PwC “Pitch” contest ends March 5

By Nicole La Hoz

PwC is one of the nation’s largest professional services firms. It is also one of the nation’s largest employers of college graduates.

“We feel like that positions us,” Amanda Todd, manager for social media and marketing at PwC, said.

“We’re constantly talking to college students and people who are going to graduate soon about career development.”

According to Todd, there is always one topic consistently brought to its attention: personal brands.

From Feb. 7 through 11, PwC taught students how to construct and market their personal brands through its second annual online career services program, Personal Brand Week 2.0.

PwC posted different curriculums each day on its website, pwc.tv, which covered networking, writing and online image. Participants were greeted with advice, tools, worksheets or additional readings.

Paula Loop, US and global talent leader for PwC, opened Personal Brand Week 2.0 with a video before discussing networking.

The video element was a new addition that Todd said maximizes learning potential; it allows students to share information easily.

According to a PwC press release, other segments included “You are What You Write,” “Your Online Image Makeover,” “View from the Other Side: Getting the Job” and “Pulling it All Together – Elevator Pitch and Body Language.”

The final segment was an interactive one. Students can still submit their elevator pitches: a 30-seconds-or-less video exhibiting their personal brands. It is posted on PwC’s Facebook page, PwC US Careers. Students vote on the page and the winner receives a $5,000 prize.

It’s open to all majors and students at four-year universities. The contest ends March 5 and the winner is announced in April.

“We’re really just looking for students to take their own creative approach to an elevator pitch,” Todd said.

“They can convey to us and other students who might be learning from them what a great elevator pitch looks like.”

After launching Personal Brand Week in February of 2010, PwC received praise from career services; it prepped students for employment outside of college.

Todd said although PwC primarily hires accounting and consulting students, Personal Brand Week is applicable to all majors.

“It’s a really competitive market place, and this is an area where we thought we could contribute to and help students differentiate themselves,” she said.

Mathias Rodriguez, a second-year accounting student at the University of Florida, said although he hasn’t participated in Personal Brand Week, he sees its benefits for new students.

“The material provided creates an ample foundation to begin a career, just not for folks that have already been through the early rounds of internship interviewing and basic college networking,” he said. 

 “However, having a solid understanding of the basics can never lead anyone wrong.”

Second-year Digital Arts and Sciences student Erika Guillen said she admires PwC’s dedication to helping students develop their talents.

“It’s geared towards getting you familiarized,” she said.

“It can help bridge the gap between your academic life and your soon-to-be professional life.”

Supreme Court Ruling on NASA Background Checks

By Tiffany Galmarini

Everyone knows that NASA is the reason why humans can visit parts of our universe that are outside of the Earth. We, as Americans take great pride in the accomplishments we have made in space. But just what does it take to work for NASA?

Well, for one thing, scientific knowledge is essential and the will to research something that is literally out of this world. The employees of NASA are very unique with respect to the work they do. Since the projects and research of NASA are top secret, trust and reputation is a huge factor when hiring employees.

Professor George Lebo here at the University of Florida, was a former NASA employee and he knew what was expected of him in the hiring process. He said, “a good deal of what NASA does is considered secret for either national interests or for technology propriety. I know that, when I sought a job that required a secret clearance, I expected to be put through rather stringent scrutiny which included background checks”.

But just last month, twenty-eight employees from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sued NASA claiming that the background checks violated a constitutional right to “informational privacy”.

The Supreme Court ruled that if the twenty-eight employees wanted to keep their jobs, they must commit to intrusive background.

Professor Lebo agreed with the decision and said, “If people desire to work in a field which involves secret or sensitive information they should expect to have their backgrounds scrutinized. If they don't want that they should seek employment in other fields”.

There are some opposing views to the decision ruled by the Supreme Court however. Justice Antonin Scalia had no doubt that the employees of NASA should face extensive background checks. But he mentioned that the court is “harming its reputation in issuing vague decisions”.

What Justice Scalia means by this, is that lower courts do not necessarily have a precedent to future cases involving “informational privacy”. If Justice Scalia were judging the case, he said he would have made the conclusion clear and “simply hold that there is no constitutional right to ‘informational privacy’”.

This ruling would make it clear to lower courts that “informational privacy” is not a factor when conducting background checks because the employer has the right to know more about what employees the company is about to invest in.

TEDxUF Brings Innovative Pioneers to Campus

By Raksheen Ayaz

The highly anticipated annual invitation-only TEDxUF conference is finally about to happen. TEDxUF (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is an event to be hosted on the afternoon of Saturday, February 26, 2011.Speakers, performers, and videos will be presented focusing on the University of Florida and the Gainesville area.

The TEDxUF event advertises itself to be “a retreat with your smartest friends. A time to explore new ideas, get inspired by visionary thinkers, and to inspire yourself to concepts and innovations that will change the world.” The six chosen TEDxUF presenters are challenged to speak of their lives in 18 minutes or less.

In the past, well-known people such as Sarah Silverman and Nasim Taleb have spoken at previous TEDx events. However, TEDx isn’t just about bringing celebrities. It’s really all about sharing ideas worth spreading. The purpose of TEDxUF is to “spread ideas, create connections, and ultimately innovate our campus to the next level.” That being said, there are many high caliber audience members attending this event from both the Gainesville and UF community.

This event is sure to be big. Planning had begun in November of last year. Simply showing up at Constans Theatre on the 26th will not likely guarantee a seat at this long awaited event. Interested attendees must fill out invitation requests to be invited. According to Arian Rezzai, a student at the University of Florida who is a part of the host committee, “there is definitely good competition in receiving an invitation to this event.” When there were only two weeks before the invitation requests deadline, 650 invitation requests had already been submitted, all competing for only 250 spaces.

When filling out an invitation request, keep in mind that the committee is looking for an audience member with “a unique side, adds to the diversity of the event, and has the burning passion to make ideas into realities.” Overall, the audience will contain a mix of “pioneers and leaders in the field of technology, the Internet, media, and television, the arts and sciences, CEO’s, entrepreneurs, and most importantly highly motivated UF students.”

All in all, be sure to submit an invitation request and mark “TEDxUF” on your calendar for Saturday, February 26, 2011 from 1 to 5 PM. Be sure to be at the Constans Theatre on time, which is directly across from the Reitz Union colonnade. For more information visit tedxuf.com and view the Facebook event paged “TEDxUF 2011.” See you there!

The Web 3.0 is Creating Socialnomics

By Samantha Shavell

The use of social media has changed drastically in the past few years. Social networks are not just used for personal use anymore, and businesses have caught on as well.

Eric Qualman wrote a book in 2009 where he coined the term, socialnomics. His book, Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business, explains how social media can help businesses increase sales and reach consumers directly.

During a speech, someone asked Qualman if he had to give a dictionary definition of socialnomics what would it be? He answered as “the ability of social media to generate exponential returns for individuals and businesses” according to socialnomics.net, Qualman’s blog.

This use of social media trend is helping businesses directly use consumers. The opinions of peers are becoming more effective than traditional ads would be. As more and more people go online, they look to friends to see what’s trending.

A recent study result showed that more Inc. 500 businesses are using social media as part of market strategies and they are seeing a positive outcome.

In 2010, 71% of these companies used Facebook, which is up from 61% in 2009. Twitter was at 59% in 2010, and blogging was at 50% according to a study for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research.

Only 9% of companies replied that they do not use any form of social media in 2010. That percentage is less than the 18% of companies that did not use it in 2009.

However, these are simply the stats from the companies that use these websites; It doesn’t say whether or not the use of the websites are successful.

So the study also asked the companies that used social media how successful they thought it was. Eighty-five percent of the companies viewed Facebook a success in 2010 following the jump of 54% in 2009. Podcasting was rated higher with 89% of companies viewing it successful in 2010. But the most successful, according to Inc. 500 businesses, is still message or bulletin boards at 95%.

Based on its successfulness, companies have found that social media is of importance to them now. According to the study, 86% of the businesses recorded, found social media technologies to be either somewhat or very important to their business and marketing strategies in 2010.

Qualman believes that social media sites will save billions on productivity and make companies more efficient. It will also help the consumer be more productive. For example, suppose you are looking for a good new restaurant in town. After looking at your social media sites, you see 12 of your friends say how great the new restaurant on University was. You trust your friends’ opinions, so you know you need to go there.

It is not just for teenagers anymore. “Micropayments” from supporters online for Barak Obama, raised over $700 million, according to Qualman. Companies are finally following the trend and getting on board.

Not all the same sites work for the same businesses. But as more companies use social media sites, old-fashioned advertisements and marketing will be a thing of the past. Businesses will continue to experiment and find which marketing technique works best for them. That is what this social media is right now, an experiment to find what functions best for their business.