Internet Marketing Awareness Program

I attended the Internet Marketing Awareness Program – developed and presented by the UNB Electronic Commerce Centre – on April 16th. In general I was really impressed with the curriculum and found the diversity in the classroom interesting as well.

Aside from trying to cram way too much info into a day-long session, I think it was a great workshop and would recommend it to anyone looking for a crash course. One thing to keep in mind though, you must have some basic knowledge of industry terminology (ex. Google Analytics, web-banners, etc.). I was lucky enough to have recently spent time online researching the stuff, so I felt pretty comfy with the content, but there were a few in the class who could have really benefited from the background.

If you have the opportunity to take the course – particularly if you are a small or medium-sized business/non-profit without an in-house marketing department – definitely do it, you get more than value for the $100 tuition fee (which by the way includes a 30 minute consultation session after the program)!

How Local Employers can help Grow the Workforce

Much of my time and attention in the weeks following the National Job Fair in Toronto has been spent communicating with some of the more eager job seekers we met at the Fair. These are the folks who either a) grabbed my card and actually bothered to follow-up or b) stayed in touch after receiving their chosen job postings via email. There’s a quality that all of these people share – they are all keenly interested in pursuing relocation to Saint John.

Another commonality is that they all seem to be very aware of the possibility of being disadvantaged in a job competition due to the fact that they aren’t living in Saint John. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been asked, “Will I even get an interview if I’m not there?”

So here’s where Saint John Community employers can help grow our workforce (and help me to answer “yes” to that question in the future):

• If you aren’t already, open up to the idea of virtual hiring – get professional advice regarding screening techniques if necessary (there’s tonnes of free info on the internet of course);
• Be comfortable with the idea of telephone interviews. You may have to work a bit harder in order to qualify people because you lose some non-verbal communication, but the long-term results could be worth it;
• Investigate web conferencing and other technologies that incorporate video into your communication. Heck anyone with a $15 webcam and a free MSN Messenger account can do it!
• Think about allowing candidates to share documentation with you via email, FTP, etc. that will support their applications. For example, if you’re hiring a finish carpenter and generally prefer to see the persons work in person (but in this case can’t), allow that person to take photos of a previous project or submit letters of reference from past clients;
• If you still feel uncomfortable screening long-distance candidates yourself engage a hiring agency.

National Job Fair Results

April 7-10 my colleague and I were in Toronto at the National Job Fair, representing the Saint John Community and a number of local employers who took advantage of our open-access job bank. Here are some quick tidbits to give you a sense of the trip:

• 9,900 job seekers attended (we were busy)
• 155 exhibitors (NB Zone, Ontario & Alberta Zones, Government and Retail Zones, etc.)
• A variety of backgrounds – welders to doctors to customer service reps to counsellors, and everyone in between
• 115 types of positions in our job bank (thank you Saint John area employers for your support!)

Our results? Over 100 emails to send to very keen job seekers upon our return (emails included the job postings the candidate had chosen from our job bank, application instructions and community information) and dozens of connections made with other employers who may not have had a chance to post their position but we knew would want to talk to these candidates.

I came home from this trip feeling really charged about all of the incredible things life in Saint John has to offer these people. I couldn’t even guess at the number of candidates we spoke with who were genuinely excited about the prospect of life in a small coastal city, with friendly supportive neighbours, opportunities for their families, a growing social and multicultural scene… all of the reasons that we live here and choose to stay. There was no need to “sell” Saint John; just the truth about day to day life here was appealing enough for these folks. Not surprising if you ask me!