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Sunday, December 11, 2011

December Job Hunt Tips (Mashable) : Technet

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December Job Hunt Tips (Mashable) : Technet

December Job Hunt Tips (Mashable)

Posted: 10 Dec 2011 10:24 AM PST

Cesar Ulloa Cesar Ulloa – Sat Dec 10, 1:24 pm ET

Cesar Ulloa is a Senior Staffing Manager in the Accounting & Finance Contracts division at Winter, Wyman, the largest and one of the most recognized staffing organizations in the Northeast. Find out more on the Winter, Wyman blog or follow on Twitter @WinterWyman. Finding a job during the holiday season may be easier than you think! Bust the holiday job-search myths, and find your next job.

[More from Mashable: Should Your Job Title Be More Creative?]

Do you have a tip for job hunting during the winter months? Tell us in the comments below.

Holiday Job Search Myths

Nobody hires in December.
December is typically a busy time of the year for hiring. Several industries, such as retail, bring on temporary employees to help with everything from payroll to filing.[More from Mashable: YouTube's Most-Shared Ads of 2011 [VIDEOS]]

The budgets for jobs are exhausted.
Several companies review their budgets not only for the year ahead but also for the remainder of the year, and may find a surplus. Also, not all companies work on a calendar year. Some fiscal years have already begun back in October.

Nothing ever happens between Thanksgiving and the third week of January.
Some of the busiest weeks are between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Many companies are preparing for the approaching year and these hiring decisions usually get made before the start of the New Year.

Use December to plan your search and be ready to hit the market after the first of the year.
The holidays are a more relaxed time of the year, and job seekers should take advantage of that. Hiring managers are in a festive mood and job seekers should be very proactive in their approach. If other job seekers believe in the myth that the holidays are slow for hiring, then you could be at more of an advantage with less competition.

Even if an employer may have an opening, many hiring managers are tied up with budgets, deadlines and family obligations, and they are difficlt to get a hold of.
Temporary jobs are not only a great option in the workforce, but a great employment option and usually don't require multiple interviews so decisions can be made quickly. They usually don't require the decision of several hiring managers.

Job Search Tips During the December Holidays

Go to holiday networking events.
This is a great way to meet people who are in the holiday spirit. Again, the holidays are a time for cheer, so why not get out in an environment where decision makers are in a festive mood.

Send holiday cards with your business card enclosed to hiring managers.
This is a great opportunity to reach out to hiring managers, and even if you think your card may get lost in the holiday shuffle, you never know the impact it could make.

Network at your family parties.
It's a small world, and you never know who your brother, cousin or mother knows in your industry. A personal connection to a possible job opportunity, recruiter or hiring manager is a great way to get your foot in the door.

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Online spending stays strong in early December (Reuters)

Posted: 11 Dec 2011 12:51 PM PST

– Sun Dec 11, 3:51 pm ET

(Reuters) – Online spending remained strong in early December, a period that usually marks a lull in the U.S. holiday shopping frenzy, comScore said on Sunday.

For the week ending December 9, consumers spent $5.9 billion online, up 15 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to comScore, which tracks Internet activity.

E-commerce spending for the first 39 days of the 2011 holiday season reached $24.6 billion, also up 15 percent versus the corresponding days last year, comScore added.

Earlier in the season, the day that has become known as "Cyber Monday" saw a record $1.25 billion spent online in the United States, up 22 percent from last year. Other early season shopping days were also strong, with "Black Friday" e-commerce sales jumping 26 percent from a year ago.

That sparked concern that sales could weaken later in the season, but so far that has not happened, comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said on Sunday.

"These highlights represent another very positive sign for the holiday shopping season, as the week following 'Cyber Week' often experiences relative softness in spending momentum due to retailers pulling back on their promotional activity," he said.

'GREEN MONDAY'

The latest data suggests a "strong finish" to the holiday shopping period online this year, Fulgoni added.

This coming week is usually the busiest for online retailers, beginning with "Green Monday," a term coined by eBay in 2007 to describe the Monday occurring around the second week of December, which has tended to be among the heaviest online spending days of the year.

Over the past six holiday shopping seasons, "Green Monday" has ranked among the top spending days of the season, ending the year as the top-ranked twice (in 2005 and 2007) and the second-ranked spending day three times (in 2006, 2008 and 2010), according to comScore data.

"Green Monday will rank among the top online spending days of the season, but it's hold on the No. 1 position may be slipping," Fulgoni said.

That may be because "Free Shipping Day" is becoming more important. This is a day when thousands of merchants offer free shipping on one of the last days that allows enough time for packages to be delivered in time for Christmas Eve, December 24.

Free Shipping Day is December 16 this year and these kinds of promotions may be helping to spread online spending throughout the week. In the past, spending was more concentrated earlier in the week, comScore's Fulgoni noted.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr, editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Expedia shareholders to gain from spinoff: report (Reuters)

Posted: 11 Dec 2011 12:42 PM PST

– Sun Dec 11, 3:42 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Shares of TripAdvisor, the largest Internet travel site, will likely trade well after the business is spun off from Expedia, Barron's financial newspaper said in its Dec 12 edition.

TripAdvisor's revenue has grown about 30 percent lately and some investors are valuing its post-split shares at more than $35, compared with $27.91 seen in the "when issued" market, Barron's said in its Streetwise column.

When-issued refers to provisional trading before securities are issued.

Expedia shareholders will own all of TripAdvisor's shares after the spin-off. Expedia said last week stockholders had approved the spin-off and it expected to close on the transaction around Dec 20.

(Reporting by Dena Aubin; Editing by Diane Craft)

Four Kindle Fire Features that Work Poorly (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 11 Dec 2011 10:45 AM PST

Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – Sun Dec 11, 1:45 pm ET
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It's no surprise that Amazon cut a few corners in making its $199 Kindle tablet. In fact, according to IHS iSuppli, the Kindle Fire costs just barely over $199 to make, which suggests that Amazon plans to make up its losses by selling content through its store. And with the Fire's built-in store selling everything from apps and books to games and movies, there's a lot to do on it ... and a lot to part with your cash for.

But how well does the Fire actually work, for reading and watching the things you buy on it? It makes it easy to buy things from Amazon, but does it make it easy to use and enjoy them? Here are a few features that reviewers agree just don't work very well.

Magazines

Granted, magazines don't work too well on other tablets either. The iPad, which has twice the screen real estate and a dedicated Newsstand app for buying magazines from, was subject to a scathing review from Justin Williams for how horrible magazines were on it.

But usability expert Jakob Nielsen said the Fire's magazine reading experience "actually is miserable," calling Page View (which shows the full magazine pages) "unreadable" and saying that the simplified Text View "has the worst layout I've seen in years." Compared to a black-and-white e-reader, the Kindle "wins big" according to Nielsen; but as Justin Williams observed, these magazines simply aren't designed for the tablets they're on.

(Barnes & Noble's Nook Color and Nook Tablet feature a limited selection of interactive magazines specially designed for them, but it remains to be seen whether or not they'll catch on.)

Volume control

Unlike most tablets, the Kindle Fire doesn't have hardware volume buttons. This means that to change the volume on a movie or song, "you have to go through a series of taps," according to Joshua Topolsky of The Verge. The problem is even worse if the Kindle Fire is sleeping.

Silk

Amazon's Silk web browser is supposed to speed up your browsing by learning what page you're most likely to go to, and loading it ahead of time. It does this by watching how everyone uses their Kindle Fires, though, and so far it hasn't learned much. Topolsky "didn't notice any page load times that (he) would consider noticeably speedier" while using the Fire.

Apps

Amazon's "Appstore" has a selection of thousands of apps, but despite being an Android tablet it doesn't have access to the Android Market. That's over a half-million apps, including the official Google apps like Gmail and Google Maps, that the Kindle Fire can't use but other Android tablet owners can.

On the other hand, right now a lot of the Android tablets out in the wild are Nooks, and they don't have the Android Market either. At least, not unless you turn them into a "real" Android tablet.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

SoundTracking Android app lets you create your life’s film score (Appolicious)

Posted: 11 Dec 2011 01:30 PM PST

NYPD Facebook probe raises free speech question (AP)

Posted: 11 Dec 2011 10:49 AM PST

By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Colleen Long, Associated Press – Sun Dec 11, 1:49 pm ET

NEW YORK – The Facebook group was titled "No More West Indian Day Detail," referring to police patrol for a raucous annual Brooklyn parade.

Sprinkled among the frustrations aired about regulating the crowded, loud, often-violent event were comments that were more offensive. Some called the parade, held in a predominantly black neighborhood, "ghetto training," and a "scheduled riot." Others referred to participants as savages.

The West Indian Day Parade celebrates the culture of the Caribbean islands and is one of the city's largest outdoors events. Food carts with spicy dishes and fresh fruit crowd a stately parkway and dancers shimmy wearing revealing feathered costumes.

But it's often surrounded by violence. Following the parade this year, a woman was shot to death while sitting on her stoop with her daughter, as police exchanged gunfire nearby with an armed man who'd opened fire on another person moments before. And others were shot to death during celebrations in 2003 and 2005.

"Maybe next year they should hold it on Riker's Island," one of the Facebook posts read, referring to the city's main jail.

At least 20 such comments made on the page may have come from police officers, New York Police Department officials said this week. Internal affairs detectives are interviewing officers under oath and getting subpoenas for computer records. Departmental charges could be brought, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

He said the department can discipline behavior determined to be unbecoming of a police officer or detrimental to the service — and that includes online outbursts.

"It is disturbing when anyone denigrates a community with hateful speech. It is unacceptable when police officers do it," Kelly said in a statement.

But the posts, however embarrassing or outrageous, also raise a First Amendment issue about whether officers should watch what they say, online and off.

Government employees must be able to express their opinions, said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Unlike private employees, governmental employees like police officers and firefighters are protected under the First Amendment that says the government can't restrict free speech.

"That comes into play not only when we like what they have to say, but also when they say obnoxious, disgusting and hateful things," she said.

Police officers are naturally guarded, and don't often talk about the job, at least not publicly. Thee Rant, an online forum where writers air angry and occasionally bigoted grievances about the nation's largest department and the city it serves, is anonymous.

But in the Facebook group, comments with names and photos were posted in arguably the most public of online forums. Some used the NYPD shield as their profile image. Even some of those who wrote in cautioned about being too explicit, and warned that the department was watching. None of the people whose names were associated with the posts replied to attempts to contact them for comment.

The city's largest police union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, has long urged members to avoid social networks. In a union magazine column called "Tweeting all cops: Stay off those social networking sites," treasurer Joseph Alejandro said technology simply presents problems for police that it doesn't for civilians.

"Using these technologies can present a real risk to police officers' careers because information posted on them can easily be misrepresented and used against an officer," he wrote.

Police departments around the country prohibit officers to make any statements that have anything to do with work, said Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. The officers know this when they join, and, like the military, they should abide by the rules, she said. If the posts were from officers, then they violated the rules.

"It's a very political profession," she said. "It's a public profession. It's not just seen as one officer doing it; it's seen as coming from the department."

The Facebook group, which had more than a thousand supporters, has been taken offline, but copies of the posts were made public by lawyers who used the remarks in the trial of a Brooklyn man who was arrested before last year's parade. The majority of the posts centered on concern about violence at the parade, frustration about what they said was unchecked lawlessness , while other city parades staged in more notable locales, like Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, were policed more fervently.

"Why doesn't NYPD brass utilize crowd control techniques like they do at Times Square on New Year's? I know it won't stop the guns, but it can control the crowds," one writer suggested.

The police department has not specifically addressed concerns made in the post other than the statement issued by Kelly noting the entire matter was under investigation.

Even within the group's posts were messages urging caution: "Please keep it focused. This is not a racist rant. This is about us, the cops," one post read.

Lawyers with the Brooklyn Defender Services, a nonprofit public defender service, used the posts to argue the officer who arrested Tyronne Johnson in 2010 in the early morning hours before the rowdy parade may have been biased. The officer was a member of the Facebook group, but didn't post anything. That link was first reported by The New York Times.

Johnson was acquitted last month.

Everybody Likes Options, but There Are Too Many Tablet PCs (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 11 Dec 2011 10:37 AM PST

Jason Gallagher Jason Gallagher – Sun Dec 11, 1:37 pm ET
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COMMENTARY | According to CNet.com, Amazon is experiencing strong sales of the Kindle Fire estimating that as of the beginning of December the company has sold around 2 million devices. Plus, Forbes is reporting Apple is predicted to sell around 13 million iPads in the December quarter alone.

As if that was not enough tablet PCs in the hands of consumers, Barnes & Noble has unleashed the Nook Tablet, and Motorola has announced plans to release two additional tablet computers in the U.S., according to Yahoo! News. Is it just me or are there too many tablet computers on the market?

Granted the popularity of the iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet and just about every other tablet is pretty easy to see. The devices are light, versatile, and even stylish, but now that a trip to the store or any tablet website presents users with a ton of options, the market just looks plain saturated. Sure, there is a device for just about every price range, but at what point is it just too many? Tablets PCs are cool, but when a new unit is being released almost every month it is hard to get excited about anything.

Technology has always had a short shelf life, but shelling out $200, $400, or more for a tablet that will be old news next month seems a bit short sighted. In addition, the Forbes report and CNet report put nearly 15 million of the devices (granted globally) in the hands of consumers already. Not everybody is going to have a winning product, it is just that simple.

As the Forbes report indicates, Apple is clearly in first place, and the Kindle Fire could be in second by the time all is said and done. As the market continues to load up on tablets, all the competitors are doing is eating each other up, and that can just not be a good thing.

Flipboard’s fantastic looks, featured cover stories make it a must (Appolicious)

Posted: 11 Dec 2011 02:00 PM PST

Best iPhone apps for work of 2011 (Appolicious)

Posted: 11 Dec 2011 06:00 AM PST
at 9:31 PM

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