Late last week, I got an email from BCIT about a new site that they launched: WhatWouldYouChange.ca. From their About page:
Change starts with one person, one idea. Change happens when one person acts on their idea helping it take root and grow into something greater. What is your idea for change?
That’s what this site is all about.
It’s a place to share your thoughts on what you’d like to change about pretty much anything, and have some fun along the way. Maybe you’d like to change something about the world or perhaps it’s personal change you’re after. Whatever, we’d like to hear about it!
As far as I can figure, it’s kind of a soft-sell recruiting effort, that combines various roll-your-own social media angles on a Drupal platform. You can talk about what you’d change on video, make a kind of photo collage about it or devise short, Tweet-esque messages of change.
I traded emails with Janeen Alliston, one of the project managers on the project. I asked her why they opted for these three particular flavours of social media. Here’s her reply:
The three pronged approach was the result of a user experience document created to guide the project. We thought about what would initially engage our target demo (16-25 years olds) and what would open the door to deeper engagement with other site members as well as BCIT faculty, students and alumni. Our goal was to provide opportunities for people to interact with the site in ways that are comfortable for them. Some are happy to view videos and perhaps share them online, others may be visually inclined but not good with the written word or vice versa.
With a little help on the Drupal and Flash fronts, they conceived, designed and built the whole thing in-house–quite an achievement. I think it’s got a pretty fun aesthetic, and I think I recognize that coffee stain in the upper right-hand corner from a familiar Photoshop brush.
What Would You Change? Everything
Locals may recognize a striking similarity between the concept of WhatWouldYouChange.ca and VanCity’s ChangeEverything.ca (here’s what I wrote about that project back in 2006). I asked Janeen about this:
We became aware of ChangeEverything.ca well into the development of whatwouldyouchange. We are targeting a much younger demographic with a more whimsical take on the notion of change.
I’m not sure what to say about that. I believe that they weren’t aware of ChangeEverything.ca at the outset of the project. But I would have been given serious pause whenever I learned about ChangeEverything.ca, and might have changed the new site’s focus (or at least its brand). The lesson, I guess, is to ask around when you kick off a project like this, and really do a thorough survey to understand what else, in terms of “competition”, is out there.
With my marketer’s hat on, I’m always a bit skeptical when organizations build their own social network. This isn’t quite that, but there are already existing places–YouTube, Facebook, Twitter–where this behaviour is taking place. In our experience, it’s really difficult to drag users out of those spaces and onto your own nascent site. You’re often better off working with your customers where they are, instead of where you want them to be.
But, then, I’m very frequently wrong. And this might be precisely the kind of site that’s attractive to young British Columbians (besides, you know, the fact that they’re asexually reproducing on Facebook). Best of luck to BCIT and the project team.
I recently learned this fact, and had it confirmed by two other people in the world of post-secondary education. I tried to do some googling, but couldn’t find any reliable-looking data.
Is this a surprise to anybody else? Apparently college profs have it better because they’re unionized. As such, they’re paid more and enjoy better benefits than their peers at university. Plus, college instructors apparently aren’t under the same pressure to publish academic work.
As far as I could figure out, the main advantages of being a university professor are the accompanying prestige, and the, er, more cerebral and academic environment.
Did you know that this was the case? Any profs out there who might care to comment?
Those guys need to learn how to pass the ball rubgy-style.
Speaking of North American sports, I’m pleased to announce that tomorrow morning I’m going to hit our local pub for lunch and, thanks to the North American Sports Network, watch Toronto play New York. At ice hockey. Amusingly, the pub is called “Rangers”, so I’m going to Rangers to watch the Rangers.
A couple of months ago, Drew invited me to contribute to an eBook of advice for the post-secondary graduate. I wrote a post about doing an internship as a well to get your foot in the door. Several readers chimed in with sage advice as well.
Drew’s finished compiling the eBook, and it contains advice from nearly 50 professionals about how to take those first steps into the working world after graduating. Paging through the book, my contribution looks embarrassingly longwinded. Ah well, that’s nothing new.
I’m pasting the list o’ contributors after the jump, should you wish to visit them.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.
I’m rather late on this, but Drew invited me (and you, my lovely, darling readers) to contribute our two cents on what university graduates should know about breaking into the marketing and advertising industries:
The birds will soon be chirping, the flowers blooming and the college grads descending like locusts on every marketing agency, marketing department and media outlet. They all want one thing — their first real job.
I remember how scary it was. 20+ years later, I shake my head at the mistakes the grads make while trying to vie for my attention. So I decided we (yes WE) could give them a gift that will put that digital camera to shame. We can help them get that job.
Here’s the thing: my first career job was in software development as a technical writer. So, too, was my second and third. I eventually grew bored with technical writing, and my employee kindly shifted me over to the more exciting world of web marketing.
I probably do one informational interview a month with a recent grad, and inevitably they ask a lot of questions about ad agencies and large corporate marketing departments. I can’t answer those. I’ve never worked in either (though I’ve consulted in both), and given that I prefer a diversity of work (and work environment), that suits me fine.
So my advice to new graduates is degree-neutral–it applies whether your rolled-up paper says “Engineering” or “Visual Arts”. It’s also pretty obvious, but it worked for me and I truly believe it’ll work for anybody.
Do an internship.
About a year after I graduated, I did a two-month internship at Radical Entertainment, a Yaletown game developer. This guy, a frequent blogger, was my boss. It was the height of Web Bubble 1.0, and I played more Quake and Starcraft than did actual work, but it got my foot in the door. After two months they didn’t bring me on (they were busy laying people off, if I recall correctly), but I left their offices with a tech company on my resume, a decent portfolio and a glowing reference. In a couple of weeks I had two offers, and I’m still good friends with the guy who hired me at MPS. A similar strategy worked for my brother.
What does an internship do for you?
It forces you to research the local job market, and to actually choose the employers for which you want to work. It makes you ignore the classified ads, which is a good habit to get into.
You get a ton of interview experience at a reduced stress level. After all, there are lots of companies that might want to intern for, and you might as well talk to them all.
You learn how to promote yourself. You have to make cold calls to potential bosses, and that’s scary.
Once you land an internship, you get to practice over-achieving. Obviously you want a job with the company, so you’ve got a short amount of time to convince them of that fact.
My two-month internship was unpaid, and I think that’s okay. Happily, I had the structure of a UVic alumni program (I think this is it) which provided a context for the potential employers. Regardless, accept that during your internship you’ll make little or no money. That ought to make you all the hungrier.
The whole process–from assembling a resume to calling employers–can be difficult work for a young person, but it’s well worth it. It’s the proverbial toe in the door, and that’s more than most graduates get.
Along similar lines, I can’t recommend co-op programs enough. I didn’t do one, but both my brother and Julie did, and it placed them in very good stead upon graduation.
Late last week, I got an email from BCIT about a new site that they launched: WhatWouldYouChange.ca. From their About page: