2. Workshop outline
▶ Web 2.0 - some general characteristics
▶ Some technologies and possible careers uses
▶ What you are doing and what you’d like to do
▶ Short ‘open mic’ for demoing current projects
▶ Wrapping up
Implications for IAG?
Addressing worries (lots!)
Tips for successful technology projects
A peek into the future
3. Characteristics of “Web 2.0”
(Incessant!!)
interaction/communication Collective intelligence
between users
Content
mashups
Decentralisation
of authority
Participation
Openness Read/write
Community
Built upon trust Information
The wisdom of
crowds sharing
4. Blogs
▶ How are they different from website
content?
Blog Website
Relevant now Longer shelf life
Informal/personal More formal/standardised
Specific/targeted More general
▶ General blogs, themed or audience-specific
blogs, student-led blogs
6. Social Networking
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Ning
MySpace
Club Penguin
(average user
age ~8!)
7. LinkedIn
▶ Professional networking site – no pokes or
drunken party pics
▶ Over 43 million members in 200 countries
▶ Recruiters headhunt and jobseekers network
▶ Students can connect with recruiters and alumni
and research…
▶ You could start your own alumni-careers group or
post to the general alumni group for your
institution
▶ www.linkedin.com/in/helenpownall
8. LinkedIn – useful links
▶ Careers Services group, link to
http://careerservices.linkedin.com
▶ LinkedIn webinars for careers professionals:
http://careerservices.linkedin.com/webinar
15th and 17th September 2009 (9-10pm!)
▶ If you don’t have time, the slides are at:
http://careerservices.linkedin.com/slides.pdf
▶ Refer students and graduates to:
http://grads.linkedin.com (guide and video)
9. Twitter
▶ A ‘micro-blogging site’ – communicate your
thoughts and what you’re doing in ‘tweets’ of
140 characters or less
▶ Join in a massive online conversation!
▶ Used more professionally than Facebook
▶ People form loose connections around common
interests
Follow people who interest you
Follow topics that interest you and join in the
conversation, e.g. #agcas09 #vitae09
▶ People find jobs and headhunt through Twitter
10. Twitter
▶ Use Twitter individually to:
Keep up to date with latest developments
Make connections across your areas of interest
“Poll” your contacts or get advice/info
(For students) Find out about jobs
▶ Tip:
Try using Tweetdeck to organise your
tweets
11. Careers services on Twitter
▶ Set up a careers service Twitter account to
communicate up-to-the-minute news,
events, jobs, top tips etc:
http://twitter.com/WarwickCareers
http://twitter.com/londongradfair
▶ List of careers services on Twitter:
http://helencurry.wordpress.com/2009/05/0
6/careers-services-on-twitter-uk-he
(18 so far)
13. Online Discussion Forums
▶ Internal careers forums
Tapping into the wealth of knowledge in the student body
Accessible way to venture into ‘careers stuff’
‘Safe place’ to ask stupid questions?
Doomed to failure because targeted group fragmented?
▶ 3rd party careers forums, e.g.
www.wikijob.co.uk/forum, www.prospects.ac.uk
www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=201
Many are actively used
How reliable is the information? Health warning…
14. Social Bookmarking
▶ Example: www.delicious.com, www.diigo.com
▶ Possible careers use: Means of organising and
sharing useful web resources across your service,
e.g. www.delicious.com/manchestercareers,
www.careerstagged.co.uk (Careers Group, London)
www.diigo.com/list/sussexcdec (Sussex)
15. One-to-One Live Chat – IM, video etc
Examples:
Skype for video chat (webcams
required)
LivePerson for
instant messaging (text) chat
▶ Possible careers use:
Off campus students/grads
Busy timetables
Reluctant to use face-to-face services
▶ www.manchester.ac.uk/careers/liveguidance
▶ Better than e-guidance? Immediacy and opportunity to
quickly overcome misunderstandings?
16. Group web chats
▶ Web chats – usually refers to live group
chat with expert(s) answering questions
Examples:
Prospects Careers Chat Live
KPMG - www.kpmgcareers.co.uk/Graduates
In-house web chat systems
17. ‘Virtual fairs’
▶ ‘Virtual
fairs’ – can include online
employer profiles, scheduled group chats or
webinars, individual contact by instant
messaging or email
Examples:
BBC careers fair
http://events.unisfair.com/index.jsp?eid=417&s
eid=29
KPMG careers fair in Second Life recently
attracted several thousand people
18. Individually, think about…
▶ What your service is already doing with web
technologies – write on orange post-its
▶ What you would like to do with web
technologies – write on yellow post-its
▶ Add a large * if you are happy to help others
▶ Circle the * if you have sth you could briefly
demo
19. In groups of 5 or 6…
▶ Share your “doings” and “would like to dos”
▶ Pick 1 “doing” and “1 would like to do”
share with the wider group
▶ Discuss
Challenges and how you’ve overcome
them/might overcome them
Opportunities - “what problems does it solve?”
20. Will technology change IAG?
▶ Better sharing of information
▶ With so much info readily available, key role
for careers adviser is SENSE MAKING
▶ We should not ignore the “wisdom of
crowds”…
▶ …but help students to become better at
judging reliability and quality of information
▶ Encouraging students to network online and
manage their own ‘digital identities’ carefully
21. Worries!
▶ “I’m not a techie. I don’t understand all this
newfangled technology and social media.”
▶ “There’s so much out there – I don’t know
where to start!”
▶ “I’m worried about my privacy!”
▶ “Gen Y-ers don’t want us in ‘their space’”
▶ “If we offer online services, it’ll make
students (even more) lazy and they won’t
bother coming in to see us.”
22. Worries – Part 2!
▶ “I just don’t have time for this!”
▶ “We could invest a lot of time in [Twitter]
and then in a few months the world will
have moved on to something else.”
▶ “Will we be surplus to requirements in the
brave new world of the web? Why do
students need a careers advisor when they
can just get on wikijob or tweet a recruiter
direct?”
23. You’re more likely to be successful if…
▶ You know what you’re problem you’re trying to
solve and…
▶ …You don’t start with the technology
▶ You do it because you want to, not because you
feel like you have to
▶ An enthusiast drives the project
▶ You’re adaptable and willing to change your
approach
▶ You get the support of techie people (either in
careers or in the central IT support service)
24. The next thing…?
▶ Linking GPS and social networking
(geo-location social networking applications)
Times article from May 2008:
http://tinyurl.com/ls7gl4
▶ A couple of possible uses:
Meet new people at a party who may be ‘friends of
friends’
For headhunters at a business networking event – could
do a keyword search of CVs of people in the room
▶ Buddy Beacon, iPhone compatible, tracks your
friends’ locations
▶ Blip, for Blackberry
25. Reach me on…
▶ Email: helen.pownall@manchester.ac.uk
▶ Phone: 0161 275 0832
▶ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/helenpownall
▶ Twitter: @helenpownall
Helen Pownall
Careers Consultant
(with special responsibility for web and
interactive technology projects)
University of Manchester
MLP, Careers & Employability Division