There are so many interesting things on the Internet, blogs, social networking. And outside work you may find an interesting home for your pet peeve, political view, or hobby. But the Internet is not really partitionable between personal and work.
My advice, if its personal, no matter how harmless it may seem, keep it anonymous, written under a pseudonym. Why? Because you can make only one first impression, and what impression something may make to your employer or a potential employer may do irreparable harm. Sure you should have freedom of speech and expression, technically, but practically, employers look, and may be offended. Its not right, but it happens. So better safe than sorry and publish under an assumed name.
Your real name is your brand, protect it. Use it only in the most professional way possible, in a way that will promote you as a desirable professional. No politics, no viewpoints, no controversy. Sound boring? It is, but its safe.
A salesman (and that's every job seeker who needs to sell themselves) can sometimes take risks if he knows his audience. He can tell an off color joke or talk about party excess, if he really knows his audience well enough to know they won't take offense. But on the Internet, you don't know your audience, so you need to exercise caution.
LinkedIn is a professional Internet presence. But I've seen people put some questionable personal dialog in their public profile. I'd say that is ill advised. Facebook is becoming a business networking tool. I haven't looked at Facebook close enough yet, but I know that Myspace is just not a good vehicle. Myspace is too social, too informal, not suitable for business unless you are in the entertainment industry. Do you have interests in that area, does it appeal to you? Fine, register under an assumed name, not your real name, not your professional brand.
So sell yourself on the Internet, but express yourself anonymously.
Showing posts with label Web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Saturday, November 8, 2008
What is ecamspace.net?
Seriously help me out, I need to know. It seems redundant with the Employment Connection Online Enrollment (Second Square).
When I try to enroll I get a general error message. Working in the computer industry for 30 years, I'm usually not stumped by computer issues, frustrated sure, but not stumped.
It asks for your SSN, I put in just the nine digits, that didn't work, so I tried to add dashes, their wasn't enough room for the digits. I even tried just the last four digits, as they use in their other systems. The first password wasn't "hard", but it was 6-8 digits. I asked if there were any other requirements and got the now frequent response "I dunno". So I provided a "hard" password, typically that is at least 6 characters, capital and lower case and also numeric.
Still the same lame error message "-->We could not register you based on the information provided. Please review it."
I tried to get help at the resource center on a Friday afternoon one hour before closing and everyone was bailing out like rats leaving a drowning ship.
Seriously, give me a hint... Thanks... You can comment here (even anonymously without a blogger ID if you must).
Status: Rough Draft
When I try to enroll I get a general error message. Working in the computer industry for 30 years, I'm usually not stumped by computer issues, frustrated sure, but not stumped.
It asks for your SSN, I put in just the nine digits, that didn't work, so I tried to add dashes, their wasn't enough room for the digits. I even tried just the last four digits, as they use in their other systems. The first password wasn't "hard", but it was 6-8 digits. I asked if there were any other requirements and got the now frequent response "I dunno". So I provided a "hard" password, typically that is at least 6 characters, capital and lower case and also numeric.
Still the same lame error message "-->We could not register you based on the information provided. Please review it."
I tried to get help at the resource center on a Friday afternoon one hour before closing and everyone was bailing out like rats leaving a drowning ship.
Seriously, give me a hint... Thanks... You can comment here (even anonymously without a blogger ID if you must).
Status: Rough Draft
Friday, November 7, 2008
Employment Connection Online
The main Employment Connection Web site is: http://www.employmentconnection.us/
On this page Click Jobs (upper left).
On the job seeker page you will find two squares.
When you click on this square you will go to http://empyraoneflow.com/cuyahoga/
From this page you will be asked to Login or Register Now
When you register it will ask for your name, address, phone, and to select a userid & password
Be sure to click "Print/Email Login Info" as proof that you are registered.
This does not appear to work in the Firefox browser, if you use Firefox, you can login in on Internet Explorer, update preferences and then Print Email Login Info.
You will then go through a "Pre Orientation Screen" that will end up at a Main Menu that has:
My Documents allows you to upload files to Employment Connection, presumably for them to view. This does not seem to be working well under Firefox. My intent is to upload background info on myself (how I became unemployed and the barriers to employment I have run into), my current resume, and a general cover letter.
This facility has a timeout, so be sure to login from a high speed link and stay focused on the updates you are doing.
When you click on this square you will go to http://www.ccrsc.net/enroll.asp
This site asks your name and phone number, it does not have a userid or password.
Click Next and it shows a list of classes and allows you to enroll. Under Firefox it seemed to only display the first page of workshops and giving no way to navigate to the later pages.
Be aware that there are many complaints on people enrolling then the info disappears and the client can't see what they just enrolled in, and if they print it first, then even if they do print it, then when you show up for the enrolled class, they have no record of it. This may be partly do to paper sign up sheets that are maintained.
Click on jobseeker in the upper banner strip to go here
http://employmentconnection.us/en-US/jobseeker.aspx
for an overview of Employment Connection Services
Employment Connection Services include:
Go here to get the Workshop schedule...
Click on the hyperlink "Employment Connection Quarterly Calendar"
for Fall 2008 click here.
for Winter 2009 click here.
Click Employment Events to see important hiring opportunities here
http://www.employmentconnection.us/en-US/Employment-Events.aspx
Don't rely on the events list being complete, the very significant and well run jobfair at Cleveland State University was not listed, while the jobfair at Lakeland, a smaller college, fewer employers, in a neighboring county is listed.
I'd supplement this list with the Career Center at the Maple Hts library branch. The Career Center has a large collection of books and has a large set of handouts and announcements. I haven't found these online yet, but their site http://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/careerexpert.aspx includes other very useful information and workshops that are an alternative or supplement to those offered by Employment Connection.
On this page Click Jobs (upper left).
On the job seeker page you will find two squares.
First square - Employment Connection online
When you click on this square you will go to http://empyraoneflow.com/cuyahoga/
From this page you will be asked to Login or Register Now
When you register it will ask for your name, address, phone, and to select a userid & password
Be sure to click "Print/Email Login Info" as proof that you are registered.
This does not appear to work in the Firefox browser, if you use Firefox, you can login in on Internet Explorer, update preferences and then Print Email Login Info.
You will then go through a "Pre Orientation Screen" that will end up at a Main Menu that has:
- Interactive workshops/Sessions for you to complete
- Completed documents you may want to view/print
- My Recommendations
- My Documents
- My Preferences
My Documents allows you to upload files to Employment Connection, presumably for them to view. This does not seem to be working well under Firefox. My intent is to upload background info on myself (how I became unemployed and the barriers to employment I have run into), my current resume, and a general cover letter.
This facility has a timeout, so be sure to login from a high speed link and stay focused on the updates you are doing.
Second square - Enroll
When you click on this square you will go to http://www.ccrsc.net/enroll.asp
This site asks your name and phone number, it does not have a userid or password.
Click Next and it shows a list of classes and allows you to enroll. Under Firefox it seemed to only display the first page of workshops and giving no way to navigate to the later pages.
Be aware that there are many complaints on people enrolling then the info disappears and the client can't see what they just enrolled in, and if they print it first, then even if they do print it, then when you show up for the enrolled class, they have no record of it. This may be partly do to paper sign up sheets that are maintained.
Click on jobseeker in the upper banner strip to go here
http://employmentconnection.us/en-US/jobseeker.aspx
for an overview of Employment Connection Services
Employment Connection Services include:
- Self-Directed Services
- Orientation
- Job Search and Placement Assistance
- Workshops
- Training
Go here to get the Workshop schedule...
Click on the hyperlink "Employment Connection Quarterly Calendar"
for Winter 2009 click here.
Click Employment Events to see important hiring opportunities here
http://www.employmentconnection.us/en-US/Employment-Events.aspx
Don't rely on the events list being complete, the very significant and well run jobfair at Cleveland State University was not listed, while the jobfair at Lakeland, a smaller college, fewer employers, in a neighboring county is listed.
Career Center
I'd supplement this list with the Career Center at the Maple Hts library branch. The Career Center has a large collection of books and has a large set of handouts and announcements. I haven't found these online yet, but their site http://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/careerexpert.aspx includes other very useful information and workshops that are an alternative or supplement to those offered by Employment Connection.
Retro Web site
Wow, I had to do a double take. I was going through the large variety of web sites surrounding our local unemployment office. The United Labor Agency (ULA) runs the Employment Connection program.
When I first visited the ULA web site http://www.ula-ohio.org/ and navigated through its upper menu bar, I noticed that more than half was a placeholder and referred back to the home page. I looked at the source HTML code and noticed a bunch of updates in 2007.
I commented to a few ULA employees, partly in jest, but also somewhat serious, "Hey ya need some help on that web site, I'm unemployed, I could use the work".
So when I just looked at the site again tonight as I was trying to navigate their web site maze, I thought, "Oh, they heard me the site looks completely different". Then I noticed the Labor Day announcement. Hmm, in Oct 2008 the site was 2007, if they updated it in Nov 2008, why would they announce a labor day event. Well just a little more looking and I notice a © 2004.
What!!! They rolled out the 2007 web site in favor for the 2004 site. At least the header banner goes to real pages instead of all pointing to the home page like the 2007 site, but wouldn't it be nice to remove 4 year old announcements?
ULA, contact me, please. I need the work, and you sure need the help! Are you paying for your web maintenance? I'll beat their price and their service.
2012 Update: Well it looks like this obsolete website is now offline, the domain is still used to email employees at the Employment Connection, but won't load as a website. One would think that an organization this big that has a contract with the state of Ohio would have a functioning web site.
When I first visited the ULA web site http://www.ula-ohio.org/ and navigated through its upper menu bar, I noticed that more than half was a placeholder and referred back to the home page. I looked at the source HTML code and noticed a bunch of updates in 2007.
I commented to a few ULA employees, partly in jest, but also somewhat serious, "Hey ya need some help on that web site, I'm unemployed, I could use the work".
So when I just looked at the site again tonight as I was trying to navigate their web site maze, I thought, "Oh, they heard me the site looks completely different". Then I noticed the Labor Day announcement. Hmm, in Oct 2008 the site was 2007, if they updated it in Nov 2008, why would they announce a labor day event. Well just a little more looking and I notice a © 2004.
What!!! They rolled out the 2007 web site in favor for the 2004 site. At least the header banner goes to real pages instead of all pointing to the home page like the 2007 site, but wouldn't it be nice to remove 4 year old announcements?
ULA, contact me, please. I need the work, and you sure need the help! Are you paying for your web maintenance? I'll beat their price and their service.
2012 Update: Well it looks like this obsolete website is now offline, the domain is still used to email employees at the Employment Connection, but won't load as a website. One would think that an organization this big that has a contract with the state of Ohio would have a functioning web site.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Blog vs Discussion
I will discuss the capabilities between Blogs and Discussions. As with anything, each has its pros and cons.
Group Features
Many people in the CCPL have LinkedIn and are interesting in extending their capabilities further by using a Group Function.
As it stands now LinkedIn only provides a discussion forum. Other group facilities offer more, like file hosting calendar, etc. Jim is concerned about maintenance activities. Because of spamming abuse all Group features strongly suggest or even require an administrator to approve each member. This isn't difficult but it does require some time sensitive response. LinkedIn, being a professional forum is less likely to be abused by spammers so the maintenance needed should be minimized by not dealing with spammers that would be found on other more general and popular services.
Ken has defined a CCPL Job Club group and I have asked to join and am awaiting his approval. In the mean time I have defined a CCPL Test group so I can test the group functions of LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Group Capabilities
LinkedIn is not attempting to be a major force in Group Services, it offers only a basic discussion forum. LinkedIn does not show email addresses unless you are connected to the other member. By joining a group, you can send a broadcast email to all other group members even if they are not connected to you. Each group member has the choice of how often they receive notification of new discussions.
To join a group, select Groups from your LinkedIn sidebar menu, click Find Group and type in the name (CCPL) and click Search. Click Join Group. The Group administrator must logon to the group on a regular basis and approve member requests. Once approved, the members can post discussions at anytime with no further action be the administrator.
It appears that the owner of the group can be changed and that the members can be promoted to administrators. Using the last feature, Jim could name an active regular member as administrator and that person could offload the approval process from Jim.
Other Group Services
Major Web Service providers (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) have a Group capability that is more full functioned then LinkedIn's basic features. How much use the features would be is uncertain. I will review these extra features here in the coming days and would like your feedback.
Yahoo
Yahoo remains one of the most feature rich Group services. If you are a member of CVJS you have seen an example of their features. Yahoo offers the discussion service that LinkedIn does and so much more...
Files - allows files to be stored for the members to access. CVJS has many helpful files.
Photos - allows photo albums
Database - allows simple database tables to be defined. Another way to accomplish this would be to build a Word table or Excel data table and store it in the files section. But the user would have to have Office to update it or Office Viewers to view it. This feature is a simpler way to view and update simple database tables.
Polls - Allows a convenient way to solicit opinions from the group members.
Calendar - Allows a way to post events on a calendar for the group.
I have used a google group to supplement this blog. I chose google because with one sign on I could update both web sites. Google isn't as functional as Yahoo, but it does offer some improvements over LinkedIn Discussions. Google offers the standard Discussion feature and...
Pages - This allows you to actually host web site pages in the group. It doesn't offer much in the way of helping build the pages, so to take advantage of rich content you will need to build the content in HTML and paste it into the Edit HTML editor. You could use a full featured editor like KompoZer (NVU follow-on) or a simpler editor like PSPad to help build the HTML.
Files - This is a very useful group feature that allows files to be stored for group members.
Microsoft
Microsoft is in a transition as it relates to its group offering. The long standing, MSN Groups will be shutdown in Feb 2009. They are offering a smooth transition to Multiply.com which does not offer file storage. They are also enhancing their Windows LIVE spaces and groups offering. As of Jan 2009 major layoffs were announced at Microsoft so its unclear how these areas will develop.
Status: Second Draft - Major Revision 01/06/09
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