UK Temps - temporary job recruitment

I spent 3 years in temp jobs before I got into web design and it’s not the glamorous lifestyle all the glossy magazines make it out to be. Ah no wait, that’s life as a porn star. Let’s not go into that. Moving swiftly on….

In a temp job your daily routine is fairly set.

You go to work, you do your job (which will usually consist of doing the same thing over and over again), then you go home. You might get into a larger organisation which offers a flexi-time scheme (you have to work 35 hours a week, and between 10am and 4pm - so one day you could work till 6pm so you can leave on a Friday at 4pm to go to the pub!), which is quite handy at times.

There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to temp jobs though:

Advantages of temp jobs

• Useful way of gaining experience in different areas of business.
• No long term commitment to one company.
• Usually get flexible hours.
• After a few temp jobs (where you prove yourself to the recruitment agency), getting some more temp jobs is pretty easy.
• You meet lots of different people. The social life can be good if there are a lot of temps in one company.
• If you get a temp job after graduating, you can impress lots of people with your skills!
• If you do impress lots of people, one of them might offer a decent permanent job.
• Not a bad wage (£5.50 upwards per hour) for what you are doing.

Disadvantages of temp jobs

• No job security.
• Larger companies may treat the office furniture better than they treat you (they paid more for the office furniture!).
• No sick pay (well there is, but you have to be off for a certain amount of time and provide a doctors note). If you’re only off a couple of days with a cold or something, you don’t get paid for those days.
• No benefits package but holiday pay will be included.
• Going from assignment to assignment, you have a tendency to be bumped onto emergency tax, which whips off 25% of your pay for the first few weeks.
• You may have gaps in employment on a regular basis.
• You have very little employee rights as a temp.
• Recruitment Agencies are unlikely to find you permanent work if you are on a temp job through them.

You will get the feeling, time and time again, that you can do your managers job better than he or she can. And you’re probably right! What started out as an attempt at getting experience may turn, without warning, into a career. Continue striving towards your ideal job, or you’ll be a temp forever!

At the end of the day it’s a mixed bag!

The benefits lie for the people who haven’t got the experience they need to do what they want. You use temp jobs as a means to give you a step up (ie, get the experience, get the skills, get the references). It’s good for people who’s ideal job is office based. If you can get in at the ground floor in a company that operates in the industry you want to work in, then you’re laughing!

Temp jobs can start people off in their career and can be good for those who want flexible hours. You really have to make your own mind up though.

Good Luck!

Article taken from - jobseekersadvice

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An interesting look at declining newspaper readership and the increase of their online newspaper audience…..

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Are readers fleeing newspapers? Originally the business model for a newspapers was built on a printed page which held an almost monopoly over the local area in many instances and for the national market over huge areas of the UK.

If a business wanted to reach a particular customer base it had no option but to appear to the entire paper audience forcing the advertising in a run of paper campaign be it sports, business, politics, government - they were the one authoritative source of that information. Some specific targeting of audiences was possible eventually by supplements and magazines, however the main defining factor which cut into that monopoly was radio and television, but not by a huge amount. Now, a user who is looking for information about sport can find a web site that focuses on that sport in ways a general interest newspaper cannot and daily (or minute by minute) to boot, this applies to a person interested in politics, business or something as random as daily updated matchstick eiffel tower model enthusiasts….

However then the Internet came along and completely blew about that near monopoly. Now there are literally hundreds of thousands of publications/websites competing for the advertising £. No single site can claim the size and loyalty of the audience as a print paper, but once again a number of small websites combined can really cut into the print revenue.

Currently however a lot of the online sites are piggy backing off the back of the newspaper content and syndicating this information as their own, what happens when the margins become so close on the newspaper product that they can no longer afford to employ the 1,000’s of people of they currently do and have to close, do they get rid of the journalists…..?.

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A recent article on Support for Learning makes for reading most people do not realise:

Choosing a good online recruitment agency

You should always consider the credentials of any site and any issues of confidentiality before submitting personal details. The most ethical sites should have privacy or confidentiality policies online.

A confidentiality or privacy policy should include information on where they send your information, whether they ask your permission to send information to companies, whether they send information to other 3rd parties and how long your information will stay available to others.

Putting your CV online
Be particularly careful if you wish to include your home address and personal details in an online CV. Check for privacy and confidentiality policies and agreements. You may wish to set up separate contact details for employers and job applications.

Also, you should be aware that each country has different equal opportunity policies and identifying age, sex or gender, ethnic background and family circumstances in your CV, resume or application form may not be acceptable in some countries.

You should almost never send a photograph, as this might contravene an equal opportunity policy or prejudice the employer before your application is considered (unless it is required specifically for the job, e.g. theatre or modelling).

Notes to note, this site will cover all these issues…..

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According to Wikipedia a journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people.

Are newspapers redefining what counts as a writer, are we moving to a local press where the content is written by local people and not professional paid writers. Are we moving to a true free press model written by people in their spare time effectively working for the papers for free, producing their content, reducing their costs and then selling you a printed version of your thoughts?

I recently stumbled upon a movie which has been around a while outlining where the internet came from, the current history and the main players and then speculation on where we could end up, including the media wars and hyper local content, video, music, traffic news, have a look and let us know your thoughts.

‘;

Even more recently Johnston Press and the Press Association have agreed a three-year deal which will see the news agency supply multimedia assets for the regional newspaper group’s websites, why? Is this a move to reduce yet again the number of journalist. Are they missing the point of what made their websites unique in the first place.

Under the agreement, which will begin next month, the news agency will supply text, pictures and video clips to the editors at Johnston Press’s websites, including Scotsman.com, YorkshirePost.co.uk and the Lancashire Evening Post’s lep.co.uk.

PA will supply text, video, stills and interactive graphics as individual assets linked by meta data, allowing local online editors to take only those elements that they want in order to combine with their own reports or assemble into unique online packages.

It is the first time PA has supplied online content in this way. Under its existing arrangements, several newspaper groups receive finished multimedia packages, such as three-minute presenter-led video news bulletins.

Once again, let us know your thoughts…..

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