Monday, February 4, 2008

Alumni News: Eric Dahl

On the first day at his new job, Eric Dahl learned that the startup Web site he just joined as editor had been acquired by Monster.com. Affinity Labs, which runs career-oriented sites like GovCentral and ArtBistro, became part of the Monster umbrella on January 4.

Eric’s home is TechCommunity, aimed at…well…the tech community. Eric acknowledges that the name does not exactly sing but he hopes to “do something about that.” His job is to give the site focus: “I'll be generating as much content as I can on my own, making deals to share stories with other sites, highlighting good contributions from community members, and moderating member discussions.”

One appeal of the new position was following a stellar boss, Steve Fox, formerly of Omni, PC World and InfoWorld, who recruited Eric. Since graduating from Drake in 1999, Eric had been at PC World, ending up as senior editor.

“After eight years at my first job out of school, it was probably four years or so past time for a change,” Eric says.

The moral of this story:
• A good boss is well worth following.
• Your career will take you in directions you may never have considered, so be open to new ideas and, especially, new media.
• It pays to be an expert in a content area.

2 comments:

Kyle Stone said...

As one of Eric's co-workers and the head editor of GovCentral, I can tell you that we're glad to have Eric - and Steve - on our team here.

Thanks for giving Eric this shout-out. If you're wondering, I found it using IceRocket - ever heard of it?

~Kyle Stone

Patricia Prijatel said...

Thanks, Kyle. Give my best to Eric . :) I checked out IceRocket and will play with it a bit more. Thanks for that tip. Pat