Help Wanted at the Internet Cafe

April 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment


It used to be that searching for a job meant “hitting the bricks,” walking from business to business, meeting and greeting potential employers.  And, while face-to-face contact is still key to finding your next job, the internet can be an important tool as well.

Most people are familiar with job posting websites like Monster.com.  This site provide lists of thousands of jobs in many different sectors.  But remember to check more specialized websites also, including industry association websites, websites related to a specific geographic area and the websites of local print publications.  These can all be good sources for job postings.

Image representing Gist as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

The internet can also be useful for learning about potential employers. Once you have generated a short list of the companies you would like to work at, use a site like Gist to track the latest happenings at the company.  Gist automatically gets the latest news, blog posts, and tweets for anyone in your professional network through a free account.  Then you can watch for latest developments within the company, learn of job transitions, and be prepared when an opportunity opens up.

Once you’ve gotten an interview, turn back to the internet for help.  Use networking sites like LinkedIn to prepare.  The site can help you learn about both the company and the individuals within.  You can even get connected to many companies through your existing network.

You must still impress the interview team, but the internet can help you in several ways as you move forward in your job search.

Filed Under: Internet Tagged With: , ,

Social Networking and Divorce

October 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Illustration of Facebook mobile interface
Image via Wikipedia

Social Networks and Divorce

Legal experts advise their clients in cases of divorce to go on a social networking blackout. If you’re in a divorce, stay away from sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin; there has been a strong – and bad – precedent of people going on those sites during divorces, and giving up information that is then used by the spouse or partner they are divorcing. Divorcing parties have a bad habit of sharing their bad news with others, which can estrange friends and family, as well as motivate third parties to supply the opponents’ legal teams with dirt to help them in their divorce case. In one instance, a spiteful woman made a Facebook post in which she bragged about her ability to make her husband spend money by bringing up frivolous – and devastating – false accusations of child abuse. After ‘lol-ing’ about her criminal intent, the divorce court reversed custody of her children back to the father, giving her only visitation. Just desserts, as some might say.

Facebook Causing Divorce?

Some people have used sites like Facebook to find evidence for ending a relationship or initiating a divorce. A woman in Florida recently saw that her new husband was a bigamist; via his Facebook friends, she discovered that he had a second wife and an entire second family in a state he regularly visited for business trips. Facebook is so efficient at tracking friends and activities that people are often unconscious about how their postings will be broadcasted to the world at large. But some people say that if the way in which social networking sites strip bare a person’s secrets, that it will force them to be more honest in their dealings with others. Another view is that a social networking profile can be maintained strictly to give a false impression of that person’s ‘candid’ life.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Internet Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Expanding use of the Internet

September 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 01: Facebook is added ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The internet, once only used for defense and scientific purposes, is now widely used by people around the world for an ever-increasing set of tasks. For example, the internet has become a great way to conduct ecommerce. Business models such as those of Amazon and Ebay have profited enormously from this possibility by allowing users around the world to bid on, or purchase, particular products from the comfort of their own home. This also often allows customers to cut out the middle men in purchasing certain custom made or rare niche goods.

Besides electronic commerce, internet has paved the way for social networking services such as MySpace, primarily used by a younger demographic, Facebook, which is popular among college students and older individuals, LinkedIn, a very important tool for professionals, and innumerable others. These services use the internet to allow people to stay in touch in spite of the vast distances that might physically separate them. In some cases, you can even be in the same room and play games on such social networking sites. Regardless, the door is open to a lot of social networking possibilities.

The internet has also meant a great boon for video games. Games like Halo are great fun, but without other people to play them with, they become dull over the course of time. You can’t beat the same level 20 times and continue to have the same amount of enjoyment which you had when you first pulled it out of the box. Internet gaming through services on consoles such as the Xbox 360, the Wii and the Playstation 3 have allowed users to connect with and challenge other like minded users around in the world in bouts of friendly competition or cooperative play – once again, without having to leave the comfort of their own respective houses.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Internet, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Social Networking Community

June 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
This is icon for social networking website. Th...
Image via Wikipedia

Unless you have been living under a rock since the last few years, chances are that you have encountered a couple of social networks and have signed up with at least one of these on the internet. Social networks have brought a new breed of users who are as young as 12 or as old as centenarians. Social Networks saw their birth around 2000 with the birth of dating sites; though these sites kept shy users away, it did gave rise to social networks such as Facebook, Orkut and Myspace from 2003.

Gone are the days when people spent long hours in chat rooms chatting to complete strangers, now it’s friends only with whom people spend time. Social networks are the reason for a completely new breed of phones which stay connected 24 hours a day. They have given a completely new method to monitor citizen and customer satisfaction for many companies. They have literally altered the fabric of the internet with majority of users on the internet being Social Networkers. A study showed the there are about 300 social networking sites with many being user specific such as Facebook for general friends, Myspace becoming more accustomed to music related tastes, Xanga a blog based social networking site and LinkedIn being directed towards professionals.

If you give a thought to the security implications and personal space intrusions these social networks have, that can send a chill down the spine. With all your information available on these sites, from your phone number, videos and photographs to your likes and dislikes, it makes a social network user vulnerable to all sorts of attacks from identity thieves to child molesters to stalkers. It is an easy way for these criminals to know when you are out of town. It is also easy for your boss to know when you lie about a sick leave and leave updates which can be easily the cause for you to get fired in some cases, or be the cause for a divorce.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Internet Tagged With: , , , ,