Chase is donating $5 million to charity and they are leaving it up to their Facebook community to decide where to send it. This is a very cool idea. This should happen more often.

The benefits to crowsourcing a charitable destination to your community is clear: people will like you more and thus buy more of your stuff. Just think about the buzz this will generate for not only Chase, but the charities that rally their constituencies to vote.

“We are moving from a centralized way of philanthropic giving to the wisdom of friends,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice President for Communications of Facebook. Got to love this. Great job Chase.

This is the first step towards building a talent community. It is a logical step. Why not use crowdsourcing to develop a talent community? This will allow companies to generate ideas, get stuff done cheaper, and develop a pipeline for projects.

Let’s take a quick look at DirectTV’s current crowdsourcing project (with agency partner Victor & Spoils): 

“Designers – interested in redesigning a fleet of installation vans for one of the largest providers of satellite television in the United States? Your designs would literally cover thousands of vans all across America! 5 winners will be awarded $2,500 each for a total of $12,500.”

Guest Post By David Graham

Everyone knows what I am talking about.  And I bet a lot of you had done it.  You turn your summer job as a receptionist into a “front office supervisor.” That time you collected the money from everyone for a donut run?  “Pooled and managed office finances.” You made copies for 8 hours a day?  No way- you “maintained and updated company data.”

Why do we have to do this?  Chances are, a good interviewer will get the truth out of you eventually anyway.  You can put as much spin on it as you want, but if you are not candid and genuine, it will hurt you in the end.  But I think part of the reason this happens is the fault of the companies.

When a company offers an internship, they need to put real thought into how they structure the program.  Give your interns a chance to make a difference! If they don’t work out, at least you know you won’t hire them for a full-time job.  And if they blow your mind, then you have found a diamond in the rough.  The risk is low.  The reward is high.  And your interns will love you for it.  Why?  Because on their resume, they can be honest about it.
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Check out our current internships and jobs!

I hope HR doesn’t go down without a fight. The idea of “community” is on the rise. Companies don’t quite understand the true power of community or how to use it, but community will inevitably rise because of the many benefits. The interesting question is, who will own it? Marketing or HR?

Right now, marketing gets to do cool things and HR doesn’t. This is changing. As more and more traditional HR functions (benefits, payroll, etc) get outsourced the role of HR is in limbo. I would hate to be an old school HR person because these skills are pointless.

So, what the heck is the future of Human Resources? I will argue that the future IS community.

Community is all about talent. Create a talent community and all other benefits will follow – market research, sales, communications, and marketing. If you don’t have talent in your community, it will fail.

I hope HR wins the battle for community, but I’m not optimistic.

The rise of community is going to change everything and companies will need the right community leadership. My vote is for HR.

 Guest Post by Mitchell Duncombe

Where is the first place you turn when you decide you are ready for a job in college?

Do you search websites like Monster.com? Go to a job/internship fair? Drop off copies of your resume at multiple businesses?

As a sophomore in college, I have worked 6 different jobs—starting with babysitting in 9th grade, and most recently working as an intern on Capitol Hill. Despite access to internet websites like Monster.com with millions of job postings, I acquired five of my six jobs through word of mouth and networking. I assumed that most people found jobs through other mediums but when I did a little research, I found out that acquiring jobs through networking was actually the norm.

In a recent NY Times survey, 64 % of respondents said they found their job through networking, compared to the 12 % that found their jobs through search firms like Monster.com. Why do we find jobs this way? Because a person, not the piece of paper that is our resume, personally vouches for our accomplishments and can describe our work ethic and talents.

This isn’t to say that people don’t find jobs through online search websites. In 2008, Monster.com maintained over a million active jobs at a time, and had 150 million resumes circulating worldwide. The success rate of monster.com, however, is disheartening. Only 3.6 % of people who apply for Monster jobs are successful, which is almost twice as high a rate as other job search sites like careerbuilder.com. To be successful at online job searching, experts recommend applying for hundreds of jobs, and remaining optimistic regardless of your success.

What about ‘older’ methods of job applying, like sending a hardcopy of your resume to potential employers? Counselors at my college career center strongly advised against it, and said it would make young-people look out of touch with technology. They suggested emailing resumes instead, and expecting low success rates.

Looking ahead, networking presents the best opportunity to acquire jobs. As I look for a job next summer, the applications for the three places where I want to work include a section for ‘people I know’ inside the firms. In one of the applications, an effective recommendation could even exempt an applicant from all of the companies’ applicant requirements.

The lesson? In today’s work environment, where there are so many qualified people that hundreds of them will undoubtedly look better than you on paper, develop your relationships and build your network. Treat personal relationships as more than just friendships or acquaintanceships. Make an effort to nurture maintain them in the years to come, and use them to find a job.