A while back I got grouchy about the hot trend among companies to hold virtual recruiting fairs in online properties like Second Life to recruit Gen Ysters. No talking, just the Second Life form of Instant Messaging, using an Avatar (little human like icon that represents you in that virtual world). Some of the companies in question actually claimed to be using that in place of phone screens/interviews (that whole communication skills thing was just too icky), at which point I checked out mentally. 
However, a campaign via text messenging I understand. I'm at the beach, and the young ones around me are using text like a corporate hack (i.e., me) uses the blackberry - early and often... After noting this (gotta get to the beach more often for research purposes), College Recruiter blogged that they are helping Dell with a Text Messaging recruiting campaign:
"Although we deliver multiple targeted email campaigns for our employer, school, and other clients every week and often multiple campaigns a day, we've never delivered a campaign that instructs job seekers to send a cell phone text message (SMS) for information about the job opportunity. I love it. I love what Dell is doing because they understand that the candidates that they're recruiting communicate far more by text messaging than by email and wouldn't know a fax machine or snail mail envelope from a 386SX laptop.
Dell's candidates are Millenials a/k/a Gen Y'ers. They're not Baby Boomers or even Gen X'ers. And because Dell understands that to successfully recruit Millenials you must speak to their needs and wants, Dell is speaking in a loud and clear voice by including the SMS option that Dell is not only willing but actually eager to communicate with their Millennial candidates in the manner most desired by those candidates."
This I get and could lead the charge on. It also follows a identified trend in the athletic recruiting culture, where texting has practically replaced mail as the daily contact of choice. Athletic recruiters skipped right over email because it offered nowhere near the responsiveness with Gen Y as texting. So, it appears to make sense for the scholars looking for their first job as well.
Interested to hear more about the Dell campaign and other developments in this area. Are you ready post a job with a texting option (interesting question)? Can texting configuration options be far behind with the giants like Monster and Careerbulider? Might be an opportunity for a smaller job board to make some big inroads while the giants wring their hands about the change....
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