Wall Street Journal (01/24/12) Rachel Emma Silverman
While most companies still request a résumé from those applying for a job, some are relying more on social networks, video profiles, and online quizzes to gauge candidates’ suitability for a job. IGN Entertainment Inc., a gaming and media firm, launched a program dubbed Code Foo, in which it taught programming skills to passionate gamers with little experience, paying participants while they learned. The company then posted a series of challenges on its Web site aimed at gauging candidates’ thought processes, and also asked candidates to submit a video demonstrating their love of gaming and the firm’s products. Several of the nearly 30 people eventually hired full-time were nontraditional applicants who did not attend college or who had thin work experience. “If we had just looked at their résumés at the moment we wouldn’t have hired them,” says Greg Silva, IGN’s vice president of people and places.