BLOGStreet, from JobStreet.com

Snippets: Reach out and network

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

Networking can be key to successfully advance or change your career. Your network already includes friends, family members, business contacts and colleagues, but you can always broaden it further by joining professional organizations within your field, contacting alumni from your university, joining groups on social websites that speak to your profession, attending industry conferences and seminars. Even through volunteering. An event that is specifically about networking is also a great place to connect with others. The more people who know you, your strengths and abilities, the better your chances at receiving job leads, key advice or information about a particular company or industry.

Do check back on 10 Nov 2009 for more tips!

Snippets: Volunteer work

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

If your heart is set on remaining with your organization, it makes good sense to volunteer yourself for social committees where you can build your reputation as a solid, passionate person, dedicated to the industry and the company itself. More than that, should your objectives change later, this experience always looks good on a resume.

Do check back on 30 Oct 2009 for more tips!

Snippets: Self-promotion

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

Learn the fine art of self-promotion. If you have had major accomplishments or created successful programmes, make sure people know about them, especially the people in influential positions who could help you advance professionally. Let it be known that you are seeking a promotion or the next step up in your career.

Do check back on 20 Oct 2009 for more tips!

JECI poll, Sep 2009

This is the summary of job seekers' confidence in the job market in this region in Sep 2009:

• In Malaysia, the upward trend in the JobStreet ECI was checked as it dipped slightly from 50.2 points in August to 48.7 points in September. However, we do not consider this to be any cause for concern for the moment as the general trend shown since February this year has been a steady growth.
• The JobStreet ECI for Singapore, which had been relatively stable in the past three months, improved by 1.3 point to 44.6 in September as job seekes continued to show increase confidence in the Singaporean job market.
• Growth in the JobStreet ECI for the Philippines remained unchanged where the September index ended at 56.7 points which was a wee bit lower than the 56.9 points of the previous month.
• In Indonesia, the JobStreet ECI also took a short breather as it trended slightly lower by 0.6 points from August to end the month at 52.2 points. 
• The India JobStreet ECI was stable with their index increasing slightly to 57.7 points in September, up by 0.5 points from the August index level.

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The JobStreet.com Employment Confidence Index (ECI) is a measure of job seeker confidence in finding a job in the countries where we hold our monthly polls.

Snippets: The pre-interview homework

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

Before you attend any interview -- and normally, you should do this days before the interview -- do your research and preparation. Try and find out more about the job and the company. What's the company background and how does it operate? It will boost the opinion of you in the eyes of the employers if you show the enthusiasm to know more of the company you hope to join.

Do check back on 10 Oct 2009 for more tips!

Snippets: Common resume characteristics

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

A well-designed resume should possess these characteristics in common:

• Good visual appeal, an easy-to-read layout and high quality reproduction
• A highlight of your strengths and linking them to the employer's needs; minimizing or excluding irrelevant experience
• Presents your most important information first
• Entirely free from any error: spelling, typographical, punctuation or grammatical
• Succinct and organized; does not exceed two pages.

Do check back on 30 Sep 2009 for more tips!

Law of the garbage truck

Here is a pearl of wisdom that I read today, and thought that it is worth sharing with everyone. Have a nice day, and don't spread the garbage around!

One day, I hopped into the taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally.

Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...

Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a blessed, garbage-free day!

Snippets: Strengthen your inter-personal skills

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

Strong interpersonal skills play a crucial role in gaining the respect of your boss and colleagues. They also attract the notice of outside influencers who might open new doors of opportunity to you. Be friendly, outgoing and personable. Listen carefully to people and practice being a clear and effective communicator.

Do check back on 20 Sep 2009 for more tips!

Wanted: well-rounded candidates with leadership skills

As the labour market tightens, organisations worldwide are strengthening their employer value propositions to appeal to young talents, writes SUZIEANA UDA NAGU in The New Straits Times this week.

She quoted British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Berhad (BAT) human resources director Cheryl Wong as saying: "In the spirit of diversity, BAT prefers hiring a mix of foreign and locally trained Malaysians. We believe that diversity brings better solutions, which translate into better business sense. People with different experience will bring something unique to the table."

She comes across impressive local graduates among the shortlisted candidates. However, she admitted that they were getting harder to find. "We want well-rounded candidates who possess the leadership skills we look for, as well as good academic qualifications and effective communication skills. Being a multinational company, we do need people who communicate well in English," says Wong.

She feels it is a shame when some local candidates show "impressive track record in academic and extra-curricular activties but cannot express themselves well."

Wong is not the only employer faced with the challenge of finding suitable candidates. Despite the global recession and the weakest employment outlook in decades, employers worldwide are still finding it difficult to hire young people to fill positions which require critical skills such as leadership, teamwork and problem-solving.

The newspaper article quoted the United Nations as stating that "one of the top three socio-economic issues facing the planet is the lack of talent despite population increases,"  underlining the worry that talent shortage is indeed a global concern.

In the United States, human resource experts predict a critical skills gap in organisations in the next five years. Possibly by 2014, there would be a 30 per cent decline in young workers entering the workforce and a 50 per cent growth in retirement of skilled knowledge workers. Their concern was that as the situation grew more serious, it could threaten "the engines of world economic growth and prosperity." Governments globally are taking measures to mitigate the impending shortage such as improving educational and vocational training provisions, adopting strategic migration policies and encouraging experienced older workers to remain in employment.

JECI poll, Aug 2009

Confidence in the job market in this region continues to improve in Aug 2009.

• In Malaysia, the JobStreet ECI trended higher for the sixth consecutive month by improving to 50.2 points, an increase of 0.5 point over the July index of 49.7 points. Since February this year, the JobStreet ECI for Malaysia has gone up by 7.1 points.
• The JobStreet ECI for Singapore has been relatively stable in the past three months, remaining almost unchanged since June when it registered at 43.5 points. In July, the index was at 43.4 while the August index for Singapore settled at 43.3 points.
• Stability is also observed in the JobStreet ECI for the Philippines where the August index ended at 56.9 points. In July, the index was at 57.0 points, which was a small drop of 0.1 point from the previous month.
• There seemed to be a lot of confidence in job market for Indonesia as their JobStreet ECI continued to move up in recent months. For August, their index rose by a further 0.8 point to 52.8 from the July index of 52.0 points.
• However in India, we noted a slight softening in their employment confidence for the second consecutive month. For August, the JobStreet ECI declined slightly to 57.2 points, which was a drop of 0.3 point from the 57.5 registered in July. In June, their index level was at 57.9 points.

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The JobStreet.com Employment Confidence Index (ECI) is a measure of job seeker confidence in finding a job in the countries where we hold our monthly polls.