3 Reasons I’m Sorry I Joined Doostang . . .

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Too Secret for Me

You must guess how hard I tried not to write this. I sat down, turned around, wrote several emails, found their blog and asked for help. . . . But I also think bad practice is bad practice and bad service is bad service. I don’t want any more of my friends asking their friends to get involved with a service that seems only to serve itself.

It all starts with an invitation that reads something like this . . .

I’ve requested to add you as a friend on Doostang, an invite-only career community started at Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. You can use Doostang to find a job or internship, network, and access valuable career information from peers and industry professionals.

Who wouldn’t be curious about something like that?

3 Reasons I’m Sorry I Joined Doostang

Harvard, Stanford, and MIT . . . pretty enticing. Some great things have some out of those schools. Some folks who have gotten nowhere have also started in exactly the same places. But most folks who go there are smart in some way — eh?

Inside Doostang are networking opportunities and job listings — some are open to all; many are open only to members of certain “professional groups.” There in lies the rub. To be considered for membership in one of those groups, a member must

complete a profile
enroll 20 new members in Doostang
AND request to join.

Note: The new member cannot see much more than the group’s name. There may be a slight description, but you’ll find no qualifications for membership, no viewable list of members, no sample of jobs that they’re hiding behind their membership.

The invitation above touts the core value they offer, but the rules are that you deliver your value to them before they deliver that core value to you — if they do.

Who’s serving who?

Reason 1 — Secret Meetings

I invited 20 of my friends who joined. Then I applied to four “professional” groups — two I cared about. I was rejected from all four of them. What appeared was single sentence that stated simply your application was rejected — no details were given. No sender is anonymous. The qualifications needed are stated nowhere. There was an invitation to contest it.

I went to the forum to check that out. There I found a thread which said that nearly everyone gets rejected from every group! The information came from a Doostang team member, stating that each group decides who will fit the qualifications of the jobs they offer. I visualized a secret meeting in a secret room. I would quote what I read and link to it, but I can’t (see reason three.)

Reason 2 — Secret Club

I took up the offer to reapply to two groups, pointing out my experience in the given areas. I was accepted. The jobs weren’t as exciting as one might expect.
Many of the job listings use that phrase “top-tier school” as a qualification. Guess that would exclude Truman Capote, Bill Gates, and Matt Mullenweg, all of whom left that path to make their own success.

Unfortunately, some highly qualified friends with deep educational credentials and visibly successful careers did not have the same reapplication success. My friends feel “taken” because they shared their high level contacts only to be treated this way.

Perhaps being rejected was more of an honor than getting in?

Reason 3 — Secret Locks on the Door

While there. I wrote roughly 3 emails asking to start a conversation about consulting possibilities regarding jobs that were offered. When I got no response from all three. I decided to sit back to watch how things worked. I watched for what seems a month.

About 4 weeks ago, I was greeted with this screen.

I waited two days thinking it was a cookie or cache issue or software issue at their end. Nothing. Then I wrote to one of the founders, an address I had from helping a friend with an earlier issue.
I said . . .

Hi Mareza,
For two days now and no apparent reason, Doostang no longer recognizes me.
My user name and password don’t work and my email is not recognized.

I find this a serious problem. Can you help me resolve it?

Thanks!
Liz

After sending it a second time, I got this reply:

HI Liz,

Forwarded it along thanks. Not much more I can do from here.

Cheers,

I wrote a comment on this post at the Doostang blog on February 28th — it’s still in moderation. You can see it there.

Nothing’s changed.
___________
UPDATE: ONE THING HAS CHANGED. They took down the post on which I commented. Someone from Doostang also visited my Linked in profile. Still no one attempted to contact me about this manner.
__________

They have my contacts. I apologize to my friends to whom I sent invitations. I hope that your experience is better than mine.

Harvard, Standford, MIT . . . top tier on the Internet?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: Picturedots

Filed Under Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog, Tips, Tools | 1 Comment

Create Your Own Dot-to-Dot Pictures

Great Find: Picturedots

Permalink: http://picturedots.com

Target Audience: Kids of all ages !

Content:

Picturedots is a web-based tool for making dot-to-dot puzzles. The neat part about it is you can take a photo or image that has meaning for you and make it into a puzzle. They can be as simple or as complicated as you like. There’s a tutorial to get you started.

Sounds like a fun idea for a party! I can imagine the surprise on your friends’ faces when they see what the picture is.

Click on the images to see the finished puzzles.

Let me know how you use this tool.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: The One Million Masterpiece

Filed Under Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog, Tips | 2 Comments

There’s still time to join in the creativity!

Great Find: The One Million Masterpiece

Permalink: http://www.millionmasterpiece.com/

Target Audience: Everyone!

Content:

This project has been underway for some time. There’s artistic contributions from almost 24,000 people in 174 countries. And they have raised over $17,000. Check out the charities that will benefit and the sponsors and supporters.

Here’s a picture of what it looks like.

And this is a close-up of my square. It’s a ‘work in process’ with just the eye and beak of the Purple Wren as a placeholder.

Why are they doing this? You have to browse the site and find out. Follow the news on the blog.

You can zoom in on any of the squares to get a close-up view. There are some amazing works of art out there - and some that are very simple. You can send the artist an email. This is our community.

So don’t worry about how artistic you are. Just join in!

I still get goose-bumps when I’m part of the larger projects going on with the new web. The ways we can connect with others is truly powerful.

Check it out and spread the word. If you can and you feel moved to do so, contribute a little cash.

I found this project quite awhile ago and have had it on my ‘to blog list’ ever since. This is good timing because they are now about to release a new version of the site with "significant upgrades."

Here’s a few random links you gotta see:

Some of the graphics are posted with a live replay feature so you can see how the picture evolved. It’s like an art lesson! And it’s fun to see the profiles - age, location, and about the author.

There’s so many great things about this project that I can’t stop talking about it - but I will. Go check it out yourself.

Don’t be shy - leave me a comment and let me know what your favorites are and where your square is.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: PictureTrail

Filed Under Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog, Tips, Tools | 11 Comments

Create Photo Flicks with PictureTrail

Great Find: PictureTrail

Permalink: http://www.picturetrail.com/

Target Audience: Anyone with photos!

Content: This growing public photo community boasts a number of features that you are sure to enjoy, including image hosting, photo sharing, print ordering, and Flash slideshows called Photo Flicks, available in more than 30 formats. Most allow you to add descriptions and control the speed and color.

Here’s a couple Photo Flicks that I made. Click on the pictures to view.

Cool Slideshows

Try it today and let me know what you think. These were easy to create and post to this site. What a wonderful way to share your favorite pictures.

This community is a great place to connect with others, and the services I tried out were free. When you upgrade to a premium membership, you have access to time saving functionality - like a utility called ‘Batch Move’ that enables you to move more than one image at a time.

Have fun with this great find . . . and send me links to your creations.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

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Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: typoGenerator

Filed Under Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog, Tips | Leave a Comment

Create typoPoster with typoGenerator

Great Find: typoGenerator

Permalink: http://www.typogenerator.net/

Target Audience: Anyone - just for fun!

Content: Here’s a generator that creates random graphics just for fun. It searches images.google for backgrounds and images according to the text you enter. And you can manipulate the results and change up the text, images or colors.

This generator was a student project. I’m curious what Katharina is doing now.

Here’s a sample that I made.

Let me know what you create and how you use it.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

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3 Reasons I’m Sorry I Joined Doostang . . .

Too Secret for Me