While most career sites focus on experience, let’s face it – young professionals don’t always have the experience they wish they had. But what they do have are ideas – groundbreaking, world changing ideas that are the future of the business world as we know it. Think about it – Mark Zuckberburg was in his college years when he launched Facebook, which now has over 250 million active users. Not too shabby for a barely 20-something.

Brazen Careerist is the first social network to cater to the important things professionals have to say. And believe me – there are some great ideas floating out there. Brazen was founded by young professionals who shared their ideas with each other and helped each other to succeed – and it’s a hell of a lot easier to get to the top of the ladder if someone is there to give you a boost.

So, if not for me, or if not for boredom on the Internet (though these days, who could ever be bored?) check it out. I’ve gotten some great advice, met some stellar people, and can we really afford not to network these days? And if you’re picking and choosing, I wouldn’t leave this site out.

Click here to check it out. You know you want to!

My many thanks to the Brazen Careerist founders and members to all the help you have given me! I’m honored to be one of the earliest adopters and know there is much more good (and better!)  to come. Cheers!

6 Things I wish Twitter had

1. Better search filtering – ability to search about updates within your followers only
2. ‘Followers in common’ feature much like ‘Friends in common’ feature on Facebook
3. Automatic URL shortener (do I REALLY have to go to tinyurl.com every time?)
4. Search filtering within list of followers and people you follow. If I’m looking for a person’s profile, why can’t I just type their username in? It’s so difficult to find profiles.
5. List of people you follow who also follow you back separated from list of people you follow but are not following you (I think I actually found an app for this one)
6. Expanded feed list and better memory. For example, when going through feed page, you are sometimes a few ‘more’ clicks in. If you click on someone’s profile, and then hit back button, it loses expanded feed.

The main theme in this list seems to be improved filters. What do you think – how would you improve Twitter?

“I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It’s exhausting.”  – Mary

We feel for you, Drew.

We’ve all been there – refreshing your email every 10 minutes and compulsively looking at your phone hoping that person will call. That special someone that seems to be offering it all – amazing benefits, great work/life balance, 401k match – wait, back up. Yes, I’m talking about your potential employer.

Here’s the scenario – Your browsing craigslist. Or maybe Twitter. You read the job description and you heart starts to swell. This sounds way too good to be true. You scroll down quickly to the qualifications. You are completely, 100% the perfect person for that job. You are a match made in heaven. Or at least, that’s what you tell yourself.

Whether you make it to the first, second, or final interview – it all goes the same. You check your email. You check your spam – just in case. You refresh and refresh your blackberry and wonder when it’s too soon to send a follow up email or phone call. Eventually, you give up, and daydream what that wedding (I mean, career shift) would have been like.

Here’s the difference – with dating, how much effort do we put in? Do we spend hours tweaking our resumes, writing cover letters, and sweating it out? Either way, it’s that same pang of rejection, wondering what we did wrong, and what could have been. What’s with hiring reps who pull the one-night (interview) stands? Is all this new technology making communication any better, or is it just driving us crazier? The national unemployment rate is up to 9.4% – that’s almost 10% of the population dealing with this kind of rejection. I wonder if Xanax sales are up…

I have taken the liberty of creating a Code of Etiquette. Recruiters, please follow the code to keep job seekers happy.

1. You will confirm receipt of resume/cover letter/application

2. You will post a closing date for this job so we know when to stop sweating it out

3. If the position has been filled,  you will remove the posting from your web site/e-mail us to let us know

4. If upon reading our resume or interviewing us, if you have no intention of hiring us, let us know. We’re big kids.

5. You will get back to us in a timely manner after an interview – at least provide a status update.

If you have anything else to add, please feel free. And recruiters, I’m sure you have a list out there for job seekers, too.

According to a recent Mashable post, the U.S. Government asked Twitter to stay up during the #IranElection Crisis.  Here’s a direct quote from the post:

The biggest revelation is that the State Department asked Twitter not to go down at its original time last night in order to allow Iranians to tweet out what’s happening in their cities. It also seems that U.S. officials are watching the chatter on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook (), and elsewhere to keep up-to-speed with the situation on the ground. Social media communication is even more important, since the U.S. has no embassy or official relationship with Iran.

OK, so if this is true, it definitely says a lot about the current state of our media and government. According to the State of the News Media, one of the major trends in news media in 2009 is the shift away from Journalistic institutions toward the individual journalist. In addition, according to ReadWriteWeb, one of the 2009 Web Trends is real-time news feed (ie. Twitter, in this case).

Twitter is information that’s released in real-time. Everyday people have their own voices now, from country to country, faster than our government or our media outlets can keep up. I see some great pros to this but also some extreme cons. Obvious pro is how cool it is – everyone can have a voice and keep abreast of International affairs – obvious cons is that of credibility – how are we to know what we are reading is true? Here’s a statement from TomsTechBlog -

Anyone saying Twitter has been a source of news during this is lying or being deceived.  Twitter is blocked in Iran (see comment by Michael C. Hough), Cell service including SMS is shut down and Satellite dishes are banned so no Satellite Internet.  People want to believe Twitter is a great news source so they’re ignoring the facts.  In reality it was almost impossible to get accurate info out of Iran yesterday (which was of course the point)

So what do you think? Do you think that social networks and real-time feeds are taking the place of news media, or at least assisting in the distribution of news? Is this credible, and what do you think is the future of news media?

]]> http://alyssacarter.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/twitter-iranelection-the-future-of-news-media/feed/ 0 carteralyssa Picture 2 Facebook http://alyssacarter.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/want-to-win-free-tp-for-a-year/ http://alyssacarter.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/want-to-win-free-tp-for-a-year/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:42:33 +0000 carteralyssa http://alyssacarter.wordpress.com/?p=95 ]]> Go to Alice.com!

http://tr.im/niGy

Hey Alice.com! Pick me! I have pets, see this photo? Ok it’s not my dog, but it could be. Isn’t that a good enough reason to declare me the winner?!

So what does Gen Y do when the affirmation stops? When you get into a career in the midst of a recession with a tough manager who doesn’t fawn and beam at every project you do as if it were a Pulitzer Prize winning novel? When you don’t get a paper back that says ‘A’ on the top with positive comments and constructive criticism outlining the margin, encouraging you to work even harder. When, no matter how hard you think you’re working, because of this economy, there’s just no sign of a promotion anywhere out there.

This isn’t my first post about this subject. I think the reason I’m re-visiting this topic is because I’m approaching my one-year anniversary in my current position – I’ve always been an overachiever, and in my head, one year is the standard amount of time one should work a position before receiving some sort of promotion (so naturally I thought it would take me far less time!). I don’t want to blame it on the recession, but these days who doesn’t blame everything on the recession?

So what is the typical amount of time one works a first job before they are promoted? Do you think the economy has affected that time frame? Do you Gen Y-ers think lack of affirmation affects your motivation or caliber of work? Please share your feedback!

“For example, an employer may view more negatively photos of an African American male, beer in hand, hanging out at a bar than photos of a Caucasian male, also with beer in hand, hanging out at a rock ‘n roll bar. In such a situation, was it really the public evidence of drinking or intoxication that disqualified the individual? How many current employees would be disqualified from employment if never getting publicly intoxicated — or even drinking in public — was a job requirement?”

Obviously, this seems to be implying a recruiter’s potential unlawful discrimation. Obviously there would be no way to track back unless you can read the recruiter’s mind, which is where the issue comes into play.

Social networking sites have caused huge legal issues in HR – it seems like any recruiter who might reject a candidate for  “being too Christian” or having too many activities listed on their Facebook page is not the kind of recruiter you want working for you. So what is causing the problem? Is it really the social networks that are causing this, or is it the people behind it?

Last night I went to a PRSA Mixer in downtown Portland – I’d never been to one (and I’m not even a member of PRSA yet) so I thought I’d see what it was all about. To no surprise, social media was a prevalent topic of conversation throughout the night. The one thing that struck me most from my fellow young PRos was their stance on Facebook in the social media sphere.

Based on the general feedback, here’s the scale of where you should boast professionalism on social networks.

1. LinkedIn (100% Professional)

2. Twitter (Mix of Professional and Personal)

3. Facebook (Mostly Personal)

4. MySpace (Gross. Just delete it.)

I have no problem following friends, coworkers, and people in my industry on Twitter – I think it’s great to share ideas, network, as well as give an insight to your personality – but most of the feedback I got last night was that Facebook is just more personal – in general, 20-somethings don’t want their boss or their grandmother to friend them on Facebook – yes, you can alter your privacy settings, but seriously, it’s SO obvious when you block your photos or information, which only leaves us to wonder – what are you trying to hide? (Even if you’re not hiding anything).

So here’s what I think happened: Facebook was really the first social network that every college student went on. Nobody thought it would get this popular or really thought about what they were doing (it was only open to college students at first anyway) and the last thing an 18-year old freshman is thinking about is how to portray a professional image on a new network that people are basically using to post drunk pictures of each other. Twitter, on the other hand, came around later when people had more of an idea of what to expect and how to use social media to advance their professional careers. We 20-somethings are used to using Facebook in a personal (and often times) unprofessional way. I personally think opening it up to everyone was a mistake on Facebook – they are exploding and frankly, I don’t think college students (the people who started Facebook!) would stay if everyone found another site that was more exclusive.

So what do we do? Do we continue to block our pages? Do we delete and start from scratch, removing all trails of blasphemy? Do we create two profiles, one for professional use, and one for personal? Will Facebook survive, or is Facebook the new MySpace?

But what about other industries? Very few of my friends who work in other industries see the significance of blogging or Twittering or anything related. When I’ve tried to explain the benefits and get them online, their interests fizzle.

“No one I KNOW is even on Twitter, and there’s nothing I need to blog about. It works for you because everyone in your industry does this kind of stuff, but it’s just not right for me.

This is a typical response I get from friends or family who give it a stab. Sure, most of my college friends are on Facebook or MySpace, but they typically use it to stay in touch with friends and post pictures. The number of people I know who actively participate in the online conversation by reading and hosting blogs, networking on LinkedIn, etc. – very, very few outside of the marketing industry.

I might just have cynical friends who are behind the technology wave, but I’m not sure. The fact that social networking has taken over email online makes me think I just have weird friends. How long will it take for everyone to join these networking sites, and if they do, will they see the benefit and use these sites to their advantage?

It should be pretty easy to keep a professional demeanor up during the workday, but these days social media and the friend/co-worker overlap is making it a little harder to distinguish the two. I know some people who have even gone so far as to create two online identities: one for work and one for friends. Others are more transparent, keeping it clear that their online identity has both personal and professional content.

It’s an ongoing ethical HR nightmare: should recruiters look at your Facebook, MySpace, etc. to make pre-hire judgments/ use as a background check?

In my experience, I felt like my blog was supposed to be more professional while I could just be myself on Facebook. Until I realized I don’t have dual personalities: I have one. Am I going to create a professional alias for myself online so people can’t see the real me? Probably not. Am I going to blog about my personal relationships for the world to see? Probably not. Not to disregard anyone who does – there really is no right or wrong answer.

I guess to me it’s all about balance: don’t hide who you are from the world but don’t post embarrassing photos of yourself online either (I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of both). The same goes for at work: one of the first things my boss critiqued me on was maintaining a professional appearance in my email messages. I mean, it’s not like I was writing anything inappropriate, it’s just that my boss is from an older generation and is big on separating your work relationships from your personal ones. In my opinion, the world is changing and it’s OK to be personable with your clients – your emails don’t need to be written without personality (which is kind of how I feel like some of mine ended up when edited by the ‘professional’). Just don’t get too personal.