Social Networks Rock

The power of blogs and social networks really hit home for me today.

Each week I read about thousands more being let go, and I think of the families, the private discussions they have at home, the stress of worrying about eating into savings that are already ravaged by the markets. Many of those engineers, marketers, administrators may live paycheck to paycheck, scared about what comes next. Its especially challenging when the economy is in the toilet.

Yesterday I remembered a favorite saying of Thomas Marban. The web is about authenticity, transparency, involvement.

Heavy recently had layoffs, and I was among those affected. Its an early stage venture, so that’s a risk we all take as technologists. I changed my online profile at LinkedIn, and let all my contacts know what’s happening. I then closed my laptop, joined my family for a night of festivities, and tried my best to forget about work for a while.

After playing football with my daughter today (she has an amazing arm at 10), I took a seat at my home office, flipped open my Macbook. Sitting in my Gmail were several leads, people reaching out to me, offering solace and ideas. An engineer at Scribd personally fixed my resume, which is now online! I never even met the guy.

One LinkedIn email floored me:

Not that you need to hear it from me, but you are no joke one of the smarter people I have ever met. You have a knack for explaining the most complex things in a much more simple form which is key to any CTO’s job. I was always very impressed with the way that your thinking process as well. Very impressive. It was always a pleasure to sit in on a meeting or even chat because I learned something new from you nearly every time.

I tell ya, that really made my day. Is it true? Who knows. All that matters to me is that he thinks so. I’ll believe it for today.

Social networks rock. I encourage anyone dealing with layoffs to reach out, tell your friends, start talking. You will find comfort in friends and family, which can only lead to what you need and deserve for all your hard work and dedication… a great job!

This entry was posted on November 01st, 2008 and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.