Week 4 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 3 (Review)

Chapter 3 of the book talks about the different angles from where you can see your situation. It tells us that nothing has changed since 2008 (contradiction to chapter 1), but it is true. The amount of jobs available per month hasn't decreased, or if it has, there is still a ridiculous number of job positions out there waiting to be filled.

I like the example that the author shares in the chapter, so I will explain it with my own words. Imagine you have a store that sells dresses, and in your inventory you have currently 100. Now, a friend comes to visit and notices that you have that amount of dresses, then leaves and comes back one month later. He asks, how many dresses do you have? and you say, 95. He mocks you by saying "Haha, you only sold 5 dresses in the last month", but the truth is that you increased your inventory in that month by adding 50 dresses more. Do the math: (100+50)-95= 55. You sold 55 dresses last month. 

You see, it is not that job openings only happen a few times a year, but it happen every month, more and more than you think. And if some of those jobs are taken, the next month more job positions will be open again. It's the way you see trouble, either the glass is half empty, or the glass is half full.

Week 3 - Intro to Google Analytics: Chapter 2 (Review)

At the beginning of the semester I created a blog called Giancarlo's Marketing Blog, and the only proof I had of someone visiting it, or reading anything that I published, were these numbers on my blogger account:

Chapter 2 of the book shares instructions and advice on how to create a blog and a Google Analytics page to track your blog's activity more closely. So I did as followed and had myself a GA account. Now, the book also states that it usually takes to 24 hours for the GA to track the blog's activity, therefore my GA main page looks empty and full of zeros.

The book also states that to see "reliable monthly stats" it is necessary to wait a month.

I believe this is a good way to start learning how analytics work, with a fun page that is also user friendly for everyone capable of operating a computer. I am curious to know how my blog stats will look in a month.

Week 3 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 2 (Review)

¨Google Is Your New Resume¨ is the name of the second chapter. My first thought was ¨that sounds pretty cool¨, afterall, Google has an enormous quantity of data that could help employers see me in different ways. But of course, it all depends on the things I have shared on my social media websites.
Can you actually get hired or fired over your Facebook page?

I don`t believe your Facebook page can get you hired, but i do believe it can get you fired. Facebook is a social media page where people share their beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and innumerable videos, pictures, or songs they could feel identified by. Now, the problem comes when the company`s mission or values go against your personal idealism over life itself. To make it more simple, here are some examples.

SWISS WOMAN CAUGHT SURFING ON FACEBOOK WHILE ¨HOME SICK¨ FROM WORK

The woman claimed to be unable to work ¨in front of a computer ¨ but her boss had lost the employer-employee trust needed to make a business relationship work, so she got canned.

NFL CHEERLEADER FIRED OVER PICTURE

Caitilin Davis, a cheerleader for the New England Patriots got fired at age 18 for sharing a picture on Facebook that shows her next to a man who appears to be blacked out from alcohol. The man had his body covered with vulgar graffitis and a quote that said ¨I am a Jew¨. Fired.

WOMAN BLASTS HER BOSS ON FACEBOOK

I think this pretty much says it all...

After reading this chapter, I think I will think twice before using my social media pages.

Week 2 - Intro to Google Analytics: Chapter 1 (Review)

                

Let me get this right… I can have a record of who visits my website? A geographic location from where the page is being visited? What they are trying to do or searching for? And all for free? Apparently, I can. It is called Google Analytics.

 I have been reading a new book and it is called CASA Marketing: Intro to Google Analytics and it isn’t the type of book that I understood the content and everything that explains, but I think I am catching up as I read by.

 Quick intro to web analytics by Wikipedia: "Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage". So, if you are the owner of a business website, and need some feedback about if your target is visiting your website and what they are looking for in it, web analytics is the perfect way to take the most advantage of it. What GA does (what I am aware as today) is that it gathers data of your website's activity. Who visited this part, or that part; how many times they visited it, and if is the first visit or the 5^th. Google analytics can bring all down to numbers, but what if I am not a “numbers person”?

  Todd Kelsey, the author of the book Intro to Analytics, described himself in the book as someone who saw himself working with numbers. He also shares the story of how he was introduced to analytics for the first time. He claims to have started a website with a friend, and in their curiosity/necessity of knowing who was visiting their website, they searched for a “’tool’ that would help them do that”. And without realizing it, they were introduced to analytics. “And it was fun”.

  People use analytics mainly to track their Organizational Return of Investment. How many people see your product, your online ads, your service ads, and even your social media pages. Lets face it, we don’t need a case study to come to the conclusion that the big majority of your target is on any kind of social media these days. By analyzing these pages –Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, you can get a closer approach to your final consumer reviewing their likes, dislikes, comments, and suggestions on your brand. Now you think anyone can read and manage a social media account, but to analyze it by numbers is where you can get the best out of it for the benefit of your company.

  I have been facing my ups and downs trying to deeply comprehend everything that Website Analytics is about, and to be honest, I have a feeling that it may take me a while to become an expert. But the truth is that the business world is always changing, and now more than ever, in the Era of Information, the market has become more competitive than before. So, I think I will take as many weapons as I can to fight this war, and Google Analytics may just be a perfect one for my future.

Week 2 - What Color is your Parachute: Chapter 1 (Review)

Interesting beginning: The first pages of chapter one makes you feel like life isn’t over yet. An anti-depressive combination of phrases that gives hope to the hopeless and courage to the ones who are afraid. It explains the situation of being out of job from the point of view of the job-hunters, and it sums up every feeling and stress a person who has been in this situation feels. It is safe to say that the author knows his target very well.

I have divided chapter one in two: the bad news and the good news. It starts by telling you everything that you have been doing wrong: From the old fashion methods on approaching employers to an incorrect way of how to use your resume. Who would have thought that “when the economy turns tough (for us), employers are finding it easier to fill a vacancy…”? People may think that it works the other way but it doesn’t. The author explains very clearly the different points of view from the job-hunter to the employers that make you feel like you’ve been there before. Thoughts you have had before, sayings you’ve said, and things you’ve done, the author knows it and mentions it.

 

The second part of the chapter brings you the good news. Finally some good news! The proof that life isn’t over yet, but it has just began. What I liked the most are “The Key Ideas for Successful Job-Hunting in the 21^st Century” or “The Parachute Process” in which one of the ones that I enjoyed the most was principle #4: “Search for What You Love, Not Just for What You Can”. It states “passion plus competency, not just competency alone”. Is that true? The legend of make-work-a-fun-place-to-go? Well apparently is up to the job-hunter. Another idea that caught my attention was #9 “Avoid HR Department”, and it makes so much sense! The number of applicants that are looking for the same job you are is enormous and HRs job is to cut that number down as quickly as possible. Try not to fall in their trap! Be extremely cautions and “say nothing that can get you eliminate”. Almost like a life or death sick game.

The main thoughts that chapter one has left in my head are: “This book has given me a different way on how to see the job-hunting world”, and “I gotta keep reading this”.