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Does your cat know what you do on Facebook?

Would you let an employer look at your Facebook profile? Apparently, many would like the privilege.Facebook's chief privacy officer Erin Egan has warned employers against demanding access to candidates' Facebook accounts.

It seems to be a prevalent problem in the US, where press reports indicate that some companies are asking people outright for their login credentials. The thinking seems to be that, by looking at the private Facebook accounts of a job candidate, an employer will be able to get a better sense of the kind of person they are.

This is, of course, dangerous territory. It is dangerous not just for job candidates' privacy, but also for employers.

Let's say that an employer decides to log in to an employee's account, and finds out a piece of otherwise private information. Perhaps, for example, a female candidate might be planning a pregnancy. Someone could be gay, but only out to a group of Facebook friends. Perhaps someone is a member of online groups or has made status updates indicating that they are HIV-positive. Or maybe they are a member of some other minority group.

It then becomes very difficult for an employer to prove that they haven't passed up that candidate in favour of someone else, based on discrimination over something they read in their Facebook profile. Decided not to hire me for that Java developer position? Prove, then, that it isn't because you suddenly found out that I'm thinking of trying for a baby with my partner within the next few months, and you're scared of having to grant me paternity leave. 

In the US, some companies have tried to skirt around the controversy by simply asking potential candidates to let them shoulder surf as those candidates look through their own Facebook profiles. But this fails to get to the nub of the problem, which is that surfing peoples' private social media accounts is an extremely bad idea, and people who do it should be burned at the stake. 

Facebook itself has warned companies not to do it, and the UK Information Commissioner's Office has warned UK employers that it would have "very serious concerns" if companies in the UK nosed around people's Facebook pages. The Officer points to the UK Data Protection Act, arguing that it explicitly says organisations shouldn't hold excessive information about individuals.

In the US, some job applicants have said that they have allowed companies to intrude on their privacy in this way, because they needed the job in question. However, ITJobLog's readers are hopefully not in the same position, living on the breadline and looking for work from week to week. If a potential employer tried to do the same to our readership, we hope that candidates would decide that they didn't want to work for an organisation with such an egregious value system.
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A short while ago, my colleague Tim Anderson posted an innovative piece about augmented reality CVs. Seeing yourself floating above a piece of paper on a webcam surrounded by digital artefacts is nothing short of awesome. But not everyone has the capability to undertake a production like that, involving large amounts of coding, green screen video, and 3D production work. How can the rest of us get our CV to stand out above the others?

When people ask me for a CV these days, I just point them to my Linkedin page, which is a handy way of presenting my information. My favourite aspect of LinkedIn is that it is dynamic. Not only can you expand the page on an ongoing basis with testimonials from happy customers and colleagues, but you can also update your status on the page. It is also extensible, supporting third party applications including an Amazon reading list and a blog app, so that potential employers can be wowed by your insightful posts.

Another option is VisualCV, which lets you pull together multiple information sources, including files, video, and performance charts, into a central page that you can update regularly. This page can be forwarded to potential employers.

Still, while informative, these aren't the most eye-catching CV options that I've seen. One of the most stunning job applications I saw was by an artist applying for a job on a magazine. He sketched out his job application as a cartoon to catch the editor's attention.

This excellent Mashable article highlights some innovative designs that compress large amounts of information about an individual onto a single page using some stunning infographic designs, such as this one from Michael Anderson:

Visual Resume

This chap decided to innovate a little more and create a KML version of his CV, enabling potential employers to view it on a map:


It might be something of a gimmick, but could be a useful addition to an interactive CV, presented online. 

With so many tired, text-heavy CVs making their way onto potential employers' desks, doesn't it pay to be a little creative? What are you doing to make your job application more effective?

I'm just back from judging entries for the CWJobs Augmented Reality CV contest. The idea is that presenting your skills and work history using multimedia technology is more engaging than doing so with a few sheets of A4 paper. In the judging session, we looked at the best CVs from hundreds of entries, with the winners getting a professional augmented reality makeover for their jobseeking efforts.

The augmented reality bit is a neat twist, but I doubt we will see it become a mainstream technique for submitting a CV. At the same time, it seems extraordinary that we are still so reliant on traditional CVs, particularly in the IT industry. Still, given that situation, what does it take to create a CV that will impress and get you interviews?

My perspective on this is unusual because I'm a technical journalist rather than someone in the recruitment industry. That means I'm in the business of communicating technical information; and I noticed that many of the CVs we looked at were poor in this respect. In reading the CV, you had to do detective work to figure out what sort of skills the person has, and what sort of work they have done, rather than this being clearly stated. Often there was too much information, and the CV was verbose and hard to digest.

There is no harm in assuming that the person reading your CV has little time or patience, which means you have to communicate the essentials at a glance. For example, you could think of the three top reasons why someone might want to employ you and place them as bullet points in your introductory profile.

My general suggestion is to be as concise as possible, avoid jargon and meaningless management-speak, be wary of littering the CV with too many unexplained acronyms, and get a friend to check basics like good English and grammar. You might imagine that everyone does this; but judging by the CVs we saw, simply getting these easy things right will lift your CV above the crowd.

Moving beyond these essentials, the question that interests me is how individuals can make use of the internet to communicate their skills and experience. In some cases it seems obvious. If you are a web designer, for example, it seems odd if you do not include a few links to work you have done. It is harder for developers or admins whose work is less public and often confidential; but nevertheless there may be forums where you help solve technical problems, or an open source project to which you contribute. Similarly, if you are an IT consultant, there could be blog posts or online papers which demonstrate your insights.

Another idea is to create your own skills cloud - CW Jobs has made this easy with a drag-and-drop web site for this purpose.

In a tough job market, it seems to me that building an online profile is a great way to invest some time and energy. It can also lead directly to job opportunities, as potential employers come across your work.

It does seem to me inevitable that traditional CVs will become less important as we learn to make better use of the internet in this context, though I am not sure whether this means the emergence of electronic CVstandards, or more reliance on profiles at key web sites, or some other trend. The CV is resilient though, so in the meantime it still pays to make it as good as possible, but supplemented by online content that will bring it to life.

Starting my career in the software development trenches at consumer electronics company Psion, I've seen the challenges of recruitment from all angles. And as my career has evolved from job seeker to recruiter the frontline experience has stayed with me. Particularly the ability to recognise the very best skills for the job. I also have an appreciation from both angles of how important it is to invest time in recruitment to make the right decisions. A bad judgement call has repurcussions on the individual, the immediate team and the wider business. In recent weeks, I've once again found myself in a situation where considerable people growth is required.  I'm working on a project at Accenture, assisting their Embedded Mobility Services group.  Mobile is increasingly a hot topic, and there's strong demand for people providing expert consuItancy in a variety of mobile development project settings. This experience has led me to review my beliefs about the best way to carry out recruitment in such situations.  Permit me to think aloud...

To start with, I remain a huge fan of graduate recruitment programs.  The best graduates bring fire in their bellies: a "we can transform the world" attitude that doesn't know what's meant to be impossible - and often carries it out!  Of course, graduates typically take some time before they can be deployed in the frontline of commercial software development.  But if you plan ahead, and have effective "bootcamp" courses, you'll have new life in your teams soon enough.  There will be up-and-coming stars ready to step into the shoes left by any unexpected staff departures or transfers.  If you can hire a group of graduates at the same time, so much the better.  They can club together and help each other, sharing and magnifying what they each individually learn from their assigned managers and mentors.  That's the beauty of the network effect.

That's just one example of the importance of networks in hiring.  I place a big value on having prior knowledge of someone who is joining your team.  Rather than having to trust your judgement during a brief interviewing process, and whatever you can distill from references, you can rely on actual experience of what someone is like to work with.  This effect becomes more powerful when several of your current workforce can attest to the qualities of a would-be recruit, based on all having worked together at a previous company in the past.  I've seen the benefit of this effect via networks of employees, sometimes at competitive companies, who all knew each other and who could vouch for each others' capabilities during the recruitment process.  I've also utilised internal networks of high-calibre people from newly mergered and acquired companies, a time when talent can easily get overlooked.  The benefit here isn't just that you know that someone is a great professional.  It's that you already know what their particular special strengths are.  ("I recommend that you give this task to Mike.  At our last company, he did a fantastic job of a similar task.")

Next, I recommend hiring for flexibility, rather than simply trying to fit a current task description.  I like to see evidence of people coping with ambiguity, and delivering good results in more than one kind of setting.  That's because projects almost always change; likewise for organisational structures.  So while interviewing, I'm not trying to assess if the person I'm interviewing is the world expert in, say, C++ templates.  Instead, I'm looking for evidence that they could turn their hand to mastering whole new skill areas - including areas that we haven't yet realised will be important to future projects.


Similarly, rather than just looking for rational intelligence skills, I want to see evidence that someone can fit well into teams.  "Soft skills", such as inter-personal communication and grounded optimism, aren't an optional extra, even for roles with intense analytic content.  The best learning and the best performance comes from ... networks (to use that word again) - but you can't build high-functioning networks if your employees lack soft skills.


Finally, high-performing teams that address challenging problems benefit from internal variation.  So don't just look for near-clones of people who already work for you.  When scanning CVs, keep an eye open for markers of uniqueness and individuality.  At interview, these markers provide good topics to explore - where you can find out something of the underlying character of the candidate.

In summary, I see recruitment and induction as a task that deserves high focus from some of the most skilled and perceptive members of your existing workforce.  Skimp on these tasks and your organisation will suffer - sooner or later.  Invest well in these tasks, and you should see the calibre of your workforce steadily increase.

Anyone who has been in the IT sector for a reasonable amount of time will have collected their fair share of business cards. As a freelancer on the look out for new IT work, they used to be invaluable. Handing them out at conferences, training events, and even at chance meetings in the bar used to increase your chance of getting work. But with smartphones and social networking, are they as important as they used to be?

I'm thinking about the last few contacts I made face to face in this business, and it dawns on me that most of them have been made electronically. I hate business cards, because I never have time to enter all the details from the cards that I collect on trips. This means that the information on the cards sits in drawers and gets lost. It is never there when I need it. Neither is the information on the card 'alive', because it doesn't represent a link to someone's online information. Instead, it is static, and dry.  

I generally find contacting someone via a social network far more productive than simply exchanging business card information, because not only do you get a means of contacting them online, but you also get other useful information about them that is regularly updated. Adding someone on LinkedIn, for example, will give you useful information about who they have worked with, and what they've done. When dealing with potential employers or employees, this is invaluable.

Even when I meet people face to face, I now find myself linking with them electronically by 'bumping' them. Bump is an application available for the iPhone and the Android operating system that lets you exchange contact data by simply shaking your phone near someone else's. All of your contact information drops into their address book, and vice versa. It even lets you connect to your fellow Bumper on social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Unfortunately, BlackBerry users, along with owners of other phones other than the iPhone or the Android, can't use Bump. But even in this scenario, or in a situation where someone has a supported device but doesn't use Bump, I find that we connect with each other later on by searching each other out on a social network.

Even if someone hands me a business card these days, I will generally throw it away within a couple of minutes. Why? Because I use a business card scanner built into my phone to register all of their information and drop it straight into my contact database. I was using Shape Services' Business Card Reader for the iPhone, which takes a photograph of a card and uses a mixture of optical character recognition and clever software guesswork to decode the visual information in a card. However, CardMunch is now offering a similar application with a difference - you pay for each card, and the image is farmed out using Amazon's Mechanical Turk service to human workers who verify that the information on the card has been correctly interpreted.

I've also found myself replacing the traditional CV with an electronic one. I find that using LinkedIn's profile page to its full extent can provide more information than a conventional CV ever could. When applying for gigs nowadays, I send people my LinkedIn profile URL, which lists my full working history, while also displaying other people's testimonials about me. It's like having tens of references built into your CV. 

Of course, people will still probably want to carry cards around in case of emergency - but I'd hope that at this point, people would be willing to do something really creative with them, and use them as high-end calling cards for particularly valued contacts, rather than merely as the inefficient mechanisms for information exchange that they have become. Back in 2001, design firm IDEO presented a project that it hoped would reinvent the business card. The company has taken the link down since, which is sad, because even now, the ideas presented there are still highly imaginative. Here's the Wayback Machine link to a cached version of the original site. 

Keep it flexible

April 27, 2009 2:54 PM

While there was a time when job seekers could afford to be choosy about the roles they took on, which company they worked for and the hours they worked, unfortunately, there's no doubt recession and large-scale redundancies have had an impact on the IT industry, turning the job-scene very much into a buyer's market. As candidates find themselves competing with many others for fewer roles, flexibility will be a key factor on deciding who gets the job.

Although there are definitely jobs available in the market, especially for those with specialist skills and relevant experience, candidates who are willing to show flexibility in their requirements do give themselves an added advantage. Whether it involves taking on a different role than you're used to, working different hours than usual or considering short term rather than longer term contract work, a willingness to adapt to the changing needs of the market could be the one key skill that propels you to the top of a potential employer's list.

Nor does flexibility necessarily involve making sacrifices; one very positive effect of the new jobs market is that it has removed some of the barriers that have stopped candidates putting themselves forward for certain roles in the past. Perceptions about the kind of roles and responsibilities they could get or take on have often caused candidates to take a cautious approach to job-seeking in the past. Now, however, as employers demonstrably place more value on specific skills (rather than generic 'IT skills') and a willingness to understand the wider business context, candidates are in a position to explore avenues that they may not once have considered, whether that involves applying for a different type of role, considering a change in sector or approaching a different kind of organisation.

As long as they remain realistic and willing to negotiate, there are still many opportunities for IT workers in today's market; while knowledge and skills are always important, a change in mindset can be the key factor that makes the difference between finding or keeping a job and not.


It's an experience

April 3, 2009 10:31 AM

Gaining experience during a period when the number of readily-available jobs is steadily declining may seem easier said than done, the importance of this seemingly obvious step cannot be overestimated. Although skills and knowledge are very important elements to building a strong CV, an increasing number of employers are looking at practical experience within a relevant field or role as an equally important factor in choosing the right candidate for a job.

For university students or fresh graduates, the process of gaining relevant experience may seem easier as placement schemes can be a good way to get a foot in the door to the IT departments of some great companies. While the pay is rarely significant (and in many cases is non-existent) for these roles, having relevant, real-life experience within a business environment adds considerable value to a CV which will stand candidates in good stead throughout their career.

For those already in jobs, the process may not be as straightforward but can be very rewarding, both from a CV-building perspective but also as a networking exercise. In many cases, employers may be quite willing to let existing employees take ownership of projects or additional responsibilities that would otherwise require them to bring in additional, external resources that they can ill afford. For an employee, this is not only a great way to prove their worth to their current employer but also a chance to build up their credentials for when the next job-hunt begins.

With unemployment figures predicted to reach 2.9 million by the end of the year, workers across the UK are under no illusion of the difficulties we all face in the year ahead. As IT professionals, we've already seen a spate of job cuts across the industry with more likely to follow as companies look to curb their spending and reduce overheads. Of course, opinion and impact varies widely from company to company so it's often difficult to gauge the full impact of something which is yet to run its course. That said, the IT industry is facing intense scrutiny at the moment and it's up to you as an IT professional to make yourself heard.

Whether you're just starting your IT career or you're a seasoned professional, the prospect of redundancies and lay-offs is undeniably daunting. The current condition of the IT market is in some ways similar to what's happening on a consumer level. As consumers cut down on "luxury" items, such as IT support and staff at the lower end of the technical spectrum, companies can save some cash. This in itself doesn't always solve the problem, in fact, we've seen instances of companies making cuts and then themselves recruiting for the same positions a relatively short time later.

Of course when it comes to redundancy, it's often out of the employees hands as to who goes and when. If you do feel under the cosh, then having a clear and open conversation with your employer will help matters. Though some companies find that redundancy is the only option, many do have other alternative solutions. Some may seek applications for staff to work flexibly, others may reduce or ban overtime, some may even retrain employees and move them on to different parts of the organisation. All these options are of course down to the discretion of your employer but nonetheless are important for you to be aware of.

Redundancy needn't sound the death knell for your IT career, it can in some cases allow people to assess their career options and take a different path. The picture for IT recruitment is still one of vibrancy, with specialist skills and flexibility still very much in demand. We've seen a number of former permanent IT workers now flourishing in the contract arena. For the right candidate opportunities will always exist, it's just a matter of being positive about your strengths and abilities. When you're suddenly pushed out of work, confidence can be hard to come by, but another role in the industry should not be out of the question, provided you have the determination and drive to find it.

The last decade has seen huge investment in ICT for schools, with a figure approaching £5bn being dedicated to technology and innovation. And with a further £857m earmarked for schools in the next three years, Britain could in many ways be seen as leading the charge with technology in the classroom. Some 99% of schools have made the switch to broadband, and over half have interactive whiteboards in the classroom. Add to this the successful 'Computers for Schools' initiative, which has already benefited some 100,000 young people in the UK as well as Civica's recent deployment of IT services to a number of secondary schools; we can soundly say the education sector is a thriving area of opportunities for IT professionals.

It's often noted that the public sector has some great prospects for IT professionals and the field of education is no different. With budgets available and long-term investment planned by the Government, the education sector remains one of the few that is actively recruiting for skilled IT workers, even in therse difficult times. Educational software packages, school hardware and increased investment in school technology infrastructure, present a number of job openings for both graduates and seasoned IT professionals.

In terms of breaking into the industry, education is similar to many other areas of the public sector. Having relevant experience working in education will of course give you an advantage but it isn't the be all and end all for prospective employers. Accreditations go a long way in any IT job application so highlight any that you already have or consider investing in a few relevant courses to get a few! There are several key players in the education technology market and even some that cater soely to the education sector; as such there will be opportunities available for the right candidate.

With the ever changing nature of the IT industry, so called 'growth areas' tend to come and go on a regular basis. However education appears to be one sector which bucks the trend, making it the place to be in IT circles.

Using the following simple techniques will ensure that your CV comes up in searches and that your skills and experience match the recruiter's search string.

When writing your CV, think carefully about your choice of words. If you are applying for a job advertised on one of the job boards such as www.cwjobs.co.uk then look carefully at the words being used in the advertisement and utilize these same words in your CV. I'm not suggesting that you mention skills and experience that you don't have but it does make sense to use the same terminology.

Remember that if your CV is sitting on one of the job boards, or perhaps on a recruitment agency database (along with thousands of other CVs) then these are the words and terms that a recruitment consultant will probably use to search for CVs.

For example, if you are looking for a position in IT as a Project Manager then a quick scan of the on-line advertisements for Project Managers might throw up a number of words and phrases that are common to all. These terms may include:  Project Manager, Project Management, Prince 2, life-cycle, budget, change control, risk register and Microsoft Project. These are the words that a recruitment consultant may use to search for Project Managers. Make sure that you include all the appropriate words and phrases and all their variations in your CV.

Using the right job title is also another important factor. Many organisations use job titles that are meaningful and relevant within the context of their own business but which would not be used very commonly in the outside world. If your CV records that you have been (for example) a "Senior Critical Situation Manager" when in fact you are looking for a position as a "Problem Manager" or "Service Manager" then be sure to use this job title in your CV, perhaps in the Profile section.

I have seen many instances of Recruitment Consultants searching for candidates on a CV database and "missing" some of the best candidates simply because they didn't have the "right" job title on their CV. Identify all of your target job titles  and ensure that you use all of them in your CV. For example Analyst Programmer, Software Engineer, Software Developer and so on.

When listing your IT technical skills you should also try to use all the variations of terms that a Recruitment Consultant is likely to search on. For example if you have good Java ME skills don't forget to use "Java Micro Edition" as well. Remember that Recruitment Consultants can't be experts in every technical field and if their client's job specification indicates a requirement for "Java Micro Edition" that's probably the term they will use in their search.

Finally remember that Recruiters will probably be viewing your CV on a computer screen so make sure that you get these important words and phrases at the beginning of your CV and not hidden away at the bottom of the secord or third page.

Using these simple techniques will ensure that your CV comes up in searches and that your skills and experience match the recruiter's search string.

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