Warning: if you are on a public or work computer get ready for the little blond boy with the potty mouth.
If you have seen Hell's Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares, you will get the joke in these videos from a job board in the UK, Caterer.com. The videos have been a huge boost for the job board.
Little Nancy Pearl, maybe?
Spied on ERE.net.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Dice launches Dice Learning
Dice is a job board for techy oriented positions--usually (but not always) programming--and they have now launched a learning portal called Dice Learning that will connect users with course offerings in technical skills--networking, security, PHP, for example. The courses are prepared by third-party providers, and it doesn't appear that you can register directly from the site; you need to ask for more information. (see the comment below: apparently you can register directly from Dice Learing)
They have webinars, seminars, and e-books. You can also find courses for certification, like CISCO or Microsoft. You can select from instructor-led courses or choose by state to find a course in your area. There was a dearth of free courses (I'm a librarian, I can use dearth in a sentence); even the skills assessment costs $2, but I was able to find a free course which will be offered on August 11 called Enhance your skills, which attendees can use to see what IT employers are looking for.
Dice Learning and Dice are mashing up the job postings on Dice with the courses on Dice Learning, so you can take courses in an area that matches the desired skills set. You can also rate courses that you have taken or make comments. You do have to have a profile with Dice to interact on the site. I think this type of mashup is very innovative and can help people who are trying to upgrade their skills or get into the labor market.
Spied on ERE.net
They have webinars, seminars, and e-books. You can also find courses for certification, like CISCO or Microsoft. You can select from instructor-led courses or choose by state to find a course in your area. There was a dearth of free courses (I'm a librarian, I can use dearth in a sentence); even the skills assessment costs $2, but I was able to find a free course which will be offered on August 11 called Enhance your skills, which attendees can use to see what IT employers are looking for.
Dice Learning and Dice are mashing up the job postings on Dice with the courses on Dice Learning, so you can take courses in an area that matches the desired skills set. You can also rate courses that you have taken or make comments. You do have to have a profile with Dice to interact on the site. I think this type of mashup is very innovative and can help people who are trying to upgrade their skills or get into the labor market.
Spied on ERE.net
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Identity theft and job searching
Careersthatdontsuck.com has a post today about job seekers that have had their identities stolen. I didn't realize that the numbers were so high:
The Federal Trade Commission’s February 2009 report revealed that 46,950 were the victims of employment-related identity fraud.
The bottom of the post has 5 tips on how to avoid identity theft when responding to job posting that look good but aren't true.
The Federal Trade Commission’s February 2009 report revealed that 46,950 were the victims of employment-related identity fraud.
The bottom of the post has 5 tips on how to avoid identity theft when responding to job posting that look good but aren't true.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Women stay in school longer, get married sooner
Statistics Canada has released a research paper based on responses from the Youth in Transition Survey (conducted every 2 years) that looks at the differences between the genders as they enter adulthood.
The following passages in italics are from the Daily announcing the release:
However, a higher proportion of men left school and started working on a full-time basis earlier than women. In contrast, a higher proportion of women left the parental home, formed a relationship and had children earlier than men. Throughout the eight years, a higher proportion of men worked full time and still lived with their parents.
-and-
Participation in all types of postsecondary education was higher for women than men. Even though participation rates for both sexes increased over the years, the gap between men and women persisted.
By the time they were aged 26 to 28 in 2008, participation rates were 8 percentage points higher for women than men in university, and 7 points higher in college.
There was also a statement about how men get into the labor market earlier, and another article I read about the research paper stated it was because men choose "marketable" programs (like business and engineering) whereas women choose social sciences and fine arts.
Research Paper:
Data Sources:
The following passages in italics are from the Daily announcing the release:
However, a higher proportion of men left school and started working on a full-time basis earlier than women. In contrast, a higher proportion of women left the parental home, formed a relationship and had children earlier than men. Throughout the eight years, a higher proportion of men worked full time and still lived with their parents.
-and-
Participation in all types of postsecondary education was higher for women than men. Even though participation rates for both sexes increased over the years, the gap between men and women persisted.
By the time they were aged 26 to 28 in 2008, participation rates were 8 percentage points higher for women than men in university, and 7 points higher in college.
There was also a statement about how men get into the labor market earlier, and another article I read about the research paper stated it was because men choose "marketable" programs (like business and engineering) whereas women choose social sciences and fine arts.
Research Paper:
Data Sources:
Thursday, July 9, 2009
50 useful Firefox extensions for job seekers
JobProfiles has provided a list of 50 useful Firefox extensions for job seekers. Not all of them are specifically for job seeking, like BugMeNot, but some of these tools could be pretty handy for speeding up searching and purposeful surfing.
Spotted on CareerHub Blog
Spotted on CareerHub Blog
Professional membership numbers down, due to recession
The ALA has reported that memberships in the professional association are down due to the recession. Membership (both new and renewing) is down 2.8% for the ALA as a whole, but the article reports much larger drops for PLA and RUSA.
Now, I am quite pro for professional memberships--if the dues are reasonable. Sometimes they are not--and you find out that the association is operating in the red and has been for several years. I also don't tend to join professional associations that have a discriminating salary scale. I think a due is a due and you should spread it out evenly amongst the membership since we are all, supposedly, getting the same benefits.
The drop shouldn't be a surprise: I think that if individuals are paying for their own memberships (as students obviously are) that they tend to renew them--and be pretty picky about where their money is being spent. If your employer was paying your membership fees and they have cut back their budgets, professional development gets cut, or people share the benefits of their professional membership as best they can, like sharing copies of magazines or forwarding emails from a listserv that is normally closed to members. (I also haven't gotten my American Libraries in a while: what gives?)
Can you claim your professional dues on your income tax? I can, so I tend to remember to renew since I put my tax stuff together at about the same time I renew with the ALA--think about that, professional associations that only let me renew December 1st, or some equally stupid month, where I also have to pay school fees or buy presents. Giving some more flexibility in payment times might encourage membership.
So, I am not surprised that membership numbers are down, but there may be other ways to counteract the small loss, like giving people who were members in good standing for more than 5 or 10 years, a free year, cuz you love and value them, and extending the period that you can be called a new librarian--since, according to the article, students are still signing up.
Now, I am quite pro for professional memberships--if the dues are reasonable. Sometimes they are not--and you find out that the association is operating in the red and has been for several years. I also don't tend to join professional associations that have a discriminating salary scale. I think a due is a due and you should spread it out evenly amongst the membership since we are all, supposedly, getting the same benefits.
The drop shouldn't be a surprise: I think that if individuals are paying for their own memberships (as students obviously are) that they tend to renew them--and be pretty picky about where their money is being spent. If your employer was paying your membership fees and they have cut back their budgets, professional development gets cut, or people share the benefits of their professional membership as best they can, like sharing copies of magazines or forwarding emails from a listserv that is normally closed to members. (I also haven't gotten my American Libraries in a while: what gives?)
Can you claim your professional dues on your income tax? I can, so I tend to remember to renew since I put my tax stuff together at about the same time I renew with the ALA--think about that, professional associations that only let me renew December 1st, or some equally stupid month, where I also have to pay school fees or buy presents. Giving some more flexibility in payment times might encourage membership.
So, I am not surprised that membership numbers are down, but there may be other ways to counteract the small loss, like giving people who were members in good standing for more than 5 or 10 years, a free year, cuz you love and value them, and extending the period that you can be called a new librarian--since, according to the article, students are still signing up.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
When will the job market recover?
JobBait has provided an analysis, historical and two forecasts, about when the job recovery will occur.
If you are interested in their data and how they reached the conclusions in their analysis, they will be holding a webinar on July 21, 2009, about the analysis. If you work with patrons who are wondering about the job market, or are interested in labor market analysis yourself, you may want to sign up for the webinar.
If you are interested in their data and how they reached the conclusions in their analysis, they will be holding a webinar on July 21, 2009, about the analysis. If you work with patrons who are wondering about the job market, or are interested in labor market analysis yourself, you may want to sign up for the webinar.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Add a media literacy course?
According to this article on Inside Higher Ed, plans are underway to create a body of freely available online course material, aimed at the high school or community college level. The clearinghouse would be hosted by the US government.
Media literacy and research courses, anyone?
Media literacy and research courses, anyone?
Good economy for con artists
We get this question: are those make money at home offers good? Should I give them my banking information? Yikes! when we hear the last one.
There are some job boards for telework, like Virtual Vocations, that offer legitimate work--possibly the same rate for scams as a newspaper classifieds--but there are many, many scams. Six companies in Van Nuys (CA) were just charged for consumer fraud (story in LATimes), and yes, the scams they were running included job scams.
If you are running any training in Internet job searching or get asked questions about work at home jobs or even questions about repairing credit, you may want to stay up to date on Operation Short Change.
There are some job boards for telework, like Virtual Vocations, that offer legitimate work--possibly the same rate for scams as a newspaper classifieds--but there are many, many scams. Six companies in Van Nuys (CA) were just charged for consumer fraud (story in LATimes), and yes, the scams they were running included job scams.
If you are running any training in Internet job searching or get asked questions about work at home jobs or even questions about repairing credit, you may want to stay up to date on Operation Short Change.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Applicant Explorer
Thanks to Jobacle, I found out about a partnership between Bing, Microsoft's new search tool, and CareerBuilder, an online resume and job posting service, to offer Applicant Explorer.
Applicant Explorer will allow a resume database subscriber, an employer, to look at an applicant's digital footprint while examining their resume. It is meant as a tool to help decide if the applicant will fit into the corporate culture. According to the video that describes the service, Applicant Explorer will call up information from publicly available sites, including social networking, blogs, forums and other services that will give a "clear picture" of a candidate.
Alright, there are some problems with this, though a few can be overcome with a clear policy on how to run background checks. First, you can't run a background check on your favorite applicants--and just those applicants. Your background check may end up showing information that could be protected--like sexual orientation, race or a disability. The last two may be clearly visible in a profile picture, so if a candidate thinks that you have decided not to hire him or her based on the picture that you found. You have to check everybody--just like you would if you were conducting a real background check that had a policy behind it.
And just how do you know whose digital tracks you are following? Are we assuming, 1) that I gave up all my handles with my resume for the privilege of posting on CareerBuilder? (Ummm, go find Bozeman, MT and read what happened there.) And 2) if I don't give up my handles, and you just use my name, are you sure that is the real me you're reading about online?
Sometimes, I really wonder if people think this stuff through. What does sailing tell you about my "fit", if being nauti is not a bona fide job requirement?
Cross-posted on co-agitating.
Applicant Explorer will allow a resume database subscriber, an employer, to look at an applicant's digital footprint while examining their resume. It is meant as a tool to help decide if the applicant will fit into the corporate culture. According to the video that describes the service, Applicant Explorer will call up information from publicly available sites, including social networking, blogs, forums and other services that will give a "clear picture" of a candidate.
Alright, there are some problems with this, though a few can be overcome with a clear policy on how to run background checks. First, you can't run a background check on your favorite applicants--and just those applicants. Your background check may end up showing information that could be protected--like sexual orientation, race or a disability. The last two may be clearly visible in a profile picture, so if a candidate thinks that you have decided not to hire him or her based on the picture that you found. You have to check everybody--just like you would if you were conducting a real background check that had a policy behind it.
And just how do you know whose digital tracks you are following? Are we assuming, 1) that I gave up all my handles with my resume for the privilege of posting on CareerBuilder? (Ummm, go find Bozeman, MT and read what happened there.) And 2) if I don't give up my handles, and you just use my name, are you sure that is the real me you're reading about online?
Sometimes, I really wonder if people think this stuff through. What does sailing tell you about my "fit", if being nauti is not a bona fide job requirement?
Cross-posted on co-agitating.
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