You're Not Your Job

august 25, 2010

“You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis.” -Tyler Durden

This is especially true online. Your online persona can reflect many things about you and if you're not careful, it can tell a whole different story than what you are expecting. There are different ways to handle your online persona. You can purposefully have no online persona, choosing not to share anything and blocking out everyone – in other words, you are being a nobody and letting others define you. You can go about your business online without a care about what you post or share – defining yourself without thinking about how others, like recruiters or employers, see you. You can carefully cultivate and manage your online persona and build something. 

What you put on the internet stays on the internet forever, people are starting to finally understand this. And hopefully people are more careful when they put online. Do you wish you could put up your internal dialogue? We don't. It would probably be and endless boring rant about how you're hungry, how you need to go to the bathroom, how you think you're bored. Do you really need to post those pictures of yourself smashed at the party last night? Not really a good idea and probably worse if your Facebook profile is open to the public. Think first, post later. 

But, it is not about just what you post, but also where you maybe posting it. MySpace user? What are we? Still in the 90s? Facebook and Twitter user? You're hip and with the in-crowd – or at least giving it your best shot. @aol.com or @hotmail.com mail accounts? You are probably over 40. @gmail.com mail account? You're young. Mail at your own domain? Geek. Aims to get 1,000,000 Twitter followers? Attention whore. Just keep in mind that where you go online is almost as important as what you do online.

Ever Google yourself? I have (and do from time to time). The first result tells me that I am a hair stylist in New York. The second result? That's actually me, my Linkedin profile. Then there is the 21 year old on MySpace. Then there is some guy from Hong Kong. Oh, lets not forget the Steve Kong in Singapore who is apparently a good kisser. There's three ways I solved this issue: First, I add my nickname Mookie to everything. I am the one and only Steve Mookie Kong online. If you search for either Steve Mookie Kong or Mookie Kong, you'll get me and only me. Second, I use the more esoteric “ultramookie” username for most of my personal stuff and you can find me that way. And lastly, I have created (like my buddy JR Conlin) a simple vanity page that directs people to the real places that represent me: mookiesplace.com. Why let a search engine do it when I can control it myself? 

So, who are you?


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