Hi,

I am starting a thread on useful resources, FAQ, useful on jobs/careers. Please post any hints/information relating find jobs, office politics and so on. For those people with plenty of job experience, please post information that will help fresh graduates to adapt to a working life.

The following web site is very useful:

www.asktheheadhunter.com

It has information on how to look for jobs, negotiating salary, how to resign and how to handle interview.

Dreamer

[Corrected]

This post has been edited by dreamer101: Aug 15 2005, 09:30 AM

let me add to that :

internet based career searching

www.jobstreet.com
www.jobsdb.com

Hi,

There is a major disconnect between our education and the job market. Our education resulted in certificates but the job market only care about capabilities. Capabilities means ability to do something. For example,

1 ) Ability to sale almost anything

2) Ability to market almost anything

3) Ability to communicate in English

4) Ability to listen

5) Ability to troubleshoot problem.

6) Ability to read

7) Ability to write

8) Ability to lead a team of people to accomplish a task.

Having cert or experience mean absolutely nothing if those two items do not result in any kind of capability. For example, if someone has a cert in marketing but that person has no idea on how to market anything. That cert is useless..

We have too many people pursuing cert but did not cultivate their capabilities.

Dreamer

does that mean that preference will be on the individual itself ? .....

getting the job done and knows how to go around to get the job done is two different matter. Certs shows that you have the knowledge, to market it needs expierence.

eveyone has to start somewhere. If I find that the person has the capability but need some polishing, without any doubts i take them under my wings.

least you know the potential is there..

Hi,

Does a manager really care whether you are

"getting the job done and knows how to go around to get the job done" ??

The answer is no as long as the job is done.

"Certs shows that you have the knowledge"

Somehow, I am not really convince about that especially on the IT field..

"eto market it needs expierenc"

Market needs capability to do the job. If the experience helps, then it is fine.. Given that the technology evolves so fast, a person will most likely be doing a lot of new things aka things that he/she has no experience in.

Dreamer

does that mean managers just hire as long the job is done ? remember in the world where organisation started to uses BSC and KPIs, u cant ignore how work is done.

i know little about IT field, but in specific industries certification is vital.

Not that i support expierence over certificaation, but that's just the way of the world.... least in the part where i work it does.

Hi,

Unfortunate fact of life is that, if a manager assign a task to A and A get B to do it, the manager may not know or cares as long as the task is done on time with quality.

As far as I know, BSC and KPI measure result and quality of the result. It does not ensure that everybody do their job with their own effort.

Dreamer

in a way it does reflect, cause its cascade down from top down.

my organisation is using it.

if course there are loopholes but at the end of the day the results shown reflect the whole department.

This post has been edited by mwtang: Aug 25 2005, 10:05 PM

KPI's, BSC's are all basically putting to paper what people do on their day to day job. It's to make handover's easier and also gauging the performance of an employee. It's like cpu-Z, taking humans as machines.

It's just another measurement where it just gives more jobs for a person to do i.e. compile the darn KPI, etc. a lot of companies have misused a LOT of things that are available on the pretense that they are creating something which would create better performing results. However, some companies do not see the con's of creating such a system even though it's popular here.

We're asians and have asian values, So in terms of KPI, would you sack the pakcik who has been the security guard for the past 30 years in teh company? His KPI obviously would be damn low. If that's the case then the HR dept is not really doing their job in looking after the company. And when I say the company it means it's staff treat the company as your own. it's a family. Instill this and well you would not have to worry much.

Companies use measurement systems when they realise that they are losing out on the market share and need to figure out who's doing what. Which IMHO is a lil bit too late sometimes.

This post has been edited by Noyze: Aug 26 2005, 09:34 PM

pachik's KPI wont be low as his JD has been pre determined at the begining of each year, if he achieve his KPI, why would he be sack ?

IMHO, its never too late, if we are always on the skeptical end, we never move ahead.

BSC and KPI are determined from top down and not by the HR alone.

well, i dunno what is BSC and KPI, but mind to share, actually, a manager or a company want their employees to get a job done with the shortest time, lowest expenses rite? then when the manager ask back to A on how well he/she completed the job, and if the A get B to completed the job for A...then the A sure will "mulut ternganga lor"?

Useful Tips For Job Interview

I wonder if this is the right place to ask:

I had been applying for jobs in other other companies, while at the same time still working in my current company. Problem is: I always get miss calls (which i think could be interviewer asking me to go for interview) whenever I had discussion with my boss or having a meeting.. When I tried to call back, I could not get through the number, so i guess it's a company's random number... HAppen a few times already

So I wanna post question to those who are used to interviewing people.. Will you still go on contacting your candidates if you can't reach him for first or second time??

Thanks

hehe... same problem with me
if i free, whole day no call
when im busy or away, the phone starts ringing

Yup, that's the problem. Sometimes I'm free for whole day, yet no one call me

Hi,

I do not like to call people for that reason. I normally will e-mail someone. However if I cannot reach someone by phone, I will e-mail the person instead.

Dreamer

Anyone could provide website where we can get e-books as references for self improvement or many others?

Hi,

Self-improvement in what area?? www.amazon.com would be a good place to start.

Dreamer

Any area will do..the most important is bout the free e-books that we can get.
I tot amazon.com is a place to buy things? then i rather go book shop lo.

the 1 i know is www.free-ebooks.net provide quite a number of links to resources.

This post has been edited by ken1300: Sep 30 2005, 01:46 PM