That is why Isabont has made it as easy as possible to get you started, is easy to use, and works with you beyond this search, and makes your next search as painless as possible by keeping you active.

Making it simple to start and use, Isabont provides the ability to import your contacts and calendar, to quickly creating a resume and cover letter, or importing ones you created yourself. Not that you have to enter all your information at the outset anyway.
Isabont is the only job hunting tool that gives you the organizer and document creator functionality, and be completely integrated.

Viewing the job search like a project and rather than a lifestyle, or on-going activity makes it difficult to warrant using any tool that is more complex than pen and paper, However most people (and that includes me) found ourselves in a job search with the ardent promises of :
“next time” we’ll network more, so there’s no more rushing to start building and maintaining connections, and not let them lapse when we get the next job:
to make updates to our resume regularly during the year, rather than stress and spend days trying to recall what we did / achieved in the last 2-3 years, so we can bring our resume up to date.

Isabont was designed to provide you with just the right amount of functionality without including “un-necessary” features that just creates bloat. You want to enter a contact and link them to one or more job-lead or company. You want to save a job description and link it to a document you sent them, and keep a diary note log. Nothing more – nothing less, than that’s what you get with Isabont, just the right amount of functionality without going overboard.

If you are already networking, and have a good organization system in place, you may not find a use for these tools.

However for the rest of us mere mortals, we need something to keep tabs on all the moving parts of the job that is job-hunting and that is where using Isabont just makes sense.

I agree that LinkedIn is a terrific tool. I disagree that LinkedIn is a relationship management tool. I wrote a post on the shortcomings of social networking (http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/archives/209) a few months ago, which include the lack of ranking the relationship, logging events, privacy, etc. LinkedIn has a purpose, and that is to get exposure and to find others. But it is not a tool for managing a relationship.

I used LinkedIn during my last job search. Aside from the lack of things listed in the blog post I just linked to, I couldn't "connect" to people that aren't LinkedIn users.

I still use LinkedIn, and Outlook, Gmail, and other tools, but I use JibberJobber as a central hub to manage all of this data.

For example, if you e-mail me (please do, I'd love to get to know you better -> Jason @ JibberJobber.com), and you have a signature, the first thing I do is take your info and go create a profile in my private database of you (and I'll google your name for an image) :) I have complete control over this data… and as our relationship progresses I'll include log entries, change the rank, create action items, etc. You can't do this with LinkedIn (can you do it with Plaxo?).

The other things you mention which I'd like to clarify is the size of the JibberJobber network. Actually, there is no JibberJobber network. You don't go to JibberJobber to search for other contacts. It is NOT a social networking tool. I would never try and go head-to-head with LinkedIn (or any of the hundreds of other social networking sites)… as a matter of fact, I have a category on my blog called "UNSocial Networking" (http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/archives/category/unsocial-networking/).

Thinking of JibberJObber more of a personal relationship manager, like a personal CRM, is more appropriate than think of it as a social network.

Again, thanks for taking the time to do this evaluation. While it must be cool to get to peak into and comment on all of this technology, its gotta be a pain to hear the backlash from people like me :p

That's why one of the alternative tools I mentioned in my review, which didn't get mentioned in Penelope's summary, is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a terrific relationship management tool, and it's something that you can use throughout your career, not just when you're jobhunting. Plaxo also is beneficial in this way.

LinkedIn and Plaxo are useful in that they actually help you stay in touch with your contacts. LinkedIn can also help you get introductions, which plays a huge role in jobhunting and in building your network.

JibberJobber has similar relationship management tools, and when you're not actively job-searching, those are the most valuable aspects of it. Unfortunately JibberJobber's network is far, far smaller than LinkedIn's. Connecting with someone via LinkedIn is easy because many people are already in the network. Also it doesn't look like a leadup to asking for a job. But if you ask someone to connect with you on the JibberJobber network, what do you think their first thought is going to be? Here comes the job inquiry. That's why I don't think it's a good choice for ongoing career management.

That could change if the JibberJobber network grows. I just don't see it working that way right now.

The important point is that these particular software products don't change what you do in your job search. Their intent is simply to make you more effective in doing those things. Of course there are alternatives. Access, Outlook, Excel or a Big Chief tablet and a Number 2 pencil all can work. What you as a user have to decide is do they make me effective? Will these software products make me even more effective than these basic methods? If so, is this extra effectiveness worth the cost? In the case of JibberJobber and Isabont you can get much of the functionality absolutely free and subscribe for premium services for a nominal fee. With these your only "cost" is the time and effort to learn and use them. Considering what it would takes to learn and set up Access, Outlook and Excel to do the kinds of things you need to do I'd say these products are a bargain.

I think it'd be a great help to new users if the job hunting software companies provided a much more in depth demo to play around with before taking the time to input all of my own information. That way, I could learn a lot about the software before making a big time commitment just to be able to test it out.

I've known struggling sales people who have given as a reason for poor performance the fact that they are working on a contacts database.

Contacts databases are great, even essential — whether trying to land a job or sell real estate — but they shouldn't keep you from picking up the phone.

…

For me, I'm not job hunting, but in keeping up with contacts I prefer to expand my knowledge of Outlook — one of the most used pieces of software in the business world. When appropriate, I'll also use Excel for organizing my time, long term. With limited time, I think my hours are better spent honing skills with common software than with esoteric job hunting programs.