Mass Interactive: Diddy Does Web 2.0

Music mogul Sean Combs is looking for an assistant, but don’t send a résumé. The star is accepting only video applications uploaded onto YouTube.

Mr. Combs, known as Diddy, videotaped a help-wanted ad on the popular video Web site hoping to find a helper to replace his former assistant, who did everything from holding his umbrella in the rain to playing chaperone to his hip-hop group Da Band.

While Mr. Combs declined to comment on why he chose YouTube instead of a job-recruiting site like Monster.com, he offered some explanation in the video.

“It’s a new age, new time, new era,” he said in his first posting, a minute-and-a-half clip of him yelling behind his desk. “Forget coming into the office and having a meeting with me and being all nervous.”

Hopefuls must audition by posting a video that is less than three minutes long explaining why they deserve the job. Initially, Mr. Combs opened it to anybody with a camera or a little creativity, but in a second posting, narrowed the applicant pool to only college graduates.


More than 600 people have submitted videos.

John A. Challenger, chief of the recruiting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said Mr. Combs’s online video search is more than a ploy to get attention. More applicants are adding video clips to their applications. “It helps put a face to all the faceless résumés,” he said.

Viewers will pick the finalists on YouTube, but Mr. Combs will pick the winner.

via http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/business/media/30diddy.html?_r=2&8dpc=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1185813074-52mdpT6NH85/h6f6Qj20WQ&oref=slogin