A new program created to help students build their own personal brand online to get hired has launched.
WhyHire.me Corporation, a developer of tools and curriculum for personal branding through post-secondary education, has announced the availability of WhyHire.me. The program includes online or instructor lead curriculum, a comprehensive e-book, and an online personal profile that each student can develop.
WhyHire.me was developed at Algonquin College in the spring of 2009. According to a spokesperson for the site, faculty members saw a gap between today’s social media tools and the need to coach students through the new rules of online communications, job search and personal branding. “We saw the shortfall between Facebook and Linkedin,” said Wendy Threader, Professor at Algonquin College. “We wanted a place to teach the underlying communications skills and help our students demonstrate their potential to future employers when they were ready.”
The WhyHire.me program incorporates coaching, mainstream social media tools and branding techniques.
“By aggregating the latest social media tools such as blogs, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, and RSS into an interactive profile, we provide the means to help create professional connections with future employers” says Andy Church, co-founder of WhyHire.me. “We advocate a clean break from Facebook to develop one’s brand with peers, professors and third parties. No matter how much fun sharing content online can be, party photos, sarcastic wit and gaming scores should be shared amongst friends, not professional contacts.”
Algonquin College is expanding beyond its initial pilot to allow several hundred students access to the program this September.
WhyHire.me is currently available through participating post-secondary institutions. It includes 8 hours of instructional learning that can be integrated into existing communication, technology or business courses, or offered through a general education class. The curriculum and accompanying e-book cover the 4 D’s of personal branding: Dig Deep, Declare Your Brand, Display Yourself and Deploy Your Brand.
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September 1st, 2009 at 11:16 am
Hi Vanessa – have you seen http://twitsume.com? It allows Twitter users to create a free online resume that links into their Twitter account and share the “Twitsume” with friends, followers and people searching for them on the web.
I think it is interesting in light of this topic and similar end goal to WhyHire.me?
It also allows easy export into PDF format or mail to other people directly from the system.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:30 pm
This sounds like a really interesting program. The learning component is, in my opinion, what makes it exceptionally unique. There are some other sites attempting to do something similar – creating a mixture between Facebook and LinkedIn – but it’s really about educating people about how to use these things effectively and appropriately.
September 1st, 2009 at 4:01 pm
This is a cool idea. If executed well and with the right university partnerships, the potential is huge.
September 1st, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I appreciate the post Vanessa. I agree with Ted, with the right backing, there is significant potential. This is such a dilemma these days with Universities. The Professors and Educators tend to be against all of the social media and that leaves a huge gap between them and their students. I have had the pleasure of speaking at several of the local regional colleges including Ohio State, Univ of Michigan, Toledo, U of Akron, Kent, BGSU, CSU and others on this very issue. What is social media, personal branding and how can we as career services embrace these trends?
I am glad to see that there is a service to hopefully gap this issue. I will be happy to pass this information on to some Educators to helpfully move them along the mysterious road of social media.
Thanks again.
Darrin Grella
http://www.theinterviewgods.com