So your boss just walked over to your cubicle and told you that because of “setbacks” you are going to have to do Marcy’s and Joe’s work, in addition to your own from now on. Three letters pop into your head W T F.  You realize right then and there, that there has to be a better job out there. [Note: I am writing this because this is what I would want a prospective employee to do if I were hiring them]

So you’ve been toiling away at your job as a marketing analyst in some ginormous (real word btw, I was as surprised as you) ad agency.  You’ve been working on some boring ass reports that will never get read, when you really wish you were doing something creative. So you decide you want a new job, but have no idea where to start. Here is where.

Step 1 - Control your message
First step, secure your reputation online. WHAT? Yes, because the first thing I am going to do is google you. You think I’m joking? But I bet that 90% of employers do this, and maybe 5% of employees realize it. So start by registering your domain (your fullname.com, and avoid .info or .biz), and setup some cheap hosting for it.   Once you’ve finished this, you aren’t done with step one, but you need to setup a personal page (godaddy or whomever gives you simple site builder tools, or you can download a template for a website from here).  Why am I giving you these tips for free? Well I really don’t like doing basic sites (not exciting), and hope you’ll appreciate learning this stuff.  Plus, once you learn it, you can buy me a beer, and we’ll have something to talk about over said beer.

Make sure your domain has your bio (the way you want to have it read), and ideally a photograph of you somewhere.

Step 2 - It pays to be informed
Do some homework on your chosen career. What do I mean by this? Google the keywords you think relate closest to your intended profession, and see who the most popular people are that do what you would like to do.  If its industrial design, research Jonathan Ive from Apple; if it’s playing the cello, research Yo Yo Ma, you get the drift.  The worst thing you can do is show up to an interview and not know shit about the industry, the job, etc. (this also applies to customer meetings and sales pitches to clients).

Next, see where the trends are in your industry, if its an industry larger than for example professional cello musicians, then you are almost certainly going to find someone writing about what you want to do. (Hint: Google “industrial design trends” or the equivalent for your job).  If by some odd chance, no one is talking about your chosen field, maybe you should use your research and compile it into a blog about the topic.

Step 3 - Its really about who you know more than what you know.
Start making friends in your industry of choice. Read their blogs, comment on them, send them an email. Now more so than ever the power of the network is becoming more and more apparent. Why? Well its becoming easier and more efficient for everyone to USE their networks now, and to sift through them.  Back in the day, if you knew a ton of people, chances were you couldn’t instantly see what they do for a living (LinkedIn), or where they went to school (Facebook).

If you’ve got a blog, link to these people. Semi-famous people love links, it makes them feel semi-famous and appreciated.  The more people you befriend, the more likely you are to be included in their conversations about business, life, and more. These conversations are what will lead you to new offers, leads, etc. People like referring their friends to things 100x more than strangers.

Step 4 - Create your mission statement
I get this question a LOT “So what exactly do you do?” and a lot of times I have a hard time explaining it. But that’s because I don’t always practice what I preach.  Having your personal mission statement goes a long way, for multiple reasons: 1. it gives you a guideline to help you define and reach your goals, and 2. it makes it easier for your friends to know if you’re a fit for any opportunity they may see.

What does a personal mission statement look like? Well, really it can be anything. Try starting with “I’d like to create stunning accessible kitchen utensils” (if you were an aspiring industrial designer for example).  This is really more up to you. My personal mission statement is “I create easy to use web applications that help people with their daily lives.”

Step 5 - Be awesome
Let the world know you are awesome. So if you want to be recognized, you have to make your accomplishments public.  If you are an amazing chef, post pictures of your creations with the recipes on your blog. Make food for your friends, and ask them to tell their friends about it (be cool about it though).  A few weeks ago I asked on twitter, “If you are awesome, and no one knows it, are you still awesome?”  Some people responded that it shouldn’t matter what others think, only what you think. Those responses ignore the definition of awesome “to inspire awe in others,” others being the key word.  I’m not saying go out there and be some annoyingly boastful shmuck, but rather to make sure you toot your own horn occasionally (no one else is going to do it for you).

This also goes hand in hand with the previous posts where you are trying to help distinguish yourself from the crowd. An average monster.com job listing gets like 5000 responses. 99% of them are just a resume + generic cover letter. If I post a job, and you send me just your resume attached, I am instantly assuming you are lazy, and not qualified to work for me. So I will probably just ignore your application, and won’t care if you really were some kick ass person, cuz you didn’t bother letting me know.

Step 6 - Be persistent and be proactive
A lot of times you might really really want a job you saw on indeed, simplyhired, monster, hotjobs, wherever, but you’re afraid that you aren’t qualified for it.  Here is how you find out, call the company, ask to speak to the person responsible for hiring. Once you’ve got that person on the line, ask them about the job, tell them a bit about yourself, and explain how you are trying to find out as much as possible about said job before you send in your resume. I guarantee they will remember your name when they see your well articulated cover letter and resume.  Not to mention you really just scored yourself a preliminary phone interview and all it took was 15 minutes of your time.

The other thing to keep in mind, unlike dating, where persistence can come off as desperation, in job hunting, it looks like you REALLY want the job. So if it comes down to the guy who called to confirm we’d received his resume and sent a thank you card after an interview, or the guy who couldn’t be bothered to reply to his emails in a timely (<12 hrs) manner, I’m going with the one showing genuine interest.

Step 7 - Don’t be afraid to apply
Lots of people I know complain about their current jobs, wish they had better ones, and then do nothing about it. Many are afraid of going for something uncertain, when they are in a secure position already (understandably we are having tough times, but tough times don’t apply to the awesome). But really you have nothing to lose but a few minutes or hours of your time.  The days of pining away at one company for 30 years are over, the new way to the top is by jumping up and across in new companies.

So hopefully you can use this stuff to get some solid leads on career advancement. If you are looking for a job, I’d be happy to help (I’m not a recruiter or head hunter, just like to help). Make sure you send me your info (and if you didn’t read above and follow my instructions, then you are outta luck).  If you manage to get a job thanks to my advice, just pay it forward and help the next person get a job, or a better one.

My completely speculative theory on the social operating system.

There is a battle for control of the next generation of the internet, and this revolves around my thesis that the current phase in the evolution of the web involves the connecting of people.  The battle is being waged by google, facebook, myspace, and a littany of others all vying for this control.

How we got to this point.
The first phase of this battle was about amassing as many users as possible as fast as possible. These users are your asset, they make your network exponentially more valuable. Facebook’s 70 million users are creating billions of unique connections, these connections each hold an intrinsic value in the grand scheme.   So they gave us developers a platform, a platform which is mutually beneficial.  This platform enabled them to double their user base, and at the same time offered the developers a simple way to tap that large and growing user base. 

So while facebook was giving us apps on their own, google was getting all the networks together to build their graph for them.  Google has seen this change coming for years. YEARS. They saw the evolution in social behaviors affecting the internet long before us common folk saw it. They just didn’t have the accounts to leverage it all (orkut has yet to take off here, and gmail isn’t massive enough in reach yet either), so they went to the 3-10th place networks and proposed a deal, that deal was OpenSocial.

There is an important thing to remember when it comes to these companies, they may give you something for free, but they are really making something from your data, so don’t feel bad for them.

What the next phase is:
Controlling the relationships and blowing them out to the entire web. Thats the central thesis behind the google friend connect, and the enabling of ajax api functionalities on facebook (that and the facebook friend connect thing too).  Once you amass enough users, and then tell the thousands of individual sites out there they can plugin your tool and become part of your network, you will have a massive amount of control over managing that network.

For those of you that have been following the teasers of Facebook’s redesign, the one coming july 15th, you might have noticed the shift to make it more like a desktop operating system interface (menu bar, footer/dock).  This is analagous to the concept they are working on to spread throughout the web. Why wouldn’t you install the facebook toolbar on your website if you could quickly and easily enable social relationships on a massive scale?  The quality of these relationships is important too, and that is where facebook has been trying to leverage its position as the social operating system. The Windows or OS X of your relationships.

So what can we expect?
Smart sites will foster this and try and grow with the two platforms, it won’t be easy, but they will be spectacularly worthwhile. Sites that don’t embrace it out of either fear or lack of technical knowledge will miss out while the smaller sites quickly grow past them. The sites that embrace these social levers will see the types of growth we saw on the initial facebook platform applications, but with the flexibility to grow their own loyal bases.

We will also start to see more emergence of open social graph standards spreading around like DiSO and others. Assuming developers can make these things idiot-proof, you’ll be able to move to any site and tap into your relationships wherever possible. The key there will be making them seamless to the user.

Ultimately this represents a major shift in how we design sites and develop their underlying concepts. The social “network” has become a feature or a commodity.

I get this feeling that there are a lot of industries that don’t truly understand the sheer magnitude of social media. There are tons of industries where we rely on social connections in real life to either facilitate or enhance the business transactions, it seems only logical to extend this to the web. Granted this is a purely superficial look at these industries, and a much deeper technographic and demographic study could help build a more refined social strategy for each one.

Travel
Aside from business travel, this is usually an activity done in groups. So leveraging the power of your existing connections and social graph to find more information on potential destinations or deals would be an ideal solution. Whose opinion would you trust more, your cousin Bob, or some anonymous web troll when you’re planning that trip to cancun?

Trip planning. Nothing is as much of a pain as trying to plan a trip with a group of people. So why not figure out a way to simplify things. Look at how dopplr and tripit are starting, and take it from there.  These are areas where the airlines and travel sites should be dominating.

Another key area where travel is failing on social media is in the post-trip/re-engagement phase. Why aren’t travel companies leveraging all the content these travelers just created (EVERYONE has a digital camera of some sort)?

Real Estate
Part of what you buy when you buy a home or condo is the community, a large part of it to be exact. So developers, realtors, and real estate information sites need to build the tools for connecting the property owners/renters to the community/web.  The stronger bonds that can be built through these networks, the stronger the physical community becomes.  This also plays well into the buying/selling of a home through the web, as it gives potential buyers access to the value-add that is the future neighbors and their wealth of knowledge.  Also correlate the value of where my friends might be living now, as that would definitely play a role in my house hunting.

There is a wealth of information out there today that is just waiting to be mashed up: photos (geocoded to boot), maps, zoning info, crime info, transportation, shopping, etc. This is definitely an example where the sum is more valuable than all the parts individually.

Apparel Shopping
Women’s fashion is built on one thing: what other women will think about each others outfits. Women don’t buy clothes to impress men, its to impress other women.  Women also tend to shop as a social activity, so why isn’t anyone translating this to the web?  Where are the sites that let people share fashion ideas, fashion tips, or deals? There are tons of visual tools out there that are just waiting to be pieced together.  I think a key component to this is for the fashion industry to understand what is driving web use, then see how these things can be leveraged by social utilities.

The branding potential in social networks for these brands to leverage is amazing. Its the ultimate use for social ads and leveraging personal recommendations. (Think, what do my friends think about this shirt, etc.) Imagine seeing on a shopping site “Your friend Jane bought this in red, you might also like the black.”

Entertainment
Last but certainly not least is the entertainment industry (movies, music, tv, games, etc.). The entertainment industry could stand to gain the most of all from leveraging social graphs and social media in a way that benefits both them and the consumers. Instead of running away scared of the beast that is the consumer and user generated content, they should take a page from Chamillionaire’s book and go to where the fans are.  Help them find/discover (like ilike or last.fm), help them create (video, audio, whatever), and help them make it dead simple to evangelize your product.

Realistically entertainment is one of the most powerful industries for leveraging social. Most of the activities we do in relation to this industry is social in nature (going to the movies, playing games, watching tv, and listening to music. They are all things we can do as individuals, but for the most part are improved when we add friends. They all also tend to be things that people use to identify themselves with (rocker, hip hop fan, jazz fan, anime fan, etc.).

Now this all may seem very superficial, and it is, but this post was really intended to spark the discussion within your organizations, not give you all a clear cut roadmap (that would make it too easy).

Let me preface this post by saying I dislike the versioning of the web, especially the “Web2.0” term, however I do feel the web has gone through evolutionary stages. Also for all intents and purposes, this historical analysis starts in 1995.  This post is inspired by a chat that Alex and I had last fall, and which was brought back up a few days ago

So where did it all start?
The first iteration of the web was all about the connecting of documents to each other. This was the basis of the hyperlink. Hyperlinks were designed to interlink files and documents by specifying their locations.  Think Yahoo directories, and Netscape 1.0.

So now we’re building things
The second iteration or evolution of the web was all about building tools for people to create these documents. One could argue that started with geocities, tripod, angelfire, and all the other personal homepage tools of the mid nineties.  This is the user generated phase of the web. This is what I think of when I think of “Web2.0.”

But how do we socialize?
The third generation/iteration/evolution was less about creating content, but more about linking the content creators together (previous generations tools were by now commoditized to the point they were functions, not the focus). So this was the social network phase if you like.  Users were now being connected directly to each other, and the finding/discovery of new content was shifted from a machine controlled aspect to a social function.

They’re my friends, not yours
The fourth stage is where we see the tools to let us create our own links between people and take these links wherever we choose.  This is the advent of portable social networks and personal social networks.  Of all the “graphs” we have interconnecting us today, email is quite possibly the easiest system of connections we have to port.  This is a big huge play on the parts of Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo, the three kings of email.

So what does this all mean?
Well in a nutshell, it means that we’ll be seeing a number of players adopt or propose their own standards for data portability. Either true data portability, email portability, ID portability, or something else will get a likely boost in the near future.  The prize it seems is in controlling the creation of these networks and tracking them all (think observing how swarms of insects or schools of fish behave).