Web 2.0 and Job Search: Some Options

Just finished my second call with Shari, my Web 2.0 case study. We discussed her priorities in job searching right now and then reviewed some potential options for addressing them.

Organizing the Job Search and Locating Job Leads
One of Shari's needs was to create a dashboard for conducting her job search. She'd already signed up for a gmail account, so what made the most sense was to show her how she could use i-Google to set up a customized job search page. We could have also considered Pageflakes or Netvibes, but I'm operating from the belief that it's better to connect to what people know and are already using.

Over the phone I talked Shari through setting up her i-Google page and adding the tabs. One of the advantages of i-Google is that it has a lot of widgets (they call them gadgets) that are related to job search (Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Indeed.com, etc.) so when Shari created her "Job Search Sites" tab, she was able to automatically add those gadgets to the tab. Now she just has to type in her search terms and all in one place she'll have constantly updated leads.

To further organize things, we discussed how she could add:

• Bookmarks to the job search sites that don't have RSS feeds (many of them) and to her online portfolio.
• A Mapquest widget so that she can see how close jobs are to her or quickly get directions for interviews.
  
• A dictionary gadget--she says that she's always looking up words.
  

Then I walked her through setting up her Google calendar (which she's also embedding into her i-Google page), including showing her how she could get her daily agenda automatically emailed to her each morning. She loved that one.

I also showed her how to set up Google Alerts and we talked about how she could use them to monitor what was being said about her online, as well as to keep an eye on specific companies or trends. She immediately set up a vanity alert.

Finally, I showed her how to use Jott. This will be a great option for Shari because she's a self-proclaimed talker and Jott will let her create emails, blog posts and calendar updates using voicemail.

She's not sure if she wants to use her Gmail account in her job search, but I told her that if she did, I could show her some tricks with labels and filtering that she might want to use to further automate some of her job search activities.

Professional Branding
Shari's other key need right now is to start marketing herself to potential employers. She's currently meeting with a career coach to come up with her "unique selling proposition," which is something she'll need to start branding herself. She wants to have both an online portfolio and a blog, so I suggested that we start with setting up her portfolio so she could begin organizing and loading her materials while she continues to think through her brand. Once she has that in place, we can then look at setting up her blog and how she wants to have it support her brand.

I suggested that Wikispaces would be a good place to start for creating an online portfolio, so I walked her through setting up a site and showed her how to create new pages, edit, embed widgets, etc. She has a lot of presentations so I also showed her Slideshare, which can be both a good way for her to be able to embed her presentations into her portfolio, but is also a form of networking/marketing for her.

Her goal will be to start loading up this working version of her portfolio. Next week, after she's met again with her coach, we'll discuss how she can begin to get more targeted by creating employer-specific portfolios that highlight the skills and achievements related to different jobs. We'll also be looking at setting up a blog. I'm thinking we'll be using Blogger for that--keeping it all in the Google family. Although I'm going to give her the Wordpress.com option, too. I like the tabs in that, which might lend themselves better to Shari's purposes.

Key Learning

• Shari told me that discussing all of these tools in the specific context of a concrete need was a huge help. Rather than some general, "aren't these cool?" kind of discussion, I could show her in a very clear way how these tools could benefit her. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, they made her feel excited and energized because she could see the clear connection specific to her situation. It probably didn't hurt that needing to find another job feels really compelling--more compelling I think than needing to stay updated for job you already have.
  

• I walked Shari through a lot of the set-ups, each of us clicking through on our own computers. Because she's fairly tech savvy, this worked for us, but if she'd been less comfortable with technology, I would have needed to use some kind of screen-sharing option.
  

• Shari seems like a pretty adventurous person, willing to try things out and give them a chance. That's helping in this process too.
  

• I'm trying to show her a lot of examples. I think this is contributing to showing the relevance.
  

This is an interesting process and clearly it helps to provide more coaching and opportunities for discussion.