Yesterday, I had a very charged up conversation with a friend about employment. No, this is not just another rant on how competitive the job market is in Depression 2.0, but about employability and Web 2.0.
MySpace, Twitter, blogging - they are the newest methods brought to you by Web 2.0 to display your talent and skills to potential employers. Many musicians promote them selves and the lucky ones were discovered on MySpace. When you think of MySpace, you think of Facebook, but Facebook is not necessarily a tool for employment. Facebook is taken very personally and informally, and simply witnessing the fact that many careless Facebook users are fired over their updates, it is more of an unemployment tool.
My friend is very qualified for work. It is sad that talented people out there who aren't confident enough because they know how much more talented people there are out there. I was so charged up because I believed so strongly in him and I shared similar worries myself. So, I suggested that he start blogging about his field and experiences, so he can get picked up sometime or get into journalism without a corresponding degree. He said that it feels like he was selling himself out by putting himself on the internet... (Me: "like a prostitute?" Him: "Yeah, exactly! Oh gawd, what has this world come to...") I replied:
"Blogging IS whoring yourself out. But you know what? Blogging is whoring with integrity. You can just start a blog, write about things that you care about, and just have that facade of being an enthusiastic professional seeking similar voices and having your opinion there. You can secretly have the ulterior motive of selling yourself, but no one would ever know, because you're just 'writing for yourself', you know?!" (Him: "Oh jeeezus...")Well, that was the gist of it because I was very emotionally charged up and cannot recall every word. Isn't that what selling yourself essentially is? Before teh internetz, people did this in whichever primitive way they could (showing up at companies, stalking CEO's limos, coldcalling, submitting articles to publications, sending elaborate contraptions to ad agencies...). Now, it's just digitalized, and putting private work on public forums. It's just a different method of whoring yourself.
And.... I can't believe I released such a revealing idea to him and now to this blog! It's a wonder how your amygdala can be hijacked and the things you do, eh? (Sorry, psych major geek talk.) Just having the evidence out there that I would think of things that way freaks me out. Well then, while I'm standing on a street corner I might as well slut it up and make a profit out of it, right? I might as well open myself up more, lay my ideas and thoughts out like trinkets in a flea market, and have some rich benefactor stroll up and claim ownership of my goodies.
Well, employers - magazines, ad agencies, public relations agencies, Facebook, online publications - here I am. I am ready to work for you. Here's my blog, here's my twitter, and here's where I'm not going to post my Facebook or LinkedIn or resume because I am cautious about my privacy*. Meanwhile, I'll wait here in a corner miserably applying for unpaid internships and remain unemployed, and admiring all the fat lazy hairy dudes in wifebeaters and blogging about stereotypes from home.
*Resume available upon request. Please ask for one. Please hire me.
