As we count down the final hours of 2009 — an “Amen” seems in order here — there are a few fun, and even one or two useful pieces of recruitalia that have turned up to help us close out the year.
The first reminds me of that expression about drinking your own Kool-Aid. It’s a video starring Human Factor International’s Managing Director Jeffrey Jones. Human Factor International is an executive coaching and transcultural leadership training firm. The company says its process “is designed to help executives close the gap between where they are and where they want to be in their personal and professional lives.”
Now watch the video and you’ll see why I extracted that phrase from the company website, though I don’t believe HFI meant to imply the process accelerates at 32 ft/sec squared.
Besides Jones, Asia Pacific Director of Business Development Phil Guo, and Media Director Thomas Irre took the 61-story jump off the Macau Tower. The press release the company sent says, “The three made the leap in keeping with an HFI principle that breakthroughs frequently occur when you’re outside of your comfort zone.”
While we’re watching videos, here’s the Fan Favorite from among those submitted in response to CareerBuilder’s call for user-created commercials.
CareeerBuilder launched a contest last spring offering a $100,000 prize for the best user video, which it would then professionally produce for use during Super Bowl 2010.
Hundreds of entries were submitted, which are here on YouTube. CB decided that three of them were so good it awarded each a grand prize check. The three winners, the fan’s choice, and the contest rules and other details are available here.
At least one of the videos will be shown during the game on February 7th, as CareerBuilder makes its sixth consecutive Super Bowl appearance. You may recall its debut for Super Bowl XXXIX when CareerBuilder hit the ratings and critics jackpot with two monkey ads. The company — actually, its ad agency, Cramer-Krasselt — dovetailed it with an online viral email campaign called Monk-E-Mail, so successful it’s still active on the CB site.
Cramer-Krasselt and CareerBuilder later had an acrimonious divorce when a subsequent Super Bowl “Survivor” takeoff ad campaign failed to produce similar results.
Monster is reported to have bought one commercial, which AdAge implies will focus on its “Director of Fandemonium” contest. AdAge says CareerBuilder’s one commercial buy will air during the second quarter. The 2010 Super Bowl ads, which are nearly sold out, reportedly cost between $2.4 million and $3 million for 30 seconds.
CareerBuilder, BTW, was rated 26th on Glassdoor’s list of the 50 best places in the U.S. to work. When you figure that Glassdoor is a place where the disgruntled can rant freely (and often do), that’s quite an achievement. Matt Ferguson, CB CEO, got a 78 percent approval rating.