Just an observation: Twitter is in the the process of “crossing the chasm”. Once accused of being the playground of narcissists and navel-gazers, the popular micro-blogging service is now going mainstream. How do I know? Well a few months back I used Twitter’s contact feature to see if there were any Twitter users in my Google contacts that I was not already following. There were three. I did the same thing again a couple of minutes ago and there were now 120! And these weren’t techies, new adopters, and geeks. All of my friends that fit those categories were already on the service and had been for some time now. No, these folks are financial planners, real estate agents, business owners, interior designers, consultants, bankers, etc.
So my question is why? Is it because the usefulness of Twitter has suddenly become widely understood and embraced by the majority? I’d like to say yes, but somehow I doubt it. I think the sudden rise in Twitter popularity is due mostly to CNN and the election coverage – and this is why I ask the question, will it survive? Twitter’s ranks are filling, but will the new users add value or just consume resources? Will they find a useful means of communication and embrace some kind of monetization of the system, or will the fail-whale dominate the site in between massive doses of sales pitches and self-serving links to personal and company websites?
Twitter, I’m rooting for you, but I think the jury is still out.
Looking for work? Get fired!
These days I’m often asked to speak to career groups. There are a lot of folks in transition these days and many have never experienced a job climate quite like the one they find themselves in today. It’s a tough spot. One piece of advice that I often hear given to job seekers is to treat the job search like a job: set goals, have a plan, give yourself a quota of activity to accomplish daily, and don’t fall into a rut of inactivity. All good sound advice, but there is one vital piece missing: this is not a job you want, in fact this is a job from which you want to be fired!
Getting fired?! It’s appalling, embarrassing, humiliating… unless it is getting fired from the job of being an “A” Number One Unemployed Job Seeker. There’s nothing humiliating about losing that job title. So what do you do when you’re TRYING to get fired? Well naturally, you break some rules. But you don’t just break them quiet-like – you make some noise, you call attention to yourself. If you want to get fired you have to get noticed. Get noticed breaking the rules.
There is a dangerous rhythm that the job seeker can fall into: a cycle of online searching, sending resumes, filling out application forms, and visiting career groups. It can feel like a job, it can feel like progress, but if you’re not getting results it’s not progress. Break the rules, change the pattern. Get noisy. Start a blog, become a twitter networker, pick an issue in your industry that you care about and take a stand, do it vocally, don’t be benign. Instead of standing in line at the career fair, break the rules – organize your own event. Instead of waiting to get the sales job, break the rules – bring your target company a customer – you’ll get some attention, bring them 3 and you’ll get hired.
These days being good at what you do, being qualified and experienced are only enough to get you the opportunity to stand in line. It’s not differentiation, it’s another resume in the pile. Get out of line, break the rules, find another door, or a whole new line. These are risky times to play it safe. Get passionate, get creative, and by all means when it comes to the job of job seeking, get fired.