Yesterday I had the pleasure of having a bite to eat with David Farrar (for those who don't know David, he runs and hosts the blog www.kiwiblog.co.nz ). Over a delicious Pizza from Mojo, I learnt a little more about what David does and what he is involved in. David runs a market research / polling organisation but is also involved a couple of IT related industry bodies.
If you haven't read his blog I would recommend having a look or if you get a chance to hear him speak I think it is a "must do". It is largely political commentary with some commentary on IT matters.
Also the Pizza's at Mojo aren't to bad either.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
IT Rockstar Campaign
Today we kicked off the "Who's NZ IT Rockstar" campaign which is a light hearted competition to try and find some smart and charismatic IT professionals who want to win an overseas trip - all paid for by ourselves.
For those curious about our role in the competition, we are simply the sponsor and promoter of the event - we are not using any of the information for our own purposes, otherwise I am sure employers wouldn't want to nominate their superstars!!!
For those curious have a look at www.itrockstar.co.nz - Feel free to jump in and nominate yourself or if you know a person doing some neat work feel free to nominate them.
A big thanks has to go to the judges Suri Bartlett, Marie-Claire Andrews and Jon McDonald for their input.
For those curious about our role in the competition, we are simply the sponsor and promoter of the event - we are not using any of the information for our own purposes, otherwise I am sure employers wouldn't want to nominate their superstars!!!
For those curious have a look at www.itrockstar.co.nz - Feel free to jump in and nominate yourself or if you know a person doing some neat work feel free to nominate them.
A big thanks has to go to the judges Suri Bartlett, Marie-Claire Andrews and Jon McDonald for their input.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
SEEK - is it the only Jobsite in NZ?
The phrase "money for jam" comes to mind with SEEK but to their credit they have managed to secure the NZ Job Board market. We see sites such as www.myjobspace.co.nz, www.jobuniverse.co.nz and many others try and compete with the SEEK but from what I can see the only site that has had any real impact is Trade Me Jobs - http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-me-jobs/index.htm.
A question to ponder:
- Does every agency need to use the like of SEEK and Trade Me? The answer is YES.
Simply I think an agency needs to have an online presence in this current climate and with the use of sites such as Facebook and Bebo, more and more people on online.
BUT from an agency angle, do we simply rely to much on online job boards rather than ensuring we know that there isn't a person within our database who can do the job - which costs us nothing to do (apart from our time)? It is an interesting argument and is an argument which could last many hours. I know that we are looking to alter this ourselves where there is a great focus on actually talking to those candidates we already have, but again I do feel there is the need to advertise online so we can get those candidates new to NZ, to find those who have decided after 10-years it is time to go looking for a job and from a brand perspective
A new niche job board is www.firstinjobs.co.nz which is an offshoot of www.firstin.co.nz - have a look if you haven't seen of it before - great daily deals at a good price. Now their market is "techy" or "geeky" people, well part of their market (I think around 40%) so they have created this other site - see above which is largely tailored for IT jobs - will it work - it will simply come down to whether they can drive traffic to the site, that the traffic are active job seekers and the costs involved for agencies / organisations are decent - I hope it works as they are good bunch of guys.
Anyway it does seem SEEK is money making machine who dominates the NZ marketplace and I would love to see a decent alternative (Trade Me Jobs isn't far away). Or should I just praise SEEK for a job well done or am I bitter as I sold my SEEK shares to early!!!!
A question to ponder:
- Does every agency need to use the like of SEEK and Trade Me? The answer is YES.
Simply I think an agency needs to have an online presence in this current climate and with the use of sites such as Facebook and Bebo, more and more people on online.
BUT from an agency angle, do we simply rely to much on online job boards rather than ensuring we know that there isn't a person within our database who can do the job - which costs us nothing to do (apart from our time)? It is an interesting argument and is an argument which could last many hours. I know that we are looking to alter this ourselves where there is a great focus on actually talking to those candidates we already have, but again I do feel there is the need to advertise online so we can get those candidates new to NZ, to find those who have decided after 10-years it is time to go looking for a job and from a brand perspective
A new niche job board is www.firstinjobs.co.nz which is an offshoot of www.firstin.co.nz - have a look if you haven't seen of it before - great daily deals at a good price. Now their market is "techy" or "geeky" people, well part of their market (I think around 40%) so they have created this other site - see above which is largely tailored for IT jobs - will it work - it will simply come down to whether they can drive traffic to the site, that the traffic are active job seekers and the costs involved for agencies / organisations are decent - I hope it works as they are good bunch of guys.
Anyway it does seem SEEK is money making machine who dominates the NZ marketplace and I would love to see a decent alternative (Trade Me Jobs isn't far away). Or should I just praise SEEK for a job well done or am I bitter as I sold my SEEK shares to early!!!!
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