Monday, March 21, 2011

I am Jane Donuts. I am also (really) someone else.

When I joined Twitter, I made a conscious decision to not use or be associated with my real name. I wanted to say whatever I wanted without fear that it would in some way jeopardize my job, which was doing public relations for technology and entertainment companies, some of which entailed social media strategy. 

So I used a handle that I've had online for years. But if you googled it, you could find out all kinds of things about me that were associated with my real name. Blogs I've had, comments I've made on other blogs, old message board postings, etc. Stuff going back to my early twenties, which is now kind of a long time ago, and a lot of which was just dumb and naive.

So then I changed my handle to Jane Donuts. Jane Donuts was a relatively fresh alter ego I'd developed for a creative writing/blogging project that eventually became my current blog, and I liked the name - it made me laugh - so it stuck. And now four years later, I follow and have about four hundred followers. It's not a huge number, but it's not insignificant either when you consider these are mostly people and companies that share my interests - namely music, books, writing, technology and media. 

 

And now I find myself with a little dilemma. I'm in the midst of a career change and am applying to jobs that are heavier on the writing and social media, many of which require the applicant to show they have some skills in those worlds.

So what do I do? Do I just throw Jane Donuts the twitter feed and Jane Donuts the blog out there? If I do that, I should probably go back and look at anything I've said that could be considered offensive, and delete it. But then that would be compromising what I set out to do when I started these things, which was just to use them as an outlet for things I was thinking about or feeling.  

I'm leaning toward just saying screw it, and citing them in my job search. I'm not exactly running for president. But if you have any thoughts on this matter, let me know.

 

 

 

Posted via email from Jane Donuts is Starting Over

6 comments:

Chris said...

I'm probably not the right person for career advice, but I don't think anything you discuss on twitter is so subversive as to make you seem risky or undesirable as an employee.

Unless it's obviously going to hurt, I say leverage everything you got, girl!

Best of luck to you.

John Bell said...

Weeks ago, I read enough of your blog and your twitter posts to follow you. There is so much here that demonstrates 'Jane Donut's' creativity, know-how, intuition and smarts that you should proudly claim authorship. Besides, do you really want to work for someone who wouldn't hire you because of these views?

Jane Donuts said...

Thanks to both of you for your comments! I'm so flattered. I think I will use it - @ spinchange, I'm occasionally a little grouchy, but agreed, nothing truly objectionable here.
And @John, you're right, I don't want to work for someone that takes issue with my views, however, I do know that in some cases such views get taken out of context and used against you. So I'm just trying to be smart about it. But overall, I think I'm just going to go ahead and worry about collateral damage later.

1mindi said...

Definitely use it. Some years ago, I had an ironic advice-to-the-lovelorn column called "Jaded Industry Love Maven" in the Filmmakers Alliance newsletter. I thought it was hilarious and cited it a few times. Why not, I say.

ES said...

We are all Jane Donuts.

Anonymous said...

I know who you are!!