As more people are joining the ranks of the unemployed, what are they doing to help themselves and others find a new career opportunity?

Many are banning together and forming job clubs, meetups and other networking groups to exchange job leads and network.

Social Media and Social Networking sites are emerging as a major resource for online networking, Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter are at the forefront of a lot of job search activity. Thousands of recruiters and job seekers are connecting online and communicating with each other to fill the jobs that are available in a very competitive employment market.

One group in particular is combining both live events and online networking to help one another uncover the career opportunities that are available.

PinkSlipMixers have emerged as one of the most talked about groups. I had the pleasure of taking to the Founder of the Pink Slip Mixers, Edwin Duterte about Pink Slip Mixers and how they help both job seekers and employers connect with each other in a fun, “unjobfair” way.

Read my complete interview with Edwin

Tell our readers a little about yourself, what is your background and how did you come to be with VirtualJobCoach?

I am fascinated with solving problems, and I want to help people find a job faster. I have worked in software development for Digital Equipment, marketing for Microsoft, management consulting for Accenture, Deloitte Consulting and a few successful startups. Through my own job-searches, I came to the understanding that there was no real ‘job-search process’ and, because of this, I was wasting a lot of time. I was also wasting a lot of time jumping between applications that were never really designed to support the search process. So I set-out to define an explicit job-search process based on how people actually get hired and build an integrated set of tools to support this process. This was the beginning of VirtualJobCoach.com .

What is VirtualJobCoach?

VirtualJobCoach is a web-based tool for job-seekers that help them find a job more quickly. It does this by ‘mapping-out’ the job-search in a way that keeps people organized and focused on results. It has all the tools that a job-seeker needs, and they are all integrated in one place and were built specifically for the job-seeker.

How will VirtualJobCoach help a job seeker complete a successful search?

Most job-seekers, even executives, have a hard time with the job-search. No one ever ‘taught’ you how to find a job, you just sort of learned it from parents and peers. Unfortunately, this means that most people spend way too much time on ‘long-shot’ hiring strategies. They spend too much time revising their resumes and far too much time searching the Internet for job-openings.

Why is this bad? Because only 5-10% of job-seekers are actually hired by responding to open positions. Simply put, if you are focusing on searching job-boards then you will take up to 15 TIMES the amount of time to find a job than if you used more productive strategies. So we built our solution around results – how people actually get hired and built that into our product.

While results are important, efficiency of your search is also very important. Can you afford to stay unemployed for 6 months, 12 months? Most people can’t, they need the money to support their families, so we have also focused on the steps or process of finding a job.

This way, we can use results to drive your job-search strategy, but also give you specific steps in how to go about performing your job-search. Basically, a detailed ‘action-plan’ that helps people get the most out of their job-search.

Who needs an VirtualJobCoach?

1). Anyone that wants to find a job faster, 2). wants more organization and structure to keep them focused, 3). is feeling frustrated that they aren’t making progress, 4). wants a results-driven job-search process, 5). wants all their job-search activities, 6). data and tools all in one place.

How much does it cost to use VirtualJobCoach?

The base cost is currently $9.95 for 30 days, or two Starbucks Lattes. In the fall, we will be introducing some advanced functionality at different price-points.

Can Career Coaches benefit from using your product?

Yes, they can use the ‘Coaches-Aid’ functionality in VirtualJobCoach. This was built after getting a lot of feedback from coaches (and their clients) that they could really benefit from a system like this. Most coaches can’t really help clients with tools because everyone uses something different. But if you use VirtualJobCoach all your clients are on the same platform, which means you can guide them more effectively

How does that work?

Coaches-Aid allows coaches to set-up VirtualJobCoach accounts for their users and to monitor their online progress. With this, coaches can provide oversight on the ‘real’ job-search process. This enhances their coaching in a way that directly helps their clients and also provides another service / revenue-stream for the coach.

What are your top 3 Virtual Job Coach tips for a users?

1. Set goals

2. Measure progress

3. Keep perspective

What motivates you to get up in the morning and go to work for Virtual Job Coach?

I am very passionate about helping people because I remember how discouraged and depressed I got when I had prolonged job-searches. I believe that our solution will truly help people find jobs faster and am intellectually challenged by trying to develop a robust job-search process where one really doesn’t exist.

You must be very busy with Virtual Job Coach these days, what do you like to do in your spare time?

I have three kids including a 4-month old that keep me pretty busy. But when I have spare time, I play guitar, build computers, read politics, watch science fiction movies and play video-games.

Thank you Will for taking the time to share your product and thoughts on job searching with our readers.

Thanks, John.
For more info: To learn more about VirtualJobCoach visit their website at http://www.virtualjobcoach.com. Ask me how you can incorporate VirtualJobCoach as part of your job search strategy.

Original Post: An interview with Will Robinson, co-founder of VirtualJobCoach.com