Truckee Alum at President Obama's Town Hall with LinkedIn: "We are in this thing Together" | The White House

Earlier in the year we witnessed the President of the United States holding a Town Hall meeting live on the Internet from the headquarters of Facebook. Now, fitting to his speech topic about jobs, this past Monday the President once again held a Town Hall meeting live on the Internet from the headquarters of LinkedIn, the premier social media service for career professionals and employers.

These type of live-online meetings incorporating streaming video and social media interaction are a powerful and growing trend. If you missed the meeting, follow the link below to see what you missed. I would also be interested to hear from those of you who participated in this LinkedIn Town Hall meeting and what you thought. Do you like the format? It sure seems like a great way to include more participation by more people. However, only time will tell how much impact it will make on the political process. Hopefully the citizens voices will not only be allowed but listened to. Please comment below and share your thoughts.

President Obama's Town Hall with LinkedIn: "We are in this thing Together" | The White House:

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NOTE: On a side-note...very exciting to see one of my former computer students and basketball players here at Truckee High School sitting in the crowd underneath the letter "i" on the LinkedIn Banner. He is an employee for LinkedIn and LOVING his job! Way to go Josh Furr!

Future of Job Hunting with Social Media

Did you know many people landed their last job on Twitter?
Most people today have heard of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media web sites.  However, many have not thought of these Internet sites as modern day tools that can be used by people to help find a job or career opportunity.  Everyday the news is full of dismal stories about the rate of unemployment and the poor economic outlook for jobs and job creation.  That is why successful employees today need to be life-long learners and users of modern technology like web 2.0 services.  The days of finding your dream job in the classifieds of your local newspaper have most likely passed.  Today, job seekers need to hunt down their own opportunities and often create new ones by networking with other professionals in their industry through social media services like www.linkedin.com , www.facebook.com , and www.twitter.com

Using sites like these allows people to participate in online conversations about their job industry and interests.  These conversations allow people to get to know others educated in these fields and see their accomplishments which might one day lead to more direct communication and possible job opportunities.  Think about it, when a manager for a computer programming company needs to hire a Java language expert, would they rather pay to post an advertisement online or in a local news source or just access their online social communities where they already have connected and gotten to know other professionals with the skills, knowledge, and experience in the field they are hiring for.  I think the answer is obvious.

So, take the plunge and visit LinkedIn to learn more about using social media to enhance your career possibilities.  Why wait....give it a try.  However, successful candidates will still need a great resume just as in the past.  Now, people just have new ways to share it convincing employers to look at it and give them a call for an interview.

Links to information about resumes

• Great Resumes versus Good Resumes: http://www.careerknowhow.com/resumes/greatres.htm 
• Ten Tips for an Interview Winning Resume: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/resumetips/a/tenresumetips.htm 

More news about social media and job searching

• More than two-thirds of recently polled companies said they use Linkedin to help with finding employees to hire: http://socialmediapaige.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/employers-turning-to-social-media-for-hiring/ 
• Social Media - employers using it to screen candidates and to find those whom to hire: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/social-media/employers-use-facebook-more-than-linkedin-for-hr-screening-005331.php 
• Do you share pictures online?  They could keep you from getting a job: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/more-employers-use-social-networks-to-check-out-applicants/

Just for fun!

If applying all these modern web 2.0 skills to your job searching does not prove effective, you can always resort to other creative means - LOL

Click here to visit the authors Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

Ability For All to Make a Difference

Today in class I introduced students to a web site where anyone can create a "Cause" or choose to "Join" one.  This site incorporates the latest in web 2.0 tools since users can share their causes with others via social media and raise money with online payment tools like PayPal.  This kind of web site allows all of us to have a voice and gives us the power to inform others about topics that we think are important.

Find out more at http://www.causes.com

Have you ever joined a cause or created your own?  Please share your answer by commenting below.  Was it helpful?

- ClassNoteUtopia Notes and Student Community

How Web 2.0 Sites are Changing the Way "We Do" School

Ever since I started teaching many of my students have complained that they don't get paid for going to school. Well, I always tried to explain to them that the education they were receiving was their payment. However, now they can earn CASH for their work. Others can also choose to pay for the information they need. Students can now download notes for their specific classes, sorted by school and professor. It is becoming more obvious each day that the goal of education can not be teachers transferring information to students but rather, teaching our students how to access, manipulate, organize, share, and utilize information to solve problems and accomplish tasks.

Watch this video to see what NoteUtopia is all about.

Check out more information or sell your notes here!

NoteUtopia - Class Notes and Student Community:

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Wolverine Pride: Are You Ready For PowderPuff?

Wolverine Pride: Are You Ready For PowderPuff?: PowderPuff 2011 between the Junior and Senior girls is next week, Wednesday the 21st in Surprise Stadium. Get ready for the action and come...

Wolverine Pride: Lib Dub - Seniors!

Wolverine Pride: Lib Dub - Seniors!: First ever Lib Dub by senior students at Truckee High School!

Blogging Video

I found the following video on YouTube about blogging helpful.  I would really like to make some money off one of my blogs someday.

Labor Day Weekend!

Labor Day weekend is a great time to sign-off from summer by doing something fun outside before buckling down for the fall and another school year.  The three days provide enough time to head out of town somewhere exciting, visit family, or just have plenty of time around home for a "stay-vacation".  That is exactly what I did this year with my family....we just had fun here locally around Truckee.  The highlight was spending a day out at Jackson Meadows Reservoir with my kids and parents water-skiing and hanging out.  On our last runs of the day late afternoon we were the only boat on the lake!  There was also smooth calm water so you could literally ski great runs anywhere in the lake.  The good time was capped off by the smiles on my kids faces.  One of my son's got up on skis for the first time and my daughter was able to learn how to salom ski (one ski).  Good memories.

Assignment: Blogging about Labor Day  10 pts.

Answer the following question below in the comments of my blog and write your first name and last name initial at the bottom of your paragraph.   Example: Jon H
1.  What was the highlight of your Labor Day Holiday weekend?