The shortened version….
Points to make:
- Shows proof of concept
- Allows engagement in relevant topics
- Can provide summaries of resources
The longer version………
This post is going to be about the idea of making content online in order to help with getting a job that you would actually want. These bits of advice are going to be my own personal assumptions/ guesses about what having a website with a backlog of relevant posts, videos and audio could do to help open doors. It can also help someone in the process of really learning about a career path. That’s the good stuff, getting a job in the field is also pretty great though.
That being said, I hate appeasing a corporate overlord as much as the next person, but what can you do when you’re going to have to face the ills of late capitalism? No healthcare, constant debt, credit issues, and fear of not being able to help those you care about. Awful. But living in that discomfort, while it might provide some wonderful commentary and understandings of the world around you, doesn’t necessarily provide a great life. So dip your feet in the devil’s water. Appease the capitalist.
Here is why making stuff online might be a great idea to get work.
Proof of Concept
I’m going to go on record as saying, employers want to know that you can do the job you’re supposed to do. That’s most likely a fair assumption to make. Yes, there is going to be training involved in one’s early employment, but if you can limit that training and can help assure that everything goes as smoothly as possible, then you/ your future employer will be in a far better place. Think of empathy as being a great way to eat the rich!
Imagine the work that you would like to be doing at any job. Find a list of job titles that you’d be interested in, and find what you need to learn in order to get there. Write posts on a beginner’s guide to that skill. What you’ll find is that you’ll have to learn to do it just to write the post, then your questions and confusion can be a starting off point to other pieces of content. Then once it’s posted, you can use it as a way to hear from a community of people like yourself who care about those beginning steps. Listen to them. If they don’t believe that you know what you’re talking about, learn to prove your correctness by showing that your sources are valid (if they are, in fact, right) or accept that you made a mistake and learn.
If the job you want has you doing things like writing music, writing in general, taking pictures, or really any activity that creates a shareable end product; then use the concepts behind the profession to make those things and share them! In the case of music, if you learn music theory and have a good grasp of it, then make music using that theory. Share that music, explain your music, talk about it to others. It’s about showing your work and your proof of concept.
Engagement in Relevant Conversations
The second thing that making content online helps you do, is to be knowledgable amongst your peers. You do that by finding the place where your contemporaries spend time and talk and then help them out in anyway that you can.
In online environments, you should ask yourself some important questions.
- Who is starting conversations about the subject/ feild?
- Do the conversations directly help a businesses sales or operations?
- How can I help?
If so, use those conversations as a building point to make your own content off of. Think of it as though you are collecting points on an important subject from various sources and then putting it in a well-polished aggregation. The organization and clarity will bring value to those having the conversations, and it also sets you up as someone who is in the know. Being in the know means you have leverage.
That leverage is something that can then be used to be in the same digital rooms as people who would be interested in hiring you.
Summary of resources
Got resources? take notes. Share those notes.
This is a simple approach to making content online, but it’s an incredibly useful one. Find books and take notes. If you use those notes to make content and quote the source, you put yourself on the radar of other people who pay attention to that source. Through being able to have an association between a source and yourself, you’ve created a scenario where you are amongst experts. Being amongst experts is a great place to be when looking for work in a field, and all it takes is some good writing and proper citations.
That being said, don’t plagiarize. While using notes from a source doesn’t inherently mean you are, it’s the house the ghost haunts (so be careful!). Using sources means that you are quoting well-informed individuals, and by putting those sources in conversation with each other you can form better points then maybe the sources provide by themselves. A well-referenced group of sources in a great post might seem like a big waste of time when you are desperate for work, but I really believe that doing this regularly over a long span of time is going to be a fantastic way to develop a career.
This should also be extended to favorite examples of work from other people. Educational resources are a wonderful thing to take notes on, but education can exist in everything. There is nothing that is untouched by people who had to learn how to do that thing. Knowing that taking notes on why something affects you or is admirable in your field becomes an act of labor to help make a resource. That is an incredibly helpful thing to tons of people… including those who would want to hire you.
Kai Kiernan 