6 Dream Jobs that would actually suck!!! -cracked.com

February 3rd, 2010

How’d you like to get paid to play video games? Or watch TV? Or just eat?
You hear about these mythical jobs now and then, and maybe even run into somebody who has one of them. These people seem to be living in a magical land where a man can make a nice paycheck doing the things he would be doing if he had no job at all.

But before you go tell your boss to piss off and devote your life to getting one of these careers, know that there is a downside to each.

#6.
Video Game Play Tester
The Dream:

This is the job every boy wants when he’s 13, and it is, in fact, real. Video game developers and companies will actually pay people to play video games all day, as that’s the only way to track down bugs before release. And yes, “before release” means not only do you get paid to play, you get to play the games months or years before anyone else.

Did we say we dreamed of it when we were 13? Hell, this is the job we want now.

The Reality:  Read more... (2423 words, estimated 9:42 mins reading time)

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What makes a good job interview candidate?

February 3rd, 2010

We know that by the time you are called to a job interview the organisation has seen your CV and believes you can do the job.

Then again so can all the other candidates. So how do you prepare for a job interview and just what do you have to do to stand out of the crowd?

Here are some top tips to bear in mind and which will help you impress on the interviewer that you are the right person for the job.

1. Be Prepared:

There is no excuse for not preparing properly for a job interview. You will have had at least a few days warning and quite possibly a lot more time. Research the company, review your CV and practice your answers until you can deliver them smoothly and naturally.

2. Focus on your strengths:

Remember that the organisation knows that you CAN do the job and they want you to confirm this to them during the job interview. Don’t let any negative experiences or a gap in your career for example, negate all the great work you have done.

3. Step into the Interviewers Shoes:  Read more... (418 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

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Conducting a job interview

February 3rd, 2010

Employing the right person in the first place is much cheaper in the long run than skimping on the hiring process and taking on the first person that comes along, so it pays to take time to decide how to interview your candidates. Learning how to interview effectively is essential and here are some top tips that will help anyone to conduct the job perfect interview.

  • Stay Detached While Conducting The Interview

During the perfect interview the interviewer must be dispassionate, at least to some extent. Make the interviewee welcome by all means, and engage with them in order to see how they conduct themselves. But at the same time try to keep a part of yourself distant from the question and answer process as the interview progresses. That part should be checking how perfectly the person matches the personality traits and skills that have been identified for the role.

This will also allow you to counteract the often quoted fact that interviewers make their mind up in the first ten seconds. You may well be unable to stop yourself form making a quick subconscious decision as to how much you like the person. Learning how to conduct an interview while remaining dispassionate will enable you to get over that and assess whether the person is the perfect match for the role, which after all is why you are both there.  Read more... (671 words, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)

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Do you know that there’s actually illegal job interview questions?

February 3rd, 2010

The job interview is a powerful factor in the employee selection process. You can use behavioral-based job interview questions to help you select superior candidates. Ask interview questions that help you identify whether the candidate has the behaviors, skills, and experience needed for the job you are filling.

Ask legal interview questions that illuminate the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses to determine job fit. Avoid illegal interview questions and interview practices that could make your company the target of a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit

Illegal Job Interview Questions

Illegal interview questions include any interview questions that are related to a candidate’s:

  • Age
  • Race, ethnicity, or color
  • Gender or sex
  • Country of national origin or birth place
  • Religion
  • Disability
  • Marital or family status or pregnancy

Especially in the course of a comfortable interview during which participants are relaxed, don’t let the interview turn into a chat session. Seemingly innocuous interview questions such as the following are illegal.  Read more... (488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Sample Illegal Job Interview Questions

  • What arrangements are you able to make for child care while you work?
  • How old are your children?
  • When did you graduate from high school?
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Employee Retention is a huge challenge for small IT Companies – careerage

February 3rd, 2010

Today perhaps no other Industry is more people dependent than the IT industry. And the role of IT is increasing at increasing pace. Movies. Products. Every where. The reason is that marketing efforts try to differentiate the same or similar equipment, merchandise or whatever, by adding features of automation, artificial intelligence and knowledge. Thus the role of Microprocessing and automation is increasing. Role of IT is increasing. More and more equipment getting more and more intelligent. More and more of information being exchanged over more and more corners of the world, putting load on increasing bandwidth and using more of the broad band.It is also true that the Internet has started squeezing and shrinking the globe. Connectivity requirements have increased. Internet has been let free to the people who have started applying their minds as to how to use it. This has lead to opening of more avenues of information sharing. More ways to put information on the net. Raising more issues of securing information. 

It is not easy to understand how much power has been unleashed through this. And that this has reached hands of the commercial entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur, i.e. the business commune, is willing to invest money in to the IT area. And more and more opportunities have been researched and opened. Opportunities to whom? To those who have ideas.   Read more... (1132 words, estimated 4:32 mins reading time)

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Singapore To Set Up New Employment Dispute Resolution Process – Singapore Government

February 2nd, 2010

Singapore To Set Up New Employment Dispute Resolution Process

Source: Government of Singapore
Posted on: 27th January 2010

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong announced that an employment dispute resolution process will be set up in 2011. It involves the use of mediation to facilitate an amicable settlement between PMEs (professionals, managers, and executives) earning up to $4,500 and their employers on common employment issues.

Speech by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Manpower at STF Conference on Managing Manpower Challenges 2010, 26 January 2010 at Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre

Mr Lim Swee Say, Secretary-General, National Trades Union Congress;

Mr John De Payva, President, National Trades Union Congress;

Mr Stephen Lee, President, Singapore National Employers Federation;

Tripartite partners;
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

Tackling the Downturn in 2009

Exactly a year ago, I was at NTUC’s Workplan Seminar where brother Secretary-General Lim Swee Say was on stage rallying unionists passionately. He urged union leaders to work with other tripartite partners and to “upturn the downturn”. One year on, we can now look back and say that we have fought the battle well.

Economy recovering with tripartite collaboration  Read more... (1537 words, 1 image, estimated 6:09 mins reading time)

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A Microsoft employee talks about his Haiti search and rescue work – seattletimes

February 2nd, 2010

Outside of corporate donations and individual giving at Microsoft, at least one employee has taken time off work and flown to Haiti to work on finding survivors on the ground. Gisli Olaffson’s day job is working with international organizations such as the World Health Organization as a Microsoft disaster management technical adviser based in Iceland. But he also volunteers, such as in China after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and has done relief work in Myanmar after a cyclone there.

In January, Olaffson took off several days to work in Haiti as part of his volunteer work with the Icelandic search and rescue team. I caught up with him in Redmond last week at Microsoft’s Public Safety Symposium, which brought together about 400 public safety officials from around the world. Attendees included people from such places as Brazil and Singapore, as well as locals such as King County Sheriff Sue Rahr.

Olaffson said his Icelandic team heard about the earthquake in Haiti 20 minutes after it happened. The Icelandic ministry of foreign affairs offered the team’s help to Haiti, and via U.S. diplomacy, Haiti accepted the offer. Olaffson said he and a team of 33 were the first foreign team to land on the ground in Haiti on Jan.13. U.S. groups landed 15 minutes later, he said.  Read more... (590 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

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Posted in Dream Jobs, Finding a Job | 72 Comments »

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