Philippine Government Launches Job Portal - Phil-Jobnet

Another job portal is added to the ever increasing list of job search and online job sites. This time it's from the Department of Labor and Employment that launched their very own Phil-Jobnet portal has reached 108,377 so far, posting a high demand for call-center agents.

“This is a record for the government’s Internet-based job skills matching facility,” said Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz via Inquirer.  She noted that the job postings as of this week surpassed previous levels.

The previous highest vacancy level registered in the system was at 102,930 following Labor Day celebrations four months ago, records from DOLE showed. The Web portal, http://phil-job.net, is maintained by the agency’s Bureau of Local Employment.

Current postings show a high demand for call center agents with 20,026 vacancies while over 4,000 customer service assistants were wanted.  Some 3,600 vacancies are sales clerks were also available.

The portal also showed that the agency’s accredited employers were also looking for 2,997 domestic helpers; 2,386 laborers; 1,937 carpenters; 1,778 general electricians; 1,778 heavy equipment operators; 1,707 factory workers and 1,615 service crew workers, among others.

Job offers for real estate persons, merchandisers, promo salespersons, clerk for government, pipe fitters, production machine operators, staff nurses, street sweepers, cashiers, salesmen, data encoders, general pharmacists, forklift operators and plumbers are also available.

Baldoz also lauded private-sector employers for continuously announcing job vacancies in the government system.

“The Phil-Jobnet is an important tool in our labor market information delivery system. It contributes to our effort of bringing down to the grassroots free and valuable information on jobs available in the market,” she said.

Should Your Resume Have Two Pages? Or Just One?

I've been asked so many times what would be the ideal length for a resume. This article from Monster.com answers this question nicely by enumerating the pros of each one



Pro: One-Page Resume

“Ideally, your resume should be one page, because recruiters and managers have short attention spans,” says Jennifer Brooks, senior associate director of the MBA Career Management Center at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “It’s your ad; it doesn’t have to be comprehensive. If you feel the need to write down everything you’ve done in your entire career, you’re not thinking about the buyer, who just needs to know what’s relevant.”

Her tip for keeping your resume short and easy for the “buyer”: Use a summary statement. “It’s better than a career objective,” she says. “It’s what you want me to know about you in a nutshell. That makes it easy for recruiters to know your focus and your skills.”

Dani Johnson, author of Grooming the Next Generation for Success, agrees. “If you have a long work history, know that most people don’t read what you did 10 years ago,” she explains. “Put the focus on your most recent accomplishments, and if you have skills that repeat from one company or job to the next, state ‘same as above as well as these’ to save room.”

Pro: Two-Page Resume

While everyone agrees shorter is better, it’s a fact that some of us will need longer resumes. If you’ve got a lot of varied experience or a long career, you may well need more space to tell your story.

“Two pages may be OK,” says Paul C. Green, a former hiring manager and the author of Get Hired. But three or more pages is too much. The best way to present your career information is through a chronological resume format with bulleted skills listed below each position.” One exception: Any skills that are relevant to a particular employer or are in demand in today’s workplace, like critical-care nursing, nanotechnology or eliminating environmental hazards, for example. For maximum impact, list these skills in your resume's career summary.

Kim Isaacs, Monster's Resume Expert and director of ResumePower.com in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, says even if you’re going long, stay focused on what’s most relevant to prospective employers. “Let go of information that doesn’t help win job interviews,” she says. That includes positions held long ago, outdated accomplishments, old training and hobbies. She also suggests putting effort in your presentation. “Design is equally as important as resume length and content. A one-page resume that’s crammed with information is less desirable than a well-organized two-page resume that is easy to read and digest.”

Compromise on Resume Length

Like any good argument, there is a middle ground solution, according to Chris Laggini, vice president of HR for DLT Solutions, an IT reseller and service provider in Herndon, Virginia. “Recruiters read for speed," he says. "They are on a minute-long word hunt for certain titles, skills and years of experience. Hiring managers read for detail. So, we recommend that you have both a one-page resume for the recruiter and an in-depth resume format to be shared with the hiring manager. In your short version, make certain to highlight keywords and titles referenced in the ad for the position. In the long version, provide the hiring manager with enough detail for them to get an accurate picture of you, what you are capable of accomplishing and what you want from the career path.”

The Final Word on Resume Format

All our experts agree that the key to writing an effective resume of any length is to choose elements carefully. “A good way to filter your experiences is to survey your network on the needs of employers, and sample business articles for common themes of discontent in the workplace” Green explains. “List 10 ways employers are hurting today [and] describe 10 of your skills that you can deliver to deal with them. Use your resume to convert what you have done in the past to what you can do in the future -- then your phone will ring.”

Winsource Looking for 600 Outbound Call Center Agents

Here's an ad from Winsource solutions
They're looking for 600 outbound call center agents
If you'd like to work in Mandaluyong City, you can contact them from the info in the pic above
Ideally you should have

• 6 months experience or more since they pay premium for agents with more experience
• Preferably with Sales & Credit Card extraction experience
• Excellent English communication and comprehension skills
• Computer literate
• Fresh graduates welcome
  

Top 10 Resume Mistakes

Here's a cool article I found on Monster.com on 10 resume mistakes you should avoid.

1. Typos and Grammatical Errors

Your resume needs to be grammatically perfect. If it isn't, employers will read between the lines and draw not-so-flattering conclusions about you, like: "This person can't write," or "This person obviously doesn't care."

2. Lack of Specifics

Employers need to understand what you've done and accomplished. For example:

A. Worked with employees in a restaurant setting.
B. Recruited, hired, trained and supervised more than 20 employees in a restaurant with $2 million in annual sales.

Both of these phrases could describe the same person, but the details and specifics in example B will more likely grab an employer's attention.

3. Attempting One Size Fits All

Whenever you try to develop a one-size-fits-all resume to send to all employers, you almost always end up with something employers will toss in the recycle bin. Employers want you to write a resume specifically for them. They expect you to clearly show how and why you fit the position in a specific organization.

4. Highlighting Duties Instead of Accomplishments

It's easy to slip into a mode where you simply start listing job duties on your resume. For example:

* Attended group meetings and recorded minutes.

* Worked with children in a day-care setting.

* Updated departmental files.

Employers, however, don't care so much about what you've done as what you've accomplished in your various activities. They're looking for statements more like these:

* Used laptop computer to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for future organizational reference.

* Developed three daily activities for preschool-age children and prepared them for a 10-minute holiday program performance.

* Reorganized 10 years worth of unwieldy files, making them easily accessible to department members.

5. Going on Too Long or Cutting Things Too Short

Despite what you may read or hear, there are no real rules governing the length of your resume. Why? Because human beings, who have different preferences and expectations where resumes are concerned, will be reading it.

That doesn't mean you should start sending out five-page resumes, of course. Generally speaking, you usually need to limit yourself to a maximum of two pages. But don't feel you have to use two pages if one will do. Conversely, don't cut the meat out of your resume simply to make it conform to an arbitrary one-page standard.

6. A Bad Objective

Employers do read your resume's objective statement, but too often they plow through vague pufferies like, "Seeking a challenging position that offers professional growth." Give employers something specific and, more importantly, something that focuses on their needs as well as your own. Example: "A challenging entry-level marketing position that allows me to contribute my skills and experience in fund-raising for nonprofits."

7. No Action Verbs

Avoid using phrases like "responsible for." Instead, use action verbs: "Resolved user questions as part of an IT help desk serving 4,000 students and staff."

8. Leaving Off Important Information

You may be tempted, for example, to eliminate mention of the jobs you've taken to earn extra money for school. Typically, however, the soft skills you've gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think.

9. Visually Too Busy

If your resume is wall-to-wall text featuring five different fonts, it will most likely give the employer a headache. So show your resume to several other people before sending it out. Do they find it visually attractive? If what you have is hard on the eyes, revise.

10. Incorrect Contact Information

I once worked with a student whose resume seemed incredibly strong, but he wasn't getting any bites from employers. So one day, I jokingly asked him if the phone number he'd listed on his resume was correct. It wasn't. Once he changed it, he started getting the calls he'd been expecting. Moral of the story: Double-check even the most minute, taken-for-granted details -- sooner rather than later.

Have You Tried The New GMA (Greater Modular Access) Jobs Center kiosks?

If you haven't seen the "new" GMA (Greater Modular Access) Jobs Center kiosks, you should. It's a cool touch screen kiosk that's in Robinson's Mall on Fuente. It allows people to job-hunt while in the comfort of the mall -- best of all it's FREE.

You can only access limited sites though. Mostly it's DOLE and their jobs database, which isn't so bad. This isn't the type of thing you'd like to wait in line for though because it takes a long time for people to sign up and actually start sending their resumes from this machine. It's touch screen and there is limited sensorial activity going on.

It is an advancement I think but of course, it does not support a lot of people. It can support about 1 person for an hour then another one. But at least it's an option to paid ways of trying to hunt for a job.

Apart from job-hunting, applicants can also register and post their qualifications as well as do job matching that complements their course

The online employment kiosk is in line with the priority thrust of President Gloria M. Arroyo to provide 1M jobs per year and thus, reduce incidence of poverty.

Though the machine costs about P100T, the DOLE is giving the three LGUs of Cebu free kiosks in recognition and appreciation of their support and cooperation to the programs of DOLE. Definitely over-priced (yet again - remember the lamp posts in Mandaue?), if I do say so myself. But nevertheless it's there so let's put it to good use.