Archive for the 'Transparency' Category

Millennial job hunting - Q&A

Published
by
John Erik
on April 18, 2008
in Happiness, Personal and Transparency
. 2 Comments

Last weekend during the Startup Barhunt I made a new friend. Her name is Archana and she is thee most startup-savvy UT student I know. What does startup-savvy mean? She knew everything that was going on in the tech world, from gossip and people, to new technology and services.

Today she asked me to answer a survey for a project she’s working on. I had a great time answering the questions. If you want to take a stab at answering all or some of ‘em, DO IT. I’m sure it would help her out. Enjoy!

1. How did you find your current job? Online? Networking? Company website? Job fair?

Hmmmmm… I don’t have a job really – no one employees me. :-\
But! If that was the case, I would have got the job online – that’s how I found radar.net when I was in school. They had a facebook ad looking for a young, mobile savvy student. I clicked and it asked me to write them a letter about how savvy I was, how connected I was, and why I love tech…

2. Have you ever searched for jobs online? If so, how?

For sure. Don’t think I’ve looked any other way. I’ve looked at http://www.ventureloop.com and http://startupers.com/jobs/ to see what’s goin on. I’ve looked on craigslist in the past. Umm.. I looked at monster one or two times. People can find me now. Via linkedin or http://notchup.com

3. Do you have a LinkedIn account?

For sheezee.

4. What do you use in LinkedIn?

Um. Everything. Even though I’ve only asked one, I think the Q&A feature is killer. I asked a question about following money or passion over Christmas and got 30+ answers/messages. That kind of feedback was amazing.

5. How do you manage your impression online?

My outward appearance? I am who I am. I write casually like I am here. I try and post everything I do so people can get a good sense of who I am. I want people to be engaged in my life. I want to set the example for how I want others to document their life. I love knowing what’s going on with my friends and others. I have… oh, next question.

6. Have you ever altered your image online, like “untagging” photos?

Untagged, YES. But not often anymore. It was mostly pics of when I was in college and chugging tons of beers. I still have some of those, but because I don’t post that many pics on facebook anymore, it would seem I was still doing the same thing.

7. Have you ever asked or been asked by an employer about your online activity on sites such as Facebook or MySpace?

NOPE. But no one employees me. When I was working (interning) fb wasn’t that popular.

8. How do you network?

By writing people emails that make them think. And by going out to places where I can meet them. By always staying up-to-date with what’s going on in the bubble that I care about. And some other bubbles. Using Twitter.

9. Do you use business cards?

YES

10. Have you ever applied for a job that did not require any online activity? For example, you were asked to mail in your application.

NO

11. In your opinion, what is the best way to find your first job out of college?

Depends what kind of job you want. And if you want a job.
Read the book Never Send A Resume. It’s short, I read it in a Borders.
I’d say, make relationships. Go meet people, email them. Email the leaders, only start at the bottom and work your way up if you have to. Even if you do have to, keep emailing/starting conversations with people who you respect, who you can empathize with. Help them empathize with you and they will help you. Only take a job that you are going to love. You’re gonna have to look and look and look so you better start now. It will all be worth it though – think of it as your contribution to the world, this is you giving back. How does that work? If you are in a place where you are happy, the world overall will be that much happier. Your vote (happiness) counts!

Question about digital outreach

Published
by
John Erik
on March 3, 2008
in Social Networks and Transparency
. 2 Comments

Via social media, people are sharing more and more online. The aggregation of their various profiles (facebook, myspace, friendfeed, etc.) can create a near mirror reflection of their real world actions and feelings.

We have the power to empathize better then ever, to understand people in a new light. How can we use that to preempt mental downswings, specifically in kids?

Thinking here: You can’t just watch over and swoop in every time you see something negative. What is the balance? Should we have social workers trolling profiles for “signs.” Will we just develop the sense to tell if someone is having a hard time. I’m talking about preventing tragic events - every time they happen it seems it was all over the students profile. right. So what can we do?

–

Thanks to Skyler for getting me thinking about this again. And to Danah and Bambi for chatting a while back.  Outreach20.org is a site I made a while back about this.

Thoughts on managers/execs

Published
by
John Erik
on February 16, 2008
in Transparency and Work
. 13 Comments

Thanks to http://notanmba.com and Todd’s comment for getting me thinking like this.

As an outsider (corporate outsider, that is), it seems unbelievable to me that managers don’t make a point to communicate/get to know their team. I can understand the desire to keep secrets/keep things non-transparent, but I liken that to being a wimp. A pushover. And other terms. That’s just weak. If you are the best, you should have nothing to worry about, challenge that. Be the best. Let your guard down and ask questions.

Here’s something I was talking about with my uncle yesterday: You get into upper management because you are a gal/guy who can get things done. You got there because you are a top performer. Now you’re leading a group and you think you have to continue doing the same thing. So, you crack the whip and push your team hard. You work 90hrs vs 60 because “you know best.” Nothing happens.

Here’s what I think: Rethink the position you are in. A great manager/exec is a coach/a teacher. You’re not there to continue doing what you did. You’re there to teach your whole team how to achieve, like you used to. To do this successfully, be a good teacher you have to stop doing, doing, doing and start talking, communicating, getting to know your team, understanding why each of them do things the way they do. Allow yourself to empathize with them, and they with you.

This is good for two reasons. 1. If they can see themselves within you, and they respect you, it will encourage them, motivate them. 2. If you can empathize with them then you can understand their intentions. Understanding their intentions is like understanding their thought process.

Where did I come up with this response? I thought about what I learned from the ad industry: How to reach and know your target market. …The same principles apply to so many domains. Listen. Communicate. Ask questions. Achieve empathy.

MOLI - who cares about privacy, feels like AOL

Published
by
John Erik
on January 30, 2008
in Social Networks and Transparency
. 1 Comment

moli.pngI almost erased this blog because I didn’t want this company to get any press, good or bad.

MOLI.com, has anyone heard of this site? I just learned about it from the DEMO website. So, it was started by the founder of E*TRADE, him and some other early investors put up 29.25M. Recently they raised another 29.6M from, among others, the two founders of Home Depot (huh?).

DEMO says they have no primary competitors - listing Facebook, mySpace, and Linkedin as secondary. The reason, MOLI allows you to have multiple profiles under the same login. uhh, that’s not that different. I’m pretty sure this would be an easy move for Facebook to implement - ask users “Hey, have more that one account - enter the email address you used to create that account and we’ll link ‘em up. We’ll never share with anyone that your accounts are linked! (small print: But, we’ll know and so will our advertisers and everyone else we sell data to!)

covibelive.pngI signed up for an account with MOLI and after a few minutes all I could think was “OMG it’s AOL.” It’s a huge nonorganic network for everything.

The layout is hip - kinda feels like a less refined VIRB - and they do have a cool feature called CoVibeLive (patent pending) that shows you statistics of the people who’ve visited your page. It looks like they spent a lot producing the site - dark tones and gradients are everywhere. All this slick and cool doesn’t mean speed though, it takes a while to load - if you’re gonna have all that, have some AJAX goin on to limit the need to refresh.

TechCrunch, GigaOm, and Webware are are all very nice to MOLI in their reviews. Where they paid? heh There is a lot of talk about the site being for adults - doesn’t feel like it. There is a video tutorial where an overly excited twentysomething makes jokes and talks mostly about privacy controls (Which to me just seem like a joke - I don’t care about privacy, I want people and companies to know who I am personally. If I was to work anywhere I would want them to look at my facebook/myspace/flickr/radar/twitter and say “yeah, he’d fit in our culture” - what’s up with this separation, what a pain in the ass — if you’re worried about this take Tim’s advise)

We’ll see what happens. They have ~60M to burn through, lots ads, commercial content and a couple paid services that let you turn your profile into an online store.

As a millennial, where I want relationships to begin

Published
by
John Erik
on January 8, 2008
in Insight and Transparency
. 3 Comments

timeline.jpg

Thom Singer (who btw has a new book on the way) left an excellent comment on my “Cut the chitchat - carry a dossier everywhere!” post. because my response is so long, i figured i’d make it a post. you can read his original comment here.

–

i do see you’re point tom. i would never give up the time i’ve spent getting to know my girlfriend - those getting to know you talks were and still are the very best.

>>>however, not all relationships are built/formed in the real world. you and i may have had only one interaction in the real world, but i feel like i know you quite well from reading your blog, receiving your tweets, and looking at your linkedin profile. (jonray even better – i wish i was as transparent as him.)

this doesn’t mean that when i see you again i’m gonna give you a big hug, but i will know you much better than i did.
i’m not suggesting that we forgo face-to-face relationship development, i’m suggesting we kick start it by getting the simple stuff out of the way - the profile stuff. i wish new people i meet in the real world could just hand me a piece of paper that says everything about them (i’m just gonna google them later). …doing this does not bypass growth, it enhances it and allows us to get even closer, faster.

if the level/closeness of a relationship is on a number line and 0 represents a complete stranger and 30 is knowing their birthday and their wife’s name, it may take 7 real world interactions just to get to 60. what happens when we reach 100? it doesn’t just end, it keeps going, we get to know each other better and better. and that’s where things like trust and confidence can happen. where they can take on a new standard. that’s where you want to be.

this is a little off, but let’s use a father-son relationship as an example. i let my dad in on everything and i have kick started it by allowing him access to my photos, profiles, writings, etc.. stuff he would never have dreamt of telling his parents. because of this, he is able be a dad on a deeper level. to give me guidance in situations where none would have existed had we not gotten lower level things out of the way.

sharing brings people closer and closer, and there’s no ceiling on that. i agree, perhaps some things like color of undergarments need to be left out initially, but maybe not.

we can’t escape it. especially a millennial, growing up connected with things like facebook’s newsfeed, i just want to skip to the level 30 and start from there. to bypass the profile info, the ‘what you did today’ narrative. i just want to know that info. for it to be told to me instantly so we can jump ahead and talk about things that really matter, about emotions, how things made you feel, how we can work together, what goals we share. we (people today) are busy and have less and less time with others, to grow we need to be able to get to the substance as quick as possible.

that’s how we create trust and honesty, i want to jump start it.

when you share things on twitter, on your blog, about your life, allowing people in, you’re opening the door and making it possible for people to have a meaningful interaction with you. isn’t that what you want - to start the relationship at a higher lever. isn’t that what social media is all about. - sharing and connecting with a person or brand through means never before possible, except in person, to creating an emotional connection. a desire. an attraction.

… i wish people would carry a dossier everywhere so we could make this initial jump without having to go home and research them online.

to conclude, when my gf and i first started talking, one night while i was working on a project, i encouraged her to look at all my photos, read essays i’d written, journal entries, my blog -i wanted her to get to know me as soon as possible so i didn’t waste her time or mine with something that wasn’t going to work out. when we started having the pillow talks they started at a much higher level. because of this and continued honesty and openness, i believe we know each other far better than some couples who have been together for 10 years. - the same thing can be applied to business relationship.