[vimeo 981740]

This is pretty fascinating. This talk at a Social Media Breakfast in Cambridge goes over some new strategies for hiring, particularly for positions that relate to Web 2.0, but this could signal a hiring practices change in general. The speaker is Aaron Strout, VP of New Media for Mzinga. (Twitter) Here’s a blog post he made on this topic.

In the post and video, Strout explains his new process for hiring two positions that he has posted:

• No resumes. At least not the kind written in MS Word.
• If you want to get me your background, do it in the “community way.” Either blog about why we should hire you or get me to your profile on LinkedIn (or your preferred social network.)
• DON’T e-mail me. If you are a community-centric person, connect with me on Twitter or Facebook – you can DM me on Twitter or email me through Facebook.

And, finally he adds “Ingenuity and cleverness count!”

And how’s this for a job requirement? “Love social media! A good litmus test is whether or not you’re active in FB, MySpace, Twitter, or some other social network (company communities/SN’s count). LinkedIn and Plaxo sort of count but not as much as some of the others I’ve mentioned.”

Bryan Person sponsored the event, and you can catch him on Twitter or his blog. Students need to know what employers are thinking about in regard to how they will facilitate the hiring process in the future. Particularly if you want a job related to Web 2.0, you need to practice Web 2.0. And when employers are looking for people to fill those positions, that’s what they want. He started a category on his blog called Social Media and Your Career, so that might be a good thing to check.

I think the same advice goes for teachers, academics. You can’t teach about or research Web 2.0 topics unless you get on Facebook, try Twitter, get a FriendFeed, heck, try Second Life.