Virtual Jobs Fair for Luxembourg

Interested in working in Luxembourg? A high standard of living, a pleasant climate and conveniently located in the heart of (old!) Europe? It sounds appealing, you have to admit. If you agree, then you'd better get your curriculum vitae up to snuff and your virtual suit pressed and ready, because tomorrow sees the latest virtual jobs fair for Luxembourg to be held in Second Life.

I actually mentioned this a couple of months ago, when looking at the Grand Ducale sim and its siblings. This morning, though, my Google mail decided to suggest I visit the Working Worlds website - scarily efficient those Google ads - so I went along and found the following:

Join us for the first virtual Job Fair for the Benelux and meet recruiters from prestigious companies. Start your new career in the Netherlands, Belgium or Luxembourg on Secondlife!

On May 29 the first virtual Job fair for the Benelux will take place on the Working-Worlds Islands.

You will be able, without moving from your seat, to have a first chat with potential employers, some of which are major actors on the Benelux job market. These companies are actively seeking international executives and qualified professionals. So have a go and let them convince YOU!

So there you go... jobs not only in Luxembourg, but the entire Benelux area. Good Luck!

Ontario Public Service Careers

Gosh, it's a very long time since I posted anything about the public sector in Second Life. And almost certainly the first time for the Canadian public sector. So without further ado, I give you Ontaria Public Service Careers, on the OPS Careers sim. OK, now while the Canadian public sector is (I think) a first for Slambling, it is most definitely NOT the first time I've looked at virtual recruitment. In fact, regulars are likely to be aware that I've covered many recruitment sims in the last year or so.

For reasons which in large measure escape me, virtual worlds are proving popular as potential recruiting grounds. I am not convinced, personally. Sure, the 'received wisdom' is that Second Life is great for recruitment - but that doesn't make it so. Despite having written optimistically in the past about using SL in this way, I now think differently. I was happy to go with the 'received wisdom' because it suited my hopes and aspirations to do so. However, I'm struggling to see how this is ever going to be anything more than a gimmick. By all means give it a go, and prove me wrong. I know my own company's efforts at inworld recruitment did actually lead to at least one person taking up a position. However, I do not believe that Second Life was pivotal to recruiting for that position. I would say that it can, however, provide a canvas for promoting your organisation and the roles that may be available.

But what about this site?

Broadly this seems to be the route being taken by Ontario Public Service (OPS). There is information relating to jobs in a number of areas, such as healthcare, science and business. Each area has its own building, with viewing rooms, some form of interactive activity and interview rooms. All the buildings also have kiosks with links to the OPS careers website. At the centre of the sim is an 'airport, which provides your arrival telehub. Basically, the site employs the device that you have just flown in and are now standing in the arrival hall, wondering where to go. Teleports will transfer you to your preferred location - or you can make your own way.

Nowee.org built the OPS website and according to information on their own website: "The Ontario Public Service(OPS) simulator in Second Life, built by our partner Architecture and Associates for the SL Agency provides the SL visitors with various activities meant to inform towards a panel of jobs offered by the OPS."

In terms of the build, I suppose I'm jaded after travelling for so long. The build quality is fine, but unexceptional. The tie-in with the website is good, and there are some nice touches, but it didn't have any 'wow factor' for me. One problem I did notice (at least at the time of writing) is that the general public seem to have 'object create' rights across the sim. As far as I could see, there were just a few plywood boxes lying around, but this could lead to bigger problems if not addressed.

Here's a few snaps for your perusal:

More French Recruitment (?)

I've not been in Second Life much in recent days and have consequently not been posting much from the front line. Tonight I did finally get around to logging in, and after some aimless scanning of the map, alighted on the vl2rl sim. It appears to be owned by the French recruitment company, Tmpneo, who have a couple(?) of recruiting sims. Indeed, the French division of my own company used Tmpneo last year, when experimenting with virtual recruitment.

There is no real information to go on, so I will have to make some informed guesses. The vl2rl sim is currently occupied by 4 energy companies: Gaz de France; GE Energy; Converteam and Areva. Each company has its own building on what is otherwise a flooded sim. Despite appearances, it is not a low prim "water sim", as it is offering the full set of 15000 prims.

I am not sure of the purpose of this sim. Is it to accommodate "overflow" from the main Tmpneo sim? Or perhaps it is to provide breakout facilities for these companies, in addition to spaces on the main sim? Since the main sim is occupied by companies such as AXA, I will assume that the aim is to use this as an overflow, allowing the enegy companies to carry out recruitment without them pitching up on the tmp3 sim.

I don't have much to say about the builds, which are fine - though I could not get the elevator in the Gaz de France building to work. I just thought I'd mention their existence, though I don't see any signs of a current recruitment campaign.

I know it's a dull post - but then, it's not easy to inject must pizzazz into energy company recruitment.

As usual, I have a few piccies for you:


Converteam:

Want a Job?

Here's another short post while I ponder how to write up both the MMC and Ruta Maya (Mexico Tourism) sites. I don't make a habit of promoting blogs here, other than thru the blogroll on the right of the screen. However, I made an exception for Kanomi's highly amusing blog earlier this week, and I'm about to make another.

This one is a favour really.

It seems that the North America division of Capgemini, the company for which I work in the atomic world, has started to offer employee blogs. By way of supporting this sort of blogging initiative (and by extension supporting the company's efforts in innovation) it would be churlish not to give them a mention.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, here for you edification - and maybe your job prospects - I give you the Capgemini North America Recruiting Blog.

Accenture Careers

How odd? No sooner do I blog about one recruitment site, than another hoves into view. Thanks to Torrid Luna for informing me about this. It seems that the sim - Accenture Careers - opened today. This is actually one of a 6-sim cluster, but the others - if the map is to be believed - are still largely wide open, pastoral spaces. I have been keeping a beady eye on this one for some time, waiting for it to open - or for some news to emerge about it.

I have posted about Accenture before - indeed, I have posted about this 6-sim cluster - so you will forgive me if I don't go over old ground. Instead, I will endeavour to tell you a little about the sim. Most of the sim is there to offer the Accenture Challenge (there's a picture of the trophy in the slideshow below) which appears to consist of a number of fun tests, under 3 categories: Physical, Mental and Team. There are 3 tests in each category.

Can you: remember stuff? Do anagrams? Aim a trebuchet? Solve puzzles? If so, you might enjoy the challenges on offer here. Or you might prefer to watch your mates' pathetic attempts. I don't know when the Challenge comes to a close - if ever - but you at least stand to get your name on the leader board. And before you mention it - I know mine is not present. I might take an alt through these puzzles and tests, but as sure as eggs is eggs, I ain't exposing poor old Al to the rigours of this lot! Elsewhere on the sim there is a chatbot for you to talk to about Life, the Universe and Everything - though don't be surprised if it fails your personal Turing Test. There's also a guided tour of the sim, if you haven't already strolled through it. For those of a more nautical bent, you can grab a paddle and propel a canoe among the creeks and streams that criss-cross the sim. There are places around the sim where you can supply feedback too.

As well as the various challenges - there is a multi-lingual tower of information. Or to put it another way... there is a tower, in which each floor offers the same company information and quiz in a different language (ground floor for English). Hmmm... I'm not sure that explained it any better... oh well. Next door is the interview room (I think).

Rather than being an out-and-out recruitment venue, I get the feeling this site is more a means for engaging with SL residents, and in particular,making contact with those that might be a good fit for a career in Accenture. But all of this in a very relaxed way (a term I would not normally apply to Accenture!) : "Come and have fun in our intellectual playground, and who knows? You might want to know more about us - and vice versa."

The build itself is very enjoyable. It mixes almost ghostly, washed-out or semi-transparent shapes with sharp, crisp ones, giving a gently surreal yet serene air to the place. If you know anything about building with Windlight you are probably familiar with the "glow" setting on textures. I may be wrong, but it looks like this has been used extensively, and may account for the otherworldly lighting effects and soft-focus look. I like to nose about, as you probably know, and by checking "created by" properties on several diverse objects I can conclude that the build has been carried out by a team from The Project Factory, who really should find time to update their website some time!

One final point - possibly already fixed: there is an Orientation Zone on the adjacent Accenture 5 sim that should presumably be open, but is currently closed. Interestingly, the auditorium, which shares the same sim is open to the public.

Well enough of the wordage - here's my extensive slideshow. It's a fairly safe bet with me that the more pictures I've taken, the more impressed I am with the build. There's 19 here - which I reckon is a thumbs up from me:

Luxembourg Jobs Fairs

We've seen a number of examples of recruitment companies (mainly, but not exclusively, European) using Second Life as a place to attract potential job-seekers. My Sunday afternoon ramble among the highlands and islands led to the Grand Ducale sim, and as it looked interesting on the map and had a certain ring to it, I swooped in for a look. It is actually one of a trio of sims, the others being the rather more prosaically named Luxembourg Recrutement and Luxembourg Business.

The 3 sims, taken together, provide a large recruitment facility. The first event was actually held at the end of November, 2007, to recruit staff for GAX Technologies. I think this may have been something of a proof of concept, since GAX are (I think) the builders of the site. According to the Working Worlds website, the next fair is on the 28th March, 2008 - though the information on the island itself points towards a fair on 29th May.

I rather liked this place - it is built with a certain cartoon-y style and it manages to inject a degree of light-hearted whimsy into what could otherwise be a rather daunting and po-faced environment. There are one or two places where the prims are not properly aligned, leading to some "jitters" in the textures, but otherwise the build quality is high. There are plenty of teleports to get you around the site too.

I know, I should write more about it - but it's late, and having failed to secure a multi-million lottery win (again!) I need to get to bed so that I can get up and toddle into work tomorrow. Here is a set of pictures that should give you a bit more of the flavour --- I assume the bright orange bit is aimed at recruitment for the Netherlands:

PowerMatch

A fairly brief one this. Being of a certain age, I still extract untold merriment from the title of that old, not-so-classic movie: Danish Dentist on the Job. You can follow the link to unearth the full story of this complex tale of human emotions - but frankly I wouldn't bother. But sad to say, the title always pops into my head when the subjects of "Denmark" and "employment" crop up in the same context. Mercifully, this is a rare event - but it did happen yesterday, when I found the PowerMatch sim.

It was not a familiar name - and indeed even Google struggled to land the right links. But a bit of persistence brought me to the Power Match website. Even so, the information is a tad sparse, other than (I think) confirming what I already knew, namely: Power Match is a Danish virtual recruitment consultancy. It is owned/run by Heidi Ballinger, who describes herself in the Second Life wiki as working "fulltime with Second Life. The half of the time I work for a Danish University who do scientific work in Virtual Worlds, and the other half I use on my company 'Power-Match'." I missed their most recent jobs fair by a week or so, though my prospects as a non-Danish speaker probably weren't that great.

The sim has a smallish arrival area, near sea level. However, the main action takes place in a large sphere, high above you (well over 600metres). A teleport will whisk you there in a painless fashion. There you will find a number of recruitment booths, for companies as diverse as Saxo Bank, IBM and FLSmidth Cement. There's also a "VIP lounge" and, more usefully, a pod listing a large number of Danish sims in SL. Oh, and an auditorium.

I don't know how well the job fairs have fared, but the sim is still here, there are some prestigious companies involved, and they've been holding events for a number of months. So I'm guessing business could be a lot worse. Anyway, I only have a few photos - so to save the overhead of retrieving from Flickr, here they are:

Belgian Recruitment

Tonight, in a stroke of complete coincidence, I am back again among the industrious folk of Benelux. This time, though, it is Belgium that has caught my eye. I daresay tonight's sim has been around for a while - but it is in a part of the grid that I've not frequented in quite some time. Apologies then, if you already know all about Vacature References - which has been in Second Life since August 2007.

The name is derived from the 2 websites: vacature.com and references.be, which are the Flemish and French websites respectively for the same recruitment company. They appear to specialise in professional recruitment, and have an impressive list of clients - including Logica CMG, the subject of my last past.

The sim is nicely modelled, with a relatively simple structure. At the North end of island is a large complex of offices and the auditorium. The offices provide information spaces for the company's clients - and can also serve as small meeting or interview rooms. To the East and West you will find lounge areas, with bars and dancing. You can also grab some free clothing, either casual T-shirts or formal black suits. Although it is not a sim that is going set the pulse racing, I think it does its job admirably. The architecture is well thought-out, the design elegant and the implementation well executed.

Alexander Mann Solutions

2007 has seen a number of memes in Second Life - I've certainly blogged a few - but perhaps the most pervasive from a business perspective has been the use of SL as a recruitment office. One company I've not seen here before is Alexander Mann Solutions - an expert in "RPO", which I find stands for Recruitment Process Outsourcing. Google tells me that they may have started their Second Life presence at the Depo Consulting Business Park, but it looks like at some point over the Summer/Autumn they decided to move on to their own premises in Second Life.

According to their website, AMS was first to market in Europe with RPO in 1996, working with clients to consolidate and transform their recruitment processes, delivering an increased level of service, whilst creating significant cost savings. They have offices around the globe and an impressive list of clients across a range of professions, including IT and Finance. I couldn't help but notice that my own company is a client of theirs, too.

The sim is a nice, rather abstract construction, resembling a fractured chessboard. Most of the island is open to the (distinctly clement) elements - with what I will characterise as a boardroom, a common room and a reception area. Down a gangway a splinter of the chessboard holds a small arboretum and some information panels. In fact, you will find information panels dotted around the place.

The textures and construction here are nicely done, and pleasing to the eye. They've made use of some of the best furniture-makers in SL, and in putting the place together they have avoided clutter, giving it a simple, minimalist look. So far, so good. On the downside, it is not abundantly clear how the island is supposed to function, or what its overall aim is. Is it intended as a walk-in advertisement? A place to meet clients? A place to meet prospective candidates? I'm not sure. The amount of information on the sim is somewhat slim, and I did not notice weblinks that might lead me to more information. And what about that islet at the end of the gangway? As it only holds relatively static information, it seems somewhat redundant. However, I've been pondering this a bit... and maybe the intention is to use the islet at some future point for interviews or private meetings, given that it would be possible to wrap a 20-metre exclusion zone around it.

So, in conclusion - nice place, but I'm not sure what it's for.

Vedior Asia Pacific and Sapphire

Recruitment seems to be one of the hot business objectives in 2007, with many specialist companies doing their darnedest to attract the brightest and best to their recruitment fairs. One which I hadn't seen before tonight is Vedior Asia Pacific and their Sapphire Technologies brand, which aims to provide "innovative IT contract and permanent staffing solutions." I found their island by my usual, random trial and error technique, that has served me well (and not so well) for nigh on a year now. It seems I am actually a few months late - since the island was trumpeted in a press release back in July. Although I have learned to stop taking such statements at face value. Certainly this island does not look at all complete - though to be fair, the Sapphire Technologies area does seem to be largely finished.

The island is parcelled up, presumably with the aim of co-locating other Vedior brands over time. Right now, Sapphire seems to be the only resident, though a large board in the middle of the island does provide links to a number of recruitment websites. There's a small, quiet sandbox for anyone seeking an out-of-the-way place to practice some building. Sapphire's office in the only construction of any size. I have to say, I don't really like it. It feels cramped and a lot of the detailing (desks, computers etc) is unnecessary, serving to cluttler the small space available. On the plus side, freebie-lovers will be pleased to know there is a range of free T-shirts, and there is some informal meeting space on the top floor where you can indulge in a free (if rather clunky) game of pool. You can also listen to podcasts about recruitment opportunities in the Antipodes.



I think what disappoints me about the Sapphire building is that it is trying to be like a Real Life building, while at the same time being architecturally unsound. And it is too "busy", with too much being crammed unnecessarily into too small a space. It could be a lot more effective if made simpler. Well, that's my tuppence worth.

Capgemini France Recruitment Hall

Building on yesterday's post, I thought I should pop in to see what the Capgemini France recruitment hall on the island TMP3 actually looked like. By the time I got there it was past midnight in the UK, and long past any sensible French person's bedtime. But I took a few snaps, just to prove I had been there:


The more eagle-eyed of you might recognise the conference table and chairs. Yes... it's evidently my riff of the week: the work of Scope Cleaver - again!

I may be biased - but I think the facility looks pretty neat.

BTW - for the really avid reader - you may have noticed that this is NOT the mega-post currently in gestation!

UPDATE 21-06-07: The mega-post is now available at 3pointD.