recruiters

High school students stand up for privacy, refuse to take military test

Teens may have a better understanding of privacy issues than the adults around them. Unfortunately, when you are a high school student, your personal judgment can still be challenged by an unsympathetic principal.

The Raleigh News & Observer reports that at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough North Carolina, more than 300 juniors were given the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). The military provides and administers the tests without charge, and in return the scores and students' contact information are sent to military branch recruiters and the school.

Cedar Ridge Principal Gary Thornburg was willing to sign on to this deal to get access to what he views as a valuable career assessment tool. There is supposed to be an opt-out procedure, but three students who refused to take the test were sent to the in-school suspension room to take it--not as discipline, according to Thornburg, but because the in-school suspension teacher was available to supervise them while other students were taking the test. Sounds like a blatantly disingenuous answer to me. In my experience as a student and teacher, when you send students to in-school suspension, it is going to feel like a punishment and be perceived that way by others. Surely their well-equipped media center could have handled three students for independent study.… Read more

Jobscore will pay for your recruiting rejects

JobScore is a newish company that can run the recruiting page for your business' Web site. It's free, and it looks like a very strong service, especially compared to the existing, paid software apps from companies like Taleo. But what I really like is that, in the future, JobScore will let you take the applicants to your jobs that you don't hire, and throw them back into the job pool so other JobScore clients can see them. More on that in a minute.

I've covered other outsourced jobs pages before, in particular JobCoin (review), which lets you … Read more

Resumes, recruiting, and open source tom foolery

Dave Rosenberg hates getting emails from would-be employees who obviously haven't researched his company to know what MuleSource does, how they'd add value, what Dave does (He's CEO, but that doesn't mean he makes all the hiring decisions), etc.

I concur, though not as strenuously as Dave. It's not very hard to figure out what I care about and what sort of person my company, Alfresco needs.

All of which made me laugh at this "job request" from Javier Soltero, CEO of Hyperic and future sales grunt at MuleSource. Javier clearly gets these requests, too, since he writes them as well as he does his standard "I am an Nigerian prince" emails (Hey, everyone needs a side job):

Dear Mr. Rosenberg,

Do you need a strategically-tactical, salesy product genius who can help you achieve unmeasurable goals while understating expectations?

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Javier Soltero, experienced rookie, Puerto Rican, and a fan of your earlier death metal work. I believe my skills in coconut mashing, ninjitsu, and open sorse will most definitely be of use to your organization.… Read more

Is the Army desperate? They keep calling me!

A few weeks ago at Digital Life, I attended the Virtual Army Experience, a big promotional "virtual reality" game that emulated a mission in the U.S. Army. It was pretty fun, and I generally enjoyed the experience despite its poorly masked primary purpose as a recruitment tool.

Unfortunately, the Army hasn't stopped calling me since I tried the Virtual Army Experience.

When I took the Virtual Army Experience, I had to give contact information. This didn't surprise me, and I used my work e-mail and phone number. I thought maybe I'd get an e-mail … Read more

The Internet's infinite memory...and your next job

Google remembers everything. Like what you wrote on your Facebook page that seemed so funny at the time. Until the hiring manager discovers that site and you don't get the job.

The Christian Science Monitor cartoon above refers to the kind of things you search for online going into personnel files, but much about us can be gleaned well before we're offered the position. As the article above notes:… Read more

Military recruiters are newest MySpace buddy

In a sign that social networking may have officially jumped the shark, MTV and Wal-Mart have recently joined the Internet craze with social sites of their own, urging young audiences to connect with friends under their brand umbrellas.

In that light, it may not be long before the U.S. government unveils a social network to sharpen its image with young voters. Think of it? MyAmerica.com.

At least one arm of the government is already angling that way. According to an article Monday from the Associated Press, the U.S. Marine Corps is finding recruits on MySpace.com, the … Read more