Photo by linuslin on Flickr

Prediction #1: Twitter will remain unpopular among college age students.

Verdict: Kind of.

It’s hard to say whether this prediction is right or wrong as Twitter does not often release usage statistics, but PEW Internet recently released an interesting study on social media usage by demographic. While the younger age group (15-24) still makes up a majority of social media users, the fastest growing group is the over 74 year cohort. This neither proves nor disproves my prediction, but it is still an interesting statistic!

Prediction #2: Twitter will be bought.

Verdict: False.

Okay, so Twitter wasn’t bought. BUT, I did say that they would not monetize. Given that they have not released any information regarding their profits (and given that they probably would have if they were actually making a profit), I’m going to postpone this prediction to 2011.

Prediction #3: LinkedIn profile expansion among college age students.

Verdict: False.

It seems that most college students still don’t understand the power of networking sites like LinkedIn. The usage demographic remains heavily skewed towards the older male demographic with fewer than 4% of users in the 18-24 age group. Hopefully my E-Book about Networking for New Grads will help that.

Prediction #4: People will actually start to care about Facebook privacy.

Verdict: True.

This summer, Facebook’s privacy debacle made headlines on almost all major newspapers. It’s agreed by basically all journalists that Facebook screwed up royally. Whether anyone actually cared about it? I hope so!

Prediction #5: Explosion in sales of E-book Readers and 3D TVs.

Verdict: Half true.

Did you get a Kindle for Christmas? The Kindle has dominated the Amazon Best Seller’s list for the entire year. Gartner group reported in December that electronic book readers would reach 6.6 million by the end of 2010, which is a 79% increase from 2009.  If only I’d stopped there.  Due to a serious lack of content, 3D TV sales this holiday were dismal at best.  Guess no one wants to wear funky glasses in their living room.

Prediction #6: More cross-over between social platforms.

Verdict: True.

You can login to almost any website now using Facebook Connect and Twitter now allows you to look for friends by connecting your LinkedIn profile. The Facebook and Twitter APIs also allow lots of social media newcomers like bookmarking site Diigo to send updates straight to Facebook and Twitter.

Prediction #7: Pressure from baby boomers to improve Facebook usability.

Verdict: Kind of.

This is a hard prediction to measure and I don’t think there can be a definite answer. What we do know is that baby boomers are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook, so Facebook is making more of an effort to cater to this age group. I recently set up my aunt on Facebook and saw that they have a great new “Welcome to Facebook” page, something I would not have seen when I joined the site back in 2006. If they keep adding features like this to improve usability, I think baby boomers will continue to flock.

Prediction #8: Google Wave will be an epic fail.

Verdict. SO true.

You may ask, “What is Google Wave?” Exactly. Google announced this August that they would no longer be developing their Google Wave product.  From one of the most buzzed about products in 2009 to a discontinued service in 2010, this definitely qualifies an epic fail.

Prediction #9: Backlash towards telegraphic communication.

Verdict: False.

Guess I was wrong. People don’t seem to have a problem with twitter’s 140 character limit. Is social media making us dumber?

Prediction #10: Service that combines personal recommendations with personal networks.

Verdict: True.

Facebook has been doing this all over the place. With their Facebook Connect and API, websites can creepily steal utilize information on your facebook profile to offer recommendations based on what your friends like.

Well there you have it. With four and a half true, three false, and two kind of, I’d say that’s a pretty good showing for 2010. Check back soon to see a new set of predictions for 2011.

I spoke with a few CRC people at Wesleyan about why they thought the number was so low and they told me that college students are generally not very good at networking.  Many students don’t get jobs before they graduate because they are opposed to networking or don’t understand it at all.

Networking is not ingratiation. A lot of college students say that they would never get a job through networking because they are morally opposed to “sucking up”.  While it’s a good thing these people are opposed to sucking up, it is a bad thing that they think sucking up and networking are the same thing.  They aren’t.

Photo Courtesy of foreverdigital

Networking is not schmoozing at a party. Many of my friends tell me that they hate networking because they feel awkward doing it.  I ask, “Doing what?”  They say, “You know, talking to random people at parties.”

First, if you’re having difficulty talking to people at parties, try drinking a glass of wine.  Second, networking is not about randomly approaching someone at a party that looks distinguished enough to be important.  That would be awkward.

So if you aren’t sucking up to people and you aren’t schmoozing at a party, how do you network?

Photo Courtesy of Steve Rhodes

• Contact people you already know in order to get in contact with people you want to know. Being personally recommended for a job or interview from a trusted source will instantly get your resume out of the pile and into someone’s hands.  The key to any job search is finding out who the people are you want to know. Whenever I apply to a job, I first search on LinkedIn for the company, see if I have any 2^nd degree connections, and then ask that connection to put me in contact with someone at that company.  If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile (which you should), or don’t think you have that many professional contacts (which is okay), there are other ways of doing this.
• Find an advocate. Ask a past colleague who liked you if they have any suggestions for people to talk to or places to look at.  There is nothing more useful than a boss that loved you, whether it was from an internship or an on-campus job that relates to the field you are interested in. These connections are vital because they will know where you should look for jobs, they will likely know people at the places you are applying, and they will want you to be successful in your job search.
• Use your network to find whether or not you are a good match. Leverage your contacts to ask around about the companies and positions you are applying for.  Learn if you are a good match by asking questions about the company, their reputation, their work environment, and the type of people that work there. By narrowing down your search to places where you would actually be a good fit, you are more likely to find a company or position that you like and a company that likes you.
• Focus your efforts on contacts, not applications. According to a handout from Wesleyan University’s Career Resource Center, over half of graduating students get their jobs through networking.  So why do so many people spend a majority of their search applying to dozens of jobs. Rather than applying to 100 jobs, contact 100 people in your network.  It’ll take a lot less time and you’ll be more likely to find something that fits your needs well.

While schmoozing at a party and an appropriate amount of flattery may not hurt your job search, it is not the most effective way to go about focusing your efforts.  Instead, find out who the people are you want to know and then leverage your network to get in contact with them.  A good handshake doesn’t hurt either.

Good luck in 2011!

You don’t want to do that. Take a moment to run through this checklist to make sure you get the most and continue to get the most out of your summer job experience.

1. Create a space to maintain connections.

I’m not sure how I feel about LinkedIn. The site is pretty ugly from a design standpoint, and I haven’t made made any connections on it to people I didn’t already know. However, LinkedIn does offer a space for you to maintain connections that you made while at your internship.

Take some time to create a complete profile and then add your colleagues and connections. When you begin looking for a permanent position and need to ask for recommendations, you’ll be thankful that you stayed in contact with your colleagues.

75% of hiring managers use LinkedIn to research job candidates before making an offer, so even if you don’t see the immediate benefits on using the site, you can be sure that it is actually important to have a presence here. What if your colleagues aren’t on LinkedIn? See my next point…

2. Send a personal note to any individuals that you worked with directly.

Photo by kcolwell on Flickr

Sending a note isn’t just about sucking up to your boss (although a little flattery never hurts, does it?). Carefully think about what these people taught you and thank them for those specific things.

This will show that not only are you appreciative of your summer experience, but that you can reflect on what you have learned and grow from it. This also creates the space to contact your colleagues by email in the future.

The format of your note depends on the formality of your work environment. In more formal workplaces, a handwritten note might be appropriate, whereas in a more casual environment, a simple well-written email would be received just as well.

3. Make a list of what you accomplished on the job.

Keep a list of all the projects and accomplishment that you directly influenced and the specific impact that these projects had on your company. Be as specific as possible.

For example, instead of “Helped research search engine optimization strategies,” write down “Implemented specific SEO strategies which brought our forward-facing website from #9 to #1 on Google.” Not only will this help you update your resume more effectively, but you’ll also be able to better convey in future interviews what deliverables you have to offer.

4. Reflect on what you learned about yourself and your values.

I ask myself every Monday, “What did I learn last week?” To get the most out of your internship, you have to be consciously aware of what you are learning about yourself. Internships are the perfect time to try things out. Even if you didn’t have the super awesome internship experience you were hoping for, you now know what to look for and what to avoid when you are looking for a job in the future.

For example, I loved working this summer at NationalField because I had full control of choosing and executing my own projects. The startup atmosphere was exciting and fast-paced and I was able to set my own hours.

What did you like or dislike about your internship this summer? Make sure you remember these things when looking for a permanent position in the future.

Pressure… by Casey Serin on Flickr

Most of us could use less stress. With the kind of ridiculous connectivity that we have and the expectation to be constantly “plugged in”, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. And we aren’t only worrying about things that we have to do, but things that we feel like we should do, or could do.

I’m studying abroad in Spain right now. While I don’t have as many have to dos as I do at home, the list of should dos is almost endless (talk with friends, see a bull-fight, make Spanish friends, eat paella, etc).

I am normally good at handling a long to do list, but this shift from have to do to should do has been hard to adjust to, because instead of managing my time, I just get overwhelmed with all the possibilities and usually end up wasting my entire day eating lunch (it’s actually not that hard to do that here).

This change has forced me to think of how I normally manage being overwhelmed, and to adjust that strategy to this new lifestyle of fewer responsibilities and greater possibilities.

So, here’s what we are going to do. Make a list. Making lists is how I solve problems. It clears my mind and is a great distraction when I’m bored in class or at work. This list will have three columns:

So you have your lists. Ideally you’d work from top to bottom until everything was done, but we all know that it doesn’t work like that. We procrastinate, we put things off, we don’t feel like doing things we should do, so we do things we could do instead. Let’s look at 4 of the most common problems people have when they are overwhelmed, and try to come up with some solutions for them. You might have some suggestions for these problems, or strategies that work well for you. Share them with me!

Credit: Jordan Brock on Flickr

You might still think of Facebook as “that social network for college students” but in the past few years it has become much more than that.  Over 2/3 of Facebooks users are out of college and the fastest growing demographic of users is those 35 years or older.  What does that mean for you?  Well, if you are a college student, you probably have received (or will receive) a friend request from your mom, and if you are a mom, you’re probably feeling like you are missing out on your child’s life.  With 13.9 billion minutes spent on Facebook in April alone, you might have reason to feel like you’re missing something.

There are plenty of guides online for beginners using Facebook. Facebook for Beginners has a good list of guides available online.  If you are looking to do something specific, just type your question into Google and chances are you will find an answer.  I don’t want to regurgitate basic how-to’s that you can find online.  Instead, let me tell you:

The default privacy settings that you want to take a look at: (1) Profile, (2) Search, and (3) News Feed and Wall.  Of the three, you are probably most worried about your Profile Settings.  This area controls who can see you and what specific people can see about you.  Let’s start there!

1. Profile Privacy

The default privacy settings for Facebook allow for everyone to see your information.  You probably don’t want this.  Go through and change the drop-down menu to “Only Friends”.  You have to select this for every element of your profile.  Facebook calls this “increased customizability”, I call it “annoying”, but whatever. Make sure to changes the settings for your contact information as well.

Quick Tip: Still unsure whether your profile is actually private?  Test it!  Type a friend’s name next to the “See how a friend sees your profile” box and Facebook will show you how they would see your profile.

2. Search Privacy

Search visibility depends a lot on the purpose of your facebook account.  Take a minute and ask yourself: why am I on facebook?  Through Search Privacy, you can control who can find you in a search.  I often recommend being searchable, just not viewable.  That way, people can find you if they want, but you control what they see.  Here are the settings I suggest:

3. News Feed and Wall

The last section of your privacy settings, News Feed and Wall, gives you some control over what your friends see on their Feed (their Facebook homepage).  I unchecked all of the fields on my account, but it is really your choice.