Seek out Real Relationships in Life and Beware of How You Present Yourself to the World in Social Media
Credit: "The Atlantic"
Last week I had the pleasure of speaking to the graduating class at Thomas College, which is where I earned my MBA in 1994.
I told the graduates that the good news is that they may be earning their diplomas but the bad news is that the learning cannot stop.
Technology is changing at such a pace that they need to use their education to continue to learn every day. I’ve encouraged my employees to keep pace with changing technology in communications so we can use the most up-to-date techniques and tactics for our clients.
I also referred to an article in the current edition of “The Atlantic” magazine called “Is Facebook Making us Lonely?” by Stephen Marche that talks about how social media is replacing real relationships between people.
Many people have lots of “friends” in social networks but in all reality they are extremely lonely. This is very sad to me.
I encouraged the grads to know the difference between a Facebook friend and a ‘real’ friend who you know and trust. My mantra has been and will always be that social media should supplement real relationships, not replace them.
Credit: "The Atlantic"
Finally, I encouraged the grads to be mindful of their online profile as they go out and look for a job. I asked them to Google themselves and see what comes up.
I related the story of a grad from another college who wanted to work for NMC a couple years ago and he was sure he was the ideal candidate. But when I pulled up his profile on Facebook, there were photos of him getting drunk and acting in a way that I would consider to be unprofessional.
I said that presenting yourself to the world in this way is not the best route to get a professional position.
Thanks to Bob Moore, the director of advancement at Thomas, for asking me to share my thoughts with this year’s graduates.
I hope that my words had an impact on the students and helped them realize that the way you ‘package’ yourself for a professional career will influence your job search significantly, and that social media should enhance their real relationships (it’s “social” for a reason).