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February 22, 2006
Matching student talent with industry needs -- fun
Helping tech companies find the right talent is one rewarding aspects of working at Stanford. Recently, one of my former graduate students was offered a great job at Adobe. I played a small part in making the match, since I knew the hiring manager at Adobe and I could give a very specific and strong endorsement.
In this case, the student was a very good match for the job, so it was easy to serve as a reference. However, in some cases it's not so easy.
I decline to act as a reference if a former student is not someone I'd hire myself, for whatever reason. Declining, of course, is awkward. But I believe it's the right thing to do. I have to be able to stand behind people I refer; otherwise, my credibility gets ruined (and that's an academic's stock in trade: credibility). The other option would be to give a mediocre endorsement, which doesn't help the student.
Those of you in academics understand all this, of course. A significant part of our job is helping students find success after they complete school. Each of us has to figure out -- mostly on our own -- how to do this well. Maybe we should have formal training . . .
Posted by BJ Fogg at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2006
Using LBS to change fitness behavior and attitudes
BiM Active is a mobile service, now offered on Sprint, that uses GPS and persuasion to help people reach fitness goals. The presenter in this demo talks about how location information can provide an automated way to bring user data into a service. He also says the service "is about community--communities share". It will be interesting to see what happens with this new service.
Also see: http://bonesinmotion.com/corp/products.html
Posted by Dean Eckles at 01:14 AM | Comments (0)