Get Me Off The Dole » Job Hunting

Some job hunting tips to get you started

Brian — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:25:44 +0000

Finding a job can take months of time and effort. But you can speed the process by using many methods to find job openings. People who use many job hunting methods find work much faster than those who use only one or two. Here are some tips to get you started:

The Truth Behind the Hidden Job Market Myth

Brian — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:34:45 +0000

Is the “hidden job market” a myth? Career experts have for years touted the notion that the vast majority of jobs – published statistics have suggested figures ranging from 75 to 95 percent of the total job market – are never advertised. This portion of the job market that is hidden from public view is behind the rationale career practitioners use to promote the effectiveness of networking in the job search. But, based on a prominent consultant’s assertion that the hidden job market is a myth, Quintessential Careers (www.quintcareers.com/), one of the Web's leading career tools sites, investigated the hidden job market concept and has published its findings in a package of three articles.

The consultant was Gerry Crispin, who in 2009 stated in a career-management discussion group that the hidden job market is one of the biggest myths of job-hunting; that, in fact, it doesn’t exist: “Maybe a few thousand out of 20 million jobs are unpublished, and they are primarily at or near the C-level,” said Gerry Crispin, who with partner Mark Mehler, operates CareerXroads®, which consults with corporations in career planning and placement, contract recruiting, executive search, recruitment advertising, and human-resource management.

With his permission, Quintessential Careers shared Crispin’s opinion with more than 70 experts in the career-management, employment, recruiting, and hiring sectors. The majority refuted Crispin’s opinion that the hidden job market is a myth, though few offered concrete evidence in favor of the hidden market. Some agreed with him. The experts, however, identified two problems with the hidden job market concept:

1. Definitions and interpretations of the “hidden job market” may not reflect reality. “Hidden” may not be the best term for this sector of available jobs since employers don’t deliberately hide vacancies.

2. Those who are skeptical about the hidden job market generally admit it exists but dispute commonly bandied-about figures – that the hidden job market comprises 75-95 percent of the job market — contending that the portion of the job market that is unadvertised is much smaller. The size of the hidden job market may also fluctuate based on the economy, some say.

In Quintessential Careers’ lead article on the hidden job market (www.quintcareers.com/hidden_job_market_myth.htm), Is the Hidden Job Market a Myth? A Quintessential Careers Investigative Report, experts agreed with Crispin’s assertion that employers generally don’t purposefully hide job vacancies from the public, but suggested that situations such as the following may result in unpublicized openings:

Chinese car maker to create 200 new jobs in Nottingham

Brian — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:45:07 +0000

East Midlands Development Agency (emda) has announced that Changan Automobile Co Limited, one of China’s leading car manufacturers, is establishing Changan UK Research and Development Centre in Nottingham, creating up to 200 new jobs over the next three years.

Councils Collaborate to Launch New Jobs Portals

Brian — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:42:49 +0000

Councils in three English regions are collaborating to advertise jobs on the internet through new regional recruitment portals.

“In difficult economic times we are collaborating to make finding employment in the public sector as easy as possible. NorthEastJobs helps job seekers and keeps recruitment costs down”

Matching apprentices with employers

Brian — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:42:19 +0000

A college in Oxford is helping to reduce unemployment in the county thanks to an innovative approach to finding jobs for students and the long-term unemployed.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College’s Jobfinder scheme is matching its own apprentices with employers and helping to find jobs for those out of work who have received training from the college, especially so for those out of work for more than six months. This is thanks to funding from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).

Skynet 5D to create around 100 new jobs

Brian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:05:46 +0000

Military communications on operations are to further enhanced, thanks to a new £400 million contract to use a new satellite, the Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies, announced today.

Torbay Business Hub to create 1000 new jobs

Brian — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:53:37 +0000

Residents and traders are being asked for their views on a £6.8m plan to create new, state of the art offices in Torquay to help attract investment into the Bay and hundreds of jobs.

Torbay Business Hub is part of the Castle Circus Regeneration Project, which aims to regenerate the town centre, bring council services under one roof and create major savings.

Torbay Council has now organised a public consultation event to display and explain plans to develop offices on part of the car park behind the Town Hall. Visitors will be asked for their feedback at the event, which will be held on Tuesday 2 March in Torquay Town Hall's Assembly Hall between 1pm and 6.30pm. Information will also be available on Torbay Council's website from Tuesday 23 February.

The council has approved the business case for the Castle Circus Regeneration Project and has already consulted on this proposal. The business case shows that by completing the project the council will save over £1 million a year. Feedback on the project as a whole has been mainly positive and this is another opportunity for residents to express their views, specifically on plans for new offices, before the planning application is submitted.

The Business Hub will create approximately 40,000 square feet of new office space and car parking. It aims to attract more businesses and inward investment to Torbay as well as create a 1000 new jobs. It is envisaged that the opportunities will be felt Bay-wide as associated businesses and suppliers feel the benefit of new, inward investment.

The project has been designed with flexibility in mind so that it will appeal to a variety of office users. A number of sustainable design features have been incorporated, including maximising the use of natural lighting; natural ventilation; solar collectors and a bio-mass boiler which utilises fuels from sustainable sources. If planning consent is granted, work could start later this year.

Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Councillor Chris Lewis, said:

How rewarding is a career in social care?

Brian — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:54:52 +0000

A new TV advertising campaign that shows how rewarding a career in social care can be and urges individuals to consider this as a career option, kicks off this week.

Over 1.5 million people are employed across the adult social care sector in England, and as many as 200,000 jobs in the sector are expected to be advertised in the coming year, based on existing trends. The campaign will encourage the next generation of social care workers.

£300m to revive communities and create jobs

Brian — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:42:39 +0000

Just before Christmas, Housing Minister John Healey announced that communities across the North and Midlands will share £311m this year to boost work already underway to transform homes and regenerate communities.

UK Job Vacancy Growth Outpaces The US

Brian — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:16:09 +0000

Paula Reed MD of Alpha Executive Jobs Ltd, the international jobsite for executives, managers and professionals, said in Loughborough recently. ‘We’re not having it as tough as the USA because it’s said there are six job seekers competing for every vacancy in the US and redundancies have not slowed to the same degree as they have here. If this is true then we’re certainly better off here in the UK. Yes, these are tough times, but the increases we’ve been seeing in new redundancy figures, have been dropping for the last three months and that is good news.’

‘Because of tight credit, said Ms Reed, small businesses are naturally reluctant to hire new employees and as you would expect, their emphasis has been on pushing existing employees to produce more. Fortunately, many of these companies recognise that not only must they maintain or increase market share, they must also start exploring new markets if they’re going to stay in business.’

Ms Reed continued, ‘Internet marketing is an example, Internet sales have increased year-on-year and although some retail jobs may have been lost, I believe this is a result of progress and not the recession. If high street jobs have been lost, many have been replaced with new jobs created by this new marketing medium.’

Reed went on ‘one of the bastions of safe employment has been Human Resources, the onslaught of regulation imposed on the UK by the European Commission has made a lot of HR professionals indispensable. This is good news for them of course although hiring in the HR sector has been frozen for the last couple of years. However, there are now signs that HR vacancies are being advertised and this in itself is a good indication that brighter times are ahead for other job seekers.’

‘The demand for IT and sales professionals is growing again and Alpha Executive Jobs just like other specialist job boards, is also seeing an increase in the number of new management jobs being advertised. This is a good indicator of future hiring programmes and the steady rise in interim management contracts, is another positive indicator. If we look hard enough, there are a lot of signs that there are brighter days ahead.’ Said Ms Reed.