Continental Shelf

Back in January 2006, Jason Alba, a young IT professional and up-and-coming business manager was laid off from the software company he had helped develop. He says that although he was was sure he would find another job in a matter of weeks, he found himself months into his job search with no success.

But as part of his job search, he rapidly got tired of complex spreadsheets and sticky notes to keep track of his job search activities and contacts, so he started developing a little online database application he could use like a customer relationship management (CRM) system. He soon realized that others would find value in this tool, so he started his own company to make the new tool, which he called JibberJobber, available to the public.

Three years later, Jason Alba owns his own business, is a successful speaker, and has published books and instructional DVDs on using LinkedIn and Facebook, particularly for career management and job search.

This week, Jason is celebrating: it’s three years this week he started his own business — and his fifth child was born just days ago. So I thought I’d point people in his direction, for several good reasons.

• Inspiration. Jason’s story makes a great narrative of the guy down on his luck who rebounds, the guy who rewrites the problem statement in order to solve it. Go read or view the story in some of the interviews .
• Useful resource. Actually, multiple useful resources. I usually hesitate to write about commercial products, but I’ve already mentioned JibberJobber.com a few times in previous posts. When I was laid off a year ago, I was convinced that I was tracking job search information just fine. But I still gave JJ a whirl — and within days, it saved me from forgetting important details (contact info, follow-up letters, etc.) I’ve been employed for over eight months and I continue to use JJ as a contact management database and a job journal. On top of that, Jason posts tons of useful information on his site, and his books are also useful to me.
• Job search ≠ career. In his blog, Jason often explores the distinction between career development and job search. It’s a fine point that is easy to miss while you’re searching because of the urgency of finding a job, and easy to forget when you’re employed because the sense of urgency is now missing. In other words, we tend to manage our careers in crisis mode — hardly a smart plan. I’ve drawn a lot from the JibberJobber blog in this respect.
• Trifecta. How could I pass a chance to congratulate Jason for the triple shot of his new baby, his recently released DVD, and the third anniversary of his company?
• Special. Yeah, JibberJobber has a special going on all week. You don’t actually need to pay to use JJ, only for the premium features, so this may or may not matter to you. But I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of it, myself.

Congratulation, Jason!