Graduation and out into the world

As graduation near I not only look forward to a new chapter of my life but also a new adventure. This summer I will be spending most of my summer with a French family and experiencing French culture. After months of reading books, researching and planning I am about to be completely immerse in French culture. One of the topic I encountered was learning through technology, more precisely the web. A topic that was not covered but I believe it will be more important as higher education increase in cost. One of the services I found was personal language lesson via webcam and microphone. I find this idea great and could be used in many ways. Yet, the web cam has not been as widely adopted as the cell phone. The question I pose is how is technology adopted? can bogging accelerate adoption of new ideas and if yes to what extent?

In the book naked conversation is stated "the number of bogglers almost triple from under 7.5 million users to almost 20 million. Someone started a blog onced every second today, and about every two seconds someone else abandoned one" (Scoble and Israle). Despite this fact Molly Woods article "Five Reasons social networking doesn't work" believe otherwise. The question both raised was the future of social networking, whether it will continue to evolved or become yet another event in the past; similar to the dot com event.

I on the other hand it will evolve but limited. I do agree that it will benefit companies that encourage its employee to blog, however with the heighten security measure that our society has and will continue to evolve into there will be a fine line between what is considered ok material and what is not. The also depends on how the access to the internet will expand. In the developed nation internet access is taken for granted. However, emerging countries it is still new and many times have limited websites that are in the local language.

I believe social networking would evolve into media form where video would be more popular due to its personal connection that can be made. It's more personal to view authors (to a blog) that speak than it is to read what they wrote, which is why bookstores that feature best selling authors. Their present draws readers further more into their books and also heighten their popular status. It would even better if the sense of smell is able to be convey in the future, then maybe there would be food smell to entice visitors :) So that there would be more things to do contradicting one of Wood's factor

Finding a job

After reading Hansen's article it gave me a perspective of a recruiter. It had confirmed my suspiction that online recuitring has not gain the momentum that many people expect it to be. Being a Kogod student obtaining a job has always been a great emphasis in the school of business. I have attended many job search workshops. One of the fact that suprises me is that 75% of the jobs are not listed. The article mentioned linkin which I only found out through class last week. I didn't expect to find my collegues from my work on the network. Being that I have never searched for a full time position (I plan on going to graduate school) I really don't know what the networking scene for recruters is like. I have found may part time and summer jobs though. My most sucessful tool is through the temp agency.

Hopefully one day finding a job online wouldn't be too difficult. It takes about an average of 6 months to find a position. I even tried to one find work at P&G and they require a 40 mintues evaluation. It seems like the new trend is to screen people out with behavoral questions prior to even looking at the resume. This I find to be a very bad idea because the all the answer to the questions are multiple choice. Therefore, after 20 mintues or so it gets a little boring. A company can lose some very key talent if they do this. I know they lost me, because applying took forever. Hence my advice is to find someone who works there first and see if there is a better way to apply. Through social networking if possible.

Value of customer

In the USA customer care usually is one of the top priority in a business. Some companies go to great lenghth to maintain a relationship with a customer. For example, the summer I was preparing to study abroad in France, I had planned on cancleling my cell phone plan. However, T-mobile managed to let me negotiate my needs. Because I have no use for US cell phone service in France I felt like I don't need it. After a lengthy call T-mobile offered to postpone my plan and in return I signed a 2 year contract. I have heard that it takes less resources to keep a customer than it would to obtain new ones. As a business student I would agree.

The opposite holds true in France. The customer is seen last and customer care does not exist. Especially true in in public settings, where you are at the mercy of a civil servant. In the book naked conversation by Scoble and Israel listed conducts on blogging etiquette for companies. Reading this I thought about the world of difference between customer care here in the US and France. The concept of blogging for customer care I think will never exist in France.

International Teamwork

A while back I was part of an experiement regarding time delay and team. The purpose of the experiment was to analyze how what time difference cause on work quality and efficency. It was stimulated to paralle a company that have offices around the world. For example: one trial would be two office with a 6 hours day. In addition, all the communication between workers is through chats. As one of the workers, I found out how frustrating it can be when I begin my own work and my collegue would be getting ready to "leave" the office.

There was a disconnect between each office. There are many reason for this. One of which is "the difference (location) caused problems in aligning the groups based ont eh alliance agreement."--Robert Cross, 2004. Cross wrote about how the difference cause a lack of awareness of each indivual's experties within the company. Creating a personal relationship with virtual teams is difficult. Not knowing the atmosphere of difference or even the personality of each indicudual can lead to barriers in regards to teamwork. Most of the time we have small talk to people we see. It would be odd to email someone to try to mimic that. Most of the time we email with a purpose or to get information. The question I present this week is how can a virtual team get to know each other through the net and still be strictly professional?

Networking in the new age

Recently I attended the Kogod Networking event in Gallery Place/Chinatown in DC. Because internet has been so intergrated with school, RSVPed for the event through the career website. In addition, I was able to do research on the other companies that will be represented at the event. I know that in the past networking would not be as high tech as it is now for me. Throughout the event I gathered some business cards and then later utilize the internet to send out follow up emails and resumes.

In the book "The Hidden Power of Social Networks" By Cross and Parker, it discussed the steps of initiating, development, and maintaining networks. The emphasis is on building trust among strangers. A tip that the book is to make someone more "human" by having a card with facts such as hobbies in networking events. I personally thing it would be a good idea for a conversation starter. However, I also see it as something that takes away the professional tone of a relationship if collegues turn into for example drinking buddies.

However, I think it's always better to be buddies than hostile collegues in the workforce. I intern at a local consulting firm which has a very intimate office. Every once in a while on Friday the whole office would go to happy hours. Even the CEO would come. I have personally not gone to any of these events because I am the youngest person at the office and others are much older than me. The book did not mention about age differences and how that affects a network. I wonder if there is a way to help with the large age barrier among the new graduates coming into the workforce and soon to be retire baby boomers?

Extra Credit: the dirt on ITEC 333

blog about your experiences in this class. Why should students take this class? Who shouldn't take this class?

I took ITEC 333 because it fitted well into my schedule. I am a senior and majoring finance. You should take this class if you are into social networking (ie facebook, my space). You should take it if you want to know more about it. This class will expose you to many facets of social resources online and also the history of the internet.

You shouldn't take this class if you cannot turn a computer on, but since you are reading this I am assuming you have a basic knowledge of operating a computer with internet. You shouldn't take this class if you don't have internet access because this is a class that focuses on technology. Sometimes class may be conducted through Webinar and students may not even have to leave the comfort of their homes. It's a class that lets you express your thought through blogging.