Splash Web Effects

In the wake of all of the hubbub about facebook’s security practices, the various how-tos and informational paranoia, I am asked quite frequently by friends and family of all levels of acquaintance about my continued use of frequent facebook and twitter updates, and their varying degrees of professionalism.

I am an avid social media user. I use twitter, facebook, linkedin and a host of other services. I check-in, I tweet and I update statuses. I post pictures of myself and my friends in fun, and silly engagements, such as playing rockband in my living room. I also tweet about what I’m working on (although I no longer post any actual details due to an NDA that covers my public speech). In short, I like to talk about what I am doing, a lot.

I enjoy disclosing details about my life. The reasons I have found for doing so- as they are generally rationalizations rather than instigating reasons- are many. I feel my professional and personal lives are enriched by a living, breathing, up-to-the-minute portfolio of not just my work, but my entire personhood. I also enjoy that it is easy for people I know to keep up with my day-to-day life, as I am young and mobile, and tend to lose contact with people for months at a time before revisiting them.

Now, most of the concerns shared by those that know and follow me are this: Are you not afraid people will judge you incorrectly, see you out of context or assume false things about you?

Of course not. My twitter feed, facebook profile, buzz list and linkedin updates are me in context. No more perfectly am I captured anywhere. I have a unique personality, varied interests and am overall, complex emotionally.

The company I work for while writing this post has a leader within it’s ranks that exemplifies everything right with corporate culture, and is someone I am deeply and profoundly proud to call my boss. The main thing done correctly is the hiring of new staff, as our company is growing rapidly. Many companies, especially in times of growth, tear themselves apart by giving each applicant only a cursory glance, comparing numerical qualifications and cherry-picking only the brightest gems, polished to the glossiest shine. These gems then mix in a pool of others, all gawdy and imperfectly aligned.

The art of arranging human beings so that they will best work together, and choosing those that have not become so set in their ways, and allowing them to support those that are set correctly- this is a skill that many so-called executives will never master in a lifetime. Selecting only the optimum arrangement, the most efficient, frictionless set of gears that don’t wear each other down due to ill-fitting size and shape, this is the skill practiced here.

But this skill is not something that can be summarized in a brief interview, or a scan of a few carefully selected words by a potential interviewee- it is best summarized by a portfolio of life that grows with a person- ideas and information growing and changing with the person it represents- something a simple resume could never do.

So yes, on my portfolio, you’ll find that I am a programmer- I have experience with Classic ASP and other server-side scripting languages. You’ll see how many years I have worked and who for. You will also see the whimsy and talent, the lack of sophistication and the supreme dedication I have to perfecting the profession I have chosen- all of this information is unmeasurable on purpose- it has to be cataloged accidentally, along the course of life, and through the lens of context.

I recently had the fortune(good or bad?) to fill a few internships at a company I worked for. I decided to post an entry on craigslist.

I made it a pretty open-enrollment, no school requirements, no previous experience, capped at one year experience. I was looking for a few eager young marketing break-ins like I was (not that I’m not eager, young or a break-in myself.) to teach the ropes and get cheap labor out of.

Well… my post went locally viral.

I am not sure why, or how, but every community college professor and abuser of linkedin found my craigslist post and ran with it, telling everyone they knew. After about a day, HUNDREDS of local applicants e-mailed me their desperate attempts to get an internship. I had to set up e-mail filters, and was intensely grateful I had given my Google voice number instead of my personal cell.