I can have an iPhone too!

The moment I saw the iPhone, I thought about how I could get one - but I then was torn because I have been really happy with my new Blackberry.

So here is my middleground. I am downloading right now to see what is what. I will be sure to report back.

iBerry theme from BlackBerryThemeCentral.com

ignition links to yard art blog instead of my blog

Having been with Jobster from the beginning, I was really fortunate to work onsite with the Ignition team from March to July 2004. What an amazingly talented and experienced group. Even more than their experience is the sense of partnership you have as an entrepreneur with them, and their sincere desire to be a catalyst to great ideas.

I have to laugh at this, though. I was happy to see my blog was listed on Ignition's partner blog role. Someone pointed out to me that when you click on "Neil Crist's Blog," you are directed not to my blog, but to a blog about yard art... as opposed to yarddart.

If anyone links from Ignition, they probably wont think much of what I have been up to in my spare time. LOL.

another funny video from our all company event

Employees having fun, referring to the past, present and future of recruiting...

Is your resume really who you are?

This is the question that really describes the basis for Jobster when we started the company 3 years ago. Some folks at Jobster had fun with this notion at a company event last week.

making SMS sexy

Am I impressed with the iPhone? No doubt yes. As a full package, I think it brings a fresh new approach to the mobile arena, differentiated mostly by design.

What stands out to me the most is the SMS experience. I think that phone stands to make SMS as sexy as IM, if not more. This is just the boost that text messaging needs in the 25 to 35 year old segment.

Check out this interface for text messaging... what an improvement from what users have today.

This means a lot to me because in working on the paddlespot project for nearly 2 years, I have become pretty intimate with SMS, MMS, and how this all fits together across phones. This is the first time SMS doesn't feel to me like the lowest common denominator of mobile communications...

Six hour commute home

Last week's storm resulted in my worst commute experience ever. This winter I have heard tall tales on the news of people taking 5 or 10 hours to get home in the storms. Of course I was always skeptical of such stories... until now.

At about 445pm I left the office as I saw snow starting to fall. Just 20 minutes earlier, I had watched frozen rain pelt the street below. The sooner I was on the road, the better. By 5pm I had merged onto Interstate 90 near Seahawks stadium - not bad at all, making good time.

Then traffic stopped immediately at the Mt Baker tunnel, just prior to crossing Lake Washington. That was at 510pm. I would later find out that frozen rain had turned the bridge and stretches of I-90 into a skating rink, leading to a 3 hour crossing of the bridge. By this time, snow accumulattions on the East side and Issaquah were building rapidly. Another 3 hours and countless abandoned cars later, I pulled into my driveway - 11:07pm.

The next morning we woke up to 11 inches of snow.

I am having fun with geojoey

While I miss seeing MarkM on a daily basis here at Jobster, I have been really interested in the what he has been working on since he left several months ago... Geojoey.com.

This site allows users to pin interesting experiences they have had on a map (thanks google!), share it with others, and even post videos. If you have a trail or path you want to record, then use an open pen function to mark your route on the map!

Everyone who knows me knows about paddlespot and my love of anything related to the outdoors... good luck Mark!

Want to check out my experiences posted there? Check out my page!

still here, more focused than ever

By now, it is already known that Jobster has reorganized in 2007. Many of the reasons that I have not sat down to post anything on my blog are related to how "heads down" we have been over these past months.

Since "d-day" as many of the employees called it, I have been working frantically to endorse and recommend those that have moved on - all top notch. Although this process was an extremely painful and personal process (a company built via referrals), those of us still here are starting to heal and get re-focused on 2007.

What do I think about Jobster in 2007? I posted a comment to Jason's blog over the holiday if you're curious. To give you some context for the opening line, the holiday brought us a large volume of very personal attacks on our CEO over rumors...

I suppose if you are surfing for juicy comments slamming Jason, or looking for someone to valiantly defend him from masked stone throwers, then you should skip on to the next comment... I want to talk about Jobster in the New Year.

About this time 3 years ago, I connected with Jason Goldberg, and he pitched me on joining a new venture he called Jobster. Not too long after, I left a job I loved at Microsoft to join as the first team member- for two simple reasons: First, as a hiring manager myself, I felt the pain that drove the inspiration for Jobster. Secondly, some of the smartest folks in the industry were behind Jason's idea. They believed he was onto something- I could not pass up the opportunity to work with people of this caliber.

Now, fast forward to the end of 2006. The very same reasons I joined Jobster remain true today - and we have been busy. We have assembled the highest concentration of talented people I have ever worked with. We have been working hard to begin to fill the demands of employers and jobseekers, who are asking for something new. Our customer & sales numbers continue to prove to me that the demand & need in this industry are VERY REAL. That said, there is still a lot of work to do.

I believe that these past 3 years have given us a huge amount of information & data about our customers, this industry, and the vast opportunities that exist. The more we learn, the more we will likely adjust to meet those opportunities - that is our responsibility.

Someone very wise once told me that if you take a bunch of really smart and passionate people and get them together to work on tough problems, that special things can happen. From my perspective, that is what Jobster is today and will continue to be in 2007.

Happy New Year to everyone.