It’s our anniversary, and what a first year we had. After buying back about.me, we put so much love into the service, adding Compliments, Collections & Replies, all displayed in a beautiful People Feed that shows you who is interested in you and people you have things in common.

Many of us have been lucky to be involved with great companies (WordPress, MakerBot, Blue Bottle Coffee, True Ventures, Adaptive Path, etc) that embrace openness in sharing their numbers – openness is core to us at about.me and we’d like to share our one year progress:

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For our anniversary, help us celebrate by updating your page or sending someone a compliment – hopefully you’ll like what you see.

One last thing: our whole team is plugged in almost 24/7 to reply to your questions and feedback. Whether you need help, have an idea, or just want to say “hello”, we’ll get back to you within a few hours.

In case you want to connect with me personally, just email me from my page or tweet me anytime @tonysphere. Thanks again for an amazing year!

Tony Conrad

When looking for work in a tough job market, it can be extremely hard to stand out from other candidates. There may be many other people just as smart and just as qualified applying for the same positions, so what can you do to get ahead?

Be Memorable

You’ll want to make a great impression, but you don’t want to end up being remembered for zany or unprofessional antics. After the essential qualifications, your best assets are your passions and personality. These are what make you distinct and memorable.

When applying for jobs your about.me page should be professionally tuned: no typos, and working links to all of your important web content. But don’t skimp on the personality- and certainly don’t ignore sharing a bit about your passions.

Express Yourself

Employers are going to look though your web presence before they hire you, it’s as much a part of your background as past jobs or academic history. On your about.me page, you can link to you social profile while presenting yourself exactly as you’d like to be seen. Unlike other services, you control all the content on the page, and you get to flex your creativity in the bio and overall design.

Including your passions in your biography not only conveys who you are better than your resume alone, but also provides fodder for connecting with a potential interviewer. You never know if the person on the other side of the table shares your passion for hip-hop dance or astronomy, and those are exactly the types of mental hooks that can help your impression last.

Welcome to the working week. To help get this week off to a good start, take a look at the inspiring pages below. Please note Art Director/UX Designer Vivian Trang featured in the header for this post.

Oleg Komarov, Psychologist, Graduate Student at Samara State Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities.

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Life on the farm ‘aint what it use to be – and that’s a good thing! Improving connectivity in agricultural areas allows more people to get online and for the increased visibility of rural producers.

Connectedness helps us understand a different perspective, and can put each of us in someone else’s shoes. I’m particularly excited by the abundance of farmers and agriculture-focus professionals on about.me. Connecting with people through about.me that you don’t have an opportunity to meet during your normal day is invigorating!

“Cultivators of the earth are the most virtuous and independent citizens.” -Thomas Jefferson”

We rely on farmers to nurture and harvest the food that sustains us all. There are countless benefits to urban life, but one downside is the disconnect between the food we find at the market and the people who produce it.

Farmers like Chris Pawelski (driving his tractor in the header image) provide an essential job. Take a moment to send them a compliment and let them know they’re appreciated!

One essential part of building a strong community is helping new members settle in quickly. This process is something we talk about a lot here at about.me, and we are always working to improve the new user experience.

As our Community Manager, I’m especially proud of how quickly people can get into the groove of browsing, complimenting, and making new connections. Given the broad range of people on about.me, it’s amazing how quickly new community members get started interacting on the site.

Here, With Purpose.

The geographic, professional, and cultural diversity on about.me is amazing. But what is truly astounding is that we are all on about.me with a similar purpose.

There are many uses for about.me and infinite ways to interact with the platform and with other people. Yet we all use about.me to achieve a few core goals:

1. Present ourselves.
2. Discover new people.
3. Connect with people.

The simplicity sets about.me apart. There are literally millions of us on about.me from every country in the world. We swap compliments across continents. We learn about people living drastically different lives from ourselves and about people in the same situation living across the globe.

All Together

The about.me community is bound together by a common interest in sharing about ourselves, learning about others, and making meaningful connections. Present, Discover, Connect.

With this in mind I’d like to ask for a favor: have someone you know create a new about.me page. A classmate. Your mom. A co-worker or teammate. The more people we have in our community, the more we all have to explore. The more we can all learn about the world, and about the passions that connect us all.

I’d appreciate it a lot, feel free to let me know when they sign up (@jacobhartog) I’d love to thank you personally.

Be well and have a wonderful week.

Jacob

Welcome to the working week. To help get this week off to a good start, take a look at the inspiring pages below.

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