Oprah's leaving us!

Photo above courtesy of Harpo Inc.

I came home last night and upon checking my email, I noticed the headline "Oprah Ending her Talk Show"....whaaaaat? I immediately clicked on the link with the sub-caption "see her end date". Ugh, my heart sank.

Yup, it looks like she will make the big announcement on today's show at 4 p.m. Man, only Oprah needs to make an announcement that she's going to make an announcement. Who else can do that?

What is she going to do next? Where will her loyal viewers of 25 years go? Is there truth to the rumor that she is starting her own network called "The Oprah Winfrey Network". What would that be like? Ok, obviously we all have burning questions, but we can only hope that whatever her decision to do next may be, she'll continue her wonderful work of helping so many people every day and inspiring them to live better lives.

As a twenty-something, I know that her advice is wonderful and inspiring. She's always encouraging us to live our best lives, and that's so pertinent to us twenty-something's who are looking to make our way in the world, make a living and enjoy it at the same time. Seriously, if you don't currently follow her advice, you should start!

Well, I suppose if anyone knows what they're doing, it's Oprah. For more info, go to www.oprah.com

Let's chat after the show today and share thoughts!

How I use Facebook

Above image courtesy of instructional.com

With the ever evolving use of social media platforms for business and personal, I find the two ways to use them are overlapping and becoming more blurred. When I started out with Facebook how ever many years ago, it was strictly for myself and my friends to connect. I don't think I was even out of college, so using it for business contacts, wasn't my main goal at that point. I continue to use facebook to keep up with my personal friends, but as my professional life is becoming more marketing oriented, I'm finding the pull to start using it for professional networking as well. I wouldn't normally have a problem with this, but there really are some areas that I want to keep "for friends only". I typically use LinkedIn and Twitter for my professional networking. Can I keep it this way? If I want to evolve with social media (as it's evolving every few hours practically)should I ditch the media platform as a "friends only" form? Social media experts, what do you think?

Hey Ladies!

I just stumbled across a cool career website, targeted just for women! I found it while I was "googling" career fairs in Boston. It's a cool site with great resources and there are some great career fairs (a bit pricey but check them out!)

http://www.womenforhire.com

Is it wrong to ask for feedback?

When you get a job rejection (which are a plenty right now if you can even get an interview)do you ever want to flat out ask "So what did I do wrong?" Of course! However, there are usually more diplomatic ways of approaching this. Hiring Managers would much rather give you the blanket answer that you were not chosen and move on. However for me, I always feel I could learn from the process and want to know why I wasn't picked, mainly so I can either work on the skills I don't have or stop blaming myself when I find out it had nothing to do with my qualifications. Maybe the manager would say "well, you had great experience but we found someone who had more." Or, they could say "you really didn't match our qualifications, here's what we're looking for" That would be great! If Hiring Managers gave that kind of feedback, I feel that I'd be all the more knowledgeable to go into the next interview. So, what's the best way to approach this? Thoughts? Best of luck to all those out there looking....

In need of some clarity...

Well, I’ve been away a long time. I know, I know. Trust me, I feel badly about it. Why did I leave for so long you ask? Well, there may not be an easy answer. I could say that between April and the present, things have been crazy. Sure, that could be true. But, is it? In a way, yes. There have been circumstances in my life recently that have made it a tough time. Maybe I’ll decide to write about this in a future post. Mostly, I have been confused. I have been confused about what I want to continue writing about, what I want to do with my own career, hence have good material with which to write and whether or not this blog will help me get anywhere I want to be. In the midst of this befuddlement I have decided to put it on hold. As any blogger knows, it takes a great amount of time and effort to keep a blog successful. We all know that actual posting is only half of the work needed to keep up a great blog. Unfortunately too many new bloggers decide to abandon their baby blogs on this reasoning. I certainly don’t want to be one of those people. This is why I have decided to return today, maybe in hopes that my readers can help me find some clarity. Maybe they can help me find a path to continue writing that will both satisfy my needs and the needs of the readers.

I have been writing about careers and life during our twenties. It isn’t that I have completely lost material. I mean, I live life every day as a twenty something and there is always something that could be interesting. Maybe the problem is that I don’t think it’s interesting, so I doubt my readers will think so either. Maybe I have to make it interesting no matter what. I have always known that I do my best writing when I am writing from my heart. Perhaps I feel I haven’t been writing from my heart here, thus not keeping myself engaged.

I don’t think I want to change the topic of my blog. I just want to figure out the best way to keep writing and keep both myself and readers engaged. I’ll keep thinking and be sure to get back to you. In the mean time, let me know your thoughts as well.

xoxo
Roaring Twenty Something

Thanks for the feedback!

Just a quick note to thank all of you who responded to my last blog with wonderful feedback. Many of you alerted me to the fact that, not everyone's success is well received, even www.dooce.com had some serious repercussions initially! I guess it's safe to say that it's all ok because she is now doing wonderfully.

As for me, I am going to continue to plug away at my fine line between honesty and necessary constrictions in the blogosphere. With time, I'm sure I'll be able to come into my own and be very happy / hopefully successful!

Hope you all are having fabulous days, thanks again for reading and Happy Tuesday!

Do you want your blog to be completely honest?

I know that people have blogs for several different reasons and some use the blogs on a professional platform, while others type in brutally honest opinions on life that may or may not be the best idea if they don't want to anger any of their loved ones, or work colleagues. Yet, I'm starting to think these are the blogs that become successful.

I've been studying some successful blogs lately to figure out which traits make them so popular. I think that many personal blogs, which may inevitably become business blogs as well, hold very authentic material where readers appreciate the brutal honesty and relate to it. For example, a wildly popular mommy blog, www.dooce.com was featured recently on Oprah and tells the tales of the REAL sides to being a mom. She isn't afraid to let loose and say it like it really is. Now, here is the thing. Who does she have to worry about angering? Probably no one. What if, like me, you want to have a blog about life and work in your twenties. I'll inevitably be dying to tell some great stories about some jerk at work one day. Would that be a good idea? Probably not. I know it's always possible they could read the post and well, then I'd be in trouble.

So, if I want to be honest in my posts, to attract readers, yet I have to remain very constricted as those readers may not like what they see, I think I'm in a bind.

I can still write on millions of topics, but if the reader doesn't feel I am coming across as genuine, is it worth it?

Thoughts?