Hi! Welcome to Twenty Set. Here you will find 4-5 insightful new articles each week about personal and professional development. I write candidly from personal experience.

If you like what you read, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve revived an old website that I started back in January. You can find my new project at http://styledforsuccess.com, and because I think the website will be useful to Twenty Set readers, I would also encourage you to subscribe.

Why Style?

Fashion and home decor are two subjects I’ve always had a passion for. But, as cliche as it sounds, being surrounded by beautiful things does not in itself dictate style. I wanted to create a fashion website that also talked about etiquette, health, and other important aspects of well-being, drawing on influences from Real Simple and Gala Darling.com.

What About Twenty Set?

When I first started Twenty Set, I also started Styled For Success under a different domain name, knowing I wouldn’t have time for both. Since Twenty Set took off first, I put all my effort into growing this website. Now, after five months, Twenty Set is officially well-established within the Gen Y niche. There is little more I need to do to keep the website growing and going strong, aside from write 2-3 interesting articles a week. So Twenty Set is significantly less of a time commitment than it used to be. And while Twenty Set won’t disappear anytime in the near future, I’m ready to pick up where I left off with Styled For Success.

Why Should I Subscribe?

Okay, maybe this isn’t a question you had, but since I’m writing the post, I get to control the conversation for now. And since you asked, there are plenty of good reasons to subscribe:

1. Style is important to everyone, because it’s something everyone has. And it’s something everyone can improve on. Styled For Success is a daily approach to build incremental lifestyle changes. So even if you don’t feel like the most fashionable or put together person, you can read Styled For Success and in a few months look back and notice that you’ve come a little further
2. The website is for men and women. One thing I’ve learned from reading Gen Y blogs is men are starting to care greatly about their clothing and the impression they make on others, particularly in the workplace. So a style website that only serves women just doesn’t make sense these days.
3. My husband is writing. You’ve read about Eric on Twenty Set, and now you can read what he thinks about fashion and life at Styled For Success. Because what I didn’t mention earlier is I needed a partner to make my vision of Styled For Success come to fruition, and Eric is a great fit. Judging from the success of some other married blogging teams, I think we’ll hit a home run with Styled For Success.

So please, if you get a chance today, check out the new website. If you enjoy it, consider subscribing and supporting us on social media. Thanks.

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So this isn’t very relevant, but maybe some of you are interested.

I quit my job, and I’m going to work for Brazen Careerist.

I’d love to tell you what I’m going to do, but I don’t completely know.  No one does.  They basically hired me for my technical skills.  What I do know is that I will definitely be working on the website, and some other things.  Vague, right?

Anyway, this is the part where I tell you how weird the BC team is.

So I don’t actually think they are that weird.  I think I’m a little weird which makes me mesh with them pretty well.  But you want to hear something weird, so here we go:

Instead of my resume, Penelope asked me for my Myers-Briggs personality type.   Twice actually.  And it was almost a deciding factor in hiring me.

And tonight I’m staying at the Ryans apartment.  Yeah, they are single, and I’m married.  To someone else.   In my defense, this was my husband’s idea of economy, and I packed something appropriate to wear to sleep.

By the way, my husband is very supportive of this career move.  And this might also be a good time to mention my husband is studying full-time to be a doctor, which is why he doesn’t work, since people asked me if he was a bum after I wrote about our finances.

So anyway, another part of my job is getting more involved in the Brazen Careerist community, now that I sort of have the time, or at least have an excuse to count all that fun time as work.  In honor of that, feel free to ask me more questions about this move in the comments section.  I’m happy to answer any of your questions, even if they are just curiosity ones.

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Next week I’m going to start revamping Twenty Set. I’ve been wanting to do this since starting the blog, and I have next week off of school, so it’s finally a good time. What I need from you is suggestions.

Here are the things I know I want to change:

• color scheme and fonts - I don’t dislike the theme from a functionality standpoint, but I want to distinguish Twenty Set from others and brighten it up a bit.
• tagline - I’ve come to realize the tag line is not only boring, but not truly representative of Twenty Set’s readership. Help me come up with something better.
• header image - I want a better “logo” or symbol to represent Twenty Set. Suggestions welcome.

I’m also considering adding two pieces of functionality. One is a way for readers to share their favorite links with me so I can link to their ideas in my articles. I also want a way to share my favorite links with readers on my website, in case people want to see what I’m reading. I still can’t decide if I want to use something like del.icio.us or just code something myself, the way I want it, because I’m a software engineer and I can :).

The second is a way for readers to chat with me, live, via my website. I already chat with some readers who have contacted me directly, and I think it would be cool to chat with more. Of course, this could also get completely out of control if too many people are constantly IMing me, but it’d be worth experimenting with.

I’m sure you can think of a million other cool things I could do with Twenty Set, and I’m open to suggestions. So if you have any thoughts on any of the above ideas, or if you have a completely different idea that would be awesome, please leave a comment. And if you haven’t heard, I’m running a contest this week, so every comment counts as an entry!

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Thanks for visiting Twenty Set, a blog about personal and professional development for millennials.  Twenty Set has articles for young professionals and entrepreneurs about life, love, careers, and transitioning into the real world.

This website is run by Monica O’Brien, a 24-year old from Chicago, IL.  You can learn more about her on the About page.  She also contributes regularly to other websites, and a list of her guest posts can be found under Monica Elsewhere.

Here are some of the best articles on Twenty Set:

• How Gaming Has Become the Newest Trend in HR Recruiting, and Life
• Recession-Proof Your Life Before It’s Too Late
• Network With Your Favorite Bloggers
• Forget About Getting a Degree - Get an Experience
• If You Don’t Want To Be Challenged, You Don’t Have an Opinion

Twenty Set is also a member of the Brazen Careerist network, a network for young professionals, from Penelope Trunk’s new company.

Monica hopes you enjoy your visit at Twenty Set, and would love to hear any feedback in the comments section.  Thanks!

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