Sometimes, when you’ve known someone — or, some agency — for a long time, you think you know everything about them. That’s why it might surprise some of our recruitment clients (heads of human resources departments) to learn that Alstin Communications is deliciously diverse when it comes to our projects.

Today’s featured special? plumsteadvilleinn.com

The destruction
The Plumsteadville Inn in Pipersville, PA had seen much better days. After all, the original tavern and 8-room guest house had been around since 1751. Located on Old Dyer Road — now Route 611— it was a welcome sight to tired visitors traveling by stagecoach between Philadelphia and Easton. Additions had been constructed then torn down, makeshift repairs had been made, and for decades, a lot had gone untouched. New owners Angelo and Denise Evangelista knew they had a lot of work ahead of them when they bought the historic property, but starting from scratch is never easy.

The calls for help
Though contractors provided the most immediate help, the Evangelistas knew the importance of setting a solid foundation for advertising and marketing the Inn was also crucial. They contacted the local media to let them know “the Plum” would live again. They reached out to interior designers to select color palettes, fixtures, and utensils that fit and helped to build upon the Inn’s history. And, they got in touch with Mike Schluth, Alstin’s President and Owner.

Wheels were turning
Things were moving along at the Inn. Plumbing was replaced, floors redone, and a beautiful piano restored. At Alstin, the creative wheels were turning. Though the bulk of our Creative Services’ teams employer branding projects are always interesting, getting our hands on some restaurant work was a fun change. While fashioning a logo for a menu, writing copy that would draw hungry locals, and taking pictures of mouthwatering food, a website was taking shape, and our appetites for construction were hearty.

Bright ideas
Jay Scheuerle, our Art Director, thought back to stagecoach days, inspected photographs of the original inn and its beautiful windows, and got a little lost in the past. Then, he created a logo that made everything old new again. I also loved playing with old fashioned phrases and seeing where they would fit generations later (“Hear ye, hear ye!”).

And our VP of Creative Services, Patty Cara, went — trusty camera in hand — to capture the food that would breathe new life into the Inn’s marketing. The results are stunning and incredibly tempting. After all, you can’t just take a picture of that gorgeously glimmering homemade bread pudding and just leave it there…

Something for everyone
Turning a shuttered, dilapidating old building into a vibrant meeting place was no easy task. But with the commitment and passion of the Evangelistas — and the support of neighbors who missed having a home away from home to meet and eat with friends — the Plumsteadville Inn lives on. And for a 261-year old who’s had some work done, she looks wonderful. The cozy rustic fireplaces are still there, but somehow, the state-of-the-art flat screen TVs work, too. The live music sounds great, and so does the extensive wine list. And with “Burgers & Beer, Lobster & Cheer”, there really is something for everyone. Check out the website to see for yourself. From detailed Menu and About Us pages to Reviews and Reservations, it’s a delicious place to spend your lunch break!

Though Angelo and Denise may disagree, we think the Plum’s happiest customers are the ones who work at Alstin — creative types with a constant hankering for stimulating projects.

Several of us here at Alstin have recently given up space in our Sunday night TV lineups to watch a delightfully different reality show – The Pitch. The show itself is has many of the elements about reality TV we love such as suspenseful cliff hangers, and an emotion stirring sound score, but the beauty of it is it is something we can finally relate to.

AMC’s new series The Pitch offers an inside look at two top ad agencies competing for a new client in a head-to-head cut throat showdown (that last part is what makes this interesting enough to be on TV). The show starts out by introducing each agency and giving a little bit of background about their previous work. From there we are taken to a brief from the potential new client. This is the part we love so much because the brief is given in a classic reality TV style: let’s bring everyone into the same room and present the challenge. After the brief is given by the client, each team heads home to pound their head against the wall and go through the processes of coming up with the campaign they will pitch. Watching each team go through these processes is very similar to watching Snooki fight with…well you get it, DRAMA. After each team finally gets a hold of their ground breaking idea for the client, they begin to flesh out the different creative they will pitch to the client. Finally, both teams pitch, and you guessed it, then they cut to commercial and a decision is made.

So Dance Moms is great, and Pawn Stars always makes us chuckle, but the great thing about The Pitch is that not everyone on the show is a complete imbecile, and it also touches home with those in the industry who have been in the same position before. It is fun to be critical of their ideas, and in other cases be positively shocked. The great thing about it to us is that you never get to see how other agencies present to clients, so it is interesting to see different strategies agencies use to pitch their clients, although we don’t need much help in that department .  Some of the agencies are great and very interesting to watch, others should have never made it on to the show. Overall, it is a great show thus far and if you haven’t watched it yet, we would recommend you do! It is on right after Mad Men, so if you are not already tuned into AMC well then that is a completely different issue that should most likely be discussed with someone in the medical field.

Skimming Twitter this morning I came across a tweet to this blog on What Moms Really Want on the Job. It’s a good post-Mother’s Day topic. As a working mom, I decided to give it a read to see if I match up with popular opinion. In an unscientific poll, the writer posed this basic question on Glassdoor:  What are working moms looking for in a company?

Here are the top 10 answers:

• Paid maternity leave
• Flexible schedule
• Option to work part-time
• Sick and vacation days
• Medical/dental/vision benefits
• Overall company support for the working mom
• On-site childcare
• Child care reimbursement
• Flexible location – work from home options
• Private room for mothers who are breastfeeding

The part I liked best about the writer’s analysis of the finding was that – minus a request for a breastfeeding room – these wants translate to working dads too.

If I had to answer this question, flexibility ranks right at the top. I thank my lucky stars quite a bit that I have a good deal of flexibility here at Alstin. (I value that big time!) So are you a working mom or dad? Do you agree with this list?  What do you think we need more of to recruit and retain good employees who also happen to be good parents? (My vote – paid maternity leave!) Let us know.

In the last few years I’ve probably written about the candidate experience more than any other topic (although my love of iced tea is a close second). If you’re a frequent reader of our blog, you may wonder: Why the heck does this advertising guy care so much about the candidate experience? It’s actually a question I’ve been asking myself recently, and here’s what I came up with:

• With some wonderful, notable exceptions, the overall candidate experience in 2012 still, well, stinks.
• The candidate experience is about more than recruiting and strategic processes. To me, it says a lot about who you are as a recruiter and what your organization stands for.
• I’ve worked with recruiting and HR professionals for over 20 years. The vast majority of those people are terrific; they’re hard-working, underappreciated, and passionate about their profession, and the candidate experience bugs me because it gives our industry a bad name.
• In this age where no one can agree on anything, I think we can all concur that people deserve to be treated with respect, including—or especially–people who express a desire in working for our company.
• Someday all of us are going to be on the other side of the fence, and we’re going to want a much better candidate experience than the one we’re delivering now.
• Yes, I am a recruitment advertising professional, and nothing can sink a well-crafted employment brand or media strategy quicker than a lousy candidate experience.
• Most talent acquisition professionals are overwhelmed, and need to make some noise with the leaders of their organizations if the candidate experience is going to be repaired.
• TAS and HRIS systems should be part of the solution and help recruiting functions to ensure a positive candidate experience—but instead they’re part of the problem, and need to be held accountable.

It’s not as easy as that, you say? I agree. When you think about the crushing number of resumes a company receives daily, the limited resources of most recruiting teams, and the lack of help from both technology and leadership, it can seem like an insurmountable problem. But don’t give up! Companies are making big strides on the candidate experience every day. Here’s an article from ERE  that plots out some great steps toward making a real change.

I’ve heard some experts, such as the esteemed recruiting guru Gerry Crispin, talk about starting by really defining the desired candidate experience–before you put in any processes or attempt to measure it. What is that “promise?” What can you guarantee to every candidate who applies for a job or expresses interest in your company? Perhaps in the beginning, you won’t be able to promise much more than an auto-respond letter when a resume is received or after an interview. Is that good enough? Of course not, but if you’re not even there yet, that’s a start. Then move on to things like a personal phone call to each person who interviews but isn’t selected, regular emails to “silver medal” candidates, etc., and keep building from there.

It’s not easy, but you can do it. Let’s start today.

Have you ever thought for a second that there would be a chance that that unpaid parking ticket or some other unresolved fine you have yet to take care of would land you in jail, all because you went for a job interview? This week, Atlanta newspapers and blogs reported the unfortunate story of Tateasa Adams, a 37 year old singer and job seeker, who found out the hard way.

Having come in to apply for a job as a performer for two musical revues at Six Flags Over Georgia, Tateasa Adams was later contacted by the amusement park’s loss prevention department regarding some findings on her background check. She addressed their concerns over a traffic misdemeanor, divulging her reason behind missing the date she was due in court – She spent that day in Boston with her ailing fiancé, Michael Rampey, as he underwent his required specialized treatment, only offered at Massachusetts General Hospital. Suffering with a rare genetic disease, Michael is a heart transplant recipient who since has been diagnosed with cancer, and the status of his recovery took precedence on the day in question.

Adams later received an email confirming her appointment for a second interview at Six Flags, specifying that she was to come to the park on Feb 29^th, “dressed in business attire – this is an interview”, and to bring with her a valid photo ID. So when she showed up early and was led to a room to fill out more application papers, she had no idea that it would end with her being fingerprinted, photographed and hauled off to the county jail.

Six Flags Over Georgia had successfully orchestrated and executed their own “sting operation” to catch a traffic violator by staging a fake follow-up job interview.

On the day of her second interview, while Adams sat filling out forms in the loss prevention office, funpark officials were verifying her identification by phone with the Cobb County Police., who arrived on the scene in 45 minutes to arrest Ms. Adams.

Issued citations for driving without insurance and an expired tag in 2010, Adams who says she luckily just received her tax refund, posted bond at $1,845 and was released. However, still seeking employment, she worries that the arrest has already ruined her chances for a number of opportunities.  As it stands, when her name is searched online, the first page to appear is her mugshot. “This has been a total nightmare. I’m not making any excuses for missing the court date. I should’ve taken care of that. But it’s not like I’m some dangerous criminal,” says Adams.

Six Flags Over Georgia had this to say in an emailed statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“As part of our standard hiring procedure, all potential employees over the age of 18 must undergo a criminal history background check. In this particular instance, a warrant was discovered. Per our guidelines, Cobb County Police were notified and an arrest was made.”

Ed Buckley, Labor and employment attorney, mentioned that the actions of the park were unusual, and though there are companies that will notify law enforcement of such findings, for the company itself to expedite an arrest was bizarre. He had this to say:

“It seems to me a dangerous practice to engineer someone’s arrest,” Buckley told the AJC. “They run the risk of creating unnecessary claims for themselves. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Even the police were surprised by the abnormal tactics exhibited by the business. Cobb police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said that this was an unusual arrest made by the department because “We try to keep businesses out of the loop any way we can,” he said.

I understand the need to report a person if warrants for arrest are discovered, however, was it right for Six Flags to devise a set up to capture someone with a minor offense and have them arrested? Shouldn’t the extent of their responsibility end with a simple notification to the authorities? At that point, all forms filled out by Tateasa Adams could have then been shared with the police to have them take it from there.

Should job seekers actively pursuing employment to help them catch up on bills and settle debts, that have piled up during their unemployed state, be afraid that the very issues they may be trying to correct would be the thing that not only blocks them from getting the job, but may also have them arrested?

What are your thoughts on this? 

On Monday, May 7th Alstin’s President and Owner, Mike Schluth, was honored as a nominee at The Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year Award ceremony. The awards connected to this event were developed in 2001 to celebrate the Human Resources industry and to recognize those in the HR profession who “exemplify outstanding achievement within our local human resources community.”

Being nominated as HR Consultant of the Year was quite an honor for Mike as it was to all of us proudly here at Alstin. Click here to learn more about the awards, winners and how nominees are selected.

Way to go Mike and congrats to all the winners!

For some reason, you don’t hear much about Google Alerts anymore. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re so ingrained into our workplace culture, or because everyone interested in them are already using them, but (for me) even with Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS feeds and other tools, I still find Google Alerts a big asset. I use Alerts to keep up-to-date on our clients, prospects, leaders in our industry and more.

If I’m being honest, part of my love for Google Alerts exists because I’m old enough (gulp) to remember pre-Internet days when it was really difficult to find and stay on top of developing news about specific organizations.

Google Alerts can also be fun. Because we’re sometimes referred to as simply “Alstin” instead of “Alstin Communications” I get some very interesting alerts. For example, thanks to Google Alerts I know:

• In Old English, Alstin means elf stone
• There is an alternative blogger named Zac Alstin out of the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute in Adelaide, South Australia.
• There is a German financing holding company Alstin.
• My personal favorite: Swedish designer Terese Alstin has invented a shawl-like collar that works like an airbag. Really; upon impact it “inflates to form a pillow-like helmet that surrounds the head.”

If you’re not using Google Alerts, trust me, nothing could be easier to set up, and it’s a great way to learn about anything you have an interest in—and even some things you didn’t know you’d be interested in.

Great hires are …  let me see … how can I phrase it? Great hires are, well they’re just great. That about sums it up. Alstin just made two recent great hires (yes, that’s you Brenden and Janelle!) and we’ve got another person starting with the team today with hopes of greatness as well. When things don’t turn out so good with a new hire there can be plenty of trouble. The company’s bottom line, morale, efficiency and dare I say the sanity of the person who is directly impacted by the bad apple in the bunch can be majorly impacted.

Here’s an infographic that talks up some of the pitfalls that can come from a bad hire. I agree that “great companies are made from great employees” so I hope these tips are helpful to us all out there doing our best to avoid the dreaded bad hire. Have any tips of your own? Agree or disagree with this infographic? Let us know!

Are candidates not completing your online application? Is it that the position with your company is undesirable, or that the application process is to long? Well, it could be even simpler than that. It is always good to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.  It could be that your careers page, or online application maybe not be as aesthetically pleasing as you thought at first glance. I have found two free tools that let you take a look at any webpage and give you a look at the “nuts and bolts” of the layout, to see if what you’re working with is really grabbing potential candidate’s eyes.

The first free tool is called Wirify. This web application gives you a barebones look at your website, to help you focus on the page structure by hiding your content. Hiding your content will allow you analyze your page layout at the most basic level. A potential hire is going to take one look at your page, and within a second decide whether it is something they are interested in filling out, or are just not going to bother.  We are told to never judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to web browsing (or in this case applying online) it is crucial to have your layout produced in such a way that it will pull users in to begin the application process.

Wirify

The second free tool is called Graybit. This web application allows you to convert any page into it’s equivalent in a gray scale. The tool can be used to take a closer look at how page visibility and contrast can be as colors can often be misleading. Think about why people shoot photos in black and white, it is typically because the color can distract from the actually beauty of the photograph. By removing colors influence on how you perceive a web page, you will get a true visual contrast of what you are putting out there to help lore in potential candidates.

Graybit

I know, both tools seem simple, but look at it as similar to proofing a piece of writing backwards, it is taking that additional look from a different direction that may help you find something that is incorrect or that just doesn’t work visually. I highly recommend giving both tools a try, they are free and only take a couple of seconds to use! Maybe you will find something you didn’t see before that may have turned a potential candidate off at first glance…

Fans of our blog know how much I love fiction (see my favorite novels of 2011 here), so I was excited to see who would win this year’s Pulitzer Prize. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a controversy. For the first time since 1977, there was no award given.

Here’s how it works. Selected judges recommend finalists and then the board selects a winner—or not. The three novels selected for the board this year were Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell, and The Pale King by David Foster Wallace.

I don’t want to be one of those people who reviews books he hasn’t read, but I will say that both Train Dreams and Swamplandia were generally lauded by critics. So what gives? I’m guessing the board felt they were not typical “Pulitzer” material; Train Dreams being considered a novella, and Swamplandia not “serious” enough–although last year’s winner, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From The Goon Squad, isn’t exactly War and Peace.

I do agree with not giving the Pulitzer to The Pale King. David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide in 2008, was a no-doubt-about-it literary genius. The 1000+ page Infinite Jest will be remembered and talked about for a long time, as will his searing Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. However, The Pale King is an unfinished novel, and while the idea of awarding Wallace is a nice gesture, we don’t know if what we’re reading is the way Wallace intended, how much the editors had to do with the finished product, etc.

My bigger problem with a Pulitzer not being awarded is that so many other exceptional novels were overlooked. The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier, The Submission by Amy Waldman and State of Wonder by Ann Patchett are just three novels that received incredible reviews and seem to me more “Pulitzerish” (a word I just invented). Worst of all, they snubbed two of my favorite novels of the year. Please, please read The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach; it’s such an enjoyable, readable novel, especially if you love fiction and baseball.

The one novel passed over that really has me scratching my head is A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. It seems perfect for a Pulitzer: written by a critically acclaimed author with a long history of excellence, deals with “big” issues like mortality, memory and regret, and, most importantly, it’s a great novel, both in style and narrative. Some suspect the fact that it won the Man Booker Prize hurt its chances of also nabbing the Pulitzer.

To be honest, I’m not really upset. The truth is that not awarding the Pulitzer in fiction this year has really got people fired up and talking about novels—and that’s always a good thing.

In honor of the 20 year anniversay of hypertext markup language (HTML–the computer language that made the graphical web what it is today) I thought it would be an interesting project to see how company career sites have progressed over the years.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine anyone can see archived versions of websites. One in particular that I checked out is IBM’s. Back in 1996 it’s interesting to see that IBM had a very plain site overall and only an employment link on their home page leading you to rudimentary job information. In 2000 there’s a dedicated, branded page for careers listing a series of questions (answered when clicking on the link) that reflect different aspects of their employer brand. Those links just brought you to an inner text heavy page that expanded on the question–but not by much.

In 2001 it was more of the same, albeit with different imagery. They listed reasons to work at IBM and again, clicking on the statements took you to an inner text page with a little more info.

2002 saw different graphics but much the same content displayed in a different way which pretty much stayed the same up to 2008 when their site took a major step forward. Now they had flash images, a careers newsletter, and more in-depth content about the company. There’s even a mention of social networking, however, it was talk of how it was used in the workplace, not necessarily as a recruitment platform.

The use of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect to candidates was implemented on their site in 2010 along with a video, which was inconscpicous at the bottom of the page. But, content became more personal.

Today their career site has a cleaner, more thought-out layout, tabs at the top of the page leading to “Life at IBM,” “Diversity” pages and a separate section on “University Recruiting,” along with downloadable pdfs, and a ton of other content. And that video? Still there but in a more prominent place.

So, what’s the takeaway? Your career site needs to take advantage of the leaps in technology and become a multi-media resource for applicants, not just a listing of jobs and benefits. This is where you have the most control over how your company is presented to new applicants. Make sure you take advantage of video, social media, links to career development information, job feeds, interactivity, retargeting candidates who have visited your site but left, on and on. And, also pay particular attention to the candidate experience. View your career site from the perspective of the applicant. Doing less defeats the purpose of your most widely viewed recruiting tactic.

I love when there’s a Google Doodle. We’ve got one today in honor of Gideon Sundback. Gideon who? To find the answer to that one, all you have to do is click on the zipper you’ll see on today’s page. (Sorry if you’re getting to this – or to Google – after April 24, 2012.)

The page unzips to reveal search results on Gideon Sundback – the man who was born on this day 132 years ago who happened to invent the zipper. So clever and fun.

What a fun job that must be, coming up with those Google Doodles.  Oh, to be a Doodler! If that’s what you’re thinking, you are in luck. Google is now hiring a Doodler. Here’s a snipit from their job posting:

 The role: Doodler

First impressions matter. Every day, hundreds of millions of online users visit the Google homepage. Yes, to search. But also, to be delighted, informed, and surprised (And maybe even to laugh a little). The Google Doodle makes this possible — it’s the change that is constant on Google.com. As a Product Graphic Designer/Illustrator, more commonly known as a “Doodler,”

Click here to see the whole job description. Can you imagine the amount of applications coming in to this one? I’ll keep checking back for updates on who gets hired for the job. I do hope they announce it with a Google Doodle though!

Before Instagram

As I am sure you have all heard the buzz last week, (which sounded something like an agitated hornets’ nest) our favorite social media site Facebook has acquired the feisty underdog Instagram for a hefty one billion dollars. If you didn’t already realize this..these thirteen Instagram employees, now in cahoots with the social media juggernaut have joined forces creating potentially one of the most powerful employer branding tools to date.

Take a small step back and look at the benefits Facebook business pages offer – an unmatched expansive fan/customer base, easy access to analytics, and in-expensive advertising. With the introduction of the Timeline, Facebook has given businesses a one of a kind outlet to tell their brand’s story from start, to well..right now.

Facebook timeline and Instagram are the perfect combination of social networking tools to tell your business’s story through text and enhanced digital photos. To me this seems like an opportunity to peacock a little bit and show your potential hires what separates your company from the competition. Nothing will sell your employer brand more than a little slice of life, and Instagram will give your Facebook business page that trendy look inside that will have qualified candidates wanting to join your team.

After Instagram

When it comes to employee recruiting via social networking you have just been given the tools to create an irresistible social networking kingdom. So get to work..or just let your employees do the work for you.

I can assure you that the results you will see from incorporating Instagram photos on your Facebook business page’s timeline will be priceless.

Let’s be honest, which of the pictures looks more hip?

I’m Janelle Setzer – one of Alstin’s newest team members, and I look forward to working in the recruitment advertising industry from an agency perspective.  I worked in this field before coming onboard, but from the sales point of view. I sold recruitment advertising to both agencies and clients.

Upon my arrival at Alstin, I began reading more about recruitment advertising/employment branding agencies, strategies, sites, trends, etc. and I came across an article on ERE.net which talks about the 10 Predictions for 2012: The Top Trends in Talent Management and Recruiting. It’s a good article and gives some solid  insights on what’s to come in 2012, but what I focused on was this trend: 2011 was The Year Of Social Media and 2012 Will Be “The Year of the Mobile Platform”.

It already amazes me to think a website designed just eight years ago for the sole purpose of social networking is now one of the top Social Media Recruitment tools.  Facebook caught on quickly among college students when it first came out, I know because I was one of them.  I thought it was great, being able to talk to my friends who went to other universities, check out their pictures, meet more people at my school, etc.  Little did I know that years later I’d be selling and placing recruitment ads on that very same site.

I agree that 2011 was the Year of Social Media. In a PRNewswire article they found 1 in 3 used social media when looking for a job compared to 1 in 5 in 2010. I can say that when I was looking for a job my main resources were LinkedIn and Twitter, and the occasional job board.  Again, when Twitter first came out I never thought I’d be using it to follow companies and find out about career opportunities or upcoming events, but hey things always change!

If 2012 is the Year of the Mobile Platform, I am excited to tap into this strategy for Alstin’s clients and I will be watching how companies develop new approaches to set themselves apart on this platform.

From what I can tell, mobile offers a great way to keep up with the job seeker who’s on the go. I feel, and many of us would agree, looking for a job is a job in itself. I think it’s a positive trend for 2012 and I like where this year is headed.

I can remember when I was a little kid creating mini-books – typically illustrated stories about a girl and her horse (how original!) and even mocking up pages of pretend newspapers. From a pretty early age, I imagined myself doing something of the sort when I grew up and at times, when I am working on a fun creative project, or preparing to write a blog I look back on those early moments of inspiration with the warm and fuzzies.

When I saw this video recently, watching a little kid create something way cooler than a book made out of scraps of construction paper and poorly drawn horses, there’s no denying the warm and fuzzies. Here you will meet Caine Monroy. He turned his love of arcade games and a pile of cardboard boxes into something truly inspirational.  Between the admiration of a local guy who happened to be in the creative world and the power of social media, enjoy watching Caine experiencing the best day of his “whole life.” Now that’s what I call a job well done.

Perhaps you’ve heard the buzz about Jonah Lehrer’s new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works. I just finished it a few days ago, and I highly recommend it as an accessible and interesting read. In Imagine, Lehrer (who is a contributing editor at Wired and writes for the New Yorker), looks at the science behind creativity. “Science behind creativity” may sounds like an odd term, as most of us grew up thinking that you either were a “creative type” or you weren’t, and that the moments of inspiration are just random acts that can’t be replicated or controlled. Lehrer shows us what happens in our brains when we create, how you can predict when someone is about to have an “aha” moment, and how creativity is something that we can all harness and learn to use more effectively.

Here’s what else you’re learn:

• There is a scientific reason why we have some of our best ideas in the shower or when we’re half-asleep.
• Bob Dylan being burned out, quitting the music business and moving to a remote cabin in upstate NY was essential for him to write “Like a Rolling Stone” and usher in the most prolific, creative part of his career.
• Traditional brainstorming is a terrible idea and doesn’t work (hint: some level of criticism is essential to the creative process; think of the famously competitive, combative and fruitful Lennon-McCartney relationship).
• Shakespeare could not have created his masterpieces without a near perfect storm of conditions that existed for the first time in Elizabethan England.
• There’s a reason behind the drug addictions of some of our best-known poets.
• How many companies dedicated to creativity (Pixar, Google, etc.) have centralized bathrooms and design their workplaces so employees from different areas are “forced” to run into one another.
• The color of the room you’re in truly affects whether you score better at analytical puzzles or creative challenges.
• The importance of social connections known as weak ties, and the ideal “Q “for group creativity.

What I liked best about Imagine is that while it’s definitely science-driven and cites many studies, it’s a quick read, full of interesting insights, stories, examples and advice. To learn more about Imagine: How Creativity Works, click here.

Aside from picking the winner of the Final Four three weeks in advance (nope, I didn’t, though I was the leader in my husband’s mainly male office pool for about a week…) there isn’t a much sweeter victory than landing a new client.

There are four basic ways agencies in our industry obtain new business:

• the traditional RFP process — a great “win” because you’re going up against so many other agencies and really have a chance to spell out and show what you do best
• a connection who used to work somewhere else takes a new head HR job and brings us with them because they know/like us
• cold calls — someone happens to be online looking for an agency like Alstin (and our search engine optimization efforts pay off) and/or we reach out to someone we’d like to work with
• word of mouth — people in HR talk, and luckily, when they talk about us, they usually say great things

No matter how we get additional business, a new client (regardless of size, stature or budget) is a new start for a communications firm. There’s an opportunity to help an organization attract better people — which in turn, will help them do their job as an organization better — and to jump headfirst into tweaking or re-creating the organization’s employer marketing message.

Branding is the part of a new relationship that I, as Creative Manager, love the most. The dating phase is over, we’ve piqued their interest, and now, it’s time to really getting to know them. We find what pushes their buttons — and those of their target audience — and work to become their “better half”.

There’s only one hitch.

For reasons of confidentiality and competitive strategy, we are occasionally asked to NOT let the world know that we are working with said (umm…unsaid?) company at the get-go. “What?! We can’t show you off? We can’t even brag about you over happy hour?”

Here at Alstin, we do take solace in knowing that despite the hush-hush nature of our new relationship, our neurons are aglow coming up with exciting new creative for our partner. It happened just last week, and we’re so thrilled to be working with  ____________ that our relative anonymity seems more romantic than it does a buzz kill.

So the next time you see one of our employees walking around with a smirk, aglow with the satisfaction gained from beginning a new relationship, don’t ask what he/she looks so happy about. Because if we told you, we’d have to kill you.

We’re taking a Spring Break from the Alstin blog and will be back with new posts on Monday, April 16th. Be sure to stop on by, you will notice some new voices.(We have welcomed two new Alstin team members!)

After talking about the Facebook password controversy for about two weeks (which continues to escalate with the recent firing of a teacher because she did not hand over her Facebook password) I decided to lighten up the mood with these hilarious videos featured on Mashable  today.

These videos share what Facebook and Twitter would have looked like if they were created back in the 80′s or 90′s. Not only does it show you what each platform would look like, but in tactful 90′s fashion, a lovely “how-to” video goes through tbe different topics of Facebook and how it works.

The Twitter video is hilarious because it really takes you back to when the internet was at its absolute finest.

So what do you think? Would Facebook and Twitter have been so successful if created in the 80′s or 90′s? Share below!!

Resignation letters can be tricky. Do you pretend that the job you’ve decided to leave was a little slice of heaven and you’re going against your will, or do you craft it in blood, spewing venom at everyone at the office who ever wronged you? Recently, I’ve read a bunch of articles on resignation letters and exit interviews, and they always seem to leave me with more questions than answers. For instance:

• In this economy, is there no road to take but the high road? Do you not only NOT burn your bridges, but reinforce them with goodwill, high praise and promises to keep in touch?
• Does the organization you’re leaving truly value honest feedback? If so, are you doing them a disservice by not speaking out about problems and issues that might have predicated your departure?
• When an employee leaves a company, often that time is very emotional, and we’re not always at our most objective. I read about a woman who left a job after 10 years for no reason other than the new company was significantly closer to her home, and would give her more time with her kids. However, she used her resignation letter as an opportunity to air her every grievance over those ten years. As soon as she sent it, she asked herself, “Why on earth did I do that?” She even railed about managers and employees who had left the company years ago.

I’m still not sure what to make of Greg Smith’s resignation letter that appeared in the New York Times as an op-ed.  Is it a passionate manifesto from someone who truly loves the company, or an opportunity to throw bombs on the way out the door?  Here’s a brief excerpt of his well-written essay:

TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.

I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work. When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival.

This had all the making of a HR disaster, and Goldman Sachs quickly offered a rebuttal in an “internal” memo that was “leaked.”

By now, many of you have read the submission in today’s New York Times by a former employee of the firm. Needless to say, we were disappointed to read the assertions made by this individual that do not reflect our values, our culture and how the vast majority of people at Goldman Sachs think about the firm and the work it does on behalf of our clients.

In a company of our size, it is not shocking that some people could feel disgruntled. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. But, it is unfortunate that an individual opinion about Goldman Sachs is amplified in a newspaper and speaks louder than the regular, detailed and intensive feedback you have provided the firm and independent, public surveys of workplace environments. Anyone who feels otherwise has available to him or her a mechanism for anonymously expressing their concerns. We are not aware that the writer of the opinion piece expressed misgivings through this avenue, however, if an individual expresses issues, we examine them carefully and we will be doing so in this case. Just two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs was named one of the best places to work in the United Kingdom, where this employee resides. The firm was the highest placed financial services company for the third consecutive year and was the only one in its peer group to make the top 25. We are far from perfect, but where the firm has seen a problem, we’ve responded to it seriously and substantively. And we have demonstrated that fact.

Is your head spinning yet? When in doubt, I always think humor gives some perspective. Thanks to the Daily Mash for publishing Darth Vader’s resignation letter:

TODAY is my last day at the Empire. After almost 12 years, first as a summer intern, then in the Death Star and now in London, I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its massive, genocidal space machines. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. To put the problem in the simplest terms, throttling people with your mind continues to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making people dead.

The Empire is one of the galaxy’s largest and most important oppressive regimes and it is too integral to galactic murder to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of Yoda College that I can no longer in good conscience point menacingly and say that I identify with what it stands for.

I knew it was time to leave when I realised I could no longer speak to these students inside their heads and tell them what a great place this was to work. The Empire today has become too much about shortcuts and not enough about remote strangulation. It just doesn’t feel right to me anymore.

Last week I brought up the controversial NY Times article in my blog post, where an employer asked an interviewer for their Facebook log-in.

Facebook got wind of the news pretty quickly and had some nice things to say…

Facebook will fight to stop employers from requesting access to their potential employees’ otherwise private accounts, the company’s chief privacy officer Erin Egan announced in a statement on Friday… “This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends,” Egan wrote on the Facebook Privacy blog. “It also potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability.”

Among the risks to employers, Egan says, are that they will come across information such as age or sexual orientation that could open them up to claims of discrimination if the applicant doesn’t get the job. Employers may also become responsible for information they uncover while pursuing private profiles, such as that which suggests a crime.

Who knew!? Don’t these specific employers think about this? Don’t they know that even if they don’t want to, an opinion based on status, race, looks, etc will instantly be made as soon as you see someone’s private profile? Especially if they are applying for a job?

Below is a video from Mashable talking more about the issue and some concerns that have been raised. Sound off below with your opinions!

Aggressive parents force egg hunt cancellation. Yes, that’s a real headline.

For one Colorado town, their annual egg hunt is now one for the memory books because an event reserved for children was sabotaged by their helicopter parents. Last year’s hunt was sadly over “in a matter of seconds” as parents descended on the grounds proclaiming their mission, and I quote:

“I promised my kid an Easter egg hunt and I’d want to give him an even edge.”

An even edge? For an Easter egg hunt?

The report went on to discuss the issues helicopter parents (those who seem to hover non-stop over their kids) have created in the workplace. Have any of you heard this one? Supposedly, at least two “New York companies” have established a Take Your Parent to Work Day for new recruits because their parents continue to be so involved in their now grown children’s lives.

Michigan State University recently surveyed more than 700 employers hiring recent college graduates. Close to one-third said parents had submitted resumes on their child’s behalf, some without even letting their kids know. About 25% of employers also said that they heard directly from parents urging them to hire their child. Some poor recruiters – 4% of them in this survey – also had the pleasure of the parent tagging along for the interview.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of helicopter parents, or haven’t experienced it first-hand, here’s a little clip from the IFC show Portlandia that makes light of this trend in parenting. Have you experienced anything like this? What are the likely implications for the workplace now and in the years to come?

In my little world, it’s been a wild, wonderful last few months. I’ve been traveling all over the Delaware Valley, as well as into Maryland, North Jersey, Harrisburg and many other places talking to recruiters and HR folks. While every organization certainly has their own unique recruiting goals and challenges, I thought I’d pass along some overall impressions on what’s going on in recruiting today.

Recruiters are optimistic–and getting very busy.

Most of the talent acquisition people I’ve talked to came out of the gate very quickly in 2012. While the volume may not be at pre-recession levels, the number of jobs to fill keeps climbing, including some very tough positions that are taking a lot of effort to close on.

They are reviewing their current systems and processes.

Of course, this didn’t happen a lot in 2009 and 2010, but people are now looking at their current systems and tools, and making the changes necessary to help their recruiting function. Also, we’re seeing a real shift toward a focus on quality candidates rather than just quantity.

They are pulling the trigger on social media.

We’re seeing more and more companies really starting to leverage social media as part of their recruitment plan. While some still aren’t ready for Facebook career pages, they are heavily leveraging LinkedIn, deploying social media PPC ads and more.

They are trying new things.

We see a lot of clients looking into new ways to reach and engage with candidates, including building talent communities, updating their careers website, getting into video and mobile, exploring different search engine marketing techniques, and more.

They are waking up their Employee Referral Program.

Because recruiting volumes were much lower in 2009 and 2010, some companies seemed to back-burner their ERP. However, with things getting busier, we are seeing companies jump-starting their ERP, and really putting a focus toward quality referrals.

They are renewing a commitment to metrics.

People are taking the old maxim “What gets measured gets done” to heart and working with partners like Alstin to really nail down what’s working, what’s cost effective, etc.

They are getting serious about the candidate experience.

Thank goodness. As I’ve said before, the candidate experience is probably the most difficult, pressing topic in recruiting, and one that nearly every organization struggles with. We have a lot of clients that are making a concentrated effort to take steps that will make a real difference to candidates and their reputation as employers.

Again, this is just my brief list. Recruiting gurus, what else are you seeing?

I don’t know if it’s because my job is what it is, or the fact that outside of my work bubble I too often have a negative experience, but I do find myself driving to stickler-ville sometimes – a place to complain about bad customer service.

Today, I had an experience inside my work bubble that made me nuts. I figure most of our readers could relate, so I thought I would vent share.

I had a conference call scheduled with a potential vendor partner this morning.  We had 45 minutes blocked out for the call. Full disclosure, the trouble all started with me. I was running late for the call (on another one prior that was running a bit long) when I saw an email pop up on my screen to confirm if I was still on, noting that they would be on the line for the next few minutes.

I emailed back that I was just getting off a call and was ready to meet and logged in. By the time I was in, they had left the call – totally understandable and expected. So I emailed again with my apologies asking if we could now connect.

The rep emailed back and asked to reschedule to Friday. I replied that I couldn’t.

To start running the clock, we are now at 10:14. The call was scheduled to last till 10:45. I emailed back that I couldn’t, but was still able to connect that very minute, or possibly later in the morning.

The reply back? Could I reschedule for Monday or Tuesday.

Time check: 10:30. The early part of next week is looking pretty full for me, and I wanted to get a handle on some basic offerings from this company more than anything today, so I asked if we could get on the line for just a general call for the last 15 minutes we had scheduled.

The reply back to this one … “It would be too rushed.”

Oh, and a few PDFs were attached.

In the span of more than 30 minutes we shared five emails and nothing got accomplished. The worst part, my impression of this potential partner was so disappointing. (I am being nice.)

There are such core essentials for anyone who is in a sales or customer service role – flexibility, responsiveness and the ability to problem solve are just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on.  Yes, my name is Annette and I am a stickler for service. Are you? Do situations like these also make steam come out of your ears? Vent Share with me!

I just read this article on Philly.com about a job seeker who went to an interview. After all of the normal round of questions, the interviewer then turned to their computer to look them up on Facebook, once they noticed that the interviewee’s profile was private, they asked for the password and log-in to their account.

Are you baffled? Because I sure was…

After reading more of the article and some of the reasoning behind the issue. I still don’t agree with it. Whatever happened to the background check? Criminal records usually show up on those, along with any other issues that might prevent an employer from wanting to hire a specific person.

In the article they compared giving your credentials to an employer to giving your house keys to a stranger. I totally agree. As a social media specialist I know a lot about privacy on my own social networks, with that said, I also know that if I don’t want someone to see something… to simply not post it anywhere on the internet.

Here’s a piece of the article that I found very interesting:

Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network’s terms of service. But those terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.

The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.

But Lori Andrews, law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.

“Volunteering is coercion if you need a job,” Andrews said.

Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.

It’s sad that some of these people feel like they must do these things, otherwise they can’t put dinner on the table for their families. I think this is a super touchy issue that should probably be addressed on a more legal level rather than moral.

What are your thoughts on this article? Would you ask for an applicants social networking passwords? If you are an interviewee… would you give that type of information out? Please share below!!

Why do we love Healthcare HR Week? Because it gives us a special opportunity to tell our wonderful healthcare clients just how much we appreciate all the work they do.

Startup design community Visual.ly launched a new tool on Monday that aims to generate custom infographics on anything from sports to the economy — in one click.

Visual.ly, which usually allows designers to drop in their infographics will now allow people to customize their own infographic right on their site.

The tool will eventually use APIs from sources including ESPN, the Economist and social media sites to compile and create data visualizations. At its launch, the startup is offering templates that use the Facebook or Twitter API.

What do you think of infographics? Do they convey information in a clear and easy way or do you think they make things more confusing?

There are many aspects of my job that I really love. What’s that Disney quote: “If you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life.” Definite words of wisdom there.

Most days are like that for me, somedays are well … somedays, there’s a whole lotta “work” going on, I admit! However, it’s the feeling I get most days that’s what matters.

Focusing on just one of those why I love-my-job aspects today, I’d say that I am a curious person by nature. Way back in college, my dream was to turn that into a career as a television investigative reporter. A summer internship at a CBS affiliate cemented in my mind pretty quick that I was not destined to become a journalist. That internship set me on the right course and remains one of the best work experiences of my life.

That's me having the chance to bring a past dream back to life. Work didn't feel like work that day.

Curiosity has continued to serve me well though. I am fascinated by what makes people choose their career path. Hearing first-hand what it feels like to save a person’s life, launch a brand new car, build an airplane – it’s neat stuff and inspires the work I do for my clients. Recently, I was able to shoot some video for Temple University Health System that will ultimately be used for their recruiting efforts. Talk about feeling like you are not working while you are at work –  those were some great days and the people that power that health system? Nothing short of amazing.

After seeing the video I am sharing with you today, I am even more excited to finalize the videos for Temple and am happy to report that Alstin has more video projects in the works for 2012 that will put employees in the spotlight.

When I saw this GE video, I was first drawn to it because a while back, I met with a team of aerospace engineers who were also working on the construction of the airplane spotlighted in this ad, Boeing’s Dreamliner. Working on this plane in any way, shape or form is a big deal. The excitement, energy, passion – all the things you want employees to feel about the work that they do – was crystal clear and helped me develop some (award-winning!) work that delivered results for the client.

There’s nothing like watching employees who love what they do. This piece is simply great branding and it does a great service to their employer brand in the process. (I think I was almost as choked up as the GE team at the end.) Check it out, I think you will agree:

Is the daily grind literally grinding your joints by the end of the day? Have you noticed any recurring headaches, fatigue, muscle aches, maybe a sudden increase in weight? The symptoms of stress and depression could be creeping up on you, as is the case with a number of Americans these days. With a number of people still out of work and others feeling overworked managing the workload of two or three, people are stressed out.

Stress can bring on a lot of behavioral symptoms, such as anxiety, loss of energy, irritability, depression, overeating, etc. I don’t know about you, but with each passing year, I notice more and more ads and commercials for numerous medications to combat chronic aches and pains, fatigue, depression – not to mention, the new diets, special cookbooks and “blah blah-free” products to maintain better health for the increasing number of people with diabetes and high blood pressure/cholesterol; and let’s not forget, America’s obesity, and the rising number of individuals of all ages experiencing strokes each year.

• About one out of three U.S. adults—31.3%—has high blood pressure.
• High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and kidney disease.
• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.

Stress can also disable the body’s immune system. When you’re often stressed and your immune system is not functioning properly, you’re more susceptible to germs in the environment, making it easier for you to get sick faster than usual. Did that “mental health vacation” you called out for turn into a full-fledged sick day? Does it ever seem like your coworkers are taking turns with that new stomach virus you heard was going around? Or perhaps you’ve noticed an uptick in the emails at work of coworkers soliciting pain relievers.

Clothes getting tighter? Studies show that when it comes to the onset of stress related weight gain, women who had stress over job-related demands, financial strain, problems with family relationships, feeling limited by life’s circumstances, depression and anxiety disorders, had a tendency to gain weight. In men whose stress derived from strained relationships or feeling constrained by life’s circumstances, weight gain wasn’t an issue. But job issues, such as lack of authority or little opportunity to learn new skills or do interesting work, was associated with their weight gain.

Ok, so now that we’ve covered a trail of difficulties that stem from stress and the myriad of problems a lot of us may be experiencing lately as a result, what to do about it?

The best stress relievers tend to be exercise, meditation and the right breathing techniques. Researchers have found exercise to be a potent antidepressant, which also fights anxiety and helps some to sleep. As for meditation, an advanced 20-30 minute session a day can have lasting effects that are beneficial in controlling blood pressure and heart rate. Popular calming practices, such as Yoga and Tai chi, that bring them all together, and have been proven very successful in relieving stress and easing many aches and pains. You must adopt habits that help cut down on worry and make relaxation a part of your life. So wake up, stretch yourself out, take a deep breath and conquer your day!

Stress reduction programs in the workplace, as well as access to weight-loss programs, exercise programs and flexible work schedules should also prove helpful in battling these problems. A number of large and small companies have adopted Employee Health & Wellness Programs to provide and encourage that healthy lifestyle that helps with stress management, limits sickness, and fights the symptoms that could lead to major physical and mental health problems. While these programs are a benefit to employees by offering health improvement solutions and good practices to better their lifestyle, they are also cost-effective to the organization, and with the rising cost of healthcare, they certainly make sense. Results include a reduction in absenteeism, and healthcare costs, and an increase in productivity and retention. But it is important that employees are kept informed and reminded of their access to such programs. What good does it do, when they don’t know it’s there? Be sure to promote your programs well to see the evidence of the aforementioned benefits. A healthy employee is a happy employee!

Timeline for Facebook pages is finally here! Although they don’t go live until March 30th, you can set it up now and publish it for all to see. Many big brands have gone live with their new looks and I am totally loving it. I think it’s a great way to add that extra level of branding and also make it easier to highlight relevant information. If you still are not familiar with Timeline, it is a new layout for your personal profile that lets you highlight specific moments of your life along with organizing them and sharing them in a neat and organized way with your friends and family. This is what is currently rolling out for pages. And it will be awesome.

Before you get super excited about the new look and all of the possibilities, it is important to really understand the new features. These additions include:

A cover photo (850 pixels by 315 pixels)
No default landing tab
Only 4 visible tabs
The ability to add an image for your tabs
New Admin section (Ability to message and view activity log)
Posts by others mentioning your brand may show up in your Timeline

Some things to note:

Viewers can still see the number of likes, who’s talking about it and who checked in – but if you click on the likes in the view and apps area (the boxes underneath the cover photo, they can now see a lot more. It will show the most popular week, city and core age group, with a lovely graph tracking people talking about and new likes.

Another great feature of pages is the ability to highlight a post. This then makes the image stretch out on your page so it is more dominant and stands out a whole lot more than regular wall posts.

Pages also get to add milestones to their Timeline. This helps brands to share important stages of the brands past as in opening day, first award, latest win, etc. It also helps to add another visual aspect to your page, which overall makes your page stronger and stand out more.

Only a few companies have access to Facebook Offers currently, but it will be rolled out soon. According to Facebook’s Offer Help section, they “expect to make Offers available more broadly soon.” Facebook Offers are like Facebook Deals on steroids.

The post is sent through the news feeds of your fans, which is much more visible. There are easy ways to share the Offer, both through the post itself and then when the Offer is claimed. Fans get the Offer by clicking the Get Offer link, see the terms and then click the blue Claim Offer button as shown. Because Facebook has everyone’s email address, they are able to individually email your Offer to the person who claimed it. Unfortunately, the page does not have access to those emails through which the Offer was claimed, but at least the word is spread about your Offer.

Facebook Offers could be a huge win for small businesses offering things like a “free webinar” or consultants offering a “free 15-minute consultation.”

And finally Facebook Ads gets an overhaul! The ads will be larger and the product names are the Reach Generator and Premium on Facebook. The Reach Generator is designed to reach more of your existing fans than you currently are reaching through the news feed. Mike Hoefflinger, Facebook’s director of global business marketing, said that currently pages only reach about 16% of their audience each week with posts. With the Reach Generator ads, pages can reach 50% of their fans each week and 75% each month. Beta testing done by brands such as Ben and Jerry’s was able to reach 98% of fans and double engagement.

Excited? You should be! This will be a great way to really get your brand out there and implement Facebook to reach new crowds

Have any questions? Concerns? Opinions? Share below! I’d love to hear them.

Best recruitment video ever? Okay…

When I saw a tweet the other day that said “World’s best recruitment video!” I was intrigued. That’s also how the clip is labeled on youtube. Hmm.

After watching it, I’m not sure if they were being ironic or not (I sure hope so) but I wanted to share this with our readers. Perhaps like me you watch these testimonials and wonder if the people are cast-offs from The Matrix movies and are about to do some slo-mo karate at any moment. If you want to get in great shape, do 10 pushups every time they say “Make it happen.”

Always looking for the next big thing in recruitment to pass along to our clients, I stumbled upon a site called SkillPages (formerly weedle). Interesting concept, sort of like a LinkedIn/Facebook fusion, it aims to connect job applicants who possess certain skills with employers seeking them.

Touting themselves as the “One place to find people with any skill you need,” their online bio states: “SkillPages is transforming the way people with skills connect to the people who need them. The platform brings together a member’s real life social connections so they can find skilled people they can trust and also, to get found by people who need their skill. Right now, members world-wide are benefitting from SkillPages – finding skilled people they can trust and getting found by new customers, employers, business partners and more.”

The only issue I have, and it’s a big one, is that those who are on the job market currently looking for jobs would be the main users. With this model, you’re not going to find hidden talent or those top performers who are happy at their current jobs. And, I’m wondering how quickly a user would become disinterested in the site once they do find a job that meets their salary/career goals.

Currently boasting over 3,400,000 members in 160 countries, SkillPages is still too small to use successfully as part of a recruitment tactic. For example, a quick search of the site for various skills in different geographic locations brought the following results:

Registered Nurses, Philadelphia: 7 matches

Attorney, New York City: 13 matches

Retail Manager, Florida: 33 matches

Accountant, New York City: 61 matches

Pharmacist, California: 77 matches

And, some of the results are faulty.  Searches for accountants included account directors at ad agencies and the pharmacist search brought back assistants and techs. As the site grows and its techies refine the algorithms, I’m confident matches will be more relevant. But it’s the entire concept that may need tweaking in order for SkillPages to become a must-use resource.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with the fine folks over at JIBE and was really excited to learn all about the offerings that they had for employers Below is a little bit about them along with some great bullets about everthing they can offer to your business for recruiting purposes!

JIBE is where friends help friends land jobs. It is a referral-based hiring platform that enables jobseekers to tap into their existing social networks to gain access to the jobs they want through the people they already know. JIBE provides jobseekers with a wide range of career opportunities, insight into how many connections they have at a given company and the ability to contact their connections, ask for referrals, and then attach those referrals to their job application. JIBE works directly with enterprises, many of which are Fortune 1,000 companies.

• JIBE created the first Social Recruitment Platform that opens up the social graph of both employers and job seekers.
• Leverages Facebook and LinkedIn Networks to identify the most trusted & qualified candidates.
• JIBE’s network reaches 140 million diverse professionals in the US.
• Only recruiting solution compatible with all ATS platforms.

They make the applying and getting referred process so simple and seamless and have some really amazing technology that takes your current careers site and makes it super mobile friendly along with making the applying via mobile quick and easy- something that is unheard of right now when it comes to the mobile application process.

Cool right? If you have any question or interested in learning more about how this could fit into your mobile recruiting strategy, ask below!!

An article posted to Inc.com titled, “How To Spot Innovative Hires” reveals some suggestions on how to make sure your company chooses the right candidate for any position, including some questions you should include during your next interview to help facilitate the hiring process. But how can you be sure these suggestions are any more valid than anything else you’ve read? These questions actually came from a “brain researcher” and don’t laugh- some of them are pretty interesting.

The article starts off by explaining that the hiring process can be monotonous and sometimes even puzzling. “Many of the resumes that cross my desk are white pieces of paper that list education, experiences, and skills. Since they’re typically from traditionally-minded people who prefer not to call attention to themselves, I don’t expect anything else. Some people who are more expressive also include links to websites, where they post videos or slide presentations. Some resumes cleverly include square QR bar codes to scan, leading to multimedia links. I’ve also seen resumes from designers that are so colorful and inventive they are like works of art. Some of these are visually stunning, but it can take me 20 minutes to decipher the creator’s job qualifications. I’ve seen a resume set up like a board game, with a spinner in the middle, and—my personal favorite—one you cut out and fold into a colorful little box with the job seeker’s information printed on all six sides. It’s a thinking-outside-the-box box!”

So how can you file through the jungle of every day and not so normal resumes to find what you’re looking for? “The interview is where you can really get a sense of conceptual thinking. Be prepared for innovative thinkers to go off on tangents—in their minds they are not digressing, but connecting the dots. Listen for words or phrases like these: brainstorming, big picture, global, vision, hunch, oneness, synchronicity, and cutting edge.”

Here are the questions you can ask your next candidate to gauge their level of innovation-

“1. If you were to assemble a piece of furniture from the directions, how would you go about it?

I love this question because each thinking type answers it so differently. Someone whose thinking is very innovative will often say, “I look at the picture on the box, dump the pieces in a pile on the floor, and then begin. When the project is complete, I use the directions to start a fire.”

2. When a deadline is a month away, how do you finish a project—and when?

An innovative thinker will say something like, “First, I search the Internet for ideas. Then I’ll take a walk or ponder until a solution makes itself known. This may happen immediately or it may happen three days before the deadline, but when the solution surfaces, it will come all at once—and it will come.”

3. How do you make important life decisions?

Innovative minds will answer, “I base my decisions on intuition.”

An applicant’s behaviors are also important to understanding how an innovator (if you’ve found one) would interact as part of your team. Look to uncover them with questions like these:

4. What would you do if you showed up ten minutes early for a meeting?

Does this individual talk about striking up a conversation with the nearest person, or quietly prepare for the meeting? Only you know which trait would offer an appropriate balance at your company.

5. How would you assert your ideas if you were in a meeting with a group of managers and a confrontational issue emerged?

This way you can get a sense of whether or not this applicant will wait for encouragement before speaking, or jump in with a point of view. Does your current team have outspoken leaders who would squelch innovations your candidate proposes, or would his voice be heard?

6. How would you respond if your manager suddenly changed your project?

Do you find this applicant describes immediately adapting to the new task, or holding his ground? Which would benefit your organization’s processes more?

In addition, innovative job applicants will most likely ask you where you expect your company to be in ten years. They may ask how many products you have introduced, and whether or not you have awards for innovation. They also may ask if they can bring their dog to work.”

Ok, so maybe a few of these questions sound a little strange or even too forward, but give a few of them a try and see what your responses are like.

Has your company ever asked any of these questions or anything similar during the interview process? What were the results? How does your hiring process assure that you find that talent that you are looking for?

Those of us in the industry wait each year for the 2012 CareerXroads Sources of Hire survey.

The survey is conducted by the highly respected team of Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler, and they try to get specific info and numbers about where some of the biggest companies in the US get their hires. The report is illustrated in a SlideShare presentation here.

Here’s the highlights from this year’s report:

• The study included 36 participating companies representing 1.2 million employees.
• 59% of their 213,375 openings were filled externally, a significant change from the last few years and this stat, according to Crispin, “helps to confirm we are coming out of a recession.”
• It’s wisely pointed out by the authors that a variety of sources often can be attributed to a hire and that these sources are not mutually exclusive.
• The top two sources of external hires were referrals (28%) and job boards (20.1%). For job boards, Indeed and CareerBuilder turned out to be the most effective.
• I’d like to add my opinion as a word of caution that underscores bullet #3: When asked how they collect source of hire data, more than 66% say through self-reporting.  Self-reporting can be a notoriously unreliable or inaccurate source of hire. Why? Because if a candidate sees a job posting on monster, then 2 weeks later does a Google search and finds the same position, then sees a pay-per-click ad on Facebook which drives her to the company’s career site, the candidate will often select “Career Site” as the source even though all the other tools played a pivotal role in getting her to apply.
• While social media only registered 3.5% hires, most respondents believe it plays a consistent and influential role in acquiring talent. “It’s all speculation why they said that,” explains Crispin, “because we have no data.” However, he hastens to add, “They may not know, but they are good guessers.” See the above bullet for more info, but my feeling is that social media is playing an increasingly larger part of recruiting, but until ATS’s get better, their effect will continue to be under-reported.
• Top 2 goals for 2012: Improve ERP and increase social media and LinkedIn in source of hire channels.

If you’d like more information on how this report matches what we’re seeing at Alstin and what it might mean for your recruiting function, drop me a line at trosato@alstin.com

Is the light at the end of the great recession’s tunnel getting brighter? When it comes to the long-term unemployed, four million Americans out of work for a year or longer, brighter career opportunities are finally starting to shine. I can tell you that we’re seeing it first-hand at Alstin. Many of our clients are switching gears and ramping up their hiring initiatives at a pace we have not seen in years.

I also saw this story on 60 Minutes on Sunday and was impressed by the approach they profiled to help integrate people who have been removed from the workforce for so long get back into the fold. People who have actually seen the crazy ads that read “only those currently employed need apply” (Anne blogged on this too-click here) and are discouraged by what’s often an incredibly frustrating hiring process month after month. That’s got to do something to a person’s self-esteem.  However this approach, one centered on building back the person along with our nation’s workforce, was inspiring. Hope we see more stories along these lines this year.

Take a few minutes to watch this video. What do you think of this Connecticut-based program? Have you participated in something similar when hiring? Would you if asked?

We know it’s tough to fill certain positions. We know it’s tough to find the right people, but there are a good set of tools available out there that will allow you to find the right people for whatever position you are trying to fill. One tool that is readily available to all is LinkedIn.

Below are some key tip and advice to really get the best out of your current (or non-existing and newly created) LinkedIn profile!

It is important to note the following:

• There are over 120 million people all over the world on LinkedIn.

Two weeks ago our very own Dalia Gonzalez covered Why Women Love Pinterest on our blog, but did you know that the Army does too? And it wouldn’t be a bad idea for your company to fall in love with Pinterest.com either, if you’re struggling with maintaining your brand and your company’s image. But what can this relatively new social platform do for your that others can’t? The Atlantic Wire posted an overview, “The Army’s Social Media Industrial Complex,” of what the Army has done on their official Pinterest. Check out their example.

“Considering the heavy female demographic happening on Pinterest, we were surprised to find the U.S. Army had a well-stocked profile, until we checked out the rest of their online goings-on. The Army is all up on the Internet. And, in a very active way — it doesn’t just have social media profiles to have its hand in the future. It has robust profiles on various sites, ranging from the big social media players like Twitter to newbs like Pinterest, each appropriately using the platform as a PR tool. It’s really quite impressive for such an established, bureaucratic organization that one would assume would stink at the Web.” The first paragraph brings up a great point. While this is an impressive PR tool, how can this possibly relate to the Army demographically? What could this help them accomplish? Read on, friends.

All of the Army’s many social media profiles are well run. And it has many. It’s on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Google+, Vimeo, Slideshare and now Pinterest. There is also an Army Live blog. (Not to be confused with an Army liveblog.) Each profile posts different content, each appropriate for the venue. Twitter and Facebook, for example, are news heavy. Flickr and Google+ are photo driven. YouTube and Vimeo post videos, of course. And, Pinterest has pretty and cute patriotic and Army-themed things, like this entire pinboard of desserts and pastries. For the Army wife demographic, possibly?

We’ve reached out to the Army’s Public affairs office to get more insight into their social media strategy and how it works. But for now, we’ll just say that we’re impressed with what they pull off.

The Army knows what’s up content wise, in a PR sort of way, at least. Most of the stuff is more like promotional material than anything else, like this wounded soldier video or these heroic soldier photos on Flickr. The Army even understands social media’s potential to hurt its own cause. Since it uses it as a PR tool, rather than a news or information portal, the wrong kind of messages can make it look bad. Hence the social media guide it put out last summer.”

While of course this platform wouldn’t necessarily relate or work for every company and every industry, it’s important to sometimes dig a little deeper and really think about who you can market to. The Army is taking the time to recognize that there is a whole entire community behind almost every facet of their institution and they are taking advantage of including everyone. To read more on what they’ve accomplished, click on the link to view the entire article. Click here to view the Army’s Pinterest and see what they’re up to.

Has your company tried out Pinterest yet or are you waiting to see whether or not Pinterest sticks around as it is relatively new?

Has your company tried Pinterest and had success or not much activity? Share you experiences with us.

Valentine’s Day is the day that people either look forward to or totally dread. Girls are to be wined, dined and on a perpetual sugar high while the guys stress about the perfect gift, the perfect dinner and where in the world to get the perfect bouquet of flowers.

Ever since I was a little girl my parents taught me to love my self on Valentine’s day. Single or not. Go out and buy something for yourself and really look at the things you have accomplished so far in the new year. Are you still keeping up with your new year’s resolutions? Are you doing the things in life that make you happy? All those things deserve a treat.

So be sure today to treat yourself. Buy yourself a piece of candy. Have a cupcake or just kick back, call someone you love (yes even your mother-in-law) and say, “Hey, I love you. You rock. Happy Valentine’s Day”. Below is a great clip from the show Parks and Recreation that sums up what I think everyone should do on Feb. 14th…

What have you accomplished so far this year that is treat worthy? (Note: No accomplishment is too big or too small! Share away!!)

You’ve submitted a countless number of resumes and cover letters, stumbled your way through phone screenings and met potential employers during interviews time and time again, but still haven’t managed to land a new job. You go on one interview and wait by the phone or check your email only to find that you have been dismissed for one reason or another. Maybe your resume has all the right skills, but you weren’t able to convey them to the recruiter? Maybe your personality was spot on, but the hiring manager just didn’t feel that you would be a good fit for the company culture? Starting to feel that no matter how many interviews you go on, you just won’t be able to find the position you’re looking for? It might be a good time to think check out a new list complied by Tlnt.com on, “The Top 30 Most Common (and Critical) Interview Problems.” Not only does the list offer common problems, but it’s broken down into three critical components: “The 15 most critical problems that can occur with interviews, Problems with the interviewer, and Common interview process errors.”

Before we reveal a few things that you might be doing wrong during interviews, it’s important to understand that not all hope is lost. Have the confidence to acknowledge that job searching isn’t easy, even with reports that the job market is improving, being unemployed is hard work and the fact that you have been able to secure an interview is certainly something to be proud of. If you’re looking for a way to clinch the deal, check out these number one issues that you might accidentally be repeating:

9. Saying what they want to hear. Interviewees frequently provide the “answers” that they believe that the interviewer wants to hear, rather than the most accurate answer. Interviewees frequently lie or omit key facts, unfortunately, interviewers do the same.

20. Interviewer fatigue. After many interviews in a row, the interviewer is tired and their judgment weakens.

29. Skills demonstrated in the interview are not required for “this job.” Interview scores tend to vary based on the candidates interpersonal and communication skills but this particular job might not require even average interpersonal skills. Thus some jobs (i.e. receptionist, salesperson and recruiter) lend themselves to being assessed through interviews, while for some other jobs (like programmers, artists and meter readers), interviews may be horrible predictors of the candidates on the job success because they work alone.

To see the entire list of problems during interviews, click on the link to read the rest of the article. Don’t forget, sometimes the problems don’t lie with the interviewee. A number of things on the list are not necessarily about the potential candidate, but are a reflection of the interviewer. Some of these things might seem out of your control, for example, how can you help it if the person interviewing you is experiencing “Interviewer fatigue?” Try to time your interviews so that you are not the second to last to be heard or so that you are not interviewed at the very end of the day when most people start to mentally prepare themselves to leave work. Again, don’t forget that the fact that you have secured an interview in the first place certainly speaks highly of your cover letter or resume at least, and best of luck!

 Have you experienced some of these problems while interviewing? What have you done to combat these common issues?

For us advertising professionals at Alstin, the Super Bowl has always been as much about the great ads that are launched that day as the game itself. Actually, for those old enough to remember, the Super Bowl in the late 80’s and 90’s was almost always a horrible game—blowout after blowout, and most games were over by the second quarter. Fortunately, the last few years we’ve seen some great games, and this year’s was amazing. I even thought Madonna’s halftime show was pretty solid–if you can excuse the fact that it looked like she really didn’t want to be there and was clearly lip synching.

The ads? Not so much. Most people seem to agree that the spots were underwhelming. Personally, I am really beginning to take issue with automobile ads. I know the TV market has been oversaturated for years with car commercials, but it seems like they’re completely out of ideas. Cars doing barrel rolls and being suspended by bungees? That level of ridiculousness would be fine, if it was done more tongue-in-cheek and the commercials were brand building and memorable, but they all seem run into one another, and just end up being noise (to see a great exception, read my blog on the Toyota Yaris here: http://blog.alstin.com/the-most-honest-car-commercial-youll-ever-see-and-love

So what commercials rose to the top? After researching ad industry reviews it seemed like these 5 made the most impact.

Honda CRV with Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller)
The extended version is included here for all you 80’s lovers

Chrysler: It’s Halftime in America
Dirty Harry’s spot for Detroit and Chrysler also came with a free serving of a ridiculous political debate

Volkswagen: The Dog Strikes Back
Good boy! Also included here is the Star Wars follow-up

NFL Timeline
This one didn’t do much for me, but I seem to be in the minority on this one

M&M: Just My Shell
Nudity always sells, doesn’t matter the context

Last week, Alstin’s Dalia Gonzalez wrote up a blog on a Twitter recruiting video that is so bad, it’s good. (It’s hilarious, you should check it out if you missed it.) This week, I’m bringing you something so bad, it’s just bad. Bad cover letters are par for the course. Typos, misspellings, a canned approach – if you are in recruiting you have seem them all, and if you are like me, occasionally you have shared a few “gems” with a coworker.

These days, sharing anything could easily become the next viral sensation on the web. Here’s an example of one bad cover letter being used by an NYU grad student. He sent it off to several Wall Street firms and it went viral pretty quick. I came across it today and I am sure you’ll agree that his claims of “terrifying” efficiency, an ability to perform 35 pull-ups and insistence that he’s not a “braggart” just a guy trying outline his usefulness all combine to create one bad cover letter. Ever get one that reached this level of badness?

Read on, enjoy.

Dear Sir or Madame:

I am an ambitious undergraduate at NYU triple majoring in Mathematics, Economics, and Computer Science. I am a punctual, personable, and shrewd individual, yet I have a quality which I pride myself on more than any of these.

I am unequivocally the most unflaggingly hard worker I know, and I love self-improvement. I have always felt that my time should be spent wisely, so I continuously challenge myself; I left Villanova because the work was too easy. Once I realized I could achieve a perfect GPA while holding a part-time job at NYU, I decided to redouble my effort by placing out of two classes, taking two honors classes, and holding two part-time jobs. That semester I achieved a 3.93, and in the same time I managed to bench double my bodyweight and do 35 pull-ups.

I say these things only because solid evidence is more convincing than unverifiable statements, and I want to demonstrate that I am a hard worker. J.P. Morgan is a firm with a reputation that precedes itself and employees who represent only the best and rightest in finance. I know that the employees in this firm will push me to excellence, especially within the Investment Banking division. In fact, one of the supporting reasons I chose Investment Banking over any other division was that I know it is difficult. I hope to augment my character by diligently working for the professionals at Morgan Stanley, and I feel I have much to offer in return.

I am proficient in several programming languages, and I can pick up a new one very quickly. For instance, I learned a years worth of Java from NYU in 27 days on my own; this is how I placed out of two including: Money and Banking, Analysis, Game Theory, Probability and Statistics. Even further, I am taking Machine Learning and Probabilistic Graphical Modeling currently, two programming courses offered by Stanford, so that I may truly offer the most if I am accepted. I am proficient with Bloomberg terminals, excellent with excel, and can perform basic office functions with terrifying efficiency. I have plenty of experience in the professional world through my internship at Merrill Lynch, and my research assistant position at NYU. In fact, my most recent employer has found me so useful that he promoted me to a Research Assistant and an official CTED intern. This role is usually reserved for Masters students, but my employer gave the title to me so that he could give me more work.

Please realize that I am not a braggart or conceited, I just want to outline my usefulness. Egos can be a huge liability, and I try not to have one.

Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Mark

Although men are also using this social platform (20%) Stats last week shared something most of us already knew, 80% of women are using Pinterest  (pin-ter-rest).  If you are a man and you are wondering what all they hype is all about, I will share it with you.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Since pretty much the beginning of time women have enjoyed inspiration boards (at least I have). Pinterest lets users “pin” things they like in order to create a digital board of inspiration. Want to start making new dinners this year? There’s a board for that- Planning a country inspired wedding? There’s a board for that- Want ideas on how to re-do the kitchen… You get it. This is why 80% of the women who use it are in complete bliss when scrolling through this site. It makes organizing, planning and creativity so much fun!

Recently a Mashable article shared that Pinterest is driving more traffic than it’s older friends over at Google+, Reddit, LinkedIn and even You Tube. That is huge.

Pinterest accounted for 3.6% of referral traffic, while Twitter just barely edged ahead of the newcomer, accounting for 3.61% of referral traffic. In July 2011, Pinterest accounted for just 0.17% of referral traffic, proving the site’s blockbuster growth.

Pretty cool stuff right? I personally love the site and think it will get me in trouble with my credit card company and waistline. All it ever inspires me to do is shop and bake… but hey, it’s still pretty amazing. And for the guys who may feel left out I actually have a few male friends that are using Pinterest to share photos of amazing muscle cars, destinations they’d like to visit one day and art that inspires them. All very great boards.

Another great thing about Pinterest is that you can promote your brand. Be sure to read the article here to see how brands are using Pinterest to promote their brand, run contests and further increase interest in the brand and engagement!

Pinterest is still invite only, so if you are not on the site yet ask one of your many friends who already is on the site for an invite, or just drop your email below in the comments and I’ll be happy to end your productivity for the rest of the day. (The site is addictive. I promise)

While we tend to stress the importance of social media in HR, some companies and organizations still aren’t interested or come up with the same excuses on why they don’t want to introduce Facebook and other vital networking sites into their recruitment campaigns.

FistfulofTalent.com recently posted an article, “3 Myths About Recruiting on Facebook – Haters Love to Argue!” that pretty much sums up in a few paragraphs why the same old excuses not to use social media are invalid and outdated. As the article explains, “Five years ago I was invited to speak at a corporate event by a Fortune 500 company, by their HR Department, to speak to their employees about the advantages of joining LinkedIn as a ‘professional network.’   Do you remember those times?  When HR folks were actually encouraging their software developers, engineers, and professional level employees to join LinkedIn?! Today, HR/Talent Pros would be publicly hanged for encouraging their IT staff and other hard to find talent to put their profiles up on LinkedIn.  You are basically encouraging your employees to go out and put up a billboard that says: ‘I’m available! Come find me and make me an offer!’  That is what LinkedIn has become – Generation-Next-Job-Board.  Don’t get me wrong – I love LinkedIn!  They are one of the largest sources of talent for my company.  When I was on the corporate side of the Talent desk – I still loved LinkedIn – because I could more easily yank talent from my competitors – but I also hated it for that same reason! Facebook is what LinkedIn was 5 years ago – the Haters just don’t want to admit it.”

Still not speaking your language? Here are the myths and reasons behind them condensed:

 “1. Facebook is for your private life – LinkedIn is for your professional Life!

You hear this right!  This is the same type of myth that LinkedIn perpetuated for years – ‘We are a professional network!’ – yeah, right.  You might have started that way – but you are now one big job board – thank you!   Facebook is a ‘social’ network.  Yes, but this is fast changing and will continue to change as people become more comfortable living one life, and learning how to use the Facebook tools and Apps to have both a social life and a professional life on Facebook.

2. There are too many people on Facebook to be effective as a recruiting source.

This is the lazy myth.  Basically, the haters are going to discount Facebook because there are too many people to choose from and that’s hard.  Sorry – you don’t get to say that!  Figure it out – the talent is there, the tools to find them are there – stop making excuses!  Facebook is 1 degree of separation for every person in the world.  Any time you spend trying to figure out how to take advantage of that won’t be a waste.

3. Facebook is a fad, it will be die out in 3 years.

The one thing I know for sure is, Facebook has changed how our society communicates.  As a recruiting Pro – I want to be a part of how our society communicates. Will something new come out – sure it will. Will Facebook be gone in 3 years – probably not!   In the meantime, we have been given a list of every possible candidate we might ever want to contact, or at least be within one contact point of every candidate – Fade or not – Talent Pros need to take advantage – now. If it’s dead in 3 years, I’ll move to the next source – but for now – I’m using it!”

Now stop making excuses and buying into the same myths. Start incorporating social media into your recruitment efforts and see what these networking sites can do for your company. Even if you’re still not sure, why not at least give it a try for a few months and compare your results?

Has your company embraced Facebook.com and other sites in recruiting efforts? Have you seen good results or do you still believe that social media doesn’t help, or even harms your efforts?

For my blog post this week I wanted to include an infographic (what did we ever do before them?) on the state of recruiting that was done by Talent Technology. The good news is that economic and job growth is expected as well as an expectation for increased competition for the best talent. To see the complete study and survey results, go to www.talenttech.com/

A really, really smart guy named Salman Khan (three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard) wanted to help his niece in another city bring up her math grade. So, he started tutoring her remotely. Her grades went up and more nieces and nephews were added to his roster. With their schedules to consider, it just became easier for him to make brief YouTube videos simply explaining the math they had to learn. Pretty soon, other people started watching his videos. And their numbers grew. The result is Khan Academy. And I think it is the best thing on the Internet. At this amazing site, you can now watch more than 2,800 videos where geniuses explain things to you simply – often while making simple drawings to illustrate their point.

Math is still this site’s strong suit, but topics now range from Biology to Art History to Calculus to Chemistry and beyond. Their mission is nothing short of changing the way the world learns – while democratizing access to knowledge.

Check out the TED Talk that Mr. Khan gave about his amazing site:

One other thing about the site – it makes learning fun. Really. You can start at any point and earn badges for successfully completing exercises that accompany the lessons. You can use it to help your kids with complex concepts that you either don’t remember or never learned. Or, you can simply dip in at any point and learn more about topics that excite you.

I love a good video of a kitten falling asleep as much as the next person. But, if you’re ready to use the Internet to its full advantage, Khan Academy should be your next stop.

“During Twitter‘s official 2012 Hack Week, one project was to make the “best/worst recruiting video of all time.” Consider that challenge successfully completed.”

Hack Week is an event at Twitter where Twitter employees create teams of their own and come up with creative ideas for the company minus the input of upper management. After Hack Week is finished they send their ideas off. The ideas are either immediately implemented, or put on the back burner for later.  This is a great idea to get employees excited to come up with new programs, software, communication tools and more. The opportunity is endless.

The video has since gone viral with over 450,000 views on You Tube since it was posted on Friday. The phrase, “It’s so bad that it’s good.” definitely fits this video well. See for yourself below…

This is their real recruitment video and if you are actually interested in a job with Twitter feel free to check them out online or visit @jointhflock

What are your thoughts on the video? Would a recruitment strategy like this work for other companies just as well?