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With the current recession, it is hard to imagine how safe any one’s jobs can be. There have been several cases of redundancies in the United Kingdom, United States of America, France, Germany, China, India, Dubai and several developed and developing countries in Africa, Asia, Middle East and South America.
Within the oil & gas sector, most companies have been able to cope with the current times by reducing development of major capital intensive projects. It is possible there have been a few cases of lay offs of staff by some oil companies.
But the major news about Shell restructuring and reducing their workforce by thousands of employees came as a surprise but also a welcomed strategy by the new CEO. Shell’s headquarters for its global downstream operations – which covers non-exploration activities – will remain in London in the UK.
They will eventually include trading and alternative energy such as biofuels so it is unlikely that many jobs in London will go, but no one knows at this stage what exactly will happen in the future. Job cuts could be heaviest at Shell’s global head office in The Hague in the Netherlands, where a lot of people have worked over long period of times for Shell and have demonstrated a reasonable level of integrity based on the supposedly job security that Shell offered.
The new CEO of Shell, Mr. Voser said that the new structure will increase accountability in the company, and improve Shell’s performance on delivering new projects and developing new technologies. These changes will increase our focus, accelerate our plans to reduce complexity, corporate overheads and costs, and result in faster decision-making and delivery.
With this restructure, thousands will be unemployed. The management addresses the event as restructuring, but do they understand the impact of families of the laid off workers. There financial commitments, education of their children and the projects that they have embarked on. Companies have to realize the gravity of the impact, what were their strategies when they were expanding and hiring more workers. The current situation again is a blow to the economic condition.
With this loss of jobs, many Shell employees are unsure of what the future holds for them and might decide to start looking for oil jobs soon.
Other major oil companies like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Total, Statoil, BP and ConocoPhillips will likely be searching for suitable Shell employees that they can absorb. However, job seekers who find themselves in a situation where jobs cut are planned should start posting their CVs on suitable oil jobsites, so that recruiters and employers can find them quickly and contact them for relevant jobs.
It is very imperative to be proactive about searching for oil jobs as with the recession their will likely be more people searching for these jobs at the same time as you, and its advisable to have a right frame of mind and be willing to consider other related positions, even if what one exactly wants doesn’t come by very quickly.
Hence, for all those finding themselves in this very hard times and wondering what to do – the best thing is to put yourself together and start making yourself ready and available for oil jobs available out there. The earlier you start, it’s always the better.
If you are a Shell employee and now considering a fresh search for oil jobs in order to retain your progression within the oil careers industry, you might want to visit Careers Oil Gas today.
It is easy to let something put you off applying for cruise ship jobs. Perhaps you don’t think you have enough experience, or you don’t know whether now is the right time. However, one thing that should definitely not put you off is your nationality.
Some people think that if they are not American this will hurt their employment prospects, but this could not be further from the truth. Not being a US citizen is a surprisingly popular concern for a lot of people hoping to land a position on a cruise ship, but the truth is that they don’t need to worry.
If you asked any crew member they would quickly tell you that this is simply not an issue.
But still some people get it into their heads that when it comes to finding cruise ship jobs, not being American puts them at a disadvantage. There is a logic as to why people think this: the world’s largest market for cruising is the USA.
Here the industry just keeps on growing, and it is now worth billions of dollars. The cruise ship presence in America is therefore very large, especially with the Caribbean on its doorstep.
But the logic does not really make sense. Some people believe that it is only the Americans who can find cruise ship jobs, but this is simply not the case. Cruise lines employ staff from all over the world, from pretty much anywhere that you can imagine. If you can think of the country, there are people from there working on cruise ships.
It is not that strange to find in excess of seventy or eighty different nationalities working aboard just one cruise ship. That is a huge number of different nationalities, and it’s one of the things that makes a cruise ship job so interesting. Meeting people from so many different countries, sharing your experiences, and finding out about different cultures makes this industry one of the most interesting around.
If you find work on a cruise ship you’ll be working with people from Britain to South Africa and all the other English-speaking countries. But that’s not all because often you will be working with people from Europe, North Africa, Asia and South America.
Once you realize just how many different people from so many countries work aboard cruise ships, you’ll think how funny it was that you could ever have worried about not being American and thinking that it was an obstacle in your way to getting your dream cruise ship job. It is strange how these myths pop up, and sometimes there is a bit of truth to them. But now you can be certain that this myth is exactly that.
Never let anyone lead you to believe that it is more difficult to get a cruise ship job if you’re not from the USA because it just isn’t true. If you believe that then you might miss out on an experience that is unlike any other, and quite possibly you’ll miss out on having the best time of your life.
Neil Maxwell-Keys is an ex-crewmember, hiring expert and best-selling author of “Get a Cruise Ship Job!”. Claim Neil’s popular free e-book TODAY which shows you how to get cruise ship jobs, quickly & easily. Available at: => http://www.WorkOnCruiseShips.com
Oil roles
if you are searching for a new oil Job or want to go into the industry, a great spot to start is oiljobcentre.com here you may find thousands of oil and gas industry vacancies. This super web site is dedicated to grease work seekers and recruiters from around the globe, everything is totally free!
job hunters can announce their availability and submit their CV to the masses of bosses who visit the oil Job Centre every day, bosses can then contact work seekers at once as fast as a satisfactory vacancy in the oil industry becomes available, this service like the rest is fully free!
work seekers can rapidly search oil and gas roles by keywords or class, oil job classifications include administration, alternative energy, commercial, contracts, design, drilling, engineering, environment, finance, geosciences, H&S, HR/personnel/training, IT/communications, legal, logistics/procurement, management, Marine/diving/ROV, operations, production, quality/inspection/assurance, sales/marketing, science, technician, terminal/refinery/distribution, trading, well engineering.
Oil and gas Job types offered include both contract, expert and staff positions.
Oil and gas Job vacancies can be searched across regions which include Africa, East Asia, Australasia, Canada, Central America, Central Pacific edge, Europe, former Soviet union, Middle East, South America, US, UK. Or countries with an oil and gas industry which includes Afghanistan, all Judea, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Germany, India, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Libya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, SA, Sudan, Switzerland, Sweden, Trinidad, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, U. A.
ultimately in this very busy forum you may also find the oil and gas industry regional forums, regions included in the forums are Africa, East Pacific Rim, Australasia, Canada, Central America, Central East Pacific Rim, Europe, the previous Soviet union, Middle East, South America, US, UK, this forum is superb for nationals of the already discussed regions and countries it’s also super for ex-pats working in the previously mentioned regions and main oil producing states. At the oil Job Centre you may also find the latest oil and gas industry news, this is consistently updated during the day and news comes in from all four corners of the planet, you will also subscribe to the monthly oiljobcentre.com newsletter which contains all of the months most imperative oil and gas industry news into one easily read newsletter.
alert certain roles within the oil industry can be hazardous and perilous, you are suggested to research fastidiously, be sure you get the mandatory and needed health safety security and environment training, you have to think and live safety at all points whilst working in the oil industry!
Oil Job centre also has an intensive education and training section, here you’ll find information on coaching, institutes, varsities, varsities, courses.
Oil Job centre also has a salary checker where you can immediately check on the present day rates and wages for your chosen oil industry profession, this is continually updated and is one of the most elaborate and up-to-date free pay scale resources available on the net today.
Oil Job centre also hosts oil TV where you’ll find thousands of oil industry videos, in reality largest depositary of oil and gas industry videos on the World Wide Web
http://www.oiljobcentre.com/.
Want more information on oil job search, ? Just visit our site, oiljobcentre.com
It might not yet have the same profile as South Asia or Eastern Europe, but Latin America is becoming an increasingly popular destination for organizations looking to establish shared service centers, either serving domestic markets or as part of regional or even global shared services strategies. Furthermore, along with this growth in the captive sector Latin America has become the focus of growing interest on the part of major outsourcing providers whose entry into the market has had knock-on consequences across the board. Throw into this already-volatile mix the current economic instability and it’s easy to see why the region’s activity is making waves across and beyond the shared services and outsourcing space in 2009.
The Shared Services & Outsourcing Network convened a panel representing practitioners, providers and advisors to take a look at the current level of maturity of the Latin American market and to examine how – and if – the economic malaise affecting much of the rest of the global economy is impacting upon operations in the region.
Attending were:
Laura Bao Castro
CR FSSC Controller
Intel Corporation
Esteban Carril
Director, Latin America Finance Operations
EMC Corporation
Mauro Mezzano
Partner
Vantaz Group Consulting
Ricardo Neves
PwC Global Sourcing Leader for South America
PricewaterhouseCoopers
SSON: I think the first question we should look at is: is it right to talk of “Latin American shared services” at all? Latin America is a very big region geographically and in terms of population; it’s got a smaller linguistic diversity than, for example, Europe, but there are still very big differences between, say, Brazil and Costa Rica. To what extent is it actually possible for organizations – captive or BPO – to take a truly regional approach in Latin America? Is it impossible to avoid having significant resources in individual countries?
Ricardo Neves: This is a region different from other regions in the world. If you talk about intra-region services, you’re talking about two major languages which are, in some ways, close to each other; you have also a closeness of overall culture; and usually what you see with multinational or regional operations here is that the larger countries like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile correspond to a significant size of the operations. Usually if you look at most of the global or multinational companies in the region, they have 50% or even 75% of their operations carried out in two or three countries at most – and then 10, 12 other countries where they do have operations but which make up only 25% or less of their business.
This gives a challenge when setting up a regional center, because there is a scale for the larger countries which is not present in the smaller ones – and what I’ve seen here is a mix between totally centrally run shared services and a lesser local presence in smaller countries to make sure the right scale is achieved and the right support is done at the regional level. There are companies based in Brazil that I’ve seen who have regional shared services – like the brewer AmBev, now connected with InBev and AnhauserBusch, which has a very large regional shared services based in Sao Paulo serving not just operations in the region, but also the firm’s operations in Canada for the Labatt operations. Unilever has also set up an HR shared services – and has just sold its finance shared services to Capgemini in the region.
In sum, from those large operations that I’ve seen, as I said I’ve seen a mix of some centralised services and some small countries with local services combined.
Esteban Carril: We’re serving Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil. My team is divided into three functional areas, in two countries. One team is working in Sao Paulo, Brazil; the other two functional teams are working here in Argentina. We run accounts payable, accounts receivable, credit and collections, billing, cash applications, payroll, commissions and bonuses. It’s actually not divided linguistically: we found we already had some good skills in Brazil to develop the credit and collections department there, so we decided to leave the existing group providing services there in Brazil, to provide services for the rest of the Latin American countries. We wanted to have three functional groups, but we wanted to try to keep the same skilled people working and we didn’t want to have to move them from one country to another.
Laura Bao Castro: We’re part of a global strategy. We have currently two pretty large financial shared services centers in Intel. One is located in Malaysia and the other one is located here in Costa Rica; the markets that are supported from Costa Rica are Canada, the US, Costa Rica, and Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
SSON: Laura and Esteban, you both come from big global organizations with significant worldwide presence. Do you think it’s still the biggest companies who are setting up shared services in Latin America or are the smaller, or maybe mid-market, organizations also getting involved?
Laura Bao Castro: I think the mid-market is coming up. I was able to go to [SSON’s Shared Services America Latina 2008 event in] Chile last year, and also participated in the SSON conference in Mexico City, and I was very surprised by the number of Latin American multinationals that have already moved into this journey, or are in the process of doing so – especially in Mexico where I think a lot of companies are looking into it, even having shared services within Mexico itself. The concept is right there; they know they can reduce costs and produce more quality with shared services, and even within Mexico itself companies are developing shared service centers.
Mauro Mezzano: Actually we’ve been seeing this shift since two or three years ago. At the start of the decade many multinationals began establishing shared services in the region, but when I went to conferences in Miami and Orlando there weren’t many Latin American-owned companies present. Then in 2004, 2005, bigger local companies and groups started with the concept. Now smaller and smaller companies are doing it; some of them don’t really implement what we would call shared services but they do centralize and they do take a few concepts from shared service centers, and perhaps redesign a process. The influence of shared services is spreading out through many more companies than before.
Ricardo Neves: I’ve seen an increase in interest: among mid-market companies it’s less regional. What I’ve seen is among large companies, they’ve done a lot of rationalization in each of their countries of operation, and a lot of discussion about regional shared services. What I’ve seen in the mid-market, specifically in Brazil, are still questions on “in-country” shared services if you know what I mean. It’s more making sure that they leverage their local operations, and then as a second step – especially with some of the systems work done – it’s something of a done deal to set up something regional: when you have a regional systems platform, for example.
SSON: Let’s shift focus slightly and take a look at the outsourcing market in Latin America. Over the past couple of years we’ve seen the entry into the region of some of the big global players – in particular some of the big Indian providers. What impact has that had on the market – and on firms that are running shared services?
Esteban Carril: In my experience in leading a shared service centre I have been trying to find different ways to do things, and finding vendors who can provide services in a more efficient and economical way than us doing it ourselves. When it comes to the outsourcing sector, I find that in Latin America things are still in development. When it comes to outsourcing it’s important to see how well-organized companies are, and how well they provide services in multiple countries – and I see the challenge for many of the big firms is that they are still working as independent companies in each country, and not really regionally organized in order to provide services to multi-country shared service centers.
I think that’s one of the key points that I’ve been finding. Another key point is that some companies are regionalized but unfortunately they might not have presence in all markets, so that becomes a problem in terms of finding a single regional outsourcing solution to meet our needs.
Laura Bao Castro: About five years ago companies providing outsource service arrived to Costa Rica. Since then, these companies have grown , for example HP has now close to 8,000 employees. While I can’t be specific about their services or regions they serve, these companies look for people speaking Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian – even Chinese. We do not work specifically with an outsource vendor at this moment – but periodically we reassess our current strategy.
Ricardo Neves: One of the features that I’ve noticed, one of the movements in the outsourcing space in Latin America, is that there’s been a lot of currency fluctuation between the dollar and the real, and the dollar and other currencies, and I’ve seen some discussions on contract review – especially for service providers – from both sides: if the clients want to take advantage of that, or even discuss relocation of some work; or if the providers are saying that an increasing cost is related to currency fluctuation putting added pressure on their margins. Definitely currency fluctuations have been one of the biggest topics of discussion in the region.
SSON: OK, let’s move on and address the big issue of the moment and, perhaps, of many moments to come: the financial crisis and global economic downturn, and their impact upon shared services and the sourcing sector in the region. Ricardo, what do you see as having been the main changes in the space since the beginning of the main phase of the crisis in October?
Ricardo Neves: What I’ve seen is basically a larger interest in discussing measures to reduce costs. Some of the plans that were lined up to be rolled out in the future have now become more interesting for discussion now; specifically, if they can help reduce costs. The mood, the willingness to do something now has increased. Organizations today want to do something bolder than they were willing to do even six months ago. We used to hear things from the business like “don’t disrupt my growth”, “don’t rock the boat”; now executives are coming and saying “hey, where can we make this boat more nimble? How can we rock the boat but at the same time make us leaner and more prepared?”
I’ve seen this happening in a couple of ways. One is, clients coming to us looking for an overall assessment of cost reduction – which usually includes the theme of shared services. Secondly, we’re also having a lot of discussions on reviewing outsourcing contracts – or even making those contracts broader, in order to ensure they are capturing all the value they could based on the relationship. So overall what I’m seeing is an increased willingness to take bold measures to ensure cost reduction.
SSON: Do firms still have money to spend on big implementations, or is it about making changes as cheap as possible?
Ricardo Neves: I think a lot of it is, as you say, to make things as cheap as possible, as fast as possible. But I’ve seen some room to say “if I need to spend that to get that back, then let me hear what you have to say”. Again, I think firms are more willing to do things than they were before – but no-one’s saying they’ve got a big pile of money to reduce their costs. What they need to do is support the investment through the cost reduction itself.
SSON: Moving over to the practitioners: Laura and Esteban, how have you been responding to the crisis? Has it had a big impact on your business and are you looking at operations in a different way?
Laura Bao Castro: Intel Corporation has been, over the past 2.5 years, on a restructuring and efficiency program that has resulted in run-rate savings of greater than three billion dollars, CapEx avoidance in excess of one billion dollars, and a reduction of twenty thousand employees from our peak in 2006. We as part of the Corporation are taking actions to contribute in this process. We are doing a big effort to reduce discretionary spending and one example is travel. We are also increasing the number of meetings over the phone and are focusing on productivity and efficiencies so we can do more with the same.
Esteban Carril: Laura mentions the travel and entertainment reduction, and this is clearly an area where we have tried to pay close attention – but as a matter of fact I think that there is no doubt that the economic crisis will bring new opportunities for shared services here in Latin America. I think this might now be a great time to demonstrate that Latin America is a reliable region, especially for global shared services. As we speak my company is looking for new opportunities in emerging markets. Right now we are looking for a shared service center for sales operations here in Latin America; this might be a great opportunity for consolidation and cost efficiency.
Like Laura we have accelerated process improvements and efficiencies, and tightened our controls over expenses; we are also now implementing new tools to give us better visibility of customer usage patterns and people’s performance, in order to drive customers to more efficient services. Those services that may be high-cost and are not being used by our customers are the ones that we would like to either outsource or discontinue. We have also identified other opportunities to expand our scope of services by leveraging our shared services to serve new internal customers, and redirecting our services to areas where they can add more value… [Regarding discretionary spending] As Laura mentioned, we have to do more with the same; in my case I’m trying to engage people from my shared services to lead some of these projects. On other cases we will prioritize those projects where we see there is a clear benefit in costs in the short term.
Mauro Mezzano: What I would say is, working in shared services implementations in 2000, 2001, everybody was looking towards cost reductions. Then moving through 2005, 2006, 2007 and last year – up to October, of course! – I had, as a consultant, many customers who were very focused on growing, so they were very interested in preparing for big growth rates. Now, after October last year, once again I’m getting many calls from people looking for cost reductions, and being very proactive in implementing projects with quick results. I think it’s come back to that, and I think as Esteban was saying, in our region some countries become even more interesting for multinationals to do medium-to-long-term cost reductions because the labor costs are under what they can see in other regions.
Something which is different from the 2000 period, in 2008, 2009, 2010, I think the offshoring/BPO providers are really appearing here in Latin America, and this could be a very interesting moment to potentiate that outsourcing and offshoring business.
SSON: Have you been seeing clients are coming to you with the need to do more with the same amount of money, or reduced budgets?
Mauro Mezzano: I’ve been seeing both. Some of the clients that were working here during 2008 in shared services have come to me and said “Sorry, I cannot come anymore with this budget because my company is in a crisis”; but at the same time I’ve been having new calls from customers who weren’t working with us previously, but who really want to work with us because they’ve got a new approach to shared services. The market is still very open and diverse, but I think it’s going to narrow down into cost reductions during March and onwards.
SSON: Obviously globally over the last few years one very big question has been how to attract and retain talent. Recently however as the economy has worsened there has been the feeling in other parts of the world that talent acquisition and retention isn’t going to be such an issue over the foreseeable future, because people aren’t going to be willing to move out of secure jobs. Is this mirrored in what’s happening in Latin America right now?
Laura Bao Castro: You know, Costa Rica is behaving very differently from other markets, specifically in the service industry. This year is no different; and the projection is 3,500 new jobs, so we actually have a pretty hot market. Talent retention is critical for our success.
In terms of our sourcing strategy, we work very closely with the technical schools – particularly the accounting technical schools – and the public university that provides accounting professionals. We provide internship programs for technical school graduates and a student program for university students: we bring those people while they’re still studying to work part-time for us – some of them in an internship mode, some as what we call “student workers” – and by the time they graduate, and if we feel that they have delivered to our expectations – we offer them full-time jobs. That has been a very successful strategy that we implemented about six years ago, and we have a conversion rate of 95%.
In addition we provide English classes to those employees to ensure that by the time they get converted they have reached the level of English that we require to do our jobs, because we offer services to the North American market and a lot of our jobs will require a certain level of English capability. So that’s a sourcing strategy that I think has proven to be very successful for us, and it gives a continuous pipeline of new employees coming in.
In the area of talent retention, Intel is a company that believes in flexibility and we do provide a lot of flexibility to our employees. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the term “Generation Y” for people born after 1980; 80% of the population that I manage are Generation Y, young people with very different mentalities – they have a different chip in their minds from mine, for example – and they value flexibility very much, so we have programs like what we call “telecommuting” where they’re able to work from home up to two days a week. They have different start and ending times – some of these employee are going to school so they need flexibility to continue their studies – we have found through the surveys and questionnaires that flexibility is one of the main reasons why they choose to stay with us. We provide portable computers to all our employees which they can take home – and this generation are technology-growers, of course, so they love that.
These two things have really been proven to help us retain employees – in addition to the career development of course. One of the beauties of shared services is that you manage different functions, you manage different groups, and if someone wants to start a career they will have the opportunity to move into these different groups and become a rounded professional.
SSON: Esteban, how are you finding the employment market – and has there been a shift in your acquisition and retention strategies as a result of the economic crisis?
Esteban Carril: In our case – and I would say that this applies for every other shared services in Latin America – turnover rate is one of the most challenging areas for shared services. We have been doing several things to retain our talent. We have been cross training – so, for example, when an employee comes to work in one department we offer them some exposure to other areas of operations, to other processes, so they can learn other activities and processes which as Laura pointed out adds more value to their own career.
This year we are also offering a new service inside shared services which is that we loan employees to other areas, so for example if a business area needs an extra person because someone goes on maternity leave, or even leaves the company, we provide them with people as a service. If our people are trained in other systems and other processes we can add value by moving those people to other areas where they can spend two or three months. We’re offering that as another service from our shared service centre.
Another area is flexible time. The nature of our business is, 70% of our business takes place within the last three weeks of the quarter so we really need to be flexible with our people. We let them do some telecommuting, we offer flexible time, because – as Laura pointed out – you should give them some kind of freedom inside the company. We provide English and Portuguese classes as well.
The key here is that we’ve signed some agreements with universities through which we bring new people on board; we usually train them in those areas which are more transactional, so they gain experience – and then we move them around, not only inside shared services but also outside, offering them now career opportunities in the business, in different countries, in our local finance team. So we offer them several routes to success inside our company.
SSON: Are you thinking that turnover is still going to be an issue for you in a worsening economy and a consequently tightening job market?
Esteban Carril: I think right now, there are several companies that are letting people go, and I think the labor market will be better for us. However, inflation is still a problem – particularly in Argentina – so when it comes to retention we would expect to be reactive in terms of salary adjustments, to ensure competitive salaries. So in general terms I think the market’s going to be quieter; however, we should always keep an eye on the need for salary adjustments – especially with the inflation fluctuations we may see in coming years.
SSON: Ricardo, what’s your take on the job market and the pressures on talent management at the moment? Have things changed as a result of October’s events?
Ricardo Neves: Some of the clients I support have said the pressure on them has increased to deliver a good service at a lower cost, and the best way to do that is with good people. So I think the search for good people, and the importance of retaining them, and working the talent market, is still a big challenge as we go into crisis mode. Even though when you think about it there might be a little more availability of resources on the market, when you look at the example we’ve heard of Costa Rica – or even Brazil, where companies are going more into the interior of the country and looking at other cities inside Brazil to be able to retain a good flow of people coming out of universities, and have been growing very fast throughout the country – shared services and new organizations coming in are going after talent very fast, wherever it is; so I don’t believe it will be an easier time managing talent for shared services during the crisis we have now.
SSON: And have you noticed – or are you forecasting – a drop in attrition rates over the next few months?
Ricardo Neves: Not at this point; considering what I’ve both from clients and from providers with whom I’ve been working closely I have not seen any significant change in those rates at this point, in Brazil particularly.
SSON: And will the increased operation of big BPO providers have an impact here?
Ricardo Neves: I think so. I have not seen a slowdown in any way in the growth of the shared service centers either from providers or companies going after it. So even if there is any increase in supply I don’t think demand will decrease; actually, I think demand will increase from both existing shared services and from new companies coming into the market. I don’t foresee an easier time on turnover rates or talent retention.
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Jamie Liddell has worked in journalism since he was a 17-year-old cub reporter for The Tico Times, Costa Rica’s highly regarded English-language weekly newspaper. Holding an MA in English from Clare College, Cambridge University, Jamie came to SSON from the world of overseas property publishing where he worked on the industry’s best-selling publications for the UK and Ireland, and gave seminars at consumer and b2b exhibitions and conferences internationally.
You have been there, seen this, done that… What next? You have plenty of both money and vacation time; Then, there are still some things that you can do, which would make for an interesting vacation while at the same time enable you to give something back to society. Whether a medical professional or a person with building skills, there are plenty of avenues where your skill and expertise can be utilized to help community. There are also programs which need you to work by the side of the members of the local community.
All over the world there are a lot of openings in orphanages, homes for the aged, in schools and to work with the disabled, for you to take up what suits your interests while volunteering your services. Such useful jobs will be an inspiration in themselves while also instilling gratitude in you for what you have got in life.
Natural disasters like the tsunami have wreaked a lot of damage and no amount of help both physical and financial seems enough. There are still large expanses of beaches which need to be cleared, and many of the displaced people still need to be habilitated. People with building skills can be of much help in such situations.
For those of you who would rather work in projects which involve ecology, there are many opportunities too. These range from planting more than two thousand saplings towards reforestation in Kenya, to clearing beaches in Sri Lanka, and fencing to protect wildlife in Australia and working towards preserving the Croatian Griffon vultures. There are also other projects like the one undertaken by a voluntary group for the past one year to rehabilitate sick penguins in order to re-introduce them to the wild, in South America, or in Costa Rica where turtle hatchlings are let out.
Holiday work by way of teaching English to those for whom it is not a local language is another option. Organizations are there which offer training in sports and basic education to children in countries which are under developed. There are also rehabilitation centers for children who are drug addicts.
Having a good time, while also helping others is a great way to spend one’s vacation. This is a definite way to spread goodwill and show the world that Americans do care.
Opting for this sort of a vacation could often take you to a place which you may have never had a chance of visiting otherwise. You would have a great time, and go back with the satisfaction that you have helped to make things better for the people of that community, and done your bit to spread peace and harmony.
In the year 2011, there will be more contact center jobs Philippines and in India than there are surgeons in those respective countries. This is according to recent reports of an independent study. It can be very frustrating to hear such news. If you are living in India, the Philippines, China, South America, or any other prime offshore outsourcing contact center countries, then read on.
The globalization that has come full swing at the turn of the century has reached its peak for offshore outsourced contact center jobs. Philippines, Indian, and Chinese governments all promote this industry obviously because it gives to country not only more jobs that has highly competitive salaries it also increases the country’s over all GDP.
Consider the following fact. Most nurses and medical technology assistants earn approximately have as much or even lower than the earnings of a typical call center agent. There have been in fact so many nursing and med tech graduates who have fallen under the allure of the industry’s pay. In such third world countries where labor is dirt cheap and where the government no financial aid whatsoever (they only have feeding programs to the people who live in slums such as the ones found inside garbage dumps), having a good pay is a bigger incentive than getting a good job.
You also have to consider another factor to this mess of contact center jobs in the Philippines and India which is the process of brain drain. The medical professionals take up nursing just because it is a hot job in the United States or Europe or any other first world country. What happens is the best medical professionals in those countries are siphoned over to the first world countries and those who are left in the third world countries feel that their job is not worth the salary they are getting. This is why the pull of call centers on these people is so great. Think about it, the hours are the same, but medical staffers schedules are often times much more volatile. Then think of the stress a nurse has to go through. Contact center jobs Philippines and in India are definitely hard, but still compared to hospital work where you life and death are in your hands and where the psychological stress is so high with all the pain and death around you there is no contest.
What is to happen with these professionals? The offshore outsourcing contact center industry is doing a number on third world countries welfare sectors.
Maria is a full college professor and a volunteer social worker. Know about the industry. contact center jobs Philippines is a competitive landscape. Get up to date information.
Jobrapido brings the next generation of online recruiting to Europe: Job search rather than Job posting.
The number of companies and recruiting agencies that post vacancies on their own websites increases rapidly, Jobrapido job seekers with a unique possibility: you can search through the vacancies posted on traditional job boards and on all other sites containing employment opportunities from one spot.
Jobrapido works like a search engine: you enter a job title and/or a location and you obtain a list with all of the vacancies posted on hundreds of websites which match your search criteria. They are sorted by date, starting from the most recent ones. The great advantage of Jobrapido is that the results page clearly indicates vacancy title, location, employer, the site on which each vacancy is posted and the date. Thus, job hunters can choose the most proper vacancies which match their job expectations and qualifications easily.
With Jobrapido, job seekers may also subscribe Jobletter and be daily notified by email of all the latest job vacancies matching their search criteria. It is a useful opportunity for those who do not want to check up the site every day.
Jobrapido project was launched in Milan (Italy) and has already achieved a top three position among most popular employment related websites in Italy. It has been rapidly developing through all over Europe and South America. In Europe Jobrapido sites provide already up to 2 millions of job vacancies arranged according to profession and location.
Since the beginning Jobrapido Team has been an enthusiastic, multilingual and multicultural group which aims to create the most modern internet platform for online job searching. In fact, with Jobrapido employment search may turn significantly easier and effective not only for job seekers but for employers and other websites as well.
As soon as the interview has finished, don’t rest for a second because there are a few effective tactics you can apply that will greatly improve your chances of getting cruise ship jobs.
These top tips will set you apart from your competitors and give you that leading edge.
Send the recruiting company a post interview cover letter
It’s a nice idea to send a letter after your interview, saying ‘thank you’ to the recruiter. This is a rarely used but very effective technique and applying it correctly can get you hired. You can rest assured no one else interviewed has even thought to send a letter such as this.
In the post interview cover letter, re-affirm your enthusiasm and desire to gain cruise line employment. Say how interested you are in working for the company and restate your availability. If your interview went really well, mention that as well.
Keep this letter short and to the point – only a few paragraphs are necessary. Be enthusiastic and friendly when you’re writing and don’t forget to actually ask for the job! Address the letter personally to whoever conducted your interview.
Sending a post interview cover letter will ensure you have a great advantage over the other applicants, who more than likely will be sitting at home just hoping to hear back from the employer. This re-instates your passion and determination for cruise line employment and makes you stand out from the crowd.
Respond to a rejection letter
This may sound unusual if not a bit crazy but believe it or not, it can actually land you cruise line employment! Hardly anybody would ever think to do this and it will give you the edge over your competition and could even secure you the job.
An example of this is a girl who recently had an interview with one of the leading cruise lines and unfortunately received a rejection letter the following week. Of course, she was extremely upset by this, as she badly wanted the job.
The majority of people would dwell on this disappointment and maybe even give up the idea of obtaining cruise ship jobs but not this girl. With great determination she sent a letter straight back to the company, thanking them for the interview and their time. In her reply, she also re-affirmed her aspirations to gain employment with them.
Less than a week later the recruiter contacted her. The winning candidate for the vacancy had changed her mind and no longer wanted the job. The recruiter was calling to give her the job!
She has since found out she was amongst several other applicants short listed for the job but after receiving her response to the rejection letter, the hiring staff made the decision she was just the person for the job. She’s now enjoying a six-month cruise round South America and the Caribbean – and getting paid for it!
This is an excellent example of where persistence and determination will pay off in the end. It’s almost guaranteed that no other job seeker would send a reply to their letter of rejection.
When you ooze energy and purpose like this, you’re displaying to potential employers just how desirable you are as a candidate. Persevering, whilst remaining polite, will really show how big an asset you will be to any cruise ship job.
Neil Maxwell-Keys is a former crewmember, hiring expert and founder of WorkOnCruiseShips.com: a website dedicated to showing you how to realize your dream of getting cruise ship jobs. Get Neils *free* insider report by visiting =>
http://www.WorkOnCruiseShips.com
The Construction Industry operates on a global scale with many opportunities to work abroad. The developed world maintains many types of project, including continuation, decommissioning and environmental work, much of which is implemented by some of the industry’s leading companies, who are diversifying into new markets. Factors such as tourism and the continuing rise in the global population have increased the demand for housing, commercial buildings, high-rise constructions, industrial processing plants and new and improved transport infrastructures.
New markets are arising in countries with unused natural resources. Countries such as South Africa, South America and Russia are providing budding opportunities in this area, whilst countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Dubai are plowing billions of pounds worth of investment into housing, hospitals as well as residential and tourist developments. Other industries are having a positive effect on the construction industry; India has achieved an almost overnight success within its IT sector. As outsourcing and the off-shoring of international business have grown in conjunction with the development of this IT industry so, too, has the demand for commercial, residential and retail constructions. China is also offering substantial opportunities for jobs in construction as its changing infrastructure demands new housing and power developments.
UK qualifications are well-respected worldwide by construction recruitment organizations, offering British workers considerable opportunities to work overseas. Whilst overseas project tend to favour more experienced graduates, many multinational companies will readily take on more-recently qualified graduates into their ranks. Contracts overseas can mean long periods of time away from the UK and, in some cases, working longer hours than UK contracts stipulate. However, in these circumstances, many companies offer employees additional pay allowances and extra money to assist the costs of intermittent flights back to Britain. Many consider this to be a career for single people, as the long periods away from home and the frequent lack of facilities to cope with dependants often take a toll on married couples or those in relationships.
Construction jobs overseas require a variety of employees with a variety of skills, such as site managers, site engineers, plant engineers, electricians, quantity surveyors, structural engineers, store managers, finance personnel, personnel managers, catering staff and procurement managers. Working abroad can also present language and cultural challenges, whilst trying to oversee a large build, but this leaves extra room for graduates to use their qualifications to their best advantage.
Of course, British engineers and specialists are not confined to finding construction jobs overseas; with the advent of the 2012 Olympics in the UK. Since 2006, the Olympic Committee has been sourcing the best candidates for the required builds and competition between companies is fierce for the relevant contracts. As the Games approach, there will be more and more opportunities for qualified candidates to consider making their mark on British soil, as well as taking into account the benefits offered by working overseas. The Olympics are being heralded as a showcase for the talents of UK construction companies, which is hoped to generate further work abroad.
Duncan freer – Director – Construction Jobs Search is a job site dedicated to the specific needs of candidates who work in the building services and construction industry in the UK. We also provide recruiters with an online service that is effective in terms of cost and ease of use. Contacts For interviews, images or comments contact: John Roberts Marketing Manager Email: john@thejobsearchgroup.com
Who are African Americans?
The African Americans are people who have their homeland in Africa but have been living in America for quite sometime. They are found mainly in South America.
What are the best ways to search for a job (for an African American)?
There are a wide number of ways in which the African Americans can search for job. Some of the ways are given below:
Internet; Search Engine: A number of job sites have been especially prepared for the African Americans. In these job sites, like any other websites, options are there for submission of resume. One can also search for jobs in various fields (of his/ her liking). In the browse for job section, a number of countries have been mentioned (with the job opportunities available there). There is an employer’s site. From here the employer can view your resume and experience directly. This helps him to search for the appropriate person that he is looking for.
Community Channels: There are community channels which enables an African Americans to find a job. The community channel is a source through which the whereabouts of a job is bifurcated from one corner of the society to another.
Black Career Women: It is an organization which helps the career-loving black women to get their desired job. It realistically constructs the career of a black woman and is therefore a unique professional resource for African Americans. This organization is the best resource for developing companies and individuals who wants to make use of the African American women’s skill to do something constructive.
Job Fairs for the Black: The Job fairs which are held regularly, allows black African Americans to submit their resumes, so that appropriate employers call them up with opportunities.
The scenario of wage rise and employment fall:
When the wages of the black people are rising, there is a sharp fall in the rate of employment.
The better skilled workers have a higher prospect of getting job than the less skilled workers. As the employers are getting skilled workers, the unskilled African Americans are suffering. As more skilled workers are available, unskilled workers are rendered jobless.
Why do African Americans lag behind?
While living in America, the African Americans have developed a community of their own. They share common views and empathize with each other for similar plight. Since they belong to the base layer of the society, major opportunities are not available for them in the job sector. But presently, numerous job opportunities have been opened up for them noticing their skills and talent.
AMightyRiver.com provides black jobs opportunities from top recruiters.
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