Job Search Lessons: LinkedIn + Indeed = Win

I have just wrapped up a successful job search and embarked on a great new opportunity.  I feel like this is the first "real" job search I have ever performed, because my prior jobs had been a long string of being recruited into the next job.  I learned a lot about the process and a little about myself along the way.

In today's job search, the job search site is ubiquitous, and they all promise to be better than the rest. Well, they surely cannot all be right.

Job Search Lessons - LinkedIn, A Cautionary Tale

I left a job with the intention of taking 6-12 months off to take some trips, work on the house, and execute an ambitious volunteer project.  Just to be safe, though, I maintained a Premium LinkedIn account to a Premium account, specifically, Job Seeker.

I went about the things I wanted to do and exactly 12 months later I ramped up my job search.  I set up various searches and alerts, reached out to a select group of contacts, and started going through my personal contact entries and evaluating whether or not to add them as LinkedIn connections.

I was a job search machine.  Then I hit a speed bump.  Less than two weeks into March, I started seeing a strange message and most of my search results blurred out. Had I broken the Internet?

Job Search Lessons - Take Advantage of LinkedIn

I have just wrapped up a successful job search and embarked on a great new opportunity.  I feel like this is the first "real" job search I have ever performed, because my prior jobs had been a long string of being recruited into the next job.  I learned a lot about the process and a little about myself along the way.

Job Search Lessons - Taking a Break

I have just wrapped up a successful job search and embarked on a great new opportunity.  I feel like this is the first "real" job search I have ever performed, because my prior jobs had been a long string of being recruited into the next job.  I learned a lot about the process and a little about myself along the way.

One interesting aspect of this is that I took a long break, just over a year.  Many people will tell you that leaving your job before you have a new one is something to be avoided at all costs.  I challenge that notion.

Here is what I learned about taking a break between jobs.

Codecademy: Accessible, Practical, and Useful

Let me sing the praises of Codecademy...

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting with a fellow alumni from Rice University (I earned my PhD in Applied Physics there in 2002).  She is only a few years out of school and still weighing her future options.  However, we both came to understand a shared interest in coding...for fun and personal development.

So, as with everyone that expresses an interest to try out coding, I had to share with her the wonder that is Codecademy.

Creating a Letterbox Matte With GIMP

The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or "GIMP", is a great tool for image editing.  It is freely-available, which is great news for those with a casual need to edit images that don't want to invest in an expensive software suite.

However, it can be a little trickier to use...

Digital Natives Are A Cultural Technology Advancement

I love digital natives.  I believe they are akin to a cultural technology advancement.  They are helping usher in a new age of human-centered design, because they demand a more intuitive, human-centered functionality in their technology.