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Developing an online presence is an effective way to establish your professional brand, expand your network, and create opportunities. In fact, many writers now consider an online presence to be an essential – not optional — component of a candidate’s portfolio.
One of the questions that often comes up is about “youthful indiscretions.” What about those posts, comments, and photos that may have been posted years ago?
I came across this article in the Washington Post recently about a newly minted lawyer named Kiwi Camera. And not just any lawyer — a magna cum laude Harvard graduate. He cannot land a job as a law school professor because, at age 16, he wrote racist remarks in a summary of a Supreme Court decision that was subsequently posted to the Web. Despite his otherwise stellar resume, his racist comments are now part of his online profile.
Lest you think this is an unfair indictment for a youthful indiscretion, consider one student’s perspective:
“We shouldn’t have to be put in a position where we have to defend [racist comments] by our professor.”
Given the choice bewteen two equally qualified candidates, why would a potential employer risk the potential embarrassment and liability of hiring such a candidate?
They wouldn’t.
So that raises the next question: Why would a student or job seeker sabotage his or her online profile by posting objectionable material on a blog, a personal web site, or a social networking site like LinkedIn, Facebook, or MySpace?
They shouldn’t.
This reminds of a story about an old man teaching a boy about the impact of his words. He told the boy to pluck the feathers from a chicken and spread them along a path. When the boy finished and returned, the old man told him to now g and retrieve every feather and put them back in the chicken. The boy complained, saying that many of the feathers had blown away or been picked up and could never be retrieved. And even if he could, it would be impossible to put them back on the chicken.
So it is with our words — once departed, they can never be retrieved or taken back.
At a seminar I was attending recently, we were asked to divide ourselves into groups of self-described extroverts and introverts. Several people were surprised when I joined the introverts group. They pointed out that throughout the seminar, they had observed me
- approaching strangers to introduce myself,
- initiating conversations,
- asking questions during the session, and
- volunteering to speak before the group.
Surely, then, I must be an extrovert.
But not so fast… What they don’t know about me is that after the seminar I need to have some “alone” time to recharge. Whether it is reading, writing, taking a walk, or some similar activity, I need some time alone to reflect on and process the stimuli I’ve just received.
- Extroverts draw energy from external stimuli (e.g. people and things).
- Introverts draw energy from internal stimuli (e.g. ideas and concepts).
People sometimes equate introversion with shyness or social awkwardness, but introverts do not necessarily lack social skills. While shyness may be a factor for some, the dysfunction of many introverts in social settings has less to do with shyness than it does with energy. In other words, the introvert may become so content entertaining his internal stimuli that he doesn’t perceive a need to expend energy on external stimuli. My son has a t-shirt that summarizes this introvert mindset. It says:
“I’m in my own little world. But that’s okay… they know me here.”
For many introverts, therefore, the challenge of social situations is not to overcome shyness. The challenge is to recognize and appreciate the value of the external stimuli. After all, the external stimuli are a cornucopia of the things we introverts really love:
more stuff to think about.
Your audience is most likely to remember what you say first, and what you say last.
Learning how to communicate effectively is essential for your career growth. What good are your ideas if you can’t communicate them? Whether it’s your presentation to the to the executive board, your two-minute elevator pitch, or an interview.
In her research on short-term memory, Elizableth Hilton observed
“A person has a tendency to remember the first and last few items being presented because the brain will start to rehearse the information that was presented first and last, and have an inclination to forget the middle items.”
Don’t bury your ideas in the middle of a your presentation. If you want people to remember them, state your ideas clearly at the beginning, and repeat them at the end.
