New Social Capital blog — Worth checking out

A few months ago, I wrote a post about social capital and why college is a perfect place to build your network.

In the post I referenced a very smart blog I had been reading on the subject of social capital and interconnectedness.

Now that blog has spun off into another blog, and even though I truly hope it can survive, I’m still a bit skeptical about the business model of a blog and if it can make money to support its writers.

Penelope Trunk, the “it lady” of modern Gen-Y blogging, left a great comment on Ben Casnocha’s blog regarding book deals, questioning why more people don’t write blogs instead of pursuing a book.

I agree with Penelope, but only to a point. My blog helped me get my current job as an Intern at a national magazine, but editors still want hard clips that have been printed on someone else’s dime.

Not just digital content that lacks an editor and submission process.

So then why do I continue to write a blog you might ask?

For starters, it allows me to voice my opinion on a wide range of topics in an open forum which can accessed anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Secondly, a potential employer who spends more than five minutes on my blog will see I can discuss several high-level issues regarding journalism, technology, economics, photography and others.

Thirdly, it has allowed me to make connections and build relationships with professionals who were not accessible beforehand.

For The Little Red Suit, that is exactly what building social capital is all about.

So as Tiffany Monhollon breaks away and starts another blog, I can only hope her decision to go digital will pay off .

Which is exactly why I think you should take a second and check it out.

Intern Zen

Read this last night and quickly made the metaphor to my current situation. Enjoy.

“The secret of this kind of climbing is like Zen. Don’t think. Just dance along. It’s the easiest thing in the world, actually easier than walking on flat ground which is monotonous. The cute little problems present themselves at each step and you find yourself on some other boulder you picked out for no special reason at all, just like Zen.”

 

~ Jack Kerouac

Why I LOVE Colorado

Pics are from the past few days of hiking. First three are from a 15 mile walk in the woods on Sunday, with the last one being the staircase that greats me as I begin to run up Mount Sanitas. (see Running up a Mountain for more info)      

The Job I am Preparing For And Creating

The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions as my Internship goes from good, to great, to f-ing amazing. Today while digitally hiking a few miles on the Appalachian Trail, I had an epiphany.

I am preparing myself for, and positioning myself for a job which is yet to exist. In six months when my Internship is over and I’m sent packing back to California, I will make a case for my employment, and most likely that case will be something the editors won’t see coming.

I will write more about my future job soon, but until then it is fair to say my primary job will be to marry print content with digital multimedia content. I will be an ambassador who works with editors and web editors to enhance stories and strategize delivery.

In other words, it’s going to be based on vision and trial and error. I can’t wait.

Forget Facebook and Pick up the Phone

The business card is no longer. At least that’s what several new social networking sties want you to believe. I personally use a few, but am now finding it impossible to keep up. With hundreds of millions of dollars being invested by over-zealous-money-driven VC’s, and just about every superpower taking on Facebook, it’s a wonder any new network can stand out.

Take for instance my situation:

Facebook – Started in college senior year and quickly added a few hundred friends. I used the site to join frivolous groups, stalk perspective dates and post pictures. After college I started to use the site to network with potential bosses, and found myself interacting with journalists. With the explosion of apps a few months ago, I now spend minutes every day rejecting stupid invitations like: Slasher App and Top Friends application.

MySpace – Stared after college and now have almost 300 friends. Every person I can pick up the phone and call (my one criteria on Myspace). The layout is archaic, and an eyesore. I hardly use it.

Linkedin – Joined last year. Use it to network with perspective employers, journalists, co-workers and old bosses. Spend 10 minutes a month on the site, and haven’t checked it for a few weeks.

The list goes on.

What I’m finding here is that I’m spending almost an hour a day, throughout the day building my online presence, and hating it. When I could be outside drinking beer, going on a run, or actually talking to a friend, I find myself making connections, writing emails and looking at pictures of last night’s keg stand.

In other words, the applications which are supposed to “bring us together” are really tearing us apart.

So what is a young professional to do? For starters, pick up the phone. Everyone is busy, some are really busy, but in reality no one should be too important that they can’t talk to you. A CEO may be booked for weeks, or just give you the runaround, but a younger professional may not be.

I’ve found myself calling numerous editors, writers and professionals for advice. They initially clam up, wondering why the hell this kid is asking for an open ended conversation, but when they have the courage to converse it becomes beneficial for both of us.

Everyone has an ego. Online the egos are inflated by number of friends, subscribers, comments and trackbacks. On the phone, the ego is limited to time.

So I challenge the younger generation to step outside the box and connect the old fashioned way. Because as we all know when the Internet goes down it seems the world tends to stop, and God forbid your livelihood depends on such a fragile infrastructure.

Running up a mountain

I love where I work.  

For starters, we have a cabinet in the kitchen with free food.  For an Intern making enough to buy three items from Whole Foods a week, the cabinet means breakfast, lunch and a late afternoon snack.

But that is mundane compared to the real reason I don’t dread going to work everyday.  Instead it’s because for nine hours a day I am surrounded by individuals who know nothing about the word “can’t.”

Monday morning discussions are peppered with tales of mountaineering, epic ski adventures, century bike rides and micro-brew drinking competitions. 

Then, around lunchtime the office clears out and heads into the mountains.  Most bike, some go to the gym, but a handful of us head to Mount Sanitas where we walk, hike, slog, run, sprint and live at 1.2 mph.

We even write a blog about it. 

So far it’s been a long four weeks.  I’m barley being able to get my ass up the mountain, but overtime my ultimate goal of 20 minutes should be in reach.  So if you’re board check out the blog where my co-workers are always writing some new fantastic stuff about our journey up a mountain.

Elevation Profile: 

 

 

I need your help please

If you have a moment, I would love to hear how you consume media.  

 

• Do you read headlines online? 
• Do you pay for a Wall Street Journal.com subscription? 
• Do you get a local newspaper and rely on it for national news?
• When was the last time you watched one of the “big three” nightly news shows?
• Do you read blogs? 
• How do you involve yourself in the conversation?
• Do you comment on stories?  Do you write a blog?  Do you talk with your friends?
• Finally, if you read a story in print, what would it take for you to go online and pursue other multimedia facets?

 

Thanks for helping,

Tim

Paying for an Internship — Why one magazine’s charity is pushing young journalists apart

It is so competitive for an Internship today, the free labor that most of America’s media giants rely on, that people are actually paying to get in. Harper’s Bazaar is offering a one-month internship with them as part of Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project’s Hulaween Auction. The magazine, one of the largest fashion rags on the market, is donating the Internship in the name of charity.

Myself, a struggling 25-year-old Intern, can’t believe his eyes. Internships are part of the professional fabric when it comes to piecing together a successful career in today’s media. Editors talk greatly about the need to understand the pain of relentless fact checking, getting coffee, stuffing media packets and working with little to no pay. It’s a right of passage almost every successful editor has been though, and many point to it as the reason they are successful. But it’s changing. So fast actually, that it has become a class war, where the poor are left helpless, scratching for clips and the opportunity to succeed, while the rich roll in, designer sleeves up and drink copious amounts of beer at happy hour after turning off their computer.

Just about four months ago I was rejected for Outside Magazines Internship. I was willing to leave a well paying job, pack up my life and move four states away to make $8.15 an hour. The research editor told me I didn’t have enough experience in my resume and therefore would not work.

I stood there, phone in hand, mouth open, ready to scream. “What do you want me to do!” I wanted to yell. “I am on my own financially, have been reduced to working to live at a young age when some of my competition is benefiting from daddy and mommy. Here I am willing to sacrifice just about every materialistic item I have to fact check for you and eat pasta every night!” I was distraught, upset, livid and more determined than ever.

Four weeks ago while sitting in a turnout somewhere outside of Chicago, I had my first and only Interview with Backpacker magazine. I remember praying before hand asking God to guide me in the right direction. I was edgy inside, unsettled and anxious. This was my chance to show them that even though I don’t have a masters degree, clips from the AP while working in France, or a high-level contact inside their magazine, that I was qualified for the position.

I don’t exactly remember the interview, but what I do remember is that the words seemed to come to me effortlessly. When asked delicate complex questions, I provided short concise answers that proved I had done my homework and understood the industry. When it was over I felt relieved, almost sure that I was at least in the running. That night I ended my month-long journey drinking beer with a very wise man who opened up my eyes by being vulnerable in wisdom.

“Find out what you can provide,” he said, “and hone that skill. You may be able to write well, but is it writing that you enjoy? Or storytelling? So many people try to do it all themselves, but what you don’t know, is that you may meet someone that can take your skill and bring it to the masses. When you find your skill, work on the vehicles to get it out there, but until then, work hard, work smart and always push yourself.”

Our conversation lasted over three hours, and it changed my life. At the end we discussed the Internship with Backpacker. We talked about the pros, the cons and the advantages to ending my trip early and pursuing my dream. It was clear by the end of the night that given the chance I would drive west the next day and find a place to live in Boulder, Colorado.

The past three weeks have been a blur. The past two have found my immersed in Backpacker’s office, wide-eyed and grinning from ear to ear. But regardless of how well I do, how much impact I make, there is still the great possibility of being laid off in six months when my Internship ends and going back to unemployment. It’s that uncertainty, that level of vulnerability that seems to set the dedicated apart from the wishy-washy. Unless of course you are able to pay the bills without a paycheck, then it would just be another adventure.

“I don’t have a problem being the 31-year-old Intern,” a fellow Intern at Backpacker said yesterday on the drive home. “It’s what you have to do,” she added. I nodded my head in agreement. She was dead on.

It makes me wonder if whoever bids the most for Harper’s Bazaar really wants to be there as much as the washed-up hardworking American girl waiting tables and stringing for a small daily to build clips. I know it’s not a fair world out there, but paying to participate in an Internship? Have we gone too far? It’s almost like paying for people to vouch that you worked for them on your resume, and last time I checked that took money, not skill.

From mission statement to unemployment

A few months ago a national magazine published a scathing opinion on Gen-Y workers and their inability to be anything but narcissistic. The article, really just a long rant with no solid basis of proof, left me frustrated, upset and ready to throw down if ever in the vicinity of the apparently more-than-holy author. Though one part stuck out, it was a short story about a new employee speaking with the CEO of a major Fortune 500 company.

The employee spoke to the CEO about how he was a great asset to the company, and how he was planning on moving up one day to the level of a C-level executive. The CEO, apparently not the least bit impressed asked the employee how long he had been working for the company. The employee mentioned a few months, but emphasized that he had learned quite a bit and was well ahead of the curve.

The CEO trying not to lose his cool demeanor asked the employee what the companies mission statement was. The employee remained silent. “That is why you will never be above where you are now,” the CEO calmly said. And then he walked out of the room.

It’s a striking example of what new employees tend to miss when starting work for a new company and one I hope to avoid though my memory is usually reserved for sports statistics, trail maps and movie reviews.

Life in FF

Life is now in fast-forward. It is a new job, new town, new gym, new people, new bars, frantically trying to figure out how to pay the bills and now wrapped up in the World Series.

In the last 24 hours I’ve driven though Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and the most boring part of Colorado, only to find place to live, decide not to buy a plane ticket back home, and begin looking for a used bed, desk, lamp and chair on Craigslist.

And then everything changed.

Within two hours from finding what I thought was the perfect place, I’d signed a lease for a 2-year-old fully furnished condo with a roommate who may be heading to London for a few months leaving me the place while he’s gone. The deal, 500 a month including utilities, means a queen size bed, dresser, 42 inch plasma, high-def, storage, quick access to work, and for icing on the cake, St. Peter and Paul Orthodox church three blocks down the road.

Seriously folks, I can’t make this stuff up.

Now a bit about the job.

I’ll be working for Backpacker Magazine as an Intern in their map department. I didn’t sign an NDA during my interview and don’t know their policy on blogging, so I’m going to stay vague at this point. What I can say is that I will get the opportunity to work for a magazine that is at the collision of traditional media and new media. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to listen to weathered editors and journalists debate the merits of video, blogging and podcasting in a real-world non-academic setting where the bottom line is what matters, and not a fabricated grade.

For a young professional with a passion for the outdoors and a knack for tech, the opportunity is ideal.

Now the hard part.

Since I’m an Intern I’m taking a pay cut. One of my old friends in PR just informed me that her daughter’s boyfriend, who is 19 and degreeless, is making more than me at Starbucks. My own brother working for a computer repair guy is passing me up as well. But regardless of the pay this is what I wanted to do all along, and as one very wise man told me a few weeks back, “We create roadblocks that are based on fear and insecurity. Money is one of those roadblocks. There is reality—a house, food, clothes, and then there is roadblocks—plasma TV’s, cell phones, beer. You [speaking about me] sound like you are putting up roadblocks.”

Like it or not he was right.

So I’m going to take a leap of faith and hold my breath. It might mean a second job like a stint at bartending, or back to the bright lights of Best Buy on the weekends. (God I hope not) But regardless, I’m going to have to make sacrifices that I haven’t been forced to make since college, and I’m excited about holding my destiny in my own hands. In the next six months I hope to learn, listen, produce and become a valuable member of the Backpacker team.

Hold your breath folks, I’m sure this is going to be quite the wild ride, and mom if you’re reading this, please just send money, it’s easier if you just send it and I don’t have to ask every month. Thanks!