Issue 119, September 2006
Hi guys,
There's a new job search website on the block. Check out My Job Space below.
For those who are travelling, think about Portable Computing & how you can keep your data safe
Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.
A series of articles in the September/October issue of free-zine Canterbury Today relates the story of a couple of Christchurch businessmen who felt that the international job market fatcats were getting fatter, but were not delivering better service to New Zealanders. So they have apparently spending the past two years setting up their own kiwi-oriented solution for finding the perfect employer:employee match, a completely kiwi website, called www.myjobspace.co.nz.
The aim of the new venture is to keep job advertising costs down. Their say that My Job Space's point of difference is that they are not having to keep their prices artificially high to offset print advertising losses. The article relates "Prices for services on other jobsites have been kept artificially high because they are owned by multi-national publishing companies trying to maintain lost revenues as classified advertising moves from newspapers to the instant interactivity of internet marketing."
Now that's an interesting call. My Job Space's founders are Peter Glen (an Ad exec by trade) and Gary Collins (co-owner of Academy Publishing). The free-zine in which I saw the articles, Canterbury Today, is in fact one of the Collins brothers' company's product lines, along with Auckland Today, Wellington Today, Central Today, Principals Today, Hospitality Today & Southern Today. Peter Collins, Gary's brother, states on the Academy Publications website that they recognised the need for a business community newspaper, launching Canterbury Today in 1989. Since then they have steadily rolled out new newspapers throughout the country on a paid 'advertorial' model.
To imply that one of My Job Space’s key points of difference is being able to undercut the multi-nationals because they aren't in the print market is a bit ingenuous, to say the least.
However, that aside, Peter Glen & Gary Collins are now in the job market with My Job Space.
So, of course, I went and had a quick look around. I registered on the website with some fairly standard details. Very quickly, I got a cheerful email about having joined up & what benefits My Job Space afforded me.
On logging into the website, I found that I could create my own "Work Wanted/"Get Headhunted" ad, which seemed pretty easy. Unless specified for a shorter time, these postings stay live for two months. There is an information section on how to prepare a CV and some information on interviews and so forth. Unfortunately this information is very thin. You would be better to go to a registered career practitioner such as www.careers.co.nz, or even to Google, for better quality career advice.
People who are seeking work can sign up at no charge, enter their details, ideal job specs and key words, post their CV, create their "Work Wanted/"Get Headhunted" ad and they are then in the market. Emails will notify them of matches for their dream job. They have the ability to password and to keep your data and applications entirely confidential.
Employers pay a flat fee of $89 per month to list as many Sits Vac as they like. They are also then hooked up via email with any employees who have registered as looking for the dream job they have just listed. However, as part of their opening offer, My Job Space is offering employers free advertising until November the 15th.
Currently targeting job seekers in Canterbury, My Job Space is aiming to roll their concept out across the country. Providing they get lots of people registering and they really do keep their costs down as promised, this could be a fabulous new NZ tool for those Kiwis looking for a change.
It will be interesting to see how this enterprise shakes out.
With the current changes in security at airports, it is a good idea to be very careful with your laptop while you are having to travel with it as checked luggage. Not only is checked luggage security quite spotty, but thieves are probably casing x-rays of bags and then directly targeting luggage which looks interesting; knowing exactly what they want and where it is.
So when you have to put your laptop in your checked luggage, one safety option is to remove your hard drive, which isn't as scary as it sounds. Most laptop hard drives can be removed with a small screwdriver from a slot on the side or back.
Make sure you take a screwdriver, some padding to wrap the hard drive (though you could use clothes) and a small plastic bag or container (for the screws).
Once you have removed the hard drive, you may be able to take it on in your carry-on luggage, but don't count on it. Uncommon electrical items will make Airport security understandably wary, and you are probably better to just put it in your bag well away from the laptop.
In all probability, if the laptop is stolen, the thief probably won't notice or have the time to find the hard drive if it is tucked into another part of your luggage.
However, there are another couple of options:
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Back up all your files on a USB memory stick and put that somewhere else in your checked luggage. Then at least you have another copy of your data in case something happens to your hard drive in transit.
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Don't travel with a laptop at all. Put all your data on a USB stick & have a hire-laptop waiting in the city you are travelling to.
Hopefully things will relax soon, but I must admit I would rather airport security play it safe so that I stay alive!
I hope all of you are familiar with the Alt & Tab keys?
For those of you who are not, or who have forgotten, Alt & Tab lets you quickly toggle between the open program windows which show on the Windows Taskbar.
Well, there's another wee trick with Alt & Tab as well. Alt, Shift & Tab key lets you toggle between open windows in the opposite direction. If you have lots of Application windows open, that can be a very nice shortcut.
But wait, there's more. All MS Office applications have a function similar to Alt & Tab, where you can toggle between all open files within the program itself. So the next time you have several Word docs open at once, you can Ctrl & F6 to scroll through them instead. Or in Excel. Or in Publisher. Easy, eh?!
Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you:
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BIA, Business Impact Analysis. An essential component of an organisation's business continuity plan; an exploratory analysis designed to reveal vulnerabilities, with planning to develop strategies to minimise risk.
Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.
In this newsletter, we look at all you can do with Alt, Shift, Ctrl and ' (apostrophe):
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Access "Insert the value from the same field in the previous record" Ctrl & ' (Apostrophe)
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Excel "Display the Style command (on Format menu); works in a spreadsheet" Alt & ' (Apostrophe)
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Excel "Copy a formula from the cell above the active cell into the cell or the formula bar" Ctrl & ' (Apostrophe)
Ferrit is pitched to be one of the top retail sites in Kiwiland by the end of next year. See what all the fuss might be about at http://www.ferrit.co.nz/home.asp
Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here
