Today: The importance of owning your own domain name, and suggestions for alternative website names.

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What happens when someone Googles you?

Seems like an innocent question, right? But go ahead and ask 10 random friends and see what they say.

- Some are confident and know that the top results are their own website, or a LinkedIn page or Facebook.
- Others have a popular name, and thus can’t quite make it to the frontpage.
- Some have positive results come up, such as a listing at a conference or something with the college alumni, but nothing special.
- For the unlucky, an unflattering photo or comment appears near the top of the list.
- And for some segment of people nothing comes up, and they don’t care.

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Losing your job can be a traumatic experience. What you do in the first 60 minutes can have a huge effect on how you handle it.

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It’s the relationship equivalent of “We need to talk.”

You stroll into the office on a Friday morning that seems like every other, upgrading to a large coffee to push away the headache from last night’s extra glass of wine at dinner. You comment on some reality show drama to your co-workers, then head for your desk to start the day.

However, your boss catches you just as you’re about to sit down, surprising you with the innocuous request:

“Can you step into my office for a moment? I need to chat with you about something.”

Ten minutes later your world is crashing around you. You know that your supervisor specifically explained the situation – it was as if they were reading off a script – but your brain couldn’t process all the buzzwords like “hierarchy restructuring” and “corporate reorganization” and “economic budget constraints” because your mind was racing trying to process the one truth that was abundantly clear:

You’ve lost your job. What you do in the first 60 minutes is crucial.

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People talk a lot about their real-world career, but sometimes it’s the part-time jobs of youth that define you as a person.

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What do you do for a living?

When you’re asked that question in “real life,” you rarely start with your current job and go all the way back to your very first part time jobs. But in a way, what you did for money as a teen, be it babysitting, lifeguarding, or cleaning out your Dad’s garage, can have a profound effect on your life.

OK, so the jobs I list below aren’t really THAT crappy (it made for a better headline), but they weren’t always glorious either. However, they did teach me some valuable life lessons.

As always, listen to the podcast for the full show. Highlights below:

The Job: Paperboy
Lesson Learned:
- Consistency (If you didn’t deliver every single day, someone was not going to be happy)
- Delayed gratification (Friends want to play baseball? Not till your route is done)
- Value of money (You mean the harder I work, the more money I’ll have for arcade video games? Ah, I get it now)
- Stay away from large German Shepherds (Seriously. I was chased and bitten several times)

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Jim interviews designer Shaun Sanders to learn the key to building amazing infographics.

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Today I speak with Shaun Sanders, a graphic designer specializing in infographics. I met Shaun through our mutual friend Alexis Ohanian, who hired Shaun to produce some awesome infographics for Hipmunk.

Listen to the podcast for the full interview, but here are the highlights, thoughts, and things that we discussed:

Definition of infographics
I view infographics as another option in a marketer’s social media arsenal. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people that don’t know what the term means when I told them my plans for doing one.

The easiest, old school comparison I make is like the USA Today “Snapshots” that would appear in the newspaper, using cartoon-esque images to represent data. You know, like the quantity of pasta consumed:

Shaun jumps in to give me us a more purist definition: Data visualization
The key: Crossing data visualization with fun, color, and additional elements

“Infographics work because most people will look at them vs sending them a long text article. Because it comes across as fun cartoon, they are more likely to check it out, as well embed it and share it on Facebook.”

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Jim interviews Michelle Ward, aka The When I Grow Up Coach, who explains exactly what a life coach is, and how she helps creatives going through career transitions.

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What the heck is a “Life Coach” and why would I need one? Well, this week Jim interviews certified life coach Michelle Ward, also known as The When I Grow Up Coach, to find out her journey and answer those questions.

Summary of Topics covered:

- Michelle’s lifelong passion for theater and entertainment, leading to a cameo on Saturday Night Live and (off, off) Broadway
- Her transition away from the arts and into a “grown up” job
- The intense, unmistakable moment that she knew she could not work at her full-time job another day
- Her transition and training as a certified life coach, leading to helping more than 100 creative people devise the career they think they can’t have
- How she has expanded her business from 1:1 coaching to group sessions and workshops
- The development of “Operation Creative Career Cheer,” a 50-page illustrated rhyming career change workbook
- Yes, a rhyming career change workbook. I told you she was in theater, right?

We also discuss
- How she uses social media and referrals to get clients
- Who should go to a life coach, and how they will benefit
- Macro trends of people overwhelmed at work and wanting to get out of the cubicle
- How are millennials approaching their career differently than others
- How do they measure the ROI of a lifecoach
- Examples of success stories, from Israel to Japan to Minnesota

Learn more:
When I Grow Up Coach Website | Facebook | Twitter | What is coaching?

You’ve got to adapt in a rapidly changing world to keep up. Here are the 7 most valuable skills you can have.

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As always trying to bring you the marketing trends that matter.
But what good is knowing the marketing trends if you can’t take advantage of them?

This is the digital age folks, and you need to be constantly adapting. The advice I’m going to give you in this week’s podcast is the same whether you’re a graduating college senior or 20-something starting in their new job and asking me what’s important, OR, if you’re in your 30s or heaven forbid 40s like me and want to make sure your skills are current.

So what I’ll tell you all is KEEP LEARNING.

Get out there and take a class – heck, if you can, TEACH a class. I’ve had the honor of teaching a social media class at NYU each fall and I have to say two things:
1) Preparing my lectures really focuses me on knowing the latest information
2) My students were so great and they ended up teaching me so many great things

But if you’re going to take a class, in my opinion, here are the 7 most valuable new media skills you can learn, listed by increasing level of difficulty:

Note: Shorter bullet points are listed here, while I elaborate more fully in the podcast itself.

1. Blogging
Starting a blog is easy. Maintaining a blog is hard. But you’ll never get that far if you don’t get started with post #1. If you’re just starting out, head over to a free service like Tumblr. Whether you simply pick a topic you’re passionate about and just start writing, or lay out a well-planned business strategy with a launch date, getting in the habit of blogging will help you in many areas.

It provides an outlet for creative thoughts, helps people find you or your business on the web, and makes you a better writer and communicator.

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I’ve had a few good bosses in my life. Let’s take a quick look back at some good examples.

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I talk a decent amount about career advice on the blog, such as resumes, interviewing, salary negotiation, and internships. But one key factor is the importance of a good manager.

My original topic today was going to be the BMW Magazine app on the iPad, — and I do feel there’s a great story there how car makers can reach consumers via the Apple tablet — but the story needed a lot more research.

So pressed for time, I thought about a story or two I could tell on the podcast. But that got me to thinking about cars and bosses.

A good manager is like a good set of tires
Sometimes people really underestimate tires. It’s more fun to talk about how a car looks, the 0-60 time, the 300 watt stereo, or the 405 horsepower. But tires play a HUGE part in the enjoyment, and safety of a vehicle. They control ride, handling, steering, braking, cornering, acceleration, and traction.

If your tires are old or balding, it can ruin a lot of other good things on car. Just being a few pounds over- or under-inflated can be a serious hazard.

The same goes for your boss, although it’s perfectly ok for him to be getting old or starting to bald (hey!!!).

What I’m saying is, a boss that isn’t very good can make even the best job suck, and a really bad boss can permeate everything you do and make you hate your job. They can stall your career, prevent you from getting raises and advancing, and create office politics.

In story one on the podcast, I pause 30 seconds for a shameless suck up to my current bosses. As recent readers know, I have a broken arm. This happened while on my (deservedly earned) 7 business days of vacation, so I was out of work during that. But then add time missed during my subsequent 2 surgeries, leaving for appointments, coming in late after physical therapy, and working at about half speed. Even though I was working remotely, jumping on conference calls while on buses, and consistently on email, tack on nearly an additional 10 business days — that’s a lot of missed office time.

Not ONCE has anyone said anything besides “do whatever you need to in order to get better.” From my immediate boss, to our department VP, to coworkers, to the President of Conde Nast Digital (who I saw in the elevator and who is also a competitive athlete and biker), nothing but concern and well-wishes. I am thankful that these people have my back.

The other four stories I cover:

- The New York Move
My VP at ESPN had to make some hard decisions when moving the team from Seattle to New York. Also listen how he handled the “coaching” of his employees during the free-reigning late 90s dotcom era like Jim’s childhood Boston Celtics teams.

The Startup Guru / Bartender / Softball King
Has one of YOUR bosses ever served you drinks, hit the game-winning home run, and kick started the second half of your career?

The Female Assassin
Hear how a quiet supervisor reacts like a violent Grizzly defending her cubs when an employee is attacked by an outsider.

Shin Yoshino/Getty Images

The Scoutmaster
A fatherly figure saves Jim’s college party plans and prevents a poor, dark, winter.

What are some of the things a manager needs to do to have their employees backs?
1. Filter and disseminate information
2. Have a grasp of email etiquette
a. On vs off the record, forwarding, proper CC: and BCC:
3. Gives credit in public, criticizes in private
4. Steer their careers, ask them about next steps
5. Protect and defend against other departments
a. Too much work, annoying employees, giving credit

Ask yourself this:
- As an employee, take a look up the chain of command. For the most part, will your supervisors be there for you?
- If you’re a manager, are you doing everything you can to instill confidence in your employees?

Thanks for reading

Follow me twitter.com/hopkinsonreport

Do you have “computer skills” listed on your resume? Get rid of it, it’s obsolete! I explain in this week’s podcast, or the blog post below.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

Over the weekend, I met with a person I’m mentoring. She went to the same college as I did, found me through our alumni network, and wanted to talk about her next job and look over her resume.

One of the things that I saw on there that was interesting, was a section called ‘Computer Skills.’

I went through each of the items and called her on it:
- Adobe Bridge Software?
What is that? Is it important? No. Take it off.
- iMac basic programming?
You mean, you used an iMac computer and did some things? She nodded hesitantly. I asked her, do you REALLY know how to program? She shook her head no. Gone.
- Datanet and Filemaker?
OK, so you used these programs to maintain some files. But are you an expert at it and did you really use them all the time? Not really.
- Google Apps
I don’t mind that it’s on there, but she already used it earlier in the resume, so that one gets removed as well.
- Lastly, Microsoft Office
You graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree. You live in New York City. You speak French and Italian.  You’ve managed to send me your resume converted into a PDF. Proving you know Office is pretty much understood.

So that got me to wondering.

For anyone that graduated with a Bachelors degree from the year 2000 and beyond, is the ‘computer skills’ section of your resume completely obsolete?

And if the answer is yes, what goes in its place?

To answer that, we have to go old school for a minute. This is when having myself as your Generation X host comes in handy.

Need I remind you, I graduated in 1991, when there were NO cell phones, NO internet, NO email, and Photoshop 2.0 had just been released. For those keeping score, the concept of Photoshop layers wouldn’t be invented for 5 more years, and they’re basically up to version 12 now.

In my junior year Microsoft Windows 3.0 had just been released, along with Office version 1.0.

Social media? Ha!  Mark Zuckerberg was 7.

So as someone that legitimately graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems, putting a ‘Computer Skills’ section on your resume really meant something.

When I started doing most of the hiring for the multimedia startup I worked for in 1994, it was a real challenge to determine which people had true computer skills, and which had played a few hundred games of Solitaire on their computer and claimed they knew Windows.

Thus, I came up with a computer test that I gave during interviews to see how people shaped up. It became legendary around the office, as no candidate had ever received a perfect score.

What’s interesting is back then, typing speed was a huge differentiator. You could sit in the conference room with someone in their brand new suit and listen to them smoothly talk about their tech skills, but when you sat them down in front of a keyboard and asked them to drill down into a subdirectory and alt-tab to another open application, you knew right away.

Dug into the archives and actually found my resume from 12 years ago:

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Do you set goals at the end of every year? Not cliched, forgettable “I need to lose 5 pounds” goals. But real, tangible, goals?  Do you write them down? And do they matter? Let’s find out.

This week I did things a little differently. Rather than interview a guest, and rather than meticulously write out a blog post, I ranted for a bit unscripted. And I liked it.  So until I post the full transcript, the best way to hear this week’s topic is to listen to the podcast:

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

In the meantime, I’ll expand just a bit on the outline that I followed:

1) How to get your dream job

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What do a new car purchase, choosing a career, and marketing have in common?

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When I was 22, I was fresh out of college and the country was mired in the worst recession since… well, since the one we’re in right now. Jobs were so scarce that I took an hourly retail job at Staples. While I was there, I worked with a guy that made 2 lasting impressions on me about cars and careers.

When the work schedule came out and I realized that I was stuck working another Friday night until closing, but he had the night off, I asked him how that always happened. He said it’s easy, “I just told them when I was hired that I played in a band, and that we practice on Friday nights, so I couldn’t work them.”

It was so simple a concept that I could only shake my head and laugh at how right he was. I didn’t even play an instrument at the time, but years later I picked up the drums and found myself in a bona fide group. While I don’t think I used it quite so blatantly to avoid work, for three years I never worked past 5:30 on a Monday night (practice), and a few times a month I took off early — and rolled in late the next day — because of gigs.

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