Web 2.0 is very real to me. It is my primary reality. America is Europe. The Internet is my America.
The economy went ahead and did a bungee jump. Many people lost jobs. I was not, am not into jobs. I did not lose a job. But I did lose some investors. I will find new ones, not to worry.
My primary tech startup might have taken a momentary backseat, but my secondary tech startup - to do with online tutoring - is also thick in 2.0. 2.0 is reality. And it is exciting. And it could pick up fast. It also helps me network in Mumbai, India's NYC, a sister city. That networking is crucial for my primary startup.
Personally I think a downturn like this one is high time for ambitious entrepreneurship, but most people prefer to do the job thing. And that's fine. Dropouts who create trailblazing companies depend on big name colleges to populate those companies. Entrepreneurs need jobholders, many, many of them.
For now I wanted to share this wonderful article about job hunting and 2.0. It is comprehensive and helpful. I personally know too many people who are between jobs. It is not a happy sight. I hope this helps a little.
Computer World: Job Hunting? Use Social Networks To Make Crucial Connections social networking Web sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter ...... a highly organized, scientific approach to his job search ...... a spreadsheet ..... made concentrated use of social networking sites to present himself online and to research targeted companies. ......... LinkedIn was one of the most useful tools ....... the de-facto must-use tool in today's career environment. ...... If you're not on Twitter, get there. Start Tweeting ...... sending out about 60 to 70 resume/cover letter blasts to job sites, companies, etc ....... sent out 103 blasts -- but this time he used LinkedIn ....... trying to find people who worked at the company who had a role in the product area he was interested in ......... follow-up messages. "And the response rate from those follow-ups was much higher than the original sendouts," he said, at 40% compared to the first response rate of only 5%. ........ maintaining his online profile, doing status updates on sites such as Facebook and Twitter ....... four weeks and one day after the targeted resume/cover letter blast.
Get to know the hiring manager LinkedIn was vital to her success. ..... garnered 35 recommendations from former co-workers and posted them on LinkedIn .... used LinkedIn contacts ..... you must be willing to take action outside your comfort zone ....... Don't spend too much time in front of the screen. Phone calls and face-to-face meetings are vital ...... get connected to someone working at the company you're targeting ....... Don't be afraid to reach out to anyone on the Web in your targeted area .... stay engaged in your field, keep up on the latest news, products and services -- and check out start-ups, which can be a great place to find a job
Why in-house contacts matter His data confirms that an in-company referral is priceless..... how crucial it is to use social networking sites for one specific purpose and one purpose only. ..... 50 to 70 times more likelihood of being interviewed ....... she used LinkedIn to actually find four people she knew well who in turn knew current associates in her targeted company ...... I also used LinkedIn to research the three individuals I interviewed with
Fewer resumes, but more focused "In 2001, I probably put out, over five months, 10 resumes a day" ........ only 20 to 30 resumes in total ........ very much more laser-focused" approach that includes asking a social contact to put him in touch ...... used Twitter mainly as a "listening post," keeping himself up to date on current events in his areas of interest.
The power of going local face-to-face networking with short and quick "elevator pitches." ....... it's often a case of contacting someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows a person at a company looking to fill a position. ...... "a lot of touch points" ...... a large number of recommendations on his LinkedIn profile
Don't spend all your time online Contacting people, staying on the phone [is important] ........ spend no more than 10% to 20% of their time with online tools ...... Find a way to get their phone number. Find a way to get a meeting with them. ....... information interview ......... And too many simply post their resume to job sites and hope that that will get them a job. And that is one of the least effective methods that's out there. ........ nothing more than a printed-out profile from LinkedIn .... all relationship based ...... Tyler Cooper received his first job offer from a blog.
Don't be afraid to reach out Use the Web to keep track of trends and new start-ups and reach out to companies, Web sites, bloggers and other resources. By "reaching out" he means taking the initiative to contact people you may come across on the Web. "Never be afraid to reach out. If someone leaves their e-mail address, send them a message, ask questions, send suggestions. You never know what will come of it" ......... TwitterJobSearchTwellow.com"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it."
Losing Job May Be Hazardous to HealthNew York Times What to Do When You Lose Your Job - Room for Debate Blog For Job Losses, No Sign That Worst Is Over Bright Spot in Downturn: New Hiring Is Robust while 4.8 million workers were laid off or chose to leave their jobs in February, employers across the country hired 4.3 million workers that month ...... In February — before the economy started to show the first faint signs of a possible recovery — there were three million job openings nationwide. And despite large new job losses likely to be announced Friday, there are still millions of job openings. ...... “You’re facing more competition for every job you apply for, but the reality is there is a lot of hiring going on” .... “You’re never going to find anything unless you apply.”
I am as excited about the social web as anyone. But I think sometimes we draw off the mark conclusions as to what the social web is going to do to various market traditions. The market is the invisible hand. It is like that magnetic force that so fascinated child Einstein. The web does not displace the invisible hand, or many of its fundamentals. If anything, the web makes it even more invisible - if that is possible - and more handy. The web makes it more invisible by making possible transparencies that could not have been imagined before. JP is in London - or at least most of the time when he is not jet set - and when he goes for a cup of tea, I get to know like I were sitting next to him. That is amazing transparency, if you think about it.
Brands will still matter, but just like the invisible hand will become even more invisible, brands will become much more alive. The staying power of brands that deserve greater staying power will be enhanced. Brand names that deserve to sink will sink and fast. It will become less possible to prop up brand names through dishonest marketing techniques. In a world thick with the social web, sizzle and buzz will go to those who will deserve sizzle and buzz. The power will shift much more to the individual, and is that a bad thing? Is that not what we wanted all along? But it will not be any one individual. It will be individuals across the board. It will be the masses come alive. But not your faceless masses of demographic research or focus groups. It will be masses of people interacting with close and not so close friends.
A great gift of the social web will be the possibility of many, many niche brands. For someone like me who was born in one country - India - and grew up in another - Nepal - and has been in a third 10,000 miles away for over a decade now - America - the web is the only place where someone can see me whole. Is that amazing or is that amazing?
C for capitalism. C for competition. Capitalism is all about competition.
Some have compared Facebook to an operating system, to a browser. And that is not recently. To many people on Facebook, that is also how they surf the web. That is how they read the news, consume videos. And look at all those people writing applications for Facebook, like they used to write for Windows, like they do for the iPhone, like they do for Twitter. (Skype: Hub)
Google also thought, we already have the people and their contacts, we call it Gmail. But Gmail is not exactly a Facebook threat.
Firefox would have to go through a fundamental reengineering to give Facebook a run for the money. And how do you do that without losing the basic soul of a web browser?
For now I see a ton of growth space for Facebook, and a ton of growth space for Firefox. And Chrome's got plenty of buzz.
What would be the 2.0 version of thinking on your feet? Thinking on your feet is having something to say. But it is not like your friends on the other end can tell. Ah, you looked at my status update for 50 seconds before you could press that Like button. That does not count.
The first thing that would count is being in the loop. You might have been my college roomie, but are you on Facebook? Sure we met at that party two months ago, but do you have my Gmail address? If you are not on Twitter, I am not going to hold that against you, but you are no friend on the bleeding edge, are you?
My enthusiasm for the various social networking sites comes from reading about stuff in the news. LinkedIn showed up, and I signed up, although I have never used it the way it is meant to be used. Friendster showed up and I signed up. I got my invite to Gmail from Google itself when Gmail came out. There was at least one smart relative I could not convince to switch to Gmail back then. Hotmail gives me more space than I need, he kept saying. It is more than extra space, it is different, I said. Not listening.
My own enthusiasm for the various social services has had its ups and downs. For example, right now I am kind of lukewarm on Twitter use. I still "get" it, don't get me wrong. But these past few weeks I have been more into blogging. I blog and then I send the blog post links down the Twitter stream. Because my blog posts automatically show up in my Facebook stream, I find myself logging into Facebook after a new blog post. Is it there yet? Is it there yet? I guess it is not real time. The delay can be anywhere between a half hour to several hours.
Recently I have found a whole new use for my blog posts. I put out a blog post. And wait until it shows up in my Facebook stream as a note, and then I tag a whole bunch of people to any particular note. I think 30 are allowed. You show up in all of their Facebook streams. Cheesy. Yes, I have been thinking about you.
I decided to tag all my black/African friends from college days to that note, or at least those that are on Facebook with me. Let's have a little reunion here. Yesterday I created a few different groups.
I like the idea that when one of the tagged individuals will click on the note, they will meet a whole bunch of other people that they know. Happy Reunion!
Strictly speaking, not. Reading is not socializing. Status updates are not the same as saying hello in person. 2.0 socializing is make-do.
One consistent theme at this blog has been that the human is at the center of computing. Face time not only matters, but is central to the equation. But when I say face time, I don't mean just the caricature of it. As in, don't look at the screen, look at me. I mean group dynamics, I mean the larger human affairs, I mean staying in tune with the big political developments of the day.
But where 2.0 is indispensable is that although 5.0 is key and central, that 5.0 can not stand alone. (Web 5.0: Face Time) You need a rich 2.0 environment to give that 5.0 the best possible shape.
9/11 happened here. But that was the work of the Al Qaeda. America and the world were transformed forever. The financial 9/11 happened. But that was not the work of the Al Qaeda. The bungee jump phase has already lasted nine months. I think we are about to hit the plateau phase. (That Plateau Feeling) How long will that last? When will we see the take off phase? How soon?
The pain of the bungee jump has been very real. It has been across the board, it has been across the country, it has been across the globe.
There's death to disease, there's death to accident, and there's death to crime. They don't fall in the same category. Children dying to diarrhoea do not fall in the same category as people dying to genocide. Two investment banks falling to the global financial crisis does not fall in the same category to the two buildings falling to 9/11.
This city has lost tens of thousands of jobs that will never come back. The challenge is to create tens of thousands of new jobs. The challenge is to create new jobs, companies, and industries. The basic greatness of this city has not changed. This city still attracts the top graduates of the top schools in the country. This city still attracts people from every town on earth. This city still has money, and people, and the infrastructure. This city has the capacity to create.
This city has the option to reimagine itself, and claim an even more central place in the planet's imagination. (Silicon City)
Technology will never substitute face time. (Web 5.0: Face Time) But is the cubicle the best way to respect that fact? And if you have to stare at the screen for several hours each day, does that screen have to be in a cubicle?
And if people become so central to the knowledge economy ways, don't sexism and racism and other isms become unbearably intolerable? I mean, if you are trying to get the very best out of each member of your team. You want each person on your team to give the very best they can.
And if it is the knowledge economy and knowledge workers we are talking about, what does it mean to be committed to lifelong education? Education never stops. What does that mean?
If the best idea could come from anywhere on the team, what does that do to the traditional hierarchy? Is there a hierarchy? Has the pyramid become a cloud? The best ideas might come from outside the team. What does that do to the team? Could the team be learning?
What would it mean to take a company through one paradigm shift after another, every few years? How long can you keep that startup feeling before you are big but no longer on the bleeding edge?
People will leave. You will ask some people to leave. You will outsource some of your work, you will crowdsource some of your work. What does it mean to have a core team in that sea of volatility? What does it mean to build and enrichen and deepen relationships?
What would it mean to have a company completely at peace with social media?
But there's a flip side to the face time concept. What if geography is irrelevant, as it is, and I can attempt face time with you still? There's emailing, chatting, audio, video, there's facebooking, tweetering. That changes things. You can feel India's presence right here in New York City.
But the new office can't just be a fashion statement. The new office has to make more money than the old office. The new office should get rid of discredited, old paradigms, but it should also breathe new life into timeless values. Profits still matter. Innovation matters. Hard work matters. Playing by the rules matters. Breaking rules matters. Teamwork matters. Out of the box thinking matters. Leadership matters more than ever. Customer service matters. The market is the goddess we worship. Market forces matter. Democracy is the goddess we pay homage to. Doing good matters.
Some things change fundamentally. Some things never change.