cullmanndesign blog

There are no more resumes. Resumes exist, they certainly serve a purpose to sorting through large amounts of unknown candidates. They can also help an HR department find a possible candidate from an online wholesale list like HotJobs, but they are such a small part of how employers choose the best candidate*. The best candidates are those that come to an employer through a referral or reputation or someone who is recruited to fit a need within a company. This is not to say that those who come to a position by way of their resume are not hard workers or care about what they do. It is saying that resumes are no longer the currency of the hiring process.They say nothing of a person’s brand.

Does this all seem like an invasion of privacy? You may think so, but check your FaceBook settings. Look at how your sharing preferences are set on MySpace or PhotoBucket. Unless you’ve set all these services to be private, you may be living in public.

Controlling your brand. So you’ve have 6 months worth of status updates on Bing. What does this mean to you? To a potential employer? Likely not much, but this is a great opportunity to create BRAND YOU. Begin to use the web and the web of crawlers out there to your advantage. Create a LinkedIn profile, post photos of something you’re passionate about on Flickr, or create a blog for something you feel passionate about. If this all sounds too intimidating–find someone else’s blog that you like and post a comment or ask to contribute. These are all steps to controlling your brand and creating something that represents YOU on the web.

Harnessing BRAND YOU. All too often you hear of the negative aspects of what people find online. There are many more stories of what people find online that get them excited to meet someone. The stories of a freelancer who landed a client because of their online portfolio or tip the scales in favor of someone who has something exciting to say or a has a great blog. When I look at a candidate for a position or someone to work with, sure, I look at their resume, but I always put a majority of my judgement into what they have crafted for themselves online. Do they have a LinkedIn page? What’s on it? Do they have a Blog? A Flickr account? A clip on YouTube? A podcast? Have them commented on someone’s site? Was it funny or insightful? All of these things add up to a profile of that person that means so much more to me than a resume.

Harnessing a person with a brand. People who have a personal brand  are what employers want and need. Those people who have the passion and drive to participate in something they care about-professionally or not–make great employees. Even if those things that drive them are far from the office, you can help them channel their passion into their work and help integrate their dreams into something that will make them well special. Knowing that about your employees will also make you aware of the person behind the employee and hopefully create a relationship that will make you a better manager, employer or mentor.

There are no more resumes. Your online footprint is bigger, better and more engaging than any resume can possibly be. Engage it. Craft it. Make that Google result page something that makes you stand out far beyond the other candidate, co-worker or peer. Most importantly, BRAND YOU something that is your passion and that you can be proud of.

^{*I’m sure that there are many industries that still use resumes as a method for finding, sorting and even hiring candidates, but this post is written in the context of marketing, advertising and branding industries.}

AdHack, is a new crowd-source solution for advertisers looking for a lower-cost, higher quality solution for print, web and video ad creative. The site houses spec creative that ranges in quality and taste. The model is simple and straight-forward: Creatives put up a profile for themselves and can have AdHack host samples and spec work. Would-be ad purchasers can review the ad solutions, creative talent and make a purchase of the ad, work with a particular talent or commission work all via the website. There is a pre-determined pricing model that is dictated by media and the speed of the project.

For creative talents, AdHack is not an ideal solution. There is a pre-determined pricing model that is not based on experience or quality of the concept and the “creative form” that is used to initiate a commission offers no option for locating particular types of talent beyond media type. A crucial issue, and one that I take issue with, is the absence of any self-promotional opportunities in the user profile for creative talent. In order to register, you can select a user name, location and avatar. The user can then link to their portfolio via ID number or username.  but the profile is assigned a unique number as opposed to a username or tag. Additionally, there is no linking option outside of the provided AdHack portfolio. AdHack is controlling all of the creative and user information within their own ecosystem and there is little opportunity for starting artists and creative talent to promote themselves outside of this network.

I think AdHack is great start-up idea and there are some fantastic samples on the site. The network is a reported 400+ and growing (a collection of creative larger than most large advertising networks) and growing. For buyers on a budget or just beginning this is a good alternative to working with an advertising agency-a real DYI marketing solution. For a company that is not in the business of marketing or has a true challenge in their business space, working with an agency is likely a better solution.

AdHack – How it Works from AdHack on Vimeo.

UPDATE

Since the original post, James, from AdHack has pointed out that I had missed some of the features of AdHack and mistaken some of the features. You can read his comments below as well as my updated post. Again, I think that AdHack is good utility for evangelizing your creative and making connections with those buyers who are in the market.

Inspired by this techrepublic article, and based on experiences that I’ve had hiring and managing developers, I’ve compiled 5 skills that a savvy developer must have to compete in the marketplace. My personal experience as a web developer and designer has shaped this list, but I am writing as someone who works with developers on a day-to-day basis. These are some of the most creative and intelligent people in the workforce and I am always amazed at their skill in solving problems and overcoming obstacles. I have been privy to seeing some stereo-typical behavior and a few parties who just could not help themselves from their own behavior. The list here is a result of some of those experiences.

1. A Broad Perspective: I’ve been fortunate to have worked with a great many extremely talented developers and programmers. Some with very little experience, some with entire careers behind them. The successful ones, the ones that are really survivors, have a very broad perspective that gives them levity. By perspective, I mean that they have a vocabulary outside of a particular language or skill. As an example, I’ve worked with several flash developers who had no interest or understanding of the browser. It sounds strange, but to have such a talented team member who can’t see their project past a local compiled sample has very limited use when the market is moving to the cloud. The best people to have working for you are those that can see how a project can be expanded past the local or current instance. Porting projects to stand-alone apps, creating frameworks to use repeatedly, or to new think of new infrastructures makes the team member who can suggest and implement that project a huge advantage. Having the vision and vocabulary to plan for reusing and redeploying a project for multiple uses makes you a leader and a developer who can adapt to a changing market-place.
2. Flexibility: Having the perspective to know how projects can be re-used and to think of deployment concepts is one advantage. Being able to act on those thoughts and deploy those projects is another. Many developers realize that some languages and techniques are fleeting. What is in demand now, may be passe and obsolete next year. Developers who have a strong conceptual understanding of basic computer science principles are more likely to understand and adapt to changes in their own work and in working with others. It’s also important to understand that the web and the   to design and build websites moves maddeningly fast and one must make constant assessments as to what is to be built to with-stand the test of time and what can be made using the most effective, but potentially perishable technologies. The ability and experience to make those judgements is crucial. Have a track-record for making those good judgements is anincredible talent. Being able to reliably predict those trends makes you a demi-god.
3. Communication: Given the advanced skills that programming requires, I have always been surprised to run into communication problems. Normally, problems begin with a developer assuming that the person at the other end of the conversation understands their development process, what the particular work-flow is or even how to use a computer. In many cases, and I have fallen into this category, developers give too much or too little information. Perhaps it’s describing a solution to a problem, or a process that they are using, or even the status of a project, but most people don’t have the patience or the background to understand the intricacies of how a developer is describing their work or it’s progress. This creates a problem in 2 ways: First. the person trying to understand the developer may lose patients, be unsure about how to clarify the exchange or just “get lost” in the conversation. The second problem is that the developer believes that they have expressed themselves and that there is clear understanding between the two parties. This is where deadlines, project outlines and scope become misunderstood. If developers and designers try to take more time and be very clear, both linguistically and with any written communication, many of the conflicts between developers, designers and the people they work with would be alleviated.
4. Sensitivity to Marketing and Business: I’ve been lucky to have begun my career in a small, very friendly direct marketing agency with a group of people very willing to teach me about the importance of the industry that I have been part of. That first agency exposed me to the importance of service and strategy. Being a great developer or designer, you have to have a sensitivity to what the end goal of your project may be. If you’re building e-commerce software-who is using it and why? If you’re building banner ads-what would someone give this ad a second look? If you happen to be building a better twitter client-what are some of the things my users might need? All of these things are important to success. If you are part of a larger organization, that responsibility becomes larger: You should be treating each team member as a client. Everyone you come into contact with is looking towards you as an expert in your particular craft. The opportunity to elevate yourself is in your ability to build confidence with those co-workers and be able to have them count on you. In return, you should be able to count on them and their abilities. This carries through to the clients. development and design are service-industries and the ability for an individual to make a difference is constant. The finest details and slightest improvements increase the quality and integrity of your project. Even if your clients do not see it, you are constantly building cache with your co-workers and clients.
5. A Vision (not an opinion-A VISION): Having drive is important. Many developers and designers have an enthusiasm to excel and build things that matter to them-personally. Even if your vision is not related to the particular field that you are working on, you can bring that desire (and the enthusiasm that comes with it) to your day-to-day job. There are so many opportunities in the field of development to creatively intern-mingle your personal vision with a project. The belief that you are putting a small piece of yourself into a project is will be give you a boost of enjoyment and renewed life to your projects. From another perspective, it’s just as important for managers and clients to give latitude for creative people to intermingle their personalities into projects. The process will be more enjoyable and the work will be astounding as a result.