BLOGStreet, from JobStreet.com

JECI Poll, Jun 2009

Confidence in the job market in this region continues to improve.

• In Malaysia, the JobStreet ECI edged higher for the fourth consecutive month by improving 0.7 point to end June at 48.5 points. This is the highest so far since reaching a low point in February this year.
• There was also cheer In Singapore as the JobStreet ECI registered 43.5 points at the end of June, a level not attained since the global recession hit the country in the last quarter of 2008.
• Confidence is also returning to the Indian job market with their JobStreet ECI at 57.9 points in June, which is a rise of 1.3 points over the previous month.
• The Indonesian JobStreet ECI also showed a slight 0.2 point improvement to 51.0 points while in the Philippines, their JobStreet ECI level was relatively unchanged at 57.1 points.

Identifying scam job ads

Hi, job seekers! It's timely for us to share with you again some tips on making your online job search a safer experience.

In the first place, please be careful of scam job advertisements. They appear occasionally on all job sites, posted by dishonest people out to make quick money from unsuspecting job seekers. While we at JobStreet.com always try to ensure that the job advertisements on our site are for real job opportunities, such scam advertisements do sometimes get posted. However, we can assure you that when we see such scams that violate our Advertisement Policy we quickly remove them.

But job seekers should also be careful themselves. In particular, giveaway job advertisement scams are those that:

1. Ask you to pay money before processing your application or training you;
2. Invite you to interviews that turn out to be multi-level marketing or pyramid selling schemes;
3. Misuse your resume information to sell you products (such as insurance, etc) or make offers not connected to the job advertised;
4. Are generally untrue, dubious or misleading (e.g. misleading job title, job description or company description); or
5. Use web-based public email addresses instead of company-owned email addresses.

In addition to the above, we also want you to know that JobStreet.com does not send emails that require you to download and/or install any software, tool or utility.

Last but not least, be very careful about people asking for your JobStreet.com membership username and password. Never give such informayour Login details away, even if the request appears to come from an email with a JobStreet.com address. Our staff do not ask passwords from our members.

You can play a role to help us investigate any possible email or advertisement abuses on our website by informing us through any of these channels:

1. Make a report by clicking on the "Report Advertisement" link inside the advertisement, or
2. Email us at policy@jobstreet.com, giving us the Company Name and Position Title.

While we will try to take appropriate action whenever possible, we cannot be liable for any action by scammers or employers that violate our terms of use.

The JobStreet.com story

Are you curious about how JobStreet.com came about? If you want to know the story behind JobStreet.com, here's the link to an article on Forbes.com. Do note that you may need to skip the welcome ad when you visit the page.

Satisfied job seeker

Here's a recent message that we received recently. Thought it would be useful to share it all around. The Retrenchment Helpline is a service by JobStreet.com to help retrenched job seekers like Ravi Kumar with the search for their next job.

I am writing this as a token of appreciation for all the help and guidance provided by the Retrenchment Helpline team. About three months ago, I attended the resume clinic and also listened to talks at JobStreet.com after I had taken VSS with the American company I had been working for the past 12 years. I realized there were shortcomings in my original resume and with help from the team, I overhauled my resume. When I look back, I really pity the poor souls that had to read my old resume. With the new resume, between March 2009 and May 2009, I had attended more than 15 interviews in totally different industries ranging from recruitment, logistics, plantation, medical devices, FMCG to postal services. The overhauled resume format was a big help in getting me the first interview. When I say big, it was indeed BIG. I don't think that I would have been called for those interviews without it. For that, Daryl was instrumental in pointing me in the right direction.

Today, I am glad to share with you guys that I have been offered a Sales Manager (South East Asia and Middle East) position with a European company thanks to the good job done in part by the JobStreet team. I will be meeting my new employers next week to discuss terms and I am indeed really excited.

These past three months plus have been really challenging both mentally and emotionally for me. I never gave up and just moved on looking at all possible opportunities. Today, we are in a different job market. The job market is shrinking (but signs are there of a recovery) and employers have more choices than before. You have to be different than the others. Do your homework before the interview. For some job interviews for sales positions, I took a leaf from Daryl's previous job interview with Kensington and did a general overview of the company, the sales process that I use, opportunities and how I could contribute to the company. One word of caution, you would need to play this by ear. Do not try to go overboard because you need to be in the organization to get some information. The idea here is to show that you have gone the extra mile. It is also okay to indicate that the material you had put together is based on information that you had gathered on your own.

These days some employers are using tools to gauge candidates to determine if they can blend in. Personality profile assessment test and behavioural interview techniques are now being used. Some of these techniques use the candidate's past experience to determine if the candidate can fit in or not. The questions:

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Tell me about a mistake in the past, if given a chance what would you correct
3. Describe to me in a situation which would affect your personal and work ethics. What would you do?
4. How would you handle difficult people
5. What was the most challenging thing you had to do

and so on. Try to google behavioural interview questions. Do some homework so that you do not get overwhelmed. Sometimes the most basic questions can get you all confused.

Just a word for all you job seekers, NEVER give up. Always be positive and there is ample opportunity even in a downward economy. By staying positive, you feel confident and good and this attitude helps you in your interviews and also your daily activities. You have to help yourself first and there will be good people like the team at JobStreet to guide you. You are the captain of your ship and only you can determine your future.

I guess this has been a long email and I welcome questions to me directly. I would like to help those who have been in my position. I can be reached at rkumarsingaram@gmail.com.

Once again, I would not have been able to land this job with out the help from the JobStreet team.

Internships – Is it all that's cracked up to be?

Everyone knows what internships are – students essentially offer themselves as temporary members of the organization in exchange for real work experiences and networking opportunities. But does investing your hard earned break from studying into an internship really reap benefits? This article online explains further:

Are internships worth it?

by John Fuller

If you're a college student with ears, you've probably heard everyone talking about internships. Either they already have one set up, or they desperately seek one, camping out in the career center between classes. So what's the big deal? Shouldn't a degree be enough to get a job after graduation? And isn't an internship a lot of useless work for little or no pay?

­The pay issue is true -- it's difficult to find an internship that pays well, if at all. The degree part is different, though. It's becoming harder and harder for college graduates to find work right out of college with nothing but a framed diploma. Most companies look for real world experience when hiring and the best way to get that experience is through an internship. Despite the low pay, internships are worth it in the long run if you want to get your foot in the door and figure out your future.

Most people think the point of an internship is to serve coffee or run mindless errands. Everyone at some point has formed a negative image of the tortured intern trapped in a cubicle, filing endless amounts of paperwork. It's not always like that, though, and it doesn't have to be. Sure, you may have to perform a few menial tasks here and there -- that's part of any job. But most companies offer all kinds of opportunities for interns to get hands-on experience and learn the right technology.

You might work for a local news station and help edit footage for an upcoming story. Or maybe you'll crunch numbers for a big sales pitch and draw up all sorts of fun graphs (seriously, who doesn't like a good pie chart?). Whatever the case, chances are you'll play an important part in any process and receive a great opportunity to watch the real thing in action. People who work around you are generally very open, knowledgeable and willing to help, so ask as many questions as you can in order to get a more complete picture of the career.

What's the best-case scenario? If you work hard enough and impress the company, there's a chance they might offer you a full-time position. Even if you decline and eventually decide to find work elsewhere, getting an offer out of an internship will look great on a resume.

If you don't get an offer, that's OK, too. The company may not have a position available, or maybe you just wouldn't want to work there. An internship provides you with two great tools. First, you gain excellent real world experience and a great resume builder. Second, you get an inside look into a field of work you're interested in, helping you make that career path a little less sketchy. The least an internship will do is get you thinking about what you want to do for a living.

And so the question to ask now is, what is the best way to go about it?

You could try your university’s career centers first, but did you know that JobStreet.com lists internships online as well? Take the initiative and start making lasting contacts by becoming graduates with quality, work-related experience today.

Your internships await for you here

P.s: The article above by John Fuller was courtesy of www.howstuffworks.com

Snippets: The less obvious resume errors

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

One important aspect of your resume that should never be overlooked is the need to check and recheck the resume when it is completed. It’s not only to ensure that your resume will say what you want it to say but essentially, you must eliminate all errors in the resume. This includes the very obvious grammatical errors or typographical errors, but the less obvious errors will be repetition of information, irregular alignment of paragraphs, and perhaps more! So, double-check it!

Do check back on 20 Jun 2009 for more tips!

PitchYourTalent.com presented during MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference

PitchYourTalent.com was given a slot during MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference to present it to the conference participants.

  

It was indeed an honour for PitchYourTalent.com to get this chance to present, alongside brands like Google, Microsoft, Red Hat etc.

Since the launch 2 months ago, PitchYourTalent.com has had thousands of people signed up!

To check it out, go to here .

If you want to search for the talent, you can use Basic Search  or Advanced Search .

To browse all the talents listed, go to here  . 

If you're Web 2.0 type of people, do join the Facebook Page! Close to 1,000 people have signed up to be fans!

JECI Poll, May 2009

Are we seeing some early signs of confidence returning to the job market? For the past two months or so, the JobStreet.com Employee Confidence Index (ECI) has given rise to the hope that the worst may be over in this region with continuing encouraging news that the global recession could be slowing down and life has returned to the stock market.

• In Malaysia, the JobStreet ECI climbed higher for the second consecutive month by improving 0.9 point to end April at 47.8 points.
• In Singapore, it was a four-point jump to 42.8 points, the JobStreet ECI's highest level since December last year.
• In the Philippines and India, their JobStreet ECI levels were relatively unchanged at 57.2 points and 56.6 points respectively.
• Meanwhile in Indonesia, there was a slight drop in their JobStreet ECI to 50.8 points.

Snippets: A picture is worth a thousand words

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

The person you are meeting for the first time does not know you. Neither would you know him. Therefore, your initial appearance is usually the first clue that the interviewer has to go by. The key to a good impression is to present yourself appropriately. Start with your grooming. A clean and tidy appearance is appropriate for an interview. Get a good haircut or shave. Wear clean and tidy clothes. Have a neat and tidy make-up. Appropriate dressing and grooming will help you feel calmer and have greater confidence. Add them all up and you are well on your way to creating a good first impression to the interviewer.

Do check back on 10 Jun 2009 for more tips!

Right preparation

You may be the smartest candidate short-listed by the company but if you think that the job is already yours for the taking without you having to prepare for the interview, please think again. The silliest thing for any job seeker to do is to walk into any interview unprepared.

When you go to an interview, you must be prepared to face the persons on the other side of the table. After all, they are going to be the ones that are going to decide whether you have a future with their company. So shouldn't they be the ones that you try to impress?

Making impressions come in many ways. Take, for example, the very first impression you can possibly make: the way you dress to the interview. Now, you can easily put them on their guard by turning up with unkempt hair and wrinkled clothes or you can warm the interviewers by looking spick and span like a professional. Which one would you prefer? The choice is yours to make.

In cast you think that it doesn't matter much, we've had companies passing remarks to us about candidates showing up for interviews in jeans and other inappropriate attire. These are for professional positions. To them, the impression was that if this was how a candidate already looked when he was supposed to be at his best, they wouldn't want him to represent their business.

The other types of impression are internal. For example, impressing the interviewers with your knowledge of the company. Before any interview, do a research on the company. With the Internet at our fingertips, there is no excuse not to do this. Go to the company's website and read the "About us" section.

You should walk into an interview knowing things such as the company's size, products or services and their target markets. Google the company to see if it has been in the news recently. It's also a good way to uncover the company's reputation. If possible, google the hiring manager and try to find out more about him.

All these boils down to smart preparation. If you can prepare and demonstrate during the interview that you did your homework, you will surely have broken down some of the barriers between you and the interviewers.