The Awesomeness of Twitter

Hello everyone! Welcome again to another entry of the Fishbowl! I am still searching for a student affairs job but I actually am really feeling connected with the field of student affairs and residence life and that is thanks to....(horns blowing) Twitter!!

Yes..Twitter. Which I found out is an amazing way to network with professionals that previously you would have been unable to do or do in limited capacities (networking events, conferences) I feel you really get to connect with them on a level that you could not do before. I used to be dead set against Twitter and as a matter of fact, I used to be proud that I hadn't used it before! What a moron I was! LOL! Twitter reminds me of something that one of my college professors used to say..You get out of something, what you put into it. Twitter is exactly like that. You can't just sign up, mention you are job searching and then expect something to happen. Unless you are lottery winner lucky...or even lottery winner twice lucky! You need to meet people, connect with them, get involved in conversations, if people ask for help, ask them what you can do. You might be very surprised with the response! I think you also need to develop a strategy if you want to successfully network on Twitter. I wouldn't constantly post every day that you are looking for a job..I think that would be annoying. Once a week seems to be the standard for something like that. I think you also want to get new followers before you do any more postings. Always expand your network. If the same ten followers get the same mention every week, no one benefits from that. Always try to get new followers and never dismiss the connection. Maybe it isn't a hiring manager that you are talking with, but you never know who someone else knows. Finally, I feel I have already benefited from Twitter. I don't have a job yet but I have connected with a lot of great people and professionals. I found out about a few jobs exclusively through Twitter and had one professional offer to email them my resume and they would keep their eyes open. I appreciate that so much and I dont think I would have experienced any of that if I had not been on Twitter!

Opinions

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying my blog as much as I love writing entries, and lately I have been more into than ever! Now the whole point of this blog is me talking about my efforts to get back in the field of student affairs. I really don't want to get overly political, it isn't the spin that I am looking for. However an incident happened that really has me wanting to talk about it and I think my blog is a great place to do that.

If you are in the field of student affairs, you may know about what is going on with Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell and University of Michigan student Chris Armstrong. Chris Armstrong was elected student body president of UM. Andrew Shirvell decided to make a personal vendetta against Armstrong because he is gay and Shirvell felt that Armstrong was radical in his lifestyle. I know there are more details than that, but that is the abridged version that I am aware of. Andrew Shirvell should be ashamed of himself..absolutely ashamed of himself. If one has their opinion..they are entitled to it. I don't agree at all but he can have his opinion. However, to do what he did was so far out of line, I hope that he is fired from his job as soon as possible. He acted immaturely, he has been about as discriminatory and closed minded as one can get and basically has acted like a big bully against a young student leader. I dont know the every day operations of an Attorney General but I am going to assume standing outside of Armstrong's house at one in the morning is not part of the job detail. I think he has much more on his agenda instead of harassing a college student. I hope the right things happen and he publicly apologizes to Mr. Armstrong and that he steps down or is removed from Attorney General. I am very happy that UM banned Shirvell from their campus. Backing up Mr. Armstrong was the absolute right thing to do. Ok..like I said before...this blog is not intended to be a political one..but I had to voice my opinion on the topic. Hope you enjoy the reading!!

Mobile Technology

Hello everyone! This is the second post of talking about smartphones. Like I stated before, I think they are a wonderful tool especially if you are someone who might have a busy schedule and need some sort of organization. They are also fantastic if you might be someone who is on the go a lot, lots of meetings and need various means of communications at a moment's notice. Now one thing that almost every smartphone needs is a data plan. That enables a phone user to be able to go on the internet freely and not get charged an arm and a leg to do it. Keep that in mind if you are looking for a new phone or want one of those great phones that do everything except make coffee..lol! A lot of those phones need a data plan. Now what a lot of providers are doing is coming up with a tiered pricing plan for heavy data users which means that you pay for a certain allotment of data a month. AT&T and Verizon already do this and Sprint is giving it serious thought. I was absolutely against this until I realized I would save money because the data plan I have was far more expensive for an amount I would never come close to using..and I am a heavy data user. This way, it seems the company and the customer both come out ahead. Another topic about phones that I have been hearing about recently is the Walmart Family Mobile plans. I know a little about them but I think it is better if you get the info straight from the source so check out www.walmart.com and type Family Mobile. I will post soon!! Take care!

Mobile Technology

Hello everyone! I hope it has been a good few weeks for everyone! Not too much to report, the job search is still continuing and still fighting the good fight! Today's blog entry, I figured I would talk a bit about mobile technology..expanding on what was talked about in #SAChat, which is very addictive, might I add!! Today's chat they talked about mobile technology in student affairs. Definitely a topic close to my heart, because currently I am working in the field of mobile technology. I wish that cell phones had been more available when I was last involved in the field, it certainly could have made some situations easier, such as needing to get a hold of an RA or a member of security at a moment's notice. These days, cell phones can do so many things it is remarkable. I would be very surprised to come across a professional that doesn't have a smartphone in some way, shape or form. I think it is a necessity at this point and it seems that it is almost a requirement to have some sort of rudimentary knowledge of how to navigate around a phone. I have a Palm Pre, which I love..( I love it even more now that I have a decent charger!) and one of the first functions that I started using was the scheduler on it. I can't wait to get back in the field to take full advantage of it..certainly beats posting reminders all around my cubicle like I used to do or write things down in an appointment book that I couldn't find half the time! Something else I love on a smartphone are applications, they come very much in handy! I downloaded mobile apps of LinkedIn and Twitter and I have been able to get leads on jobs without even needing to be near my computer! Another helpful option that I like on a smartphone is the use of data. I think it is important to be able to get on certain websites very quickly and access information. Data plans can be a bit pricey but I think for professionals, it is worth it to be able to come and go on the internet with ease. I think I am going to make this entry two parts so keep your eye out for more info! I can talk about this all night!!!

Prezi Blog!

Well, hello everyone! I hope people are doing well and enjoying what is left of the summer, which isnt much! Today, I figured I would talk about one of the coolest applications I have seen for a computer and it is something I think anyone who does presentations should be using. It is called Prezi and it is a computer web based application for presentations. You can use text, images and group them together in a way you would want to do the presentation. I downloaded it onto my computer and it seems so much easier to use than something such as Power Point. It really does seem to be tailor made for someone like a student affairs professional who might use it to do some sort of training or workshop. There is a free version of it..which I downloaded..but you have to publish it on the Prezi site. There are also the upgradeable versions where can you do private Prezis. I do not think my simple blog will do this justice so I am giving the address and encourage everyone to check it out..it really is amazing and I think if you are someone who may not be the most tech-savvy person in the world, makes for reasonably easy learning and putting it all together. Take a look...http://prezi.com

Prezi!

Hello everyone! I have been sick over the last few days so I havent been on the computer at all..I am not going to post today, but in the next day or so, expect a post from me about an amazing computer application called Prezi..which every student affairs professional, education professional, student should be using..it is awesome!!!! Keep posted!!!

Phone Interview Update

So I figured I would let you all know where I am at in terms of the phone interview last week. I think it went well. The officials from the school were very nice and asked a lot of very deep questions. I really enjoyed talking with them. Two things that I learned from that interview..one..if you have to do an interview on a cell phone, make sure that you put it on speaker. There may be many times during the interview where you have to refer to something and it is good to have your hands free. The other thing I learned is to definitely have a copy of your resume in front of you. There were a few times that one of the officials directly referred to something I had talked about on my resume and it was very helpful to have it right there in front of me so I knew exactly what she was talking about. I haven't heard back from them yet, I am just trying to be patient. Applying to other schools and getting my fantasy football team together...good way to keep my mind off of the search! We will see what happens...send me good karma!