You’re young, hungry, and want to jump-start your career. You don’t have much experience outside of classrooms, but you know you’ll need more than some grades and government paper to succeed in the marketplace.
Awesome.
Here are a few very simple things you can do right now – today in fact! – in less than an hour. Check these four things off your list and you will be several steps ahead of your peers, and more importantly, ahead of where you were when the day began.
It’s a hard truth, but cutewookiegirl62@hotmail.com will get in the way of basic professional communication.
Setup a simple email address in Gmail, preferably as close to firstnamelastname@gmail.com as possible. No weird numbers, nicknames, or characters.
I recommend using this and only this email, rather than maintaining tons of different accounts. Abandon inboxes full of spam or notifications and use this as an opportunity to start fresh so you can learn to master email. You can set up your Gmail so that other inboxes flow into it if you like.
How to Use Email
Wanted: Email Masters
It’s not that hard these days, and you already know how to make yourself look fly in a selfie. So why does your profile picture suck, and your email avatar is a dog with sunglasses?
It’s not about being boring, it’s about being easy to connect with. When your profile pics actually look like you IRL (for people old like me, I’ll save you a Google search. It means “In Real Life”), it’s easier for people to connect with you, root for you, and recognize you when they meet you in person. It also signals that you aren’t hiding, and you are excited to own your online activity. It makes you more trustworthy.
Basics of a decent headshot? Smile. Have good lighting on your face. Don’t be at a weird angle.
Oh, and use it!
Go through your email and blog avatars, all your social accounts, etc. and use the same good headshot for all of them.
How to Take Your Own Headshot
Can’t Afford a Photographer? Take a Great Headshot Anyway
A Guide to the Perfect Portrait
Your Twitter bio says, “Cheetos and LARP”, on Facebook your bio is blank, on LinkedIn it says, “Creative Entrepreneur”, on Quora you’re “That annoying troll fighter”, and your blog’s About page says, “Your content goes here.” How is anyone supposed to know what you’re all about?
Pick a simple, short, descriptive, and accurate bio. Maybe a one paragraph version, a one sentence version, and a five-word version. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should make sense and provide a bit of context regarding your interests and goals professionally. You don’t need any kind of experience or job title to make it work. “Interested in marketing and design, voracious learner” conveys some decent stuff without being pretentious, or over/underselling yourself, for example.
Take a few minutes to audit all of your online profiles and plug in a consistent bio. When people are impressed with you on one platform, you don’t want them to get confused when they find something totally different elsewhere.
How to Write a Good Bio
How (and why) to Create a Killer LinkedIn Profile
A decent, professional email address, headshot, and online bio are great. But these are static bits of info. Who you are and what you can do are best discovered and demonstrated through activity.
Create something and ‘ship’ it. Record a podcast or YouTube video, write a blog post, design an infograph, review a book, or create whatever it is you like to make. Just do something small you can finish today. Finish it. Then post it publicly (that’s the ‘ship’ part).
This is the first step in building a digital footprint that signals your abilities and interests to the world and can help open opportunities. It’s also the first step to overcome impostor syndrome, improve the quality of your work, develop discipline, and gain valuable self-knowledge.
Just create and ship one thing today.
(Oh, then do it again every other day too if you want to really become a beast.;-)
Challenges and Rewards of Writing Every Day
Forget the Degree: Build a Better Signal
Imposter Syndrome is True…We’re All Imposters!
Okay, go notch these four things off your list today. You’ll feel awesome and you’ll take one small step closer to creating a great career.