This week's reading was about professional networking. I read a few articles that talk about networking, professionally, via online means. See, it's one thing for me to hand out a copy of my resume to prospective employers, or to e-mail a copy to someone with whom I'm trying to network. Posting it for everyone to see is entirely different. While it's less effort for me because I don't have to send my resume to individual people, it's also much more revealing of myself. It's trading laziness for security.
I'm very stingy with my facebook profile, for it does not reveal my address, phone number, or other personal information at any time. Even the little amount it does reveal, I am able to control who sees. The header of my resume contains my phone number and address. If I'm so stingy with my facebook profile, what are the chances that I'll be in a hurry to post my resume? Very small.
Do I want people to be able to google me? Realistically, no. It would be a little too invasive of my privacy. It's nice to be able to have an online persona that is recognizable and easily findable, but at what price? In my opinion, the price is too high. As a humungous fan of face-to-face interaction, I would rather use other peoples' online information to track them down, to have a face-to-face conversation with them. I have no problem connecting and interacting with people online, it's actually the people that I don't want to interact with, who I'll ultimately end up interacting with because they've tracked me down, that keep me from publishing a back-door to my life on the internet (sometimes literally).
Everything I see says that networking is the most important thing that you can do. I think that becoming the most dedicated, educated, and hard-working person will be enough to set you apart from everyone else. Having a niche that makes you so special will have employers either seeking you, or refusing to turn down employment to you. I plan to have a very specialized career track where I know exactly where I fit, and where there will always be room.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
I Don't Want to Show ME Off
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4 comments:
I like what you've written here. I think you have the right idea when you talk about just working on the inner parts of yourself, and not concerning yourself so much with the externalities of social, online relationships that plague so much of peoples' lives these days. By becoming all you can, you can overcome any seeming necessity for online social connectivity, and in doing so perhaps spare yourself a lot of time. Good post.
I like your ideas... I have to think about the difference between social networking styles. Since so many people network to get good jobs, it makes me wonder what kind of networking they"re doing. It could be networking throuhg the net or in person with their friends.
Wow, I think you just helped me solve my dilemma. I'm learning about all these new ways of networking through our class... A lot of it boils down to, should I put myself out there? And if I do, how much should I post?
As you know, I have practically nothing on my facebook profile. For those that know me, feel free to request me as a friend (helloooo, networking). But my dilemma was, and still sort of is, how much personal or professionally related information about myself should I post on the WWW?
The author of the first anonymous post added on to what you wrote and how I feel: That I can overcome the externalities, and continue working on and with the inner parts. I find that no matter how much I'm learning about technological tools, I'm still who I am, and that is the Sonia who enjoys meeting people face to face and sharing and really experiencing that time together, in the most real way.
In conclusion, I feel more settled. I'm more okay now than I was fifteen minutes ago. I'm a little more certain of how much information I want to put out there. Thanks.
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