Recruiting and Social Resumes

There are a vast number of recruiters in the financial field that say they can help college students get jobs at major institutions when they graduate. This is not always the case. Recruiting is a tough field but it can seem much tougher for the people they are trying to help. Some recruiters are extremely professional and keep you informed at each step in the process while some go off the map after the first conversation. In the end if a person is trying to go through a recruiter to find a job they need to sometimes leave it up to chance, because it all depends on how well the recruiter will lobby for you at the institution you are trying to get into. It can be a tiring process going through a recruiter but if it pays off it can be well worth it.

Another way to find a job is to build a social resume. Some employers might be curious and go online to find out a little more about you, in this case it would help to have a social resume up to promote your ideas. A social resume does not necessarily have to be a list of your accomplishments but a string of your ideas comprised in a blog. It can also be in a format of what Brazen Careerist suggests, a list of comments in industry networks. Such a resume will certainly help employers know you better and whether or not you are a good fit for the company at first glance.

"Working with Financial Recruiters - Laid Off And Looking - WSJ"

"Brazen Careerist Launches Social Resumes – WebWorkerDaily"

Culture, Technology and Collaboration

Many people concede that the technology drives collaboration, but Will Kelly disagrees with them, he says corporate culture drives collaboration instead. Thinking about it makes sense. Technology enables tools to further processes used by people for the betterment of society. Although, using those tools within a corporation would require a certain culture set by the company that makes it conducive for employees to use the technology. The company culture will dictate to an employee whether it is alright to connect with clients with an instant messenger service after work hours or that may be too unprofessional in some companies. Although the prior choice gives the company an advantage in terms of getting things done much more quickly and efficiently while saving client a lot more money because they will be able to make a decision faster.

One form of online collaboration are wikis. Wikis are basically programs that allow people to create and maintain collaborative websites. Users can create and edit content to their specifications whenever they choose to do so. The main positive attribute of such a collaboration is that people have access to one repository of information at a single place without the time consuming searches needed to hunt for data from other sources. Such a program also has some negative points about it, some of which are the bias of the editors and the tendency of some people to deliberately or unknowingly put up wrong information on the site. Till these two attributes of wikis cannot be fully addressed, the verification of all information taken from these sites still needs to be a priority.

"Corporate Culture, Not Technology, Drives Online Collaboration – WebWorkerDaily"

"Column from PC Magazine: The Wikification of Knowledge - Columns by PC Magazine"

Can't Get A Job, Get LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the new business networking source. Social networking sites are extremely popular but now fast rising in popularity is this relatively new concept of business networking. LinkedIn is a platform where people can expand their business contacts to build a greater network. It is a great resource to get jobs especially in this type of economy. You can post who you are and bits from your resume to build your personal brand, either to attract employers, more contacts or even clients. LinkedIn is a resource that helps you build not only your contacts but also your career.

However, LinkedIn should be an added resource in networking, not the only resource. It should not replace the true face to face networking and joining associations, going to conferences and meeting with colleagues after work. True networking is when people can meet you and see your personality and it should not be replaced by business networking online. As long as LinkedIn complements a persons real networking skills it can be a great asset in finding a new job or just expanding your network.

"How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn"
"How to Change the World: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn"

Social Networking On The Go

Mobile Social Networking is a relatively novel concept. It can also be called an offshoot of regular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The interesting thing here is will it catch on? As of right now mobile social networking is nowhere close to what the other regular social networking sites have accomplished in terms of content and also in terms of users.

The biggest new concept that has been introduced to us by the mobile social networks is the idea of tracking ones position with a inbuilt GPS system, so it can be conveyed to one's friend nearby. It is an innovative idea and can definitely help in emergency situations, so I see the importance of what this can become eventually. But the concerns lie in the privacy arena of things. A lot of people may not like these location based services, telling your friends where you are and even if one is alright with that idea another privacy issue lies in will the company providing the service store that data in it's archives to use for the company's own purposes. As always as technology advances, it can get more invasive into a person's lifestyle, but in the end is that a good or a bad thing?

"Students' new best friend: 'MoSoSo'"
"The Mobile Social: Not ready for Prime Time?"

Blogging For Business

Blogging is becoming an extremely useful tool for companies to market their product and services. Although I think that it will be much more useful for start up companies than the Fortune 500s. I understand why all the companies want to get into blogging because it is extremely popular right now and everybody is doing it. But prime reason to start a corporate blog is to make your brand identifiable to customers and sell it to them. Most likely a Fortune 500 company is widely recognized and has mastered the art of traditional marketing. Start ups on the other hand will need to build their brand and blogging is a cheap and effective way to grab the attention of their target market.

Even after a blog is started by a corporation they need to get the techniques of writing a blog right. Many marketing teams have gone wrong in writing blogs because they ascribe to the traditional ways of marketing and tend to cling to their brand to an extent where they cannot handle criticism from the consumers. To write successful blogs they need to get over these things and let the comments from the blogs guide their products.

On Corporate Blogging: Interview with Don Martelli of MS&L - Technorati Blogging
10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging - Smashing Magazine

Internet vs. Intellect

The internet has by no means made us dumber. It has rather increased our access to much more information around the world making us more knowledgeable in a lot more areas. Knowledge can be the greatest resource a person can have and the internet is the only complete tool that organizes such information and presents it to the user. Books are also an incomparable resource for knowledge, but both books and the internet enlighten us, they both complement each other in educating a person.

While amateurs have the right to express their opinions on blogs, wikis and other resources on the internet so do the experts. It is the readers responsibility to authenticate the statements of amateurs and the experts online. In general, people do want to listen to what experts have to say on their subject of study but that does not mean that we can disregard the amateurs opinion just because he does not have enough experience. An amateur may not have a degree from a reputable university or come from within a specific industry. Although, he may have life experiences that give him the knowledge to state his opinion without the clout of a degree or job in that area. This is not to say that all amateurs on the internet know what they are taking about. I'm just saying that we should not disregard them just because they are amateurs.

"Nobel Laureate Says The Internet Makes Us Dumb, We Say: Meh"

"The Digital Emperor Has No Clothes"

Standing Out From The Crowd

After reading the The Myth of Crowdsourcing and Is Crowdsourcing Evil? I realized that crowdsourcing is a topic of great contention among a lot of people. Crowdsourcing is a mixture of the words crowd and outsourcing, which basically means that a job that requires a specifically skilled person like a web designer is outsourced to a group of people or a community asking for answers from them.

I believe that crowdsourcing will be a great resource to companies as it becomes a wider known concept. It has the capability to really drive innovation like never before. Crowdsourcing is giving opportunities to creative people who might not get that chance otherwise. It levels the playing field for a lot of junior web developers who might have the talent but not have gotten noticed. It increases competition which is always a good thing. This helps both the companies and the designers because the most talented people will stand out while the companies will get a lot more options then they are used to. Another positive is that since a product is being created by a "crowd" the company will have a better vision of what the people want because it will be reflected in the "crowds" work.

Although there are a few problems I foresee with this concept. The wages these developers will be paid will be far lesser than what they would be paid working for a firm that does the same type of work. Which in turn could largely diminish the quality of work performed by the crowd. Also it will be quite difficult for the firm to build a relationship and have too much input into the project after the crowd starts working on the project, any changes will be hard to communicate. The third problem I foresee is that the company might lose a lot more time and money in going through all the options provided by the crowd only because there won't be a limited choice, although this is not always a negative aspect. If crowdsourcing can get over these hurdles it can be extremely successful in pushing the boundaries of innovation around the world. Which brings me to question can crowdsourcing be controlled to a degree of overcoming these obstacles without stifling the innovation?