OriginallyPosted on Edtech Digest
CLASSROOM 21 | by Greg Limperis
A few months,
ago I was trolling Twitter like I used to do only occasionally. You
see, there was talk in February in my district that we were short on
funding and due to that shortfall there would be cutbacks at our central
office in order to ensure the money needed would still make it out to
the schools. With this in mind, I decided to look at possibilities for
employment on Twitter just in case I needed a new position. While
trolling through Twitter, I came across a Tweet from Vala Afshar, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Customer Officer (CCO) of Enterasys.
Vala and I go way back to my freshman year in my undergrad days of
college when we were good friends while I was majoring in engineering.
The next school year, I switched majors and we went our separate ways as
engineering just was not my thing. That is a story for another time and
place. Well, as time passed, Vala moved on to a very successful career at Enterasys and I have tried to follow it off and on, online. For those who do not know Enterasys, it does quite a bit of business in both higher education and K-12
helping to establish wired and wireless network and infrastructure
solutions. You may have seen their name if you went to a Patriots game
recently; they were awarded the contract to set up the Wi-Fi for the New
England Patriots.
Well, while reading Tweets one day in late February, I came across an
interesting one from Vala. At the time, Vala stated that he was looking
for a social media specialist that would be paid a six-figure salary
and that the position would help drive the social media direction for
the company. The unique thing about this position was that he would only
accept interest in the position through a post on Twitter, and that he
would look solely at a candidate’s digital footprints and not at any
paper resume. To me, this idea sounded intriguing and a possible new
direction in the future for companies as they approach the recruiting
process. While possibly looking for a new position, I thought as a
Supervisor of Instructional Technology and an edtech leader online, it
might be good for me to at least attempt to be part of this process so
as to share with you my experiences as we, as educators and
professionals, attempt to prepare our students for a future not so
obvious anymore.
As technology quickly evolves, we in education are given the task
daily to prepare our students for jobs today that do not even exist yet
and to prepare them to work on devices not even created or thought of.
The world has begun to change rapidly and we have the task to prepare
our students for that world. What a better way than for me to take part
in this process and to report back to you how it went so we can start to
prepare our students for this world. The only problem with this
philosophy was that I have little to no business experience. You see, I
have been an educator for nearly twenty years now and my only experience
with social media is what I have done with you people in my
professional learning network the past five years. I had no experience
leading the social media platform for any company — let alone in a
position that commanded a six-figure salary.
Vala was looking for candidates to have a minimum Klout score above 60, a minimum Kred
influence score of 725, a Kred outreach of at least eight, and more
than 1,000 active Twitter followers in order to be considered. Many of
these requirements I had through my website Technology Integration in
Education but not through myself personally. If you were to look up my
personal profile, at the time, you would have found that I was nowhere
near there. At the time of the posting, I had not personally been active
on Twitter and had no idea what a Kred or Klout score was, but was able
to quickly Google it and found out that my site fit the criteria. As I
read Vala’s post soon after he posted it online, I reached out to him
telling him that it sounded interesting but without seeing what he was
willing to pay a person for this position I felt that it might not be
worth my time seeing what I was currently making. Vala informed me that I
would be surprised that he was going to be offering a six-figure salary
and, after a little bit of back and forth, he informed me that he would
consider my website’s social presence in his search for a candidate as a
reflection on me. In one of his posts, he also stated that he would
reserve a spot in the interview process guaranteeing an interview for
that person who had the most social endorsements.
Here is where the power of social came in. After spending five years
building a social network online on LinkedIn and my own website, I
reached out to my nearly 25,000 members of my various networks seeking
their endorsement of what I do socially online. I was not looking for
any endorsement of my character nor my work ethic but instead merely an
endorsement of my ability to establish a social outreach. Many of them
complied and tweeted out the necessary tweet to Vala in order to help
get me an interview with the company even though I lacked any formal
business experience outside of education.
During the time of vetting candidates by Enterasys, I made it my
mission to raise my personal profile up to also meet the requirements
for interview and not to rely on my website standings or on endorsements
alone. I began to tweet more under my name and recommended to my
followers on LinkedIn and in my group to now follow me on Twitter as
well. By the time of the interviews I had raised my personal following
to over 1,000 active followers and my Kred and Klout score to nearly or
at where they needed to be. Thanks to all of the personal endorsements, I
was also the candidate who secured the most endorsements, guaranteeing
me an interview with the company, anyway. At the time, little did I know
that I was one of 150 candidates and was whittled down to one of 15
finalists!
No resume was ever sent in and tweets were exchanged amongst
candidates and Enterasys touting our digital accolades — from awards
won, blog posts, websites created, groups formed, professional networks
established, social outreach, work accolades and accomplishment — all
found by Vala scouring candidates’ digital footprints. To me, this
seemed like an ideal way to weed out unqualified candidates. It was also
an excellent way for a candidate like me to know who my competition was
because we either had to publicly acknowledge our candidacy online or
Direct Message the company. I could see their digital footprint and they
could see mine. I knew who the candidates were who were willing to
publicly announce their intentions but not the ones who direct messaged
Enterasys. I was able to see what my competition had done and compare it
to what I had done. I also was able to see what I needed to do if I was
going to compare to them.
For a month, it was a time to establish new connections, even with
some of the other candidates themselves, as we waited for opportunities
to interview with the company. We began to grow and learn from each
other. The process was amazing. I was able to see their passion and they
could see mine. By looking at what these candidates did for a current
job and to see times of the day and days of the week that they were
devoting to posting and sharing online digitally, I started to get a
sense of who everyone was and what their passions were and what their
work ethic was like. I got a chance to know candidates well before I
even knew who they really were.
By the time April came around, I had established a few connections
with other candidates for the position and we were wishing each other
luck on our perspective interviews with the company. From Zachary Jeans to Ari Herzog,
I had developed connections and friendships with my competition — all
of this being something that would never have happened through the usual
paper resume.
The process was exciting. I was invited in to interview with
Enterasys and I spent a good three hours or so talking with various
members of the company. I was given a tour of the facility and I was
able to meet up with my old friend Vala. In the end though, I was not
given the position. They hired Bilal Jaffrey
who came to them with much more business experience than I ever could
have had working in education for so long. And that was okay; he
deserved the position. Although the process was fun and exciting, it was
great to be on the leading edge of what I am sure one day will be the
norm for hiring everywhere.
My eyes have been opened on how important it is that we help our
students establish good digital footprints. We as educators have to
prepare our students for a digitally social world, one that can no
longer be ignored or we will simply be doing them a disservice. My
digital footprint mattered. It helped me to become a finalist for a
position that, in the past, I would never have even been considered for.
I have since talked with Vala and he agrees that this process is the
way to go and that he will probably, from now on, only hire this way.
The digital footprint tells you so much more about a candidate than two
sheets of paper ever could. Nothing, of course, will ever replace
meeting and talking with a candidate face to face, but, hey — I never
said the interview process had changed, just how they decided to
determine whom they would interview. I was a candidate thanks to my
social profile, more than my “two pages of paper”. Our students will be,
too. Decisions will be made about them as people Google their name. Are
we preparing them for a world like this, or are we ignoring it and
hoping that how they perform on standardized tests is all that matters?
Someday soon, I know I will be a part of the process where I am
deciding on and selecting candidates for positions based on a body of
work spelled out for me via the Internet instead of by two sheets of
paper. The world is digital now, so let’s embrace it.
Thanks Enterasys, for the opportunity. I hope we connect again in the
future really soon as we work together to bring about global social
change.
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