Mobile office, articles and taxes

If you get to that point where you're running around town networking or interviewing, having access to your documents starts to become a problem. My latest solution is to keep everything on a jump drive and hopefully back it up somewhere. I say hopefully because it's just a matter of time before I lose this thing.

The following are some better options that I'm exploring:

Key chain jump drives
These have been around a while but Kingston has released a really small USB drive that uses a microSD card (Kingston 2GB MicroSD Flash Card with 2 adapters). It's really small and easily attaches to your keys. If you loose those, you probably have larger issues to deal with. MicroSD has become the standard of phones and mp3 players and with adaptors will work in any SD card enabled device. I bought mine at newegg.com but I've seen it other places.

Online documents - Web2.0
I've used googledocs (http://www.igoogle.com)/ for awhile and had pretty good success with spreadsheets. It has great collaboration and version control and once you get the hang of the formatting controls, it is easier to use than Microsoft Excel. On the other hand, I think you would drive yourself crazy trying to maintain a resume here. Mostly because the metaphor for Word and html are pretty far apart. Cells and tables seem to function better together.

There is also a Microsoft version of online documents called ThinkFree Online. I have not used it but it is supposed to have good MS Office compatibility, including MS Office 2007. Let me know if you try it.

Online storage and retrieval
If you're a geek like me you are probably leaning towards ftp storage on your own web site (you have one, don't you?). On the other hand, if you have better things to do, try Microsoft's new site called Skydive. It's part of the Windows Live suite and is free. You get 2 gigs of folder storage, the option to share documents with friends or make them public. Go to http://skydrive.live.com/
and sign up. You probably need an Live account (formally Hotmail or MSN) but its worth it.

Bottom line: there are some inexpensive and free solutions for accessing and managing your documents from anywhere. For example, with my Windows Mobile phone, I can get a resume, reference lists or saved articles to just about anyone, anytime. Did I mention Google bookmarks? Maybe later...

Interesting articles on job search
As I mentioned before, I will make some articles available for those in my network. If you know what I'm talking about, drop me a line and I'll make them available to you. I intend to use the Windows Live Skydive.

Taxes for 2008
Finally, Troy emailed and interesting clip form an IRS publication that pertains to all job seekers who still have to pay taxes (let me know if you found a workaround to paying taxes). I will post it in a live location in my Skydive public folders.


--JohnF

Transition happens!

It looks like another season of change is upon us in 2008. Our office is closing as part of a "bold" move to salvage the business. I will ignore the rationale behind this decision and instead focus on moving forward. I work with a variety of professionals who besides being proud of the products they produce, have a high degree of loyalty to the overall team.

Over my many years of work, I've been through more than my fair share of transition. This has allowed me to accumulate tons of resources on networking, resume writing and general job search. I will start listing those resources here for all to use.

My first recommendation is the mother of all web resources, The Riley Guide. Everyone should review this site at least once a month. It's the open source outplacement service.