Digital natives do not exist in numbers you think. Fewer than 1 percent of entering freshmen have ever edited a wiki:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hghekXykt-k&feature=youtu.be...
EDIT: Totally misremembered, its more like 17 percent.
Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
21–30 of 106 posts
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#22Is it OK for Employers to seek out employee they want? Yes, their business, their decision.
Exactly, I hope the fairness enforcement lawyers don't get hip to the band listing I saw seeking people under 25—presumably for their drug tolerance?
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#23The title is very misleading and an example of linkbait. It should be something like "Can Employers Request Traits That Older Folks Are Unlikely to Possess?"
Change "Unlikely" to "Cannot" and that sounds about right. You cannot become native in something after the critical period is over, no matter how good you are(this is by definition). The best you can be is "fluent" if you miss the critical period.
For example, if you ask for a native English speaker to write a newsletter, Joseph Conrad would not fit the bill(since he started learning English at 21 years of age), even though in terms of talent he would surely be leagues beyond any random native English speaker.
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#24I didn't use that specific term because it sounds as stupid as "rockstar" or "ninja", but when I was hiring recently I only used Facebook ads (which you could target to specific genders or ages, if you wanted - I only targeted by location) and stressed that the job(s) required someone comfortable with the Internet, social media, and Internet culture (which, indeed, they do). I only got applications from people in the…
I'm sure you feel good about the people you hired, but how do you know that there wasn't someone even better who didn't apply because of the narrow targeting of your ad? If somebody posted their job ad only in the AARP newsletter, would you feel that it had been made available to twenty-somethings? After all, they could read it.
This all goes back to the numbers games in hiring. Targeting the listing is cheaper, and if you can identify a subgroup that contains most of the potential candidates for your opening, it might be sensible to target.
Sure, there might be some "big fish" in a group you didn't target, but so long as you are happy with the people you hired, didn't it pay off? Not every position needs to be filled with a rockstar-ninja-pirate-haXX0r. Maybe all you need is a person who can get the job done (imagine that!)
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#25I am a digital native. I grew up with a computer. I obtained digital connectivity through acquaintances and friends. I got "online" before the Internet existed. I was on a team that wrote one of the first Internet-enabled fantasy sports websites. I've watched my peers (some younger, some older) re-invent the breakthroughs of the 1960s and 1970s and call it these reinventions "brand new." I am a digital native with de…
so do you think Bill Gates and Woz would qualify :-)
Neither Woz nor Bill Gates used Agile and TDD in their developments
Neither knows what "the market" demands, no Ruby, no JS, no Java, etc. Maybe they know C, Fortran or 6502/8080 Assembly (recruiter rolls eyes)
So, "thanks for your time and we'll contact you"
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#26I didn't use that specific term because it sounds as stupid as "rockstar" or "ninja", but when I was hiring recently I only used Facebook ads (which you could target to specific genders or ages, if you wanted - I only targeted by location) and stressed that the job(s) required someone comfortable with the Internet, social media, and Internet culture (which, indeed, they do). I only got applications from people in the…
I'm sure you feel good about the people you hired, but how do you know that there wasn't someone even better who didn't apply because of the narrow targeting of your ad? If somebody posted their job ad only in the AARP newsletter, would you feel that it had been made available to twenty-somethings? After all, they could read it.
But presumably using Facebook is also a core component of the actual job, given that it mentioned social media.
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#27The title is very misleading and an example of linkbait. It should be something like "Can Employers Request Traits That Older Folks Are Unlikely to Possess?"
Not really. Think what you will of the merits of the article, but it makes specific reference in the opening sentence to the fact that "digital native has been used to refer to a member of the younger generation weaned on the web and immersed in the language of digital technology," and the example it signifies is an employer ignoring older applicants because of their age rather than their skillsets. I'm not sure how…
Why not just say "digitally fluent", or something like that? Discriminating against someone based solely on the year they were born seems illegal(IANAL) and just plain wrong.
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#28Is it OK for Employers to seek out employee they want? Yes, their business, their decision.
Unless they're discriminating against a protected class, which people over the age of 40 happen to be.
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#29I'm in my mid-30s, grew up tinkering/programming/etc., but I have to admit I just don't get social media. But then I'm not a very sociable person in general. My wife (not a techie), however, is all over facebook/pinterest/twitter/etc. doing God knows what while I'm coding all day. How I learned of the existence of Pinterest: Me: "Where did you say you posted that thing?" Wife (annoyed): "Pinterest" "Your what?" "Pint…
Pinterest, btw.
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#30I'm in my mid-30s, grew up tinkering/programming/etc., but I have to admit I just don't get social media. But then I'm not a very sociable person in general. My wife (not a techie), however, is all over facebook/pinterest/twitter/etc. doing God knows what while I'm coding all day. How I learned of the existence of Pinterest: Me: "Where did you say you posted that thing?" Wife (annoyed): "Pinterest" "Your what?" "Pint…
Oh you don't get social media?
You're using one right now.