P. Diddy seeks a new assistant through Youtube

NEW YORK — Wanted: Rap music impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs seeks assistant with attitude, confidence, ability to count – and a good video resume.

Eschewing written resumes Combs has turned to video sharing Web site YouTube to recruit his next personal assistant, saying only people with a burning passion to get into the rap world need apply – and he’s received over 10,000 inquiries.

Combs began his search for a new assistant on July 11 when he posted a video on

YouTube of himself, filmed in his New York office, asking potential applicants to post videos explaining why they should be chosen as his assistant.

"You know I’m the best and I like working with the best, so if you’re the best, holla at ya boy," Combs said in his video.

"It’s a new age, a new time, a new era," he added, offering an explanation as to why he chose to ask applicants for online videos rather than have them "nervous in his office."

Combs, 37, gained celebrity in the 1990s as a producer of rap musicians and singers. He later made his own albums and expanded his business interests. He runs Bad Boy Entertainment, is a restaurateur and has a clothing line called Sean John.

But apparently the initial applicant pool left something to be desired. "I have zero organizational skills, I don’t take direction very well, and I don’t know anything about running errands," said one applicant, Christine Lee, in her video posting.

"I’m the music encyclopedia ... I don’t sleep. Sleep is for people that ain’t making money," said another aspiring assistant who called himself East Oakland Roy and filmed himself bare-chested in his cartoon character boxer shorts.

Combs followed his first video with a second clip within 24 hours that clarified some prerequisites. The ability to read, write and count, as well as a college degree are a must.

In the second video, Combs said his company has received over 10,000 inquiries about the position, with more than 650 applicants posting videos of themselves.

Online production company RecruiTV, which produces videos for companies to attract candidates, said Combs had brought attention to the video resume process, but he was not the first to request or offer video resumes or interviews.

RecruiTV Chief Executive Peter Altieri said usage of video had been growing over the last couple years and "increased tremendously" in the last 12 months.

But Altieri said the prevailing trend is video as a complement to the traditional resume, rather than a replacement, and he advised applicants to include short videos of about one-minute in length just to introduce themselves.

"Companies are not looking to watch people bake a cake on film. Instead they’re looking to watch popcorn pop," he told Reuters.
Reuters