This post is for anyone who wants to read it, but it's particularly for that individual who, for the moment, is known throughout the wired world as "Cisco Fatty."
For those unfamiliar with the tale, the young person in question -- a first-year grad student at the University of California Berkeley's School of Information -- just landed a job with Cisco Systems. And then promptly lost it after posting an ill-advised message on Twitter:
Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty
paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.
A Cisco employee on Twitter saw this tweet and replied:
Who is the hiring manager. I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.
You can read more on this brand new web site,
Cisco Fatty.
Unlike
some people in the Twitterverse, I
do feel bad for Cisco Fatty (the person, not the web site). But CF, I can assure you it merely is a momentary embarrassment. Your life will not be ruined by this incident. You're in grad school at Berkeley! Don't forget that. You'll be laughing about this in a few months or years, as many of us are now. Trust me, I know from personal experience (cue camera blur and flashback music)...
Years ago, in my first newspaper job, I was editing a press release (on paper!) that referenced a local doctor who was well-known as an extreme right-winger (a John Birch type who thought fluoridation of water was a Communist plot). I inserted the word "neo-fascist" in front of his name and showed it to one of my colleagues for a few harmless laughs. Then I must have gotten distracted, because I forgot to cross out "neo-fascist" and handed the press release to a typesetter.
The next day our editor was scanning the back page as the paper was running off the presses and the offending word jumped out at him. I was out at lunch, but was told he literally ran down the hall shouting, "Stop the presses!" Other reporters were sent out to intercept trucks delivering the papers. When I returned from lunch and learned what had transpired, I thought my journalism future was over at age 22.
I got suspended for a week. If I wasn't such cheap labor ($12K a year), I'm sure I would have gotten fired. But as dark as things seemed then, I learned a lesson and went on to a successful writing and editing career. I'm also occasionally asked to tell "the neo-fascist story."
Granted, CF, no Internet existed back then to transmit details of my blunder to millions of people around the globe. You'll just have to live with that. But Internet folly, like Internet fame, is fleeting. Remember the
incident involving the Ketchum ad agency guy who tweeted some unflattering remarks about Memphis prior to giving a presentation to employees of FedEx? That was in January. Who talks about that now?
Obviously, for CF and all of us who use the Internet -- and particularly social networking tools such as Twitter -- there's a big lesson here: Assume everyone can see what you write. Because they can. There's an old journalism expression for when you're writing an article but are unsure of a particular fact: When in doubt, leave it out. This wise piece of advice should be adapted to the world of social networking: If you have
any reservations about the wisdom of posting your snarky remarks, your drunk photos, your incendiary opinions on politics, race, religion or American Idol, leave them out.
Finally, CF, consider this a blessing in disguise. You were about to take a job you expected to hate. And on top of that, you were facing a miserable commute. Why start your career in such soul-crushing fashion? No matter how fat the "fatty paycheck," it wouldn't have been worth it. Aim higher than that.
Oh, and if Jimmy Fallon or other talk-show types come calling, take the offers. You might as well leverage this.
Comment and Contribute
