Here is a man who continues to pursue his dreams.  From Sports Illustrated: 

Joe Moglia was a millionaire hundreds of times over. He remarried in 1995 and became a step dad. He played Texas Hold ‘Em with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates at the Omaha Country Club. In the spirit of Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, Moglia lived comfortably but simply in the Midwest.

But part of him wasn’t being nourished. When he thought about his unlikely narrative and took inventory of his life, he realized that his happiest professional memories came in the ’70s and ’80s when he was coaching. “I didn’t lose a second of sleep thinking about missed business opportunities, but I couldn’t get the football thing out of my mind,” he says. “It was like, ‘How do I get back to coaching in the fastest way?’”

So he stepped down as CEO of Ameritrade (as a billionaire) to pursue his dream of coaching college football and as a volunteer apprenticed himself to Nebraska’s coaching staff.  Three years later, he is the newly appointed Coastal Carolina’s Football Coach.  What a great and inspiring story.

Perhaps the most underused question in job selection is, “Do I want to be more like the people I’ll be working with?” In a tough economy, you may not have the luxury of choice, but long-term, don’t settle until you find a place whose gravitational pull tugs you in the right direction.

Chip and Dan Heath on Slate.com “Four Excellent Habits”

Image via CrunchBase

“When I first heard about Foursquare, I emailed [co-founder] Dennis Crowley. He said, “Are you ever in New York?” I said, “Actually, yeah! I plan on being in New York tomorrow.” [Laughs.] I booked my flight that night, met with him and, a month later, I was working for Foursquare. ” says Tristan Walker responsible for Business Development at Foursquare in his interview with VIBE.

I like this story, because it shows the attitude that Tristan attacked his career with.  He swung for the fences and did work to make it happen.  How many “could have….” have been missed because of not pushing forward?  Plenty.

Just a reminder to make it happen.  Or as Garyvee would say HUSTLE and CRUSH IT.

After I presented at the SMC- Greenville meeting I was approached by a college student and asked an interesting question, “what’s the best background to get into a social media job?”  at the time, I mentioned that my background was business and marketing, so I could speak to that but not social media in general.  I decided to tweet the question since I knew I’d get quite the mixture of answers. Here are a few responses, each with a different viewpoint – technology entrepreneur, marketing consultant and in house technologist.  (All who are worth a follow by the way).

from @jpatrickhunt trial by fire. on the job training. offer your services for nothing and dive in. learn and adapt. you will be assimilated.

from @jfloyd journalism, photography, video production, advertising, english, web design…what does Seth call it…a multipationalist?

from @BJ_Emerson Great question, may depend on the needs of the org. My opinion: Don’t skimp on the tech skills, be good at relationships.

I expected the answers to be all over and I wasn’t disappointed.  So where does this leave us?  Ultimately while a background in in PR or marketing has an upside, I’m going to go out on a limb and say I don’t think it really matters for hiring.  To be clear, one should have some manner of understanding of the basics of communication and if the job has a strategy component you’ll need to understand the social landscape.  But what matters the most is that you be customer focused. Which may seem to be a no brainer to some of you, however it’s not to everyone.  Customer focused means thinking of yourself as the advocate of the people your organization exists to serve.  So you are approaching problems with the mindset of it you were the end user.

This is important because at the end of the day, social media is about people.  It’s a set of tools that are allowing customers the ability to connect with and give feedback to their friends and the public – and we as organizations have the ability to be part of that exchange.  To learn and respond and share. If you want to work in social media, you’ll be well on your way if you can be that voice of the customer.