Cheek of the week
January 10, 2007 2:55 PM
The new Will Smith film, released on Friday, blatantly steals the name of our White Paper without so much of a hint of shame. Called 'The Pursuit of Happyness', the makers obviously thought that spelling happiness differently would cover their tracks!
The film details Will's struggles to find a decent job to provide for his son. Our White Paper examines the challenges of job hunting. Coincidence? I don't think so.
In some ways I'm not surprised that someone would want to take our White Paper to the big screen. It's full of great stats, is thought provoking, intelligent & has been requested by almost 700 people. It's got Blockbuster written all over it!
The filmmakers say that the title comes from one of the most famous phrases in the United States Declaration of Independence. I'll let you form your own opinion but my minds made up.
I think I'm going to see it this weekend so I'll find out what other copyrights they've infringed. If he takes the Jobsite Personal Profile in the film then I'm ringing our lawyer!
Weirdly at the time of writing this blog two pieces of research have been published that link to the themes in our report.
* CIPD supports 'ice-breaking' dance tactics at B&Q job interviews, despite union fury.
* Friendly colleagues rather than money make people happy at work.
What a Rewarding Experience
December 21, 2006 4:59 PM
Whoops, I appear to have done it again & not blogged for a while. The main reason for this can be summed up in 3 little words: 'The RecruitRank Awards'!
We held these on the 9th November at a beautiful venue called 'Il Bottaccio' in London. The Awards were designed to reward those recruitment agencies with the best candidate management skills and were based on candidate feedback left throughout the year using the RecruitRank tool on Jobsite. More information and pictures can be found here.
Well I think I can safely say that event management is not an area that I want to pursue as a full time career! The actual ceremony was fantastic and the feedback from clients has been extremely positive but the amount of work that goes into it is immense. However, I've heard that the overwhelming feeling of satisfaction, pride & relief you experience with the final outcome of something is directly proportional to the effort you put in to get there.
Continue reading "What a Rewarding Experience"
The Wanderer Returns (Part 2)
August 7, 2006 11:01 AM
As a wise woman (Lyndsay) once commented in my first ever blog:
'Work, schmirk, there's more to you than that'
And indeed she is right and so here, as promised, is a little bit of what I've been getting up to when out of Jobsite HQ:
* Went to a birthday party for my friend Nancy. It was held at Katarins in Southsea and was a lovely evening. However, the staff were a little over zealous and yelled at me for using the little boys room! I'm sure girls will agree that if you have to go, you have to go & if there's a queue for yours then you have to use your initiative. Honestly having one lady's loo in a bar should be made illegal & it didn't have a mirror but the lad's loo did, weird! I also wore new shoes which hurt but they looked pretty.
* Went to a spa for the day with my Mum. It was a delayed Mother's day present as she'd been ill at the time. Discovered that being pampered when you're normally at work is grand!
* I watched my friend Della and her housemate Emma run the Race For Life for Cancer Research UK in Richmond Park. Both did great times & more importantly raised money for charidee - well done ladies.
* I went to Gran Canaria for a week with my friend Michelle. Lots of love must go Apartment Lara, El Brisserio restaurant & the inhabitants of the next door apartment: Shaun (Batman), James & Dave. I'll never be able to listen to Shakira in the same way again!!
Lastly three events where work becomes social:
* We all went to Goodwood races on the 16th June where the champagne was free and plentiful - just the way I like it!
* Had a Marketing team meal at Loch Fyne in Gunwharf using our incentive points that we're awarded at work.
* Attended Jackie Stewart's hen party which was fab. She's the Sales Manager here at Jobsite & is currently off getting married in Thailand. Congratulations Jackie.
If this makes you think that you'd like to work here then check out Joe's 'I Only Want To Work In London' blog, or check out current Jobsite vacancies.
I'm going to leave for now as my 'to-do' list beckons but I promise I will return soon to tell you about my weekend in Newquay & update you on my house purchase.
Take care.
The Wanderer Returns (Part 1)
August 3, 2006 12:57 PM
Aloha! Huge apologies for this way overdue entry but things have been pretty hectic at Jobsite over the past weeks (more about this later). I've also been away sunning myself in Gran Canaria for a week, a very well deserved break I feel!
I have to say that I'm a little hurt that there weren't any messages of concern about my absence from the blog page! I realise that I'm not always the most regular of bloggers but I thought perhaps one or two people may have enquired as to my whereabouts. However, the other bloggers do such a fine job that it is understandable that I was not missed too much. I'm hoping you'll give me a warm welcome back though with lots of messages to this blog.
Where to start? Well in the few weeks (ahem!) since my last blog both inside & outside of work has been a hive of activity. I don't know about you but I find it so much easier to be productive at work when you've got cool stuff going on outside it as well. Some people say they find it hard to work during the summer as if you're office bound, watching the sun outside can be a little depressing. However, the upside is that the evenings stay light until way later and so if you arrange stuff to do it after 5.30pm it encourages you to leave work on time & go enjoy the rest of the day.
So what exactly has been happening in work? Well...
* An exciting new search is now in place and it's gone down a storm so far. Candidates are saying that it returns more relevant jobs to them & makes the site easier to use. You can read more about this in Tristan's latest blog.
* We've had almost 500 requests for our White Paper, which looks at the difficulties faced in the recruitment process from both the candidate and recruiter side. It also has helpful advice on how to overcome these. These requests have come far and wide, from candidates to HR Directors to agency recruitment consultants.
A lot of hard work went into this White Paper and we're so proud of the end result that we're using it as the basis of an industry panel debate at two upcoming HR Seminars. There are loads of other interesting speakers at the event too, so if you're in the HR community & are free on either the 26th September in the London area or the 28th September in Leeds check out this link:
www.engageevents.com
* We've been running a survey across our partner European sites looking at how different people view work-life balance. This is a pretty hot topic at the moment but we're looking at it in a slightly different way. Many people think that work-life balance means working less hours, taking a sabbatical, working from home etc but that depends on the individual's view of work & life. For some people the best balance for them would be a 70 hour working week and relatively little 'free' time as they get their biggest enjoyment from the challenges at work. There have been some pretty interesting results coming back so far but as this hasn't completely finished yet I'll save these findings for a later entry.
* There was some desk movement activity in marketing. At first I wasn't too happy about packing all my stuff and being uprooted but I have to admit that it was quite helpful in the fact that it forced me to recycle practically a whole forest of documents/magazines/newspapers etc that I'm never going to need again. However, my back is now to the window & I'm not sure how I feel about that, if anyone knows anything about Feng Shui I'd like your opinion on this. I'm also next to the Artic air con vents but as some of you may be reading this in boiling offices I'll shut up complaining about this!
Stay tuned for my next installment which wil be live on Monday and will focus on my out of work shenanigans.
Enjoy the sun, but not too much as sunstroke & leathery skin are not good for anyone! If you have any questions you would like to ask me, get writing now!
PS Oh and if you know anything about Feng Shui can you tell me about it?!
What Cheryl did next
May 9, 2006 5:05 PM
I promised in my last blog, prior to the weekend: that I'd return & let you know what I got up to & seeing as I pride myself on not being a liar here you go:
Well it all started off so civilised. I caught the train straight from work (left a tad early, wonder if that's linked to my pro flexible working entry?!*) & headed to Della's house in Shepherd's Bush for a lovely dinner.
We then met Laura & Kirsty in the Castle Bar, Ealing. As it had been a lovely day we sat outside next to one of those fab patio heater things & had a good natter.
Kirsty then 'forced' (perhaps a little strong, as we were quite persuadable at this stage) us to go to a club called the Red Rooms. It was a complete & utter dive with an average clientele age of 50! I wouldn't suggest that anyone pay the £7 entry fee (Kirsty did try to get us a group discount but they were having none of it!). The only thing that cheered me up slightly was that some poor girl was having her hen night in there; I know I'm in hell if that happens to me!
Anyway, we quickly departed and took a slow trek to the bus stop to catch the joyous night bus home. My shoes were off at this point so I'm praying that Ealing streets are kept clean. Be warned, there are many unofficial taxis in Ealing. I believe that some people would call them kerb crawlers - they took a particular shine to Della, lucky lady! If you want an experience in keeping it real then I would definitely suggest the N270 bus - big shout out to the fat Irish swimmer! Got in around 3am I believe.
Saturday morning was a right off except for a trip to Costcutters to get tablets, teabags, milk, beans & a copy of The Sun - happy days! Provided a great flashback to those Uni days that I'd been missing. Also much viewing of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. If you've seen one of these & haven't cried then you have a stone heart! Della & I were blubbing big style.
Ventured out late afternoon to have a beverage with our friend Strawberry in Brick Lane. Big thumbs up to Cafe 1000 for their homemade sugary treats which got me back on my feet.
Saturday evening Fi came up & we all went out for a quiet meal in Ruislip. Well the intention was for it to be quiet but we never seem to achieve that when we're all together. Apologies to the birthday boy behind us for the rather animated chat. I was even back on the wine at this point, well done me!
Sunday was home, unpack, washing & off to the gym to try and feel more virtuous. Ummm & then home for a roast dinner & chocolate gateau (I've been good so far this week though & I think the skinny look is so overrated!)
Some pictorial evidence of the weekend
On arrival at Castle Bar...
On exiting Castle Bar...
Oh dear, when will I learn that poking my tongue out like that is neither big, clever or more importantly attractive! My Mother would be so proud!
Last but not least, a few parting notes from recent news stories that link to my last blog:
1) Madonna discussing the difficulties of Worklife Balance: It's a struggle
2) Chris Simmons developing DVT from spending too long at his computer, a reason for flexible working if ever I heard one:Working makes you ill
And as a definite parting note check out this fab new tool to make your working life that little bit easier & fairer:It's tea o'clock You know what I'm talking about Marketing team!
Back soon. Take care & as always I look forward to hearing from you.
*Before people start getting huffy I worked some of my lunch!