Who Are You On the Internet (Part 1)

I originally had this being one post but it quickly became too long. I have the intention of this being the first of two/three posts.

Who Are You On The Internet (Part 1)

With the internet, we are now able to access an infinite amount of information. Any question we ever had about the world can easily be answered with a quick +Google search. Including in this information is us. People can find out our interest, past job history, or who we hang out with this weekend. This has created a world where we can easily be ruined by what people find on the internet. Some of this can be posted by others or ourselves. An angry customers may post an untrue comment about a small business and ruin their reputation with future customers. A hiring manager may see a recent grads drunk photos on Facebook and not hire them for a job. This means that people now need to watch their personal brand.

What is a personal brand? Your personal brand is how the world sees you. Hopefully, this is who your really are and not what other people create. It can be influenced by three important factors. First, it is affected by what you show the world. Second, what others say about influences your brand. Finally, what others don't say about you can affect your brand. You can take actions to move these in a positive direction.

Below are some concepts, I have used to improve my own personal brands. I am not a expert in this subject so these are just ideas that have worked for me.

Step 1

Before you can begin improving your personal brand, you have to believe that is important. This is the reputation that 99.9% of the world will see first. Even people that know you may be affected by what you post on the internet. Your grandma isn't going to look at you the same way if she sees the drunk Friday night pictures of you. Also, if you are not taking charge of your personal brand then it is probably going to tumble. I don't know too many people going on the internet to compliment people/businesses. Most of the time, we want to use the internet to bash people. So make this an investment and you will be rewarded.

Step 2

The first action you need take with your personal brand is to decide what it says about you. This is often called a personal branding statement. When people create a professional personal brand, they use it for resumes and Linkedin profiles. I like to use it as a guiding light for who I want to be. From Jessica Holbrook Hernandez and J.T O'Donell I snagged a few ways to creating a powerful Branding Statement.

When developing a statement, start by considering who you are. What are you passions? Why did you pick your friends? What did you go into your professional field? What are the positive impacts you want to make on the world? All of these should influence your statement. Next, look at how your past will lead to your future. Show the world that you have always been the person you are showing online at that you intend to be that person while improving yourself. Finally, consider the three words that the closest people to you would say about you. Use the answers to these questions to create a short personal branding statement.

Once you have written your statement, review it and make sure that it has WOMP. I borrowed the idea of WOMP from J.T. If your statement has WOMP, then it has World of Mouth Potential. I have read this to mean that when people find you, they can not stop talking about you. If a recruiter finds you on Linkedin, then they go straight to the hiring manager and talk about you. When someone friends you on Facebook, they see your profile and want to set you up with all their friends. Be someone that others want to talk about.  When your personal branding statement is fine-tuned, then you can use it as a guiding light to how you create the rest of your brand.

Step 3

After creating your personal branding statement, you then need to determine who you already our on the internet. This can easily be done by doing a +Google Search of your name. When I did this for myself, I figured out two things. First, that it is not easy to find bad pages of me. That’s good. Most of the pictures I’d prefer employers and certain family member not to see are hide to find. Second, it is not easy to find good pages about me. This is bad for basically the same reason. I have not made it easy for people to see all the great work and activities I have done. During my professional career, I have worked on a lot of difficult projects and succeeded. These projects allowed me to gain new skills I will use at future jobs. In my personal life, I have had several accomplishments that show the type of person I am.

After you have determined your place on the internet, you need to develop a plan to improve your place on the internet. I admit that did not originally do this so I am giving you my recommended ideas with 20/20 hindsight. I will briefly state each step in this step and then go into each in upcoming steps.

First, clean up the current internet you. Most of us wouldn’t hire or become friends with the person we find.

Second, start using new media. Many forms of media let you be the leading source on who you are.

Third, develop a plan for updating. You are not the same person you were six months ago so don’t let the internet say you are.

Finally, recruit others to improve your brand. No one will believe all the great things you say about yourself if others are not verifying the information.

In the next post I will get into how you effectively complete these four activities. Expect this in a day or two.

Tragedy to Close to Home

Today, I planned on finishing my post on developing a personal brand on the internet. Obviously, that is no longer a priority for me. I'm not even sure I will come back to it. Right now it seems so insignificant.

Thank God, I was not running Boston this but I have run it twice before. When I ran, I was like so many runners yesterday, celebrating all the work I had put into getting there. Most non-runners don't realize that running the Boston Marathon course is not the achievement. Running from Hopkinton to Boylston Street is the reward. It shows all the hours on lonely streets you put into qualifying for the invite. The race is the opportunity to celebrate. As I watched the explosion on television, I returned to my two finishes. Both times, I was fortunate to stop and hug my family before finishing. I then realized how lucky I was to have not qualified for the event. Something no marathoner has said previous to yesterday. My family had cheered for me from across the street from where the two explosions had occurred. This idea hit me hard. I have never been to New York. Or to Oklahoma City. Or to any other city that has been affected by a terrorist attack. But I have been to Boston and run this race. I wondered what might have been.

Fortunately, I was in my hometown and was able to see my family shortly after I found out. It was comforting in the immediate aftermath to hug my dad and see my brothers. My 14-year old brother was even willing to hug me in front of his friends. Then, I began taking the two hour drive home to Columbus. As I drove home and began getting what little news I could, the sinking feeling started coming back. I tried listening to music but it seemed inconsequential. I wanted news. I wanted the injured list to stop or maybe to go down to false reporting. That was not the case. Shockingly, the best news reporting came from ESPN. Even though, I had just seen my family and knew they would never go without me, I was terrified that they were hurt. When I reached Columbus, I needed to call and here their voices. I talk shortly to my dad and my brother. I still was afraid but felt somewhat better. I spent the rest of the evening thinking what might have been. I had wanted to run Boston this year. I, also, felt comfort in text from family and friends. Several, texted and messaged to make sure I was safe. When I finally saw my wife, I felt safe in her arms. I ran my last Boston before I met her and did not have the same feeling of dread. She was safe away from my memories and far from my nightmares. I had a headache before bed and that gave myself the excuse to take a Tylenol PM. It helped and I'm glad I did.

When I woke up this morning, my gut still sank. I had hoped it was all the worst dream of my life and the people of Boston were actually shaking off another wonderful Patriots Day. No such luck. The news became even worse when I got online. The attacks had killed an 8-year boy: Martin Richard.  He had been there to watch his father finish. Looking just as young as my brothers were when I finished my races. Then I heard that his mother had brain surgery and his sister had lost a leg. My heart was torn up for the father. Working so long and so hard for this day and then have it ruined for no reason. I think of all the ways I can celebrate the life of this boy. Wear his name at my next race, raise money for his family and anything else to not let the terrorist win.

As I read his name over and over again. I became oddly relieved the coward of this attack had not taken responsibility. I had been given the opportunity to learn Martin's name and not a rat. After the Sandy Hook killings the only name I heard was that of the shooter. The children's names weren't mentioned, the heroic teachers name were not mentioned. Just the shooter. And that was not a name I wanted to hear. I now have a name to remember. A name to keep running for. A name to show the weasel that we will run on and that they will not scare us away from something we love.

I had also spent the last day taking comfort in not knowing anyone running the race. I did not need to be afraid for anyone. That to could not be left sacred in my mind. My dad let me know that moments before the explosion my 1st grade teacher had crossed the finish line. Then, I went on Facebook and saw that a childhood friend had also run the race. Fortunately, they are both safe. But what might have been.

As I look through the online running groups am a part of, I am reminded that while running is a lone sport, we are connected in a common bond. All realize the mental fortitude it takes to participate. It is often not the body that is honed but the mind. It was said by the first women to complete the Boston Marathon that "If you are losing faith in humanity, then go watch a marathon." This statement was ruined for yesterday's race. We saw the worst humanity, but if we looked closely we saw the best. The first responders running toward danger and not away. The citizens of Boston who opened their homes to displaced visitors.

These attacks took the humanity out of the 2013 +The Boston Marathon but it did not take the humanity out of marathon. In the coming weeks, months and years runners will show the true humanity of the event. We will line up for the peak of marathon season and run to remember the victims. Then in a year, people will return to Hopkinton and start the 26.2 mile memorial run. They will look to left as they are about to finish and salute those who were lost. I hope that I have the privilege of being one.

Reapply for Your Job

This idea I am about to suggest is going to seem crazy and a lot of people may disagree with me but my current experience has made me believe it to be true. I think that we should have to reapply for our jobs/apply for new jobs every six months.

Think of this like a new level of performance review. I feel as though this would be good for both employers and employees for several different reasons. First, you would have to update your resume to show your employer what you have accomplished over the last six months. Wouldn't you work a little bit harder on projects if you knew that your employer would see you listing it. Also, it would force people to have constantly updated resumes. It was a real pain updating my resume last year when I hadn't done so for almost two years. Remembering all the projects I had worked on was surprisingly difficult.

The second reason for people to apply for their job is that it could be a confidence...or a reality check. I don't know about other people but getting a call back from a company is a real confidence booster. And getting that rejection email is really depressing. If you turned in a new resume, interviewed again, and then your company hired you back wouldn't that be a real make your day and motivate you to keep working hard moving forward. Also, if your company told you that they wouldn't hire you back (there would have to be rules so they couldn't just fire you), then you hopefully would work hard to improve your short comings.

I, also, think that if you had to reapply for your job every six months, then you might actually take the time to determine if you still enjoyed your job. It takes a lot of energy to apply for a job. So when you don't enjoy it then you probably would just apply for a job you may actually be happy at. I sure would have at one of my previous companies.

Finally, wouldn't it be good for company's if they knew that their employees did not want to continue work for them. This is where the process would cut both ways. Hopefully, a company will see that there are constantly losing employees during this process and fix some of their issues. Most won't I know but some may actually see the pattern. Also, it may show companies positions that people hate and again they can improve that area.

I know this is an out there idea and would need serious refining. For example, how do you keep employers from just firing people after six months. Obviously there would have to be a rule where a company didn't hire you back after three reapplications (1.5 years). But my experiences has shown mean that something needs to change in the performance review process. Either companies don't do them or they are so infrequent that employees don't know until things are to late.

Let me know what you think of this idea.

Acing Your On-Site Interview

In the last week, I had interviews at a company I hope to get a job. In the past this experience has made me incredible nervous and I could barely get through the process without having a heart attack. However, during my most recent experience, I have felt reasonable calm and left feeling as though I did everything I could do to get the position. Several things have helped me gain this confidence. A few may seem odd but if you read the explanation, then they will make a lot of sense.

First, researching myself.
This may seem like an odd concept, but it is very helpful in making a good first impression. Reminding yourself what you have accomplished in your career will be helpful when asked the specifics of your career.

For example, I was asked during the interview if I had ever a done the return on investment for a project. Fortunately, I had spent a lot of time (including writing about the project on Linkedin) articulating the most significant ROI I had done at a previous job. I had spent so much time working on this because in past interviews I had been asked similar questions. This is why it is important to remember previous interviews when researching yourself.

Second, Remember the past
No two interviews are ever the same but they are often very similar in the questions that they will asked you. If you are interviewing with someone in HR, then they will usually asked you question about yourself and high-level information about previous work experience. This will help them determine if you will fit into the company culture and if what they discussed with hiring manager matches your skills. Also, the can determine if you will bring passion to the position.

If you are fortunate to get an interview with a hiring manager, then this is when knowing your own career can come pretty handy. These people usually know their stuff and are going to grill you so that you know yours. This can become unnerving because often times early in your career you will be learning on the job and not be able to give concrete ways you would solve problems at the company. When this happens it is important to show off your critical reasoning skills and let the hiring manager know how you would complete tasks. If you have learned transferable skills in unrelated situations then you will show them that you can succeed in the position. Often times it also valuable to bring up problems at a company before they mentioned them. This is why it always important to research a company before you visit them.

Recommendation for Young Professionals
I know that it may be very difficult for young professionals to relate to the first two recommendations. You have few experiences to draw discuss in an interview and you have little or no interviews in your past. I have a few further recommendations. Always remember your past but use transferable experiences. If you had a group assignment where you were leader, then discuss how this required project management skills. To prepare for the question, have a practice interview with an established professional in your field. Their questions will often times give you insight into what you will be asked. The final two preparation steps can be used by just about everyone.

Third, know the company
I think just about everyone has heard that you should always learn about a company before you go and visit them. This advice is given because interviewers often times ask you what you know about the company. They usually want to see that you spent as much time learning about them as they did learning about you. In the past, I used this question to show that I had at the very least looked on the their website. While this is great and shows you put a little effort into the interview. It does not go nearly fair enough in impressing the interviewer. Take this opportunity to actually think about your position and what kind of problems you will be dealing with on a daily basis.

For example, the job I interviewed for is to help the logistics department at a distribution facility. The products they sell are often endorsed by celebrities which makes predicting demand, in turn supply, very difficult. I realized this and mentioned in my interview. The interviewer had an example of this type of celebratory endorsement and how the product sold out in under 12 hours. Me bringing this up led to us having a five minute conversation. I could tell that this critical thinking on my part really impressed him.

Also, be absolutely sure you know the location of your interview. Even if you have gotten direction on your phone still give yourself to get to the interview. Before one of my interviews, I printed directions off of Google Maps. There is error in their maps that required me to drive down a road that doesn't exist. This meant I had to spend an extra half an hour looking for the site and barely arrived on time for my interview even though I left with 90 minutes to get there (it was 30 minutes from my house). While all of these preparation are great at helping me acing my interview, I refuse to do them they day of an interview.

Finally, relax the day of the interview.
All through college, I chose to cram for finals in the days before instead of actually learning the material beforehand. This required me to continue studying right up to the test instead of taking the time to digest the information. I can tell you that it rarely workout in my favor and my GPA will show this mistake.

I have learned from these poor choses and apply it to my interviews. First, once I have an interview I became very diligent and complete the three preparation steps discussed previously. Then on the day of the interview I stop getting ready for the interview. My theory, and what I have experienced, is that this only makes me nervous. This has required me to come up with different techniques for morning and afternoon interviews.

If the interview is in the morning, then I am always sure to set my alarm 3 hours before the interview. This sucks when you have an 8am interview but it helps get the hour relaxers complete without feeling rushed. After getting up, I take my dog running. I know in a past post I said this was not something I would do. I retract my previous statement. As I mentioned before, this really helps calm the nerves. Next, I take a shower and shave(boys only). I might recommended shaving the day before depending on how long it takes you to get a five-o-clock shadow. Finally, I am sure to make sure to eat a bowl of oatmeal with some fruit and brew a cup of coffee. This was good advice (minus the coffee) when we were kids and it is great advice now. A few more items need to be added if the interview is in the afternoon.

For an interview that is later in the day, I still do the above items but set my alarm clock later. Also, I need to do a few more activities. I recommended coming up with a chore list the night before. This often included laundry, dishes and cleaning one room in the house. This distracts me from what I have later and makes me feel as though no matter I have accomplished something with my day. Also, I will up the intensity of my runs. Before a morning interview, I will only run about 2 miles. On days I have an afternoon interview, I will often do 6+ miles at race pace. When I complete the run, my confidence is through the roof.

Once you arrive at your interview, everything else is pretty much on you. Just remember that you have the skills to do the job and all the company wants to do is determine if you are the right for them.

Away on Honeymoon

Sorry, it has been so long since my last post. I was away all last week on my honeymoon. My new wife and I went to Chicago for a couple days. It was an amazing trip. I should be posting a new article later today that I wrote while on the train back to Ohio.
Later All.

Running and the Price of Excellence

Running is one of the great sources of enjoyment in my life. No matter the length, a run always has the power to center me and clarify my world. I especially love running marathons. This as led people to constantly ask me why I put myself through such torture. I've never been able to give people a straight answer and even when I try I usually change a month later. And yesterday I found this months reason I run. 

This winter/spring I am training to break 3-hours in the marathon. It has always been my gold-standard in the event. To break it however, it involves taking your training to a whole new level. No longer can I just do a daily six mile run with a speed workout thrown in once week. I am doing tempo, pace, and yasso runs. All while spending my Saturdays running 15 to 20 miles in the cold, windy Ohio winter. 

The weather kind of broke yesterday. A winter storm was rolling in (we got 6" last night) and pushed some warm air in front of it. It was 39 with very little wind. I decided to go to Jesse Owens Stadium and run around the Ohio State track. The workout was incredibly tough but it felt easier the week before when I ran around the same track but with the weather being 35, windy and rainy. I finished the workout and started to walk out of the stadium to do my 2-mile cooldown across campus.

That's when I saw a quote from Jesse Owens. A quote I had probably read a few dozen time but never truly understood until that moment. It read "We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort." That's when I realized why I love running. It is a constant reminder of what it requires to be excellent. 

In running, as anything in life, you can be average with very little work. If you just want to earn a paycheck at your job, then do what is expected. If you want an average marriage, then put in just enough effort so the other person doesn't leave. As I said above, I was able to put in very easy weeks and actually be an above average marathoner. I have run the Boston Marathon twice and have qualified about half a dozen times. Those easy weeks are a double edged sword. You are walking a fine line between faking greatness and being exposed. And trust me I have been exposed more then a few times. I have done too little training and had the world see that I was just faking being in shape when I had to walk the last miles of a marathon. Run/walking to the end of a marathon and having dozens of people pass you by is very humbling experience. The same can be happen when try to be average in your career, marriage or any other aspect of your life. 

Some things it can okay to be average. I shoot pool every week in a pool league. If always average at that, then I really won't be to hard on myself. I do that and several other things in my life just for fun. However, to get to that next level in the important things in life, you have to put in a whole lot of effort. That is what this new training scheduling is teaching me. Excellent just happen by accident. You have to get up every morning focused on what you want to achieve. If I want to break three hours, then I need to  wake up with no doubt to my run for the day will get done. Do you want to be the very best at your job? Go out fix that problem no one else was willing to try and fix. Are you not happy in your marriage? Then put every ounce of energy into fixing it.

The world has convinced us that greatness is a gift reserved for a chosen few (thank you +Nike). But it is not. And it does not require you to be seen on television or the internet. To be great or excellent, you have to get up every morning and put all your energy into the things that matter to you. That is why I love running. Where in some aspects of your life you can easily forget what it takes to be great in life, running will never allow you that opportunity. If you forget what it takes to be excellent without putting in the effort, then when you try to be excellent on race day the course will chew you up and spit you out. Very little other aspects of life have a "race day" so it is very hard to see when you are not being great. 

Hopefully, I never forget the words of Jesse Owens and use his wisdom in all aspects of my life. 

Google+ and Facebook Will Coexist

A few months ago, I was struggling through the last few moments at work and decided that I would do a little social networking on this particular afternoon. A phrase that seems so strange since it was something that did not exist until about eight years ago when I was a freshman in college. Back then social networking still wasn’t a commonly used expression, Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t a household name and smart phones were only for politicians and CEOs. I didn’t even want to join Facebook when I was a freshman. I was forced by a girl I liked back then and when I first joined it was a great place to be. It was cool. You could share a little information with people you had just met, check if girls were single before you asked them out, people couldn’t post their every thought and most importantly you had to have a college email to join. That really was the good old days of Facebook.

Then Mark’s eyes lit up with dollar signs. If tens of millions of college kids could make him hundreds of millions of dollars, then hundreds of millions of people from the rest of the world could make billions of dollars. That’s when things got bad for Facebook’s first users. Friend request started showing up from parents, grandparents and high schoolers. At first it wasn’t too bad. They just thought it was something silly that younger generations did. They asked questions like “What’s the point?” and “How do you keep track of that many friends?” They hadn’t caught on to the fact that it wasn’t keeping track of people for the long term. You just wanted to easily tell people about yourself and learn about them. Personally, after the first viewing of someone’s profile, I may only view it again one or two times. After about a year of Facebook being open, the older generations caught onto how to use network. And things were never the same.

Before Facebook became an open social network, there was very little fear of a parent or another adult viewing your profile. This meant that you could post just about anything you wanted. While in hindsight that’s a terrible ability, it didn’t seem that bad when only other stupid college students could see it. The only time my parent or grandparents saw my profile was when my cousins or myself were asked to show them. While this did lead to an awkward conversation where my Grandma called my posted photos “rowdy.” Her word not mine. But this was an isolated occurrence and was not a big fear of mine. Shortly after this event, the Facebook was open and college students were in a constant state of fear that their families, bosses or other authorities would see their photos, post, and other embarrassing information. There were stories of parents harassing classmates who had posted pictures from the bar the week before. Or a job offer was revoked because a hiring manager saw the pictures from two years earlier when you drank under age. The worst part was that Facebook did not give users an easy way to limit what information each of your friends could see. You have to set up viewing parameters for each friend you have. Not only that, the viewing parameters were fairly generic. You couldn’t let them view one photo and then later on view a different photo. It is all or none. But a lot of people outside of college joined and Zuckerberg was making his billions.

Things didn’t get any better from there. The Newsfeed was added. The place where people could post every detail of their lives and you were stuck seeing it when you logged in. I understand why people might post details about their wedding or new born baby but everything else was just nonsense. Guys would post about their awesome meal for the fifth day in row and girls would post about how they went out for the hundredth weekend in a row. And it was the first thing you read when you signed onto Facebook. Not only was there none sense about activities people were doing in the real world, there was constant request from people to help them “feed their hogs” in Farmville or steal something in Mob Wars. It all just became too much and I wanted something new.

After taking my first job, I started going on Facebook a lot less. I had no desire to be on it any more. While I still wanted them to have great lives, I just couldn’t stand hearing about what people from high school are doing. So, I didn’t do a whole lot of social networking. I was waiting for Facebook to give me greater control over what I let certain people see about my life and I wanted to hear information I actually show up in my homepage.

Then, I heard about it in the summer of 2011: Google+. Google’s attempt and competing with Facebook in the social networking realm. The feature I was most curious about was Circles. Everytime you +1 someone or something into your network you put them into a circle. The advantage of circles was that you shared information fluidly. If you wanted to share a certain picture with only a few friends then you just select that circle, but if you wanted to share a job promotion with the whole world then you just select Public. Unfortunately, when I first heard about Google+ was still in the “field testing” phase. So, I waited until it was opened to the public and immediately joined. When I started playing around with the site, I saw it’s potential, but like everyone else, I knew it’s fatal flaw. It was somewhat of a ghost town and needed more users to be a practical social network. I, again, was a man without a social network.

I did check out both Google+ and Facebook, but on a very sporadic bases. I would go on Facebook once a week and then immediately get off after I realized why I had left. Then, I would get on Google+ and see all my updates for the last week in about 15 minutes. Something was changing however. There started being ideas, topics and organizations. Google+ was just limited to people as Facebook seemed to be. NASA was on Google+ posting minute by minute updates of the Mars Rover mission. People created pages for topics like running, art and job searching. Google was helping Africa by creating +Google Africa to show some of the great work being done there. Google+ seemed to be the place where you discussed ideas and Facebook was the place where you discussed people. Also, about this time my Google+ time started increasing, I started using LinkedIn more often.

I had finally become fed up with my job and wanted to get something new. I had had a Linkedin profile for quite awhile, but gave no real effort to expand my network and have a well maintained. Like Google+, it originally seemed like a ghost town. Originally, most of the people I could connect with were classmates and teachers who I saw on a daily bases. I still didn’t see the advantages of the site during my first job. However, when I started my job search, I realized the potential. You could use the site to let recruiters see what you had been doing without sending a resume, quickly find jobs in your area see, let connections recommend your skills and vice versa. Also, LinkedIn today gave you the ability to quickly see articles that involved industries you were involved with. One other aspect I enjoyed about the site had nothing to do with its features. I loved that it was a professional website. This meant that you knew not post anything unrelated to your career. The information felt civilized. Again, not the nonsense that is found everywhere on Facebook. I, quickly, found a job through Linkedin and knew the power of the site.

My experiences have shown me that Facebook will not be the superpower of social networking. It, also, will not have a quick, sudden death like Myspace. With 7 billion people currently on the earth and more everyday getting access to the internet, no one site can make everyone happy. Some people want a site that will allow them to see what family and friends are doing (Facebook). Some seek out a place to discuss ideas (Google+). Others need a place to make business contacts (LinkedIn). And there are a thousand other social needs people need from the internet which means some other site(s) will come along to fill them. Experts that predict the continued dominance of Facebook or Google+ as the great Facebook killer are a little short sighted. No one saw the potential of Facebook in 2004 and people are still predicting Google+ failure after gaining 235 million active users.