Can I Get An Amen!!
Brothers and sisters, I'm here to testify - not in the James Comey or Rage Against The Machine fashion, but in a give-credit-where-credit-is-due sense - about the power of social media.
Praise be to the Mighty Editor in the Sky and Al Gore for the interwebs and the networking it facilitates.
Hallelujah for LinkedIn! I have a job! Amen and pass the vodka.
(Crowing about it may jinx things, though; I've only been there three days and that prolly isn't long enough for them to figure out what a weirdo I am. Correction: ..."how much of a weirdo I am." They've had a taste of the awkward, but not the sooperdooperstoopid. They haven't seen pix of the full-on Rennaissance fair freakshow yet, for instance, or heard me put to good use my master's degree in creative cursing.)
At any rate, I have a job at The Daily News/The Memphis News and I have social media to thank for it, because it sure as shit wasn't my impressive penis-y resume, my attention grabbing cover letters, my awesome web site or sparkling personality. The net result of two months of applying for 24 jobs was exactly 1 interview, 4 "Thanks for Applying - But No Way" emails and a whole lot of silence. I was alternately depressed and enraged and often a little tipsy from the box wine but ultimately about resigned to the fact that I needed to follow up on the "indeed" job alert I received:
A big ol' middle finger to indeed, btw.
Anyway, I was still trying to be good little social networker. I had poked around LinkedIn for new connections and ran across a former Commercial Appeal colleague now in a pretty sweet position with another Memphis newspaper. He not only accepted my invitation to connect but sent a message right away offering to keep me in mind if he heard of anything. In pretty quick order he had a lead - at his publication, no less - I got an email, then a call, then an interview, then an offer and then a job!
As Undisputed World Champion of Most Awkward Person In the Room Every Time, the internet is truly the reason I am employed again. I don't socialize or network IRL. I do what I do professionally because I don't function well as a regular human being in the normal world. I'm cool with being invisible, doing good work behind the scenes, operating under the radar.
But don't mistake being an introvert for being oblivious. I'm inept, not deaf. I hear way more than you'd think and sometimes the headphones are just for show. I suggest folks play nice around me because I've got a keyboard and an Internet connection and a renewed appreciation for social media.