The credit’s crunched, the recession is biting and certain jobs are getting harder and harder to come by, especially by the traditional means of finding employment. To get ahead of the game you need to utilize the social media world in your quest for another job. That’s right, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin can all help you to find that next pay-check… here’s how!

Step 1:

Clean Up Your Profile

First things first, clean up your profiles across all the social media sites you use.

Remove any inappropriate photos, comments and applications that might give someone the wrong impression!

Once you’re happy with everything, make sure your profiles are all set to be accessible publicly.

Step 2:

Twitter

As more and more people are using it for business purposes, Twitter has become one of the ultimate recruitment tools.

Many of the recruitment agencies that use Twitter have an RSS feed which you can find a link to on their Profile pages. Simply follow the prompts and subscribe to their feed so you’ll be instantly informed when new jobs are posted.

Its Important that you regularly communicate on Twitter with other users if you want to build online relationships that might bear fruit in the jobs market. As well as using hashtags in your own posts you should also re-tweet comments by people you want to develop connections with.

Step 3:

LinkedIn

Recruiters are starting to use LinkedIn as one of their primary means to source candidates so getting a profile up and running is a must if you want to be ahead of the crowd.

Once you’ve completed your profile there two key things to do to increase your chances of finding work through LinkedIn. Increase your number of connections and get some recommendations.

The easiest way to start making connections is to import your contacts from Outlook or Gmail and see if anyone you know is already on LinkedIn. If they are simply find their profile and click to add them to your network. By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with.

The other way to increase your employability is to get people to recommend you. If you have a former employer or friend already on LinkedIn, you could ask them if they would mind recommending you. This simply adds a little thumbs up icon to your profile that prospective employers will be able to see when they search for job candidates.

Step 4:

Facebook

Whilst one of the biggest social media sites on the internet, Facebook mostly caters to personal networking rather than businesses. However, there are things you can do to try and utilize Facebook to your advantage in the quest for employment.

The main tool at your disposal is Facebook’s Social Ad’s. These allow individuals and businesses to advertise via Facebook’s news feed, meaning that your ad will spread through all of your friends mini-feeds in a ‘word-of-mouth’ friendly way.

Its important to get your Social Ad right. The title is the most important piece of the ad as it has the most text emphasis. Try to be specific and toute your skills.
Next select an appropriate image, something professional but personal would be ideal.
Finally your description should be concise, no more than 25 words for instance, giving the viewer a quick overview of who you are, what you do and what job you would like.

Once you create your Ad, link it to your facebook page, and also your LinkedIn profile or Twitter account to have the maximum impact.

And there you have it, all the knowledge and advice you need to find employment using Social Media sites!

Thanks for watching our video How To Use Social Media To Get A Job For more how to videos, expert advice, instructional tips, tricks, guides and tutorials on this subject, visit the topic Starting A Job Search

Source: www.videojug.com

This is how it goes:
“Job ads” (and I use this term very loosely here as you’ll see from the rest of my post that this is no “job”) wherever there is an opportunity to advertise for free whether online or in print, passing their little scam off as a real job opportunity to poor unsuspecting Job Seekers. The advertisers paint a colorful picture of the “perfect” work from home opportunity.

…Waking up late doing a bit of work and receiving a fat check at the end of the week having free time to live your life and spending time with your loved ones…

You immediately decide to apply to the ‘dream come true’ opportunity.

*Glass shatter*

Little do you know at this point that this is all just a scam and you have sadly been tricked!

After “applying to the job” you receive an email informing you that you have been successful (even though you have not been for a job interview or spoken to anyone about the job). You – and many others – are informed in a standard letter that you are perfect for this position, and blah-blah … Such rubbish! In the very same letter they ask you (oh so matter of factly) to deposit X amount into the banking details provided. This amount can range from R10-R300 (depending on how greedy these people are) this amount is for a “Training Manual”. “Training Manual” my… cat’s toes!!!

In this “Training Manual” they tell you the following: And I quote “This training manual will teach you how to have your own successful business via the internet. Read your manual thoroughly. It’s as easy as 1,2,3”

1. Create a new email address
2. Placing Ads
3. Response Letters

In this “Training Manual” they teach and “advise” you on how to cheat the next innocent Job Seeker out of X amount by doing exactly what they’ve just done to you: Luring innocent Job Seekers into believing that they are applying to a “real” job opportunity that does in fact not really exist!

With this warning I leave you: If you’ve applied for a “Work from home data entry” or similar position and you received and email that asks you to deposit money in a bank account for whatever reason, please do not do so unless you are sure that this is not a scam, some positions are legit but you never know if the next person is trying to cheat you out of your hard earned cash!!!

We here at Jobs.co.za will do our utmost best to prevent these people from advertising on our website.

If you are aware of any suspicious behaviour or are unsure about anything that appears unusual then please let us know at support@jobs.co.za

This blog post will update on a regular basis keeping you up to date on the latest expert advice on job interviews from around the world.

With so much uncertainty regarding in the employment market, employers are reluctant to hire new employees on a permanent basis and are leaning more towards hiring staff on a casual or temporary basis to fill those roles that previously might have been considered a permanent post. Employers are more comfortable taking short-term risks under the current situation.

Gillian Meier, CEO of Jobs.co.za says: “In recent discussions with a number of recruitment agencies we have discovered that many employment agencies who previously only placed permanent staff are now forced into having to do temporary placements to ensure that they continue to drive revenue in their businesses, while maintaining an existing relationship with their clients by being flexible towards their current needs, whether that be to fill permanent or temporary posts”.

The term ‘flexible staffing’ therefore holds true to recruiters, employers and Job Seekers in that everyone has to become more flexible under the current times.

For those who might be new to the world of Temporary Employment, here are some basic guidelines to Temporary Employment in South Africa:

The Skills Development Act stipulates that temporary employment agencies must be registered with the Department of Labour. Basic Guide to Private Employment Agencies.

Workers whose services are provided to a client by an employment agency are employed by the agency. The agency is the employer of the worker. The employee is then under a Temporary Contract of Employment with the employment agency (who is the temporary employer) and the Client, who is a third party, will typically enter into a ‘Contract of Work’ with the agency.

The employment agency hires out the services of the temporary employee to the client. The client pays the employment agency and the agency is therefore responsible for paying the temporary employee the agreed upon salary. The employment agency charges a far higher rate (salary) to the client than hat it has to pay the temporary employee, this being how the employment agency makes its money.

Upon completion of the assignment the Temporary Contract of Employment is automatically terminated and the Employment agency and Temporary employee then enter into a new Temporary Contract of Employment for each new assignment.

Although there is no direct employment relationship between the employee and the client, except for the ‘implied’ contract of work, both the employment agency and client (Company) are jointly responsible to stick to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

Occasionally a temporary employee may be employed directly by the Company thereby bypassing an employment agency entirely.

Whether employed through an employment agency (or labour broker) or by the Company directly, under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act a temporary employee must receive annual paid leave, sick leave and so on and is entitled to family responsibility leave, sick leave and overtime as with any other employee.  Furthermore, temporary employees are also entitled to be paid for public holidays that arise during the tenure of employment.

The termination of a Temporary Contract of Employment does not necessarily specify a terminate date, it usually details the termination of the contract being upon the occurrence of a particular event. For instance, the contract will terminate when the employee who is being filled in for returns from maternity leave, or sick leave etc. Or the contract is terminated upon completion of a particular task.

A worker who is an independent contractor is not an employee of a temporary employment service.  Visit the South African Labour Guide for more information on the understanding the differences between a contractor and a temporary employee in regards to the Employee’s Status.

Related Links

The department of labour provides specific Temporary Employment conditions in the following areas:

• Basic Guide to Temporary Employment Services (Wholesale and Retail);
• Basic Guide to Temporary Employment Services (Domestic Workers)
• Basic Guide to Temporary Employment Services (Farm Workers)

A survey was recently conducted on a sample of 750 small, medium & large organisations in South Africa for the first quarter of this year. The results indicated that 69% of companies said that they had no intention of altering their headcount in the next three months. Only 7% suggested that they anticipated staff reductions in the next three months, while 21% surprisingly forecasted growth in their staffing levels.

If you are breathing a sigh of relief at the figure of 7% and feel that you possibly do not fall into that percentage, then you just might need to take a step back and ask yourself if you are really that indispensable to your company. Are you truly adding value to the critical functions of the business?

If you are already unemployed and find yourself struggling to find a permanent job under these tough economical times then you might want to consider boosting your CV with a few more skills or by taking on temporary jobs in the interim. When searching through the job boards such as Jobs.co.za, don’t be too selective when filtering out jobs that might not be offering you the desired salary that you have in mind. You might find a great opportunity paying less than you had hoped for, but if you are prepared to sacrifice a little on the salary to get the offer, you can certainly prove your worth once you start your new job with the company. Once the economical situation improves, your employer will most likely be happy to entertain a salary increase to commensurate with the value that you have contributed to the company during the trying times.

Make sure that your CV is always up to date. You can create a professional CV on Jobs.co.za or upload an existing CV that is stored online and is available to you 24/7 from anywhere in the world. As long as your CV is complete and updated, you can access it quickly once an opportunity presents itself to you.

Whether employed or not if you can afford to, then now is the time to acquire a new skill. Those employees who have rare skills and qualifications will become increasingly in demand over the next few months.
If you are currently employed, hold on to your job and think twice before resigning. Now is not the time to resign unless you have already secured alternative employment. And never resign unless you have another firm signed offer in your hand from an alternative stable and credible company.

So what are these “in demand” qualifications, trades and skills?
According to the article (and subsequent articles carried throughout the same publication), the most in-demand careers for South Africa are:

1. Those holding specific trades such as artisans, plumbers and electricians.
2. Engineers; Specifically mechanical, civil and then electrical engineers.
3. Information Technology skills such as software engineers, developers, network engineers & administrators as well as those IT Managers who can demonstrate that they are able to align IT strategies with strategic business objectives.
4. Sharp managers! Meaning those managers that are able to communicate, motivate and build high-performance organisations through strong leadership.
5. Academics, teachers, nurses and doctors will always be in demand in South Africa as a result of the former brain drain that literally ‘drained’ South Africa of these most needed (but often underpaid) skills.

What do the job advertisements say?
After reading the predictions of two articles for two consecutive weeks regarding who will survive the recession and who should be concerned, I decided to flip through the rest of the Careers section. Pen in hand, I circled those jobs and qualifications or trades that appeared most frequently under this week’s vacancies. On page 1, just slightly below the ‘Recession Busters’ article was a fairly large ad for a mining giant promoting bursaries offering hope to Matriculants holding a 60% average in maths and science for a future in Mining, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering as well as other promising careers in the mining industry. This being an industry identified in last week’s publication as one of those who are most likely to lay-off employees during the coming Recession. Alongside the mining advertisement was another large advertisement recruiting for an Information Services Architect in the Petroleum industry, who should hold a degree or 3-year diploma in Computer Science or Information Technology accompanied with no less than 7 years technology architecture experience.

So that’s what the front page of the Careers section said, but what about the rest of the publication? A number of positions popped up frequently for Financial Managers – qualified CA’s – with between 5 to 7 years experience. This was not identified as one of the ‘in-demand’ skills, however judging by the number of job advertisements for Financial Managers; this too might be a promising career. I also spotted at least five job advertisements hiring CEO’s of medium to large size organisations with most of these vacancies requiring no less than a post-graduate qualification in business administration, or more specifically and MBA with 10 years plus experience.

What about all those Government Positions? Over the last few months or even years I have grown quite accustomed to seeing the majority of job advertisements in the Sunday Times Careers being for Government positions. I was surprised to see that the number of vacancies being advertised for the Government had reduced significantly – and as a result, so had the number of pages of the Career’s section. What did stand out is that the Department of Health is still advertising a large number of health jobs in the publication. Positions for Academics and teachers are also still featured rather prominently throughout the publication.

In support of last week’s predictions that the pharmaceutical and medical industries will not be retrenching, I noticed quite a few job advertisements in these industries. I also noticed that throughout the Careers section there was definitely an increase in the demand for Engineers holding BSc degrees with between 5 to 15 years experience, therefore supporting the comments in the headline article stating that those engineers with qualifications and skills will be more likely to survive the recession.

Looking at the content of the job advertisements throughout the publication it clearly demonstrated that those ‘in-demand’ careers mentioned above are, well … clearly in demand.

While the current state of global economies are resulting in even unsatisfied workers being more inclined to hold onto their jobs for the time being, these stats have identified 4 differentiated groups of workers with varying degrees of loyalty, motivation and overall job and company satisfaction.

Stats produced by TNS have segmented employees into four distinguishable groups;

• Workers Committed to both their Job and their Company – Ambassador’s
• Workers Committed to their Company but not their Job – Company Orientated
• Workers Committed to their Job but not their Company – Career Orientated
• Workers Uncommitted to their Job and their Company – Uncommitted

As obvious as it may be, those employees with a greater sense of job and company satisfaction the healthier, productive and balanced their lives are where conversely those who show no commitment to neither their job nor their employer are off ill more frequently, take duvet days more often than others, have lower output or productivity levels, generally suffer from more health issues and tend to experience more severe levels of stress than others.

To further illustrate the extent to which workers are affected by commitment and job satisfaction levels, these are the stats that have been quoted;

Ambassador (48%)

Specialised roles in larger enterprises that strive to create employee centric working environments

Company orientated (4%):

“Brand Loyal” Employee’s (often creative’s and financiers)

Career orientated (18%)

Roles that are established around transferable skills application
Uncommitted (29%)

Sales roles that can be applied to multitude of selling skill or sales industries

While it is encouraging to see that majority of workers are “Ambassadors” with a total of 48% leading the way, the closest following figure points out that 255 people out of 880 are uncommitted to their employers as well as their careers.

Pretty frightening if you consider that we spend more time at work than at home which means there are many unhappy, potentially ill and stressed out people in the world.

I hope that this has provided you with some food for thought and if you feel that you could potentially be of the uncommitted quadrant, that you do something about this and do it quick.

The bottom line is; work is something that we should enjoy and love to do day in and day out. Sure we all have bad days in the office and sometimes can’t bear the thought of having to deal with another task on our “to do” list, but life is supposed to be fulfilling and exciting and at best enjoyable.

Try to find what it is that makes your working world spin round and chase it until you’ve got it.

The only person you are doing an injustice to is YOU and by selling yourself and your career short will force you into the “Uncommitted” corner, which if you think about it, is a really sad and unproductive place to put yourself in.

I hope you all have a great evening and will see you all tomorrow.

- Horrah Friday is just one more sleep away!

Peace Out!

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

0861 JOBS 101

Piggy-backing off the instability and vulnerability that consumers are currently experiencing as a result of the current state of the global economy, internet fraudsters are becoming more active in stealing the identities of unsuspecting audiences along with increased Phishing practices intended to gain access to sensitive personal information as well as banking or credit information.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures”, with online criminals feeling the heat themselves as well as having identified a window of opportunity in which they are now pursuing in order to take advantage of those susceptible to such online fraud

I thought that perhaps it would be a good idea to discuss such online treats in greater detail for better identification and classification as not many people are savvy to the different types of online fraud that can and does occur every day.

Phishing: This is an attempt at attaining personal, financial (banking login information and credit card details) and other confidential online user details by way of impersonating the identity of a legitimate and authentic online entity. Many banking institutes have fallen prey to such phishing attacks whereby online fraudsters will send an email requesting for client to confirm details such as bank account details, online banking login details or perhaps even credit card details which are then later compromised.

Protect Yourself: Never ever give out username’s or password details to anyone that asks you to do so. Any reputable website will be well aware of such security threats and will not ask you to confirm such information in the first place.

Identity Theft: As the name would suggest, identity theft is where online scammers assume the identity of others and register on websites (generally in bad network neighbourhoods and on dubious websites) under a false alias. What has been known to occur of late given the current financial crunch that all economies are currently experiencing is again, while assuming a false identity, credit applications are being applied for along with evading poor credit ratings and other criminal charges.

Protect Yourself: When registering or logging into a website that you commonly visit be sure to check the URL of the website and that this address is the correct one. Eg: www.jobs.co.za vs. www.jobz.co.za etc.

Spyware: while not as common but still ever present in the technological realm, spyware is the use of suspicious and illegal software onto personal computers that secretly monitors the users behaviour and to a certain extent takes partial control over the user’s interaction with their computer.

Protect Yourself: Install good quality Anti-Spyware software that will run regular checks on your computer to make sure it has not been compromised.

Malware: More commonly known as computer viruses the term malware refers to Malicious Software / coding that infiltrates and damages files and the general operation of a computer, with the user normally being unaware until the damage has already been done. Malware or computer viruses come in the form of Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses and Dishonest Adware and generally incept a user’s machine by way of the internet (visiting bad server networks) or via email.

Protect Yourself: Install a good quality antivirus program. As with the Anti-spyware, this program with run regular checks and ensure that your PC is protected and should it identify any form of the above mentioned viruses, that it isolates these and removes them from your system.

I hope that these explanations have helped you to better understand the types of fraud that occurs online and how better to protect yourself against such criminal behaviour.

It is a sad fact but one we all have to work with and protect ourselves from as we delve deeper into the infinite online universe.

Hope you all have a fantastic evening and I will catch up with you tomorrow.

Namaste’

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

Talking about how time flies is so last season, but seriously, this is getting out of hand now, the end of January is already here which means Valentine’s day is only two weeks away. Now there is a thought I bet none of you have had as yet.

:”)

Anyway I wanted to check in with you and find out how the Jobs.co.za Prize CV Competition was going with you and how the CV creator was working for you?

In a blog post submitted a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Jobs.co.za currently have a huge competition running promoting the use of our CV creator.

I wanted to discuss this further with you and remind you or the merits in creating a unique CV and why we recommend this option more so than the CV upload option.

While the CV upload works perfectly fine and is still a means to forwarding your employment information on to potential new employers, by building your CV using the Jobs.co.za CV creator ensures that by following the guided information requirements you don’t leave any detail out.

Jobs.co.za in fact further recommends that active Job Seekers utilise all 3 CV Creator options to tailor their applications according to relevant transferrable skills and interests.

The CV creator is simple and easy to navigate and a great option in creating a marketable and comprehensive CV document.

When using the CV Creator

• Create up to 3 customised CV(s).
• Individually target CV(s) to job applications.
• Save unique CV titles for quick apply.
• Optional CV template available.

And again what’s more is in doing so, during the months of January and March 09, you stand a chance to win a Professional Image Makeover worth R10 000 by using the Jobs.co.za CV Creator.

Visit the Jobs.co.za Prize CV competition page and find out how you can win.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and I will see you on Monday – the first week in February ‘09

All the best guys,

Peace Out

Jo Blog

Joblog@jobs.co.za

The problem with time is that the more we need, the less we seem to have and the more we try to save it the quicker is seems to pass us by, neither helpful nor motivating.

In today’s blog I wanted to discuss the scarcity of time and how to improve the way we manage this at work in order to maintain service level agreements, improve productivity and at best make our lives easier on a day to day and month to month basis.

I recently submitted an article in the Recruiter Advice Article pages on Jobs.co.za regarding managing Recruiter time better and ways in which to improve daily output. Time management in not simply reserved for Recruiters but rather a skill that can be implemented and improved on in all aspects of life and your career regardless of what you do for a living.

Time management can be improved by simply concentrating on a few key focus areas that will automatically increase your daily output and free up more time as it were, allowing you to meet daily deadlines as well as potentially cover additional tasks off your to do list.

Don’t be fooled or feel bad if you are currently lacking in the time management department, even the most time conscious people feel pressed by limited time and pressured to constantly beat the proverbial clock.

The only difference between these people and those lacking time management skills is that great time managers are able to squeeze as much as they can into the limited hours of their day when they really need to and make use of each opportunity they have to deliver on relevant tasked requirements in line with their scheduled deadlines.

Based on my article, here are a few pointers on how to improve on your own time management which can be applied to both your working day as well as life in general.

Set Priorities – Identify key items on your task list and arrange these in order of importance as well as allocate realistic time frames to complete these tasks in.

Treat Time as a Limited Resource – Time wastage and procrastination is the number one time zapper that we are up against. By acknowledging that the time you have to complete certain tasks is limited will help you to avoid wasting this precious resource in future.

Understand your Role and Responsibilities – Don’t allow yourself to become distracted by taking on other peoples tasks in order to look good or simply be nice. Understand the part that you have to play in your career, your job and your life and take responsibility for this over and above anyone else’s tasks. Unless you have time to spare at the end of your day, you should maintain your focus on YOUR role.

When are you Most Productive - We are all different in the sense that some of us get more done early in the morning, the night owls operate through the grave yard shift and others through lunch time. Pay attention to when you feel most productive and be sure to utilise this time to your fullest potential.

Take time for a Break – Rome wasn’t built in a day. When deadlines are looming and “time is ticking” we tend forget how to pace ourselves when the going gets tough. Take a quick break every once in a while and notice how your efficiency and accuracy improves and less time is spent on correcting unnecessary mistakes made from rushing.

These are just a handful of suggestions that you can try out in order to improve on the way you spend your time and manage it.

Give them a go and you will notice how by applying simple solutions such as these 5 tips, you will improve on your delivery requirements and find more time in the day to do so.

Let me know how these go, I’d love to hear any feedback that you have.

Peace Out,

Jo Blog

Joblog@jobs.co.za