Follow the Golden Rule

This is somewhat of a continuation from last week. (Almost) But you'll see my point by the end of this.

Everybody knows what the golden rule is, right? "Treat someone as you wish to be treated." It's a simple concept that is usually beaten in to our heads as youngsters. As you get older you start to follow it without knowing. When you get in to your first job around 15 or 16 years old, you're fresh, excited, and ready to rock and roll. But step back from your life and look at how differently you acted at that first job.  Whether you were nervous or not, you acted differently that you would at home or with your best friends. I'm right, aren't I? I knew it. But it's simple, you're out in the world treating people nicely or as polite as you can because you don't want to be hassled at your day job. You want to go in, make some money, and get out. It's that simple. However, we see that glaze of freshness falter when someone disrupts the good you're doing. No biggie. Just remember this, no matter what happens. No matter who is involved, just be the nicest person you can be and good things will happen.

It may seem silly but just imagine that you're now 23 again, on your way to interview for that big position at the firm you've been in love with for years now. On your way in you hold the door for a group of people who are walking in behind you. Each one of them thanks you and then fills the elevator you needed to be on to make it up to the 18th floor to be on time for your appointment. Ooops. You're late now. BUT, as you're frantically rushing up those stairs to make it in time, that group of people just so happened to be the people you held the door for and they saw that you're a good guy. You're instantly on their good graces, and you can take the interview from there. You've got their attention, and you can impress them from now on.

It's honestly simple gestures like that. You can hold the door, hold a cab, maybe help somebody pick up their books or files they've just dropped. You'll start to see changes in your life in regards to the way people see you. You just never know who you can impress when or where. You might thing that 2AM on a Thursday night, there won't be someone of importance here. But maybe you're wrong. Perhaps you run in to Marty Scorcese pumping gas and you lend him a hand. He returns the favor by asking if you want to be in his next gangster film. There are a lot of variables in action to make your life better if you help make others lives better.

And this is the point I bring back from last week. Whether you're tweeting, acting, interviewing, or anything. Just be aware, and just be nice. This is quite possibly the easiest thing to remember when trying to impress a future employer. It's not that hard to do, and it's not hard to maintain. So give it a shot, and enjoy!

The Following Goal

There is much to learn when you think of the word "follow."

What do you immediately think of when you hear this word? Me? I directly think of Twitter and who I am following, as well as who I'm being followed by. The interaction you get from Twitter can create career connections, friendships, and so much information trading. It's important to remember to act professionally when engaging others on Twitter. You're being watched by millions no matter what you do. It's okay to have all the fun in the world on Twitter, but be wise, don't do something you won't want to be brought back up two years from now when you're being interviewed for that awesome position at that huge corporation you've been wanting for some time.

There's a lot of group chats to get in on. Use those has tags to not only find the chat groups but also to let others know what you're talking about.

"Who's watching this amazing this @NBA #AllStar game?"

This is a great example you can post. You're going to engage a great following on Twitter because, at the time of this post, the All-Star game is trending and popular on not only Twitter but on Facebook, and other networks.

I've had experiences when going in to an interview where an employee had asked me about a tweet I had posted even as soon as I was walking in the building. "Nervous, wish me luck." Just keep in mind that with social media, you don't have to be a celebrity or a politician to be in the public eye anymore. It's a simple process to undertake. But I also think it's something completely necessary to do when trying to utilize this tool.

You don't have to be the guy just talking about SEO or any analytic tools. I know plenty of people that work in the social media field who tweet often about SEO and Google Analytics, but also have a strong following of sports fans, book lovers, and coffee enthusiasts.

So when building your "following" it's important to stay true to who you are. You're utilizing a tool that can land you a great job, and you shouldn't stop there. Just because you get the job does not mean you should stop monitoring what you put out on the web. You'll be representing yourself for life. So do a good job! Who knows who could be watching when you post that next tweet!

Looking in the Valley

I think we can all agree that finding a job in today's market has been extremely tough. I can attest to that. I spent quite some time unemployed because I did not have the resources to find a good job, and any job that I could have taken did not accommodate for travel and the cost couldn't justify the expense I'd have to incur. So needless to say, the best option was to work on school while remaining unemployed.

However, now that I've been getting good experience with both school and work, I'm looking to expand my horizons and move on to something bigger and better. Whenever I do research in regards to my life, like you, I use over 100% of my effort. This is my life we're talking about here. I've spent the past several weeks  researching some job markets and where I'd like to work. I've narrowed it down to a few big network cities. San Francisco and the Bay Area, New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, and a few others. There is a market for everything. And one of the tools I stress with talking with friends or clients is interaction or better worded as: conversation. How can you be successful without talking with friends or colleagues? It just doesn't work.

In the past two weeks I've probably contacted and spoke with ten different company's. Out of those ten interactions, I've become accustomed to speaking with a hiring manager, learning what companies are looking for and how they expect you to act. Do I call this a failure because I've not been hired? No. I've taken away quite a bit of information from these trials. There's a famous quote by Thomas Edison, "I didn’t fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn’t work." It takes a lot to read a quote, to it takes a lot more to learn from that. And that's just what I'm doing. I'm not counting my failed attempts at finding a job as a failed attempt. I'm merely spinning them so they're a lesson learned. This is what I try to get across to my fellow friends that are also looking for jobs across the nation.

Learn from your mistakes. You're not going to find a proper job that you enjoy if when you apply to a "dream job" you fail. It lowers your self-esteem and self-respect. And that's not exactly what is ideal when trying to prove to potential employers that you're a great candidate for their firm.

Keep your chin up! Keep at it, and remember to have fun while learning! If you don't, you'll never get out of your vicious circle.