Tag Archives: Technology

For Hire Tweeting

Posted on by Ryan K.

Today, I was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article, “A New Job Just a Tweet Away.”

Twitter users say the service can be more convenient than online job boards, allowing users to follow feeds that list jobs from a variety of companies rather than trolling through thousands of job-board listings. “It’s an efficient way to get a general idea of what type of jobs are out there,” says Ryan Kellett, a senior at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt.

He subscribes to about a half-dozen job feeds on Twitter. “It’s a little bit more of a chore to go on [job boards] on a daily basis,” he says. “You don’t know if there’s new content on there.”

To be honest, I feel like anyone using Twitter as part of the job search is doing so experimentally. There’s no “best practices” of what to tweet for self promotion or whom to follow for the best job leads. I think the personal branding for the average job-seeker is the most important part, beyond using Twitter to find out what kind of jobs are out there.

Personal Websites for Young People

Posted on by Ryan K.

I was knee-deep into trying to get NPR interns jobs by tweeting when I realized that we had a problem: I had no links. Part of the usefulness of Twitter is that much of the content available is in teaser form: a little blurb and then a link to find out more. Our interns didn’t have their own personal websites, resumes, or other place to contact them online — nothing to link to.

This is a problem. If you’re actively looking for a job, please make it easy to find out more about you and contact you. You don’t need to have a slick website but you do need to have something — a LinkedIN profile, an emurse.com profile, or even something this.

Here are some good examples of the few NPR interns that have personal web presences. Only two of the follow are actively looking for work:

  • Brandon Neil – A large splash-page photo that links directly to a PDF of his resume. Actively looking for work.
  • Georgia Rhodes – She’s a photographer so she uses a blog/portfolio style site.
  • Megan Pellegrino – I know she has a redesign on the way so I won’t criticize the the early 2000s design but this is an example of a more work-oriented / job-hunting personal site. Actively looking for work.
  • Anna Tauzin – Demonstrating she can work in Drupal, her site is pretty basic on the outside but take a look at her blog, portfolio and you will quickly realize what’s what.
  • Katie Hayes – As a photojournalist, she has a selected portfolio of her best work along with bio/resume and a blog of her recent musings. Good style.
  • Tristan Ahtone – OK, his blog hasn’t been updated in eight months. Brutal. But he has the most unique and personal design — clearly some work went into this.

I ended up scrambling to get interns to have their resumes uploaded to a public Google Doc. That’s OK for Twitter but not going to do you many favors down the road. A friend told me I should open up a business doing personal websites for college-grads. Charge a small, one-time fee that does the basics: bio/resume, objective, a photo or two, and maybe a few links. Thoughts?

Update: Some people call this building the “personal brand.” Here’s an article on MediaShift that talks about it in more detail.

I Dabble in Experiments

Posted on by Ryan K.

Experimentation. That’s what social media is all about. Today, I tried two little tests:

  1. Promote NPR interns who need jobs:tweetforhire As a person who is going back to school, I feel for those interns who are ending internships without work. So, I decided to help these smart, outgoing individuals by offering to tweet their links/resumes/experiences to the 1700+ followers of the @NPRInterns twitter account. This is a fine line to walk though. You can just dump resumes out of Twitter or promote these interns by tweeting every other minute about their greatness. You have to make a short argument (140 characters) for why someone should look at their resume and consider giving them an interview. On top of that, you have to make it clear that NPR supports these interns in their future endeavors but is not married to or endorses them. Overall, the results were promising. People on Twitter were very supportive, often retweeting and adding words of encouragement. But I think most were just excited that someone was bold enough to 1) let their interns support themselves, and 2) put it all out on Twitter. A few people even offered some job tips — email this person, contact that person, etc. I heard of one intern getting a direct resume pass-off to a higher up. In the future, I’ll be sure to add a hashtag to make the tweets more searchable.
  2. Gather feedback and provide background for Middlebury’s WebRedo Project:lisqa I was reading through comments on the WebRedo Blog about the new Middlebury.edu mockup designs by White Whale. Then I heard that the LIS intern would be doing a chat Q & A with interested parties the next day. Why not do this in a liveblog chat format? A what? NPR.org frequently uses liveblog chats on The Two Way blog and on NPR Music. Liveblog chats essentially are a chat room that is moderated as a question and answer session. It’s done live, so people interact in real time and it’s a great way to get people engaging on an issue rather than simply leaving a comment and forgetting about it. It’s also a good way to get some buzz going. Some examples of the tools: ScribbleLive and CoverItLive. Here’s the result from today’s chat. Overall, low turnout but the format could pick up speed if you promote it well ahead of time. I think people like the format because it’s interactive but relatively low key. Plus, the conversation is archived so others can see it after the fact. I will try more of these soon.

So Does This Make Me Fashionable?

Posted on by Ryan K.


This pink ball of roses hangs over my desk at NPR. Everyone always comments on how my desk is so well decorated. That’s because I sit at Lisa Simeone’s (host of World of Opera) desk.

But the other reason I post this photo is because I’m testing out the Blackberry Tour, the phone from which this photo was snapped. My boss raves about his iPhone 3GS so it seems I’m getting pressured quickly into smartphone madness. It’s nice having constant access to maps and email in addition to mobile uploading of photos like this but to be honest, I don’t need it. I have little desire to be online while I’m on the move mostly because I’m online all day anyway at work.

Give and Take: Big Blogging

Posted on by Ryan K.

Working on these few posts for the All Tech Considered Blog, it occurred to me that I don’t really know how to write a good news article. Or rather, I don’t really know how to write a good straight news article. Blogging for NPR means knowing where the line is. If you’re going to write an opinion article, that’s fine but write it as straight opinion. If you’re going to write a news article, then write it as a straight news article.

Not to devalue previous work, but my carefully polished news-opinion blend that I practiced over on MiddBlog does not work for the big leagues. Well, at least it is used much less often and mostly by blogging all-stars.

And it’s essentially this type of advice for which I’m so grateful for. I did not and do not go to school to learn about Twitter or blogs or social media in general. So to have people who are more experienced than I am is a big part of the internship with NPR this summer.

And still I feel like I have something to offer other than my eagerness to drop-in on conversations whether my supervisors like it or not. Talking with other NPR bloggers at today’s “NPR blogger in-house meetup” (the first ever!), I got a chance to probe some of the other bloggers specializing in health, pop culture, etc. It became clear that I could maybe help some people understand the value of engagement and participation both on and off NPR.org.

Especially at a time when media outlets are reviewing their social media policy, I like grappling and arguing the finer points of social media and journalism. Today’s explosion of articles analyzing Twitter as a legitimate news source (even for the State Dept) in reporting on Iran, shows that it’s not easy to discount new media tools. The truth is that no one is a Twitter expert or Facebook guru. But I hope to be someone who can advise and innovate far into the future.