It is no secret for many of you, I listen to the Nowhere Man’s podcasts, to which I was introduced by a friend a while ago. For this reason, his feed is included in my iTunes Podcast section, a privilege shared by only a few very select shows — the others go into my aggregator or, worse, bookmarks, for these increasingly rare moments I have time lying around.
Today, I noticed a new episode had been downloaded and double-clicked on the line, only for it to open Preview and display Chris’ resume! Pausing a few seconds to look around, I noticed that, indeed, iTunes had displayed the little booklet icon next to that line, indicating the enclosure for that “podcast” was a document and not a sound or video file.
It appears Chris is looking for a job and simply used iTunes to post his resume. Technically simple, so simple even I wouldn’t have given it a second thought had I been introduced to that possibility through the lens of theory but, in practice, it suddenly seemed like a great system. How could one otherwise push one’s resume to dozens of readers, without SPAMming them — downloading a short PDF is barely noticeable when one has set aside resources to download a podcast and only becomes visible when one clicks on it.
As long as that method doesn’t get abused — RSS feeds are a great SPAM and virus distribution vector, even though this hasn’t been talked about too much yet —, CVCasting may indeed be the future of job search and information distribution.
PS: Before anyone asks, I am not linked to the Nowhere Man in any way, apart from being a regular reader of his publications.
why isn't that SPAM?
You wrote "How could one otherwise push one’s resume to dozens of readers, without SPAMming them "
If I subscribe to someone's podcast feed particularly through iTunes, I am interested in their podcasts. I would consider receiving a CV through this delivery method or any other solicitation to be SPAM. I would probably unsubscribe.
D
Why isn't that SPAM?
Hi!
Chris actually published a most interesting explanation of how it all happened in his latest show — it didn't happen on purpose.
I would definitely consider repeated commercial solicitations from a podcaster as SPAM, unless of course the feed is all about promotional offers. The very nature of this podcast however makes this a most acceptable (and even interesting) update, as the feed mostly serves as an ongoing journal on what is of interest to his publisher and routinely includes pictures as well as other elements.
In that light, given the nature of the feed and the very fact that subscribing to an enriched podcast implies we allow publisher to push files to our drives and hope they do it in good taste, this, to me, is not SPAM - which I would define as a forced commercial solicitation in bad taste and with no relation whatsoever to the original content.