Your Online Self

[Last Updated on Thursday 1/17/2023]
It’s the 21st century, so of course you’re online.
How to put your best foot forward?

Some general philosophy:

• Use your name consistently online:
  I use “BenSlivka” wherever possible in my web URLs:
  benslivka.com (10/27/2010)
  facebook.com/BenSlivka (6/8/2004)
  github.com/BenSlivka (5/5/2014)
  instagram.com/BenSlivka/ (4/9/2012)
  linkedin.com/in/benslivka (1/7/2004)
  slivka.com (11/23/1997)
  BenSlivka.smugmug.com/ (4/21/2017)
  twitter.com/BenSlivka (3/18/2007)
  youtube.com/@BenSlivka (10/14/2006)
• Be professional:
  If you don’t want a prospective employer to see it, don’t post it.
• Use proper English:
  www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Style-Third-Edition/dp/0205191584 is my favorite book (the later editions are bloated, precisely the opposite of what Strunk & White preached).

Being Online:

1. A personal website:
   • I have several, but one is just fine for you (www.slivka.com is mostly travel photos, www.benslivka.com is this WordPress blog, www.slivka.org is my family foundation, www.benslivka.net redirects to my LinkedIn profile).
   • I recommend www.NameCheap.com as your Registrar, then use www.WordPress.com or some other hosting solution.
   • Try to find a short domain name that is still (mostly) your name. Some I’ve seen recently include www.gcan.co, www.nicolezhu.io, and www.RobinBrewer.com.
   • Avoid long domain names, e.g., www.FirstnameMiddle1Middle2Lastname.com!
   • At a minimum, you want to include a link to your LinkedIn profile (online resume) and a short 1-2 paragraph summary about yourself.
   • After that, a portfolio of your work (github, code for projects, links to websites and/or videos you have created, etc.) really helps you stand out.
   • Definitely see what other high school and college students are doing with their personal websites, but…
   • Don’t be intimidated at the prospect of building a website: even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
2. Your email address:
   • Mine is ben{at}slivka{dot}com.  I was lucky to have an uncommon last name and to be around to register slivka.com in 1997.
   • If you’ve registered a short domain name, use that for your email, too (probably redirect or host at GMail).
   • Otherwise, use a short gmail.com address (I have benslivka{at}gmail{dot}com, too).
   • Be professional (FuzzyBunny34@ may have been cute when you were 12…).
3. Your LinkedIn profile:
   • Pro Tip: Be sure to edit your LinkedIn URL to remove the random letters/numbers that LI appends at the end of your default URL.
   • This is your online resume, so keep it up to date, and have a “paper” resume as back-up.
   • Your college information should include GPA, and for STEM degrees, you can list major (CS, EE, Math, etc.) courses.
   • Be sure to include high school performance (GPA, class rank, component SAT/ACT scores, AP test scores, and key achievements (3rd place state chess championship, yes; president of French Club, no).
   • “Work Experience” is paid work, “Volunteer” is un-paid.
   • Be sure to include hours/week and total weeks for every job, project, etc.
   • Please list specific, concrete information for each effort: how many customers served, how many lines of code written, bugs fixed, dates, dollars saved, etc.
4. Your Resume:
   • Create a printable version (likely in Microsoft Word) of your LI information.
   • Focus on your most important information so it all fits on one printed page.
5. Using Twitter:
   • Even if you’re not going to use Twitter much (I don’t), you should still create an account so no one can be the “fake BenSlivka”.  😉
   • Unless you aspire to work in media or politics, Twitter is unlikely to advance your career.
6. Using Facebook:
   • I joined northwestern.thefacebook.com in 6/2004 when it launched at NU and was only open to people with @northwestern.edu email addresses.
   • You can spend hours/day on Facebook if you’re not careful.
   • Be careful.
7. YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.:
   • I created my Instagram account in 2012, but I used it very sparingly. After my wife took up photography a few years ago, I tried to use Instagram a bit more. But until late 2021, you could only upload photos from the mobile app. [Since then, I’ve noticed my Facebook posts sometimes get “cross-posted” to Instagram. Haven’t tried to figure out how/when that happens.]
   • My YouTube channel (youtube.com/@BenSlivka) has more than 3,300 videos, but then I’m unemployed, I travel a lot, and I captured my first digital still image in 1996 and my first digital video in 1997.
     [1/13/2022: 3,206 videos; 6,369,365 views; 15,516 followers; 1 video has 1.9M views; I had a spike in traffic from mid-2019 to mid-2020, and then YouTube changed something, and my traffic fell off dramatically.]
     [1/28/2021: 3,149 videos; 6,001,244 views; 14,667 followers; 1 video has 1.9M views, 2 others >500K views]
     [6/28/2019: 2,571 videos; 3.1M views; 2 videos have >500K views each]
     [1/4/2016: ~1,200 videos]
   • Unless you’re a video artist, post sparingly on YouTube.
   • When I first wrote this post in 2016, Tumblr and Pinterest were reasonably popular.
     [1/13/2002: I don’t see much activity on those sites today.]
8. GitHub:
   • Every CS and CE major must have a GitHub account.
   • I did most of my professional coding at Microsoft, and I wrote my last serious code there in 1994 (for CAB files).
   • I only write a bit of JavaScript for www.slivka.com very occasionally.
   • I created www.github.com/BenSlivka in 2014, but didn’t post any code until February 2021, when I found an OS/2 application (1988) and three Windows applications (1994, 1995, 1997) I could post.
   • Be sure to include a commentary with every project that explains the context, e.g., for a specific class, or a hobby, or perhaps for a non-profit organization.

Please let me know if you have any questions.