Knowing when to fold

So you've quit your corporate job and have decided to get out and start your own company. What do you do? Start your own company. This has long been a dream of mine but I have no reason to leave the job I enjoy right now. But if you are so inclined to start your own company here is a video of Guy Kawasaki, one of the best tech gurus ever and presenter of the last Youtube video I posted, on the Art of the Start.

Great article

Here is a great article for the IT folks in the readership. Not being in the IT world but having friends that are and knowing folks in our IT department this is one of the best articles I've read on advancing in the IT field.

Using a headhunter right out of college

I've written a previous post on using a headhunter and suggested that it might not be a bad idea. After watching my fiancee' go through a headhunter here in town I have changed my mind. It is a horrible idea after college. Just from what I have observed from Molly's experience the kind of companies and clients that the headhunters service won't look at most kids right out of college. If they do it will be for temporary or internship positions that honestly do not pay much at all.
So what should you do instead? Find the job on your own. I haven't exactly told my fiancee' that yet but I'm sure she'll figure it out and be persuaded to do so when she reads this post. Being your own headhunter has its advantages. For one you don't have to worry about losing a certain percentage of your first year of wages. Second, you will appreciate the job much more if you were the one that sought it out and got it on your own. Third, if you go on a lot of interviews and see more of the opportunities for yourself then you have a much better view of the job market and what is out there waiting for someone with your skill set. And the final reason you shouldn't use a headhunter is the freedom to accept and reject interviews as you see fit. Some agents require that you take X amount of interviews out of the number that are presented which can result in a lot of wasted time and energy.
Granted there are some people who have nothing but positive things to say about headhunters and who have had great experiences. Most of them are high level professionals who do job placement for positions that the current guy isn't aware is going to be vacated.

What happens when you screw up

Today I learned a valuable lesson. Always give yourself enough time to get to the freaking airport on time. But don't just get there on time. Get there about 45 minutes before you really need to be there to be on time. Because today I went to catch a flight and I will admit that I was cutting it close, but not all that close considering that I was 45 minutes early. After logging into the kiosk I entered some info wrong and had to back out. "No big deal." I thought. So I swiped my card to get back into it and it read, "Kiosk is open from 4:35am to 6:00pm." It was 5:50. So instead of freaking out I waited patiently for a helpful Continental Express representative to come to the counter.... it never happened. So I started to freak. I called my co-worker who was going to be on the same flight and while he was sitting on the plane he told me that four or five Continental employees were sitting at the gate doing nothing. Great. So there were folks that were available to help but none of them would.
To make a long story short I called my boss at our remote office and told her what happened. I can tell you that I am lucky to be under her because she said that, "It is what it is and we'll deal with it. Heck I had the same thing happen to me too and I won't be able to be there until later in the evening either." Which is great because the entire re-booking of the departure ticket cost $400 because of their horrible customer service and lack of willingness to help.
So new travelers, when you go out on the road for the company might I suggest that you give yourself more than ample time to get on your flights.

Facebook over LinkedIn?

I've seen several different marketing blogs mention that LinkedIn has come under siege from spammers and that the core base of its users are starting to leave because of the frustrating amounts of Viagra and home finance offers they are getting on what used to be an excellent career site. But the fact that they are going to Facebook blows my mind! Maybe its just me but when I came across Facebook my sophomore year in college I thought that it was just a great way to just connect to fellow students but career seeking? I don't know. Maybe since Zuckerberg and company have opened it up to company specific emails the new tide of professionals on the site makes sense. I'd just like to see a more expandable profile that allows users to post files and give you a place to display your portfolio. With the new API's rolling out I wouldn't doubt that someone might come up with it soon.

New Apple Stuff?

Ok not really but this is a freaking cool Youtube video of a concept Imac.


Possible? Yes. Probable? Probably not.

Twitter

So I've gotten addicted to Twitter recently. I held out on this for a long, long, LONG TIME and I never could wrap my mind around how it could really be useful... and then I took a second look. Yes, there are the horribly narcissistic uses where you can go and talk about how great the salmon at your restaurant was but with the new Twitter API out I took a second look because of the My Mileage Marker. But one of the better ways to use Twitter that I can think of would be for personal finance purposes. If you would record every purchase based on a "want" instead of a need then you could roll back through your blog and add up the totals. Or, you could use it as a price book and record how much your basic grocery staples cost each time you go to the store. There are tons of other ways to use Twitter to track daily information such as your weight, pages you've read, and other personal goals and your progress towards them but I'm not seeing a whole lot of that as of yet.

RAVE REVIEWS!!!

I've got to send a great amount of thanks to Jason Alba at JibberJobber for his rave reviews and love sent to this blog. Thanks again man for the love! And might I suggest JibberJobber for helping to keep the many different major details of your job search, and career connections after you have found your job.