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.

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.

'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.

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?!

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!

This weekend I shall be in the big smoke (London) with my friends Della, Kirsty, Laura & Fiona. We all met at University; Bournemouth to be precise. I lived with Della for 3 years including our work placement year in London & I lived with Kirsty & Fiona for my last year. Laura lived with Kirsty & Fiona for the second year of Uni & joined us on our celebratory, leaving Uni holiday to Turkey last summer. Still with me I hope!

I've been hankering back to Uni days at the moment although not sure why as this time last year I was doing my dissertation & that was 12,000 words of pure hell! The main reason for the reminiscing I think is the freedom & how easy it was to catch up with all your friends. I loved the fact that you could choose when you wanted to work. You see, I come alive in the evenings but I detest mornings so at Uni I could sleep in until 10.00am but work until 1am if I wanted. You could also decide when to take a day off and when to do an all nighter (somehow I always ended up doing a lot of the latter!)

On that theme, flexible working is a bit of a key topic at the minute & I'm personally all for it. I like the idea of being able to choose when you work your hours for the week. I understand that it won't work in all professions but for those where it will I think it's worth implementing. It would definitely attract me to a company but I guess its horses for courses. I'm a Balancer so this flexibility appeals to me whereas for someone who's a Contender a salary is probably more likely to be the biggest draw. What do you think on this? Does your company already operate a policy along these lines? Do you like/dislike the idea?

Anywho, I digress slightly. I'm very much looking forward to the weekend as we haven't met up as a group since Fiona's birthday in January & we weren't able to have a proper catch up then as we were out & she had other friends there. Not entirely sure what we're doing as none of us possess much decisiveness and after many emails & phone calls I think we've agreed that we'll all meet up & go from there. I shall let you know next week what mischief we got up to!

Also had a great catch up with my friends Nancy & Michelle this week who I've known since school. Chris was supposed to join us but he had the flu, hope you're feeling better now sweetpea! It's Nancy's birthday party in two weeks so that was a big topic of conversation. She's bought a beautiful dress in green but is contemplating taking it back for the black version. Now black is a timeless classic & every woman needs a little black dress in her wardrobe but green is different and it is her party. She was thinking of wearing the green dress with gold accessories & she does already have a black dress in her wardrobe. She has lovely red/brown hair with blonde highlights. Now that you have all the facts to make an informed decision I'm sure she'd welcome your thoughts on this!

I think that's one of the great things about getting older is that you have friends from different walks of life. When I was younger all my friends were from school or were my parents' friends children and so they were pretty much all local. Now that I've been to college and Uni and worked in numerous different places I have friends of different ages, that are living in various places and doing all manner of different things. The only thing I find difficult about this is keeping in touch with all of them. One minute you've just spoken and then before you turn around it's been 2 months. Does anyone else find this or am I missing some ways to make this easier?

Right, I've waffled more than enough for one entry so its toodle pip from me for now. I'll be back very soon. Look forward to hearing from you on late starts, coloured dresses & being a social butterfly - what a mixed bag! Or please feel free to drop me a line on anything else that takes your fancy.

I am pleased to announce that my blog predecessor Nikki, Marketing Executive extraordinaire, has given birth to a beautiful baby girl. The little cutie is called Olivia and came bounding into the world at a healthy 6lbs 2ozs.

I'm not sure that Nikki would choose to use the word bounding but the birth did go very well apparently. Nikki had a water birth, as she wanted, with some soothing Enya playing in the background.

Both Mother & bambino are doing well although I believe that little one has had a slight cold which means that Nikki hasn't been getting much sleep. Personally I'd be rubbish at this as if I don't get at least 8 hours there's just no point in talking to me - I think that my friends, family & colleagues will vouch for this!

Anyway I'm going to have to go for now as we have 2 short weeks due to the joy that is Easter and I've got quite a bit to get done. I'm enjoying being at my desk at the moment though as I have not 1 but 2 Easter eggs on it. Thanks to Jobsite for my Celebrations one & thank you to me for the Thorntons one! (I live by the philosophy that if you know what you want, why wait for someone else to get it for you?!)

I'll be back very soon with an update on the life & times of me but for now I will leave you with this gorgeous picture of little Olivia. Well done Nikki & Danny, you must be very proud. Come and visit us soon please!

Finally, Happy Easter to all those celebrating it. Enjoy the long, hopefully sunny, weekend. Apologies to all those people that don't have the time off - if you work in a clothes/jewellery/beauty shop or you're a hairdresser I shall probably be needing to utilise your services so thank you for remaining open, I appreciate your dedication to the cause!

If you've ever struggled to get motivated or feel like you can't achieve what you want then you HAVE to check out this cool new thing that we've created for you. I have been working like a Trojan since I was shown it, which is very handy when you have appraisals next week!

If you want to feel like nothing can defeat you and nothing can bring you down then type your first name and surname into the space provided below. To feel the full effects you have to have your speakers turned up LOUD. Be prepared to have a huge urge to run up stairs & spar like Rocky! (Disclaimer: if you are as unfit as me then I take no responsibility for wheezing or strained muscles.)

Anyway I'm going to leave you for now so that you can enjoy our little treat. Let me know what you think of it. Speak to you soon.

Newsflash...Nikki News

For any newcomers, I am temporarily replacing Nikki whilst she is off to have her bambino. On last speaking to her, she was very uncomfortable and hoping that little 'un would be arriving imminently. Her due date is rapidly approaching so let's all keep our fingers crossed that baby makes her way into the world safely. Just think, one of the names that you suggested to her before she left may be chosen, interactive baby naming is the way of the future I feel!

Since I last wrote I have been a proper busy bee. I was up in London for the Onrec awards, check out Tristan's blog for all the details on this and a lovely photo. I was also up there for a media launch of a report that we have done. I realise that I'm biased but I think it rocks. It's called 'In Pursuit of Happiness: The Challenge of Jobseeking in the UK today' and it looks at the recruitment process and how current practices cause unnecessary struggles for both candidates and employers.

A statistic that continues to amaze me from this report is that 91% of people give answers that they think the interviewer wants to hear. Kind of reminds me of the whole first date scenario, where you're keen to impress. Honestly, the number of bands/films/sports I've sworn that I love, when I haven't got a clue, is nobodies business. At the end of the day, it just doesn't pay.

The guy who wrote this report with us chatted to recruitment professionals from huge companies such as ITV, O2, Matchtech and Carphone Warehouse. We also surveyed over 2,000 jobseekers about their experiences, so it's a pretty hardcore piece of research. Understandably we're all really proud of it and the media seemed to like it too, so fingers crossed you'll see it being discussed in various places soon. We've also got loads of other plans for it and will make it available for you to see soon, but if you just can't handle the wait then just email: inpursuit@jobsite.co.uk and we'll send it to you....I can feel the dizzy anticipation already!

Phew, it might take me a while to write a blog, but once I get started I find it hard to stop! I realise that this has been quite work focused but there's been a lot going on at the moment. Rest assured, my next blog will focus on what I've been up to out of work! I'd better let you get back to all the important things that I'm sure you have going on. As before, please send any thoughts, comments, chocolate recipes, celebrity gossip etc, it's all gratefully received!

Ta, ta....

Well let's see, what can I tell you about me?

I've been at Jobsite for just over 6 months now. The route which led me to be here is a little weird as I graduated from Bournemouth Uni and decided to come back home to live with the parents and temp to pay off some student debts. I did a 2 week stint at Jobsite to cover the MD's PA's holiday, got chatting to the Marketing team whilst I was here and the next thing you know I'm back here permanently - unlucky Jobsite team, you're stuck with me now!

My job is hugely varied, which generally means I have quite a few projects on the go at once but it keeps me out of mischief, which is good! I'll tell you more about the things that I'm working on in each blog so stay tuned.

Outside of work I am trying to buy my first property. This was exciting and fun at first but now it has become a time consuming hassle. If you have any advice/tips on house hunting and purchasing then I'd love to hear them. I'm sure the marketing team, my friends & family would be grateful too as they love to hear my chirpy daily updates of how it's all going!!

Anyway this is quite a long first entry (please be warned I do like to chat!). I hope that you're all still with me. I'd love to hear from you, so even if you send a response out of pity because you don't think anyone else will, that's ok!

Bye for now....