so you can discuss the relative advantages of which workshops would be most beneficial.

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Status: Rough Draft - Last Updated 12/07/08 9 PM
Will be actively updating as I go through this program

What do you want to see

Please comment on this post or email me here and tell me what you'd like to see.

As a 30 year career professional I have an ability to analyize computer services, find subtle features and describe how these features may be of benefit to the consumer. I hope to take a close look at some computer related issues to the job search and write articles here.

Blog vs Discussion

I will discuss the capabilities between Blogs and Discussions. As with anything, each has its pros and cons.

Group Features

Many people in the CCPL have LinkedIn and are interesting in extending their capabilities further by using a Group Function.

As it stands now LinkedIn only provides a discussion forum. Other group facilities offer more, like file hosting calendar, etc. Jim is concerned about maintenance activities. Because of spamming abuse all Group features strongly suggest or even require an administrator to approve each member. This isn't difficult but it does require some time sensitive response. LinkedIn, being a professional forum is less likely to be abused by spammers so the maintenance needed should be minimized by not dealing with spammers that would be found on other more general and popular services.

Ken has defined a CCPL Job Club group and I have asked to join and am awaiting his approval. In the mean time I have defined a CCPL Test group so I can test the group functions of LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Group Capabilities

LinkedIn is not attempting to be a major force in Group Services, it offers only a basic discussion forum. LinkedIn does not show email addresses unless you are connected to the other member. By joining a group, you can send a broadcast email to all other group members even if they are not connected to you. Each group member has the choice of how often they receive notification of new discussions.

To join a group, select Groups from your LinkedIn sidebar menu, click Find Group and type in the name (CCPL) and click Search. Click Join Group. The Group administrator must logon to the group on a regular basis and approve member requests. Once approved, the members can post discussions at anytime with no further action be the administrator.

It appears that the owner of the group can be changed and that the members can be promoted to administrators. Using the last feature, Jim could name an active regular member as administrator and that person could offload the approval process from Jim.

Other Group Services

Major Web Service providers (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) have a Group capability that is more full functioned then LinkedIn's basic features. How much use the features would be is uncertain. I will review these extra features here in the coming days and would like your feedback.

Yahoo

Yahoo remains one of the most feature rich Group services. If you are a member of CVJS you have seen an example of their features. Yahoo offers the discussion service that LinkedIn does and so much more...

Files - allows files to be stored for the members to access. CVJS has many helpful files.

Photos - allows photo albums

Database - allows simple database tables to be defined. Another way to accomplish this would be to build a Word table or Excel data table and store it in the files section. But the user would have to have Office to update it or Office Viewers to view it. This feature is a simpler way to view and update simple database tables.

Polls - Allows a convenient way to solicit opinions from the group members.

Calendar - Allows a way to post events on a calendar for the group.

Google

I have used a google group to supplement this blog. I chose google because with one sign on I could update both web sites. Google isn't as functional as Yahoo, but it does offer some improvements over LinkedIn Discussions. Google offers the standard Discussion feature and...

Pages - This allows you to actually host web site pages in the group. It doesn't offer much in the way of helping build the pages, so to take advantage of rich content you will need to build the content in HTML and paste it into the Edit HTML editor. You could use a full featured editor like KompoZer (NVU follow-on) or a simpler editor like PSPad to help build the HTML.

Files - This is a very useful group feature that allows files to be stored for group members.

Microsoft

Microsoft is in a transition as it relates to its group offering. The long standing, MSN Groups will be shutdown in Feb 2009. They are offering a smooth transition to Multiply.com which does not offer file storage. They are also enhancing their Windows LIVE spaces and groups offering. As of Jan 2009 major layoffs were announced at Microsoft so its unclear how these areas will develop.

Status: Second Draft - Major Revision 01/06/09

Label Explanations

I will define the label use here in the future....

Admin

• BlogAnn - Announcements about Blog content or structure
• Dated - Older material that may be obsolete
• Legal - Legal / copyright info related to Blog
• ToBeUpdated - Blog posts that will be updated
• UnCat - uncategorized content
• Updating - content is being updated
• Upyymm - Content updated in the month yymm

Content

• EmpConn - Employment Connection, the local Unemployment Agency in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland Metro) in Ohio.
• Interview - Related to interviewing
• JobSearch - Related to looking for a job
• Links - Useful Web Links
• Local - Issues local to Cuyahoga County (Cleveland Metro) in Ohio.
• Networking - People/Job search networking
• Resume - Related to resumes
• Technology - Any technology issues
• Tips - Job Search Tips
• Web - Related to online issues

Welcome

This blog was setup to assist a local Job Seeker group, but membership is not limited and others are free to join discussions if they find the info valuable.

If others in the local area are interested in contributing posts to this blog, please contact me to discuss being added as a contributor team member. Everyone is free to comment. For followup discussion, please comment with a name rather than anonymous.

Status: First Draft