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Thursday 1 November 2012

Newsletter Issue 225, November 2012



Sam Young Newsletter


Issue 225, November 2012

Hi guys,

This time we look at social media and how it may affect your career. Check out What Goes Online Stays Online below.

I consider That Gender Divide again following a LinkedIn repost of Richard Branson's. 


Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.



What Goes Online Stays Online



Social media is a huge growth area, with every business owner wanting to know how they can generate value for their business by using it.

However, it also has huge potential for us: not merely from the opportunities to search and apply for jobs without having to step outside our own front door, but also by developing a professional online presence that helps to sell our skills in advance of an interview.

Employers will, at the minimum, google us, and at the maximum, run a full paid search of all networking sites before we even get on a shortlist. Howard Gauthier (24 September 2012) cites some statistics: 91% of employers use social media sites to screen candidates, with 76% searching Facebook, 53% Twitter and 48% LinkedIn.

Do some reading. HBR online has some good information on how to build a personal brand; but the key is consistency, and sending one message.

There are a number of channels that can be used to develop online profiles for the working world, and I will briefly explain the most popular, and how they are used:

  • LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com): a professional profile outlining previous paid and unpaid experience, education, contacts, roles held and key achievements. It is designed for work. Set up a profile by using the YouTube LinkedIn “InTip” team’s clips (very good! Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNl9RVrXLhM). Gather endorsements from those who know your work. Personal networks may provide 1st or 2nd degree links to organisations where work is being sought, allowing a trusted third party to broker on your behalf. Creating networks in themselves and becoming active in groups can enhance your reputation long before you are ready to seek that next job, and have you head-hunted for your dream job, not having to look.
  • Facebook (www.facebook.com): usually private social networking site, for family and friends, although many businesses also have facebook pages as part of their online PR strategies. However, you need to ensure that whatever is in the public domain is squeaky clean and positive, and stays that way. You may need to unfriend some people in order to clean up your facebook reputation.
  • MAYBE pick one of (if they suit your industry, but be judicious!):
    • Personal Blog/Website: where you have an ongoing online presence with opinion pieces, images and links. OK if you are able to present information in a way that an employer will make a positive interview decision after seeing it, and if the blog/site has been going for some time. Otherwise I suggest you take it down, or make it invitation only viewing (NB: but if you go invitation-only, ensure the pages are no longer indexed by search engines). Also be cautious in case (a) it looks as though you spend every waking minute writing online: the employer may be concerned that you have no time to do a paid job and (b) the tone is negative, opening the possibility in the employer’s mind for becoming grist for your mill.
    • Pintrest (www.pintrest.com): is an online pin-board of pictures, illustrating what rings the user’s bells. Some of us suit a more visual and creative approach to an online presence, and if you are able to present interests, ideas and philosophy in a way that an employer can absorb key information to make a positive interview decision, this can work well.
    • Glogster (www.glogster.com): is an online graphic blog, and can be used as a poster CV that you can put together. As with Pintrest, if you are able to present images in a way that an employer can absorb key information to make a positive interview decision, this can work well.
  • Google (www.google.co.nz): search your name online (NB: this is called a ‘vanity search’; cute!). You may have to work quite hard to chase down images which reflect poorly on you, but it is worth pursuing this.
  • Reppler (www.reppler.com): this is an online reputation management site, and is VERY useful. Log on using your facebook login, then connect to all other sites listed that you are a member of. Reppler will come back with a report on how positive or negative your online profile is. Follow the instructions to clean up dodgy profile areas (usually facebook!).

Hopefully that helps you start to navigate an online profile for yourself. It is worthwhile spending the time to get it right. Because remember, what goes online, stays online.



That Gender Divide



A month or two back, Richard Branson wrote a piece on "Why We Need More Women in the Boardroom", which was reposted on LinkedIn. Richard related how in the Virgin group of companies they are looking at how to actively remove barriers for women, and currently have two women CEOs and one 2IC; but he still feels his organisations have a long way to go. He closed with "take a look at who's sitting around your boardroom table. If you see 12 angry men [relating to the film of the same name], it's time to write a new script".

There was a bit of discussion on this topic. I shared some facts with the group.

Norway set up a quota system demanding 100% of all boards in the country must contain a minimum of 40% women by 2010. By 2010, Norway's boards contained 44% women. They have found that their boards are performing better, the companies are more sustainable financially, they have better 'organisational health' and women director numbers are still growing as people are now being selected on skill, not being limited by gender networks.

I think the Norway quota system is one of the main reasons why the gender diversity issue has returned to the public arena, because suddenly there is some data showing that the perceived 'reasons' why women aren't on boards (ie, skill lacks) are a house of cards.

In New Zealand, women form 51% of our population, are 46% of the entire workforce, but only receive 70% of a man's wage (based on 2010 statistics). STILL. New Zealand as a nation did so much for emancipation (in fact, Norway was the second in the world to us to give women the vote), but we are really behind the eight ball on women directors, running at 8.65%. Even Australia has 10% participation.

Some reading to help understand the inequity via some 'diversity' facts in our very middle-aged, middle class, church of England businessmen world; and Aotearoa is performing pretty much at the bottom:


In addition, we are rubbish at having board appointees from other ethnicities. The makeup of our organisations and our boards would be best to reflect our market's demographics. A key reason for reflecting our market's demographics - diversity - is that we then stay effortlessly in tune with our markets as tastes and societal mores change, because our organisations form a representative and synchronised 'mini market', moving along too in the course of living a life. Painless, consistent, evolutionary change.

When our organisations are truly representative of society, then we are not, as I feel the NZRU once was (and possibly still is) in danger of becoming a dinosaur through disconnect and lack of understanding: non-representative of our 'audiences', largely non-representative of our 'players'.



References:




Five Firefox Security Settings



If you are a Firefox user, there are five security settings that Mozilla emailed out last week. Go to Tools | Options | Security tab, and the security settings are:

  1. Unauthorised Add-ons: Firefox will warn you when a website tries to install an add-on and will block it. If Firefox does this and you trust the site, you can add an exception by clicking the 'Exceptions' button, entering the site name, and clicking the 'Allow' button, then 'Close'
  2. Block reported attack sites: Tick this box if you want Firefox to check all sites you visit for attacks, as you visit them.
  3. Block reported Web forgeries: Tick this box if you want Firefox to check all sites you visit for forgeries or phishing, as you visit them.
  4. Use a master password: Tick this box if you want Firefox to set a master password to protect your saved passwords and certificates by encrypting them. Firefox will ask you for a master password each time you need to access a certificate or stored password. Once you have ticked the box, the 'Change Master Password' button will activate so you can manage your password.
  5. Remember passwords for sites: Untick this box if you want Firefox to NOT automatically remember passwords for sites you visit. However, you will still be asked if you want Firefox to remember your password for a site on your first visit (NB: if you do this, you can't use a master password)




TLAs for SMEs



Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

  • RBA, risk-based authentication. A way to evaluate and decide levels of authentication stringency, based on the risk that system access might result in a security breach and how serious that breach might be. So authentication gets more comprehensive and restrictive if the system is more mission critical.


Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.



Tips, Short+Hot Keys

Over the next few newsletters, we are going to look at all you can do with panes. This time we look at PowerPoint:

  • PowerPoint "Move clockwise to the next pane or move between the navigation pane and topic pane" F6
  • PowerPoint "Move the window pane split in a maximized presentation window" Alt, Left Arrow, Down Arrow, P To Select The Splits, Arrow Keys To Position The Split, Then Enter OR Alt & - (minus), P To Select The Splits, Arrow Keys To Position The Split, Then Enter
  • PowerPoint "Move to the previous pane" Shift & F6
  • PowerPoint "Redisplay hidden pointer and/or change the pointer to an arrow or select the entire Help topic or (in slide sorter view) all slides or (in the outline pane) all text, or (in the slide pane) all objects" Ctrl & A



Hot Linx

Through some mitochondrial DNA examination of some early NZ Maori buried at Wairau, researchers are closer to knowing where Hawaiki is. Read on at http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/118896/hawaiki-now-closer-to-being-found and http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2012/10/23/dna-reveals-diversity-among-first-new-zealanders/

Read what veteran research-journo John Pilger has to say about the increasingly-suspicious case against Julian Assange at http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-pursuit-of-julian-assange-is-an-assault-on-freedom-and-a-mockery-of-journalism


For an uplift for clients on why they should chose roles to suit their passion, catch Alan Watts at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L_cGjQSR80. It all comes down to doing what we love, in order to create those 10,000 hours of practice that leads to expertise


                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

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