As I discussed in recent posts I was at The Devscovery conference in Redmond recently, and had to absorb a lot. Things are pretty crazy at work right now, so I am being a bit slow on posting related “stuff", but I have started to follow through on the ‘personal branding’ discussed by Scott Hanselman in his keynote.

In that discussion, Scott proposed that, for developers, participating in social networking sites is essential to your career success. The logic goes something like this.

1)  Contributions to Social networking sites gets your name out there. and shows you know how to contribute to the community. This gives those who do it well a good name.  A good name is a good thing.

2) When managers in tech look at resumes, many look you up on the net via there favorite search engine. Giving them good things to find is a good thing.  Given two otherwise equal contenders for a position, it could swing the decision.

3) Developers that participate in the community have a much better sense of where they fit in the talent pool. For many developers, after a while they get a awakening that they are not as humdrum as they think. For others they realize that, at least in some areas, they are not as hot as they though they were. Both discoveries are a good thing –  pushing us to grow in the ways we need most. Improving ourselves improves or name. See number one, above.

For those of you out there who like a little more privacy, this all sounds like a total nightmare, but please, bear with me. Nom de plumes are not just for 19th century novelists and 21st century adult film stars, they are for people just like you. You don’t have to use your real name, just be consistent across the community with your fictitious name.  If you are CodeSamarai on www.StackOverflow.com, register as CodeSamarai at www.codeProject.com as well, not PierreLeBoo (especially if Your not me).  Consistency is the key. If you do use a nom de plume, remember to include it in your resume so the hiring manager knows to look for it.

So, am I putting my money where my mouth is? You bet! Or at least I’m working on it. I’ve Changed My Name on Twitter to PierreLeBoo so I can easily be found at www.twitter.com/PierreLeBoo . I’ve re-registered at Stack Overflow.com as PierreLeBoo, Ive registered at SuperUser.com as PierreLeBoo, heck I even registered an Aunt Milly’s Piezza  as PierreLeBoo, and hey don’t even have a website. If I can do it you can do it. Trust me… Just ask anyone who knows me.

Secondly, I am changing my user name on Personal sites to another consistent name, that friends would know but the general public would not. The point is, I want people to judge my work for my work, not for my political leanings, the number of nieces and nephews I have, of the number Of Beers i chugged at Oktoberfest. Part of Building your personal brand is separating your brand from you personal life.

This one is a bit tougher, as Changing things like your user name on some Social networking sites is a bit more difficult than others. But, again, I can do it, so it can’t be all that tough.

Finally, below, I have included a selection of links to other articles that cover this topic from a number of perspectives. Give them a gander, and remember…

Get Your Brand On! 

Tags: Career Development, Personal Branding, Social Networking

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Career Development, Conferences. 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.