This is IT - Why 2.0
March 21, 2008 by Kate Olson
A few days ago Aaron Strout of Mzinga tweeted about wanting to have job candidates apply through social media and I responded immediately with “DO IT”! Well, he has his jobs posted now and this is a must-see for all educators - this is the world for which we’re preparing our students - can anyone truly argue anymore that 2.0 isn’t relevant in schools?
An excerpt from “Hiring in a “2.0″ World - Today’s Hiring Process“:
“What’s Broken | How to Fix It
The two biggest issues I have with the process I’ve outlined above is one, it’s hard to really learn much about a person from a resume. Personally, I’ve been professionally employed for nearly 20 years now and I’ll be damned if 3-4 pages in a Word document can do just to my experience during that time. Seth Godin talks more about this problem in one of his recent posts (thanks to @drthomasho for passing that post along.)
Now I understand that this is a necessary evil but that’s where the power of community and social networks can really augment the process. In today’s world:
- Why not see what my friends have to say about me on LinkedIn?
- Look at what’s been written about me (good or bad) on Google search results.
- Check out my writing style and thought process on my work and/or personal blog.
- See who my professional and personal contacts are on Facebook.
My other issue I have is that even if someone looks great on paper, they may not be great in person. Now short of perfecting video conferencing (even that can be gamed), there is no substitute for a face-to-face meetings. However, if I could get a better sense of who someone is first beyond the 25-30 bullets they’ve used to sum up their career, I may be able to weed out people earlier on in the process. Conversely, I may be end up NOT weeding out someone that would have been cut early because I loved their blog or I know two or three of their colleagues.”
Aaron, I applaud you - this is incredible! And something I’ve said in my head (and to anyone who would listen) many times……….
To all business educators still teaching shorthand, wake up and revamp your Employment Readiness courses………it’s a whole new world out there!
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Kate - thanks for your kind words. I am equally excited to see how this application of social media to a traditional business process i.e. recruiting works. Stay tuned on Twitter for updates!
Best,
Aaron (@astrout)
I think this is a great idea. I missed the tweet so I’m glad you wrote about this. I am interested in hearing the results to this.
Mzinga walks the talk with social media recruiting experiment…
Citizen marketer Aaron Strout is carrying out an interesting experiment in social media recruiting as he seeks to fill two positions at Mzinga, a company that builds online communities (Necessary disclosure: I do some podcast production work for Mzin…
Employers may be put off by what they read about prospective candidates on their Facebook or MySpace … people post things about themselves that they would not want an employer to see.
Marie - you make a good point. Not everyone will want a potential employer to see their profile on Facebook and Myspasce. However, the beauty of most social networking sites these days is that they’ve created robust privacy settings. People can choose to reveal or hide any information they want about themselves (and should if the info is too racy.)
On other thing to consider in my case is the fact that I’m okay with seeing the “total” package - good and bad - about the people I’m trying to hire. If I’m asking people to unveil a little more of themselves, I need to be able to be mature enough to realize that they have real lives and that most folks don’t manage their FB/MySPace profiles for employer benefits.
Thanks for the feedback.
Best,
Aaron (@astrout)
[…] but somehow hasn’t become a matter of importance in mainstream education. In the post This is IT - Why Web 2.0, Aaron Strout was mentioned for posting a job at Mzinga and requiring applicants to apply through […]
[…] but somehow hasn’t become a matter of importance in mainstream education. In my post This is IT - Why Web 2.0, Aaron Strout of Mzinga was mentioned for posting a job and requiring applicants to apply through […]