My Life With IT

Sometimes I wonder what’s the use of “Apply Online” and “Quick Apply” if 80% of the companies often request that you send the resume via email. Is the format of the buttons that send out the information that difficult to read?

Another question is that there are some positions that don’t require (IMO) for a need to have a look that is required for that position but a request for a photograph is often required before they even want to go through your resume.

Instead of using photographs as a visual aid to remember candidates by, develop an assessment template to record the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate and assess them objectively according to your job requirements. (Fair Employment)

So, I guess I could be too hasty in thinking that they want the photographs for other reasons. Unfortunately, legislation can’t be enforced in order to keep up the competition. Seriously, who wants to have another person snatch their rice bowl away?

I never had the chance to source for companies hiring interns. That was many moons back. This time, with the advancement of technology, internship sourcing has become easier with the use of the internet. It was by chance that I found InternSG. A site whereby companies can post their internship positions and students can apply for the positions.

I’m not sure how good it is since schools have fixed dates for the attachment period and most companies prefer to have 3 months of training session before they can access the students in a more accurate manner. Perhaps anyone who has successfully completed an industrial attachment with this site can give some insight on this.

Singapore Internship provide some tips on various topics, from sourcing to foreigners adapting to the culture in Singapore. Now, companies can apply online at the individual Polytechnics or Universities to state their requirements for the internship. The system will then match the requirements and let the employers choose.

It’s amazing that in such a few short years, industrial attachment has gotten more high-tech.

Being a long time user of the computer, I have been exposed to quite a number of highs and lows. The highs would be getting the information faster and somehow, my typing has improved by leaps and bounds as the coding needs fast typers in order to be completed fast.

The lows are:

1. Chronic neck pain sitting in front of the screen just after 2 hours.
2. Left ring finger and little finger and half the hand is often numb after a night’s sleep.
3. Shoulders aching unless not facing the screen.

So, what are your pains while working long hours in your industry?

With the rising number of people being retrenched, I can see that there is no security in any job. Even with recession proof jobs like teaching, nursing or food industry, it all boils down to a matter of choice for the customers or consumers. There has been quite a number of businesses that are started by those who have been affected by various reasons to start working from home.

Most people think that working from home means waking up at a comfortable time and having more flexibility in the working hours. For those who are freelancing, you may want to check 0ut how to simplify your life. It is so easy to get distracted by the Internet clutter: comic strips like Dilbert, emails, MSN, Twitter, Plurk, Tumblr, Posterous, and many new social media sites springing up are being reported by technology blogs or sites.

If freelancing at home means a lot of discipline, it is no different from working in the office. Just that no one will look at you to make you feel guilty. Personally, I prefer working from home in a truly comfortable manner. Meaning, despite the distractions, I am still being productive and earning a decent amount of money to pay the bills and enjoying trips around the world.

Working from home should be simple; that’s why I chose to work from home instead of spending 3 hours of travelling time just to get to the office and back home. That’s why my internet access should be free from worrying about some boss checking if I am surfing non-official sites during office hours. That’s why my lunch time can be as long as I want it to be.

That’s why I shouldn’t have to worry about my business even if I’m on vacation for more than a month. It should be a happy choice that I can still enjoy life and really be able to enjoy the fruits of labour that I have been working so hard for. Teachers taught us to work hard and have a high paying job. But we were never taught how to have something that will give us income security even when we are unable to work due to medical reasons.

Having sent in two different brands of laptops for repair, I must admit that I am rather surprised at the different ways the repairs are being handled. My experience with Asus and Lenovo has a vast difference. I’m not even sure where to begin.

Let me start off with Asus, I had to send in the laptop for repair as the screen showed only half of what it supposed to show. I had to travel to The Adelphi in order to send in for servicing as there isn’t a collection by the service centre itself.

For Lenovo, I had to call the service centre and wait for them to arrange a collection. They were supposed to give me a case number so that I would be able to collect it later. A call on Monday ended without any reply from them. Thus, I had to call on Tuesday to check. Apparently, my call didn’t seem to be registered with them since the pick up department or section didn’t even receive my request.

Therefore, I’m wondering if the guy even acknowledge the issues for the IdeaPad Y430 at all. Does that mean that the intermitant sounds and USB problem weren’t that major enough to warrant a service? Fortunately, the guy in charge of the pick up was very helpful and helped me arrange a pick up on Wednesday. I must say that I am rather shocked at the difference in the service attitude between two employees in the same company.

Although individuals have different temperaments, it would serve to know that they are working in the same company and representing the reputation and image of Lenovo. If one keeps one’s individual image of self instead of remembering that one is working for a company and representing the company’s image instead of self, one isn’t fit to work anywhere at all.

How does one become a success with blogging? With so many blogs out there vying for the attention, it is a miracle that some blogs are having much better success than others. Mine? It’s just anther blog with some random IT stuff thrown in here.

Now, Liz Strauss is a well-known blogger and I’ll have you know that blogging isn’t dated no matter what Tan Weizhen from Straits Times says. I still have a reasonable number of traffic to this blog. I must say that I’m impressed with the information that is dished out on how to make your blog into a community.

If you want your blog to be a success and stand out from the web, check out her book. Otherwise, continue struggling to write paid posts, paid links, paid surveys, setup your own online store without worring about the logistics and sell your products online.

Although, I won’t complain about residual income.

Thanks to TYB’s introduction, I decided to try out Jorbb. Actually, it was the part time position that did it. I’m really into such things since I do like flexibility to manage my time. After playing with the site updating my job profile, I found some interesting things that are different from JobsDB, JobStreet and other Singaporean job search sites.

I Like

• The tabs that are easy to understand, one look and you know what you need to do.
• Ease of editing the profile and most important, updating the email.
• Maps provided for the Jorbbees (the job seeker) and Jorbbers (the employer).
• Credits earned from referrals, blogging about the site, posting testimonials and more. No other job search sites let you do that for exchanging the credits for gifts.
• Featured Jorbbees and Jorbbers.
• The cute mascot for Jorbb.

I Dislike

• Since I have entered my email address, why do I still need to enter it for the job alert portion? Is it for convenience or something?
• My portion to update the Previous Employer section refused to be updated. I didn’t update Current Employer, is that important?
• After trying to just upload my resume, there is an error and I have to click on Edit again to complete the process. Perhaps adding “required” next to the text resume would help.
• Adsense in the blog gives the feeling that it still isn’t professional enough. Maybe because the site is still in beta mode.
• Logged out of the session after some time. I do remember being idle for this case, maybe can include a notice on how long the session will log out if I have been idle for some time.

Overall, I do like the prospect of being rewarded for my job hunting efforts. Sign up if you haven’t.

Affiliate marketing can be as lucrative as you want it to be or it can be a total flop. What makes affiliate marketing works for some while it fails for others?

Buy and review the product – If you haven’t tried it, people will be doubtful about it. Take the Wordpress templates for example. If you are promoting a particular premium design that is so fantastic but you haven’t used it personally, will people want to buy from your affiliate links?

Not everyone will have overnight success, hard work is involved in affiliate marketing. Research, learning about SEO are all part and parcel of making affiliate marketing a success. You may have fears of the decline in affiliate sales over time but as long as you keep working on it, you will find a ways to make changes to keep up with the changes.

E-Junkie is one of the popular affiliate programmes because of the ease of use and the wide range of products that you can select from.

Amazon Stores allows you to create your own stores online without worrying about the logistics and shipping. You get to earn commissions for the sales.

Linkworth has a lot of different ways to make money with your site.

Zlio is another online store that allows you to sell products without worrying about logistics and shipping. You earn commissions from the sales. With up to 50 stores for each account.

Nobody said affiliates were going to be easy. Depending purely on one source of income is dangerous and this has been proven a few times. That’s why I have setup quite a number of ways online to have a variety of income streaming in.