10 Questions with Jacob of JobMob

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
JobMob is about bringing together job seekers and job finders to find jobs in Israel and all over the world. The blog is filled with straight-talking advice based on real world experience and lots of humor thrown in.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
Here are two, one at JobMob and one not:

5 People Who Inspired the Creation of JobMob

Interview with me: JobMob - Helping You Find the Right Job in Israel

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
I have to admit that I don’t really like this question; it plays too much to the notion that all bloggers are egotists. Which is usually true, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Not that JobMob is a one-of-a-kind blog, but I try not to be so egotistical in my writing. It’s not about me or the blog, it’s about helping people find jobs and get over the unemployment hump (if they need to). The blog is just a medium for the message, not the message itself.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I have a technical background - B.Sc in Computer Science - so I wasn’t particularly impressed by blogging at first. I mean, it’s just a specific type of website so what’s the big deal? Although I would regularly read blog posts in Google search results, I only really started subscribing to blogs in the summer of 2006. John Chow helped me see the forest around the trees.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Blogging - scrapers. This bugs me even more than blog spammers which Spam Karma2 has largely made a non-issue for me.

Internet - spammers. Not so much in my email (Gmail does a great job taking care of that) but just the sheer amount clogging the Internet and slowing down everything for the rest of us + plus all the crime involved.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I use WPMU and I really, really like it and the whole community around it. As for a plugin, it’s a tie between Spam Karma2 and wp-cache. I’m not even sure I’d continue blogging without them.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Tough question because of JobMob’s theme. It’s not like you can hold up many great people in history and say “wow, they knew how to find work quick”. Perhaps Mark Twain, so many terrific quotes.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
I had a feeling this would happen, but I suppose I’ve become more compassionate. There are lots of people who are unhappy in their work situation or lack thereof. Finding someone stable income can literally save lives.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
My tip for becoming a better anything is to never stop learning. Learn at your own pace, but keep doing it.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Depending on what currently interests me, my taste changes. I no longer read John Chow as much. Some blogs that I find hard to miss right now are Scott Adams’ Dilbert Blog and Dosh Dosh. The former will always make me react, and the latter is terrific, flagship content almost every time. Amazing.

Categories: Business & Career, Ten Questions