At a very early age, I figured out that it was important to excel at school.  My early successes were in the form of A’s on report cards and the satisfaction of never having my parents monitor my study habits.  As time went on, I then began to see the value of learning itself, something beyond standardized tests and college acceptances.  These successes came to me in the form of books and an expanded worldview; a new set of tools that would help me understand human interaction and endeavor.  Then senior year of college happened and suddenly, success seemed neither definable nor attainable.  It was due to neither lack of ambition nor lack of resources, but rather the fact that I could no longer define what success meant for me.

As I began to think about life after graduation, I would talk to my parents about potential career paths and then scan job listings.  May drew near and I found myself prescribing to a definition of success that was neatly packaged in the form of a job title and salary.  I desperately wanted to break free from this mindset, but I took a job in the meantime that would allow me to think about who I was and what I wanted in a very safe and familiar space.

I began working as a Staff Recruiter in Barnard College’s Admissions Office where I had been employed as a student. It was here that I observed the state of higher education in America, listened in on conversations between parents and their kids, and conversed with hundreds of students, many of whom reminded me of myself.  During serveral interviews I conducted, I often found myself frustrated as I listened to students describe their GPA’s, SAT scores, after school activities, and weekend community service hours.  They were all part of the same system that I had departed from, one that left me asking myself everyday, “I’ve done so much already, but so what?”

How was I, Alexa Scordato, supposed to change the world?  How was anything I had ever done in my scholastic past relevant to others?  I was now working with a blank slate and that realization was daunting.  After processing this reality, I put aside my past accomplishments and accolades and began to think about what I wanted in life and who I wanted to be as a person.  At the root of it all, I said I wanted the following:

• I want to help others.
• I want to provide for myself and those I love.
• I want to go to bed everyday feeling like I accomplished something.

I wasn’t sure how to go about achieving those goals, but I saw the potential within the world of social media.  Unlike most industries I had observed, I found everyone in the space to be happy, passionate, and well-intentioned.  Around every corner, it seemed like someone was always wiling to help someone, constant collaboration.  Although no longer a student, I was determined to school myself on everything there was to know about the social web. When I wasn’t in the office 9 – 5 or commuting on the Long Island RailRoad, all my time was spent doing one thing: playing on my laptop.  I was managing forums, teaching myself HTML/CSS, playing with WordPress, reading blogs, beta testing social networks, and listening to podcasts. All the while I was wondering how I could harness this interest of mine into a professional career.

Come spring, I departed from my job at Admissions and headed to Boston for two months, the mecca of what I believe to be social community at its finest.  It was a temporary experiment, one that I believed would provide clarity and guidance when I returned to New York.  I spent the spring inspired by folks like Chris Brogan, Bryan Person, Laura Fitton, Maria Thurrell, and Amanda Gravel, who encouraged me to pursue this route as a career path.  The rest of my spring was spent freelancing and working for incredible friends and mentors like Stephanie Agresta and Steve Rosenbuam.

After reading about Aaron Strout‘s Hiring and Getting Hired in a Web 2.0 World, I returned to Boston where I knew he would be speaking.  For many reasons, I wanted to work at Mzinga (more on this in a later post) and I followed Aaron’s advice on how to make that happen.  I polished my social network profiles, blogged, and followed up with him in the best way I knew how to – through Twitter.  It was only within a matter of weeks that I found myself packing what little belongings I had and moved into my new Coolidge Corner home.

Although there is still more figuring out to do, I now have a working definition of success that I’m happy with.  For me, a successful life is one that allows you to choose.  It’s a lifestyle where you’re in control of your destiny, making situations happen for yourself, and fully aware of how your actions can impact those around you.

I think back to those three organic wants of mine that I isolated last year and already I feel like I am well on my way.

In terms of my desire to help others, I’m in a position where I help someone every day.  In order for me to get this job, I had to write a memo that was titled, “Change the World by Helping Barry Libert.”  I’m now on a two-person team now where our purpose is to help each other and help Mzinga, theoverarching goal being to teach the world the importance of social communications with respect to business, technology, and education.  Words cannot describe how excited I am about what is to come as a result of this partnership.

As for my desire to provide for myself and those I love, I can officially say that I am independent.  Minus a few payments I have to make to my parents for backdated credit card bills, I’m financially on my own.  It is going to be impossible for me to give back what I have been given because I will forever feel indebted to them.  However, this is a start to what I hope will produce dream vacations and happy retirements for the two people I love the most.

Lastly, my desire to go to bed feeling accomplished is most definitely checked off.  Although I feel perpetually behind on the many tasks that I have on my to-do-list, working in an industry that I love allows me to feel productive every day.  Whether most people realize it or not, this for me is the root of why Web 2.0 is so appealing.  It allows individuals to think, create, and give – to produce content that showcases individual thought and share it in a way that collectively inspires and helps change the world, one post at a time.

How do *YOU* define success?

I took the bus up yesterday with one of my bosses, Ms. Stephanie Agresta, aka Internet Geek Girl. We rode up on the Bolt Bus, which is a new coach line servicing Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and DC. Like Fung Wah and Lucky Star, Bolt Bus sells trip tickets for $15, sometimes as low as $10 or $7 depending on how far in advance you purchase online. The biggest perk in my opinion is the fact that these buses come equipped with personal power outlets built into every seat AND free WIFI. That’s right. FREE WIFI!

The ride up was most definitely an experience. It involved one pit stop at a Burger King, circling Logan Airport three times before the driver found South Station, and entertaining Stephanie with my version of t33nl33tspeak, which translates into phrases like, “zomg this bus ride pwns for the win.”

I don’t have it in me to make a coherent string of thoughts right now so I’ll just list some of the things that I thought about last night and on this bus:

1. Programmers play beer pong. Cool. I definitely did not know that prior to last night.
2. Maria Thurrell likes to pimp me out. She most definitely parties like a rockstar.
3. I think Stephanie Agresta knows everyone and their mom.
4. Not only does he know how to put together an event, Jay Meattle is probably one of the nicest guys ever.
5. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jeff Glasson or Chris Penn without their respective cameras.
6. Meeting online friends in real life is always great. /me waves to chelpixie
   
7. I wonder if it’s possible to attach a gaming console to the monitors in coach buses. These rides would be complete if I could play guitar hero or Rock Band.
8. Why is the ratio of men to women at tech events *still* 10 to 1?
9. ^ why am I complaining?
10. Are we almost there yet?

Okay, note to self: Do not blog on moving vehicles. Do not blog on 3 hours of sleep. This post needs to end right now before turning into major epic fail.

I had a friend ask me, “Why do you have to go all the way up there just to talk to people about potential jobs? Aren’t these dudes like always online? Just send them an email with your resume.”

I wish it were that easy, but it’s not. Yeah “these dudes” aka social media folk are always online, but they’re not as accessible as you think. I’ve found that social media professionals today have networks and InBoxes that are saturated with surface-level connections and far too many friend requests, to the point where they can’t even manage them properly. If you want to get noticed, you need to make yourself recognizable beyond an avatar. In my case, this means sitting on a bus for 5 hours to attend the PopSignal party for the night.

Earlier this month, Bryan Person held one of his Social Media Breakfasts, which was appropriately centered around “hiring and getting hired in the Web 2.0 world.” A summary of what the panelists said that day:

• “Think of social media as a thin slice way to build a relationship and also to increase your brand and presence. Engage people in the beginning of a conversation (online via social network) and then take it offline to really deepen the relationship.” – Stever Robbins aka Get-It-Done Guy
• “No resumes. I don’t want to see any paper. I don’t want to see the school you went to…the last 5 jobs…I don’t want you to email me because I know that the people I want to hire live and breath social media (use twitter linkedin, facebook, etc).” – Aaron Strout, VP of New Media at Mzinga
• “If I don’t already know the person, I question why should I? The people we want to hire are the people we already know…” – Todd Defren, Principal at SHIFT Communications
• “Use these tools….but the tools don’t get the job, you get the job.” – Chris Brogan

There you go. Straight from the folks who know it best.

In my own words, the best advice for anyone who wants to work in the industry: show up and speak up. Find out what events are taking place and who’s going to be there. Go to the event and then make yourself known as a potential hire.

These days, you need to make the extra effort by establishing a presence both online and offline and engage in conversations beyond blog posts and direct messages.  That was a lesson I learned at the first SMB I ever attended back in February, which focused on “how twitter changed my life.”

Alright, Boston. Here I come!