Category Archives: This Way Up

Apr 01 Comments comments
Blogger, This Way Up

The First Step To Starting a Blog: Ask Yourself If You Actually Want One

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.

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So people have been asking me how to start a blog.  I think this is great.  Sort of.  But I’m hesitant to actually give people advice on starting a blog because I don’t think everyone should have their own blog.

Yes, a blog is good for personal branding.  Sure, you can meet lots of great people or even get a job from blogging.  And then there is the free stuff.  But these things can only happen if you blog well, and not everyone can do that.

So the first thing to figure out is if you would be a good blogger.  Blogging is a ton of work and it’s yet another thing to commit to.  Since you want your blog to be a success, you probably want to write regularly.  You also want to learn about Web 2.0 tools, and comment on other blogs, and refine your writing skills, and improve your technology skills, and figure out how to draw traffic, and eventually meet your online friends in person.

But good bloggers are people who really want to be bloggers.  So do you really want to be a blogger?  Here are ten ways to tell:

  • You already read at least 10 blogs daily.
  • You are passionate about at least one subject and want to become an expert in it.
  • You have an opinion about everything and want to talk about it.
  • You read the news every day.
  • You are comfortable sharing details about yourself and your life.
  • You are okay with putting imperfect work on display.
  • You love to read and write in general.
  • You are willing to try something new, even though it has a steep learning curve.
  • You can tolerate harsh criticism.
  • You have enough ideas right now to write about one or two subjects (not including yourself) a few times a week for the next month.

If this doesn’t sound like you, a blog is probably not the way to go.  But that’s okay, because there are lots of other things you can do to improve your online presence.  You can bulk up your LinkedIn profile, build a static website, become an active commenter, do some guest posts on your favorite blogs, join a forum, or start a podcast.

So before you start a blog, ask yourself if you actually want one.  And if, after hearing all of this, you still think it would be worth it to have a blog, it probably will.  But if not, don’t feel guilty - it’s better to invest your time in something you truly love than convincing yourself you want to start a blog.

Popularity: 51% [?]

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Feb 28 Comments comments
Careerist, Grad School Bound, This Way Up

This Way Up: Does the Real World Suck?

Image Source: Lil’ Pete via FlickR

This is part of a recurring series called This Way Up, where I answer questions and give advice to readers and friends.

I received a facebook wall message today from a computer science major a few years younger than me. In it, he wrote:

“Back in June, I made a note about how I didn’t like working full time at my internship and how I was dreading the adult life.. in the note, you left a comment agreeing that being an adult sucks.

Now that a bit more time has passed, what do you think now? The thought of joining the workforce is really stressing me out, and was wondering if there is any comfort knowing it’ll get better?”

I wanted to respond to this on my blog because I think this is a question a lot of soon-to-be graduates face.

There is definitely a period between graduation and the real world that “sucks.” The transition between college life and adulthood is a 1+ year period where many recent graduates get depressed and wonder what they are doing with their lives.

This is completely normal, and here’s why:

I found this website that assigns values for the most stressful life-changing events. Graduating from college isn’t explicitly one of the options, but you can get to it by checking the following: change to a different line of work, major change in finances, changes in responsibility at work, change in residence, change in living condition, change in work hours or responsibilities, change of personal habits, purchase of major items, change in recreational habits, change in social activities, change in sleeping habits, and change in eating habits. You can also throw in mortgage and marriage for many people, but for the average college graduate I won’t include them.

Each of these is what a typical college graduate experiences when entering corporate. Even without marriage or a mortgage, the overall stress score is 277, which is at the high end of the scale (0-300+). Add either a marriage or a mortgage to the equation and you become at a high-risk for stress-related illnesses.  (Edit: Here’s another version of the test at Reader’s Digest.)

Graduating from college is a bigger life-event than most people realize, because of all the other factors that naturally change with it.  Life-changing events require a lot of adjustment time and are bound to cause depression, second-guessing, and confusion.

The good news is you can get through this transition just by being aware that you are in a transition. When I graduated from college I felt like I should be able to figure out my life; but since graduating, I’ve changed jobs, moved, and started a graduate degree - none of which were in my “after-graduation” plan. Two years ago I had no idea I would be here now, but that’s the way life is; just realizing this will take away a lot of the pressure to “know it all” when you graduate.  (Another Edit: I found a website called The Big Transition that is all about transitioning from college to career.  I really like it, and if you’re going through this transition now you probably will too!)

If you are or will soon be a recent college graduate, give yourself a year or two to adjust to adulthood. Don’t see anything you do during this period as a failure, but rather a learning experience. There was a light at the end of the tunnel for me, and I enjoy being an adult now - I can’t see myself ever going back to the college lifestyle.

There is so much more I’d like to write about this, but I think I’ll turn it over to my readers.

If you’ve made this transition from college to adulthood, how would you answer this question?

If you are a junior or senior in college, what other questions do you have?

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