Employers, Recruiters and the Web

Many times over, educators ask us how are corporations responding to online personal branding? Why should we consume class time to teach this agenda? How does it help foster career success?  This is the first in a multi-part series covering the WHY as it relates to the online personal branding agenda.

Months ago, I spoke to Kirsti Stubbs, a recruiter with Starbucks Canada. You can check out what she has to say about scouting for candidates within the social media spectrum at this link.

This month, I sat down with Eliot Burdett, a partner with Peak Sales Recruiting. Eliot is a Partner and a very active blogger himself. He and his team make extensive use of the Internet to source and learn about prospective candidates they bring to employers. Eliot shares his views on how a candidate can truly differentiate themselves with an online presence.  He also offers candid views on common mistakes people make when they interact online and apply for jobs.

#plmkwysdt Please let me know when you stop doing that

So you got my reply to your Foursquare update – #plmkwysdt.

Don’t take it personally, but I am checking out and I am no longer following you. There are too many interesting threads to follow and I am simply looking to cut down on meaningless information flowing into my Twitter feed.

Since I can’t receive your Foursquare updates in context and my Twitter client does not support filtering content out of my stream, I am forced to unfollow you. I really don’t need to know about trips to Lowes, Home Depot, Starbucks or the pub. Unless you ask me to join you:). Without question, a certain segment that is online all the time are keen on the badges and the honor of being designated mayor. Consider another viewpoint. Some people you are connected to don’t need to know these details.

If you come around to this viewpoint and you stop Tweeting your Foursquare updates, PLEASE let me know and I will start following you again. After all, you do have interesting news and views to share. It’s why I followed you in the first place!

All the best!

The social needs context… please

Make no mistake, a huge segment of mobile phone users are jumping all over Foursquare. Its fun, hip and who wouldn’t want to be major of their favorite bar? Say it with me…Norm!

The only challenge with Foursquare and other check-in services and games is they generate chaffe. Chaffe is defined as “Trivial or worthless matter.” Other culprits include Farmville, Mob Boss etc…Oh My!

Let me explain. Chaffe is something that clutters your inbox, news or Twitter feed when the update is not relevant at the precise point in time. What do we do? We can set up spam filters, feed filters or simply stop subscribing…begrudgingly.

Now, imagine 100% penetration and uptake of Foursquare by all the mobile users in North America alone. If each of us checked into Starbucks on the way to work, the office, the gym, the local pub, then home….this would generate 1.5 Billion updates per day in North America. Twitter is currently serving 50 Million Tweets per day. They would need to increase their already overloaded capacity by a multiple of 30 just for North America.

Since the average person follows 125 people, this translates into 635 Tweets that are simply chaffe…unless you are mobile and keen for a meet-up at the coffee shop, coming out of the office, the gym or at the pub.

Enter the phrase, context sensitive updates and tweets. Today’s developers should be building out system level preferences that let users accept updates that are in context. For me, this would mean turning on a preference to let trusted applications know I am mobile and keen for a choice meet up. I would also like a custom alert that would literally have my phone poke me, so I don’t miss out. Make no mistake, this would open privacy issues with my mobile provider…but they already know if I am out of my home.

Leave behind a comment and pile on this agenda. If we don’t get context aware applications, the shear volume of inane updates will turn us away.

What will a publisher look like in 5 years? If the web is a global learning environment, what roll will they play?

I have been noting more teachers embracing all kinds new content and material they are assembling and bringing into class. At my spouses college, more and more classes are not using traditional textbooks. They are getting material from the web, direct publishers and the like.

The advent of social media is creating a network of collective experts that as a whole, can overpower the reach, depth and knowledge of one or a few co-authors. So, what does the future hold for a traditional textbook publisher?

I get the impression they will need to transform how they aggregate, assemble and edit learning materials. In my opinion, it will turn their existing model upside down…from sales to production to ongoing textbook revisions.

Will they change or will Amazon, Blackboard, Apple, Desire2Learn or Google  become the next generation textbook publisher? Will a publisher need to think more like a portal? Will content need to edutain?

I have taken our content and software to traditional publishers. The reaction has been well received by staff that are younger or that have stay connected to how the web is transforming learning and communications.

What is your perspective? I am keen to hear your views.

Part-time Professor of the Year, Patti Church!

A big shout out to Patti Church, for winning the Dianne Bloor Part-time Faculty Award at Algonquin College this year. When she was nominated by Jennifer Monk, Patti was honored to be amongst so many other amazing instructors, each with their own unique experiences worthy of such an award.

As the event drew closer, my biased perspective was, the award was hers. I watched her develop and execute so many creative programs and interesting new learning experiences for her students. Many of them have thanked her profusely and she continues to stay in touch with them.

I have every belief she will continue to inspire students and build amazing new learning experiences. She is a change agent that will keep pushing for new tools and programs that bolster the student experience.

Thank you Jennifer Monk (@jenmonk) for nominating, suporting and inspiring her.

Focus, grit and steadfast determination

Last night, Patti and I dropped into a BobCat concert – our first! We were very keen to check out two hugely talented musicians we had met earlier in their careers. Three years back, both Amanda Rheume and Tara Holloway had just committed to starting their careers as professional musicians.

We were absolutely blown away at the talent we saw last night. Both of these women and the legendary Jeff Logan (lead guitar)  simply blew the crowd out of the water. What I found so inspiring was their humility, support for each other and personal commitment to success in what they love doing best – performing!

These three are putting in their time and doing their share of road trips. I have no doubt these musicians will find their place amongst a broader base of audiences. They continue to learn, create and build their respective brands through performing, producing and getting out there amongst us.

Students thinking about their passion core should make sure they follow the path that gives them such passion and unbridled commitment. When you come across someone with such focus and passion, it is not hard to root for them and share their music and stories. Check them out!

Social Network Privacy – assume it does not exist

Most recently, Techcrunch highlighted a security hole in Facebook that would enable your chat sessions to be viewed by your friends. Shocker!

For those that believe what you send to friends or post to sections of a web site will stay private…don’t count on it. Fast moving software companies, faulty software components and copying and pasting are surefire causes of your data showing up in the wrong place.

A word of advice?

Assume anything you type, post or share will be viewed by anyone. Counting on Facebook or any software to be 100% secure, is simply a bad idea. Someone could easily copy and paste your post to another blog.

Follow the golden rule – don’t post content that you would NOT say to people on the street, at work or at school.  By following this rule, you will be able to sleep at night and NOT miss out on professional or personal opportunities downstream.

A levy on your Tuition – $500 for an iPAD? Please sound off…

Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania is adding a US $5oo levy to its tuition fees, so students can all get an Apple iPad for class work, school work, you name it. I am sure the Apple enthusiasts will applaud the notion, while Windows people that already have a laptop will be upset.

This is tricky. Here is why.

The cost of running computer labs and standard configurations is not cheap – these costs are effectively passed on to students that attend college or university. Technicians need to maintain machines spread all over campus, and they need to maintain the software stack on those machines. All of this comes at a cost. By standardizing on a platform (Apple) and making students own them, they are putting the onus on students to care, feed and maintain the machines. Since a large percent of students would likely covet such a device…perhaps its win win.

On the other hand, many homes are filled with laptops and devices that can be shipped off to school with students. The challenge is, all of these machines have different operating systems, patches, security updates, applications, browsers, browser versions. It is a complete nightmare for your school administrators. They want to support you, but all those configurations have a cost…that is passed onto you.

I for one, think economics should drive the decision. If the likes of Seton have a business case that would demonstrate a cheaper impact in tuition, I would be all over this. How about you?
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An active online brand works around the clock and remotely…

One of our Carleton University students, Desirae Odjick, is a 3rd year Commerce student that was keen on landing a summer job that would compliment her career direction.  She took an active roll in the WhyHire.me program last fall (2009) and built out a tremendous looking profile as part of her New Tools and Approaches class at Sprott . Desirae also keeps her profile current through the use of Twitter and Social Bookmarks. By doing this, she clearly demonstrates she stays connected to issues tied to her future career goals and professional interests. This is one of the keys to taking an active roll in conveying your brand!

WhyHire.me puts an emphasis on coaching, online marketing and social media tools through the applications of the 4 D’s of Online Personal Branding in a classroom or online learning setting. Thanks to professor Leighann Neilson, the material was conveyed through active and applied discussions, assignments and tasks pulled from the WhyHire.me learning materials. Now that Desirae is an online pro, guess what? Her profile was discovered by an Ottawa based services firm who hired her over email while she was in Sidney Australia for a school term.

How cool is that?

Experience Counts…but its location?

This week, I had the opportunity to help internationally educated professionals land their first jobs in Canada. These well seasoned engineers, software developers and project leaders have extensive credentials and experiences gained at companies all over the world.

I asked them their biggest challenges they face finding jobs in Canada – many times over, it was accessing the right people and having local experience to reference in Canada. Happily, their first challenge is being addresses through outreach programs such as iWES from The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). During our session, we focused on personal branding and select techniques people can use to raise their profile on the Internet. It was a pleasure working with them. They were very attentive and they had great questions.

The second point baffles me. IT issues, project management fundamentals and project risk management are pretty much global in nature. A major telecom integration project in Africa, or network administration job in Brazil or a large scale ERP deployment in Indonesia all have the same properties as those in Canada or the United States. From my perspective, information technology talent can be from around the corner, or from around the world. The web can let me check global references, I can Google their bosses, Skype their references, anywhere in the world. It really makes no matter where someone is from and where they acquired their experiences. A qualified, hard working candidate from Asia or anywhere in the world deserves equal consideration.

The business of IT is by definition global in nature…as is change management and project management. Looking to source the right candidate for a position? Consider a hard-working and experienced internationally trained profesionsal. They are out there!