Jobjett creators and Griffith alumni Adam Howard and Michael Bauman 

The first employment networking job site to include a social networking function has been designed by Griffith alumni — and best of all it’s free.

The site, Jobjett, provides another employment option for students and employers.

According to Jobjett CEO and current Master of Commerce student Michael Bauman, the new model is expected to be used widely in the HR industry, offering a free networking service.

Michael is joined by International Business graduate Mark Bignell, Law graduate Adam Howard and Marketing graduate Chris Bauman in the team which designed the site.

Mark Bignell said the team saw the concept of employment networking as an exciting initiative to overcome the frustration in the job market when trying to employ staff.

“Traditional recruiting methods are not effective and create a mountain of extra work,” Mark said.

“Even then, after a long process the companies are finding it increasingly difficult across all industries to find the right people.”

In developing the site a key feature has both the jobseeker and the employer create online profiles pages. This allows employers to be proactive and initiate the introduction to students and jobseekers by searching and promoting their organisation via their employer profile page.

For the student or jobseeker, personal details remain hidden on their profile page and the user is emailed the option to then view the employer profile page and asked to accept or decline the approach made by the employer.

“This feature is popular with current employees as this allows them to keep in touch with new job opportunities in their industry without being detected by their employer,” Michael said.

Student, jobseeker and employer accounts are self managed and provide a host of other networking features.

Student and jobseeker accounts offer the option to search company profiles and job listings, save and manage job applications and set job alerts. The account is geared to provide a practical resource to students in establishing and aiding the development of their career.

Employers can search student and jobseeker profiles, post unlimited jobs listings, manage applications and set profile alerts.

The site is open to all organisations across Australia.

Michael said he wanted to make sure Griffith students were some of the first to use the new product, as he felt it was important to keep close ties with the university.

Visit www.jobjett.com.au

Posted by Fiona Taylor on July 14, 2008 | Source Griffith University » Read More

Which is better — working for a big company or in a smaller environment" Your firm’s headcount could make all the difference to your job satisfaction

By Wendy Roby
THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
Sunday, Jul 06, 2008, Page 9

Once you’ve slammed the door, thrown off your coat and readied yourself for a nice cup of tea and a sit down, there’s a humdrum question which crops up in homes up and down the land: “How was your day"”

The answer, of course, depends on a number of factors — efficiency or otherwise of buses, tightness or otherwise of shoes, state of intray, condition of inbox. But what about the scale of the company you work for" Can your firm’s headcount make the difference between a happy reply or a snort of discontent" Is size the key to career satisfaction"

The vast majority of us in the UK work for a small- or medium- sized enterprise (SME), with just 1 percent of workers spending their nine to five at companies with more than 250 staff, the Learning and Skills Council said. Large companies, as the thinking goes, are anonymous places where you simply disappear among the masses. They are more formal, keen on marketing-speak and like horrible, mission-statement posters and strict hierarchy.

‘When it comes to training, received wisdom would suggest you’d fare better with a big company.’

Small companies are great if you fancy a bit of responsibility — in theory you’re more likely to have regular contact with those who hold the purse strings and power. So if you’re good, you’ll get the opportunity to broaden your skills portfolio. Ergo, you’ll get the glory.

But can this really be true" Having spent a good deal of time at the sharp end of the multinational, multisite machine, as well as supposedly softer, small, family-style enterprises, I’ve had terrific and terrible experiences at both.

Mary Dane, chief executive of the UK Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Service (AGCAS), says that SME workers enjoy a range of advantages, including more varied and challenging work. She claims that SME employees are “more visible,” and that “the rewards can be considerable in terms of personal development.”

But do you get the same level of support" Helen Black, managing director of Creative People, an HR and training consultancy, is not sure visibility is the key issue.

She says: “You do tend to see more people in small businesses who are committed and passionate, and the upside of that is that they have tremendous energy and opportunities.”

But having earned the chance to manage large amounts of money or people, you could also end up doing it all on your own without structured backup.

“The potential to fail is enormous,” Black says. “And if you do fail, it could end up being a career-stopper. It’s much riskier if there aren’t support systems in place and if there isn’t anybody overseeing you. It suits a certain kind of individual, who can deal with ambiguity and handle managers who just let you get on with it.”

When it comes to training, received wisdom would suggest you’d fare better with a big company. Smaller companies, it is supposed, have to outsource their training, with many SMEs not big enough for in-house HR departments. But while larger organizations may have more structured training in place, the downside is that the bigger the employer, the more company-specific the training — which can make your new skills less transferable.

Research carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies shows that while large companies (employing 5,000 people or more) do organize externally accredited training, they’re less keen on it than bespoke courses, fearing your new skills will take you skipping off to a job elsewhere.

But if you work for a large company, it may be that you simply don’t need to learn skills that fall outside your locked-down job description. Joyce — a PA with an investment bank that employs more than 70,000 people worldwide — works for an institution where every conceivable task merits its own intranet Web page, helpdesk and departmental contact. And with clearly delineated responsibilities, she has “more time to focus on my own job, with dedicated departments for different areas of expertise.”

If you’re used to dealing with everything — whether that’s part of your role or not even slightly related — it all sounds deliciously straightforward. And there are also financial perks.

“You know where you stand with pay rises, and holiday allocation,” she says, “and appraisals are really well organized.”

Anna works for a hedge fund in London as an office manager, receptionist and PA to the portfolio manager. The only administrator in an office of 12 French financial whizzes, she’s in charge of everything relating to the office’s practical and administrative sides — from making sure there’s enough espresso, to manning the switchboard and processing invoices for immensely complicated international travel itineraries.

“There’s much more scope in this role than in any other I’ve had,” she says. “I prefer the extra responsibility and slightly longer hours as it’s also brought freedom in how I operate.”

But she also knows there’s no one else around if things go wrong.

“I am a one-man band. I have to leave my desk in a state that any temp could take over seamlessly if the need arose. There has to be a detailed handover document permanently in my intray.”

Both PAs admit they have some small gripes with their jobs. When there’s a gremlin in Joyce’s printer, for instance, she calls her IT department — the difference is that her IT department is as far, far away as it’s possible to be — in Australia.

“That can be frustrating,” she says.

Anna’s facilities however, are outsourced to another company, which means “you don’t have much control when things go wrong.”

But she’s not completely on her own. Belonging to a network of PAs all working in the same sector, she is able to email any tricky problems to a central email address. This is then sent anonymously to the whole network of people, who suggest solutions and offer tips. With regular social events in swanky hotels, it’s a capital idea for those working in a department of one.

Still confused about whether you’ll be better off with a big company, or working in a smaller environment" Don’t worry. Black thinks we’re drawn instinctively to the office home that’s right for us.

“I think people do select their own environment to quite a considerable extent,” she says. “Some people are drawn to small companies because they’re apparently more informal, friendlier and they think they represent a certain set of values. But not everyone can manage or work inside the level of ambiguity you often get with smaller companies, and for them, a level of clarity is more comfortable. They need to know what they’re doing, to what standard, when and with whom.”

In fact, the smart thing seems to be to dip your toe in both the big and small ponds.

“If you’re very sensible,” she says, “you try out a variety of sized companies before settling for one or the other.”

And don’t rule out returning to a previous employer. While your first stint at a small company might have involved too much “mucking in” for your taste, there’s nothing to stop you returning once they’ve grown a few organized branches.

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Gen Y are the most fluid workforce ever seen in the Australian economy.  They want to choose an employer rather than just accepting a job.  With information, social networking sites and a tightening employment market it is getting harder and harder to keep these employees.  Gen Y are starting to take a more strategic approach to finding their next job....and their research begins online. 

It is innovative companies like Nintendeo that find and generate a substantial volume of press in the online markets as media reporters and bloggers alike provide a large volume of editorial.

So who do you think is attracting the best staff?   And where are they finding them......

Fast Company recently wrote an atricle on the companies that leading the way in terms of their innovation....here is what they had to say about Nintendeo Wii.

For the past two decades, the history of the video game industry has been as predictable as most of its products: More advanced technology creates more powerful consoles, which run more realistic games. It was all about leveling up. That is, until Nintendo decided to stop spending its quarters playing a game it couldn’t win. Faced with competition from technically spectacular machines made by Sony and Microsoft, the company had to reimagine what a game console could be. It came up with the Wii, which skimps on graphics and processing power but includes an intuitive, motion-sensitive controller that is revolutionizing the game business.

“Nintendo took a step back from the technology arms race and chose to focus on the fun of playing rather than cold tech specs,” says Reggie Fils-Aimé, president and COO of Nintendo of America. “We took a more intuitive approach and developed something that could be fun for every member of the family.”

For Nintendo, necessity was the mother of invention--the company’s previous-generation GameCube was in a losing battle with Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox. Then But when Nintendo introduced the Wii in fall 2006, hardcore gamers loved it so much that it outsold Sony’s PlayStation 3 as well as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 every month except September 2007, when Halo 3 was released. By winter, Nintendo faced a shortage--unheard of for a console released the previous year. (This is a mixed blessing, to be sure: Analysts estimate the shortage could cost the company over a billion dollars in sales.)

Nintendo's performance is all the more remarkable since, from a financial perspective, the company is in a different business than Sony and Microsoft. In simple terms, those companies lose money selling consoles and make it back by charging third-party publishers a license fee to make games. In fact, they live on license fees, since their own games account for about one quarter and one fifth, respectively, of total software sales for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Nintendo makes money selling consoles, makes more money selling games, then takes in still more in license fees. It has sold just under half of all Wii software itself, which means it makes much higher margins, especially since games for the less powerful system don’t cost as much to develop.

“Not to sound too obvious,” Fils-Aimé says, “but it makes good business sense to make a profit on the products you sell.”

Nintendo also makes plenty of profit from its handheld game business. According to video game industry analyst NDP, Nintendo DS has sold 17.9 million units in the U.S., compared to 10.7 million Sony PSPs sold. And Nintendo has sold about half the games for its machine as well. In 2007, the company’s stock shot up from $32 to$74 by yearend--giving it a higher market cap than Sony, which is not bad for a former playing card maker with an Italian plumber for a mascot.

The key to Nintendo’s success in software, as in hardware, is its willingness to reinvent what games can mean. Though the Wii lacks the processing horsepower of its competitors, it can scan weather, news, and some Web sites through a wireless Internet connection, and customers can download classic Nintendo games from an iTunes-style store. The company has released a plastic rifle contraption that will let the Wii play shooting-gallery games and it has introduced a second-player mode to its “Super Mario Galaxy” game that lets young children play along with adults. Many of company’s most impressive innovations--like the tiny in-controller speakers that make the sound of an arrow being shot, while the television plays the thwack of it hitting its target--involve inexpensive, off-the-shelf parts deployed in clever ways.

Now the rest of the business has to keep up with Nintendo. “The fundamental interface in games has always been a controller, and Nintendo is bringing opportunities to developers to think about how interactions use motion. That has opened doors of creativity throughout the video game business,” says Simon Jeffery, president and COO of Sega of America. “Nintendo’s success is about creative leadership and the willingness to do things differently.”

Lets leave you with a question.......what company do you want to work for next, and where are they going to headhunt you? 

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Here is a fantastic story about getting the right job overseas when going on a working holiday.  If you are looking to get experience why not try beautiful London. Just remember not to forget the work life balance.  Sure you are there to get O/S experience to add to your resume, but dont forget to take the time to really experience the country as well. 

Article from: The Daily Telegraph

Gen Y flying in on London jobs markets

By Anna Kurnuszko April 16, 2008 12:00am

London-bound ... instead of a stint behind a bar, young Australians are looking to take up professional positions and advance their careers while overseas / AP

BAGS packed, tickets in hand, long flight – destination London.  

Once there, it used to be the case that you would take any old job until the money was gone, then come home with your tail between your legs. Not any more.

Thousands of young Australians travel to England and Europe, but they no longer take a backpack.

Instead, many have a packed suitcase and either a job to go to or plans to get one, and it's not pulling pints in a pub.

These young Australians are looking to take up professional positions and advance their careers while overseas.

Link Recruitment Global boss Jason Cartwright says many Australian expatriates have finished university and have a few years' work experience.

"They go overseas looking for professional positions that will advance their career in the long run, rather than a job that will just pay the bills," he says.

Joining the exodus is Melbourne-based Blair McNamara, senior account executive (program design and placement) at Aon, a global company that deals with risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage.

For the next 12 months McNamara will work for Aon in London, spending most of his day at Lloyd's.

"About 60 syndicates are based at Lloyd's and each one is basically a different insurance company," he says. "It is like going to the market and buying fruit – you are going to different underwriters and getting the best deal for your client."

Surviving overseas

1. Be absolutely sure you are allowed to work overseas and get the correct visa
2. Make sure you have copies of all your qualifications
3. Allow plenty of time to get the necessary visas and work permits. Age and the type of job you want to do can make a difference to your application
4. If you are going to try your luck, take enough money to see you through for the first few weeks of job hunting
5. Be prepared to accept work you normally might not do, you never know what it might lead to.

As a trader, McNamara says he analyses a client's insurance risk and goes out to the market place, meets the underwriters of the insurance companies and negotiates on behalf of the client. McNamara is no stranger to London. He was there last year as part of an international program for brokers run by Aon.

"The pilot program got brokers like me to London and taught us how to operate at Lloyd's," he says.

McNamara says Australian brokers often travel overseas to place business for their clients.

"London is one place you do it," McNamara says. "So is Europe, Bermuda and New York, but London is the international hub."

In Australia, McNamara's job involves securing professional indemnity for lawyers, doctors and accountants, but specifically lawyers.

He says most of his focus is on lawyers and accountants. That is where his legal background comes in handy. It enables him to understand the types of services they need.

McNamara has almost completed a part-time combined degree in banking, finance and law at Victoria University, and has taken leave from his course to take his overseas posting.

In London he'll still be dealing with professional indemnity, but it will be for global corporates and the legal departments of big corporations.

He sees his time in London as a big stepping stone for his career.

"Lots of opportunities will spring up as a result of the time and experience I will gain in London," he says.

The Jobjett team

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With high employment rates, there are sound economic reasons why career changers are more employable than ever before.  These rates reflect the situation here in Australia.

By Catherine Quinn
THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
Sunday, Apr 06, 2008, Page 9 
Jobjett sourced a copy of this story from - The Taipei Times

Rich Hill has worked as a door-to-door salesman, a receptionist, an administrator, a publicist and an account handler. He has moved between industries including shipping, events, architecture, catering and law.

So does this make him a fickle worker best left to temporary assignments? Or an ultra-experienced employee with great prospects?

According to current attitudes it might be the latter — virtually unthinkable only a few years ago.

Some candidates worry that “job-hopping” will look bad on their resume — this is simply not the case any more, says Jo Stuteley, director of office support recruiter La Creme. In sectors where there is virtually nil unemployment, and therefore a large shortage of skills, experience is the deciding factor. Job-hopping is no longer seen as a disadvantage — today’s workforce is becoming much more of a moveable feast. This means that they build up a valuable set of skills — and experience of a range of sectors.

“If someone’s moved country or sectors, that’s a credible reason to have had a lot of different jobs.”

Alistair Leathwood, managing director at FreshMinds

Serial job-hopper Hill says that moving jobs not only keeps him interested, but has even had the effect of making him more employable.

“I think that nowadays the professional employment market is less formal, and employers are more open to the idea that a chequered employment history could bring them benefits,” says Hall — who now, aptly enough, works in recruitment.

“There really is such a thing as a transferable skill, although you need to be prepared to explain to an employer how it could apply to their sector,” he says. “But if you get it right it’s a really valuable asset.”

With high employment rates, there are also sound economic reasons why career changers are more employable than ever before — demand for skilled workers is outstripping supply and many employers are eager to look for the positives in resumes that display a varied career history.

“Money can’t buy the varied experience people with different jobs can bring to a role,” says Russ Badger, business manager for Manpower. “Candidates with several jobs offer an insight into how other companies work and a chance to know exactly how your competitors are behaving. Also, employers know candidates who have had different jobs can work in a variety of environments and cultures so will fit in easily.”

Perhaps this change in attitude also explains why people are now more likely to switch jobs. Research by Lifelong Learning has found that nearly one in six of the UK’s working population (16 percent) have changed career three times already, while more than one in 10 (13 percent) have swapped more than three times. Staying in one profession for the entirety of your working life puts you in a minority: About three-quarters of those questioned (71 percent) had changed career at least once.

In theory at least, finding out what you don’t want to do is a good way to discover the role you are best suited to. And with the current climate of temporary assignments, employees are more able than ever to pick and choose jobs that will teach them key skills without tying them down.

If you know in which direction you’re headed, figure out which skill sets you need and tick them off in the course of dotting around,” says Alistair Leathwood, managing director of FreshMinds recruitment consultancy. “If you don’t know, go for variety. It’s the chance to experiment for free — in fact, you’ll be getting paid for it, so take advantage of the opportunity.”

So should you join the job-hoppers’ ranks? Much as it might be a growing trend, flitting between roles does come with some fairly major caveats. While switching between one professional position and another can give you more skills, constant hopping will begin to ring alarm bells for recruiters.

“The limit is about three jobs in two years,” says recruiter Sarah McParland of Search Consultancy. “After that, employers will want a very good reason why you keep jumping around.”

So one big move to a different sector fits neatly into questions of work-life balance, but several may tar you with the fickle jobster tag.

If you’ve got multiple jobs in short time periods on your resume, it is acceptable to ditch one or two — particularly from the beginning of your career.

“You’re presenting yourself in the best possible light on a CV,” says careers expert John Lees, author of How to Get a Job You Love. “Omitting parts which don’t work in your favor is fine, but you need to be prepared to explain any gaps.”

For those who have worked abroad, however, multiple short assignments and career gaps are not so much of a problem.

“A recruiters we’re looking for some sort of sensible narrative flow,” Leathwood says. “If someone’s moved country or sectors, that’s a credible reason to have had a lot of different jobs.”

But before you hand in your resignation — yet again — take a second to think about practicalities. Short-term roles might be rather better for your employer than they are for you.

Some employee rights only kick in after a year, so switching staff annually is a great way for employers to avoid responsibilities such as maternity pay, and sidestep unfair dismissal claims — and a bad way for employees to accrue benefits such as a pension and redundancy pay.

“It’s a generalization, but a lot of job-hoppers are young people who are not necessarily so aware of their employment rights,” says Sarah Veale of the TUC, the UK’s umbrella trades union organization. “But basic rights like pension benefits can be severely compromised by continually moving jobs.” 

The Jobjett team

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We would like to extend are warm welcome to ALL users of this , the latest employment networking internet site. 

The jobjett project team has been researching and development the site over the past 2 years building on experiences and following trends in Asia and Europe. The site is different from any other employment site in the market with a focus on what the Australian market is currently demanding from both an employer and employee perspective.

The user control and security features over your individual accounts is key.  You have the ability to network your skills and experience while maintaining your privacy of personal details.  The site tour will further explain the simple steps in providing career and business opportunities.
 
Please feel free to contact us on any queries or feedback you have for the site.


We are here to help you network


Jobjett Team

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