The new recruitment

Yesterday’s post about how I got my gig with b5 Media got me thinking. Social Media is obviously the new way companies are looking for employees and people are looking for work. Not only are companies googling their potential employees; the potential employees are googling their companies.

Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone, recently appeared as a guest lecturer at the University of Maryland. Students got to ask several questions of Geoff, and in light of what I’ve been thinking about recently, there’s one that stands out to me in particular:

Q: What disadvantages do you think our generation has or will struggle with once we get into the work force?

A: Ahh, millenials Most of my workforce is in your generation. Generally speaking, your generation is accustomed to immediacy, co-creating and crowd-sourcing. That means you expect to be a part of the larger picture, you want things now. You are disappointed when you are not included in all aspects of what your curiosity dictates should be an open conversation. This can lead to a sense of entitlement. I think the current economic environment may rectify this. [source]

The people coming into the work force now are the people who only work in teams. They share things online, talk amongst themselves and share things with their peers.

A recent presentation I had the privilege of sneaking a peek of, Recruiting the Facebook Generation by Tod Maffin, talks about this in detail. Tod talks about the fact that employers now need to learn how to work with the kind of employees they’re recruiting. Companies need to subscribe to social networking sites if not only to talk to their employees but also to do searches on their prospective people.

In turn, those searching for a job now need to be very careful about what they put up on line. Pictures of last night’s drunken debauchery? Videos from the bar? Not the best idea if you’re looking for a professional position.I think that at this point, everyone needs to start paying more attention to what they do online, and what people can find. I just recently took all of the unnecessary applications off my facebook page. Now that I’m starting to do more online, I really don’t need “More about me!” “Green Patches” or “Free Rice”.