Request Professional Feedback & Coaching via Google Buzz

Coworkers.com now makes it easy for you to share your feedback requests via Google Buzz (in addition to Twitter & LinkedIn). Our Get Feedback tool helps you quickly configure a request for feedback regarding: your work performance, a document or deliverable, an event or milestone, or even just ask a simple question. With one click, you can share that request any way you want - via email, URL, Twitter, LinkedIn, and now Google Buzz!

To Buzz your request:

• Choose "Get Feedback" from the "Feedback" drop-down menu on the site
• In the "Ask Via..." options, make sure "Web..." is checked
• Finish setting up your request, and you'll be presented with one-click links that let you share your request via Google Buzz & other services (see screen capture below)

Happy buzzing

Coworkers.com introduces affiliate program

Affiliates generate revenue with referrals

Coworkers.com is pleased to introduce a new program that allows affiliates to earn money through referrals. The program is targeted primarily at career and job experts such as consultants, coaches, recruiters, and trainers. By referring paying customers to Coworkers.com, these people can supplement their income with no obligation and little effort.

“Since we launched our Professional (subscription) service in November, we have been approached by many career-focused business people who tell us that our service facilitates exactly the type of interaction they already recommend to their clients: ongoing, constructive, multi-party feedback” said founder Jonathan Clay. “Since these experts are already effectively selling what we offer, we decided to give them a way to profit from it.”

The affiliate program offers a one-time, 15% “bounty” to affiliates when they refer new customers who sign up for Coworkers.com’s Professional Edition. Each affiliate gets a unique “discount code” which is used to tie referrals back to them. Suggested methods of promotion for affiliates include blog entries, podcasts, and e-newsletters.

“This is truly a win-win deal,” said Clay. “With this program, we provide enterprising small businesses a way to generate passive revenue streams. End users get a substantial discount via the affiliate who referred them. And of course, we are happy to have a new distribution channel that will help us spread the word about Coworkers.com and gain new customers.”

Program details can be found at http://www.coworkers.com/affiliates

Interesting iPhone Apps for Jobs & Career Development

NOTE: All links will take you to the app directory website Appolicious, where you can read more about each app, and also download directly from iTunes if you wish.

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Audio Job Interview: The iPhone will audibly interview you and record your responses as if it were a prospective new employer. Choose from a library of common interview questions to build your own interview template.

myinstantCOACH™ is an application that is a revolutionary first of its kind, providing you access to your own Certified Professional Coach – delivering support, guidance and insight to help you remove the barriers that have you stopped, stuck or simply unhappy.

JobCoach helps you focus where you need help the most, shows you how to refine your search, and gives you more than 75 strategies to get your name to the top of the stack. Learn new skills and brush up on tried-and-true techniques whenever you have a free moment – on the train, in line at the store, or waiting for an appointment.

Career Patterns is an app designed to measure your interests and preferences for a variety of vocational and job skills. The underlying career interests survey measures three dimensions of personality that correspond to seven occupational dimensions, from Adventurous jobs to Helping professions.

Career Rescue was developed by Kim Thompson, a career counselor with extensive experience in the marketplace, working with job candidates in private, public and non-profit industries offering them “real time” hands-on career management information.

Indeed.com Job SearchFind jobs from your iPhone or iPod Touch with Indeed, the most comprehensive search engine for jobs. In a single search, Indeed offers free access to millions of jobs from thousands of company websites and job boards.

Beyond.com Search Jobs & Find a Career The application allows users to search thousands of jobs across more than 25 industries by location and keyword, review detailed job descriptions, save jobs to a list of favorites and share jobs with friends. In addition, users can browse valuable career articles for advice on job searching, resume writing, interviewing, networking and more.

Careerbuilder.com Jobs iPhone application offers a unique way to search nearly 2 million jobs on CareerBuilder.com, the US's largest job site. Users may search for jobs by keyword, read job descriptions and salaries, save jobs to a list of favorites, and email job links to anyone on their contact list.

Real-Time JobsIn a single search, this App allows a job seeker to search hundreds of thousands of job offers, view a job description, and apply for their ideal jobs. The TwitterJobSearch App is not just for Twitter users and makes use of proprietary QuickPitch technology to do this.

JobCompass JobCompass is the only application on the iPhone that searches millions of jobs, locating and plotting them on a map showing you exactly where the jobs are in relation to your current position. When you find a job that you are interested in you can email it to yourself, to a friend and even apply online.

LinkedInLinkedIn for iPhone puts your professional network just a touch away. Walk into any interview or client meeting with the ability to look up the details and connect with over 55 million professionals worldwide. Get the latest updates and messages from your network and keep them up-to-date with your status in real-time.

That's just a few, let us know if we overlooked any of your favorites.

Use your LinkedIn Account to instantly Sign up for Coworkers.com

We're excited to announce that new website visitors can now use their LinkedIn account information to sign up instantly for a Coworkers.com account. This is made possible thanks to the recently announced LinkedIn API.

How does the sign up process work?

If you have not yet registered with Coworkers.com, you can do so quickly, without a password, by signing in to your LinkedIn account. Simply visit our Free Registration page, and click on the "Connect via LinkedIn" link at the top of the page. We will import some information from your LinkedIn profile, such as your name, location, and work experience - so you won't need to enter it again. After you have registered, you can log back in to Coworkers via LinkedIn.

What about people who already have a Coworkers.com account?

If you have already signed up with Coworkers.com but have not yet filled out your profile, you can do so quickly by clicking on the "Import from LinkedIn" link on the Account page. This will instantly transfer information such as your industry, company, and work experience from LinkedIn.

Over time, we plan to add tighter integration with LinkedIn to include features that will benefit existing Coworkers.com users. We will continue to develop simple and effective tools for analyzing and improving your work, while leveraging the networking and messaging capabilities of LinkedIn, as well as other sites. We will keep you updated as we roll out new integration features, so be sure to login in to your Account Settings and sign up for our newsletter by selecting the "Send me periodic web site announcements" option - if you haven't already done so.

What is the difference between Coworkers and LinkedIn?

We realize that professionals use a portfolio of online services and tools to advance their career. Coworkers.com and LinkedIn work well together. LinkedIn is primarily used for networking – finding and connecting with other professionals, with whom you may or may not have work experience. Coworkers is focused solely on the people you have close working relationships with.

While LinkedIn has the concept of "recommendations" which are focused on personal marketing, Coworkers greatly expands the range of collegial input you can receive and share, giving you privacy control, the option for anonymity, templates, analytics, and other features focused on professional development. Bottom line: LinkedIn and Coworkers have different missions and serve different purposes, and we think you should use both – which is why we've made it incredibly easy for you to do so!

Five tips for incorporating work feedback into your daily routine

The most effective individuals and companies share a common trait. They encourage frequent, honest feedback. The key to evolving beyond the dreaded periodic performance review, is to make workplace feedback more granular, recurring, and measurable. Here are some tips for leveraging professional feedback in order to improve the work you do.

1. Foster a feedback-friendly work environment. Tell your colleagues that you think an ongoing, open, honest, and informal peer review process is good for everyone. Don't be afraid to get the ball rolling without a formal process. Lead by example and start off by requesting feedback on a recent meeting, project, presentation or other current bit of work you have been involved with. Something specific and timely may be an easier starting point than than requesting a general work performance evaluation. Feedback should be exchanged frequently in all directions. When asking for feedback, focus on results and quality, not just on how hard you work or how nice you are.
2. Anonymity is your friend. When requesting feedback, try to share your request with as many people as is relevant to the question at hand. If possible, let people know that they are not the only one being asked, and allow them to respond anonymously. This helps people open up and underscores the non-threatening nature of the process. You are looking to gather unbiased constructive input, so do what you can to make people comfortable.
3. Be quick and proactive. If problems are exposed, don't let them fester, deal with them early. Don't complain about coworkers behind their backs. It is better to discuss concerns with them directly and get issues out in the open. Always try to resolve problems unofficially first. Only go to HR as a last resort, because then it becomes a matter of record.
4. Be honest with yourself. Get in the habit of doing regular self evaluations. You will often be your most honest and thorough critic. Taking the time to reflect on your work, a few times a week or month, is a lot easier than waiting every quarter or longer. No one is perfect, and your boss(es) will appreciate that you take the time to set the bar for yourself.
5. Analyze and learn. You can't manage what you don't measure. Repeat the process frequently, track the results. In reviewing your feedback over time, you will be able to spot strengths and weaknesses. You can keep an eye on trends, and set personal development goals more effectively. When you have greater insight into your abilities, you can present yourself with a confidence that gives you an edge.
   

Share your feedback requests on LinkedIn

You told us we should do more mashing with other sites, and we heard you. You can now share your feedback requests with your network on LinkedIn, as well as Twitter.

To try it out, just create a new feedback request (be sure to keep the "Web" option checked), and then follow the instructions on the confirmation page. Have fun networking!



NOTE: This feature is also available for your previously-created feedback requests. Just login to your account and go to "Requests" in the Feedback drop-down menu. Click to view a particular request, and you will now see the new LinkedIn sharing option in the Details screen.

New York Post - Jobs column highlights Coworkers.com

New York Post Jobs column "The site stuff" has listed Coworkers.com among their "picks for what’s new, notable and work-related on the Web"

Here are some highlights from the article:

"By now we all know Monster.com and LinkedIn, but practically every day new Web sites launch that aim to help you find jobs, stay on top of your industry, improve your career prospects or otherwise help you along in your work life. We sifted through the latest offerings and compiled the following list of sites that are worth a click..."

"CoWorkers: This brand-new site follows the model of Ed Koch, who as mayor famously queried constituents with “How’m I doin’?” The concept is to aim that question at work colleagues, requesting feedback by forwarding various review forms for them to fill out. In addition to general reviews of your job performance, you can request feedback on your interpersonal skills or “core values,” as well as on a specific achievement such as a report or a presentation.

The site — which calls itself a “career development and reputation management” tool — offers a dizzying number of options. Feedback can be made anonymously or not, it can be requested or offered unprompted. Results can be kept private or made public for bosses and recruiters to see, and can be viewed in various formats, such as graphs and pie charts. So it takes some navigating, but it may be worth it to see how you stack up in your colleagues’ eyes."

We're excited to be included in this list of up and coming career-related websites.

• Read the full column at New York Post

NY1's Employment reporter Asa Aarons features Coworkers.com

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Asa Aarons of NY1, New York City's 24-Hour News Channel...

New Websites Provide Inside Look Into Jobs

"The Internet is where practically all of the good employment information is showing up these days. Two new companies are promising ways to help job seekers land their dream job...

...Staying with the idea that feedback is a good thing in the career world, check out Coworkers.com, which is based partly on the idea that successful people thrive on honest feedback...

"Coworkers.com is all about the question 'How's my work?'" says James Young of Coworkers.com. "We provide tools that let you get feedback so that you can figure out what your strengths are and promote them, and also figure out where your weaknesses are so you can improve them and advance your career."

• Watch a video of the full segment on NY1.com

Self-Reviews can help you improve work performance and boost salary

Coworkers.com has offered self-review tools since it's inception. A recent article on Cube Rules discusses the real world benefits of self-reviews in the workplace:

"Your performance review facts become your performance review ratings. And what you can’t tell your coworkers is this: you will write an accurate self-review while most of your coworkers will not. If they write a self-review at all...

As a manager, I looked at hundreds of self-reviews given by the people that worked for me. I can count on one hand how many people provided a complete self-review. Those that did had one of two influences on my rating: they justified my thinking on the rating by providing facts and figures. Or they showed me accomplishments that I had forgotten about and needed to include in my thinking about the rating...

You understand that only the employees, focused on their career, did this accurate self-review, right? And when I say they justified my thinking on the rating by providing facts and figures, you realize that the justification was for a higher rating, right? More pay and a larger bonus..."

Honest, accurate, and frequent self-reviews not only help you focus on improving your skills, they can have a concrete impact on your career and compensation. The article quoted above makes this point quite clear.

• Read the full article at Cube Rules
• Use Coworkers.com to create & manage your Self-review

"Get To Work: Take this job and love it?" Coworkers.com featured on SF Gate

We've been featured in today's SF Gate,
San Francisco Chronicle, blog:

Tom Abate: "Okay, so you're in the roughly 88 percent of the California workforce that does have a job. At this time of skyrocketing unemployment, what can you do to preserve and protect it?

One possibility is to tap into a new genre of Web sites, like Coworkers.com, that let you get frank and confidential assessments of your work performance from current and former associates.

"You no longer have to wait for your boss to tell you how you're doing, or what you need to do to address any issues," Coworkers founder Jonathan Clay says in a promo.

It's a new site and a new concept, so if anyone has experience to share, it would be helpful to know if there is a payback for inviting criticism -- and whether it is constructive or destructive..."

Read on at SFGate.com

Coworkers.Com Launches Career-Managing Site For Competitive Times

We're out of beta and officially launching!

Flexibility, Honest Feedback And Performance Analytics Put Pro-Active Tools In Users’ Hands

"New York, NY, August 26, 2009 – A new web-based career development and reputation management solution, Coworkers.com (http://www.coworkers.com/), launches today with fresh, innovative features that enable users to build a powerful, authentic professional profile grounded in honest feedback, performance analytics, and focused networking. The analytical approach is a more practical and reliable career enhancement tool than periodic reviews or sporadic feedback.

Coworkers.com gives professionals at any level, those in transition, consultants, and small businesses, the tools to instantly create a personal dashboard to manage their work, analyze their performance, gain feedback on overall performance and get reaction to specific deliverables, events, and job milestones. Companies can use the site to monitor and analyze employee performance, and recruiters can gain access to detailed candidate profiles. Businesses with virtual teams or multiple offices will find a complete suite of tools to communicate, share feedback, and monitor workgroup performance without costly enterprise software..." Full press release below.
Coworkers Com PR 2009-08-26

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE COWORKERS.COM LAUNCHES CAREER-MANAGING SITE FOR COMPETITIVE TIMES: FLEXIBILITY, HONEST FEEDBACK AND PERFORMANCE ANALYTICS PUT PRO-ACTIVE TOOLS IN USERS’ HANDS New York, NY, August 26, 2009 – A new web-based career development and reputation management solution, Coworkers.com (http://www.coworkers.com/), launches today with fresh, innovative features that enable users to build a powerful, authentic professional profile grounded in honest feedback, performance analytics, and focused networking. The analytical approach is a more practical and reliable career enhancement tool than periodic reviews or sporadic feedback. Coworkers.com gives professionals at any level, those in transition, consultants, and small businesses, the tools to instantly create a personal dashboard to manage their work, analyze their performance, gain feedback on overall performance and get reaction to specific deliverables, events, and job milestones. Companies can use the site to monitor and analyze employee performance, and recruiters can gain access to detailed candidate profiles. Businesses with virtual teams or multiple offices will find a complete suite of tools to communicate, share feedback, and monitor workgroup performance without costly enterprise software. “The current environment demands a more robust and authentic solution to career and reputation management,” said founder Jonathan Clay. “Coworkers.com puts career advancement into the user’s hands. You no longer have to wait for your boss to tell you how you’re doing, or what you need to do to address any issues. With Coworkers.com you can find out quickly and painlessly, straight from the people who know you best – the colleagues that you interact with every day.” The easy-to-navigate, intuitive home page features four built-in tools including Get Feedback, where users can tailor a survey to get honest, anonymous feedback from colleagues and coworkers (requests can be sent via email or links embedded in social networks, blogs, etc.); Give Feedback, which lets users give fellow employees or colleagues public kudos or private viewpoints on their work; and Improve and Share, which analyzes feedback data, and offers unique, and powerful graphics tools to generate analytic charts and graphs that visually map and measure performance. “For a generation of professionals that has learned to build careers using social networking tools like LinkedIn®, Coworkers.com opens an important channel of communication between coworkers and potential employers,” noted Jason Whaley, COO of Fitzgerald Analytics, an IT/strategy consulting firm. “Coworkers could become an indispensable tool for managing the 21st century career.” During its Beta period, Coworkers.com responded to market demand by evolving from a simple performance rating system to a customizable assessment and feedback tool that helps individuals take greater control of their career development. “We’ve made the site truly flexible and adaptable to individual needs,” said Clay. “Both public and private data can be managed throughout a person’s career. Social networking can be as much or little as you want. The depth of feedback can be quick and top-line, or in-depth depending on the project. Do you want a quick assessment of your presentation, or a comprehensive take on your at-work image? The site was designed to meet your work needs regardless of the matter at hand or the stage you’re in.” About Coworkers.com Founded in 2008, Coworkers.com Inc. is a privately funded company based in New York City focused on creating on-line solutions that apply web 2.0 and social technologies to facilitate career development and enhancement. # # # Contact: Suzanne Mannion Newsmaker Group Office 201-445-8451 Mobile 201-725-0471 smannion@newsmakergroup.com 

Visit our Coworkers.com Press Kit Page for additional media information.

Web Culture And The New Ethos Of Work

Stowe Boyd gave a presentation back in July at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, entitled Web Culture And The New Ethos Of Work. A colleague on twitter recently pointed out that the slide deck and notes from this presentation are on Mr. Boyd's blog. Some interesting ideas, check it out...

"The Art of Working with Recruiters"

Whelan Stone offers their inside perspective on "how to maximize your relationship with recruiters so they’ll want to work with you." They've compiled a five-point list that they call a "Take Five on how to have a mutually beneficial relationship with your recruiter and stand out from the herd."

Here is a summary of their key points:

1. Be Clear and Realistic
2. Be Forthcoming
3. Be Responsive
4. Establish a Long Term Relationship
5. Be Appreciative

Here's one more interesting tid-bit to consider "when two candidates are “neck and neck” for the position, companies will often rely on the recruiter to help them decide who should get the offer." For more details about the five points above, read the full article here.

Fast Company: Show Up and Deliver Your Best Everyday

Fast Company offers valuable insight: "In a recent conversation with a client, she mentioned that she and her team were in a "wait-and-see" mindset as it pertained to budgets and projects for next year. Given the current market, I could understand where she was coming from. However, I sensed a certain lethargy that I knew would put them in a bad spot in the months and year to come if not addressed..."

When the news hits hard, or you 'survive' a round of layoffs it's hard for you not to feel like your energy has been zapped. The article suggests "What you do today lays the foundation for what you do tomorrow, next week, next year, and the rest of your life. It's not an issue of results. It's an issue of momentum. When you believe you can have a positive impact, others believe it too. Everyone's inspired to action. And you build momentum. When you vacillate in that belief, others vacillate too. Action starts and stops. Momentum never comes. And you get resignation and exhaustion instead. In this way, delivering your best is not something you can turn off and on depending on circumstances. It must be a daily habit..."

Other useful tips offered:

1. Look at what's on your plate today or this week.
2. How do you feel about it? Does it inspire you, bore you, depress you? Be honest with yourself.
3. If it's not a productive mindset, find a way to shift it. Projects themselves are rarely boring or depressing, it's usually the approach to them that is.
4. If you work with other people engage them in the process of shifting this mindset together.
5. Remember, you can always have a positive impact on yourself and the world around you - it's merely a state of mind

Read the full article at fastcompany.com

Photo credit: Thorne Enterprises