Here's a story that hard to believe but one that's an important read whether you are looking for a job or looking for good candidates to fill a position.
I'm sitting at the commencement ceremonies earlier this week for a major university. One of the instructors is talking to his supervisor about an issue. He teaches public relations and sent a PR release draft out to his students through the university email system. Unfortunately none of the students received it. She investigated and found out the reason: Instead of putting in a fake business name he put in XXX business. The university system read "XXX" as porn and stopped the email. But that's only the beginning. Here's where it get's interesting.
The supervisor said she found out that this major university now stops all incoming and outgoing emails with the phrase "Summa Cum Laude." Why? Because the system reads "Cum" as porn, not as an academic word when used within the phrase "Summa Cum Laude."
The morale of this story is congratulations to every who graduated "Summa Cum Laude."The problem is that in a digital world, if IT staffers are left to decide on their own what words are acceptable and what are not, some very important resumes may never reach the right people.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Joe Barnes, joe@digital3000.net, @joebarnes, www.Digital3000.net
