People try to put their best foot forward when trying to get a job. They spend hours preparing a resume, they practice interviewing in the mirror, and they always try to give a good handshake. What happens though when the most important place you need to impress an employer is your presence online?

I’ve tried to create a good online presence and build a personal brand. If someone wants search for me I want to make sure that they find what I want them to find. A friend pointed me to a post on slashdot about a guy who has the same name as a pedophile, who happens to live in the same city. He is obviously worried it was affecting his job search.  He could have fixed this if he was more on top of his personal PR. (What was really funny was that some people didn’t think HR did background checks using the internet… they do folks!)

I also want to make sure an employer knows that I’m dedicated to my work, and that there is more depth to me than work experience or certificates. Does this give me an advantage? I like to think so, but I’ve have people disagree with me.

Let’s assume that I’m right. When I apply for a job I immediately stand out and get the job. Since this works it catches on, and companies start looking for online profiles for applicants. It becomes a standard, like the paper resume before it.

Not convinced? What if I tell you that having online resumes cuts out the need for recruiters.

Recruiters do the grunt work of interviewing candidates and usually are great at finding the highest quality employees to fill positions. Companies can do this themselves, but it just takes too long and they don’t have the resources. Now lets Google me again. I bet you can find more information about me from Google in 10 minutes than you could giving me an all day interview. The middleman, and $20,000 dollars, is cut out. Do you still think companies won’t look for this type of content?

That’s great but how does this effect the economy other than saving a few million? Well what would be the knock-on effect of companies demanding compelling and professional online profiles? I’m not talking about a 100% complete LinkedIn profile, but a living, breathing record of you day-to-day professional activities.

In the future, even if I’m not looking for a job, I will be recording and sharing my professional career. I will be involved in online discussions about the future of Facebook, I will be sharing that interesting article in the Times about cloud computing, and I will try and be active in that Drupal group. Why? Because its great for networking, its the best way to learn about my profession, and I know I’ll have to be looking for a job one day.

I can easily say that I am 100% more knowledgeable about my industry than I was a year ago because of this. That makes me probably that much more efficient at my job. What if everyone started doing this! The increase in productivity would be incredible.

I know what your thinking, but this isn’t restricted to just the technology industry, it just starts there.

Some would say working more is a bad thing, but they are the people who don’t love their jobs. What do you think?

Ok, great, collaboration finally reaches the news sites, but why stop there?  Ultimately the news is created by people not by new stations, they just dig up the stories and choose which ones get the attention.

I just read about an idea to use twitter hashtags for job seekers/job creaters and thought that this idea might be adapted to news outlets.  A common citizen journalis seeing first hand a news-worthy event could write in #NEWS or #CNN for instance.  This might be a little redundant since news-worthy twitters are already crowdsourced to the masses if its popular, but its an interesting idea to speed up the process and allow news outlets to find twitters quicker. 

It would be interesting experimentation also if news agencies started keeping better track of people.  I should be able to read a story on Steve Jobs, click on his name, and see all the news articles on him.  Build on this, find out what people are saying about him on Twitter, blogs etc. add that content as well.  

With this Facebook Connect test I think we’ll see a full blown implementation soon.   Soon (I hope) I’ll be able to go on CNN and see what my friends are saying about certain articles.  I don’t think this will be complete though until CNN adds a whole lot more content to their site, even if its from outside sources (or user generated contect).

I’ve always been a fan of msnbc.com; its my primary source of news, and is usually the second site I check in the morning (techmeme is first).  I followed them through their redesign, learning a few things from their alphachannel blog (great idea btw, it takes critical blogs like mine off the google top 10 ).  I like their site.  It’s not revolutionary, but it does the basics very well.

It’s funny because CNN.com is usually my 3rd stop.  It’s design is older, it doesn’t seem to have as much content (their technology section will have the same article up for a week), but I still pass by to see if MSNBC missed anything.  Its funny because one of the things it does so well on TV is completely lost on their website: humanization.  I have no one to identify with on their website.  Without the comfort with a familiar persona, and the fact that I usually don’t find much to read on their site, why do I still check it?

Is it beneficial, just a habit, or have I been duped by CNN’s marketing?

I think its a little bit of everything, but reading that article gave me hope for a more relevant CNN.com.  Mr. Estenson, the new general manager of CNN.com (what’s up with the Mr.?), understands me- I hope.  A news aggregator like Google can give me headlines much more efficiently online that CNN, so what are you going to give me?  Huh?

One thing we are seeing happen, which I think is fantastic, is twitter news.  Its not an official in any sense of the word, but its reaching online headlines quicker than CNN or MSNBC could ever dream.  From the Californian wild fires, to the attacks on Tibet monks, to the recent plane crash in New York, Twitter is getting out up-to-date news to people.  Just think, what if everyone was twittering from their mobiles?  And what if important twitters were somehow highlighted, like Google news?  Would it completely bypass news networks, or would it just give networks a more efficient way to distribute the news?

I think the answer is linked to the reason I don’t like the current CNN site.  As bad as this sounds, I like a popular face giving me the news.  Having Wolf Blitzer tell me what’s going on entertains me more than reading plain text  It’s comforting.  (An aside: It just doesn’t feel fair that, looking at the fall of print news, news broadcasters have glided to success online any loses)

Let’s hope Mr. Estenson can breath a little more life into CNN.com.  Keep me interested!

jarchowk

I was actually surprised to find out that none of my facebook friends have subscribed.

This social network service works much better with my use of the web.  If you haven’t heard of it, check it out!

When I see Facebook climb as high as they have I can’t help but think if its only going to make the fall that much more painful.  Is Facebook is a serious Internet tool or a seriously fickle trend? (fer sure!)

I’m not a huge fan of Facebook, I’ll get that out of the way before I write anymore.  It is a gossip site; the only different between Facebook and People.come are the people you’re reading about.  I also disagree with their policies on not supporting open standards.

That being said, they are HUGE.  How can you discount one of the most visited sites on the internet as simply being a trend?

Facebook is taking advantage of how people are currently using the internet, on a massive scale.  People like using Facebook as a one-stop-shop for all those social needs.   But what happens when the social internet turns into the many-stop-shop.

The internet in ‘09 will be about identity.  Being who you are, anywhere.

Facebook Connect is a service that lets you take your identity on a ride around the internet.  So when you visit People.com you can see which of your friends are gossiping about which celeb (and in turn you can gossip about the gossipers).  I think Facebook will actually make a lot of progress with their Facebook Connect functionality, initially.  When comparing Facebook Connect to Google’s friend connect and OpenId it is a world ahead.

Data portability isn’t just a technical idea though, there are a lot of social implications here.  It is removing the anonymity from the internet.  It’s giving you your identity back.  Do you really want a company (and I’d argue a company who really isn’t liked very much) to represent who you are?   This is me we are talking about here, not salsaguy786 (although I can salsa dance with the best of them).  I think it will be a real social disaster if we let a corporation control our online identity, and a huge backward step for the spirit of the internet.

Will others agee is the question that will answer the question on whether Facebook is a trend.  If open standards save us Facebook will not be competing against other social networking sites, they will be competing against the entire internet.  The internet will be a giant mono-social entity.  (Imagine the gossip!)