This paper discusses the deeper level digital literarcies that increasingly play a key role in recruitment processes, yet remain still either not harnessed or under-estimated in less progressive organisations. Understanding what internet usage skills an applicant actually has is vital in gaining a more holistic image of the personality in question. This will deliver a much more realistic picture than the conventional snapshot a polished CV / resume / Lebenslauf and an equally polished self-representation in an interview can ever provide. Being in control of social media and having an adequate awareness level of what is deemed appropriate - from a professional perspective - to go into public channels and how to deal with more challenging aspects of online interactions such as handling criticism and engaging in public debates matter to both, applicant as well as employer. Employers without online indentities other than a general corporate website may want to rethink their approach in light of the arguments made in this paper.

1. Digital Literacies: Recruitment and Graduate Internet User Skills
by Britta Bohlinger, 2009
First published on:
http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/recruitment-and-graduate-internet-user-skills/
Contact via: http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com
1/3
The case observed: This week I overheard a discussion between a few financial
professionals. They threw in their collective knowledge about sushi and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Apparently there are no sushi bars in Aberdeen and those folks up in the very North East of
our island are poor souls who have to travel down to London in order to get a bite of cold fish
and rice. While they argued back and forth I googled it – turns out there are 7 sushi
restaurants listed in Aberdeen. I had suspected no less but it left me puzzled that those
professionals with iPhones and internet access right in front of them rather resorted to
making themselves look less than smart than simply checking the facts.
Current recruitment practices: The same applies to recruitment processes. Understanding
what sort of personality you are about to employ is still based on relatively old-fashioned
conversations, going through CV (resume, Lebenslauf) data, checking references – all a bit
slow and ignorant of the possibilities we could harness. Senior executives in charge of
making final decisions about recruitment of graduates still believe you need to sign up for
Twitter in order to ‘read it’. There is a profound lack of skills in making use of the
considerable amount of data many graduates provide on the net.
Recruitment 2.0: Accessible to anyone involved in the recruitment process and able to pull
the strands together, it won’t need to be the images of drunk nights out on Facebook that are
compromising. That might be the worst case scenario only. Someone briefing decision-
makers would go and search for patterns in order to see whether the applicant may fit in
beyond the bare facts and if so, to what degree.
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2. Digital Literacies: Recruitment and Graduate Internet User Skills
by Britta Bohlinger, 2009
First published on:
http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/recruitment-and-graduate-internet-user-skills/
Contact via: http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com
2/3
Questions that matter most when recruiting staff, which are not easily assessed in
personal conversations, might be:
• What sort of moods does the applicant reveal? Stable? Erratic?
• What kind of friends or conversational partners does the applicant engage with?
What’s the tone of these conversations? Any consumer forums or communities that
show technical or social skills?
• Any skills that match the CV or are perhaps not even mentioned – check Youtube,
Flickr etc.
• Does the applicant appear to ignore copyrights or infringe others’ rights?
Internet usage skills are complex and reveal a lot more about a person than many keep
thinking. While typical assessment practices provide nothing more than a snapshot of an
applicant on a day of all effort being made to look good, the internet research will provide a
long-term profile that says a lot more about potential employees with regard to:
• team working including group blogging and
• feedback skills including taking in and learning from criticism
• broader communication skills and
• general networking, dealing with ’spam contacts’ as well as
• digital media ethics
In control of social media: That is potentially a lot more and a lot more of a holistic picture
than we could ever be able to find out in conventional recruitment talks. Smart and skilled
applicants will make sure they have privacy settings in place for personal conversations that
will not be haunting them in these kind of situations. It’s a question of being in command of
the social media you are using rather than being controlled by technology in non-desired
ways. Employers and applicants – as well as old media – frequently seem to hold less
differentiated views on this.
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3. Digital Literacies: Recruitment and Graduate Internet User Skills
by Britta Bohlinger, 2009
First published on:
http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/recruitment-and-graduate-internet-user-skills/
Contact via: http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com
3/3
Employers lacking online identities: The very same applies to the applicant perspective,
they are free – and should make use of it – to check their future employer and senior staff’s
profiles. If there is no online identity searchable, not even a few hits that bring up names in
relation to conferences or affiliations to professional bodies, this conveys an equally strong
message.
Informed decision making: After all, what we want, is making informed decisions. It’s not
about sneaking into people’s personal lives and moralising about their life styles as some
may argue, rather, it is about finding suitable matches and making sure you won’t need to
waste a few months in real [business] life together before the mismatch becomes all too
evident. Deeper level digital literacies in this sense reveal more about your communication
skills, technical expertise and willingness to engage with new developments in creative ways
than any standardised assessment or interviewing could ever demonstrate.
From an applicant’s perspective this may mean the future employer who is not represented
online beyond a conventional website and possibly a client newsletter may also nurture a
corporate culture marked by a low level of sharing and collaborating. This provides
indicators that any applicant may want to follow up in a personal interview in order to find out
what the future chances of the organisation may be. But also, and more importantly, the
applicant may want to signalise awareness of market dynamics beyond the immediate
industry or sector in question as well as a sense of connectivity which is vital in today’s
competitive markets.
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