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  • July 2009
  • June 2009

    • I Deserve A Job At Best Buy With 700+ Followers

    By Holden Page on June 30, 2009

    Allen Stern of Centernetworks just wrote about Best Buy looking for a “Sr. Manager – Emerging Social Media Expert”. So what are the requirements of this job? I hope you get a good laugh out of this one folks

    1. 250 Followers

    2. Graduate Degree

    Yup that is right, your followers are just as important as your degree. Wow. Someone at Best Buy is just downright ignorant. I am not sure if they are aware of this but Twitter is known for this lovely thing called gaming and having 250 followers means jack. Honestly, give me ten minutes and I can get 250 more followers, if not more. A follower count should mean absolutely nothing when getting a job. I hope they actually look at these applicants Twitter accounts to see if they actually engage with their community, but for some reason I doubt they will.

    What Best Buy should be looking at are these people communication skills. In my opinion these applicants don’t even need a Twitter account to get this job, as long as they can communicate with the customer then they’re good! It is ridiculous such an insignificant number is on the same level as a degree for getting a job. Come on Best Buy, think a little.

    In the meantime let the social media “experts” go wild on Best Buy. There going to have a lot of fun sifting through the applicants on this one.

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    Comments

    1. July 1, 2009 at 6:57 am
      Joshua Kahn

      Hi Holden,

      I originally tweeted this job out yesterday. I work in staffing at Best Buy and am charged with finding the right person for the gig.

      I already commented on Allen’s blog about this topic so this one won’t be as lengthy.

      We’re already having some discussion about the degree qualification on this one for obvious reasons. Not the least of which is that our newly announced CEO, Brian Dunn, does not have a college education. He’s been with the company for a long time and earned his way into the role. So there is an argument to be made for taking out the degree requirement for sure. Not to belittle degrees, they are an indication of accomplishment and still a worthy pursuit. However, they aren’t an absolute predictor of future accomplishment.

      The twitter qualification. Yes, we are aware that this can easily be gamed. Yes we are aware that this can be interpreted as a silly requirement. Yes we are also aware that number of twitter followers is not any indication of intelligence, or understanding of social media. A qualification in a job description is a minimum filter. Its not a top level, “if you have this you are qualified for the job, you’re hired” kind of thing. Its a minimum requirement. Part of the landscape of things we’ll look at to decide, do we want to consider you further for the job. Its simply a starting point.

      So yes, if your Twitter account is populated with twitter spammers, people hawking male enhancement pills, kitten calendars, and mail order brides, probably not too relevant for what we’re looking for. I’d also bet that person doesn’t have some of the other qualifications as well.

      I’d equate it to this, when you decide to follow or not follow someone, what do you do? If you’re like me you take a peek at their recent tweets, their level of engagement with their followers, you also take a look at what they link to in their tweets and in their profile description. If its their blog, you probably go take a look. You say you doubt we’d go to this level of investigation, well, as the person who does it, I can assure you I do. As does the hiring manager, and others who have a hand in deciding anything about who we hire.

      Lastly, we’re not perfect at this yet. Is anyone? Its a new job category, its a new area for us to formally attempt to develop expertise in. No way will anyone, least of all a large multi-national organization, get it right on the first shot.

      However, we are willing to listen, to adapt, reconsider, and get better. That’s more than I can say for most.

      There will be more to come on this job description, so stay tuned.

      I’m @joshuakahn on twitter if you want to fire some stuff at me about this, I welcome any ideas. We are listening, and we are considering a number of options here.

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