Pay it Forward

Helping others online, such as in forums, or teaching them something at work is a good way of paying it forward. It’s something that shows you care about more than yourself and will work to make the company, or perhaps world better.

This video isn’t related to work, but it was touching, and I think it’s a good reminder to not judge too harshly up front, and to help others when you can.

 

Helping the Homeless

 

It’s also a good reminder that a little humanity and compassion can make a huge difference in the world. Or in your company. Treat others well.

Be careful with your updates

I ran across an article about a study that showed social media updates can cause you to lose, or not get, a job. The latter is more disconcerting because it means you often have no idea why you didn’t get a job. Were there better candidates, or was is something you did.

To be fair, I think some of these are silly, and that teachers, or people working with children, seem to be held to a higher standard. However if a job has a higher profile, then there are higher risks with those “fun” pictures that might be socially risqué.

Note that I’m not judging or telling you that you can’t enjoy life, but be careful about what you share on the Internet. Just as your words reveal something about how you think and communicate, your images do the same thing.

Build a professional image that conveys professionalism, and use a separate place to communicate with friend and share those fun things. Note that sharing doesn’t need to be public. More and more I’m thinking that sharing among groups, and not the Internet overall, is a better move for the future. Some social media sites allow this, if you configure things. Defaults are not good.

Defaults are not good (in social media)

Often I like working with defaults in software. My job is easier, and as I change machines or reinstall something, the behavior of the system is familiar. When defaults are set well, they work really well.

When they aren’t well set, however, there are issues and the software can be jarring to use.

In social media applications, there are various defaults set. Many of these are privacy related defaults which are usually set to the loosest, or least private, settings available. This is to the benefit of the company, and that makes sense. I’ve set defaults like this in the past.

However for some of us, this isn’t what we want. Especially when we look at our professional careers.

Be careful with defaults and spend a few minutes setting them. As an example, I maintain presences on Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter, I have open settings, where my posts and images are viewable by all. I understand that and consider it before posting.

On Facebook, I’ve set all my privacy options to limit exposure to the friends I’ve linked with. I post things that I don’t want to associate with my professional career, or with people I don’t know. Those are conscious decisions because I don’t want everything I post to be available to my employers. To me, these are items I share in my backyard, not in a public park.

Make your own decisions, but make them consciously and beware of defaults.