LitmanLive

Hi guys, I've finally made the move over to Wordpress so if you've come through to here from Jed's blog article on How to get a job in social media please find my new blog at http://www.litmanlive.co.uk and let's talk over there.

Speak to you soon.

All the best,

M.

I was in Shoreditch earlier on today and was a bit lost to say the least.

I knew I wasn't far away from where I wanted to be but was confronted with side roads wherever I turned.. this wasn't going to be a happy ending, put a map in front of me and I turn in to Casper the not so friendly ghost.

For a while I walked around just taking in the sights and surroundings because I had a bit of time on my hands but that got a little tiring pretty quickly..

I found a friendly bus conductor who was stopped at the side having a smoke so I asked him where it was I was looking for.. he sent me in the completely wrong direction so after a while walking I stopped a lovely geeky chap who I thought would find me the way to my mecca.. and that he did.. hey I like to adhere to the geeky stereotype every now and then too you know.. He said he wasn't entirely sure where it was but time was running out for me.. then he had a cunning plan and came to my rescue through the wonders of Google. Whoever said they were getting all evil!

He whipped out his iPhone and started up the Maps application. Genius I thought, why didn't I think of that.. In the times I've used Google Maps in Milton Keynes it was really unreliable and you couldn't trust the output so I didn't tend to use it so much.. right there on the street we were having a bit of iPhone loving and sharing tips on cool apps, iPhone formatted sites etc.. I turned location services on on my iPhone (normally off to conserve batter) and pressed the button in the bottom left hand corner which magically located where I was with a nice flashing blue dot.. I whacked in the post code where I was heading for and it plotted me a line how to get there and directions! 

Whereas I've had limited success with Google Maps previously, it absolutely was a lifesaver and took me exactly to where I wanted to be along with providing directions. I even had time to scope out where it was and then head back down the road to get a sandwich.. Perfect. It was quite a spectacle as your location updates itself on the map so you can see if you're taking a wrong turn (which I did a few times just to try it out.. honest guv!) I was pretty impressed all in all.

Until next time.  

Although it may pain me to say it, I tick all the right boxes for this article. It probably resonated with me more than your typical average as yes I'm a geek, blogger and single.. huzzah! (It's something to rejoice now?)

I stumbled across the article (no honest!) when reading Lolly's awesome blog over at Blog Til You Drop. To read in full check out the following 50 Reasons to Date a Geek.

Featuring 50 facts, it does go on a bit, you get the idea after maybe the 10th fact but it's still kinda comforting that it's all fairly common to us geeks!

Which of the 50 sound most like you?

Hello to new and old readers..

I've been looking to get back in to the blog world for the past while recently but have been putting it off due to not knowing which avenue to go down with it in terms of back end stuff eg blogger, typepad, wordpress or vox? I'm sure there are many more but for now I've brought back to life the once called mikesnews.vox.com and removed all my old posts apart from the last couple which chronicles the journey from start to finish in my career as an intern at HP and culminates in a group shot of us all on our last day.

Over the past year I completed my final year of a 4 year marketing degree. I graduated in July with a 2:1 which was a great achievement that I'm proud of.

I've come back to the blogging scene now with a new domain and the start of what could essentially be seen to be my own brand, LitmanLive. Next thing to think about was the thoughts I had around what is it that I actually want to talk about and following on from that what value can I offer to the people that are spending the time in reading?

With this blog, my soundboard to the world, I plan on discussing all the latest trends in technology, online, mobile, marketing and social media. I may talk about other things, eg gaming and subjects irrelevant to the above but that's where my interests lie at present.

You can now subscribe to my blog using Feedburner, if you have any problems with this let me know.

I chose to use Vox because of previously being an active blogger on the platform, I really enjoyed mobile blogging on my Nokia N95 and thought to get myself started again I'll stick to what I'm familiar with. I do plan on having a custom blog design made but this is not probably going to be until December. For now, this is my home. Welcome all.
 
Any feedback or comments please send them to email@litmanlive.com

Thanks.

LL. 

Howdy, thanks for stopping by. I'd be interested to hear from each and every one of you reading this for your feedback and any topics for future discussions etc.. As a newly established blog (Est Today! August 17th 07) I'm constantly thriving to better myself through my writings and to have a large readership in coming years. Again, thanks for taking the time out.

So, where am I at today? It's been a few years now that I've been off the blog scene, I used to really enjoy blogging. It came a time last year when I was spending all my time applying for work placements that the blog started to suffer.  My days were filled with applications, online or otherwise and that was basically it. However, I am pleased to say that all the time and effort spent on looking to further myself by getting on to an industrial placement for a year was not in vain.

After a phone interview, a gruelling assessment day and two further interviews they, for one reason or another liked what they saw and accepted me on to the Internship scheme at Hewlett Packard, working at their HQ in Reading, UK. I was ecstatic, over the moon. It was said that approx 1000 people had applied for 100 jobs so I'm immensely proud to have been the 1/10 who got a job there! Whether that is entirely true or not, I didn't spent too much time questioning!

It's been a truly fantastic year which was a real adventure for me. I'm definitely sad to see it come to an end, I don't want to get all deep and sentimental but for me, personally, it's been a life changing year for sure. Every one of the HP Interns I'm sure will have had a completely different experience to the next but I had a great friends network, lived with some brilliant housemates who I learnt a great deal from and in essence, I've made some friends for life.

It was a huge ego boost for me to be in an elite group of people who were the cream of the crop. It certainly gave me great belief and really sent me on my way to great things over the year. I felt like it had been some pressure immediately lifted off my shoulders from all the people who had doubted me believing that I wouldn't amount to anything, mainly from School. If only they could see me now.

I will in time put a selection of the years pics up on here but until then.. more text. It was great to get some first hand experience on life in the IT Industry and from a purely careers perspective I think it boosts my chances of getting on a decent Graduate Scheme with a well known company with hopefully me being preferred with a placement over someone who has just come out of Uni with their degree only. My top 3 would be Microsoft, Apple and Nintendo.. if you're reading, I'd like a Grad Job please :D

My job interests are something that the years placement has actually made me change quite considerably.. Before going in to work I thought I had an idea of what it was I wanted to do. This was questioned almost immediately when starting at work because I was put in to a role where I had to 'think outside the box' as they say and it challenged my own ideas on Marketing for example. Where I wanted to be and where I want to head now are two different areas completely. So, even for that reason and that reason alone, the placement year was hugely beneficial. Then you add on top of that a decent wage, meeting loads of great people.. retrospectively, there weren't many negatives!

I think now where I would like to be heading is within Marketing but working with products in an area which I am familiar and have an interest. I'm interested in technology and as a consumer myself of all things shiny and silver I'd like to be involved in a position that involves the consumer market and product.. I think I'm trying to actually now tell myself what it is I want to do.. I was reading an article in MCV, a trade video games magazine and there was a guy, who's job was Trade and Promotions Manager for Nintendo UK. That, I thought would be perfect! Over this year though, I've been working as more of a Business and Market Analyst, so that's also an area I'd like to pursue for a company like Hitwise, Datamonitor or Nielsen. I worked with someone whilst at HP who was a European Internet Analyst for one of the data houses which sounds interesting too.

You'll probably notice that I'm going to be using this blog more for me to articulate my thoughts and get them down, on paper, in black and white. If you've made it to this point then thanks, it means a lot to me. Why not drop me a comment also and let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
Mike.