Fry Up: Tweet pitches

Internet legend

Once again Dunedin has shown the way. Be gone skin traders, there is a new way to recruit in IT – speed dating. Seven minutes to pitch your skills. That’s all that students applying for IT internships in the Scottish city get. Such efficiency is only to be admired and Fry Up was not surprised the city council received an honourable mention for the scheme from the International Economic Development Council.

But it’s not enough to pinch a good idea, you have to improve on it and so Fry Up is suggesting that rather than seven minutes, what about job candidates pitch their skills in a tweet. You can tell a lot about a person in 140 characters or less.

There are a number of exciting positions becoming vacant in the next 12 months, so what should you tweet your future boss by way of application?

Dunedin summer intern scheme wins global award

HP CEO
For those looking for some overseas experience, you could do worse than a tenure as chief executive at Hewlett Packard. This job will appeal to people with a short attention span because chief executives at this company don’t seem to last long.

Tweet pitch: It’s not about the software

HP board ousts Apotheker, Whitman in as CEO

Trans-Tasman cable CEO
Likely to be named Dragon Cable, given its backing by Chinese investors, a new trans-Tasman telecommunications cable could be landing on a beach south of Auckland any time soon if Kordia signs up to the cable announced by Axin this week. The chief executive job has not yet been advertised but smart candidates know to get in early with a good impression.

Tweet pitch: Big Bruce Lee fan

Kordia looks at cable options
National backhaul may be next for Chinese investors

ICT Minister
Pundits are predicting the incumbent won’t be sticking with this portfolio post-election, and this role has proven a good one for those with an eye for the Top Job. Don’t let the election cycle get in the way of your personal ambition. Ensure those that count are following you on Twitter and secure a place at the cabinet table post November 26.

Tweet pitch to the PM: Cellphone bill too high, let’s stuff up the telco industry

Telecom Retail CEO
Sweet divided incumbent, forever keeping the executive head hunters on their game. The current CEO has signalled he will be returning from whence he came so now’s your chance. Clearly this role will require a fresh-thinking, entrepreneurial type who will drive innovative solutions while ruthlessly cutting out waste, treating every dollar the company spends as if it were his or her own.

Tweet pitch: Available for $4m

InternetNZ consultant
Aaah Wellywood. Life for policy wonks in this town is a carousel. Always leaping from one pretty horse to another. One day employed for the government, the next day a telco, and the day after that, maybe a well-resourced industry stakeholder group.

Tweet pitch: Am working at the Ministry of Economic Development, fancy a change

Internet legend
If you don’t secure a post as a consultant at InternetNZ then consider applying for a role as an internet legend. It’s not a standard career path, but it’s a looks like a lot of fun. Spend the sixties writing hippy music and the nineties and noughties hanging out at Harvard. Along the way compose essays with groovy sounding titles like “The Economy of Ideas”.

Which is just Fry Up’s way of saying that John Perry Barlow will be in Wellington for the 2011 New Zealand Internet Industry Awards in November. Barlow is the former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, was made a Harvard fellow in 1998, and he founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Check out what he has to say about copyright in the video below.