Twitter’s Ultra-Cheesy Recruiting Video
They wanted to make the “best/worst recruiting video of all time.” Mission accomplished?
[via TLNT]
Help Wanted: Why You Can’t Replace Your Resume with Social Media (At Least Not Yet)
Last fall, Fred Wilson’s venture capital firm, Union Square Ventures, had an investment analyst position it needed to fill. But instead of asking for resumes or cover letters, it instead requested “links that will help us get to know you… anything from a Twitter account to a blog or Tumblr to a project you hacked together — whatever represents you best.”
It also wanted two short videos, submitted through the website of a startup called Take the Interview — the videos, done instead of screening anyone by phone, were to answer two questions: “Why are you interested in the analyst role at Union Square Ventures?” and “Which web or mobile services most inspire you?”
No cover letter. No resume. But a video?! Is this the start of a trend? Maybe, but don’t ditch your resume and start panicking quite yet.
Bullet Points: New Tech Solutions for Talent Acquisition
- Sarah White of the HR Tech blog is way bullish on recruiting technology: “More than any other segment of the HR Tech industry, the innovations, drive and risk taking in the Talent Acquisition world is amazing…. As SmartRecruiter Founder & CEO Jerome Ternynck points out, ‘Recruiting is $400bn problem that affects every business in the world. I guess that makes it attractive to both entrepreneurs and VCs.’”
- The employment site Monster.com has laid off 400 employees, about 7% of its total workforce. [MassHighTech]
- Over at Slate, Matt Yglesias points to an analysis of the metro areas with the highest median wages.
- Why you should never be authentic on social media. [The Cynical Girl]
Career Rehab: What You Can Do Now to Get Paid Later
It’s still the beginning of the new year, and you’re determined that this is the year it all comes together. You’re going to lose that last five pounds, go on that international vacation you’ve always dreamed of, and get the raise or promotion you deserve (how else are you going to pay for the trip?).
The path to the first two goals is pretty straightforward. Every gym worth its salt is running a “New Year, New You” promotion, and a trip to any bookstore will overwhelm you with the latest diet books. While you’re at the bookstore, skip over to the travel section and pick up a guidebook for the country of your choice and keep it at your desk for motivation.
For the last goal, here are six building blocks for strengthening your career in 2012.
1) Build your network. There’s a common saying that “you need to build your network before you need it,” and it definitely holds true. Waiting until you need a new job and then suddenly contacting everyone you know is akin to waiting until the night before a big test to begin studying.
Sree Sreenivasan on What Social Media Weekend 2012 Has in Store
In advance of Social Media Weekend (starting this Friday!), we asked its founder, Sree Sreenivasan, and the journalist Patricia Kitchen what events and speakers are especially worth looking forward to. If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, day passes for Saturday and Sunday are still available.
The Hired Guns: It seems as if you could throw a rock in any direction and hit a social media conference. Why come to yours? In other words, who’s it for? Am I here to manage my personal brand or the brand of my company? Or both?
Bullet Points: When a Resume’s Too Good to Be True
- It’s a jungle out there, and it looks to HR folks as if more and more job candidates have been “inflating” their experience, titles, and just about everything else. [CNBC]
- Business cards are often pretty. But are they also irrelevant? [Lifehacker]
- Given that we want to teach the children well, should they be learning how to be entrepreneurs rather than employees? [The Next Web]
- Giving your just-bought Android phone a tune-up. [BI slideshow]
- Are smart phones ushering in the “death of street smarts“? Sara Goodyear, writing for The Atlantic, argues that maybe we should all be spending more time with the GPS off.
Quiz: Do You Have What It Takes to Be Incompetent Over the Long Haul?
Anyone can be incompetent for a few weeks or even months without suffering serious repercussions. The dysfunction of most organizations provides cover for even the most glaring managerial incompetence — for a while. But the fact is, only a gifted few can be ineffective for their entire careers and continue to fail upwards.
Do you have what it takes? Take our quiz and find out!
Bullet Points: Stop the HR Bashing!
- Is it time to stop picking on Human Resources? The consultant Ron Ashkenas blames the problems on changing times — the instability that’s resulted from putting new computer systems into place, for instance, as well as the ways that HR functions have begun to overlap with management. “HR’s evolution… does not just concern changing HR. It’s also about helping managers take more accountability for people and culture, and eventually blurring the rigid distinction between ‘HR’and ‘management.’” [HBR]
- Candidates hoping to be assistant football coach of the University of South Carolina should probably not be smokers or “fat, sloppy guys” if they want to get hired, advised the team’s coach, Steve Spurrier, at a press conference. [Steve Boese's HR Technology]
- 11 useful tips for marketing your brand on LinkedIn [The Next Web]
- This year’s just-released list of the 100 best companies to work for might not be full of surprises, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still learn some things from it. [The Business of HR]
- Mercer gives the infographic treatment to a survey that asked men and women how they felt about their pay, performance goals, and benefits. [HR Bartender]
- BBC Radio 4′s Michael Rosen speaks with Chris Anderson about the “new wave of public-speaking events, including Ignite and TED, and asks if the culture of ‘Show & Tell’ in American classrooms produces better public speakers” than methods in Britain.
In the News: Todd Cherches Tells Crain’s Where He Finds His Best Ideas
Hired Guns blogger Todd Cherches was quoted in yesterday’s Crain’s NY Business, in an article (“Fountain of inspiration”) about possible reasons that the best ideas often seem to come in the shower:
Mr. Cherches’ activity of choice involves heading for the bath—–a direction made considerably easier by the fact that he runs his business from his Manhattan apartment and has no employees. “Showering blocks out everything and everyone, so you’re away from it all,” said Mr. Cherches…. “You’re creating a cocoon of solitude.”
For Mr. Cherches, it’s all about the “creative pause,” a term probably coined in the 1960s by Edward de Bono, a famed scholar of creative thinking. The concept refers to a time when someone stops thinking about a problem on purpose, engages in another activity, and often unexpectedly comes up with a solution without even trying.
The Five Best Things About Being a Working Mom
Jan Brown recently left corporate life to work as a life and career coach. She blogs for The Hired Guns about ways that working moms can achieve balance in their life, and also about methods that stay-at-home moms can use the reenter the workplace effectively. Before heading out on her own, Jan advised Fortune 500 companies on philanthropy.
If you are a working mom like me, you already know what’s hard about it. And pretty much every portrayal of a working mom on TV and in movies and magazines depicts the stressed-out, crazy nature of it.
I’m not saying it ain’t so. But just as there are so many things I love about being a parent, there are also many things I like — sometimes even love — about working outside the home. To kick off the New Year, I want to spend some time celebrating a few of my favorite things about working.
