A Sustainable Career: What Does It Look Like?

As my first semester at a new university draws to a close, I have been thinking a lot about the sustainable career -- and more importantly a sustainable life. For me, sustainability is about resilience and contentment in both the face and opportunity of challenges. Yet, in the constant drive to do more (and hopefully better) work, it can be easy to lose sight of the entire picture of life - being a friend, a sibling, a citizen, a parent, a colleague, an advocate, and not just a teacher. What does a sustainable life look like to you?

The hidden No's

When we say "yes" to something -- because we want to do it; because we can't say no; because it feels great to be the person who rescues the situation; or because it is a good opportunity that others wouldn't pass up--we often don't take the time to consider what we're saying "no" to at the same time. Every yes is linked to one -- and even more no's. In the business world, they call it opportunity cost. The time, money, or effort you spend saying yes to one thing -- means you don't have time, money, or effort to do something else.

Make the no's visible. Before you say yes, consider what you may be saying no to -- and often that's time -- time with your family, time to write that book or pursue that new project, time to develop a new client, ship a new project, just be on your own. Or money to fund your retirement account, invest in your entrepreneurial dream, send a kid to college, take that dream vacation.

The problem with Google+ requiring a real name

According to MSNBC.com, in a recent move, the rapidly emerging social network site, Google+, dumped individuals who violate their policy and don't use their "real," that is their legal names. Granted, technically Google gets to choose its policy and it is well within its rights to delete accounts (although Google will likely pay a price for people's frustration); however there are issues for users who use different online names to create a sense of online privacy, to promote themselves (particularly if they have a common name), or to separate their different spheres of life by having multiple accounts.

True, part of the payment for using the "free" site is the data-mining and targeted ad content that Google gains from knowing who we are. But a lot of that can be done without knowing someone's name. Besides names aren't unique identifiers like social security numbers or email addresses, so confidence that you have the right person is limited. Plus there are other complications. Here's an example. My name is relatively unique (read: hard for a lot of people to spell or pronounce). I have a professional name, a married name, and a legal name. Furthermore, because a lot of the late 1990s government databases that have my married name couldn't handle spaces, my last name ends up being a 16-letter mash-up of three words in many of them, sometimes cut off because a developer assumed no one's name would ever be longer than 8, 9, or 10 characters. (Mine is 18 with spaces). So which of my "legal" names would count as official under Google's policy? And can it handle spaces? (I haven't checked yet, although I have a Google+ account and appreciate using a lot of their tools).

I would argue that managing your online identity and reputation by strategically providing or altering one's name or associated information is not necessarily deception or fraud, even if it run's afoul of Google's policy. If you decide to keep your legal name on Google+, or any other social networking site, be aware of how it might be used by current or future employers, partners, friends, or roommates. And also consider the tradeoffs -- of having different profiles, different names, or managing multiple identities. There isn't a perfect solution.

Tradeoffs and Opportunity Costs of Online Career Development

When thinking about career development activities--online or offline--we often forget to consider the tradeoffs or opportunity costs of online reputation development. In a recent issue of the Austin American Statesman, tech writer Omar Gallager provides an overview of research on how online reputation is likely to affect our lives more and more. As part of the article, Gallager noted the results of some of my research that suggested that having no information online might be as problematic as the red flags (e.g., drunk and naked photos), that we're used to hearing about in media reports. Although this suggests that people interested in career development should engage in online activities that make their expertise visible and reputation positive, the answer is not so simple. By spending time online for career development, we are extending our work commitments even further outside the time and space boundaries that define work from the rest of life. Furthermore, if our primary (or only) concern when engaging in online activities is the impact on our work and career, we may (although not necessarily), lose out on some of the identity exploration, social support, and other activities that research suggests are typical and oftentimes valuable uses of social media.

I am in support of career development, but I encourage you to consider the costs and the tradeoffs of those activities. Employers are likely going to keep looking. What we need are more creative solutions. That's one goal of my research. Suggestions are welcome.

Consider the Cost

A lot of recent advice suggests that employees--especially people that are actively looking for a job--eliminate any personal or negative information from online sites. Some recommendations go as far as recommending that people deactivate Facebook(TM) and other social networking accounts as well as blogs, websites, and other online information.

Certainly, there are photos and other online information that you probably don't want an employer to be considering when evaluating you for a job, promotion, or even "corporate restructuring" (AKA termination) (Anything with the iconic Red Solo(TM) cup, for example, even if it only has soda inside). There's also information that might be misinterpreted when read or seen from a corporate office, that you might want to consider. Still, our lives aren't only and all about work --- what are you giving up if you deactivate your account?

Online interactions provide places to develop and explore identities, gain social support, maintain social ties (professional and personal), and have fun. Deactivating an account--or even highly modifying what is posted and available-- can deny you access to these beneficial outcomes. Ironically, (as suggested in my recent dissertation research in 2010), not having any information online can be as problematic as having "red flags." Plus, there are often fragments, bread crumbs, and other information that doesn't truly get deleted.

I'm not arguing that we shouldn't consider the invisible audiences (see boyd, 2007) that might be viewing our musings, postings, and digital artifacts, just encouraging thoughtful consideration of what and how much we want to give up for a potential job. It might change at different points in life, it might not. But it is at least worth considering.

As another interesting point, some strategies people use to thwart these cybervetting behaviors involve using aliases, having multiple social network accounts, and generating enough alternate professional information that employers don't spend the time going past the first few pages of the Google search. Oh yes, and always using privacy settings even though we understand how fallible they are.

boyd, d. m. (2007). Why youth ❤ social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, identity, and digital media. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning (pp. 119-142). Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.