In early 1999 I had a job interview with a market research firm. One of the things they asked me about was my ability to use a search engine to find information on the internet. Google had just been founded a few months earlier and internet searching was difficult. The fact that I was good at doing internet searches was a plus on my resume-one of the reasons they’d called me in.
Now? Can you imagine someone putting that they could find information on the internet on their resume? Outside of specialized research librarian jobs that would be a ridiculous thing to put on a resume. But, it wasn’t ridiculous 17 years ago. Now, even small children have what was once an actual skill, so no need to mention it.
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In general, I agree with this article. However, just because everyone does it, that doesn’t mean that everyone is as good at researching items on the Internet as everyone else is. Personally, I flatter myself to think that I am very good at Internet searching. Frequently, both at work and privately, people ask me to look for something for them on the Internet, because there is some skill involved in formulating the most effective search terms and in weeding out the multiple “hits,” in order to efficiently obtain the most helpful information. My Boss tells everyone that I am his “go-to” person — out of a very large staff made up of, largely, so-called “digital natives” (which I am not) — when he needs to locate random information.
Same here. I am often able to find things online that friends, family, and co-workers couldn’t find.
Google is a tool. Nearly everyone has a copy of the tool, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is skilled in _using_ the tool.
Buzz words that change over time. Hmmm…I think today the current line up is:
cloud
cyber
social
Uber-for
1099
1099?
Does that have some weird new slang meaning? Because 1099 isn’t jargon, and it’s been around for decades.