Category: Job Site

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Internet Interview Job Site Recruitment Search Engine SEO Social Recruitment Twitter

Bill Fischer, Co-Founder of TwitterJobSearch.com

bill fischerBill Fischer is having a speech in Dublin on the Microsoft’s Future of Recruitment conference later this week. His company in Bill’s own words: TwitterJobSearch.com, is a global search engine for Twitter that uses natural language processing to identify and index offers of employment.

I asked Bill what will he be talking about in the recruitment conference in Dublin. Here is from Bill in his own words:

Bill Fischer: Hi Ivan, Yes, I’ll be discussing some of the challenges and opportunities that the real-time web brings to the recruitment space. There will be some analysis of the current social media landscape, some thoughts on search/cpc approaches to recruitment, and an introduction of some of our new products that sit in the social media/search space.

Bill is the expert in the field, and his latest Twitter Job Search gig raised a lot of dust in the online recruitment world. In the Ireland lagging in Social Media adoption article only a few days ago, I wrote about the Twitter Job Search penetration in Ireland. It will be interesting to see how will Bill’s presentation affect the number of jobs in Ireland in the Twitter Job Search and in the social media in general.

About Bill Fischer
Co-Founder and Director of Workdigital Ltd, the vertical search solutions development company that built workhound.co.uk and twitterjobsearch.com. Co-Founder of DVD Station, Inc., a world-class media/entertainment internet retail systems company. Former VP of marketing for a massively multiplayer online gaming company with over 2.4mm customers in 50+ companies, and builder of marketing systems for a user generated content site acquired by Electronic Arts. Previous marketing and general management experience at more.com, threerings.net and Ebates.com. A frequent speaker, interviewee, and panelist for entertainment trade and classified search and was acknowledged in the editor-in-chief of Wired’s book, The Long Tail, as an expert on collaborative filtering and internet search engines. Twitter: @williamfischer LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wmfischer

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Career CV CV Database Job Site Jobs Recruitment Social Recruitment

Resumark: CV, Jobs, Free!!!

resumark_logoResumark brought in a nice new business model in the online recruitment industry. The concept is essentially borrowed from the Google AdWords – Google AdSense model. While Google pays the web site owners to show the Google AdSense on their sites and charges the Google AdWords clients to pay per click for those same adverts Resumark does the same with the CVs. Job hunters upload their CVs and get paid each time someone downloads the CV. Anyone can search the CV database for free, and gets a preview of the CV for free only. If you decide you would like the contact details as well – you pay to Resumark. Resumark in return pays the cut to the owner of the CV.

Just in case you did not get it, here is how Resumark explains their online recruitment and CV database business model:

Get Paid to Post Your Resume!

Post Resume or create it online using our free Resume Assistant. Make $1 every time an employer downloads your resume!

Search Jobs that match your profile and join the fastest growing Job 2.0 Network!

In today’s economy even job search monsters are not enough. Invite friends and earn money together when their resumes are downloaded.

And for the recruiters and employers:

Free Resume Search & Job Postings

Search Resumes for Free using Google™ search technology. We give you full access to the entire resume database.

Pay only for the resumes that you choose to download. Compare to other services.

Post Jobs for Free and have them automatically distributed to major jobs sites and networks reaching millions of job seekers

Regardless if the business will work or not, Resumark is a step from the usual recruitment jobs sites. Time will tell if it was a step in the right direction. But what needs to be applauded here is the courage and the innovation in the online recruitment industry.

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Career CV Database Internet Job Site Jobs Recruitment

Monster rethinking service offering

Monster is interested in what job seekers think of their jobs web site. Here is the mail sent to job hunters today:

SATISFIED?
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

Dear Job Seeker,

At Monster, we are committed to creating an online experience that advances your life and your career. To help us achieve this, we would like to invite you to provide some feedback on your experience using Monster.

Our Satisfaction Survey should only take around 12 -18 minutes to complete and all responses are confidential. Start the survey by clicking the link below. Your honest thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your participation.

Click here for the satisfaction survey »

Best wishes,

Jesse Harriot
Vice President of Research

2009 Monster – All Rights Reserved
Hillview House, 15D Gilford Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4, Ireland

How about a iPhone raffle or something similar to get people to participate? Or is Monster not really interested in what people really think. Or not that much to give them the incentive to fill up the questionnaire?

Or Monster Marketing just didn’t think of it at all? :)

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Career CV Interview Job Site Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency

How to prepare an electronic CV

While many jobs can still be applied for in the traditional way, by sending a printed CV and covering letter by post to the organisation that is offering the position, an increasing number of employers now accept and even encourage the practice of sending of CVs via e-mail. There are a number of advantages to this approach – it’s almost instantaneous, it works out a lot cheaper, especially if you are applying for jobs abroad, and it reduces paper waste. In addition, some websites offer you the chance to post your CV online where it can be seen by thousands of potential employers without you having to lift a finger. An electronic CV is generally similar to a printed CV, however there are several key differences between the two forms that are important to bear in mind when producing the document.

Perhaps most importantly, you have to ensure that your CV can be easily read on any computer, regardless of software and hardware differences. For this reason it is best to save your CV in ASCII or plain text format, as the recipient may not have the same word-processing software, or even the same version of a particular program, as you have typed the CV into. Keep the formatting as simple as possible, as indents, columns, page breaks and bullet points can all be interpreted differently by different computers and leave your CV looking like a mess on arrival.
Although most paper CVs are lucky to receive anything other than a quick perusal, if anything an electronic CV will receive even less detailed attention. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that you keep it short and crisp. Summarise what you feel to be your strong points and avoid unnecessary detail. The primary function of an electronic CV is to grab the attention of the employer. If what they see intrigues them, then they will get in touch with you for more details.
For the same reason it is important to make appropriate use of keywords to draw attention to the important things in your CV, especially if it’s posted on a jobs site. Given that the great majority of internet searches are keyword-based, it is important to use words and phrases that are likely to be searched for by potential employers. Use keywords that are specifically related to the industry and the type of job you wish to work in. Try to incorporate positive, descriptive terms into descriptions of your skills and experiences that you feel employers will be likely to search for. For example, an employer looking for clerical staff might search for terms such as ‘fast and accurate typist’ or ‘strong IT skills’.
Finally, be sure to include your name, contact details and website, if you have one that you feel is worth showing to employers, along with a short profile of your career and achievements to date in reverse chronological order. If an employer is interested in your CV but finds it anything other than easy to find your contact details, chances are they won’t contact you at all.

For jobs and career advice, visit employireland.ie.

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Career CV CV Database Job Site Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Recruitment

How to impress with your CV

When it comes to applying for jobs, first impressions can count for a great deal. Very often, the very first thing a potential employer will know about you will be written on the CV that you included with your job application. Having a great CV can make all the difference between being asked for an interview and being rejected out of hand.

When writing a CV, it is helpful to consider things from the employer’s point of view. They will be looking for those people who would seem, at least on paper, ideally suited to the position being offered. They may well have to read through a great number of CVs before they decide which candidates they wish to interview, so they will, naturally, be looking for the ones that really stand out from the crowd.

While using the same CV for a variety of job applications, and changing only the covering letter, might seem a time-efficient way of applying for jobs, this approach has several drawbacks. Chiefly, it will decrease the chances that your CV is truly marketing you as a person well suited to the demands of the job in question. In addition, sending in a generic CV unmodified to the demands of a particular job, especially now in this digital age, smacks of laziness, incompetence, and a lack of desire for the job – hardly an image that you would want to project to a potential employer!

By tailoring your CV to the job you are applying for, you can significantly increase your chances of being asked to come in for an interview. In order to do this successfully, you will need to do some research into the background of the organisation in question as well as judging the personal characteristics and qualifications that they would seem to be looking for in an applicant.

Not only should your CV be tailor-made for each and every one of the jobs that you apply for, it should also be updated regularly to take account of any advances you have made in your education and career. It would probably be a good idea to keep a constantly updated ‘master’ CV file on your home computer, which can then be quickly customized to highlight the qualifications and personal attributes required by the jobs that you are applying for.

For jobs and career advice, visit employireland.ie.

Categories
Job Site Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Recruitment Industry Awards 2009

National Recruitment Federation (NRF) is launching its Recruitment Industry Awards 2009, a gala awards ceremony on Friday, 2nd October 2009 at The Four Seasons Hotel, will once again be presented by RTE’s Pamela Flood.

Judges:
Mark Fielding, CEO ISME,
Kirsty Kirkwood, former European Head of Staffing, State Street
Sean O’Meara, Former Chief Executive, Young Advertising
Grainne Martin, Ex-MD of Computer People Ltd

The Jobseekers Choice category is where you can have your say about who is the best Recruitment Agency of the National Recruitment Federation at Survey Monkey

Here are the agencies shortlisted for the award:
Approach People
CaterAssist
Clark Recruitment
CPL Recruitment
Elan IT
Executive Connections
FRS Recruitment
Global Medics
Grafton Recruitment
Hudson
Jackie Brown Medical
Julia Ross
Logiskills
Noel Recruitment
Nuparc
Parc Aviation
Prosperity
Recruiters
RecruitmentPlus
Robert Walters
Servisource
Sigmar Recruitment
Star Recruit
Three Q Catering
Vantage Resources

Voting Rules:
Only one vote per person. Participating parties cannot vote.

The closing date for the nominations is (was) today at 5PM. So if you are reading this – sorry, you are too late for Recruitment Industry Awards 2009!

Categories
Internet Job Site Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Work in Ireland (WorkinIreland.ie)

work in irelandWork in Ireland (WorkinIreland.ie) as jet another recruitment job portal. Although it is not really publicised, it is owned by a recruitment agency called Work Direct (WorkDirect.ie). The agency is run by the Directors Philip Beggs and Sabina Frontzek.

The Work in Ireland site is not that bad looking. Certainly not that bad as a FAS Jobs Site I wrote yesterday about. There are also about 20ish jobs advertised between two advertisers Alex Harp and Step One Recruitment.

The site has one sole purpose and that is to create a stream of fresh CV’s for the Work Direct recruitment agency. Therefore he advertisers email address and any contact details are hidden. On the page showing a job details there is also no Apply button, but it is replaced by Register Now button. This is to force job seekers to leave all their personal details, and the copy of the CV to the recruitment agency that runs the site before the application is sent to the advertiser.

I wonder will any recruitment agency, when they decide to make a job board, use their experience and knowledge of the industry and create something new? Something that will improve the process of the online recruitment? When will a single recruitment web site really differ from all the others? All the Irish recruitment agencies have jobs advertised on them, and all the sites are exactly the same. Same features, and quite a few actually look the same (Prosperity.ie being the exception). What happened to creativity? Is there absolutely nothing innovative the Irish recruitment agencies can come up with for more than 10 years now?

(hint: think social media)

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Career CV Database Job Site Jobs Recruitment

FÁS

I write a lot about the job boards and there is one I was avoiding so far, but the time has come – Let’s talk about FÁS!

FÁS as the organisation was in the media a lot for many months now. When the 1bn budget FÁS has reached the media, earlier this year, FÁS made it as the Story of the Week, in the most national print and TV channels.

To put this story in the perspective, only a handful Irish job boards reach 1 million revenue. In the same time all the job boards are very profitable. OK we all know FAS is more than just a job board, but to anyone in the recruitment industry 1bn budget sounds simply astronomical.

Comptroller - FASDepartment of Enterprise, Trade and Employment – Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley published a Special Report titled: Advertising and Promotion in FÁS for presentation to Dáil Éireann.

In the summary of Findings one can read that: Over the period 2002 to 2008, FÁS spent over €48 million on advertising, promotion and related activities including jobs fairs and activities to promote science.

In other words €48.2 mil advertising budget for 7 years. That is well over a half a million a month! €573.810 to be precise.

How did FAS manage to spend half a million a month for seven years? Well not very creatively: Print 62%, TV%, Radio 13% and Outdoor 13%. Did you notice something missing? Well no online advertising budget? Half a million advertising every month and not a cent in online?! Well come on FÁS…

Comptroller - John BuckleyThe full report is actually quite interesting read. It is full of over a half a million (or more) here, half a million there, for stuff that was either not used or not even delivered. My personal favourite is the car purchased and paid for in full, but never delivered.

The FÁS report is a very good reed. I can highly recommend it, and many thanks to John Buckley for putting it together. Here is a full PDF download.

Categories
Career Job Site Recruitment Social Recruitment

Paddy Power Recruitment Site

Paddy Power Recruitment
Paddy Powers recruitment web site called ‘WorkWithPaddy.com’ is an example of a great employers recruitment mini web site.

It looks nice
It is very easy to read
It showcases the Paddy Powers careers, the people, the locations,.. the company.

There is even a link to the Facebook Group – that currently has 249 members, so a bit of Social Recruiting included in the mix as well.

All in all, … probably the best employers recruitment site in Ireland?
(the sentence above inspired by Carlsberg advertising)

One thing that does not really look and work well is the integration with the candidate manager that shows during the job application process. Bringing the third party screen in the (iframe) window is always a bit risky, since the owners of the site have no control over it. But even that didn’t manage to ruin the good impression the Paddy Power recruitment web site leaves you with!

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Career Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment

Find a Worker

find-a-workerFind a Worker is a jobs site and a business directory with a little bit of the social networking as well.

Find a worker is a job site. You can post a job for free.

Find a Worker is a business directory web site. You can promote your business here. Like the Golden Pages.

Find a worker is a personal branding site. You can advertise your own skills for free. Like LinkedIN.

What is missing on Find a Worker? Of course, and iPhone application to grasp all that data.

As a side offer, you can also purchase web sites on Find a Worker. They will also make sure that: “… your site is added to google with the appropriate keywords and meta tags…”.

Irish online recruitment scene is changing. There is more and more sites with innovative ideas like Find a Worker. Hundreds if not thousands will finish where they started, but one day one new idea and a site like this will change the way we do recruitment completely. It is the right time for the change!

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Career Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Social Networks Social Recruitment

Social Networks Vs Online Job Boards…

Here are just two facts first:
1. Revenues of online job boards are falling
2. Social networks are (still!) gaining popularity

Why are job boards in trouble all of the sudden after being profitable for more than 10 years?

The troubled world economy that hit the recession in the second half of the 2008 and continued well into most of the 2009 (is it over yet???!!!) resulted in the first dip of the volume of the internet traffic. First ever actually. It is the first time since the Internet exists that the volume of the activity on the internet was smaller compared with the same month a year ago. All the iPhones and all kind of internet enabled devices did not help here. There have been far less people working (and surfing in their breaks), and far less people had time to surf during their work.

The combination of the large reduction of the job advertisements (that generate the revenue for the job boards, and also the drop in web site traffic in general – the figures of a job boards in 2009 do not look so rosy!

Social networks are a long term threat to the job boards.

The number of people spending time, and the sheer amount of time people spend on the social networking sites does not really leave much time to search the job boards. Compared to the job boards, the social networking sites are actually extremely boring. There is 0 interaction on the site really. As a job hunter you apply for a job or jobs you like, and what you get back in 99% of the cases is an automated response in the email. The confirmation of the job application. Impersonal and sterile. The social networks on the other side let you publish the content for other users (or anyone on internet) to read and see. Social networks let you say what you think (that your spouse doesn’t!). Social networks encourage you to comment pretty much anything!

You can meet new people. You can catch up with old school mates. You can check the last summer holiday photos of your cousins. You can upload your fancy wedding photos, with all the family in strange dresses in the background! You can grade photos and comment them. You can upload video from your car racing weekend. Your greatest fishing catch.

Social network is like a pub. People are talking. Social network is like a ‘Corso’, the main street boardwalk where you hang out with your friends and their friends. You can also do some business with all this people there if you feel like it. But do not really have to, since you can check how your mates commented the game yesterday. And tell them how YOU think your home club should have played.

After you got used to the way of communication that the social networks or let you by broadcasting YOUR message to the masses, the idea of browsing boring listings of the jobs on the job sites simply isn’t that appealing any more.

Social Recruitment is born simply because people are far more active on the social networks than on job boards. If Twitter wouldn’t have that many visitors and users it would be impossible to hire staff there. But the sheer volume of users on Twitter makes it a platform where you really can hire staff with the most crazy restriction anyone have ever imposed on the recruitment process – communication limited to 140 characters (spaces included!!!). Facebook is probably the platform with the largest number of useless, and distracting applications but the fact that the number of active users is larger than most of the countries in the world – makes it a perfect sourcing application for a large number or positions. LinkedIN is specialising for the recruitment itself – the social network of professionals. Even their Jobs section isn’t visited as much as all the others since it is simply boring. Visitors expect more from the social networks then the boring jobs listings. They want to contribute. They want to read other peoples contribution. They way to confirm their decisions by getting the independent views from other people with similar conclusions.

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Career Internet Job Site Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Free Jobs (freejobs.ie)

Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch?

free-jobsI call from a client today about their jobs being published to FreeJobs.ie made me thinking. Their jobs published on the Free Jobs web site are about 3 years old. They got an application for a job advertised there yesterday. Since my client is using the multiple job posting service eRecruit, as a part of our Recruitment Marketing Manager product, they assumed that eRecruit is supplying the jobs to the Free Jobs web site, as it does to all the Irish Jobs sites (and news sites, and blogs, and niche web sites, etc…). Well in this case this was not the case. We in eRecruit have actually never even heard about a site called Free Jobs before.

So jobs published on Free Jobs web site are taken from somewhere. And published on the Free Jobs web site, without the owner of the content – the advertiser, in this case a recruitment agency knowing about that fact. Three years after that, the advertiser receives the job application. And un unpleasant situation really – how to explain to the poor job hunter that the recruiter quoted on the Free Jobs web site does not work anymore in that recruitment agency? How to explain that the company that was actually hiring does not even exist anymore? How to explain why is the job advertised, and invites the job seeker to reveal quite a lot of his private data (in the CV) for something that is not there? Quite unpleasant, isn’t it?

Well, that is the problem with the things that are free. No one is really responsible for the maintenance or the quality of their service. Sometimes it seems one would be better of paying 1 Euro, or some minimal fee, and receive a guarantee of a quality of service. This provides some revenue to the service provider as well, that helps funding the project. In the same time it gives the user of the service a level of guarantee that the service provided will work well.

I like free things. We all do. But unfortunately there are inherited problems with free services. Free Jobs web site is not the alone in the scenario where a free service of advertising jobs simply failed because of the unsustainable business model.

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Blogs Career CV Internet Job Site Jobs Recruitment

Jobs.ie Career Workshop – €100 only!

I got a mail this morning from Jobs.ie web site. They are offering me a 100€ career workshop.

 

I thought about it during a coffee this morning. Recruit Ireland have changed their model and are offering free advertisements to the Irish employers. Until they fill their books with names, whom to start selling once when the recession is gone. Their prediction is in September. That being September 2009. In the same time Jobs web site is looking for other sources of revenue. And there are the job seekers. With thousands of job seekers on your site daily, why not offer them something, for let’s say,… 100 quid? There certainly is a market for it since we are in the steady double digit unemployment with very little signs of it getting any better anytime soon. With so many people hungry for jobs – why not take a €100 of each? In a form of coaching?

 

I have to admit, I like the recruit Ireland approach better with their Get Ireland Working campaign. What Jobs site is doing kind of sounds like: Get Ireland Paying. I know, I know. Recruit Ireland is after the same money. They will start charging those employers the moment they can. I just like the Employers paying for the recruitment advertising, not job seekers. I do not think it’s really fair to ask someone looking for a job, especially if unemployed – anything! Not even shaped in the fancy candy bar wrapping of ‘ Career Coaching’.

 

And no, I am not a socialist.

 

Here is a full offering from Jobs.ie:

 

From: Jobs.ie [mailto:info@jobs.ie]
Sent: 30 July 2009 09:32
To: irishrecruiter

Subject: Jobs.ie Career Workshop – Thursday August 13th.

 

Jobs.ie - Jobs in Ireland. Irish Jobs.

Dear Jobseeker,

CAREER WORKSHOP – BEAT THE MARKET & INVEST IN YOUR CAREER.

The Job Market in Ireland has changed dramatically. There are less jobs and increased competition for them. Developing your career including finding the role you want now requires a more dynamic approach to find success.

Jane Downes of Clearview Coaching Group in conjunction with Jobs.ie is delighted to announce, due to consistently strong feedback from previous attendees, that the next “Career Workshop” tailor made for this market will take place Thursday August 13th in the Davenport Hotel Dublin 2 at 6pm.

Having completed research into the needs of the sites users, numerous requests were made to create a workshop for job seekers. The good news is that we have now done so and it is to be run by one of Irelands leading on the ground Career Coaching Experts, Jane Downes.

This workshop is suitable for individuals of all levels seeking work, making total career changes or those who need to take stock and effectively plan their next move. It is also an option for an organisation seeking to offer redundancy support to employees.

The workshop will provide its attendees with the opportunity to access expert opinion and advice in the following key areas:

  • An inventory of your own individual transferable skills.
  • An assessment of your own unique personality profile.
  • Learn the 8 key things needed and which will determine and affect your success in career change.
  • CV’s & Cover letters – How to market yourself and give an impressive consistent message.
  • Essential Interviewing skills – How to sell yourself and get more job offers.
  • Job Search Strategies and Planning – get ahead of the rest!

Take away the following from this workshop:

  1. Clarity about where to go next including an assessment of your personality profile.
  2. Renewed confidence about what you have to offer and how to manage your career.
  3. A clear consistent message to offer potential employers.
  4. A polished and dusted off YOU ready to face the market and “go public”.
  5. A workable plan to get you to where you want to be.
  6. Increased momentum and motivation.

Meet the Workshop Facilitator:

Jane Downes is founder of Clearview Coaching Group (www.clearviewcoachgroup.com) which was established in 2004 following an extensive career working within the area of Executive Search, Recruitment and HR Consulting. Assignments frequently involved carrying out recruitment consulting projects for some of Ireland’s brand name clients. Jane uses this vital experience gained in her Executive and Career coaching sessions with her clients and in her workshops. Jane also co owns Irelands 1st Assessment and Coaching Centre for Emotional Intelligence – www.EIIreland.com. Jane regularly writes for the National Press on Career, Motivation & planning and managing yourself within the workplace. Jane is a qualified Life & Business Coach, Career Coach Assessor and licensed Emotional Intellegence Assessor (EQi). She also has a 1st class honours Social Science Degree from UCD and a 1st Class honours Training qualification (NUI).

Limited places available – book today! CLICK HERE TO BOOK

Cost: Your investment for this workshop is €100 (via www.jobs.ie)
Venue: The Davenport Hotel, Merrion Square Dublin 2 www.ocallaghanhotels.com
Date: Thursday August 13th
Time: 6.00pm – 9.15pm
For further information please email jane@clearviewcoachgroup.com

If you do not wish to receive mailings from Jobs.ie click here to unsubscribe.

 

Categories
Career Internet Job Site Jobs Recruitment

Get Ireland Working

getirelandworking RecruitIreland.com has a new ‘sticker’. I like it! :)

I really do!

Categories
Blogs Career CV Job Site Jobs Recruitment

Happy with your Job?

myhorizonlogoA study by Irish jobs website MyHorizon has found that 94 percent of Irish people are not working in their dream job.

The report found that job seekers are willing to take the measures required to change this however, as 60 percent said they would be willing to go back to college to get the training needed to find their dream job. Career guidance had proven to be a problem area for most respondents with 88 percent saying they had received no guidance since leaving second level education.