A Personal Blog
Archive for October, 2004
Free XP SP2 Support
Oct 31st
This is just a general reminder. Again. If you’re having issues with XP SP2: call Microsoft. It’s a free call.
Not calling, and then complaining, is like not voting and then complaining: folk are just going to tell you to shut the hell up. And if folk don’t tell you this, just let me know. I’ll tell you to shut the hell up.
Have a nice day ;-)
ResumeWiki Competing with LinkedIn?
Oct 30th
Apparently that’s the impression some people get, which really is sad…
What’s the apparent difference between ResumeWiki and linkedin? From my point of view, as a online resume center or job center, there is no obvious advantage of Resumewiki to compete with linkedin. Instead, only some tips on resume writing are useful for us.
I hadn’t realised ResumeWiki could be a community networking service, though I suppose that’s definitely possible. To clarify, the central point of ResumeWiki is this: to get everyone who contributes a better resume. Simple, plain and clear.
There are resources, blogs and articles on the site purely because they relate to everyone who is actively working on their resume: how to improve your resume, how to improve your jobhunting and how to find a job.
LinkedIn’s a great site, and I really don’t see myself competing with them in terms of where they are going: “LinkedIn helps you discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners.”
I’m sure you could use a resume along the way though, which is where ResumeWiki comes in :)
And, I’m sure there are worse people to be competing with.
Being A Blogger… On My Resume
Oct 30th
I’ve decided that whenever I do start looking for work again, I am going to push the fact that I’m now a blogger and freelance writer. This is assuming, of course, that by this Spring I’m not making enough money to simply quit. Right now that might not be a safe assumption…
But, for the purposes of this post, let’s say I’m not making enough money and do need a fulltime job. As a direct result of a fantastic post by Mick Stanic, I believe it’s time to step up and admit my passion.
In it, Mick asks and answers several key questions from his point of view (having recently hired someone largely because they were a blogger):
Q: “Have you employeed a blogger?” Q: “Does it have an impact on your hiring decision if one of the people you are interviewing maintains a blog and everyone else you interviewed doesn’t?” Q: “Why does it make a difference?” Q: “How does passion help someone do there job better?” Q: “So do many of your staff have blogs?” Q: “So do you think that educating people about this new world is hard or is it just the perception of this stuff that is the biggest problem?” Q: “So what value have you gotten out of blogging?”
The reality is that more and more employers are at least aware of bloggers. Some in a negative way, some neutral and some in a positive way. Blogging, though, is a large part of who I am. Specifically in relation to work. I don’t want to work in a company that isn’t aware of blogging. I want them, for example, to have a policy on the matter so I can follow it. Ultimately I’d also like them to be excited about my blogging and to support me in it.
The way I figure it is this: I’m a blogger. If I work for a company that’s against blogging I’m only going to get frustrated. But, by being open about my blogging and writing, I won’t even be considered by companies that are against blogging. Companies that are neutral about it… Well, it’ll likely make for a lively interview where I get to show my passion for blogging, technology, conversations, communication, etc.
And companies that are for blogging and excited about it? Well, those are the kind of companies that make me excited in a big way.
So, when I do edit my resume in the coming months, it will definitely be more “here’s what I’m doing right now”. Sure, it’s nice to sell what you can do, but it’s also good to be able to sell who you are.
CD Cover – Sample 1
Oct 29th
I’ve signed on to do a design job for a local artist. It’s my first paid graphic design thing in well over a year. Felt nice to break out Photoshop again and go to it though.
It’s a CD project. Deliverable in a tight 2-week timeframe. As a change of pace I’ll be posting samples as they get rejected or approved, just for kicks. Most folk here won’t have seen very much (or any) of my design work, so this should make for an interesting change.
This was the first sample I sent them. They didn’t like it. If anyone wants the source files to use on some other project, feel free, just drop me a line.
edit: I should add that this is a concept draft. Not a final copy. So things would have changed for a final version to tighten it up ;-)
Blog Search Engine Adds MoBlog Search
Oct 29th
This is very cool. Loren Baker emailed me a couple of days ago to give me a heads up on this announcement:
Blog Search Engine and IceRocket Search have partnered to bring cell phone pic blogs, or MoBlogs, into the search engine world with a new search feature which produces image results of the latest MoBlogs images available.
So, just go to Blog Search Engine, and you can start searching MoBlog pics now!
