I’m a Web 2.0 success story!

I’m officially a Web 2.0 success story! You know the kind CNN has been talking about? I’m one of those!

As of Tuesday (5/26), I will be working as a social media strategist at the Durham-based company Optimal Resume. (If you’ve heard of it, maybe it’s because they handle UNC’s web-based resume service — and 400+ other schools’.) I’ll be tweeting, blogging and Facebooking about job-search strategies (sound familiar?) and helping people make the most of Optimal Resume.

I’d be lucky to have this job in any economy, but especially in this one. It matches my interests and skills, the company and environment are great, and I think I’ll be able to contribute and learn a lot.

So where does the Web 2.0 come in (aside from the job title)? Here’s a hint: even though Optimal Resume is based in Durham (where I’ve lived for the past two years), my connection to the company started in Maine.

Sherry Mason, a career counselor at Bowdoin College, introduced me to @OptimalResume on Twitter, which is really Optimal Resume’s COO, Dave McNasby. From there, we exchanged Twitter messages and set up a meeting. That was last Tuesday. Within a week, I became a proud Optimal Resume team member.

Now here’s the back story of how I met Sherry and why she introduced me to Optimal Resume.

When I joined Twitter in January, I was debating between going to law school and venturing into the real world — and my bio said so. I started tweeting what was on my mind, which included everything from law school essay topics to how I thought UNC’s Career Services could improve.

That’s how Sherry at Bowdoin found me. One day I tweeted that I thought UCS should teach personal branding, and she messaged me to ask what else I thought they should do.

A few days after I joined Twitter, I started this blog, and I asked Sherry for her input about content. As luck would have it, she not only helped with that, but as a former practicing lawyer, she talked with me about my law school decision. She’s one of the people who helped me decide it wasn’t for me.

Once that decision was made, Sherry and I kept in touch, tweeting and e-mailing occasionally, and one of those tweets was the introduction that landed me this job.

My story is a lesson in how it pays to be authentic and active in your social media use. Yes, I joined Twitter and started blogging because all the job-search articles said those were two keys to jump-starting a job search, but I didn’t blog and tweet what I thought employers wanted to hear, or just advertise that I needed a job.

I talked about things that interested me, things that were naturally on my mind, and I found a job (or a job found me, depending on which way you look at it) that matches.

For those of you who are worried about meaningless (maybe menial?) entry-level work, a Web 2.0 job search can be a great way to find an exciting, interesting job that fits your personality and goals. Just be authentic (within reason) and don’t try to be everything to everyone (that’s just good branding). At least that’s what I did, and it worked for me.

UNC senior Joanna Hill creates photography blog

Joanna Hill, a senior journalism and mass comm major, just launched a blog about her passion, photography.

She’s just starting to build her photography portfolio and will document her work on the site. She says she would like to start her own business, primarily doing wedding photos, but is starting off with senior portraits. (If you’re in need, contact Joanna!)

Not only is Joanna taking part in the career blogging trend, she’s starting a business that she can do in her spare time right now and later turn into a full-time career. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, too, here’s a list of 50 businesses you can start in your spare time.

Even if you don’t want to do any of them for a career, they could work as resume-boosting freelance positions and carry you through the post-graduation job search period.

Free webinar for college grads

I saw this information about a free webinar for college grads floating around on Twitter today. It’s a 45-minute session hosted by Anne Brown, author of Grad to Great. The event is Thursday, April 2 at 9 a.m. central (10 a.m. eastern), and it’ll cover career planning topics, resumes and interviewing. The site also says the webinar will help college grads learn how to answer the question, “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?”.

Disclaimer: I’ve never heard of Grad to Great or Anne Brown. I just wanted to pass this tidbit along as a quick Friday resource. Enjoy the weekend!

An Alternative to ROI (or at least a supplement)

A while back, I talked about the need to prove your worth to a potential employer — to prove that you can provide a return on investment. I still think it’s an important piece of the puzzle, but during my conversation with Sherry and Sarah at Bowdoin College, Sherry pointed out that job searchers, especially recent graduates, need to show other qualities, as well.

She said something to the effect of, “ROI is results-oriented business-speak. And really, young graduates don’t have much business experience or proven results. You have other things, though. You’re smart as heck, you’re enthusiastic and you can learn things at the speed of light.”

So what’s the implication for us? I think it’s to incorporate the qualities of enthusiasm and intellect into your personal brand and job-search campaign. To give you a concrete example, I think you should take a page out of Jamie Varon‘s book, or rather, Web site.

Jamie wants to work for Twitter. How do I know that? Because she built a site that says so. Yes, she built an entire Web site about how she wants to work at Twitter. Then she publicized it — guess where? On Twitter. Over the past few days it’s gone viral.

If that doesn’t show enthusiasm, I don’t know what does. She’s also demonstrating her aptitude for the medium and her understanding of ROI with her list, “10 Reasons Twitter Should Hire Me.”

All the items are under 140 characters (the limit for Twitter). Numbers one through nine show her overwhelming enthusiasm. But number 10 shows she can produce results, too. She talks about how many retweets her story has earned and how many original hits the Web site has received.

It’s the perfect combination of enthusiasm and ROI.

I’m not saying you have to or should go as far as Jamie Varon, but remember her enthusiasm as you’re writing your cover letters and sitting in interviews.

Ask yourself, “Why do I really want to work here? What about this organization makes me excited?” and convey those ideas in your answers, instead (or along with) your list of past experiences and results.

Put yourself in the position of the company. Wouldn’t you rather hear a person who’s genuinely excited about the job, as opposed to someone just rattling off the same type of accomplishments you’ve been listening to all day? One executive got so tired of the same old boring cover letters, he submitted one of his own to Craigslist just to show job seekers how to do it. See the balance of enthusiasm and ROI?

Quick Passion Test

I had a great conversation Monday with Sherry Mason and Sarah Paul, two career coaches at Bowdoin College (pronounced Bow-den) in Maine. Among the many insightful and inspiring things they said, this piece of advice from Sherry stood out:

To figure out what you really want to do, look at who you envy.

It’s a quick, free test to see what you value and what you’re missing in your current state of life. We envy people because they have something we don’t — and that includes jobs and job responsibilities.

So for the next few weeks, try to keep a mental (or if you’re really serious, written) record of who makes you think, “Gah, that sounds like a fun job,” or “Wonder how she gets paid to do that.”