Best Buy calls Twitter a job qualification

Employment ad asks for "250 plus followers" on social networking site
By Paul McNamara on Mon, 07/13/09 - 10:46am on Buzzblog.

Twitter skeptics -- and they remain legion -- will find the idea silly … but it's not, particularly not in this case.

Of course Best Buy should be seeking Twitter experience in a candidate for a senior manager's position in "emerging media." Who would dream of landing such a job without first-hand knowledge of the most-hyped emerging medium in recent memory?

But that's not to say the company is going about measuring Twitter savvy in the right manner; its not.

Nor does it answer the more difficult question of who among us needs to be on Twitter for the sake of our employers and our careers. (It's a question we're grappling with right now at Network World.)

From a Computerworld Canada story:

A recent job posting on Best Buy Co Inc.’s Web site for a Senior Manager – Emerging Media Marketing position based out of the company’s corporate headquarters in Richfield, Minn. listed two preferred job qualifications: a graduate degree and 250+ followers on Twitter.

Basic qualifications for the position include a Bachelor’s degree, “two plus years of mobile or social media marketing experience” at the director or strategist level, “four plus years people or resource leadership experience” and “one plus years of active blogging experience."

Again, I'd want any candidate for such a job to be an active blogger and have a hand in Twitter. However, an arbitrary number of Twitter followers will not separate the dabblers from the more meaningfully experienced, as was noted by employment experts quoted in the story.

Anyone can accumulate followers on Twitter. The real questions are whether you're actively participating and realizing any tangible benefits from that participation.

Although I'm not interested in working for Best Buy, I do meet the company's Twitter threshold, having attracted 1,653 followers since taking the plunge eight months ago. Over that span, I have sent 2,552 Twitter messages -- roughly 10 Tweets a day, seven days a week. While not by any stretch a Twitter heavyweight, that does put me in the top 1 percent of 2.7 million accounts tracked by TwitterGrader.com.

Yet I remain wholly unconvinced that everyone needs to be on Twitter.

Yes for would-be senior managers of emerging media. Yes for technology trade-press editors. No for CEOs. (A recent survey showed only two Fortune 100 CEOs are on Twitter, and it seems to me they have more to explain than the non-Tweeting 98.) Maybe for most everyone else.

As for you, your job and your future aspirations? The best way to find out is to give Twitter a shot. It's free, it can't hurt, you might find you like it … and you never know when you might need a job at Best Buy.

(Update: Just stumbled across this item noting that Best Buy in general is big on Twitter and that company CEO Brian Dunn has an account, albeit one that just barely would qualify him for employment in his marketing department.)

Tough job market for teens

Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 10:08am EDT

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Companies are hiring more teens this summer, compared to a year ago, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

But at the current pace, it would still be the second-worst job market for teens since the late 1950s, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Companies hired 111,000 teens in May, followed by 698,000 in June — or a total of 809,000 jobs this summer. That’s about 10,000 more than the first two months of summer 2008.
Last year, companies hired 1.17 million 16- to 19-year-olds, the lowest since 976,000 teens in 1954.

“While summer hiring among teens is by no means robust, it has been stronger than expected, particularly in light of this recession’s impact on retailers, restaurants, tourist destinations and other businesses that are typically the biggest recruiters of teenagers during the summer months,” said John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The company estimates more than 1 million teens will find work this summer.

“For those who are still wanting a summer job, it is not too late to find one,” he said. “Some retailers may add more workers for back-to-school sales. Other employers may need to replace workers who didn’t work out.”