Employers are realizing that what people do online can actually prove their value as potential hires, not just rule them out based on drunken photos or revelations of other past missteps.
Last year we saw articles like Overexposed in the Blogosphere warning how people’s online behavior and misbehavior might ruin their careers. This year, thankfully, we see the other side in articles like Computer World’s Web anonymity can sink your job search:
In a 2006 survey by executive search firm ExecuNet in Norwalk, Conn., 77 of 100 recruiters said they use search engines to check out job candidates. In a CareerBuilder.com survey of 1,150 hiring managers last year, one in four said they use Internet search engines to research potential employees. One in 10 said they also use social networking sites to screen candidates. In fact, according to Search Engine Watch, there are 25 million to 50 million proper-name searches performed each day.
In today’s job market, turning up missing on the Web may not be a fatal flaw, and it’s probably better than having a search result in a photo of you in a hula skirt. But over time, the lack of a Web presence — particularly for IT professionals — may well turn from a neutral to a negative, says Tim Bray, director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems Inc.
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Since starting a fulltime webworking job in August 2005, I’ve found that 90% of my non-talk time on my smartphone is spent in email, and too much of that time is spent struggling with the email application. I’ve been a Windows Mobile user on my phones/PDAs since 2004, and have gotten quite comfortable getting around the operation system. Being able to check email on my handheld affords me flexibility in my day that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I’d be chained to my desk for longer stretches of time, since the primary way I interact with co-workers and colleagues is through email.
I recently became eligible for a Cingular/AT&T phone upgrade, and used that opportunity to replace my Cingular 8125 (running Windows Mobile 5.0 Phone Edition) with a Blackberry 8800 for better messaging. Of course all the cubicle slaves carry a Blackberry, but what about the independent web worker who doesn’t need to sync to a corporate Exchange account?
To complicate matters further, my current computer is an Apple MacBook Pro which runs Windows XP through Parallels, and my primary email application is Outlook 2003. I thought syncing my new Blackberry to my desktop would be as simple as installing the desktop software into Windows XP in Parallels. Guess again.
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Thomas Edison did it all the time. So did Winston Churchill. And just about every one of us had childhood training to be a star in the field. What field is that? Why, napping, of course. Yet despite these famous examples and early practice, most of us would never dream of napping on a regular basis – or admitting it if we did. Feeling drowsy an hour or so after lunch? That’s why Web 2.0 invented wireless in coffee shops!
As a confirmed napper myself, I’m here to tell you that you’re missing out. The right afternoon nap, 8 hours or so after you get up in the morning, can leave you refreshed and energized for the rest of the day. Call it a “power nap” if you’re feeling trendy, or a “catnap” if you’re more traditional. The idea is the same in either case: to derive the maximum benefit from the minimum sleep.
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You’d think nothing could be less risky than sitting at a desk and working at a computer all day. Web workers do face health challenges though. Whether it’s eye strain, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or the steady emergence of love handles to tote your disappearing six pack these maladies can collectively be called ‘deskitis.’ With a few simple solutions, however, deskitis doesn’t have to be an affliction of the mobile digerati.
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If you don’t work in a cubicle, remind yourself how thankful you are with this review of The Cubicle Survival Guide. If you do work in one, get some tips for dealing with the office lamprey, cubicle cooties, and fabric-covered half-walls.
Looking for a middle ground between Getting Things Done and Not Getting Things Done? How about this one: Writing S*** Down. Carry a pen and index cards with you all the time and write everything down.
Lifehacker discovered the secret delete keyboard shortcut for GMail. Use the # key (<shift> + 3).
Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek coming out in late April, suggests checking your email only twice a day. He also proposes using an auto-responder that tells people who email you what your schedule is for checking. That seems like overkill, though may be necessary in corporate environments where people expect immediate email responses.
Weekends lose a bit of luster when you work at home, says John Gruber on Twitter. Alex Hillman, founder of Philly coworking community Independents Hall, suggests coworking as a solution: “Get a chance to turn off at the end of the day. Start appreciating your nights and weekends more.”
“Web Worker” is a big tent. Some of us are building Web 2.0 and beyond, hopping from coffeehouse to meeting room and fueled by VC money. Some are telecommuting full-time for a single employer, working a job that’s traditional but for the fact that we don’t drive in to the office every day. And some are lashing together careers from some mix of freelance and consultant gigs, bouncing around online as we try to fill the needs of multiple clients over the course of a day.
If you’re in the latter group, you’re likely used to the eternal search for the new work needed to keep the cash flowing. But if you’ve spent your career focused only on client acquisition and retention, you’ve missed a very important skill: getting rid of bad clients.
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Or don’t. While many of us claim to be highly effective as we monitor e-mail, engage in productive IM sessions with ten different colleagues, write a little code, and participate in a conference call at the same time, it turns out that most of the research does not support this claim. In a New York Times article, “Slow Down, Multitaskers, and Don’t Read in Traffic,” writer Steve Lohr takes a tour of the research on attention and interruption, and finds the news isn’t good for the dedicated multitaskers out there.
Every study noted in this article finds that the human mind does not perform well on simultaneous tasks — whether it’s talking on the cell (even hands-free) and driving, e-mailing and programming, or just pressing the right key and speaking a correct response in a simple experiment.
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Thanks to Gina and the others at Lifehacker for rounding up their top 10 Firefox extensions. But they put them all on separate pages! Here’s their list in easy-to-read format with my own brief descriptions. For more detail, check out Lifehacker’s gallery and their comments, where you’ll get a bunch of other ideas for ways to customize Firefox for your own workflow and needs.
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Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
