Unleashing Business Opportunities Conference | 27th November 2013, The Royale Bintang Damansara | 8.30am-2.30pm

A Fusion of Technology, Entertainment and Design TEDxYouth@KL is Back!

Renowned English economist & novelist Harriet Martineau once commented that “Readers Are Plentiful yet Thinkers Are Rare.”

Innovation is not achieved in a day. It is a process – a life-long process of generating ideas, one after another. Some calls it creative problem solving skills, and many questioned its relevance to become a reality.

This November, TEDxYouth@KL is set to be bigger and bolder in celebrating the depths of leading innovators - to discovering how they turned ideas to imprint the lives of the global community.

We have invited Business Extraordinaire like Li Kheng; The Technopreneur, Yit Ming Toh who developed a Mobile Application that ease your payment process; Jinny Boy, the youtube sensation JinnyBoyTV who is going to share with you his journey, and Dr Clarence, Ambassador of a University where they Utilizes Accelerating Technologies to address humanity's hardest problems and he is going to share with you How to Leverage on Technology to change the World!

TEDxYouth@KL 2013 will be a Full House Event of 800 youth leaders, we strive to maintain and further develop a fantastic networking platform for passionate youths to learn and grow with each other.

In full support of ideas worth spreading as the official marketing partner, it is of our organisation’s great pleasure to invite you to joining us and a houseful of elites for a thoughts-provoking evening!  

The event details are as follows:

Event Details:

Theme   :  Innovation: From Ideas to Impact

Date      : 16th November 2013 (Saturday)

Time      : 1PM - 7PM (Tea break, Dinner Served after 7pm)

Venue    : Penthouse@the Icon, Lot E-21-01, No.1,

      Jalan 1/68F, Jalan Tun Razak, 55000 Kuala Lumpur.

For more information, you should check us out right now!

Website:

http://www.tedxyouthkl.com/presenters-2013/

FB Fanpage:

http://www.facebook.com/TEDxYouthKL

BN YOUTH JOB FAIR 2013 Is BACK

Potential employers are watching on you.

Come to join BN YOUTH JOB FAIR 2013 on 27th-29th September in PWTC

Tell me a little about yourself

Job fairs :

An opportunity to find a new position but it can be a terrific learning experience.
A professional recruiter would often tell you that making positive impressions which lead to interviews and job offers is quite a difficult task.
Applicants need to impress the interviewer within the first two minutes of your introduction.

Human resources hire diligent managers to screen hundreds or even thousands of applicants for jobs throughout their organizations.
It is a lot of effort, and because of this they develop a great instinct for what works and what doesn’t work in their companies.
In order to aid this, most job fair interviewers will ask you to introduce yourself. That’s the critical two minutes of the interview.
Don’t be surprised when suddenly “the question” hits you: “Tell me a little about yourself.”

It is an opportunity for the interviewer to take a few minutes off to listen and silently determine where to take the questioning next.
In short, it’s an easy out for him or her.
But it can be subtly dangerous for the applicants because this period of intuition on the part of theinterviewer reflects emotional decision-making that is hard to overcome later.

Many hiring managers make up their minds about an applicant in the first 5-10 minutes.
This being the case, any early opportunity you have to expound on your strengths or state your case is a good thing.
But it can also be a trap – if you aren’t ready for this one, you could shoot yourself in the foot.
Your answer to this “question” plays a crucial role in the successful outcome of your day at the job fair.

It has always been shocking how many technical people are taken by surprise instead of considering this request a certainty and thus preparing for it.
Most interviewers requested this because it offers a glimpse into how prepared the job candidates really are.
Some people misinterpret the question to mean “Tell me about your thesis work.”
Worse come to worst, many misunderstand and believe that the interviewers have asked them, “Tell me a considerable amount about yourself.”

When an interviewer asks you to tell a little about yourself, you are being asked to provide a general framework for discussion.
You will set the stage for later questions that will address various aspects of your academic and work life.
If you plan properly, this will give you the opportunity to steer the critical, opening portion of the interview into an area in which you will do well.

In the 2-minute job fair response, you’ll have a chance to touch briefly on only one accomplishment.
Choose the most appropriate one for the circumstance, and not the one that you are most enamored with.
In the longer version for interview day, focus on three elements:

1)A statement of a problem you were given, the approach you took to solving the problem,
2)The results you achieved.
3)Hit the highpoints only, and you can go back into more details later in your conversation.

Add a closure, unique to each situation, where you state one solid reason that you’d be a good fit for the company you are meeting with.
What is there about the background you’ve described which makes you uniquely qualified to work for this firm?
Keep it brief! You’ll lose the attention of your job fair interviewer if you go on much longer than two minutes.
Writing and speaking succinctly is more difficult than many people think.

Abe Lincoln, a master orator, once told an interviewer that he could “write a twenty minute speech in about two weeks” but that he would only need one week to write a good forty-minute speech. In fact, he said, “I can give a two hour talk on almost any subject right now.”

12 Ways To Improve Productivity At The Workplace

Is it enough to simply have a job, an office or organization to work in, and get a get a cheque and the end of the week? Not anymore. A workplace however large or small has to be driven by efficiency and achievement that manifests itself in the form of tangible results for the organization, and is rewarding for the employee. Less productive inputs and lower efficiency levels are bound to affect the business and jeopardize its sustainability and survival.

Employee productivity is a major concern for employers and lower productivity cannot be blamed on the employee entirely.

• A lot of it has to do with the environment at the work place, and the work conditions along with a series of factors that define the work culture.
• Employers have to implement wide spread changes in their setup to improve the productivity of their work force.
• Employee talent is a valuable asset for a company or organization, and it needs to be tapped to its fullest by keeping the employees motivated to perform and deliver the results they are qualified for and capable of.
• Employers may often believe that once they have recruited the best talent in the field, the results will inevitably follow. Not necessarily, if you look beneath the surface to see the environment this talent works in.

A few factors that can help to improve the employee productivity at the workplace are:

# 1. Accountability

Every employee needs to be well aware that he is accountable for his actions and decisions, and he can neither pass the buck or pass the blame to someone else.

• This will help him work more meticulously ,
• Take cautious rather than reckless decisions, and not take advantage of his place, position or relationship with his superiors.

Related: 5 Ways To Develop Productive Work Environments

# 2. Follow up

Employers often set targets and feel their job is done.

• No, every target or milestone set needs to be followed up as well, to see if the progress is sufficient and if not, whether any interim measures can be taken before it is too late to salvage a situation.
• It also keeps the employee on track,  ensuring there is consistent effort throughout the lifetime of the project

Related: Six Great Employee Hiring Ideas For The New Economy

# 3. Manage the work force but avoid micromanagement

It is well known that a large pool of employees does need to be managed, provided direction and given assistance. But with this they must also be trusted, given freedom to operate in their style and adopt measures which they think are the best to deliver results.

• This freedom to act as they deem fit helps to keep them encouraged, motivated and happy in the belief that they are trusted.
• Micro management is a human tendency but one that is detrimental to achievement, since it makes mere puppets out of employees, who are expected to toe the boss’ line and not think for themselves.
• Employees need to think for themselves, analyze the consequences of every decision or action to be able to give their best to their jobs. And the employers must make it possible for their workers to do so.

Related: Managing To Get The Very Best From Your People

#4. Encourage, motivate, reward and recognize

The employer must ensure that on his part he always has words of encouragement for his staff. Encouraging them helps them move forward and do even better, and makes the worker feel happy. Innovative ways of motivating them spurs them even more. For example, holidays or conferences paid for by the company have been found to motivate employees immensely.

• Rewarding the hard work put in by employees makes them continue to work in the same fashion, and if the employee feels that his work is not appreciated in words or in material terms, he may gradually stop doing so, since he may feel that others working less are given the same too, so he need not work more.
• Rewards, and other ways of keeping employees happy makes them feel that their effort is being recognized and that they are needed by the company.
• Without these, they may soon start looking for greener pastures and new jobs.

Related: 6 Ways Companies Can Motivate Smarter

# 5. Reach out to employees by seeking them out

Every employee loves to feel he has the ears of the management who will recognize him and listen to what he says. Display of inter personal skills in which the boss appears humane and one of them, rather than a larger than life, distant figure, helps to have employees warm up to him and feel happy working for him.

• A bit of effort to reach out helps them all do better.
• If this extends beyond the work place it may prove to be even more encouraging to increase employee productivity.

# 6. Demand realistic targets

Employers need to set realistic goals that are within the limits of achievement. While an aggressive employer may want his people to outstretch themselves to achieve farfetched goals, it may also burn them out.

Related: Rewarding poor performers – are you guilty?

# 7. Team work

Team work always helps in increasing workplace productivity since there is more input in the form of more ideas and minds at work. Working alone is not always the happiest situation either, especially in the field. Successful team building and working together is bound to bring out the best out of the employees who may also then compete with each other ensuring the business is the winner.

# 8. Ensure that people enjoy their work

The best performing employee is the happy employee, and the employer has to find ways of making his people happy. Besides working conditions and the work culture implemented, he has to devise ways of making the work seem challenging and interesting rather than mundane and boring.

Related: 5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs To Party

# 9. Break the monotony and rotate

While employers assign tasks according to an employee’s core competence, even the task they are best at, can make an employee bored and his work seem monotonous.

• This monotony can be broken with rotation and giving people new tasks and exposure to other divisions.
• This adds their learning and helps them get a holistic view of the business.

# 10. Courses and improvement options

Employees are delighted when they can enhance their skills and get additional learning opportunities sponsored by the employer. This helps them learn, feel indebted for the money being spent on them, which also adds to their resume, and are obliged to perform better by applying all the knowledge gained in these courses.

Related: Encouraging Continuous Self Development Among Employees

# 11. Spend less time on meetings and more on action

The current trend to have more meetings and discussion rather than spending more time working to achieve results, leads to precious productive time loss.

• Meetings for reviews and sharing of ideas can be limited and kept short.
• Employees should have more time to show results.

Related: Meetings – A Total Waste Of Time

# 12. Tools and equipment to raise productivity

Finally, the workplace must have the best machinery, devices and equipment that yield error free results in the minimum possible time. Efficient electronic equipment with no connectivity issues and breakdowns will help to save precious time. They should take the place of paper work, and yield fast results. Some of these include:

• Smart phones
• Laptops
• Tablet computers
• Latest applications and software that offers quick connectivity and access
• Digital recorders-these help to record thoughts and new ideas when they strike, when no paper is available and the fear is of forgetting the idea
• Bluetooth to stay connected
• Personal digital assistants or PDA’s
• GPS to stay on track on the road

Related post: iPad For Productivity

Thus the idea is to have devices that enhance efficiency and subsequently productivity at the work place. The devices help to reduce the response time, improve customer service and cutting costs, all imperative for workplace productivity.

What are your thoughts?

Wishing All Merry Xmas & Happy New Year 2013

Together with smiling youngsters we have started counting down until the arrival of New Year, to the overall joy of everybody at Human Capital Connection (HCC). Change New Year into a wellness break! Since 2008, former yourparttime.com was an online portal which offer the jobseeker to type search their ideal jobs. Who knows, Gen-Y falls at the fastest pace at the moment to patch up with the innovative technology. We will never know, but it's obviously that online media work the best.

Time flies, tap! Its nowhere after 4 years in 2012 and YourPartTime.com has eventually emerged and grown into HCC to enhance full-fledged human capital solutions to both hiring employers and employees. We marry the right candidates with the right job opportunities at the right time alongside efficient means by availing skills sets of our employees to ensure clients' satisfaction.

HCC is now offering a series of exclusive positions. Freelance, part-time, talent development? You name it, we have it! Over years of experience, we are able to invoke and preserve the potentials to enhance organizational effectiveness and growth in high competitive business ambience. We hope the faith and the union, which are our strong points, endure over the time and allow us to keep achieving our goals. Merry Xmas and a prosper New Year!

Take Your First Step To Clinching A Job Interview

By: Joanne Tan Ting Yuan

You have a desired job in mind and all you want is a golden opportunity to be interviewed for the job, but what can you do on your own part to get the chance?

All you need is a cover letter and your resume. These two documents are important tools to bring you closer to your dream job.

Cover Letter

A cover letter is a vital letter of introduction of yourself attached in front of your resume. Do not belittle this letter. It is like a personalised sales pitch on paper, where you are the product and you get the best chance to sell yourself and your skills.

The cover letter is where you can make the best and critical first impression to your future employers. It is also the earliest representation of your written communication skills. In addition, it is an excellent opportunity for your resume to be read and get an interview before landing the job.

To prevent your resume from being ignored, you have to make a difference and stand out from other job seekers. You only get one shot to narrate your resume in your own voice, thus do not blow your chance.

Writing enticing and effective cover letters takes time and effort. You have to show your personality, curiosity and enthusiasm all at once. Note that your cover letter should complement and not duplicate your resume.

For your introduction, create an interest in yourself explaining why you are writing. If you have an inside contact in the company, you may want to include his/her name in it too.

The body of the letter is where you get to reveal advantageous details about yourself. Explain reasons for your interest in the company and the position you are applying for. Be an angel and answer the prayers of the company by focusing on their needs. Be specific and confident as you highlight your skills and experiences. Then, relate them to your job and make connections to their needs.

As for the final paragraph, end off by repeating your contact details and indicating that you will follow up. Restate your interest and thank your prospective employers for their time and consideration.

You should keep your cover letter clear, concise and to the point. It is recommended for your letter to be within a page. Use action verbs and simple language, and avoid overloading your letter with too many adjectives.

Make the reader of the letter feel special. Take the initiative and ring up the company to find out who will be receiving your cover letter and resume.

The style of your letter is equally important. Select a standard font such as Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman and the font size should be about 10 to 12 point. Distribute your information neatly on the page. For hard copies, print your letter out on good quality paper that matches your resume and envelope.

The tone of your letter should be conversational and engaging, yet professional and respectful at the same time. It should be filled with positivity and enthusiasm to attract the attention of your future employers. You can brag a little about yourself but not too much. Always remember to be humble and down to earth.

Most importantly, read your letter out loud. This is to catch typos, awkward phrasing or any grammatical errors. Get other people to help proofread your letter too. A bad spelling mistake by you will not make a favourable impression on them.

Resume

Try dazzling your potential employer by showing them the best in you. Present to them your marketing tool, which is none other than your resume, or curriculum vitae (CV).

A resume is a living document which you should take time to customise for each job application. Tailor your resume accordingly and it will end up as a great tool for you to enhance your employment opportunities.

Your resume is a big database and it is critical that you use consistent formatting and display the content in a neat and flattering manner. Your content should consist of your contact details, employment history, education and training qualifications, skills and achievements.

Use striking keywords to grab your future employers’ attention and action words when describing what you have done.

Your resume should cover 2 pages and not exceed 3 or 4 pages. Employers usually do not have much time to read lengthy documents. Want to be original and stand out? Try printing on a well-designed paper of a different colour or size.

Honesty is the best policy. Be objective and show proof to back up your claims. You will not want to be caught in a sticky situation when your employers found out you lied after they have hired you.

Just like your cover letter, it is important to proofread your resume again and again.

Success does not come easy. Put in the effort and in time, you will definitely clinch a job interview and be hired.

For more career-related articles, visit www.STJobs.sg.