Entries tagged 'social-media'
Asking about your Facebook profile is a big no no
A resounding NO echoed through our Facebook page when we asked you our question of the week yesterday; “Have you ever been asked about your Facebook profile in an interview?”
Not only had you not been asked about your profile, but it appears to have become a bit of a taboo topic. In fact, here is how some of you felt if you were to be asked about your information on Facebook:
From NERD to One to Watch
Microsoft's renowned social media researcher danah boyd (yes, the lower case is intentional) is in the news again since Fortune magazine announced her as One to Watch.danah is currently off doing fieldwork, so we decided to run our Microspotting interview with her from early 2009 - shortly after she started working for Microsoft.
How's it going getting settled into NERD, aka Microsoft's New England Research & Development center?
I haven't done enough nesting yet, but so far, so good. mostly, it's a crash course in setting up computers, balancing meetings, figuring out hierarchies, learning the intranet … a radical change from the last six months of never leaving my couch just writing, writing, writing. Right: you're not only transitioning into a new job and new city -- but also out of dissertation mode. How's that going?
Yup. New city, new job, far far far far far more human interaction. I mean, in the last six months of my dissertation, i really didn't see anyone but my partner. I was a COMPLETE hermit. Mandatory isolation is required training to be an academic.That said, I'm loving the people at NERD, so it’s a welcome re-intro into civilization. I mean, they’re just as geeky as I am! So, give me a glimpse into the range of researchers on your team.
Well, we have 7 full-timers including physicists, a mathematician, a cryptographer, a game theorist and a theoretical computer scientist — or at least I think that's what they are. They label me a sociologist which always makes me giggle, so i can't imagine how badly i'm doing labeling them. You research social interactions on the web, but aren't a sociologist. Do you identify more with information systems?
Scholarly labels come with a lot of baggage -- they mean specific things about method, theory, framing. I'm pretty darn interdisciplinary in my approach to scholarship. My work in the last few years would be closest to anthropology, but most anthropologists wouldn't count me in their club. Rick Rashid calls me a computer scientist which just makes me ROFL. Honestly, i avoid those labels like the plague, but here, it’s kinda tricky. 
I'm super curious about your decision to come to Microsoft -- especially given the fact that some in the social media industry have been known to hate on Microsoft ...
I wrote a rant on my blog about why i chose this lab. I don't really care about what the industry has to say about MSFT. I’m here because it’s the most interesting place i could be at.Which was rougher: defending your dissertation or defending your choice to work for Microsoft?
Honestly, I can't even compare my dissertation or job. . . both pale in comparison to defending the Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies Task Force Report that I put out. It’s been complete hell trying to get politicians to accept data that doesn’t match their worldview. It made everything else feel like cake. What do you like about working here?
What I really care about is that the company values research. Microsoft Research is hands down the most impressive research institution i’ve seen. Even though my research has product implications, i’m not a product person, but i love being in a place where my work funnels into products. I also think a lot of folks underestimate the role that MSFT plays in shaping policy, both explicitly and implicitly. I hope my research also shapes policy going forward.Interesting. What policies are you most curious about impacting?
Well, right now, the policies related to youth and the internet … but in general, policies and practices that involve information sharing and communication. There's always an interaction between companies and policy. At the most mundane, companies have to figure out how to implement policies that are put into place. But companies also shape how those policies are formed, how they are thought about, and how they are implemented. MSFT has played a major role in many different policies and it's been shaped by them too. So, once you get settled in, what are you must excited about sinking your teeth into, research wise?
Mostly, i've been puzzling about boundaries, especially around the notions of public/private and how people manage tensions of audiences online. Everyone's up in arms saying that the kids don't get privacy. And of course there's the old battle cry that privacy is dead. But i think that both are dead wrong. I think that privacy is playing out in new ways that are connected to the dynamics of social media. So, i want to explore that. In the short-term, it'll mostly mean looking at things like Twitter and Facebook Status Updates and whatnot, but i’m more into the bigger issues than those particular technologies.LINKS: • a longer interview with danah: research.microsoft.com • danah's website: danah.org • danah's blog: zephoria.org/thoughts • danah's research: danah.org/papers • danah's twitter: twitter.com/zephoria Using LinkedIn to find a job at Microsoft: Part I of III
Dear JobsBlog:
These days, everybody’s talking about how important it is to use social networking to find a job. That sounds good and all, but I don’t know where to start. Any suggestions?-Overwhelmed by Social Networking
Dear Overwhelmed by Social Networking:
Think of it this way: How many times do we run into someone who knows the same people we know and proclaim, “It's such a small world!”This phenomenon is not as random as it may seem. There is, in fact, quite a bit of science underpinning these "coincidental" events and experiences. This short path-length connection between people is seen in pop culture as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and in business social networking as LinkedIn. Business social networking is simply uncovering and utlilizing these connections to find employment.
Microsoft employees are the most active in social media and some 90% of our employees use LinkedIn's 75-million-member site. If you are a looking for a job at Microsoft, connecting with our employees on LinkedIn is a smart first step.
However, simply opening a LinkedIn account is not enough. You must learn to utilize LinkedIn for "finding" information and for "being found."
Today, I'm going to discuss “finding” - the investigative aspects of the LinkedIn platform that help you to gain information and connections that will put you closer to a job at Microsoft.
Using LinkedIn to find a job at Microsoft: Part I of III
Dear JobsBlog:
These days, everybody’s talking about how important it is to use social networking to find a job. That sounds good and all, but I don’t know where to start. Any suggestions?-Overwhelmed by Social Networking
Dear Overwhelmed by Social Networking:
Think of it this way: How many times do we run into someone who knows the same people we know and proclaim, “It's such a small world!”This phenomenon is not as random as it may seem. There is, in fact, quite a bit of science underpinning these "coincidental" events and experiences. This short path-length connection between people is seen in pop culture as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and in business social networking as LinkedIn. Business social networking is simply uncovering and utlilizing these connections to find employment.
Microsoft employees are the most active in social media and some 90% of our employees use LinkedIn's 75-million-member site. If you are a looking for a job at Microsoft, connecting with our employees on LinkedIn is a smart first step.
However, simply opening a LinkedIn account is not enough. You must learn to utilize LinkedIn for "finding" information and for "being found."
Today, I'm going to discuss “finding” - the investigative aspects of the LinkedIn platform that help you to gain information and connections that will put you closer to a job at Microsoft.
Three insider tips to becoming a social media rockstar
Matt Bernardy graduated from the University of Washington in 2007 and quickly ascended to the role of Social Media Marketing Manager at Microsoft. Today, he posted an article on The Huffington Post that details his three tips to becoming a social media rockstar.Matt writes:
"As the Social Media Marketing Manager for Windows Digital and Interactive Marketing, my job is to help our marketing and PR teams think about new ways of engaging customers. We do that by integrating elements of social media into nearly every campaign we develop… Microsoft takes social media engagement seriously, and I have a real voice in developing multi-million dollar campaigns. Here are three tips I've learned (sometimes the hard way) that can help give you a leg up:"
Social media: everyone's doing it!
I am not a proponent of fads. I do not believe you do something because everyone's doing it. That said, sometimes we must join in a trend—particularly if you are looking for a job. Sometimes just because "everyone's doing it," it can be a perfect job search strategy.In a previous post, I suggested that because Microsoft is one of the most social companies, integrating a social medial strategy into your job search would make sense. To further emphasize this point; please notice below the Percentage of Recruiters Using Specific Social Networking Sites for Recruiting. Clearly, every recruiter is using LinkedIn; nearly every recruiter has a Facebook account; and the majority of recruiters are on Twitter. While The Web 2.0 Recruiting Trends Report covered a broader audience, I suspect the findings would be similar at Microsoft.
Percentage of Recruiters Using Specific Social Networking Sites for Recruiting
2009 Versus 2010- The Corporate Executive Board Company, CLC RECRUITING™
Web 2.0 Recruiting Trends Report April 2010
Note: The height of the bars in the chart indicate the percentage of recruiters that use the tool for either sourcing, branding, or conversion activities.Also, Twitter was not rated in 2009.
The Sound of Silence
Simon & Garfunkel's epic lyrics were an anthem for my generation. Who can forget a young Dustin Hoffman staring thoughtfully into a fish tank with the words saying…"Hello darkness, my old friend; I have come to talk to you again.” Today, the "sounds of silence" seems to be what job seekers experience when they apply for jobs. As one waits impatiently for some communication, the stillness is stifling. Dustin Hoffman's character (Benjamin Braddock) in The Graduate, was drawn to the silence because of uncertainties about the course his career direction. Today's graduates (as well as most job seekers) are forced into a silent mode because of uncertainties generated by a lack of feedback from their position inquiries.