Jobquest: Maybe there's an antisocial networking site...

[athelind]

Okay, I've been blowing off most of the new "social networking" sites and applications, because, well, I don't "socialize" online under my mundane name. On the other claw, common wisdom holds that "networking skills" are the single biggest asset in job hunting, and frankly, mine are in red ink. There are advantages to having a "mundane" social presence on The Intertubes, and it's long past time that I start exploiting them.

So, Loyal Friends and Readers, do you have any opinions on the matter?

[Poll #1466978]

Please elaborate on your answers in the comments.

---

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

take a look at linkedin.com - you're welcome to add me to your connections if you do sign up. Since I don't know your mundane info, you'll have to note who you are, though.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

I am on LinkedIn too, and you are welcome to add me there.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

I third this suggestion. LinkedIn looks pretty professional.

Joyquest!

[foofers.livejournal.com]

Oops...I was gonna mention LinkedIn as well, but there it is now. My work here is done!

MySpace is a great professional networking site if your profession happens to be unicorns and rainbows and animated twinkly star backgrounds with annoying music that all conspires to bring even the beefiest multi-core, multi-gigahertz machine to its knees.

Re: Joyquest!

[araquan.livejournal.com]

So, web design in general, then?

*runs and hides*

Re: Joyquest!

[foofers.livejournal.com]

Not quite in general, no. There's a direct 1:1 correlation between the unicorns-and-rainbows coefficient and the likelihood that the site was done by the boss' nephew rather than a paid design professional.

Re: Joyquest!

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Maaaaybe.

Though there are also a lot of large corporate websites that, while vaguely decent looking in aesthetic terms, are so full of scripts and flash and what-have-you that they can, as you suggest, bog down a fairly peppy system. It's led me to install all manner of whatever-blocking plugins. That's the type of web design I was mostly referring to.

Re: Joyquest!

[foofers.livejournal.com]

Oh! You mean those damn Netflix pop-unders? :)

Re: Joyquest!

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Popups, popunders, marquee scripts, Flash ads (oh God, the Flash ads...), horrible. horrible misuse of mouseover devices (whether menus or ads or what-have you), etc. etc. @_@

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

Linkedin is the one I use for work stuff the most.

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

As others have said, linkedin.com is the professional networking site. It also would be a nice big firewall between social and professional networking.

[(Anonymous)]

LinkedIn. That's the whole point of the place.

[(Anonymous)]

Personal networking is always a good plan really. All through college they were saying that the vast majority of good jobs are attained through networking. And often times the jobs in question are not even being advertised in any way. Its all word of mouth. I know I got my last job in such a way.

Asking around with your pals here is definitely a good first start. And from there, worm your way through the grapevine until you find something you like. :3 One never knows what might pop up

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Woop, that was me. LJ signed me out for some reason between posts. :p

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

Agree, LinkedIn
Also, you can add me

If you can track down a company it's useful for tracking down an executive type and getting an introduction. Finding someone who knows someone...

Monster turns up lots of contacts who want you on their temp roster so if somewhere where they dumped your name (even if you applied yourself) they can get a chunk of you. Usually they offer very little value to your search. I just used Monster to see who's hiring or who had a neat place to work and then made the contact myself.

Are you looking for field work, lab work, teaching, teaching teachers...?
Can you contact alums in your field?

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Field work and lab work, mostly. I'd like a job that's a mix of data collection and data analysis -- if I don't have my hands on both ends of the process, I lack context.I need to see where it comes from, in situ, and I need to see what's being done with it.

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

Ok, gives me a little idea what to look for.

Here's another site with events:
http://www.workit.com/events/cityevents.cfm

Lockheed had a free lecture series on materials back when I had more time.
It's a mixed bag but sometime it's just good to exercise new thoughts and see who's doing what(or just go bowling with a bunch of research scientists). Keep looking each week for a while something free (or cheap) will likely catch your eye.

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

Not quite but close (I think):
https://cmsweb.sfsu.edu/psp/HSFPRDF/CUSTOMER/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL

found that after this (but the links were broken):
http://www.sfbaynerr.org/jobs/

Stanford, San Jose State, and the few JCs are worth a look as is any company co-sponsoring interesting research.