I was asked recently by someone how do I generate ideas for the articles I write for TechRepublic and other sites. Since my layoff in September 2012, I’ve been a full time freelance writer generating story ideas that interest my editors is of utmost importance. read more
I had been getting a little bit bored (and frustrated) with my professional technical writer site, willkelly.com over the past few years. The continued rocky period on my employer’s federal government contract and an endless cycle of halfhearted Dreamweaver templates got me on the road to migrate willkelly.com to the Drupal Content Management System (CMS). It has been a rather mixed experience. I tore it all down the other weekend and started over, not as much out of disappointment, but to knock the kinks out of my first deployment.
Here are some lessons I learned:
Despite being a technology early adopter and writer, I’ve only kept a slow and steady clip with my social media presence. My social media presence is focused on LinkedIn and Twitter with a little Facebook and Google+ thrown in for good measure. Somehow along the way, Klout seemed to think I should have an account with them and just signed me up. Not cool. Here are the 10 reasons why Klout has no clout with me:
Having your resume online is the nice bond paper of twenty years ago now that so many companies have an online first approach to recruiting employees. However, the state of network security in some organizations might be directly at odds with the tools job hunters use to post their resumes online.
I spoke again tonight at the Messiah United Methodist Church Jobs Ministry about using social media for job hunting. Here is my slide deck:
Social media and job hunting 02 07 12
I’ll be giving a presentation about using Social Media (LinkedIn in particular) for job hunting at the Messiah United Methodist Church Jobs Ministry at 7:00 pm. You don’t need to be a member of the church to attend the Jobs Ministry meetings. More information about the Jobs Ministry can be found on their web page. I’ll be posting the presentation slides on my blog after the event.
The Kindle Fire is definitely one of the hottest sellers of the 2011 Christmas season. I went for the Amazon Kindle early on because I wanted to get a taste of an Android-based tablet. My expectations with the purchase were that it wasn’t going to be a game changer and wouldn’t supplant my iPad. While there isn’t a lot new in the device, and despite what Jakob Neilson bemoans it is actually a smooth 7” tablet.
I was quick to outfit my new Kindle Fire with free apps because I never intended for it to supplant my iPad and I want to see how much use I apps on my latest mobile device before I spend any money on outfitting the device any further.
Here is a list of some must have (and more importantly free) Kindle Fire Apps available from the Amazon Android store:
Despite making a living as a contract technical writer for years, I never really given much deep thought to job hunting and resumes in particular until I started volunteering for my church’s Jobs Ministry. For so long, it was just part of the business and it got a lot harder when the economy began to tank. When it was time for me to get involved with the church and I thought all of my experience seeking work and dealing with recruiters could help somebody out. I had also been online as a job hunter since before it was cool.
One of my first personal challenges with volunteering was to really reflect on my experience job hunting online especially with my recent experiences using LinkedIn.The intersection of social media and resumes is something I am finding very interesting right now. When I first got online, you were on the leading edge if you owned your own domain where you posted your resume. Now with domain registry and web space costs at reasonable prices it is within reach of anybody wanting their own web presence. While I have a LinkedIn Profile, FaceBook profile, and tweet, I really don’t consider myself a social media maven but I realize its business value and that an online social presence for a resume has left the realm of tech industry-only early adopters and become a necessity for today’s proactive or passive job hunter across all industries.
Here are the slides from the presentation I gave tonight at the Messiah United Methodist Church Jobs Ministry.
I volunteer in the Jobs Ministry at Messiah United Methodist Church in Springfield, VA. We are holding a seminar for job seekers on May 11th. I will be participating in a break out session about using social media like LinkedIn as part of a job hunt. Here are the details about the event:
Looking For a Job? Need resume help? Need to polish your interviewing skills? Need social networking advice? Messiah’s Jobs Ministry is sponsoring a seminar for any and all job seekers on Wednesday, May 11, 7-9 p.m. in Room 266/268. This seminar will have both general information as well as focused break-out sessions. You can leave this seminar with a 1-on-1 mentor! To reserve your spot, contact Kathy Benton at kbenton (at) messiahumc.org or (703) 569-9862, ext. 212
Here is a copy of the event flyer: jobs flyer, May 2011
© 2012-2013 Will Kelly All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright
About Will Kelly