Emma Brooks | Digital Media Enthusiast

The Great Write Off of 2009 information can be found here. Twitter trending topic is #writeoff09.

This morning, I thought this was one of the more clever ideas I’ve ever had. This was, of course, at 8am, after a long week and bad sleep last night. Dan’s comments yesterday about how water calms him got me thinking to the best song ever made, namely I’m On a Boat – The Lonely Island. I would say it’s definitely become the theme song here at the apartment.

So without further ado, I present to you: Dan Hocking on a boat.

Oh I know how great it is. No need to thank me for being alive. I’m just trying to do the best I can, just like everyone else. Really, I’m No Big Deal. Just a regular girl who happens to be a million times more hilarious than everyone else. An Oscar? For a picture? Why, you shouldn’t have!

…I think it’s time a took a nap, don’t you? (Thought so.) And just to clarify, this picture took me hells of a lot longer than any blog post. Me and my photoshop skillz, we’re totally BFF now.

For Day 4 of The Great Write of 2009, Dan Hocking wrote about taking the weekend off from technology. He says:

I could really use the break to disconnect. I’m turning my phone off for the entire weekend; something I haven’t done since I was in Cuba in February 2007. While being constantly connected has become part of my lifestyle, I’ve been talking about slowing things down and going dark – now, I’m doing it.

Wow. While saying “I haven’t been disconnected since February 2007″ sounds like a really long time, I’m sure that without my travels, it would be a statement I would have probably be saying myself. However, thanks to traveling, I was completely disconnected from the world – without cell phone, internet or landline – for weeks at a time. Sometimes it was tough, as I missed my then-boyfriend, or friends and family, but sometimes I reveled in being mysterious and incognito.

This actually reminds me of when I was in New Zealand. I had my cell phone on for time-keeping purpose but had thought that because I hadn’t bothered to unlock my phone no one was able to contact me. I found out about a week into being in New Zealand, when a text message from my now-roomate, Maggie, rang out at 3am, that I was wrong. So it turns out that my phone was able to receive text messages and I was just unloved rather than it didn’t work!

(I kid, my mommy tells me I’ve very loved.)

Anyway, I’m hoping Dan enjoys his weekend off and heading into the dark side. Good job on making it under the wire and good luck on Sunday!

PREMISE

As some as you may know, I recently returned to Toronto after a 6 month trip to Australia, working and traveling. I arrived back in town mid-April and immediately was on the job hunt. While my job in Australia had been good for my minimal time working there, it wasn’t wasn’t a job I particularly enjoyed. In fact, I found myself stressed out and my soul dying a little bit everyday I walked into that office. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a good position for the time being and the people I worked with were absolutely lovely but it made me realized how important it is for me to have a permanent job I love.

And so with that, I made myself a promise that when I returned to Canada, I would find a job I really loved. My brilliant plan to do so? Harness the power of social media!

We’ve all heard those stories: The ones of the people who got laid off, only to find a job through Twitter within hours. Or the blogger who became so respected, so popular that they got offered the corner office at some high-tech firm. This was what I was going to do!

I was going to build a great website that attracted attention. I was going to blog thought-provoking entries that got discussions going. I was going to appeal to my Twitter friends to get them to ReTweet my skills, abilities and strengths wherein the perfect ad agency with the perfect job needed someone – gasp! – exactly like me! It was going to work out wonderfully. We’d all hold hand in Social Media Land, skip through YouTube Ville, streak past Facebook Corner and end up at the Great Opportunity For Emma Pub.

FINDINGS

So how did my brilliant plan work out, you may ask? Well, glad you asked! (Not really, who likes admitting defeat?) Here’s what I found as I warbled my way through trying to make my less-than-planned plan work:

1. People actually aren’t as willing to help you as you think they will be. Which was really a let-down, to be honest. I expected users I had chatted with on-and-off for months over Twitter or on blogs or heck! even on Facebook, to be a little more willing to go out of their way to help spread my plight.
2. While having a website makes you seem like a little more legit to the online advertising crowd, it really didn’t have as much of an impact as I expected. It’s been live for maybe a month now? And I’m juuuust about to reach 100 visits. Not exactly the explosion of loyal visitors my starry eyes dreamed!
3. The areas I did find it helpful to use to its full extent were the Workopolis.com and Monster.ca resume uploaders. While not exactly “social media” in the definition we think of it as, I did get quite a few calls or contacts from recruiters who had stumbled across my resume and wanted to chat. Some even left comments on my website, having found it through Workopolis.
   1. And just as a side note? While I love the Monster.ca interface a heck of a lot more than the Workopolis.com one, the quality of jobs and leads from Monster.ca very much paled in comparison to Workopolis.com. I guess we know who is still king in that realm.
4. There really aren’t that many jobs out there, to be honest. The number of really good opportunities I’ve seen cross my path as a result of trolling job sites, job blogs, job twitter feeds, etc? Maybe two? At most? This is easy to blame on the recession and while I do think it is playing a big role in this, I think what this really means is that informal websites, people that don’t know you, aren’t going to deliver up the job of your dreams.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So what did I get out of all of this? What did my naive and innocent self learn in this process?

1. Don’t rely on other people to lend a helping hand. Now, to be fair, a good friend of mine ReTweeted my “Sales Pitch” on Twitter, which resulted in a co-worker of his seeing it and telling him he’d get me in contact with the founder of an ad agency here in Toronto he knew. Since then, I’ve been chatting with the CEO and he has my resume. Nothing yet, but it’s a good contact to have. This was definitely a positive of the whole experience.
2. Thanks to sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and WordPress, it’s becoming easier and easier to make contacts in the industry you want to work in. It’s definitely easier to find like-minded people who share the same passions you do. This is a huge plus to social media. I think it’s important to use social media the best way you can to get your name, your passions, your skill set out there, regardless of whether you’re looking for a job now or not. You never know when you’re going to need to call upon the contacts you’ve made.
3. However, in order for people to be willing to help you, they have to know more than just your online persona. You have to become a real person to them. Which means going out and getting involved in your community. Head to TweetUps. Organize an event or Camp or something. Do what you can to get your face in front of people and your personality well-known to anyone and everyone who could potentially be in a position to help you in your job search. It’s one thing to be smart online. It’s a completely different thing to be smart in-person. And unless you plan on getting a job working out of your basement, these interpersonal skills are crucial. These people need to “see to believe.” As it has been for decades in the job industry, it’s all about who you know. IRL. Real world contacts are your best weapon in the job search.

I think I learned some valuable lessons here. Learnings I will continue to use going forward, as I try to figure out what I want out of my career path and how I am going to get there. To those who are in Toronto and in the online/advertising/tech industry, hopefully you will be seeing a lot more of me.

So what do you think? How have you been finding the job market lately? Any success stories you’d like to share?

For his first post for the The Great Write-Off of 2009 (more information can be found here), my friend Dan has written about ways to give back to our community:

As my generation moves from schooling to starting out careers, it’s important to remember to still take time to give back in whatever ways your skill-sets enable you to. Yes, we have the highest personal debt load of any demographic, and it’s important to work to pay that off as quickly as possible, but many of us have been able to build our successes based off of our involvement outside of the classroom

I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this lately.  During high school and university, I was very much involved with volunteering and lately I’ve been painfully aware how long it’s been since I’ve done something to give back.

At the end of his post, Dan asks us what are we doing outside of our work and donations and whether or not we are satisfied with our level of involvement.

I’ll be answering these questions in a blog post in the near future, as I been mentally writing the post in my head for some time. There may be an announcement of some kind. Just sayin’.

Thanks Dan, for being our social concience and nudging us in the right direction. Great post!

Ok folks, we’re going to start this competition off with a bit of a depressing topic but one that’s been on my mind lately.

Seeing a friendship end is never easy nor fun. And while it may be the best thing for all parties involved, it can still hurt quite a bit. A lot of people don’t like the idea that their friends may one day leave their lives as quickly as they entered but it does happen from time to time, sadly.

Just like relationships, some friendships have expiration dates. And just like relationships, friendships that once seemed so strong can fade to a shell of its former bond. I know a lot of people approach friendships with a different mindset than relationships, but I do think there’s more in common with these two than most realize.

When a friendship is over, many feel a sense of loss, an emptiness, where that former bond used to be. There are inside jokes no one else will get, memories that cannot be shared with others, interests that interest no one else. In short, there were reasons that person was your friend.

But sometimes these reasons don’t justify the negatives that manifest from years of small slights and miscommunications.

Recently, I witnessed a close friend of mine see a friendship she’s had for two decades end. It was a friendship that had been rocky in recent times but I know she’s still very upset it’s over. This is someone that has been there through it all – play dates in elementary school, the awkwardness of high school, first loves, first heartbreaks. This friend had been there and seen it all first-hand. And when someone that knows such a large portion of your personal history leaves, it can be really tough. Suddenly you find yourself having to explain events and names to other friends who don’t know who or what you mean. It can leave a profound gap in your social circle.

Yet… Some friendships are not meant to be long-term friendships. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses loose and move on. These are the friendships that have become toxic, have started to see the bad outweigh the good, that are draining on your energy and emotional well-being.

In recent years, I’ve gotten better at letting these friendships go. However, I still find it incredibly hard. I’m the kind of person who likes to hold onto the people I care very much for. Despite negatives in the friendships. But I’ve realized my time is finite and I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by lots of people who care about me, who make me feel like I’m a good person, and who put just as much effort into our friendships as I do. Those are the friendships I need to concentrate on, they’re the ones that return a positive influence in my life, these are the people who make me happy.

So while I’m sad for my friend, sad because I see her going through the pain of losing a friend, I know that in a while she’ll feel a weight lifted, as she realizes that her toxic friendship is no longer hurting her. And she’ll move on, build new friendships and strengthen the ones she has, but will always remember the good times of a friendship that meant a lot to her.

And who knows? Perhaps someday they will find their way back to each other and start anew, with a clean slate and a healthier state of mind. That’s the best part: the hope of renewal, revival, resurgence of a lost friend.

—
I’m just going to go ahead and apologize now for that uber-flowery ending but I couldn’t help it. It was begging to be written

OK, so in an effort to write more on this blog, I proposed a blog post challenge to Dan Hocking, of DanHocking.com fame. He accepted my challenge (the poor sucker, doesn’t know what he’s in for) and as of tomorrow, we’ll be starting “The Great Write-Off of 2009.”

THE RULES:
1. We will post every other day, alternating days between each of us.
2. We MUST post on our day – nothing past midnight EST or it counts as being late.
3. Posts can be about anything or anything. A funny story, an observation, personal information, etc. However, there must be SOME content to it. Can’t just put up a picture of something and call it a day. (Unless…)
4. Unless… you made the picture. Video, audio, visual, text – any and all is an accepted format.
5. Days missed or late posts will result in punishments (see more below).
6. On our “off” days, we will link to the our competitor’s post (if it’s up within a reasonable amount of time).
7. Spamming friends, twitter accounts, facebooks with links to the posts is more than encouraged.

PUNISHMENT
1. It is up to the punishee to pick their final punishment.
2. Punishment options can be picked from either the punisher’s suggestions, or if any commenters have suggestions.
3. Must be blog-related (i.e. will be in post form, though can be any of the aforementioned acceptable formats) and please, nothing too illegal, TMI or dirty. We are “professionals” here, after all.
4. Punishment must be done within 48 hours of missing a deadline.

STARTING
Tomorrow, June 9, 2009 with yours truly!

ENDING
Tuesday, July 9, 200. The day of freedom. The day I celebrate my momentous victory. The day I will allow myself to run out of ideas.

—

Let the write-off begin! (Well, tomorrow.)