BA.net - Better Answers

BA.net feedsburner DumbLittleMan News 12/07/2008

Subscribe with an RSS reader

News Home Archive

Jay Whitenoreply@blogger.com2008-07-10T08:11:11.881-05:00How Social Media Can Help (or Kill) Your Career and Life</h3><content type="html"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mondriankilroy/2267173672/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_dH0q9hvpVHg/SHVEsSaSaiI/AAAAAAAAB7Q/MWso6DBpQ50/s400/social.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221154870652987938" border="0" /></a>By now we have all heard about job recruiters using Google to search for ghosts in your closet. You know what I mean, in addition to credit and background checks, they search looking for your name and look for your myspace page, your facebook profile, your existence on hate websites, etc. For the most part, I am all for this; the internet is public domain so if you put it something out there, accept it as yours. As someone who has had to hire employees and locate tenants, I have held dozens of interviews and done my fair share of credit checks. My conclusion is that they just don't define character the way chat room fodder and social networking sites do. The latter provides a real world look into someone's character when they believe that no one else is watching. In this little article I am going to offer up a handful of ways for you navigate through this trend because, well, it's not a trend. Search and Social Media are here for good and if you are in my camp, you believe that we're still in the infancy stages. Some of my tips are ways to use social media to your advantage and some are pitfalls to watch out for. Take 'em or leave 'em, they are reality so apply as you see fit. <ul><li>Does FriendFeed or Twitter belong on your Resume? Well, that all depends. If you have a strong following on these sites and the crowd relies on you for your expert insight, much like a <a href="http://twitter.com/msaleem">Muhammed Saleem</a>, then yes, by all means include your URLs. However, and this is ridiculously critical, do not send twitter messages during a phone interview! The time stamps will kill you (I know someone this happened to; he was twittering during an interview...). </li> <li>How can I prove my knowledge? If you are in a field that is even somewhat competitive, start differentiating yourself now. Start <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=answers_info&goback=%2Eahp">answering questions</a> on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/">Linked In</a> or perhaps <a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/">Yahoo! Answers</a> and then promote your profile. If you are able to show some passion and thoughtful insight for a particular topic, you'll stand head and shoulders above the candidate that is not online. Company processes are moving more online each day and the more you can show that you're not only educated but willing to creatively work in an online venue, the more valuable you are. If you are passed simple "look at me" profiles and you have a decent blog, a successful facebook app, or something else 'good', then promote it. If your personal/hobby site is successful, you are immediately more interesting than the person that has nothing cooking on the internet. However, if your blog only has 4 RSS subscribers, is filled with profanity or contains naked pictures of some celebrity, resist the urge. Success is viewed favorably (obviously) while mediocrity and vulgarity is viewed negatively. When I decide to look for a new job, you can gaurantee that I'll be telling the world about DLM (hint, hint). </li> <li>Standardization (i.e. Keep the Story Straight) Your resume and online presence should be the same all over the place. If you have a twitter profile, a Monster.com resume, a Careerbuilder resume, and a hard copy, they should all be relatively the same. Nothing says BS like different stories, dates, and accomplishments. </li> <li>Keywords These days, most resumes are scanned into some corporate recruiting database and assigned keywords. When a manager has a position to fill, keywords are searched for and the query results show all the resumes that match. The same is true for Linked In and similar sites. In this case, you may deviate from standardization and use varying keywords on each site/database to see what sticks and what brings in the best response. Refine your approach based on the calls/emails you receive. You should choose keywords for your location, certifications, hobbies, job titles and skills (but don't use ultra-generic buzz words, especially in your resume's objective). </li> <li>Aliases We all like to be truthful. However, the fact remains that if you are using your real name for everything, you will be burned eventually. Professional sites deserve your real name because it can eventually help you. Gambler's Anonymous message boards, Stop Smoking Forums, your Digg profile, comments on blogs, and any other site that could be viewed as a time waster or otherwise have a possible negative connotation, deserves a pseudonym. To really illustrate this, here is the <a href="http://del.icio.us/url/086d3022e33ca455db06ecab6089252c">del.icio.us page for a recent DLM article</a>. On the right side you will see the user names of everyone that bookmarked this article. Some people chose to use their real names! Click on a name and you will see everything this person has ever bookmarked. Wouldn't it suck if there were porn sites and other shady pages listed? Your name is your online fingerprint so touch things with caution.</li> <li>I live in a Dump I am not sure that I would call these last two social media, more technology in general. The advent of <a href="http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html">Google Street View</a> and other mapping applications gives people an opportunity to zoom in on your neighborhood and in some cases your home. While I do not agree with this, some people may see a dilapidated neighborhood as a sign of weakness and/or failure. When putting your address on a resume, at least consider this point. Again, I am not crazy about it but it's a fact that we all have to deal with. </li> <li>Calendars 2 years ago I wrote an article entitled, <a href="http://www.dumblittleman.com/2006/09/how-to-get-robbed-killed-or-stalked-by.html">Death by Google Calender</a>. It showed how bad guys could easily search public calendars and then rob you because you told them you'd be out at a card game (or otherwise not home). I was very specific and it was quite an episode as the article was picked up by Slashdot. I ultimately edited the article after the calendar owner emailed me indicating that they would switch their settings to private instead of public. In any event, the same holds true here. See the irritatingly small image below? Do you see that button that says, "Search Public Calendars"? Well, what if the hiring manager tossed your name in there and found out how your really spent your weekends? Again, be smart. </li></ul><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_dH0q9hvpVHg/SHVATBGLhRI/AAAAAAAAB7I/NYeUvU00f0c/s400/gcal.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221150038462006546" border="0" /> At this point I think you catch my drift; be creative, smart, and use social media to the fullest. But - don't lambaste people on blogs or share personal details unless you want them shared and unless you are willing to take the heat. How else can you use the internet and social networking to make yourself more appealing to hiring managers? Let us know in the comments. - Jay <img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=e4b31f68c64bd72cb6e6e7ba07070682" height="1" width="1"/> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=e4b31f68c64bd72cb6e6e7ba07070682" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/DumbLittleMan?a=fw78xB"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/DumbLittleMan?i=fw78xB" border="0"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=PBWyvj"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=PBWyvj" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=IvouCj"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=IvouCj" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=ZIr2fj"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=ZIr2fj" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=Xij9Gj"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=Xij9Gj" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=rpSyoJ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=rpSyoJ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DumbLittleMan/~4/331212579" height="1" width="1"/></content><author><name>Jay White</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email></author></entry><entry><updated>2008-07-09T11:05:53.533-05:00</updated><title type="text">8 Ways to Avoid Unproductive Meetings</h3><content type="html"><div id="write"><h7 class="write">Written on 7/09/2008 by Aaron Stannard, editor of <a href="http://blog.smartdraw.com/">Working Smarter</a>.</h7></div> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/juanmaiz/257642964/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_dH0q9hvpVHg/SHQFPn8n1kI/AAAAAAAAB60/KBFJTVRZT9c/s400/bored.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220803634008675906" border="0" /></a>Have you watched CareerBuilder.com’s hilarious "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gulba1SQTYw">Donut Jungle</a>" commercial? The one where naïve employees are lured with delicious deserts into attending pointless meetings? The commercial is hilarious because it contains a hint of truth: many meetings, especially in larger organizations, are utterly pointless and devoid of usefulness. The phenomenon of chronic, pointless meetings is also known as the <a href="http://www.stangbangers.com/Dilbert_MeetingMadness.jpg">Dilbert Meeting</a> in some circles. Dilbert Meetings happen every day, wasting people's time and patience. Meetings can be quite productive, but most organizers simply don’t take the steps to guarantee that a meeting will be useful. Here are 8 things you can try to help make your meetings more productive: <ul><li>Have a clear agenda What do you want to cover during the meeting and why are you holding it? Do you want to go over new ideas, or perhaps review some old ones? Prepare a clear agenda of things that you want to discuss during the meeting and hand it out in advance. Don’t hold meetings just because your department always has biweekly meetings; only hold meetings because you need to and because you have a clear plan of what needs to be said and discussed.</li> <li>Make sure that only attendees are people who need to be present Don’t hinder the rest of your organization by dragging everybody into a meeting if only four or five people actually need to be there. If people other than the attendees need to be informed about what was discussed at the meeting then take notes and email it to them afterwards.</li> <li>Establish objectives for the meeting Establish clear objectives for what you want to get out of the meeting – the agenda covers what's going to be discussed during the meeting but your objectives cover what the discussion is going to accomplish. Discussion is great, but it’s not productive if it does not have a goal. Here’s an example of a good goal for a production meeting for a multi-author blog: we’re meeting today to determine the schedule for all blog posts over the next six months. It clearly states what the discussion should work towards and makes the expectations for the meeting clear.</li> <li>Have the attendees prepare in advance (if necessary) If your meeting requires its attendees to present information and plans then you should require them to prepare materials in advance like handouts, PowerPoint presentations, and outlines. Do you really want to sit through another meeting where you watch your attendees scrawl unintelligible impromptu graphs on the whiteboard instead of giving you the information in a neatly summarized handout beforehand? No? Then tell your attendees to prepare in advance.</li> <li>Keep it short Everybody has something to say – unfortunately there isn’t enough time in the day to listen to all of it. The law of diminishing returns applies to meetings too – the longer a meeting runs past a certain threshold, the less productive each additional minute becomes. There are a number of things you can try to <a href="http://blog.smartdraw.com/archive/2008/07/08/three-techniques-for-keeping-meetings-brief.aspx">keep your meeting brief</a> (time boxing, limited speaking time, etc…) but the most important thing is to do something to keep it short. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as the attendees and organizers of the meeting make a conscious effort to keep things brief.</li> <li>Record key points and decisions It’s crucial that key points, ideas, information, and action items are recorded during a meeting – attendees and other people influenced by what’s discussed during the meeting need to be able to go back and review what was discussed and more importantly, what was decided during the meeting. Most people record meetings using hand-written outlines, which they often compile into typed notes; others sometimes record the audio of the meeting and use that to produce a written outline after the meeting has concluded. Again, it doesn’t matter what system you use as long as someone records what was discussed and decided during the meeting and distributes those notes to all of the other attendees and interested parties.</li> <li> Create action items and assign them The most important part about making a meeting productive is to make the attendees accountable for implementing the decisions rendered during the meeting. The best way to do this is to create "action items," actionable tasks that are assigned to some or all of the attendees. Obviously action items must be recorded and distributed along with any notes from the meeting; it's important that you or one of the other attendees record to whom each action item has been assigned and when each action item is due. This kind of public assignment helps hold the attendees accountable for implementing the decisions rendered during a meeting.</li> <li>Report progress and follow-up Lastly, you want actively investigate the progress of the meeting's action items and to inform the other attendees of the progress of the action items that all of you agreed upon. Post-meeting communication is simply another tool to help keep your meeting attendees accountable for implementing the decisions made during the meeting and it also helps eliminate future, unnecessary "progress meetings."</li></ul>There are probably millions of other ways to help make meetings more productive, but I think these tips will produce the best return on your investment. If you have any other thoughts on the subject feel free to leave comments below. -Aaron <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=1d2d78f6165a419326c8277700ca92b0"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=1d2d78f6165a419326c8277700ca92b0"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=1d2d78f6165a419326c8277700ca92b0" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/DumbLittleMan?a=SLiXXq"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/DumbLittleMan?i=SLiXXq" border="0"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=66b2c05330304248a29f2f3cb0c4f3b6&u=%%UNIQUEID%%"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=66b2c05330304248a29f2f3cb0c4f3b6&u=%%UNIQUEID%%" border="0"/></a> </td></tr> <td> <a href="/dmoz/"> Top</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/dmoz/Arts/"> Arts</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/dmoz/Business/"> Business</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/dmoz/Computers/"> Computers</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/dmoz/Games/"> Games</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/dmoz/Health/"> Health</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/dmoz/Kids_and_Teens/"> Kids</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/dmoz/News/"> News</a> | <a href="http://www.brujula.net/dmoz/Recreation/"> Recreation</a> | <a href="http://www.brujula.net/dmoz/Reference/"> Reference</a> | <a href="http://www.brujula.net/dmoz/Regional/"> Regional</a> | <a href="http://www.brujula.net/dmoz/Science/"> Science</a> | <a href="http://www.brujula.net/dmoz/Shopping/"> Shopping</a> | <a href="http://www.brujula.net/dmoz/Society/"> Society</a> | <a href="http://www.brujula.net/dmoz/Sports/"> Sports</a> | <a href="http://www.brujula.net/dmoz/World/"> World</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/dmoz/World/"> Languages</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/news/"> News</a> | <a href="http://www.ba.net/news/"> Blogs</a> <HR NOSHADE> <center> <!!--#exec cmd="/cgi-bin/banner"--> <table><td> <script type="text/javascript"> GA_googleFillSlot("news-banner-bottom"); </script> <td> <a href="http://www.ba.net/about/"> <img src="http://ba.net/gifs/adbrite-your-ad-here-banner.gif" style="background-color:#CCCCCC;border:none;padding:0;margin:0;" alt="Your Ad Here" width="11" height="60" border="0" align=right></a> </table> <form method="POST" action="http://www.brujula.net/cgi-bin/buscar"> <input name="text" size="45"> <input type="submit" value="Search"> <input type="hidden" name="buscador" value="categorias-en"> </form> BA.net Brujula.Net © 2008 <A HREF="http://www.ba.net/acerca/" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">advertising</a> <A HREF="http://www.ba.net/" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">english</a> <A HREF="http://www.brujula.net/" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">español</a> <A HREF="http://www.ba.net/italia/" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">italiano</a> <A HREF="http://www.ba.net/germany/" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">germany</a> <A HREF="http://www.ba.net/japan/" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">japan</a> <A HREF="http://www.ba.net/france/" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">france</a> <A HREF="http://www.ba.net/world/" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">more</a> <A HREF="javascript:window.external.AddFavorite(window.location.href,document.title)" STYLE="text-decoration:none;font-size:xx-small">bookmark</A> </center> </td> </TABLE> </TD> <TD valign="top"><IMG src="http://www.brujula.net/gifs/sep3horiz.gif" width="23" height="1"></TD> <TD bgcolor="#333366" valign="top"><IMG src="http://www.brujula.net/gifs/sep3horiz.gif" width="3" height="1"></TD> </TR> <TR bgcolor="#ffffff"> <TD colspan="2" bgcolor="#FFCC66" valign="top"><IMG src="http://www.brujula.net/gifs/sep3horiz.gif" width="1" height="24" border="0"></TD> <TD colspan="3" valign="top"><IMG src="http://www.brujula.net/gifs/sep3horiz.gif" width="1" height="24" border="0"></TD> <TD rowspan="2" colspan="2" bgcolor="#333366" valign="middle"> <CENTER> > </CENTER> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD colspan="5" bgcolor="#333366" valign="top"><IMG src="http://www.brujula.net/gifs/sep3horiz.gif" width="1" height="3"></TD> </TR> <TR bgcolor="#666699"> <TD colspan="8"><IMG src="http://www.brujula.net/gifs/sep3horiz.gif" width="1" height="10"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> </BODY></HTML>