Facebook Pages: The New Resumé

When in your last year of University it's normal to start sweating a little when you think that in one year you will no longer be safely sitting in a classroom listening listlessly to your teacher as you sip your coffee. In one year, you are expected to have a job and be living on your own. Essentially, you will be all grown up. Should this be such a daunting prospect? 

Fear not students, social media to the rescue! Our task this week in ALES 204, was to create a business profile on Facebook. Initially, this was rather worrisome as anybody would be able to visit this page if they were so inclined. Worries aside, I tackled the task seriously. I thought to myself, I am in my last year at the University after all, why not show people what I am all about now. Considering that I eventually want to work for a magazine, social media is the perfect way to get people's attention in that industry. If this ALES class is teaching me anything, it's certainly showing me a way to use social media in an academic and professional manner. Social media will allow me to demonstrate to potential employers that I am a serious, passionate and hard working student that would be a great asset for their company.  

Below, you can view a preview photo of my Facebook business profile. To view the full profile just click on the image. Feel free to like my page and leave a comment. 

While reading a few blogs created by other students in my ALES 204 class, I noticed there was one common theme: most students would be embarrassed by the content on their regular Facebook profiles if an employer were to see it. Maureen for example wrote that she has a lot of unprofessional photos of drunken evenings with friends on her profile. While her business profile might be able to save her from losing a job, nothing stops people from knowing friends of friends of friends of… you get the point. I think that no matter what, if people chose to have an online presence, they should try to avoid having any compromising photos of themselves on any website, even "private" Facebook profiles. 

Ps. Have you seen my new Flickr Gadget on my profile? You can click on it to view my Flickr Photostream.

C'est qui? C'est moi!

Hi everyone, my name is Julianna Damer and here's what I look like. I'm currently in my 4th year at the University of Alberta and am studying Human Ecology. My major is in Textiles & Clothing and my minor is in Design & Product Development.

My minor might be in Design but my real passion lies in communications. I've had a Tumblr blog for over a year now and it has allowed me to meet so many other great Edmontonians who are passionate about making Edmonton a more fashionable place. (Some of them even have my blog linked on theirs!) Check out my blog here. I've shared photos of fashion events, personal travels, photo shoots, school projects and much more. I am certain that my blog will serve me when applying for jobs in the future as it is basically a portfolio.

Communication plays a huge role in the fashion world. I wouldn't be able to count with my fingers and toes the number of articles out there, these days, that state that the most influential people at fashion shows and simply in the fashion world at large are actually bloggers. Sorry Anna Wintour… But seriously, social media gives you the opportunity to create a network of followers and hopefully can help you to catch the eye of industry big wigs. To give an example, as I was looking through tweets one day I noticed a Flare Magazine Tweet informing people that they now had a Tumblr account and that they wanted people to send their Tumblr blog links to them. Was this going to be my claim to fame? Not quite, but I replied to their tweet with my blog URL and next thing you know, I was getting a reply from them thanking me for my link and letting me know that they loved the street style photos I had shot while in Paris. How cool is that?! That just goes to show how easy it is to communicate with people that you would never have dreamt of talking to before social media ever existed.

I'm very thankful for this class. I may know quite a lot about social media but I think that there's always something new to learn from others and I can't wait to further my knowledge and become an even better blogger and Tweet-er!

I can't wait to share my journey with you this semester, be it with ALES 204 or other classes. In fact, here's a photo of me in my first HECOL 354 course (Apparel Design and Product Development I) this week. You can see me drafting a pattern for a skirt! My friend Brittany Gora took the photo.