Tag Archives: “Social Media”

A “Secret Weapon” to finding a job

"Carry a Paintbrush"

If you, or someone you know, is seeking a job or thinking about making a career change, would it help to have an inside look, or some type of a “secret weapon”, before you make this step? Of course!

In today’s economy, and this very competitive job market, having a working strategy to acquire the right job or career is as important as having the correct location or the right time of a job interview.

Best-selling Author and Career Expert, Susanne Goldstein has written a book which is not the typical, “how-to-get-a-job” or another “self-help” book. Goldstein’s book is written in a format that is not only easy to read but also has very practical life-experiences, solid techniques, and exercises that don’t just allow the reader to get on the path to a career but shows the reader how to find the career they are meant to be in and actually land the job.

“Carry a Paintbrush” is a must read for anyone of any age, whether you are just starting out into the workforce, changing careers or contemplating a complete “career makeover”.

Goldstein brings up very valuable points in the book which can help prevent job seeking mistakes and help create a much more pleasant career finding and life changing experience. Personally, I think “Carry a Paintbrush” should be a part of any High School Curriculum. It teaches lessons that are very valuable and would have been extremely helpful to learn much earlier on.

When a person first sets out to get their first job or they are laid off from their current job, what is the first thing they do? What should they do? What is the first thing you think of?

Many people search job listings to find where jobs are available, make those phone calls or contacts via email, send resumes and hope the feedback is returned for a possible interview and then hope they met the criteria or the expectations of the person or the company doing the hiring.

As Goldstein points out in her book, there is a solution to finding the right career for each person or even a job that may be temporary but heading towards their career. She highlights this using a demonstration, “The Sweet Spot”, which looks at a person’s passions, interests and skills. Goldstein points out, “The trick to discovering that sweet spot is to get really clear about what makes you passionate, what topics never cease to hold your interest, and what kinds of skills you possess.”

"The Sweet Spot" Diagram

The question would then be, “Okay, so how do I line up what I know I want to do with an available job?”

Since so many people are looking for jobs and companies know this, not every company list each job when a position becomes available.

When you feel you know what industry you will fit into and feel you have the necessary skills required, the next step would be to find a way to get the job. You’re asking, “Where is this job?” You may know about this job by knowing someone in this profession or in the company you’d like to work for but if you don’t have that, then you need to find an “In” person. How do you do this? You start by looking through who you already know and head to chapter 11 in “Carry a Paintbrush”. This is a great tool not only for job hunting but so many things!

As today’s world has changed so dramatically in the way of communication and Social Media, the ability to meet people is endless, therefore opening our possibilities beyond the classifieds or an online job listing websites.

Using Social Media to meet people within our same industry, desired industry or even our current workplace are tools that we can use to further our career, learn more about our potential to grow within our current workplace or if it is time to move on.

With the ability to learn about a company, their objective, the leadership and financial outlook gives us a broader view of what we can possibly offer a company or potentially if our future with a company may be solid or short-lived.

The idea of taking a leap out into a new career or even trying to move up within your current company can be extremely overwhelming but if you are seeking a position that fits you, have done everything you should to prepare for the move into another career or a step up, then you are already ahead of most others that may be seeking the same position.

Once we can acknowledge we are in more control of our career choices than we often give credit to and we have the right tools, we can have more ability to not only have a job or career, but something that is more rewarding.

To get started, I highly recommend you purchase Susanne’s book, “Carry a Paintbrush” and get started painting your own career.

Visit carryapaintbrush.com to read more about the book and how to be the artistic director of your own career!

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Change for Egypt

Protest in Tahrir Square
Photo by: AlJazeer


Soon after large demonstrations started in Egypt on January 25th, support poured in across Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter for Egyptians seeking freedoms, a better future and asking Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak to immediately step down.

Protestors had gathered in Tahrir Square and said they would not leave till Mubarak he had given up his 30 year position as President of Egypt. As time passed, the crowd grew. The numbers following via Facebook and Twitter also grew. (#Egypt #Jan25)

Many of the demonstrators were tweeting and texting directly from their locations and also giving information of what would be going on the following hours and days. In today’s fast-paced Internet world, picture uploading, video uploading, texting, blogging and sharing information is instant and with the world’s changing times, this allows millions of people to know instantly what is going on across the world and to alert others.

Egypt’s government has in its constitution a law, the “Emergency Law” which, among other things, gives the government the right, at its discretion to shut down the Internet and on January 28th, Internet Service Providers were told to cut services.

This “Emergency Law” has been in place nearly all of Mubarak’s time in office. This law is one of many grievances the people have with the Egyptian government and it was recently extended to remain another two years. When the law is enacted, it gives the government the right to arrest people without cause, hold prisoners indefinitely, limit freedom of expression and assembly and more. At the time Internet was cut, most mobile phone services also were disabled especially text messaging. This greatly handicapped the ability not only for Egyptians to communicate internationally but also with one another in the country.

Until February 1st, the protestors mostly were peaceful. Tahrir Square remained full of protestors waiting for President Mubarak to step down. News had come that he had sworn in a Vice President which was a first in the country in over 30 years.

However, on the 1st, Mubarak made a speech on State T.V. which played on a large screen for all to see in the square. He stated he would not seek another term as president in the upcoming elections. The people quietly watched his entire speech and closer to the end he stated he would not be willing to step down before the end of his term in September, later this year.

On the ground in Tahrir Square and close by violence grew as the crowd became angry. There became a rise in violence and coverage of this was being shown internationally soon after the world had viewed not only this speech by President Mubarak but also a speech by President Obama on his thoughts concerning the situation in Egypt.

The rise in violence around Tahrir Square grew as pro-Mubarak groups grew larger in the square and clashes between them and the anti-government group became more violent causing a growing number of injuries and fatalities.

The following day as journalists were covering the clashes, they themselves became the targets of violence. They were being harassed, beaten up, having their equipment confiscated, being arrested, vehicles or teams attacked and as this grew increasingly worse, some were forced to leave for their safety and others went into hiding to continue reporting but to protect themselves and their crews.

This same day, Internet service began to slowly return across the country and as this happened, updates from Egyptians started to come in on Twitter, Facebook, blogging and other sources. These updates showed personal accounts of what had been happening around Egypt and confirming an even greater desire for freedom but also confirmed the fact journalists were being targeted on the ground, in hotels and around the country. Egypt’s government, it appeared, did not want the continued coverage of what was going on in the streets of Egypt during this crisis.

The question was, why?

Was the fear this coverage was making Egypt look bad internationally or was the fear the international coverage and the feedback it was getting influencing Egypt’s youth, inciting more displays of protests? Whatever the reasoning, the amount of international journalists in the country was greatly diminishing and those remaining were not being able to cover the revolution on the streets, the people, Tahrir Square up close as they had been doing, they now needed to look out for their safety and cover the crisis from afar.

The fact is though, covering the situation in Egypt is extremely important. It is extremely important to see the crisis and transformation as it unfolds. It’s more truthful and honest to see it from the eyes of the people and the government’s reaction and the angles there in Egypt and to have those views involved.

Egypt’s crisis and this transformation as some view it or revolution as it is turning out to be is not just a small event or something that will soon pass. It is much larger and significant.

Egypt has a population of more than 80 million people, the largest population in the 22 Arabic speaking countries.

Although the overthrow of Tunisia’s president in December ignited many frustrations and long held grievances of the citizens in other countries across the region, eyes are now on Egypt and at the moment, the leaders of Jordan, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere are looking at their own government and making tremendous changes and reforms to try to prevent many of the same actions. Protests are currently taking place.

As for the U.S. and its involvement in this crisis, of course there is a great deal of concern and the crisis in Egypt has great significance to the U.S. We have many Egyptian-Americans living in the United States and many have called this their home for generations but still, Egypt is their home as well. Compassion must always be shown not only to our fellow Americans but, all others.

What would you go to a demonstration for? What freedom would you not be willing to give up?

Much of what the Egyptians are protesting for, Americans not only have but take for granted. Fair elections, presidential term limit restrictions, freedom of speech and assembly and the right these freedoms can’t just be taken away at the whim of the government (like what is currently happening in Egypt and has been over the past 3 decades due to “Emergency Law”).

What is the United State’s position on making Mubarak step down being President?

This is a political revolution of the Egyptian people. They desire freedom and change in the way their country and government functions. Therefore it is up to Egypt and its people to unfold their new political system, laws and government, not outside countries. True change will come from within.

Since Mubarak has been an ally of the United States, there has been communication between Mubarak and President Obama as well as the Administration and other key officials in Egypt. It is important for the U.S. to point out certain views pertaining to matters that does affect the U.S. as well as what effects U.S. citizens in Egypt, humanitarian efforts and the safety of international journalists. The U.S. has remained a close ally with Egypt for many years and as long as diplomatically possible, this is important to continue without forgetting about the rights of the Egyptian citizens.

However, for the U.S. Administration or U.S. Citizens to act as though we can tell another country’s leader to step down does nothing to aide that country or the real long term efforts toward transformation they are working on. It also hurts our diplomacy efforts with other countries and in the long run would hurt our relations with the government that ends up being formed in Egypt. The U.S. cannot see itself as the strong hold over the world.

The best seat for the U.S. to strategically plan for what needs to be done after Egypt’s transition and the actions that follow in Yemen, Jordan, Syria and other neighboring governments may be in the observation area allowing the people of Egypt and its current government to build its own future out of its current turmoil.

Allow them to have change.

Recovery for America Pt. 1 – Promise of "Change"

In November 2008, the United States of America was caught up in the “feeling of change”. Even those that didn’t vote for President- Elect Obama were curious and they were anticipating what changes would be ahead with the new president and his administration.

The economy was in a downfall, job losses were at an all time high in decades, home values were in a rapid decline, and record foreclosures were happening nationwide. The U.S. Military had two active wars going on and people wanted answers about troop levels, cost and prospective withdrawal dates. This is only part of what was going on when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America.

From early in Obama’s campaigning days, he made his issues clear and he made campaign promises along the way. After all, that is what campaign time is about, right? It shouldn’t be just about what is said, it should be about the outcome and the ability to see things through, the long term effect.

He announced a his position on withdrawing troops from Iraq, increasing energy independence, and promoting a Universal Health Care Plan just to name a few.

In 2008 Obama’s campaigning committee did something that had never been done before. It put social media to the task and through Twitter, Facebook and MySpace was able to target the younger supporters and not only get more of them to register as voters but also to become active in the campaign process.

By using the internet, websites were designed and kept updated with speeches, rally locations, policy information, etc. Supporters could upload images from these websites to their own blogs or social media pages, print out posters, send emails to their friends, family and colleagues as well as find many other ways to show their support for Obama’s campaign. Users could also sign up to have secured text messages from Obama’s Campaign Manager, David Plouffe sent to their mobile device. It was something that had never been done before and voters felt much more “in the loop” by knowing things right as they happened and sometimes, before it was announced on the news by receiving a text message from #62262. For many who followed, that is how they found out who Barack Obama had chosen as his Vice President candidate. The campaign was very up to date and personalized.

After winning the presidential election, President-Elect Obama announced the formation of Organizing for America Organization (OFA) on January 17, 2009 which was a community organizing project of the DNC. Obama said it was an “organization that will build on the movement you started through the campaign.” Again, this was something being done that would involve Americans in a way (via the Internet and community efforts) that hadn’t been done before. He said although he and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden would be working in Washington D.C., “We cannot do this without you.”

It is now 18 months later and people are looking at how things are going for the U.S. The economy does seem to be coming back out of its devastating recession. Job loss continued to worsen and went beyond 10%.

The auto companies were crashing and therefore factories were closing, more job losses and for many towns across the country, the auto industry was their way of life, their income.

With so many people out of work, so many companies out of business, factories closed and therefore not producing, banks not lending money, people were losing the ability to see the “light at the end of the tunnel” or have faith things would get better.

For a nation under such difficult times, a simple solution was not going to work for the long term but also many people were hesitant to throw money at problems that money seemed to have caused, or at least the misuse of money seemed to have caused.

Somehow, things needed to get onto a road to recovery.

This series of articles, “Recovery for America,” is going to take a look at promises made through the campaign and whether they have been kept, are in the process of being carried out, have been compromised on or broken.

If you read my last series, “Help for America” it is clear many Americans are in need of jobs and/or better paying jobs. Small businesses need help to grow and be able to hire more employees and many American families are not only barely getting by but are simply just suffering here in America.

Many communities need to improve their schools, roads, hospitals and be able to hire back teachers and first responders. Here in the Bay Area, being prepared for a natural disaster is something that is always a priority. This isn’t something that can be done when it is too late.

Please share your comments and ideas below in a productive way and they may be used in an upcoming article. You may subscribe above to become a regular follower.

One of our community’s biggest assets is our youth

If everything is going well and people are happy with the way things are in their community and Washington D.C., then campaigns and candidates should continue to run the same pattern they always do, right? But, if something needs to change then it should start at the beginning of the cycle. This means to start at the process of choosing the candidate, the style of campaigning and the effort put into researching each candidate as well as understanding the reasoning behind the choice of each person’s vote. Is the choice being made by qualification and belief in the person or is it based on party?

What goes on in Washington D.C. begins with local elections just as much as the presidential election, often times even more. What is going on in a local community on a daily basis has a substantial impact on everyone’s daily lives in that community and can greatly improve in a short amount of time once given an opportunity for advancements and growth. But, the opportunity comes from the community itself more than from anyone on the outside or their promises.

One of a community’s biggest assets is its youth. If you look around the Bay Area, there are a great number of talented youth off for the summer. Many may have jobs but due to the economy, those hours may be limited or they may not have been able to get a summer job for a number of reasons. Our young people today are extremely creative and talented and many are also very active within the world of social media. Social media is not just something for chatting but if used wisely, this can help a large number of non-profit organizations and businesses network and reach millions of people they may not be reaching. This is one way a young person, or anyone can touch a lot of lives in a little bit of time.

The more involved our youth are today, the more involved they will be in the future. Who will be running our country in the future? They will become our future leaders. Our young people are watching how campaigning is being done, how politicians are “following through” with their word and how our communities are utilizing its own abilities to participate and better what we are capable of bettering for ourselves. We don’t always have to wait for things to happen for us. There are many things right around us we can do for ourselves as a community.

The best step forward is the step we take on our own initiative.

Stay tune for more to follow on this topic. If you would like to know of local non-profit groups you can assist with, please feel free to email me with “Non-Profit Group Info” in the subject line or feel free to comment with info.

View this article on the Examiner.com page where the entire article is posted. Become a subscriber when new articles are released.

What gain or loss has social media brought to a political candidate?

With elections going on across the country, campaigning is again in the local media, mainstream media and across the social media. Around the nation people are talking, debating, discussing, tweeting, texting and blogging about politics. In 2008 the U.S. had one of the biggest elections ever and the fact was whether Barack Obama or John McCain won, CHANGE was happening in America.
The “winds of change” are often difficult for people to get used to or work with but the fact is times are always changing and people are always growing and reinventing themselves. Look around. A person’s day to day life has taken on a new look. For example, the daily newspaper is becoming more digitalized and turning to online editions. This allows a reader the ability to have continuously updated information. The ability to communicate worldwide has completely changed with new mobile gadgets and high speed internet ability as well as social media. People are “plugged in”. Change happens.

With elections coming up and campaigns seeming to never really end, politicians have turned to social media as well as their constituents using their own social media circles to reach out to millions of people on a daily basis, not always trying to spread a message but often just trying to keep their candidate of choice in the headlines and being discussed. Social Media has been one of the biggest changes that have come along and those who understand how to use it both in a good way or a negative way can certainly make a difference in a campaign.

The question is, are they spreading a relevant and truthful message as well as something they will stand behind in the coming months and years if they take office? Or, are they just trying to catch the attention of the voters, get the headlines forwarded to reach more viewers and ultimately win the largest number of votes? But with social media, another question is do their constituents know this and allow this to happen? Do they become part of the process by pushing their candidate’s messages in the social media outlets while sometimes knowing the message may not be completely factual or actually promoting lies just to promote their party of choice?

Social media can spread the message of a candidate over night and help them gain political points while at the same time, spread a message of half truths or lies but through the same process this tool can be used to hold a candidate responsible for sticking to the facts during a campaign and long after.

What spreads through the internet often comes back later to hold a candidate responsible but also those that put the message in the media to begin with. Some things never change and one of those things is that one’s words can come back to haunt them and social media just means that more people have seen, heard or watched a message or video and will be able to pull that up again at a later date. A person’s words or a person’s message should be something they want their name attached to for a very long time.

View article on the Examiner.com page where the entire article is posted. Become a subscriber to see new articles as they are released.

Is America Being Micro-Managed

Are there too many ideas and not enough action in Washington D.C.? Do you ever feel as though you wake up in the morning totally frustrated because each day’s events bring more tragedy, a higher deficit and uncertainty to our nation? Does it seem the leaders of our country are looking to the media for polls and support numbers? Does it appear there are too many things going on at one time and nothing getting actually done? If you feel like this, you are not alone.

In a world of social media rising, blogs and more people being able to openly share their opinions effortlessly throughout their day from work, home, school and wherever they may be, people are venting and they are venting a lot!

On Twitter, people can get their opinion out in (140 characters or less) and be heard to millions of other users. You can instantly get positive or negative feedback from a large number of other ‘Tweeters’ in seconds. If you don’t have your privacy settings set to private, your tweets are there for everyone to see and, as of recently, they are being archived in the National Library of Congress.  Things can get very heated up on Twitter but also opinions can be shared in these short 140 character or less exchanges and people can see the similarities and differences between each other in a new light. Everyone from the halls of congress, senators, court justices, state leaders, CEOs, actors, business people, college students, parents, teens and people from nearly (sadly not all) countries are on Twitter. Imagine the influence this is having on our world, the influence on decisions being made; all kinds of decisions by all kinds of people.

If you read an earlier blog of mine, “Privacy Matters”, you will remember the part about Facebook’s influence on our lives. Facebook has boomed each year following its arrival. People ask if it will ever go away or lose its popularity. My opinion is IF it does, it will be quite some time from now. Facebook has brought something around that many people have craved. It is a way of getting back in touch with people and meeting new people without actually having to be face to face. It is a way for families to stay in touch, share pictures and chat even though they can’t actually travel and be together. It allows people to have a sense of “togetherness” even though they aren’t physically together. This is nice but it is missing an important factor in a relationship which is a real face to face conversation, a real handwritten letter, a real phone conversation. In some instances and some of these online relationships, there is a sense of “knowing” someone in a way that is really not there. Today’s idea of knowing someone is so much different. Of course it all depends on the type of relationship you are forming. In my eyes, without meeting someone, it is more of a “Pen Pal” type of relationship than anything else.

I say that to say this. So much of what many people base a decision on is what their peer group feels or what they hear on TV or read. I have talked about this in previous blogs.

“Change Happens” 

“Will History Repeat Itself?” 

“Who is Running Our Country?”

There are so many blogs in our world today it is basically putting newspapers out of business. Most newspapers are using bloggers as their journalist now. Not saying there aren’t journalist still doing the writing but there isn’t so many in “hard print” as there used to be. A lot of newspapers have gone digital and being read online. I love the AC360 blogs  and Jack Gray is one of my all time favorites! The great thing about newspapers and magazines that have turned over to digital media is they are more updated and they can change on a dime if the news changes, which it does (ALL DAY).

With 24 hour news on TV and 24 hours of updated blogs and news online then everyone can be getting around the clock updates and opinions all day long. That includes our local government, state government and national government. Trust me, they are keeping up with the news sources, Twitter and blogs just like anyone else.

So, I asked is our government being micro-managed? What I mean by that is are we too involved in the many different things that come across our messages, facebook, twitter, blogs and news all day? Then we share our opinions which can be positive or negative with a great number of people and then they share their opinions and that trend goes on and on. It can become viral if it catches on. Is that a bad thing? Well, not necessarily. But, it can be if we really don’t know what we are talking about.

I can admit that I really didn’t know a lot about the oil spill when it first happened. I felt I needed to know more facts. I wasn’t going to point fingers at anyone. I still feel the investigation needs to be carried out. I don’t appreciate anyone that says, “It isn’t our fault” or tries to back out of responsibility or someone who drags their feet doing something to find a solution. But, I can also understand the problem is much worse than anyone could have ever planned or imagined. It would be like trying to stop a Category 5 hurricane from happening, then blaming someone for the Category 5 Hurricane hitting a certain location.

My opinion at this point seems to be (and I may stand corrected) that it may appear there was a warning there was a problem back in March? That has to be shown to be a fact and no matter what, it is BPs well and there is a lot of damage coming from it. Everybody that can be helping to stop the oil and contain the problem should be. If there is a chance at saving wildlife and habitat it should be happening and I understand many things are much easier said than done. That is why things should always be secured so these disasters can be prevented at all cost.

Here is my thinking on the Israeli and Gaza situation and I wrote about this in an earlier blog as well, “Will History Repeat Itself?” as well as “Are You the “Right” Color?” Again, this is something that started out with so many people having an opinion as soon as the news came in and Twitter especially lit up and a lot of people get angry that anyone else has an opinion that differs from theirs. But, it comes down to something very simple and history has shown us this over and over. As long as anyone or any group of people think they are better than anyone or any other group of people are less than them or deserve less than them, this will continue. This isn’t right. It doesn’t matter who is the one throwing the first stone, shooting the first shot, jumping onto whoever’s ship. It is wrong. This boat may have been carrying humanitarian aid or it may have had some weapons on it. It may have had 100% good intentions. Israel may have had a perfectly good reason to board the ship and things got out of hand. This may have been all because of bad communication. The point is it has gotten to this because of the same reason. Groups of people thinking they deserve better than the other. You may say one group or the other but the fact is, everyone has a different opinion. Nobody should have to worry for their life because of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin. This is just wrong. This is not my opinion. This is human rights.

So why does it seem to take so long for our government, world government and the UN to come out and make a statement? It is almost as though they are looking to public opinion. It is as though they want to see what the world is feeling. Or, is it that our opinions have become so quick and so abrupt these days due to our ability to share them and get instant feedback? Do we expect instant feedback from our leaders? Do we expect the same direct, in-your-face kind of answers? Are we micro-managing our government? Do they need our micro-managing?