The best job advert in the world

Tourism Queensland has pulled off a PR coup by pursuing a radical e-recruitment policy. They spent $1.7 million on advertising "the best job in the world" and gained an estimated $100 million dollars worth of publicity. Now that is a super smart recruitment and marketing synergy.
The job is to live in a luxury villa on the island of Hamilton for six months. The job entails exploring Hamilton and adjoining islands and writing about them on his website blog with a view to attracting tourists to Queensland. The successful candidate was Brit Ben Hamilton, a Charity Fund Raiser from Hampshire.

The campaign was centred on a website created by Queenland Tourist Board. The online recruitment process was a huge success attracting 34,684 applications from 200 countries.

Wanted Sheep Shearing Violin Playing Modern Dancer

I know the headline reads like a nightmare act on Britain ’s Got Talent but it demonstrates the current shortages in the UK jobs market. The recent report by Migration Advisory Committee has highlighted the current shortfalls in the UK labour market. They have outlined the roles that even in a recession with rising levels of unemployment are required to meet the UK skills shortage.

Modern Dancers, Classical Musicians, Sheep Shearers and Computer Animators are all areas where employers may have to look outside of the EU for staff. The news isn’t so good for those seeking work as Quantity Surveyors or Site Managers in the construction industries. The massive increase in unemployment for these jobs (up 500%) has resulted in them being removed from the list of roles that non EU citizens can be employed legally for in the UK .

The government is looking to advertise for the shortages overseas in an attempt to attract applications. It seems if you want job security in this volatile market then you should learn to dance, play a classical instrument or create you own computer animations. It’s a strange jobs market at the moment!

The Apprentice Predictor

This is really good fun. You can log on and see if you can guess who is going to get fired. The earlier you predict the right candidate the more points you score. The way the program is often edited it seems as if the winning team is going to lose and vice versa so I guess it’s not as easy as it seems.

You can play the game here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/about/predictor.shtml

Apprentice Review – Philip in the Lead

So the Apprentice 2009 is now entering week four and we are starting to get an idea of the runners and riders. My tip for the possible winner was as good as my horse in the Grand National. Poor Rocky managed to mess up the perfect task for him and was sent home with a lesson learnt!!

James is making great TV and I am sure for that reason alone he will stay in for a couple more weeks.



Having looked again at the candidates it seems as if Philip is now the front runner. He has a clear head, seems to be able to lead and is well liked by the others. The only issue is that he seems to be able to moan for England and that might get on Alan Sugars wick in the end. I would like to see him as project manager to see if he copes.

It seems even the sacked candidates like Philip:

New Office!!!

I haven’t blogged for a while – we’ve been very busy. Lots of good business things happening and the most exciting part we are having our own office space built – away from the house! This will make a huge difference to me in order to attempt to separate my home/work life and will also enable me to expand & take on additional staff members when in a position to develop to the next stage of business. I have taken a few pictures of the progress and we are still a few weeks away from being able to operate e-recruitment buddy from there. Yes it looks small but it’s a bit like Doctor Who’s tardis & I’ll take some internal pics when we’re up & running.

More Sugar - The Apprentice 2009

The Apprentice kicks off again this week and at e-recruitment buddy we can’t wait. We have been fans since the first series and love to watch the aspiring baby Alan Sugars fluff simple tasks, stitch each other up and fight for who is the most nakedly ambitious wannabe.

If the previous series has taught us anything it is that Sir Alan doesn’t like posh academics, lawyers and strong minded women. Saira Khan should have won the first series, Ruth Badger was head & shoulders above everyone else in series 2 and last year Claire Young somehow lost out to Lee “now that’s what I am talking about” McQueen who even lied on his CV and somehow still won!

Looking at this years candidates I have a feeling that Ben Clarke and Kate Walsh are possessed by the kind of hubris that could see them leave the show early. If I was a betting person then I would place a few quid on either Lorraine Tighe or Rocky Andrews as they have the sort of background that seems to appeal to Sir Alan. Roll on murder in the boardroom and back-stabbing in the house!

This is classic Apprentice, terrible decisions & Rory Lang “I am your boss!”

1000 Knock-Backs – This Guy Should Have a Medal!

Morning all! I just couldn’t help say a few words about this story from the Metro at the weekend. This job-hunter finally found a job after 5 months of looking and over 1000 rejections!! I think that would have put me in a mental asylum, despite having incredibly thick-skin I would have been so down-trodden and given up. Who knows?

42 year old Jeff Scott “went for posts ranging from meat packer to barman in the past five months in a bid to find work in Britain after being abroad for ten years. But he suffered rejection after rejection as companies laid staff off during the recession before landing a job as business development manager at a marketing company.”

It does sound like he pretty much applied for everything going but good on him and well done Jeff on your new BDM Job – far better than being a meat packer!!