Word to the Social Media Wise

I recently signed up for a YouTube account to upload videos – as opposed to signing up so I can argue in comment threads. Upon registration, YouTube suggested some other people to follow based on my gmail. Which is cool if it’s my bff Sarah, who’d selected on “Let others find my channel if they have my email address.” But there were way more people who’d selected this than I cared to know. I now know 1) their age, 2) their username (see my blog about usernames), 3) what they watch when they’re logged in, and 4) what they’ve said. In one case, I saw a comment one of them made on a video. And it wasn’t like “lol that kitteh was too cute!” More like his opinion was dumb. And now I know it.

Things to Consider When Entering: The Exit

Do you often wait to make decisions until you make considerations in the case of deciding or needing to  change course? I myself find it hard to imagine that I’ve already made a bad decision and I find it especially infuriating to play devil’s advocate with my own future while trying to make a decision now. But in general, the considerations that will make me change course are the same. And buried deep in Fidelity’s own information pages, I found them spelled out.

For investment advice,  if you are so inclined to do your own research, I recommend that you check out The Motley Fool website. Or pay a tax attourney, accountant, and/or financial advisor to help you. Remember that you are responsible for the outcome and they are responsible for their advice. Big difference.

On the Fidelity webpage that tells me how to get my money out of L-3’s 401k, which is filled with information for people who’ve already decided to exit, are these three bulletpoints introduced as “considerations” for leaving the money IN:

•	You may have more restrictions than active employees (such as limited number of annual transactions)
•	You may be charged fees
•	You may have limited investment options

Points one and three are essentially the same. Fidelity lightly reminds you that you “may” want to leave your options open. And that you “may” be paying fees along the way no matter what. I assume that for most people, this info generally isn’t what you’re looking hard at the time you decided to get into this. Hey, me neither. I had just heard that Fidelity is like, the best place for a bourgeoise like myself to “invest.” Now I know that just like any other choice I make, options and fees are the main themes to get more information on when deciding what to do. It’s all the same.

So how about thinking through these sentences next time you’re deliberating:

• “This may restrict me __how_”
• “This may cause me to pay __what_”
• “This may limit my options __where__”

The use of the auiliary verb “may” is both a present and future possibility! Just keep it in mind.

What do 5,000 Linked-In People Say?

The best way to get a job is by networking with those employees where you want to work.

Climbing The Ladders of D.C.

Let’s say you make near 100k per year; you’re in work in the DC area and have a TS. As one of about 32 people who read this blog everyday and live within 30 miles of DC (probably in Virginia), you probably also regularly stumble across ads for The Ladders, a fantastic site for job seekers and recruiters that are “100k+”. If you’ve ever signed up for the service, then you probably all the free advice on your resume and job seeking than you could find if you actually looked for the information online. If you haven’t done so, sign up now just to see what I mean. It’s actually fun.

Speaking of fun, here’s a couple of ads on MSNBC.com that you probably see every morning while assessing the losses in your retirement fund(s) or just following one of the links in my financial blog posts:

By oh eight thirty, you are clearly engaged with hovering your mouse over the different dudes waving good morning at you over and over. None are from DC but it’s still fun and cute – much better than the other banner ads. (Bonus points for whomever can tell me where the heck BTL is.)

It would be nice for a little DC guy to wave at all us niche contracted employees who yes, maybe know what all the companies out there are but still are interested in seeing what’s available since 100k jobs and contracts turn over so regularly. In fact, we may be exactly the type of people who find it worth a mere $30 just to keep an eye on our competitors’ positions.

Social Networking for the Gainfully Employed

I’m all about staying up to date with friends and collegues. I like to know what they’re thinking and where they’ll make their next move. I especially love to hear their insights on others’ moves. It’s not because I’m a gossip but because I like to help where I can and will only know if people tell me. So when I saw this article on the pluses of using social networking for finding a job, I thought I’d post it here on my site. It reminded me how often I’ve been asked to pass along a resume for a friend – and how I always think that their reach by searching for a job that way is limited to the amount of their friends’ friends. Because they’re not just going to tell everyone whom they know. They have to choose a method somewhere between using a shotgun and an assassin’s pistol for blasting out their message.

The first obvious online place to look for a job and send your resume is at sites like theladders.com. There, at least, are job descriptions and recruiters. It’s a good start but you’ll be fielding responses by people you probably will never contact again. And only one at most will end up hiring you.

I think that the best way to take advantage of your network of friends, collegues, and connection to the internet when seriously looking for another job is to indicate so on your LinkedIn and Facebook profile status. The people who will see your status change are others who want to network. Because they wouldn’t be on there if they don’t! I know that online networking feels a bit exposing and uncontrolled; but you are in control of who can see your profile and should trust them.

Just think about it: if you signed up for LinkedIn and saw on the recent activity page that someone you know is looking around, you’d tell them if you thought you could hook them up with someone they might not know. It makes you look networked and feel good if you do end up helping them. Anyone you add as a connection and show your personal and professional information to should be trusted to send an email on your behalf. Let them all know when you need that email sent.