On Monday, I tried some emerging technologies on my own and took part in an ASU Career Services webinar. (A webinar is a portmanteau of web and seminar – it’s one of those 21st-century emerging-technologies words.)
Anticipating that this webinar would take a lot of time, I decided that I wasn’t going to use what would turn out to be over an hour of cell phone minutes so I put my Skype subscription to good work and called into the phone system from there. Except there was one problem: I didn’t have my audio input settings correctly configured and while I could hear everything that was being said, I couldn’t chat with the group. Fortunately, there was an online chat component so if I did have a question, I would just type it in. The leader of the webinar was apt on my technological diagnosis and was very accommodating of the situation. I am rather grateful.
Technological issues aside, the webinar provided rather useful information. If there was one take-away message from this, it would be that when hunting for jobs, take advantage of different sites but remember to evalulate them for what they’re worth. ASU has an internal job board – Sun Devil Career Link – that is a great starting point. The other online services – Jobing.com, Monster.com, etc. – are useful but also to a certain point. There are instances where there really isn’t a position that’s open but companies are just getting their brand out in the marketplace. And while it’s hard to discern that, if it’s something you want to do, then go for it.
To complement this presentation, I’m going to a face-to-face seminar in a couple weeks’ time. And in this one, I know that (unless I’m stricken with laryngitis) I’ll be able to take an active part in the conversation.
-Edward Jensen
[...] 7th December 2009 by Edward Jensen Yes, this post is a bit overdue. But still timely. And promised, too… [...]