College | Caffeinated

In the midst of creating a killer new resumé for a class assignment, I realized I had an hour left to get my daily post, errmm, posted. Which is convenient, because I have beef with the assignment I’m working on.

In the handout we received, we are strongly urged to stay traditional. Even students that will be using this resumé to apply for creative positions are instructed that to “keep your resumé straightforward and traditional… is the safest approach.” We are told that creative resumés are a “risky attempt”, and “certainly do not attempt it if you are not applying for creative jobs…”

Well, now that we have established that taking risks is a bad thing, I can get on with my life.

Wait, come again?

Naw, scratch that. My resumé is going to reflect me. I guess if an employer is looking for a “safe” and “traditional” employee, I won’t be hired. Then again, if an employer is looking for a “safe” and “traditional” employee, well, I’ll be honest – that probably isn’t an employer I want to work for.

Get off my back for a second, I’m not trying to position myself as a risky hire. I’m trying to position myself as myself. My theory for resumés, assuming one makes their own, is to put their personality into it. If that comes through in creative use of white space, great. If your personality shows in your writing style and use of action verbs, awesome. If you use some off-the-beaten-path fonts to encompass your spirit, more power to ya. Whatever works for you - because it’s your resumé.

Now I know the headhunters and HR people might tell me I’m wrong, and I respect that. They’re the pros at this and I always put a lot of weight behind their advice. I just want to try something new with this assignment. I would rather lose an ‘A’ because my theory sucks than lose a potentially awesome employer down the line.

But again, this is my theory. Now, to everyone else - professors, headhunters, and HR people be damned (but please comment ) - what would you like to do with your resumé?

photo via flickr use see-ming lee

I don’t like to do this, but I have to wave the white flag on my participation in Scott Bishop’s 28-day blogging challenge. Starting the challenge, I knew it would be, well, a challenge to make it the full month. Regardless, I’m pretty disappointed in myself for only making it one week. Lamesauce on me.

In the grand scheme of things, I learned a lot about blogging and blog strategy, specifically for personal blogs, in the past week. Here are some key takeaways for me-

I felt like I was being a little bit annoying. Seriously. You people must have been thinking, “Again? Again? Didn’t he just post something, like, yesterday? What the hell is this?” I was confident in the content I was putting out there, but by the end, it just felt weird to be peddling my content every day – and that was just five posts. My question for others who are participating, or blog at this frequency regularly, is how do you do it? How do you put your content out there without feeling like you might be annoying?

Being a college student sucks. You know what I’m talking about. Everyday, a college student’s schedule ranges somewhere between hectic and ‘what the fµ¢√!’. One post would come at 11 p.m., then the next day’s post would be at 9 a.m. I haven’t asked it, but I bet that first blog post feels jilted. It only got about 10 hours of primo air time. When your day-to-day schedule is constantly changing, it’s hard to publish consistently. Yes, I suppose I could have written them ahead of time, but that brings me to my next point…

Write. Read. Publish. That was my basic strategy. Write the post. Read it over to make sure there are not any horrendous grammatical errors (and probably miss half of them). Hit ‘Publish’. Part of me likes that strategy – thoughts to paper, err, keyboard and put them out there. The Strunk and White part of me would read a post after it’s been published and think, “doh!”

I ended on a hot streak. My last two posts of the week, “You Don’t Need A Community Manager” and “Five Reasons Students Should Use Social Media“, were the most popular – and it wasn’t close. The former was a bit overblown because, although I believe some brands can benefit from a CM, not everyone needs one or, more specifically, the one they have right now. The last paragraph of this comment is my mea culpa of sorts. I’m just extremely happy with the conversation that it started, and very proud of my readers for never personally attacking anyone (specifically me. I don’t like rocks or tomatoes).

What’s next? Well, set benchmarks and stick to ‘em. I entered this challenge to improve the consistency in my post frequency. It worked… for five days. For now, I’m setting the bar at three posts a week. Hold me to it. Also, I’m going to integrate the write-read-publish in me with the Strunk and White in me by writing, letting it sit for awhile, editing and then publishing. That one’s fudgeable though, as current events mandate swift posts. At least I have a go-to strategy now, whereas I didn’t before.

That’s about it. White flag in the air, but some lessons learned. For those still participating in the challenge, have you faced any of these challenges or other challenges? How did you overcome them? Other bloggers and generally smart people – have any advice for the above? Any personal experiences? More cowbell?

Shameless plug: at the end of every post this month, I’m putting a call to action to vote for Pepsi Refresh projects. Specifically mine, obviously. You can vote for an idea once every day and have 10 votes each day. That means you can vote for my idea, or others, but preferably mine, up to 28 times.

photo credit Flickr user peasap

During #BlogChat Sunday night, a good question came across the stream (I forget who asked it, sadly). The question was, “Should students who want to work in social media be active in social media?” The question was drowned out from all the other hubub, so I thought I would raise it here.

My trigger response was “well, duh!” (surprise surprise, right?). However, on Monday I had eight whole hours of ColbyTime while I drove from Minnesota to Mizzou, and eight hours is a lot of time for me to be left alone with my brain (aside: Common is the most underrated rapper of the Aughts. Period). So what did my brain and I come up with? Well, if a student wants to work in social media, they don’t have to be active in social media as a student (that bang you hear is me shooting myself in the foot).

To clarify, being “active” in social media does not count the number of “OMG L0lzzz” posted on your buddies’ Facebook walls. We already know 95% of college students have Facebook, and let’s be honest, the other 5% are lying. The level of “active” we’re looking for here is similar to the time and dedication that guys put in at the gym and girls put in to their bump-its; tedious, detailed, and trying everyday to do it better.

Students- What are your thoughts? Alright, so most of you are already SM-active if you’re commenting, but give it some thought, eh? Professionals- What are you looking for in hiring for entry-level positions with a SM component (or entirely SM)? Is history of being SM-active as a student a requirement or strong qualifier?

photo via Flickr user See-ming Lee

Two of my roommates are currently in a class that I’m enrolled to take next semester. Scratch that- a class that I am required to take next semester.  The final project for this class is, in summation, to “develop your personal brand and execute a promotion strategy for it.” As I watched them scramble and stress to do this project, I giggled in my head a bit. “Bahhh,” I thought,” I’ve already developed my personal brand. I’ve read all these awesome posts about personal branding from the best. This class is going to be easier than cocktail waitresses in LA.”

Then my mental leprechaun strolled along with his club to knock me down a few levels. I felt like an insanely cocky douchebag for ever having such a thought, in addition to having a headache (it’s a big club, apparently. And when did leprechauns get clubs?).

Occasionally, thoughts similar to this are a problem for me. I think that just because I’m doing the whole Twitter thing, writing a mediocre blog, reading and commenting on others’ blogs, and attending conferences or tweet-ups when possible, that I’m in some way ahead of most of my classmates. And it isn’t just me, whether they’re willing to admit to it or not, this is something I’ve noticed from a bunch of students.

It’s like we think that doing the whole social media thing, building a personal brand or whatnot, will put us on the yellow brick road to professional enlightenment. And we are oh so wrong.

Social media isn’t the magic bullet, guys. Social media isn’t our classroom, it isn’t teaching us the fundamentals, history, and basic techniques (of whatever you’re studying). Yes, it’s a great tool for furthering our education, networking, and building a personal brand. I’ve been able to take core concepts from class and relate them to blog posts I read (links are some recent examples of posts that struck a chord with class material). I’ve talked with and been introduced to brilliant people I would never find in my classroom.

Engage all you want. Network, blog, read, comment, digg, stumble, and spin in Internet circles to the extreme. Build your personal brand like it’s the most important possession you’ve got. Go for it.

Recall, will you, that dime-piece blonde girl or guy in your Sociology 1000 class freshman year. Sure, they looked fantastic- almost unbelievable. Greatest thing since Twitter, as far as you’re concerned. Talk to them, though, and you realize that they aren’t sure what Sociology is and think Karl Marx was an X-Men.

That’s what your personal brand, online engagement, etc. is without class. Looks great on the outside, but damn, at least six-year-olds know their X-Men.

How do you balance class and Internet, among everything else college kids do? Do you think I’m full of it, that classes are b.s., and students should look elsewhere to learn? Are you building a Taj Mahal that looks like a Mexican Prison inside?

photo credit: wetsun