I truly appreciate the kind words of the community and the generosity of this contest's benefactor.

I thought it would be interesting to share a brief back-story on how the piece evolved.

My son was in the hospital the week before the contest ended. My wife was staying with him during the day, and I would come up there straight from work so she could go home, see our daughter and prepare his food and sundries for the following day.

Recruiting via social media has been a hot topic around the proverbial water cooler lately, so I took advantage of my down time while he was in the hospital. I spent the majority of the week teaching myself the ins and outs of Web 2.0 functionality. I used my son as a guinea pig, and actually built him a website, blog and twitter account. He's a cool guy - you can find him at: http://SuperGroverT.com

Once I worked out the basic plan of this social media phenomenon, I turned my sights on my professional endeavors. I found my way to Recruiting Blogs and was reminded about the contest. I had yet to find a true inspiration for anything to write about, but a trip to the hospital's "movie cart" changed that. Hidden in the back, in a tattered VHS case was a well-used copy of Mr. Mom. Easily a top-5 movie on my all time list. Side note - even my college intramural basketball team was named "The Jack Butler Method". It was a no brainer to pop it in the VCR (once I remembered how to work one).

The inspiration I needed came in a flash, and my essay was outlined within the first 5 minutes of the movie. Suffice to say it was very fun to write and provided me with some much needed levity in an otherwise stressful time.

Ironically, I was also working on a presentation for a recruiter training session for the following week. Somehow I metaphorically inserted more of Jack Butler's teachings in to a meaningful discussion on process improvement and value creation. I think it was well received - and again I found it a fun challenge. If anything, I hope it gave the group something to chew on that was entertaining and insightful.

Thanks again to all.

Best,
Chris