Geoscientists without Jobs, Part Four
In the previous installment, I wrote about the importance of real-life networking for geoscientists. Our jobs require multidisciplinary competence, so few managers are willing to hire experienced professionals without direct knowledge of their abilities. The best path to a job is through a trusted network, and the Internet is now our primary form of communication. Social media is a great way to raise your visibility in the community, but social media can be both used and abused in the quest for self-promotion.
Sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook have utility, but they can become virtual Skinner boxes. They condition you to repeat behaviors by rewarding the pleasure centers of your brain; instead of food pellets, they give out “likes”, re-tweets, profile views and endorsements. If you’re on the job hunt, this may not be the best use of time. My favored strategy is to contribute only when it has both positive value and a low probability of reflecting poorly on me. The lessons learned are divided into positive (i.e., good uses of time), negative (so don’t do them), or both simultaneously.
Things Positive
For me, social media’s best use is maintaining connections to my real-world network of classmates and colleagues scattered across the globe. With the exception of chance meetings at conferences, I would lose touch with most were it not for the Internet. Some friends have directed me towards job prospects, offered advice, arranged introductions, and even referred me for consulting contracts. For such efforts I am truly grateful, and I reciprocate in whatever ways I am able.
If I’m looking for technical discussions and expertise, I spend time in places like Stack Exchange. The model here is egalitarian, whereby people pose questions to a community of experts, anyone can answer, and then peer review determines which answers rise to the top. Status and visibility are based purely on the value of your contributions to the community. If you have knowledge and experience, this is a great way to demonstrate it.
If you are willing to put in the time and learn the tools, social media sites provide ways to connect with people, do background research on companies and personnel, and showcase your knowledge and skills.
Things Negative
By contrast, you can easily spend your social media time in worse ways. Just because you can do something online, it doesn’t mean you should. Activities to avoid include:
—Commenting on everything to boost your activity ranking. This only demonstrates you can game the system. The same can be said of endorsing people for skills without basis.
—Posting your political views (unless you are a career politician). You are guaranteed to alienate many potential clients, employers and co-workers.
—Commenting on anyone’s appearance. No matter how you intend this, you will be seen as a cretin.
—Posting or commenting on irrelevant fluff. When Selena Gomez’s Instagram was trending in the oil and gas groups this summer (yes, this actually happened), it made me weep for the future of humanity, and a small part of me wished for a giant asteroid impact.
Things Indeterminate
Some lessons are simultaneously positive and negative. After posting columns like these online, I receive comments and emails from people in similar situations for whom these ideas resonate; this is encouraging. Other comments are horror stories about people who lost everything, who have no hope, and suffer debilitating bouts of depression resulting from job loss. I can only hope to offer encouragement, but secretly fear this same abyss. After setting up a consulting website, I began receiving résumés, which is both flattering and heartbreaking. I always respond and try to point applicants in a more useful direction.
A final caveat should be made about interacting with professional contacts on sites where one typically interacts with friends and family (like Facebook); this is a double-edge sword. You may learn something that helps you connect to a colleague, or you may want to bathe in Lysol after peering inside their stream-of-consciousness. The risk one takes here is to completely alter your working relationships.
Conclusion
I’m old enough that I still view a computer as primarily a number-crunching device, so I marvel at how the device that once alienated me from society as a computer nerd is now the thing that connects everyone in a hyper-Darwinian social network. Social media is a tool, and like all tools with sharp edges, you must handle it with care. It is a particularly sharp tool when one considers how our digital footprints remain fossilized online for all to examine for eternity. Even if you’re not looking for a job right now, your record is there for all future employers. Proceed with caution, and do your best to create value and increase the signal level rather than contribute to the noise.