Twitter yourself a new job - using social networking media to expand horizons and identify new avenues

Twitter yourself a new job
Jan 11

Extracts of Article Written by: Alok Sahu

Some career consultants caution you against using social networking sites to find a new job. I, on the other hand, am a huge fan of social networking sites. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about LinkedIn, today I want to focus on Twitter. Twitter is a great way to expand your network and ultimately expand you visibility and in turn strengthen your chances of getting hired. Twitter is all about researching and networking, which coincidentally are the two major “offline” skills you need during the job search.

Here are some useful tips to maximize your Twitter job search experience:
• Choose a good name. Remember you are looking to establish credibility and build your brand. For example, if you are in Marketing, you may want to choose something like, “marketingpro.” I am sure that is taken, but you get the idea.

• Make sure you include your LinkedIn URL in your account. You should use Twitter as an extension to your LinkedIn profile. If you have an online resume or portfolio you should link to that as well.

• Find the players and follow them. This is easy to do, conduct a search on your area of expertise and just read the threads. In a day or so it will be very clear who the players are. Once you determine who they are, click to follow them.

• Participate before going in for the kill. What I mean by this, is do not start of by asking if anyone knows who is hiring, that is back technique and just plain tacky. Instead, become a participant, share some information, you must give before you can get.

• Once you are established, start asking for advice, this will lead you down the job opportunity path.

Thanks Alok for sharing your knowledge.  By publishing it here in good faith, I am helping your knowledge and article reach out to more people.

"Success Through Excellence" - Shamim Rafeek: A.R Rahman - "An Inspiring Story of Success through Excellence" !

"Success Through Excellence" - Shamim Rafeek: A.R Rahman - "An Inspiring Story of Success through Excellence" !

Being Nostalgic

Yesterday I was in a very sentimental mode and I phased through my recent past.

As I was passing from Dadar through Bandra and finally towards my home, I saw the office of Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) and suddenly remembered my first Multi-Channel Black and White Television and how sweet were those days. I fondly remember Mumbai Doordarshan and its excellent programs like Chhaya Geet, Saturday and Sunday Movies, Phool Khile Hai Gulshan Gulshan, those news broadcasts and the excellent quality of presentations, programmes that brought to screen eminent singers right from Mohammed Rafi to Mukhesh and stalwarts like Adi Marazban and "Avo Mari Sathe". Not to forget those live cricket matches without the advertisements between the overs. Such wonderful days!.

Nowadays we have hundreds of television channels but there is nothing worthwhile to see, the editing and photography have become absurd, zooming in and zomming out, flash lights coming to the screen. Is this what is called good photography? This any child can do so where is the professionalism here! I must add that editing has also taken a beating. While an artist or a singer or a dancer is about to deliver a key punchline, the camera zooms out on the background dancers or pans out to the audience making a complete mockery of event. One tends to loose interest in the programmes.

The News Channels do not transmit news but they instill fear and I don't know how did the concept deviate from news to presenting trivia. Everything becomes breaking news - Some how it will become like the old adage - the wolf has come and suddenly when there is genuine breaking news, people might not even care for it.

Last night I was watching Midnight Feast on Travel and Living Channel and the host visited on township inhabited by an Amish Community on the Route 66 in US which believes in living without many of the modern technologies - they live without electricity, without piped water, without washing machines, personal computers, internet, iPods, music system and all things modern. It is quite a closed community and believe that by such abstinence they will reach heaven directly. Must be quite an experience to live life that way.

How to Approach Islam in the Workplace

Kellye Whitney, 12-28-2009

The 9/11 tragedy gave new meaning to profiling for Muslims in the United States, and though the event happened years ago, sentiments still linger.

Dr. Donald E. Wagner, a professor at North Park University in Chicago, said some of those bad feelings have diminished, but it only takes one incident to bring about a resurgence of that negative energy.

“Any time an event happens like at Ford Hood," where gunman Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan allegedly killed 12 and injured 31 in November," there is greater awareness of Muslims, and there could be more profiling and some abuse. It’s always best to be alert when something like that happens.”

However, Wagner said diversity executives can use those incidents as teachable moments to increase diversity awareness. For instance, bring in a Muslim speaker to offer — on a voluntary basis — interested employees rudimentary knowledge of the Islamic religion, which Wagner said is the fastest-growing religion in the United States in major cities and can be substantively different from one place to the other.

“The positive thing is there are a lot more organizations working on this as well as greater sensitivity in business, in the police and [in] universities across the board, “ he said. “There’s a lot more dialogue going on between Muslim-Christian, Muslim-Jewish.”

Still, he said diversity executives may want to dedicate some training to increasing the awareness of Islamic practice to promote acceptance should, for example, Muslim women in the workplace chose to wear the hijab head scarf.

“Education is always a good thing, and there might be some subtle ways that can be done without making it look patronizing,” Wagner said.

Have informative brochures or pamphlets available, or ensure certain holidays make it onto the company calendar. For instance, Wagner said, during the month of Ramadan, executives should be sensitive to the fact that Muslims are probably fasting. Therefore, it might be best not to eat in front of them.

“Some businesses make a time and place for prayers, particularly the noon prayers, and occasionally there may be a Muslim employee who will make the Hajj, which is the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. That’s a great honor to complete that,” Wagner said. “It would be thoughtful for congratulations to be sent and for folks to be aware of what that is.”

Some Arab Christians may have slightly different traditions, such as fasting during Easter and Lent, and their Easter may be at a different time than the traditional calendar holiday. Therefore, employees may request to take off on a Good Friday different from what is scheduled.

Wagner said efforts to increase awareness and to educate employees increases respect and levels of equality so Muslims are not viewed as “mysterious, shadowy figures” but as people who aren’t that different from everyone else.

“There’s more that Christians and Jews and Muslims agree on than we disagree on in terms of belief and practice,” he said. “There’s a great book out titled Who Speaks for Islam? I use it in class, and it’s a Gallup poll survey done throughout the Muslim world on attitudes about women and men in the workplace [and] what Muslims really want.

“It shows they really want democracy, but they don’t want the West to come in and interfere. Most are against suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. There’s also a polling on attitudes toward Muslims in the United States, and some of that data could be extrapolated and be useful for training in the workplace.”

For instance, Wagner said that according to the poll, Muslim women increasingly want to be independent and be respected in their professions, yet their religion is central to who they are, and mores and values tend to be conservative.

“[Women] are increasingly in the workplace across the Islamic world in the Middle East and here,” Wagner explained. “Free them up so there aren’t impediments and unnecessary conflicts and tensions in the workplace. That could certainly lead to efficiency.”

Source: http://www.diversity-executive.com/article.php?in=804

Note: The same concept should apply to the understanding of all religions and faiths for a United, Peaceful World.