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by Bill on July 15, 2010.

We all know the saying it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. And everyone knows that, but I think there is a corollary: If everyone is trying to prevent error, it screws things up. It’s better to fix problems than to prevent them. And the natural tendency for managers is to try and prevent error and overplan things.

—Ed Catmull, President of Pixar

Humor: This may be the worst job ever. READ MORE
by Bill on July 8, 2010.

This guy probably has the worst job ever. There’s a bit of indecent language towards the end of the video.

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by Bill on July 8, 2010.

If I have two candidates in front of me, one that included a cover letter about how he hand-rolled his own blog, comments, and feed aggregator for fun to learn a new framework, and another that just sends a resume with a one-liner in the body of the email, I’m going to be much more inclined to say “hire” for the guy with the cover letter, even if the second guy’s resume is a bit better. Similarly, I’ll be more likely to say “hire” to the Eagle Scout, triathlete developer than a candidate who bludgeons me with all of their “accomplishments”…

A company’s hiring process is usually a pretty good indicator of what kind of talent it employs, and thus the kind of quality the company has. The higher the bar, the better the talent, the more interesting the company.

– Reddits Entitlement Complex

Jamaica’s Most Popular Jobs 2009 – 2010 trends READ MORE
by Bill on April 11, 2010.

Its now just over a year since I started pileojobs.com and over that time the site as advertised some 3,933 Jamaica based jobs. Here are some interesting statistics on these jobs.

Total Jobs Advertised

For the period April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010 the number of jobs advertised on a monthly basis trended upwards for the most part with the greatest number of jobs being advertised in August (407 jobs),  January (430 jobs) and February(421 jobs). See graph below.

Level of Jobs Advertised

For simplicity we grouped the jobs into three categories; managers, supervisors and other staff. For the period there were more jobs for other staff than managers and supervisors combined. Managers (1406), Supervisors(457), Other(2070)

For the three staff categories the line graph of number of jobs versus month looked like this:

Jobs by Industry

Again we did not show all industries, but rather the top ones. Here sales was in the lead with 27% or 459 jobs, Accountants came in next with 385 jobs being advertised. The pie chart below shows where each industry stands.

Qualifications Required

Last but not least is the qualifications asked for over the past year. See for yourself below.

Pile O’ Jobs is, for the most part, free, so if you’ve stumbled on this blog entry, check out www.pileojobs.com. If you’re an existing Pile O’ Jobs user, invite your friends! I appreciate it when you do.

Winning a Job With Your USP READ MORE
by Pile O' Jobs on March 16, 2010.

Tie your unique selling proposition to a prospective employer’s profitability and boost your odds of finding a position that suits you both.

Solid credentials and honed job-search skills might get you through a prospective employer’s door, but what can make you stand out among candidates? Glowing reference letters? Confidence in the interview? A memorable “thank you” e-mail or note? (If you’ve considered creating memorability via balloons or candy in the company’s logo palette, please save it for after you’ve accepted the job.)

Product Update: Improved relevancy in job results READ MORE
by Bill on July 30, 2009.

I spent the night installing the new version of our search engine. Our main focus for this round was improving two things:

1. the relevancy of the jobs in the results to the users’ search phrase.
2. the location box has been quite useful but there is always room for improvement, so we’ve put in quite a bit of work there as well.

Give us your feed back by emailing feedback@pileojobs.com or leave a comment below.

On the pleasure of talking to strangers READ MORE
by Bill on July 14, 2009.

A bird crapped on me twice today, or it could have been two birds, I dont know, but just has I stepped onto the beach the first one landed, and a few seconds later a second.

There was baby about 3 years old having the time of his life with his mommy in the sand. I was wondering if they witness the incident with the birds so i smiled at the mommy and said “wow. Two birds pooped on me in one day, i must really be lucky today” She smiled and said “Of course you’re lucky. You’re at the beach so you can wash it off…” and that is how our conversation started.

I don’t know this lady from Adams and she doesn’t know me but we still are able to smile at each other and converse. I find the experience relaxing, chatting with a stranger about whatever comes to mind. Many a times it allows you to gain a fresh view on things. Try it today.

Bear in mind:

People don’t bite
More often than not people are open to conversation. Especially if you are authentic. Trying to start a conversation with some preconceived lines from some book may not be a good idea.

You can learn a lot from anyone
You can learn much from chatting with a street boy that wipes your windscreen as you can learn from chatting with a university lecturer.

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by Bill on July 2, 2009.

I am not sure where I’m going but I still prepare myself diligently for the journey every day
– Peter Baskerville

This is the life of any entrepreneur. Taking chances and making themselves comfortable with the ambiguity of what the future holds.

Business lessons I learnt from watching a topless dancer READ MORE
by Bill on June 24, 2009.

I found this video of a guy dancing on Seth Godin’s blog. What this guy did is the same as any innovator bringing a new idea to the market. Here’s what I got from the video

Do something different and you will definitely get noticed
The guy starts out dancing by himself, and since he is the first one dancing, dancing itself becomes the innovation. At first everybody(customers) is looking, some even laughing and thinking, ‘hey, this guy must be on something’. But thats ok. In business it’s better to be noticed as crazy than not noticed at all. right?

Doing what you love is important
So in 18 seconds he gets his first follower/customer and in 55 seconds he has a second. Think about it. If you don’t like dancing and you are trying to get people to dance. Would you keep going after the first minute, after the majority present think your crazy, and on top of that you’ve only secured two customers. He showed that he was enjoying himself and couldn’t care less how many persons were dancing with him or taught he was cray.

The more followers you get is the more followers you will get
Getting the first few customers is the hardest part. Securing the first two followers took this guy 55 seconds. The third and fourth came 20 seconds later and within another 5 seconds he got a dozen more. By the end of three minutes it’s hard to count the just how many persons have joined.

Persistence pays off and so does having a few early adopters
By 1min20secs people are more comfortable with the idea. “Others are doing it, so i should too. right?” thats the general thought. Thats were everything goes viral. It is now more weird if you are not dancing than if you are. So the rate at which others join skyrocket. A complete reversal of were you started.

I guess I learnt that with innovation your idea will get scrutinized or maybe even ridiculed, then accepted by the few early adopters and if the early adopters love it and you are persistent you or your business stand a chance of going viral.

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by Bill on June 24, 2009.

For what the leaders are, that, as a rule, will the men below them be.
– Xenophon

The enthusiasm with which employees join a company inevitably wanes. If you want to speed this up do not practice what you preach. Employees like to see their bosses sharing in the dangers and experiences.