It’s interesting to be on the consumer side of an industry or service that one has experienced as a provider. I’ve had that experience in the medical/dental/veterinary space, I always end up talking shop with my doctors and now I can’t talk to recruiters without wanting to stick my nose into their process.

I heard today that I’ll be interviewing with Google. Their hiring practices are well documented, NDAs notwithstanding, so that should be an interesting process. I’m talking with a group in my current company (or is it former? I’m still on payroll so current is appropriate) about a strategic sector-level role involving our customer-facing online experience. I’m looking into something at SAP, and have a few other targets to follow up on. And I have no excuse to not paint my kid’s bedrooms now.

This morning I learned that my position is being eliminated and my team will be reorganized along with many others as part of a large effort sweeping our company to reduce operational expenses. Since my role had become 80% user experience/interface and 20% operational regarding the Portal, it was an easy target to hit.

I’m not certain how this will resolve. It looks like my package will carry me for a comfortable amount time, so it’s time to assess my future and plot a new course. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know at systematicviewpoints*at*gmail.com.

TechCrunch reports on Useless Account, an amusing little bauble that gently spoofs the dubious value of account creation. It brings to mind a similar reality, that in our mixed environment we drive our users to create profiles out the wazoo. I take the unpopular opinion that we don’t have a real golden source for individual’s profile info. Of course, the HRMS is the main entry point for employee data, which then feeds the data warehouse which turns around and feed anything else that is interested. But who am I today?

• If I’m a candidate, I’ll create a profile in recruiting system
• If I land a position I’m asked to create an application
• If I’m an officer I’ll create a Talent profile
• If I want internal mobility I go to recruiting and create a profile
• I’m regularly asked if my directory info is correct and sent to update it as necessary
• If I use the LMS I have a learning profile

It goes on and on…is there a set of shared, core data? Of course. Could they be merged? As of now, it could get ugly. Each “view” has nuances that merging them would potentially destroy. Yet it’s reasonable to expect that I shouldn’t have to do that same data entry bit over and over again.

We’re thinking about creating a new environment – for current workers it pulls in the proper bits from the various systems and lets me use them like Lego to build new composite profiles. For new hires it’s the starting point, a core set of ‘About Me’ data in an interface full of webby ease of use that hides the complexity and provides a way to peel off a copy of my basic info and model it for the intended purpose. I could keep those versions so I can reuse them as needed. This would live in the intranet context and not project a message that says “I’m an HR application, run away!”. Right now it’s a whiteboard exercise, to be followed up with a few mockups and ROI exercises to see if it floats.