Needle, Meet Haystack

The other day, I was at my favorite purveyor of massage chairs and Skymall catalog-esque items in the whole world, Brookstone.  And yes, I’m well aware that they’re pretty much the only purveyor of massage chairs and Skymall catalog-esque items now that the Sharper Image has gone out of business, but my point still stands.  After all, I never saw any TempurPedic slippers at any Sharper Image stores!  Then again, I never looked that hard for them.  But I digress.

While looking around at their great selection of combination book light/digital camera/can opener/pliers (available in eight metallic colors!) and iPod charger/flashlight/keyring organizer/stopwatches, I came across this little guy.  His name is Bob Wobble.

Okay, so until our eventual machine overlords tell us otherwise, I guess that Bob Wobble does not really have a gender.  But I’ve never met any women named Bob.  Anyway, Mr. Wobble has several functions, including a clock, an alarm clock, a calendar, a thermometer, and a timer.  He is also egg-shaped, so he wobbles but does not fall over or roll around too much.  Bob is also a perfect example of being “well-lopsided.”

I first heard this term when my high school guidance counselor was talking to me about how to gain a particular competitive advantage in college applications.  And yes, I’m aware that we’ve been talking about specializations this week, but in this case, we’re talking total immersion.

This is about having an all-encompassing, truly expert-level understanding of the ins and outs of a program, procedure, management style, or something similar.  Whereas being a specialist will leave you open to being adept in other areas, to be truly “well-lopsided,” one must have an disproportionate amount of knowledge and skill in one area compared to all others.

Now you’re probably thinking something like, Why should I devote that much time to something like that?  I’m not looking for one key position, and I can’t afford to! Be not afraid, intrepid reader!  This is not about becoming a super-genius in one area of study, but rather more about how to make yourself look better when competing with them for a job.

For every open position out there, there are dozens, if not hundreds of people who fit the exact criteria that the posters are looking for.  Whether it be experience, education, industry work or prior positions, there are “perfect candidates” that fit the mold.  And they do it without having to lie on an interview, cover letter or resume.  These people are so well-lopsided that it looks as if they are a perfect fit in every conceivable way.  This is their weakness.

While you may not have as great of a command on coding C# or designing fonts or recommending stocks, as a specialist (instead of a “well-lopsided”-ist) will have a broader and more comprehensive knowledge base.  This means that you can have a better understanding of the work of those around you, of the company as a whole, and your role within it.  Provided that you’re not a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, your expansive knowledge and experience means that you can offer the company more than just being great at exactly what they’re looking for.  Because while someone who meets all their criteria might be able to do that job amazingly, anyone who has ever worked for more than a couple of days can tell you that your employers will ask you to do a lot of things that were not in the job description.

So, provided that you can be a good asset to your new potential employer, there’s no reason that you can’t overtake a well-lopsided candidate like Bob Wobble.  I mean, he’s shaped like an egg!

Now THIS is a question I have actually heard (and been) asked quite a lot.  And since Twittering and Facebooking and yes, even blogging, are prevalent enough in the modern scheme of things, I wanted to share with you the truth about this on a special occasion (the first month-iversary, naturally).

For simplicity’s sake, I have two answers: the short one and the long one.

The short answer: it depends.

The long answer: This might take a while to explain.

You might have heard recently about people using the internet to get jobs, from that guy who used Twitter to get an advertising job to some friend of yours who lucked out using Monster.com to even the new person in the office that was found through Craigslist.  It might seem that everyone’s getting hired or recognized through the Internet these days, no matter what their job or talent is.

They’re not.

Think of how many kajillions of bands and musicians are on MySpace.  Hell, you might know a few (these guys are awesome – check them out!).  But the chances of finding good music through the Internet by combing through social networks is almost infinitesimally small.  That’s kind of like how it is with social networks.

Sure, something like LinkedIn might help your job search, and I am a huge proponent of everyone having their own website, and while I agree that it’s a good idea to maximize your online presence to help control what happens when you get Googled, it’s not all necessary.  Showing someone your Twitter probably won’t help that much.  Neither will showing your Facebook (actually, given  some of the photos that people put up, it could hurt your chances quite considerably).  And unless you have film samples, your YouTube page probably won’t give you a great advantage either.

If, however, the job you’re looking into requires familiarity with social media networks, go nuts!  The problem with this, however, is that no one has figured out how to utilize them very well in the business world.  Large services like Facebook and MySpace use banners and adwords for revenue generation.  Sites that start out free that then decide to charge for their service tend to die out.  And the smaller, specialized sites that are made for certain population segments remain too fragmented and unknown.  So everyone still has a way to go with being able to make social media REALLY work.

Even this blog, which I started to give me a place to share some of the boneheaded decisions I made while scavenging the classifieds, is one of hundreds of thousands.  As much as I’d like to believe it, I don’t think that someone will stumble across this site and decide to give me a job because of it (however, if you did stumble across this blog and are in a position to hire me for your company, for god’s sake, forget I wrote the other sentences in this paragraph and get in touch with me).

Social networking is still too dependent on the first part of its name (“social” for all the slow kids in the class) to be a fully-realized tool for job searches.  But if  you want to throw your LinkedIn profile on your cover letter, I can’t say I’d blame you.

I honestly don’t know.  I guess it depends on if they have TVs in the office, and what service or means of getting signals they use.  However, what it means to different people illustrates a good point about employers.

Before we go into that, a quick hi to anyone who stumbled across this site from the track back on Michelle Malkin’s site from yesterday’s post.  I swear, had I known I could do that, it would have happened much sooner.  I would have never posted about Mr. Potato Head.

ANYWAY, there are several reactions that seem to be the most prevalent:

- People who didn’t get a new TV or receiver and lost their signals

- People who DID get a new TV or  receiver and still have TV

- People who had cable or satellite and didn’t have to worry in the first place

- People without TVs

Each of these groups can offer some insight into different employee and company types.  Shall we investigate, hypothetical audience?  Sure, why not!

The people who didn’t upgrade their TV or get a receiver can actually be divided into two smaller groups: Luddites and naysayers.  The Luddites, who usually scorn any technology, do not want to move on.  Things will work the same as they always have, and adding new things only makes stuff more complicated, they say.  They are resistant to change, and do not like adapting, even if it’s the only way that they can keep getting TV.  The naysayers, meanwhile, figured that this would never happen.  The transition date will be pushed back forever, they say.  And in this economy, the president will stall it more.  While they might have various motivations for not wanting the change, they ignored foreshadowing and recommendations through the media, and were even granted extra time to adapt.  A refusal to believe that change will happen is almost worse than ignoring it.

Many people do this with work.  They do not bother to keep upgrading their skills.  They assume that they will always be qualified, believe that they are invaluable to their firm, or use excuses about external factors that prevent them from having the time to learn new things.  These people ultimately find themselves becoming outdated, though the speed at which this occurs can vary by industry.  Similarly, industries can ignore portents of change, and refuse to adapt, or do so incorrectly (ahem, newspapers, ahem).  By not keeping up with competitors’ actions and developments, (ahem, American auto industry, ahem), they fall behind to obsolescence and becoming footnotes in business school textbooks.

Then there are adapters who bought the new TVs or, well, adapters.  These are the people who saw the signs and made changes.  They still have their TV channels and can continue along swimmingly.  And if they acted early and got the converter when the government could afford the refund, they did not have to pay anything to keep up.

People who read trades, go to seminars, self-teach new technology, and sieze opportunities for development can become more valuable to their companies, and also gain a wider array of skills that makes them more marketable to employers.  Similarly, companies who innovate and learn from past mistakes (look at the new Windows 7 compared with Vista – Microsoft is making people happy again*).  These companies, at least for a while, experience longevity.

The last two are pretty much the same – no change happens either way, because they were not susceptable or not affected by the transition.  There is no way that this really can happen in any business, but they are groups that exist in the above extended metaphor.

Regardless of your grouping for TV reception preparedness, ask yourself which group you and (if applicable) your employer fall into.  Because when the “digital transition” happens at work, you’ll want to be prepared.

* I don’t have a specific link for this, so you can trust me on it or go to Gizmodo and read what they’re saying over there.