Sirona Says

Yours truly on a live Career Site Advisor webcast on Wednesday 3rd June

Prolific blogger is how I am described by Keith Robinson in his intro for the live webcast on Wednesday 3rd June! Thanks Keith!
I will be on the couch with Keith talking about using networking to find a new job - specifically LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter - and I am sure it will be fun!!

Checkout the trailer - http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1538881

The CareersCast (www.careersiteadvisor.com), will launch on Wednesday June 3rd at 12:30pm, with its inaugural live videocast featuring experts from the recruitment, internet and social networking industries.

Following on from the success of the innovative website, Career Site Advisor, CareersCast will offer jobseekers a chance to learn directly from experts such as Luke McKend from Google about how to find a job online says Career Site Advisor co-founder Keith Robinson.

“The recruitment industry has undergone a revolution since the first job board launched in 1994, but many jobseekers are in this market for the first time and may never have looked online for a job before,” Mr. Robinson says.

Experts participating in the Career Site Advisor livecast include:

•    Luke Mckend – Google: Finding the right job when searching  on Google
•    Andy Headworth - Sirona Consulting: Manage finding a job through networking
•    Don Leslie – BLT: How to best  approach a recruitment firm – what should you know
•    Dave King -  Shares his experience of being unemployed and online job seeking.
•    Elaine Hewens - FinelyBalanced, providing advice on career development

Special thanks to JobsGoPublic.com who are sponsoring the fist livecast.

The website, Career Site Advisor launched in March and offers a single reference point for online jobseekers to search job sites, company career sites and recruitment consultancies in one directory as well as advice and links to online resources.
*National Online Recruitment Survey 2008
- Ends -
Issued by Carve Consulting
For further information, case studies or interviews please contact: Keith Robinson, on 0779-652-3355 or keith@careersiteadvisor.com http://www.careersiteadvisor.com/contact.php

About Career Site Advisor
The company was founded by Keith Robinson formerly COO of Totaljobs.com and Publisher of Personnel Today, and Simon Goddard formerly of Yahoo HotJobs & News International. Headquartered in London, Site Advisor Ltd is a privately held

Big Brother to the real extreme in Australia......

I saw this on the BerryReview blog, and so was amazed with it, I just had to share it with you all! It is a case of Big Brother gone to the extreme!

The Aussie's need our help - they have 22 million citizens and their Government is about to introduce a new policy that will have major implications  for all internet users. 

The basic outline is the introduction of a ‘Clean Feed’ internet firewall for all Australian internet users. It will limit ALL of us Australians from being able to see only what the government wants them to see. The idea is to stop the flow of un-savory content to that element of the community that will find a way around it anyway.

This measure will slow internet speeds right down to crawling pace. Even worse, the blocked list will not be available to users so if the Australian government, in their wisdom, decides that a sites should not be viewed by Australian internet users the it’s goodbye to blogger access for many!!
 Other countries such as Iran and China have there type of measures already in use.

You can check out all of the details of the proposal at http://nocleanfeed.com/action.html  or go direct to the petition at Sign the petition here. 

We have gone web 2.0!

We have gone web 2.0!!  After preaching for so long to clients that they should be using web 2.0 in their recruitment strategy, it was about time we did the same. Well, that and those *******people at Microsoft who decided to drop their support for Frontpage (which my other website was built on!). So with the prospect of having to change platform we looked at different solutions.
At first we explored a range of options, but quickly realised that there was a good platform we use every day (blogging) that can provide us with what we want - Typepad. So then it was just a case of creating the site (!!!) using on much of the content we already had in place already.

The intention has been to make use of different media within the site, something we were lacking before. So we have added video, audio, forum, widgets, online chat and presentations to the content. While it is a little 'busy' at the moment, this will evolve over time with the plan being to also expand the video and audio content over the next few months.
We now have a site sitting on a function rich platform, and intend to make sure we take advantage of it!!!

How do Generation Y'ers and Generation Z'ers communicate?

This may surprise you (it certainly did me) that mobile texting didn't come out top in this survey, especially the way my daughters use their mobiles!! Habbo's Global Youth Survey looked at generation Y and generation Z teenagers - particularly aged 11-18 - to see how they communicate with other people (friends, family etc). Here are the ways they communicate:

1. Instant Messaging via internet  81%
2. Meeting in person   77%
3. Text Messages   70%
4. Talking on the phone   60%
5. Social Networking sites  54%
6. Email   41%

So as an employer looking to tap into this market, it does make interesting reading. Although the surprising one at the bottom is email with only 41%, it must be said that 72% of them do hold current email accounts but only use them for non-personal communication like school, work and family(!!!).

Blogs ARE here to stay, so get started!

Many companies are still shying away from the power of the blog. But some latest figures released by Comscore show that blogs are what people are reading online. Companies should really start to think about how they can harness this massive trend and use blogs. They could use them for recruitment, retention,product promotion, news and so much more - in fact the list is endless!!  The only advice I would say is to just put some thought into it first.........then blog away!!!

Here are the latest Comscore stats:

The Top 20 UK Blogging Sites had 33.2 million visitors in February (and thats JUST the Top 20!)

The Worlds Top 20 UK Blogging Sites had 822.9 million visitors in February.

So for all you non-believers out there, now is the time to start blogging!! After all it is what everyone else is doing!!!

'Superheads' - THE most important Talent Managers?

There has been much debate about the pay of Head Teachers, especially with the news that 'Superheads' - managing large grammar schools - should expect to earn circa £200k for the work they do. So, what is the problem here, and why are so many people so shocked?

We have a 'talent crunch' (sounds better than talent shortage doesn't it!) occurring at the moment that will only get worse over the next few years. The school population is absolutely key to employers over the next few years. Everyone goes on about generation Y and generation Z, and how they are going to deal with them, but they are already being managed now - in the Schools!Head Teachers and 'Superheads' are managing our future talent for us - no one to my knowledge has yet to define how old talent is - and with 'Superheads' managing schools with as much as 1500 pupils + staff in (that's alot of potential talented people!), why shouldn't be rewarded with a market applicable salary? If you were a CEO of a 1500 strong company I would like to bet your salary would definitely exceed £200k anyway!!

The aptly named Mr Ed Balls - the Labour Schools Secretary - should be applauded (just for a change) for trying to ensure that these important Talent Managers stay within education. (Now Mr Balls, can you set about the rest of the education system please!!!!)

First the McDiploma, now a Tesco Degree....what next a BA with BA?

The big companies are finally realising that there is such a lack of interested talent in the job market, that 'growing your own' is the way to solve their future talent management problems. McDonalds were one of the first, creating their own McDiploma's, and Tescos have gone one step further and have developed their own 'every little (graduate) helps'  foundation degree.

I have to say that I think these are great initiatives going forward, but will it now become a pre-requisite for their competitors to match them and start their own qualifications? So what could be next around the corner?

A degree in Pocket Tapping (Asda if you are wondering)

Its not just any degree it is an M&S Degree

Try something new this September, try a Sainsburys degree

Or outside of retail, you could go for a BA with BA

I am sure you can be creative with some others!!

The 'Posh Bird' who pushed Cantor Fitzgerald too far!!

After a previous popular post regarding writing indiscretions (in a blog), I thought you would enjoy a similar tale that definitely did result in a P45! It is about a 23 year old Cantor Fitzgerald City Broker called Venetia Thompson. She was sacked after writing in The Spectator, about the 'taboo subject'  of their male dominated culture within their offices in the  Square Mile.

The 'Posh Bird' Broker, as she called herself, wrote that half the City was functioning on very little sleep, with many people still frequently drunk at work after going out with Clients and returning to work soon after. This is something that she is proud of doing herself many times, as well as accepting extreme mail taunting,  seeing first hand office violence and bullying as well as creating a new language of cockney obscenities!!

Writing the Civil Serf Blog WILL lose you your job!

One thing that is certain (well in my opinion anyway) is that Whitehall's answer to Belle de Jour - Civil Serf (I would obviously link to it but it has been taken offline today!), will lose her job when the MI5 Spooks can actually find out who she is!! She claims to be a 33 year old fast stream civil servant, and Whitehall seem to have established that she is who she says she is because of the information she gives out in the blog! She began posting last November, saying that, " ..I'm just senior enough in my department to really know what's going on." Then she made a slight miscalculation, "Fortunately for me I'm not senior enough to attract suspicion from my blogging" - how wrong you were!!!!! They have been very aware of the blog and have become increasingly disgruntled at the content she has been posting.

Last week she wrote in her blog, "knowing my luck it (my blog) will get me fired!!"  Well it seems they have found her because her blog has mysteriously been taken down today!!  So I am guessing she will joining the list of the unemployed tomorrow!

Motto of this story - be very careful about writing about your employer, especially if it is the British Government!!

Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2008 - but where are the retailers?

Having just read my Sunday Times today, in particular the 100 Best Companies To Work For 2008 (250- 4999 employees) conducted by Best, I was very surprised with the results. My surprise is not with the winners, but with the companies that are missing. I am not being specific to individual companies, but to one of the largest employing sectors in the UK  - Retail. More than 3.2 million people work in retail and it is now the UK’s third largest industry behind business services and the health sector, and yet it did not feature once in the Top 100 companies to work for!! Not one retail company!

The only savior came in the form of Mothercare, who came 18th in the Top 20 Big Companies to Work For 2008 (5000 employees+). Surely Mothercare are not the only retailer worth working for in the UK, are they? What has happened to all those other top name retailers? Are they really that poor to work for?

With the continual demand for talent, it isn't a good advert for the retail sector is it? There is nothing like making it hard for yourself is there? All those talented graduates pay good credence to award lists like these and actively target these companies to work for. So is it any wonder the retail sector is always moaning about the lack of talent?