How will Augmented Reality affect recruiting?

I know that it sounds like a science fiction concept, but the idea of augmented reality, a way to overlay real-world objects with data, is not so far away as you might think. According to a recent BBC News article, "Via the video function of a mobile phone's camera it is now possible to combine a regular pictorial view with added data from the internet." Expect to see apps like this on an iPhone near you in the near future (or, a Palm Pre in my case!).

Imagine how such funtionality might impact the way recruiting happens. Recruiters have a tendency even now to say that they are always "on," or looking for talented people, whether at work, home, church, or the supermarket. An augmented reality application could help us in some amazing ways. Here are just a few scenarios:

• A proximity detector set to look for data tags from individuals who are job seekers causes your phone to vibrate. You turn on the phone's camera to scan the area and find that someone nearby in the park is a software engineer who is actively seeking a new full-time position.
• By holding up the AR app and focusing on a subject, with a touch of a button, you can pull up his or her LinkedIn profile and recommendations. With the touch of another button, you can send a message to that person's phone indicating that you are nearby and hoping to have a conversation about a job opportunity. Invasive? Perhaps, but if I'm a job seeker, I can probably opt to turn off the tags if I don't want to be bothered.
• I can embed a tag at certain locations where I work and hang out to indicate that I am hiring for certain jobs, so that when a job seeker is interested, I can be readily contacted.
• I can set the search settings in my AR app so that it will only vibrate my phone when specific job seeker criteria are met. Unless they are, my recruiter profile will not broadcast to any other job seekers unless I choose to be more sociable.
• At a user group event, I set my phone to broadcast tags on me that indicate the specific jobs I'm hiring for. Although those present could simply walk up and indicate interest, others who wish to keep their search more anonymous could secretly ping me to start a dialogue online first. The upside would be that the job seeker could evaluate whether I seem trustworthy before making contact by observing my behavior at the event.
• Data overlays at your place of business pull data from your recent job postings as well as links to video about what it's like to work for your organization.
  

I'm sure that there are dozens more options that we'll see in the next few years. It's exciting to think of the ways that this new technology will help enrich our interactions even more. What other scenarios for AR-enabled recruiting can you think of?

Openings and farewells can make or break job search e-mails

This morning, I mined out a thread of links from Lifehacker about the importance of closing out e-mails by choosing the appropriate word:

How to improve your e-mail etiquette on Shine from Yahoo
Saying 'Goodbye' Is the Hardest Part of an E-mail from the Washington Post
‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations from the New York Times

Thinking about the many e-mails I receive each day at our generic "apply here" e-mail (careers@redpointtech.com if anyone's interested), I thought I'd amuse myself with an audit of openings and closings from the last two months of applicants. It's purely unscientific (a sampling of only 138 e-mails), but I was curious how job seekers were approaching blind e-mails. Here's the breakdown:


Other openers included: Dear Recruiter / Technical Recruiter; Dear SPR Inc.; Dear Recruiting Manager; To whom it may concern; Dear Sir (yes, more than one); Human Resources; Dear HR Executive; Dear Employer; Greetings; Good morning; Attn H.R.; and Dear Mr. / Mrs.


Other closings included: Best Regards; Thank you; Yours Sincerely; Thank you for your time; Respectfully; and Cheers.

A few observations:

• I found it oddly formal for so many people to opt for the opening address of "Dear Sir / Madam." Incidentally, many of the e-mails starting with this address opted for "madame," which is, strictly speaking, not an appropriate usage unless you are addressing married French woman.
• I was equally surprised by the very large number of e-mails opening with a simple and perhaps too informal "Hi."
• I attributed the large number of e-mails with no openers (21) and no closer (16) to laziness and the somewhat anxiety-producing fact that it was a blind e-mail address. I preferred the comparatively fewer e-mails that used "Dear Hiring Manager" or just generically addressed my company by name.
  
• Tip: When I get an e-mail that says "Hello ," I can tell you're using a mail merge. Thanks for making me feel special.
• I'm not one who has ever put much stock in mass mailing candidates. These same criticisms apply equally to lazy recruiters who want to blast out opportunities to their candidate databases. There are ways to craft a personalized e-mail and check your work that do not appear crass and feckless, friends.
• My least favorite approach is to find a one-liner introduction such as the one I came across in the middle of July: "Please find my resume attached." No, I refuse to find it since you refuse to introduce yourself! The only thing you shall find is my recycling bin.
  
• I also received one e-mail with nothing but a "Sincerely," and contact information. No preamble and no explanation of what you're interested in and why earns you a speedy deletion.
• Here was another e-mail. This was the entirety of the text: I am an Excel VBA developer. Please review my attached resume and cover letter. Seeing that all of our position descriptions are for software engineers who specialize in Java or .NET, your completely mismatched and lazy introduction is hardly likely to even get your resume document opened. In fact, I did not and still have not. No offense. In fact, thanks for saving me the time.
• But even this is better than getting nothing at all but an attachment or simply copying the position description. Thank you, but I already know the text of my position description.
• "Looking for your response" was one of my favorite closers. The presumption of such a closing just made me chuckle.

Inexcusably, a large number of the e-mails that affect informalities like "Hi" and "Thanks" without knowing me at all are from third party providers of consulting services. I believe that much of this problem stems from many of the marketing e-mails coming from individuals for whom English is a second language. The firms that are trying to place their consultants would do well to hire marketing assistance--or at the very least an experienced communicator who understands the impact upon their organization's sales. I read a great deal about how informal Americans are, but the pretended intimacy I'm finding here completely overshoots an attempt at participating effectively in the cultural idiom of the United States.

E-mail is a wonderful medium for quick, meaningful communication, but abusing it in a business context can cost you opportunities.