Unlike other mobs that may be more inclined to make you an offer you can’t refuse or introduce you to the underbelly of the Russian Mafia, the JobMob run by Jacob Share wants to help you find a job in Israel. It seems a little out of the ordinary that he would order a paid review on a Canadian blog, but seeing how people have said it’s the best $40 they’ve ever spent, I can’t blame him.
No Need to Go to the Mattresses
JobMob: All Together Now is designed to tell you how to get jobs and get jobs done in Israel. Jacob isn’t going to tell you to leave the gun and take the cannoli. In fact, based on the posts that I read on his job blog, Mr. Share seems like a very open and inviting person who is more than happy to dish out job hunting tips and report on some great events.
In terms of layout and design, JobMob is very pleasing to the eye. The header image jives with the web 2.0 crowd and you’ll notice that the site is swamped with a series of elegant blues and soft yellows. This creates for an inviting and unassuming environment, unlike other job sites that may appear intimidating to first-time job hunters (or veterans for that matter).
One feature that I particularly enjoyed is the sidebar. At first glance, the layout on JobMob looks like any other two-column WordPress blog. He’s got the main content on the left and all the pertinent information on the right. However, you’ll notice that there are three tabs at the top of the single sidebar and by clicking on any of the three, you bring up the associated content. In this way, it’s almost like having three sidebars built all into one. Very nifty and very creative.
Jacob did make sure that the key RSS subscription information remains intact regardless of which sidebar you select. This will surely help him increase his readership, because the feed is always accessible.
What About Content and Style?
Other blogs may get all cluttered with widgets and other doo-hickeys, but not JobMob. The same can be said about many of the posts, because Jacob Share (and his silent team of mob members?) write articles that are easy to approach and present the information in the simplest of manners.
Although he started out with a rather erratic posting schedule (the first post dates back somewhere in December 2006), Jacob now seems to put up a new post (almost) every weekday. He appears to take Saturdays and Sundays off, but I suggest that he keep the blog alive on the weekend as well, even if they are with shorter, more light-hearted entries.
Here are a few JobMob articles that will give you an idea what the blog is all about:
- Does Changing Jobs Effect Unemployment Benefits in Israel?
- Do Freelancers Need Unions?
- 35+ Job Fair Success Do’s and Don’ts
- Jerusalem Course Teaches You to Employ Yourself Over the Internet
- Upcoming Job Fair in Jerusalem for Young Adults
Looking at the categories, the lion’s share of articles fall under “tips”. I feel a great way that Jacob could monetize his site is through featured job postings from Israel companies. They get exposure, Jacob gets money, and readers get a job lead. Winners all around.
White Space is Good, But…
Enough is enough. When you get beyond the front page of blog posts, you’ll discover that every subsequent page features truncated blog entries. Normally, this wouldn’t be too big of an issue, but you’ll also notice that Jacob only places three posts per page, regardless of whether there’s the full post or a “read more” link. I’m assuming that this is to improve loading times, but three posts is nowhere near enough and the net result is way too much white space.
Speaking of white space, while I enjoy the overall design of JobMob, it could stand to have a little more color in its cheeks. There’s no background color to the header or the sidebar, so my best suggestion would be to do something like what I do here on Beyond the Rhetoric and place two colored bands beyond the content on either side. It need not be a very bold color; in fact, I think the baby blue color scheme would work just fine to break up all that white space. As mentioned above, I’d also increase the number of posts shown on each page, perhaps to five or six (at least).
The Mob Gets the Job Done
And boy are they professional about it. Although JobMob almost resembles a personal blog, Jacob Share has done a great deal to give a real pro appearance. Heck, when you check the footer, he’s got all the commercial underlings like a Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
If you’re looking for a job in Israel — and who isn’t?! — then JobMob is a great source of information, not only in terms of job-hunting tips, but also in helping you stay on top of job fairs in and around the Jerusalem area.
I like Job Mob a lot, very clean and professional.What’s next worldwide job board?
Oh the white space.
Michael: Thanks for the terrific job on the review. I’m going to blog about the review early next week, and I’ll respond to your comments there. Look for the pingback 🙂
Etienne: Thanks for the compliments.
Simon: yup, I’ll have to make a change there.
You also can’t just go and steal people’s legals pages http://gawker.com/advertising/legal/
Thanks for visiting JobMob, Simon.
If I was a thief, why would I link back to Gawker?
They were my source of inspiration so I gave attribution. To not have done so would have been closer to stealing, but still not.
If you look around the Web, most of the legal documents of that sort (EULAs are another example) are fairly standard.
Jacob seems to be right on the point of legal documents and he gave credits to the source, so it should not be a problem, unless the owner contacts him to have it removed.
Wow, so other people do it so its now allowed? Yes I agree that they are similar but real companies don’t just have it large parts copied from another site.
I don’t see why you are so concerned about this. He gave credit where credit is due and if they ask him to, I’m sure he would remove it. Besides, the legal pages are not the purpose of the site, the content is. Most people probably don’t even look at the legal pages.