As we come into the Blogging Idol home stretch, I’m pinch-hitting for editor-in-chief Shane Schick, who’s off welcoming his second child into the world, possibly even as you read this.
It’s been an interesting week in our little corner of the blogosphere.
Tania Samsonova points out the plight of the roughly 250,000 immigrants who arrive in Canada each, most of them to settle down and find jobs. But there’s a cultural impediment to the interview process, the “little things” they don’t know:
You may not know hundreds of little things – and, what’s worse, you may not even know that you don’t know. For example, if, in your culture, people routinely eat raw onions, you might eat them before a job interview, because no one told you that it might create any problems. Likewise, if in your country a woman’s office outfit normally includes a low-cut blouse and/or a miniskirt, tons of make-up and a bucketful of perfume, you would naturally dress that way to be interviewed for a position of, say, a system administrator. You’ve done that all your life, and everybody around you did, so what’s wrong with that?
Her post “MicroSkills and mega changes” celebrates the role of MicroSkills Development Centre, which has offered employment advice to newcomers for 26 years.
Meanwhile, Joel Martin was pondering the social Web, and in particular, Facebook and its new Open Graph API, which allows company Web sites to wrap Facebook functionality around themselves while feeding Facebook’s massive social hub.
“I don’t expect stop using fb, although I am removing as much as possible about me and posting less and ‘listening more,’ Martin writes. “Moreover, I think others should proceed with eyes wide open that fb is a for-profit company and you should treat it as such when using it (and)associated applications and sites.”
And Nigel Fortlage reconsiders the knee-jerk CIO reaction to social networks, i.e., they must be blocked. “Based upon some of the latest stats we hear that these networks are growing,” Fortlage blogs. “Twitter only had 12 million users when I started, now there are over 50 million based upon statistics released last month at Twitter’s first developer conference. Of course the king of social media today is Facebook, with over 350 million users last time I heard any stats … Some where along my journey I felt that (the block-social-media policy) couldn’t be right and my goal this year is to reverse our current policy of fear and concern, with one of knowledge, awareness and access where appropriate.”