Too technical

If you show up for the interview and the whole Best Buy handheld devices section slides out of your briefcase, can you look like a tech addict? If HR googles you and discovers your blog, your Flickr stream, your Facebook, your MySpace, your tweets, before they find your capping exercise/thesis, could you look too techie, and too troublesome?

When I had my first internship placement, I got a mid-placement evaluation and my supervisor said that I tended to use the Internet too much. Now, this was the early days of the millennium, and there was still a lot of suspicion about the Internet and its non-fun/non-porn value for libraries, but I did listen to her and repented and used more print resources. (I wonder how much of that stuff is only accessible as a database now?) But I think, to her, I looked like too much of a techie, too quick to look for the power button before the table of contents. I wonder if tech savvy is not read sometimes by HR as tech savagery: we look too high maintenance, like a temperamental wireless router.

I have thought of my technical skills as a benefit, since I am not afraid of any new items that we want to introduce, nor any project--and there are more of them lately--that require some knowledge of the internet and its many languages and gestures. I am also aware of the eye-rolling when I gush over my blackberry or get excited about extra USB ports and I do try to tone down my excitement. But it does make me think: Are too many internet or technical skills a deficit?