The PlanetRecruit Blog

Find a Job Through Your Social Network

In such a competitive job market, job seekers, employers and employment agencies are continually looking for means to gain an advantage. Consequently, the methods and tools by which new talent is sourced and acquired are constantly evolving.

Following the emergence of social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, social networking has become an integral part of both our personal and professional lives. So what impact has the increased popularity of social networking sites made on those involved in the recruitment industry?

For those looking for work, social networking can provide a useful tool with which to market themselves to would-be employers.

The Social Limitations of Twitter

You could be forgiven for never having heard of the Dunbar Number, not least because it isn’t a specific number. But in 1998 the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar published ‘The Social Brain Hypothesis’, which suggested that human brains can only keep up with about 150 people at a time. That’s the Dunbar Number – about 150.

This number is consistently proven throughout history: Stone Age villages averaged about 150 inhabitants, just as modern villages do. The latest social model shown to follow the Dunbar number theory is Twitter.

Twitter users can easily build up a following of thousands and follow a similar number themselves; the social model places no limits on our social networks, enabling them to grow exponentially. But it would appear that the human brain is the bottleneck for this new technology.

The Hargreaves Report and the Challenges of New Technologies

The recent Hargreaves report responds to the government’s instruction last autumn to look at whether current copyright laws are hindering innovation in this country. The short answer is, as Hargreaves succinctly puts it, “yes”; reform is needed (p1).

His reflection on the existing Digital Economy Act is that strong online enforcement should be carefully monitored. He suggests a tough approach on enforcement of copyright balanced with education.

In his 10 recommendations he advocates, among other things, that the UK align its laws more with EU laws to make full use of existing exceptions, such as for format shifting, non-commercial research, parodies and library archiving. His ambition is to create the “world’s first Digital Copyright Exchange”, allowing rights owners to sell licences in their work and to make market transactions faster.

Making niche technology mainstream

Apple could be about to do for the cloud what it did for the MP3 player and the tablet computer – make previously niche technology mainstream.

For most, the first MP3 player was the first generation iPod, released in 2002 – when in fact they had been around since 1998. Most recently, since the release of the iPad manufacturers and people alike are falling over themselves to release and buy tablet computers. However, the concept of tablet computing has been around for some time, with Microsoft trying it as far back as 2001.

These innovations have hugely changed the way we think about and consumer media. Take music, for example. Many swore never to give up their CD collections and to continue buying CDs after the iPod release. Compressed music doesn't sound as good – true – and nothing beats owning a real CD or record, yet most music lovers will now have extensive digital collections. The same holds true for books, with research indicating more digital books than paper copies were purchased last year.

Booming industries in the Thames Valley

Over the past few years, the economic crisis has dominated the mind of every businessperson in the country. Regardless of size and industry, every company has been forced to make cutbacks and to streamline their businesses; however, as the market comes back to life in the Thames Valley region, some industries are flourishing more than others. But which ones should job seekers be looking to for new opportunities?

Traditionally referred to as 'Silicon Valley', the Thames Valley region is occupied by some of the largest well-know brand names within the hi-tech industry, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard. It is no wonder then that these household names have made the Thames Valley a flagship region for larger companies looking to expand to Europe, and smaller companies looking for somewhere to house their headquarters.