Digital Darwinism
Brian Solis, new media expert and best selling author, has observed what he refers to as Digital Darwinism, when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to adapt. Certainly, businesses are struggling to adapt but what about Career Professionals?
Social Media has Changed Everything
Web 2.0, social media, mobile technologies, and the ability to analyze massive amounts of new data to discover new correlations, patterns, and insights have fundamentally changed business. Certainly, these examples have had a huge impact on society as evidenced by the growing amount of people who have access to the internet, engage on social media platforms, and make decisions based on their circles of influence online. Businesses now have listening command centers to monitor social media channels and jobs such as Community Manager and Social Media Specialist now exist when they didn’t just a few years ago. Consider how consumers now make decisions when searching product reviews on Yelp, Amazon, or Trip Advisor or when they toss up a question on Twitter or Facebook asking for others’ opinions.
Have Career Professionals Been Able to Keep up with the Pace of Change?
Employment Screening Services (ESR) listed social media background screening as the 3rd top trend for 2012 on their list of 10. Data from multiple surveys from SHRM and Jobvite show a rise in employer use of social media in their recruiting strategies. LinkedIn is the most referenced social media platform among career professionals when discussing social media’s impact on career development but it is merely representative of a growing number of new tools from infographic resume tools to sites like Glassdoor that allow people to share their experience interviewing with companies. The boom in technology has disrupted “normal” protocols in hiring, job search, recruiting, employer research, employment screening, personal branding, and a number of other aspects of career development. How does Digital Darwinism effect the career professional? Have career professionals adapted or is society and technology moving too fast? Please share your thoughts.
