MojoLive

This is the mojoLive.com company blog. Read how we're changing the way everyone sees their careers.

[mojolive]

An Interview with a #mojoThrowdown Champion

Today I bring you an interview with Seán Prunka, probably most well known for being an Internet nuisance on Twitter under the handle @sprunka and winning the first ever #mojoThrowdown. He's a PHP guy, among other things, but his mojoLive profile speaks for itself, so go ahead an look him up there before reading on. We'll still be here when you get back.

...

Done?  Alright, let's do this.

The Interview:

mojoLive: What has your experience with mojoLive been like so far?

Seán: Honestly, I don't think I could put it any more eloquently than Jeremy Kendall did  on Twitter: “I've gone from peevish and recalcitrant to interested and engaged to addicted. DAMN YOU @MOJOLIVE!” Although, honestly my own trek started as inquisitive and curious, but then when given the access code at php|tek '12 I jumped straight in to the interested and engaged zone. I hit addicted when I saw some of my own PHP super heroes with high stats, and my initial offering was comparatively low.

mojoLive: You were recently declared the winner of the first ever #mojoThrowdown. What was that like?  What did you learn in the process of maximizing your mojo Score?

Seán: It started off as friendly smack talk, because Patrick Schwisow and I both had scores around 12ish. I think he started off with the lead, actually, and I made the first jab with something about kicking his butt. Then you guys stepped in and declared it the first ever  #mojoThrowdown. It took the already gamified system and added a level of friendly competition that really increased the level of fun. Who ever thought that building a résumé would be fun? As far as what I learned, well, “everything counts.” I also think it might still be too easy to game the system. Too easy to pad with irrelevant skills, and, if you're funny enough, get other people to give value to skills that may not actually be important. But, I think that the checks and balances does work out over all.

mojoLive: Lately, you've been tweeting out the link to your mojoLive Profile in response to job openings.  What drove you to start using mojoLive in that capacity?

Seán: I think it was Cal Evans who first mentioned just sending people to his mojoLive profile whenever he was asked for his résumé. Plus, I like the layout; quick overview of skills and employment, followed by a detailed breakdown of each area. It frees me from the restriction of “cram everything onto one page or no one will look at it.” The overview is [hopefully] enticing enough that a potential employer will like what they see and then dig deeper. The “everything counts” mentality has caused me to throw in a few skills/achievements for pure humor value, and I hope that a potential employer would see them and realize that dichotomy; that I have a balance or work and play. mojoLive lets me do my résumé in a way that somewhat reflects my personality, at least a whole lot better than traditional résumés do.

mojoLive: Do you feel that puts you at an advantage when approaching prospective employers?

Seán: It puts me more at ease. I think any employer that I would care to work for would be able to use the mojoLive format, and those who aren't able to are more likely to be ones I wouldn't care to work for, so it does give me an advantage in that way. If the company isn't willing to view my mojoLive Profile I don't need to deal with them.

mojoLive: How do you see yourself using mojoLive in the coming weeks/months/years?  Is it something you can see yourself using throughout your career?

Seán: Now that the Throwdown is over, I've noticed that I don't push as hard to find every (and any) little thing to boost my score. I will likely try to find some work records for the big gap in my work history. I like the idea of the shelf, but I'm not sure how useful it will be for me, personally. My only reservation is that I really don't know the business model/plan and I don't know where they're headed. But I do know that I am very curious to see where mojoLive is going to go next, and I will be right here, pumping stats and pimping mojoLive the whole while. 

[mojolive]

Cultural Significance

A great article circulated recently about some of the best employee perks available at companies these days.  From fully-paid healthcare to ice cream socials to playground slides in the corporate lobby, there are some companies that are really going the extra mile to make sure that their employees are happy, healthy, and inclined to stay.  It’s wonderful to see more and more businesses moving in that direction, truly embracing not just the importance of employee morale but supporting employees in ways that allow them to focus on their work when they’re at work, and live their lives when they are not.

But it also creates a little pressure on those of us who pride ourselves on also being great places to work.  How do we make sure we’re equally cool?  Do we implement every one of these ideas?  How do we pick the best ones?  Better yet, how do we come up with something even cooler?  This is a daily challenge for the Chief Culture Officer, charged with (among other things) making sure we have a culture worth writing home about.

After literally years of research, reading article upon article and book after book about employee perks, benefit plans, trends in compensation, and corporate culture, and scanning every last “50 Best Places to Work in [insert city here],” and mulling all the possible options and trying to figure out how to narrow the list and determine exactly what we should do, I’ve come to a very important conclusion:  While it’s all very well and good, and we will likely implement or adapt many of those practices ourselves, the only resource we really need to consult in coming up with our best possible culture is (drumroll, please!):  our people.  DUH.

Of course, we like to think we’re unique, but really, we are.  We’re not quite like any one of those other places, whether in geography, age(s), background, or mission.  Sure, we all agree to the basic premise that taking care of people is important and we need to establish and perpetuate a culture we can all live with and support, but that doesn’t mean it will look exactly like anybody else’s culture.  For us, two principles reign: 1) spontaneity beats scheduled fun any day; and 2) what matters most is a place that is supportive, casual, and focused on the right things.  In other words, having an ice cream social every third Thursday isn’t really our cup of tea (probably because we’d much rather have a beer social), but just showing up with ice cream (or beer) for everyone one random Tuesday would be great.  So is a paid-time-off policy that recognizes that everyone’s needs are different, and that in a group of grownups, we ought to be able to figure out how to balance for ourselves the work that needs to be done with the lives that need to be lived.  And that we like working in our pajamas/shorts/flip-flops/hats, and ought to be able to do that to the degree possible.  

So we’re developing our own “traditions”: a (more or less) weekly “Beer Thirty Friday” GoToMeeting where all us virtual workers get together online, have a beer, and (believe it or not) continue working; after tossing around a dozen ideas for employee appreciation/team-building events we could do, we settled on going to see The Avengers together one afternoon; and we are even developing a distinct team personality in our daily IRC communications.

That’s what works for us, and that’s the path we’ll continue to travel.  Oh sure, we’ll continue to read and discuss what others are doing, what sounds interesting, what we can reasonably do, and we’ll add and subtract and multiply our offerings as we grow and evolve.  And maybe someday, we’ll be one of those 50 Best Companies to Work For (dangling participle notwithstanding).  Of course, I think we already are.

[mojolive]

Un-reality

In all the recent hoopla about the poor job market, there’s been more than a little fuss made over the fact that the numbers don’t seem to add up: yes, there are lots of unemployed people, but there are also a mighty lot of open jobs. Companies are constantly complaining that they just can’t find good talent to hire. In fact, in a recent Wall Street Journal Online article (May 31st, 2012, “Software Raises Bar for Hiring”), Peter Cappelli of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business cites an example of a company where the HR department found exactly zero qualified candidates for an engineering role - out of a pile of 25,000 resumes. ?! How is that possible?

It isn’t. We all know the process is broken, and mojoLive, for one, is working on some fixes, particularly to the candidate end of the equation. But I’m going to venture that if a company can’t find even ONE candidate out of 25,000 resumes, the coolest, most comprehensive profile in the world isn’t going to help. Yes, some fault lies with systems that are designed to match solely on the instances of particular keywords, so that if a job role is called Manager at one company and Director at another, the match falls flat and nobody wins. But the issue goes much deeper than that. Something is fundamentally wrong at the hiring end, and all the technology in the world isn’t going to help until or unless companies start changing their behavior.

Our CEO, Dave Jefferson, tells the perfect anecdote about a former colleague of his who, while in the Army, was largely responsible for developing a particular program for his division involving the way US troops approach relationship-building with locals during overseas deployments. When his service was up, he went to apply for a job at the Pentagon where his former military boss was now leading the charge to develop the same program on a Department-wide scale. The perfect man for the job, right? Not so fast.

First, he went in through the government’s online system to apply. After spending considerable time filling out the information, he was notified that he was not a viable candidate and would not be seen for an interview. Fortunately, he had a relationship with the person in charge, so he called her and explained. She said, “oh, you’ll have to phrase things in this way and that way” and so on, walking him through how to apply so that the system would flag him as a potential match. Not ideal, but at least this time through, he was granted an interview. Which was with a 26-year-old, entry-level bureaucrat who, trained to look for certain job titles and key terms, told this fellow – who had not only done the exact same work but had, in fact, developed the very program on which this job was based – that he didn’t have the right experience for the job. !!!

Ultimately? That same candidate went to a big name consulting firm, which had a contract with the government, and was hired immediately, plugged in to the role as a contractor - and cost easily twice what he would have as a direct Federal employee. We can talk about your taxpayer dollars at work in another post, but the moral of this story is the lengths that organizations – public and private sector alike – will go to in an effort to find the perfect match, rather than to find talent, someone capable and proficient who, with a little guidance, can prove to not only do the job but probably exceed expectations.

Instead, companies say, “There’s no time for a learning curve! We can’t afford to train people! We need someone who can hit the ground running today, and the only way to really achieve that is to find someone who’s done this exact thing before.” Really? What’s it costing you to go months or even years to have a job unfilled? If you think the answer is “nothing” since there’s no salary being paid, think again. You are paying the price in work that isn’t getting done, progress that isn’t being made, and burned out employees who are trying desperately but unsuccessfully to pick up the slack.

There is no such thing as a “perfect” candidate, and it is nothing less than absurd that companies think a learning curve is an unnecessary evil that can and should be foregone. I want new people, unfamiliar with my company; their non-native perspective is invaluable because they haven’t been drinking the company Kool-aid® and they’re more likely to see what customers, suppliers, and other external stakeholders see. I want my new people to spend some time learning about the company, both to preserve that objectivity as long as possible and because of the foundational relationship it builds as they have to acquire institutional knowledge over time. I want to invest in training and developing them, because it can only make them better, more competent, more confident resources – and how can that not benefit me, even if they ultimately go work somewhere else? My company will get the credit for the kind of people it turns out, and that means more people will want to work here, and more companies will be trying to poach my staff – which is a tremendous compliment, and not at all a threat.

Why? Because when I invest in my people, they don’t want to leave. And since attrition, loss of institutional knowledge, replacement costs, and the inability to hire people because word on the street is nobody likes working here are all associated with very real, very expensive costs of their own, I’m gonna wager that the marginal investment in training that companies are trying so hard to avoid is penny-ante compared to the cost of holding out for the nonexistent “perfect” candidate.

[mojolive]

Hump Day Happiness, vol. 7

We're sorry we missed last week, but that means we now have five new Caps for you this week; ok, technically four because one of them is a hidden Cap. That's right, a hidden Cap. "What's that?!" you ask? Consider this Intro to Hidden Caps 101. Pay attention, because I'm only going to say this once (unless you ask nicely, or bribe me with bacon and beer, in which case I may make an exception).

Let's get the normal Caps taken care of first:

Total Recall

Whether you have a ridiculously good memory, or you're just a search engine wiz, give us additional information on 50 items to unlock this Cap.

Self-Taught, 007, and The Librarian

Since our new feature push yesterday, you've probably seen these floating around the site. These Caps are awarded for adding one, 10, and 50 items (respectively) to your shiny new Shelf.

And now for something completely different:

Intro to Hidden Caps 101

Here's the deal. Every once in a while, we'll be releasing hidden Caps. We're not going to tell you exactly what they're for, or exactly how to unlock them. We're not even going to show you the Cap image. But you'll be completely and utterly giddy with excitement when you unlock one because it will be a total surprise.

Consider that your fair warning/education. From here on out, all we'll be saying is "Hey, so one of today's new Caps is hidden. You know the drill."

[mojolive]

New Feature Tuesday, Episode V

We're keeping up our tradition of releasing new features on Tuesday. We have some very exciting features packed into this one, along with the usual tweaks and fixes under the hood.

Shelf

In keeping with our mission to give you the best tools for managing careers, we've added The Shelf. Its a place to keep track of ALL the books, articles, posts, videos, and, well, everything else, that will help you increase your Mojo score. If you're going to read it or watch it, put it on your Shelf. Keep an eye on other people's shelf too, and you can copy interesting items to your own.

Invites

On the dashboard, you can now get a personalized link to share with friends. Send them an invite them and we'll let them into the beta.

Tweaking Suggested People

Did we suggest someone who you don't actually know? Remove them from your suggestions list by hovering over them and click on the [X]. We won't bug you again.

API

It's your data, after all, and now we have an API you can call to grab it. Head over to learn how to use the Mojolive API. Its a very basic API at the moment, we'll be making it more robust in the future. We'd love to hear how you use it.

Let us know what you think!

[mojolive]

Recruiting is Broken

In a recent post on Hacker Jobs UK, Steve Buckley summed up perfectly all that is wrong with the recruiting industry. Whether or not you agree with his specific arguments, it cannot be denied that the recruiting process, especially in the technology and development fields, is broken beyond repair.

Many companies have been very successful with their own internal recruiting teams. These teams are intimately familiar with the company and position in question, as well as the type of person required to fill it. They have the time, resources, knowledge, and, perhaps most importantly, the correct incentive: finding the perfect fit for both the individual and the company.

However, recruiting firms that gladly play the "numbers game," shuffling people around as if they were no different than the very CV on the recruiter's desk, are what's broken. To these headhunters, it doesn't really matter if their "targets" (that's recruiter-ese for, you know, human beings) are qualified or even actively searching for a position. Their charge is to speak to, not necessarily with, a predetermined quota of targets each day. Their lone incentive? Money. Not fit. Not productivity. Not happiness. Just, money, and lots of it.

What's wrong with this picture? It basically boils down to this: when it comes to headhunting-style recruiting, the people actually seem to be in the way. What I mean by that is the professionals are treated as pawns, pieces that a recruiter must move from A to B before collecting a substantial paycheck. They are not intelligent beings capable of extraordinary accomplishments and personal fulfillment; they are cattle.

As Mr. Buckley stated in his post, "the current recruitment model is dying a slow death." I agree, but that's not good enough for me. And it's not good enough for us at mojoLive. We have no desire to stand idly by, observing the death throes of headhunting. We want to step in and put that limping industry, and thereby those who are continually disserved by it, out of its misery. We believe that people can, and should, take control of their own careers.

You, all of you, have something unique that sets you apart from all others. It's why you wake up in the morning. It's why you put in extra time off-the-clock. It's what's gotten you to this point in your career and what will propel you forward. It's something you should never sacrifice and always stand by. We like to call that your mojo, and we'd like to help you find, grow, and proudly display it.

¡Viva la mojolución!

(image credit: wattsup)

[mojolive]

Broad Strokes: A Painting of the Jobs Market in 2012

One thing is certain about mojoLive employees: We're all very passionate about solving problems relating to employment, recruiting, and career management. Just last night I was sitting up in bed at 3am pinpointing where our competitors had fallen short. I do this quite often, actually. Waking up in the middle of the night; solving phantom problems in my head. One of my first self assigned tasks when I joined mojoLive was to research the market in my spare time. I searched and scoured through a hundred articles on recruiting, hiring talent, employee retention, company culture, and the habits of successful/effective employees. I summarized my findings from the best articles into a easily digestible PowerPoint presentation entitled Broad Strokes: A Painting of the Jobs Market in 2012 for your viewing pleasure. 

Broad Strokes: A Painting of the Jobs Market in 2012

[mojolive]

Hump Day Happiness, vol. 6

You thought giving us additional info just once was enough? Please. Do your part to give us some additional data and we'll reward you with these awesome Caps (and the cool new features your data helps us build)!

Know-It-All

Give us a additional info on 10 Profile items using the [+ add info] link and you'll earn this Cap.

You Complete Me

Pye hungry! Pye want data! Give us additional info 25 times to unlock this Cap.

That's it for now. We have some great stuff coming up for you in the next couple weeks so stay tuned!

[mojolive]

In the Age of Social, College Students Need to Differentiate Themselves to Get Hired

It's no wonder that college students are worried about finding a job with the US unemployment rate hovering at 7.9%. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) projects 1,781,000 students at the bachelor's degree level will graduate in 2012. That means an estimated 140,699 graduates will be left without a job. We're currently in what startups refer to as a "war for talent" or "talent crunch," where the top prospective candidates are a hot commodity. So who's to say which candidates are on top? Before the social web, one would identify candidates based on a number of merits:

GPA

Awards

Internship Experience

On- and Off-Campus Job Experience

Core Courses related to the job

Voluntary Work

While each of these still applies, there has been a subtle but noticeable shift in hiring patterns. We're now seeing that employers are seeking candidates who have  gone above and beyond the norm in an attempt to separate themselves from the pack. With advancements in web technology, employers can better predict which candidates are likely to succeed, or fit, based on their public facing identity on the web. It's like the college recruiting process all over again, but with many more factors at play!

Employers are looking for candidates that proactively engage in the community they wish to be employed in; whether that be through social networking, blogging, publishing, research, public speaking, community leadership, etc. In other words, it's not enough for graduates to wave around a piece of paper if they want to receive a coveted position (or any position, for that matter). You need to start branding yourself online; making your actions, achievements, and accomplishments public for the world to see.

This brings me to the remaining missing puzzle piece in recruitment. The buzzword cultural fit has been going around since pre-1995, but recently has become hotter than ever. Companies want to hire people as passionate about a product or service as themselves. If given an option, who wouldn't prefer to hang around like-minded individuals? Likewise, companies want to hire what they perceive to be the most talented candidates. As I like to say, talent begets talent. If a company already has well known and respected employees, it's likely far easier to attract young jedis looking for strong leadership and mentorship. 

So how do you set yourself apart? Great question, and we're looking to steer you in the right direction in the coming months. Sign up for the mojoLive beta and we'll soon have you on your way to improving your value to future employers.

[mojolive]

Keepin' it Real

So, your buddy posts pictures of his bachelor party on his Facebook page, and tags you in every one.  Because you find it nigh on impossible to keep up with the seemingly evergreen privacy policies and procedures, this slips past you, and it isn’t long before the hiring manager at the company you’re desperately trying to win a job with gets a gander at what probably should’ve stayed in Vegas.  This is all your fault!  You should’ve been more responsible!  You should’ve kept your professional life separate from your personal life!  You should have more discreet friends!

Or so go the conventional arguments about the increasingly nebulous territory that is social media writ large, and the role each technology should have in which area(s) of your life – and vice versa.  This recent Mashable article (http://mashable.com/2012/05/12/linkedin-profile-resume/) is quick to further suggest that you should intentionally paint a very stark picture of your professional self, lest somebody glean some detail about you that could be used to discriminate against you, not hire you, or demote or fire you once you’re in the door.  Admittedly, those are all bad outcomes, but is creating a scrubbed version of you solely for use in the professional world really the best way to go?

Sure, we could just advocate that you do all your career stuff here at mojoLive.com and thereby eliminate the worry of a stray social media posting, tweet, or picture gone awry.  But our mission is bigger, and we want to start pushing the envelope (even though we actually kinda hate those synergistic, value-added buzzterms) on the thinking around this subject anyway. 

Can a person really create two identities completely unaffected by each other in today’s environment?  Even if you were able to effectively set them up, companies now have the ability (and legal permission) to mine your posts and pages and store data that can be used by employers in the hiring process.  And just about everyone’s technologically savvy enough to conduct a Google search these days, so how long would it really be before your personal exploits were linked to your professional self, no matter how hard you try to keep them apart?  You’d have to stop using basically all social technologies—Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare – maybe even LinkedIn, given some of the options available there—and even then, who’s to say your friends wouldn’t continue to talk about you on their public pages?  How could you stop this madness?  Maybe the better question is:  should you?

While those of us from an older generation find it mind-boggling how cavalier today’s kids are about posting their every movement to the internet for all the world to see, security concerns aside, they just might be onto something.  Call it “truth in advertising” for the modern age, but really, why shouldn’t we all be able to see what there really is to see about someone?  Is it really better to have a sanitized version of someone in the hiring process, only to then find out who they really are once they’re on board?  And what does it say about the company that would fire you over a single drunken text or too-revealing picture?  Granted, if you put it out there, you don’t really have a right to be upset if a prospective or current employer uses it against you, but maybe that’s just one of life’s lessons, and part of developing yourself into a more mature, responsible professional. 

Here at mojoLive.com, we kind of encourage you to include some less-conventional items in your career profile, and generally advocate thinking of yourself as a whole, not as separate identities conveniently created to serve a single purpose.  We’re willing to wager (we’re counting on it, actually) that it makes for a more successful recruiting-hiring-performance management cycle in the long run, and it certainly takes some of the pressure off trying to juggle a few dozen disparate technologies and all their possible career implications.  Really, wouldn’t it be nice to just be yourself for a change?

[mojolive]

Hump Day Happiness, vol. 5

Another week, another set of new Caps. Let's get right to it, shall we:

Informant

Mmm we love fresh data. Give us a little extra intel on a Profile item using the [+ add info] link and you'll earn this Cap.

Brick by Brick

Have you been back to your Profile to add stuff since signing up? Tell you what, if you go add something—ANYTHING—to your Profile right now, I'll personally* give you this Cap.

That's it for this week. Hone your sleuthing skills and tune in next week to find out which new Caps are up for grabs.

*Within the context of this post, the term "personally" shall mean "I've asked our awesome devs make the code do it."

[mojolive]

New Features. On a Tuesday. Again. (take 4)

I may have to stop promising that features won't always be released on a Tuesday, because I keep proving myself wrong. Today we have a few new features for you. The list is actually rather small and that's because behind the scenes there are a ton of enhancements that have been happening and bug fixes filed from all our new users at php|tek. But we still managed to squeak a few new features in while we were at it!

Suggested Users We've added a new way to find people you might want to follow on mojoLive. In the People tab, under 'Find People', there's a new "Suggested Users" section that looks at your own experience and tries to find others on the system who match up or who you may know. This will also become part of the weekly emails, to let you know about new users that you might have missed.

Homepage Twitter Feed We are a huge fan of open communication, and to that we've added a live twitter feed on our homepage for any/all mentions of @mojoLive.

Login with Email You've got a ton of different accounts on different websites. And yes, sometimes you might actually forget what login you were allowed to use on which website. So to help you out we've made the ability for you to enter EITHER your username or your email address when you go to log in.

That's it for now, so keep that feedback coming and we'll keep adding stuff. (Maybe even on a Tuesday)

[mojolive]

Why I'm Now Addicted to mojoLive

I first heard the buzz about mojoLive on the CodeWorks 2011 tour when mojoLive sponsored the After Party for our Baltimore stop. Eli gave me a free t-shirt (in a women's size, nonetheless, awesome!). When I asked him what mojoLive was, he said "You'll see", and that's all I got out of him. In the weeks following, more and more details were released until finally, people began to be invited to the private alpha test. One of my co-workers, Keith Casey, began bragging about the caps he was earning, and I, not to be outdone, set out to get my own invite for mojoLive. Took me a few weeks, but one exciting afternoon, there was a message in my Inbox saying I had been invited to join mojoLive. I immediately clicked on it to finally see what this was all about. After learning that this was a career building site, I was a little reluctant. After all, I already have a job that I am very happy with, but I wanted to see what it was really about (and I couldn't let Keith earn more caps than me), so I started working on my profile. I am so glad I did. Not only is mojoLive a lot of fun, but all of my career information is finally organized in one place in an easy-to-read format! Every shiny cap with its great-looking graphic and amusing description encouraged me to find one more piece of information to add to see if I could earn another one. mojoLive records all of the normal resume stuff (degrees, skills, and job history), but it also keeps track of lots of other things that I never thought to mention on my resume (due to lack of space and just not knowing how to share the info). Items like my involvement in user groups, conference attendance, articles written, and more. With mojoLive, I can even link each of my talks to the feedback it received on joind.in or Meetup.com. These are all things that a potential employer or conference organizer should know about me, but I have never had a good way of telling them before. There's just not enough room on a single page resume to list all of this information, but it makes for a much better picture of what kind of employee I would be and how excited I am about my chosen field. This is great! I have been using mojoLive for two and a half months now, and I keep finding reasons to come back! There is a newsfeed that shows me what other people are adding to their profiles and which caps they are earning. This has given me ideas for things to add to my profile, and so I continue to improve and expand what I list as well. I have always had a hard time knowing what to list on my resume, but mojoLive makes it easy! So in short, I was skeptical at first, but now I'm sold on this. mojoLive is so much fun that I didn't even notice all the work I was doing to get my information organized. Thanks, mojoLive!

[mojolive]

Hump Day Happiness, vol. 4

As more and more people join mojoLive, we thought it would be appropriate to reward those of you who are social butterflies even in these early stages. Gathering followers doesn't just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside; it also helps you gather important feedback on your career in the form of ratings and is a constant reminder that, while leveling up your career is most certainly in your hands, it's not a journey you'll be taking alone.

The Dime

With the 10 followers it takes to unlock this Cap, you're well on your way to celebrity status.

Golden Goose

You're no Simpleton, and your 50 followers are (hopefully) much more willing than the innkeeper's daughters.

Tune in next week for some more Cappy goodness!

[mojolive]

Hump Day Happiness, vol. 3

In honor of php|tek 2012 (and also just a tiny bit because our team will be super-busy there tomorrow), this week's Hump Day Happiness has come early!  Without further ado, here are this week's new Caps:

Towel Day

Whether from the cold moons of Jaglan Beta, the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, or beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; as long as you log in on Towel Day (May 25), you'll separate yourself from the strags by carrying this Cap with you on your travels.

Braggadocios

Your career is looking great and you know it!  Share 50 times to earn this Cap.

…and last but certainly not least

php|tek 2012

Those of you at Tek this year are in for a special treat.  Add "php|tek 2012" to your Involvements (the auto-complete dialog can help you avoid possible typos) and we'll send this Cap your way.  Don't wait too long, though. This gem is only available for a limited time.

[mojolive]

mojoLive is Headed for Tek '12

By now you've learned that pretty much every week at mojoLive is an exciting one.  This week, however, may be the most exciting yet.

On May 22 - May 25, Chicago, IL will play host to what are certainly the greatest minds in the PHP community, and arguably the greatest minds in web development as a whole.  At mojoLive, we've decided to place ourselves right in the middle of all this excitement at php|tek 2012.

Of course, you already know that Tek attendees will be given the newly-minted php|tek 2012 Cap on mojoLive, but that is only the beginning.  To really kick things off, we'll be making a HUGE announcement during the opening keynote on Wednesday, May 23 at 9:00am.  Trust me, you won't want to miss it.  When the ensuing storm of heartfelt cheers and mojoLive swag settles, the world of career management will never be the same.  And you, php|tek attendees, will have been there to witness this momentous event.

Be on the lookout for mojoLive's representatives at Tek: Eli White (@EliW), Sandy Smith (@SandyS1), Oscar Merida (@omerida), and Kevin Bruce (@kevinbruce).  Find them early, as I'm sure the week's excitement will only serve to elevate their celebrity status, and the resultant wall of newly-hired bodyguards will render them nearly-impossible to reach.

[mojolive]

Hump Day Happiness, vol. 2

This week's Caps are all about sharing your greatness with the world: Megaphone Don't be afraid to put yourself out there.  Share your Profile, a Cap, or a Score change to one of your social networks and we'll reward your extroversion with a Cap.

Open Book Why stop there?  Nine more shares (for the arithmetic averse, that's 10 total) and you'll have a little more flair on your Profile.

Center of Attention Have a friend or two with a minute to spare?  10 friends with a couple seconds?  20 unreliable acquaintances who may or may not have second?  Bug them to rate stuff on your Profile.  Once you've received 10 ratings, this one's all yours.  And be kind, please rewind return the favor.

Don't bug your friends too much, though.  You'll need them to stick around if you want to stand a chance at earning some of next week's Caps.