2013 DAM Guru Pro Job Mashup Virtual Job Fair
The DAM Guru Programme (DGP – administered by vendor, Picturepark) have announced what they call ‘DAM Pro Job Mashup’ – a kind of virtual job fair:
“This virtual job fair features members of DAM Guru Program who are looking for new employment opportunities. Throughout the month of October, browse member profiles to find the perfect candidate for your digital asset management position. We’ll connect you for free.” [Read More]
Essentially, it looks along similar lines to our own DAM Vendors site in that it provides features to filter potential candidates. The employer interested in hiring someone can browse profiles according to a number of different classifications, such as:
- DAM Users
- DAM Managers/Editors
- DAM Librarians/Information Pros
- DAM Administrators/Integrators
- DAM Designers/Developers
- DAM Trainers/Educators
- DAM Interns
As pointed out by David Diamond of Picturepark in the comments to this article, this is slightly different to their Newbie and Guru (DAM expert) matching programme in that anyone can post a profile with a view to obtaining employment.
I have been registered with the existing DGP for several months. Although there hasn’t been a suitable engagement out of it so far, since I represent a commercial DAM consulting operation, offering pro-bono advice beyond a short intro session is a little complex to justify without raising a few eyebrows with colleagues here. Also, my employer isn’t exactly under-utilised at this point in time so we’re fairly selective about what we take on anyway. If I were starting out now from scratch, it might be a good way to build up some contacts and get a ‘dry run’ at the type of stuff you’re going to get asked about in relation to DAM.
One final point I would note with this, although Picturepark are associated with it, they have been very good in terms of not using it to push their software product via this channel. It would be quite easy for their sales personnel to start cold-calling either Gurus or Newbies and engage in other ‘trust destruction’ activity, but to their credit, they have not done that and it’s been kept very clean and well behaved. Let’s hope it stays that way too.
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Thanks for the write-up, Ralph. Just to clarify, this job fair isn’t about connecting Gurus to Newbies for the typical knowledge exchange the program is known for. This job fair is about connecting *employers* to Gurus and Newbies. So, for example, a company who has a full-time position open for an experienced DAM Manager or Taxonomist, could browse the profiles to find a suitable candidate. Or, if a company is looking for a DAM intern, they could see those profiles too. (Newbies are welcome to post job profiles too.)
Only DAM Guru Program members who choose to participate will have profiles available during the fair, and no profiles will provide the member’s contact information, so privacy and discretion is assured. (Some members might choose to make themselves known in the text portion of their profiles, through LinkedIn profile links or other contact hints, but we won’t be the source to disclose any of that info.)
With regard to maintaining integrity with the program, we did have one case in which a DAM Guru Program member was mistakenly referred to Picturepark sales shortly after the program was first launched. But this was due to a technology glitch on our part (my part, actually!) that has since been corrected. Since then, it’s been a “clean” sales-free operation and we absolutely intend to keep it that way. Your term, “trust destruction,” is a perfect description of what would happen otherwise. And that would decimate what has become a great program, just to send a few leads to Picturepark. Not at all worth it. If DGP members are interested in Picturepark, they know how to reach us.
Thank you again for helping to get the word out about the job fair!
David Diamond
Director of Global Marketing
Picturepark DAM
Noted about the employment point. I will amend the article later today.