The rise of high tech job hunters- and the related feelings of inadequacy

The job market is a vast and scary place. We all know we’re going to have to fight to carve a niche in our industry, and it’s even scarier for fresh graduates, whose dreams of swanning into a high paying job have been destroyed and who now have to fight for work against people with NO degree but real life experience.

In this vacuum of scared and frightened talent a few gems emerge- bright sparks who manage to stand out from their fellow job hunters by dint of their intelligence, focus and dedication. When these bright sparks emerge they are feted by the media, envied by their peers and rise meteorically to great jobs in their industry. Great for them- seriously, kudos for their effort- but it does leave everyone else feeling rather deflated and envious. If you’re a perpetual B/C student you’re used to being overlooked for those who can debate as well as they can eat and produce the  type of clever analytic essays that have teachers wooing them; but it was nice to think that when you entered the job market these glaring discrepancies would be ironed out. Sure, there are always leaders and followers, bosses and grunts, but ideally you’d have a lot of people who were a team and that would generally be good enough.

The rise of the super hungry job seeker has left a lot of people scared and uncomfortable- even those who are actually in position of a full time job. Younger people will take less money, work later nights, and often lack the extra pressure of family commitments /mortgage payments etc that those older might have, (Yes, this is a generalisation, but that’s the point of this piece).

I came across Celine is looking for a fashion job recently, an online CV/portfolio of Celine, a young French girl looking for a job. She created a slick online website with a magazine feel that lists her qualifications, her goals, and displays some very pretty photos of her. It also links to a personal blog where she writes about style. My first thought was ‘Wow’- it’s clever, well executed and looks very slick. My second thought was ‘Oh’- and that was slightly less exciting. She’s remarkably pretty, she’s very talented and she’s very young- combined with a huge ambition- makes hers somehow seem like a threat. Not a threat to me directly- her goals are different from mine- but an acknowledgement of the general threat of young hungry people and how they are making me feel inadequate. Why didn’t I do a website like that? One of the main reasons would be that others existed, and you often fall into the trap of thinking that a website like this has a onetime lifespan- good for a novelty and then becomes old hat. What we forget is that not everyone has seen all the CV websites and that there’s always space for something new and fresh.

I was recently giving a lecture on how to get into journalism at the London College of Fashion, and when I asked the question, ‘Who here has a blog?’, most of the room raised their hands. Ten years ago this would of been highly unique, but advancements in tech and younger people’s greater drive has meant that most media savvy students will be putting themselves ‘out there’ in some form on the internet. Read more…

Tags: high tech resume, online job hunter

The Great Designer Size Issue

Any woman will be able to tell you that the high street sizing policy is inconsistent. A happy size 10 in Marks and Spencer will struggle to fit into a Topshop size 12, and will need to take an 8 or a 6 when visiting Jaeger. This is due to all sorts of reasons; from some stores choosing to cut more generously- or tailor their clothes for curvier women- to the rise of vanity sizing, where clothes are labelled as small to give the customer a false sense of thinness.

The New York Times has created an interesting infographic that shows the discrepancy between sizes on the high street- and also how many high end designers are consciously cutting their clothes to be on the small side. When you look at the above chart you can see that Marc Jacobs cuts their clothes considerably smaller than Ralph Lauren. We could  theorize that’s because Marc Jacobs caters to a younger crowd, and is looking for young attractive people to wear their line, whilst Ralph Lauren is worn by a slightly older market and is happy to give people room for curves/ dinner, but this is really all conjecture, and we’ll never know exactly why these decisions have been made.

What we can see however is the differences in waist size in black and white, which will help us guide our way around the ever baffling changing sizes in women’s fashion. I’d love it if we could all agree on one standard sizing policy and forgo the vanity sizing nonsense, but till then at least we have this rough guide to clothing sizes to help us navigate the stores.

[via NYT]

Tags: vanity sizing, women's clothing sizes. designer small sizes

Twelve Embarrassing Royal Wedding product tie ins

The Royal Wedding is almost upon us and Kate Middleton will soon be exchanging her surname for ‘Windsor’ or Mr and Mrs Prince William. Whether you’re a staunch royalist or find the whole things a waste of time, there’s one thing you won’t be able to avoid. Well, two things actually if you count people’s opinions on the subject.

The second unavoidable occurrence of this wedding is the HUGE amount of tat that will be sold in conjunction, with everyone eager to make sure they have got their eBay fill worth of products. Coaster, tea towels, all the usual tat will be rolled out, but amongst those spectacularly undesirable pieces of merchandise (Kate and William coaster anyone?) is the truly overwhelming in terms of relevance to the subject matter. You can’t blame companies for wanting to get some of the moolah that will be floating around, but these Royal Wedding tie ins are truly embarrassing.

Kate the Royal Wedding Fairy

This is a book about a fairy called Kate, who is a royal wedding fairy was created by Daisy Meadows. It’s the latest in the line of Fairy books she has written, but though the words ‘sell out;’ are never mentioned, this particular fairy isn’t quite the same as ‘Emma the Easter fairy’ or her ‘Florence the Friendship fairy’ books.

The story descriptions is as follows: ‘Kate the Royal Wedding Fairy makes sure that all weddings are happy and magical! But when mean Jack Frost steals the True Love Crown, the Fairyland royal wedding is sure to be a disaster. Can Kirsty and Rachel find the crown so the royal couple will live happily ever after…? I wonder what the name of the Royal Prince is?

Kiss Me Kate Beer

Castle Rock Brewery have created a limited edition Royal Wedding beer called ‘Kiss me Kate. I actually find this idea rather cute, as we Brits do love our booze, I just find the pink label and hearts decorating it a little sickly. It will be available on draught and from Morrisons stores during April. The head brewer says, ‘Kiss Me Kate will be elegant, tasteful and British to the core.  It’ll be brewed to 5%, pale in colour and, we’re sure it’ll be the ideal way to toast the couple’s future happiness’. Not that Ms Middleton would ever drink beer though, I reckon she’s a white wine spritzer kind of girl. Find out more from Castle Rock Brewery here. Read more…

Tags: Crown Jewels condoms, Kate Middleton, Lydia Leith, Prince William, Royal Wedding, Royal Wedding novelty souvenir, Royal Wedding souvenir

Are you App’y with that App? Clarifying the return and refund policy for Android, RIM, iPhone and Windows7

People’s attitudes to apps baffles me. Like, really REALLY baffles me. The way they react to a rubbish App is completely different to their attitude towards any other purchase they make. If you buy a dress that doesn’t fit you return it. If food is off, you’d get your money back. If you bought Monopoly that was missing the money, well, that’s straight back to the shop. People don’t like faulty, rubbish goods that fail to deliver- so why does that attitude not follow through when they buy applications? It’s REAL money that you have shelled out for that app, so why not reclaim it? You have purchased a service after all, and if it’s not lived up to expectations, well you deserve a REFUND. Refunds are available as well- they just tend to be fairly well hidden.

Before you start rubbing you head and telling me that you don’t need a refund, I’d just like to draw your attention to a few events in recent years. Reclaiming Bank charges. People said it couldn’t be done, that was just the way it was, don’t challenge the status quo, but helloo- the huge excess charges banks whacked on your statement if you were late paying have been declared Unfair by the Office of Fair Trading, and the amount you have to pay has now been capped, rather than spiralling out of control. This change was due to people MAKING a fuss, and getting their voices heard, so never just give up on something because it hasn’t been done yet.

What about the whole UK politician expense charges scandal? For years politicians had got away with letting the public pay for their second houses/ flatscreen TV’s/ moats, and then it all came out, enough was enough, and many hands got more than slapped. Just because something hasn’t been done YET doesn’t mean it won’t be, and I’m sick of the lack of transparency that the various Application stores have in regards to their refund policy. I’m going to tell you just how you can get your money back when you buy an app you aren’t happy with- and what we collectively can do to stop those companies keeping us in the dark about our App purchases.

Buying an Application from an App store falls under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 and the key elements of this (the relevant ones) are that:

• you must give consumers clear information including details of the goods or services offered, delivery arrangements and payment, the supplier’s details and the consumer’s cancellation right before they buy (known as prior information)
• you must also provide this information in writing
• the consumer has a cooling-off period of seven working days.

Whilst most app stores DO give part one and part two of this to purchasers, I think you’ll find that they don’t offer part three- how can a 15 minute window (Android store) be a seven day cooling off period? Whether or not they say you only have 15 minutes to choose your refund, that is illegal in the UK, so you still have the FULL seven days to make up your mind. Just to be clear I contacted the Office of Fair Trading and asked them to clarify whether the application stores were breaking the The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 policy.

Read on to find out what the Office of Fair Trading replied and for my detailed GUIDE ON HOW TO GET A REFUND FROM EACH OF THE FOUR APP STORES- Apple App store, BlackBerry App World, Windows 7 Marketplace and the Android Market.
Read more…

Tags: android app refund, Android Marketplace, app, app refund, Apple app refund, application refund, BlackBerry App, blackberry app refund, Distance Selling Regulations act, iPhone, Windows 7, Windows 7 app refund, Windows Mobile

ScentScape brings Smell-o-vision back to the TV

The idea of engaging a third sense in the televisual world is a not a new one, but one which as never been done with any great degree of authority. My last memory of this type of integration harks back to 2003 when the Rugrats Go Wild Movie was released on the big screen, complete with scratch and sniff cards (called Odorama cards) that had to be used during the film. At various moments in the animated movie you were given visual cues (such as the number one) and then would scratch the corresponding number on your sheet and anything from strawberry lollipops or smelly socks would be inhaled. The idea is that adding smell to a movie will give you a richer all round experience, but I’ve yet to see anything that could cope with today’s demands. Read more…

Tags: Scent Sciences, ScentScape, smellovision

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The Seven Tablets that are making waves right now

Love it or loathe it, you can’t deny that Tablets have become very big news lately. The question about whether you actually need one still remains- and many iPad owners have found their pretty toys relegated to mere coffee table coasters in recent days. However,  as many brands are starting to become aware of what Tablets have to offer, we’re going to see more tablet specific content become available, and brands such as The Times and Vogue are creating ways for you to view their creations tablet style. As time progresses we’re going to see more development in the world of tablets, and potentially discover a use for these over sized iPhone’s/ netbook style creations.

Here are the tablets that you’ll want to pay attention too, and I’m going to give you the hard stats on what each model has to offer, from ease of use, accessibility to storage expansion and weight.

The Apple iPad

This tablet is the most well known on the market, and anyone who has an iPhone will find the controls a doddle, as they’ve simply been supersized for this device. The iPad is the priciest tablet on the market, currently coming in at £429 for the most basic model. For this you get a glossy looking 9.7 inch screen, which weighs in at 1.5 (or 1.6 model dependant/ 0.68 kg) pounds and is 13.4 mm thick. It comes in Wi-Fi and 3G versions and has a built in hard drive of 16, 32 or 64GB which is not expandable. You can connect to it via the Apple connector, but there’s also a microSim card holder (for 3G access) and a 3.5 mm jack for your headphone (non proprietary).

Downsides are that it’s lacking a USB connector, has no camera (so, no video calling)  and just  forget about a SD card reader. On the plus side,  multi touch functionality makes it a joy to use though, as you can swoosh easily across pages, expanding at will with a mere wiggle of the fingers. The iPad also plays video in 720 , will work with Windows as well as Macs, and, the killer reason- is very, very pretty. They say you can have 10 hours of use, using Wi-Fi and the processor is a 1GHz Apple A4 chip, which is super fast. The plus point of the iPad is that you have access to the huge and varied Apple store, and buying and downloading apps is very easy. As Apple has created such a high profile for itself in the tablet market, it’s likely that any apps to be released will be created with the iPad in mind, so you’ll probably get them before other platforms do.

The BlackBerry Playbook

I’m very intrigued by this recent addition to the Tablet world, as it could mean a new way of using tablets for everyone. Blackberry is known for their business and office skills, so extending their handset range into the tablet arena can only mean that they’re considering it featuring in an office environment, miles apart from the iPad’s ethos of fun. The Playbook features a 7 inch display which weighs in at 0.4kg and is 10mm thick.

It features a multitouch capacitive screen and has two cameras, a 3 MP forward facing one, and a 5 MP rear camera. They’ve got a lot of info on video conferencing bundles, which is another step on them pushing it as a business device. Input wise, you get a HDMI port for connecting it to HDTV’s or a hi-def projector, a USB port and  1080p You also get all the usual Blackberry resources bundle in, from the calendar to BBM, which I’m guessing will all sync up nicely with your phone. It uses a 1GHz dual core processor and has 1GB of RAM, and is able to work with Adobe Flash as well (a major plus point for web browsing). Where it loses a little ground is in the app department, as that’s nothing to write home about, but the BlackBerry App store is continually growing. We don’t have a price for this yet, but Blackberry say, ‘ it will fall in the lower range of prices for consumer tablets already in the suddenly congested market.’ OK, then, we’ll wait to 2011 ( when it’s out) and see for ourselves.

One issue though- as they’re trying so hard to make this a business tablet, why not call it the WorkBook rather than the PlayBook? See what I’m saying, yeah? Read more…

Tags: Blackberry Playbook, Dell Streak, Galaxy Tab S Samsung, iPad, tablet computer, Toshiba Folio 100