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Headhunter - Lucy

Listen to Susan interviewing headhunter Lucy ; better known as a recruitment consultant in London.

Lucy gives some valuable interview tips and insights for job seekers during the interview.

On a daily basis you'd be talking to your clients and a number of people that you feel would be right for the role. Your work would involve negotiating fees and salaries between your client and the individual, and interviewing the top candidates.

As a headhunter you could work for various kinds of employment agency that deals with a wide range of office based and commercial jobs, or for a more specialised organisation. You'd be dealing with permanent or temporary work at all levels for many industry sectors.

Many start off working in an industry and then, once they're familiar with it, become head hunters for that sector, seeking out talent using the contacts and knowledge they've acquired.

The work would be mainly desk-based, but travel would be needed frequently in the search for the best talent. Meeting with employers is also likely and so a driving licence would be needed for most jobs.

Although it is not always necessary to have a four-year degree, many employers strongly prefer candidates to have some degree in an applicable field, like labour relations, business administration, human resources, etc.

Employers also consider candidates who have non-business backgrounds, which is fairly typical of a position that requires a high degree of people interaction.

A headhunter's soft skills must be superb, as they constantly have to function in the middle of several parties who have a stake in the process.

The hirer and the hiree both need to be handled and satisfied in the process, or sometimes the headhunter does not receive commission or payment, or if employed internally, does not meet company goals.

They also have to have knowledge of and keep up on what are sometimes constantly changing federal, state and local regulations on human resource activity.

Their job is also to help reduce risk to their client/employer who is hiring employees, so a keen intelligence and an ability to accurately read people is more than important.

Headhunters must be extremely self-motivated and tenacious, not giving up easily in the face of opposition.

Many of them are very stubborn, and this stubbornness can serve them well in their career.

Becoming a headhunter, or recruiter, depends more on experience than anything else.

Seven things a headhunter won't tell you.

Anesthesiologist Olivier

Listen to Olivier talking about his job as an anesthesiologist.

An anesthesiologist (American English) or anaesthetist (British English) is a physician trained in anesthesia and perioperative medicine.

Terminology varies between different countries.

In the United States, the term anesthesiologist refers to a physician who has completed an accredited residency program in anesthesiology after medical school training, while the term anesthetist is used for nurse anesthesia providers who have undergone specialized training in administering anesthesia under the supervision of a physician.

By contrast, in the UK, most former Commonwealth countries and in Europe, the term anaesthetist refers only to physicians, who may be assisted by any of anaesthetic nurses, anaesthetic technicians, operating department practitioners or physician associates depending on local practice.

Anesthesiologists provide medical care to patients in a wide variety of (usually acute) situations, including preoperative evaluation, consultation with the surgical team, creation of a plan for the anesthesia tailored to each individual patient, airway management, intraoperative life support and provision of pain control, intraoperative diagnostic stabilisation, proper post-operative management of patients.

Outside the operating room, anesthesiologists spectrum of action includes with in-hospital and pre-hospital emergencies, intensive care units, acute pain units and chronic pain consultations.

Because anesthesiologists are physicians, in contrast to other anesthesia providers, they are able to utilize their extensive knowledge of physiology, pharmacology and diseases to guide their decision making.

Business process improvement (BPI)

Listen to Omar, from a leading airline based in Abu Dhabi do a presentation about Business Process Improvement in his company, including :

His roles in Business Process Improvement

The objectives of BPI in his company

How they have implemented BPI

New ideas that they are exploring to improve employee participation in BPI

Until recently, cost-cutting was seen as the biggest benefit - and in some cases the only significant benefit of outsourcing business processes.

Now, as the global economy improves, airlines are far more interested in how outsourcing core services such as revenue accounting, cargo operations, customer relationship management, and loyalty programs can improve efficiencies and open new, sustainable revenue streams.

Business Process Improvement is a systematic approach to help an organization optimize its underlying processes to achieve more efficient results. The methodology was first documented in H. James Harrington’s 1991 book Business Process Improvement.

It is the methodology that both Process Redesign and Business Process Reengineering are based upon. BPI has allegedly been responsible for reducing cost and cycle time by as much as 90% while improving quality by over 60%.

Process improvement is an aspect of organizational development (OD) in which a series of actions are taken by a process owner to identify, analyze and improve existing business processes within an organisation to meet new goals and objectives, such as increasing profits and performance, reducing costs and accelerating schedules.

These actions often follow a specific methodology or strategy to increase the likelihood of successful results.

Process improvement may include the restructuring of company training programs to increase their effectiveness.

Process improvement is also a method to introduce process changes to improve the quality of a product or service, to better match customer and consumer needs.

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Multimedia and IT Technician

In the series « Tell me about your job. » I am joined today at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area by Jon, a multimedia and IT technician.

Jon has been doing this job for the last three years and appears to like his job immensely due to many aspects, including the chance to travel the world.

I caught Jon between flights from Los Angeles to Singapore during his busy work schedule.

The roles and responsibilities for the job of Multimedia and IT Technician are :

 

MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

IT support tasks :

-  Act as a point of contact for fault reporting and diagnose faults where possible;

-  Test and install software providing user training where appropriate;

-  Maintain the hardware and software ledgers; order consumables and other equipment;

-  Arrange routine maintenance to hardware and software;

-  Set up and maintain the computers ;

Act as a focal point for client needs – Wifi / Server / Printers / Software

Control room technician – projecting PPT. Presentations, video and audio.

Password / access control in liaison with the dedicated helpdesk.

 Audio Visual support tasks :

There is also a requirement to liaise closely with local internet providers / points of contacts in situ.

Listen to Jon explaining some of the aspects of his job that he prefers and enjoys and some he doesn't (maybe).

He also talks about some of the issues that he has had to face, alongside the solutions that he is in charge of on a daily basis.

He also lists some of the qualities required to do his job well and the particular contexts that these qualities come in useful for.

He appears to be in the right job for him though.

Textile Factory Tour

Listen to Greg give Liz, a visitor from the UK, a textile factory tour in France that makes upholstery for car seats.

Greg greets Liz in reception, before taking her on a tour of the research and development department, the weaving workshop, packing and quality control and finally to the logistics and warehouse department.

This is a live tour, so there is a lot of practice listening to a conversation between two native speakers talking with a lot of background noise from machinery, something which can be very challenging for language learners.

Greg starts off by greeting Liz and offering her refreshments, in this case, coffee after her long journey from the United Kingdom.

At first the greeting is formal, but they quickly slip into first-name terms, which is very typical for British people, who don't hang too much on ceremony.

If you are from another country, can you see the differences in the formalities, such as using first names to a stranger after a relatively short time.

Meeting new people, customers, clients, suppliers or sub-contractors, can be awkward at times, notice how Greg breaks the ice by offering refreshments and asking about Liz's voyage from the UK to France.

Greg tries to make the visit as simple and as interesting as possible, as Liz is not a technical person, but he asks her if she has any questions along the way and answers as simply as possible.

Greg asks a final time if Liz has any questions at the end of the visit and suggests that she sends any questions at a later date by email.

It is clear that Greg is used to conducting textile factory tours, both with technical and non-technical visitors and he is very able to pitch the tone of the textile factory tour to each audience.

Listen to Rebecca, an Australian neonatal nurse, talk about her job caring for premature babies and the impact on parents of having a premature baby.

Listen to Marie, an environmental consultant, talk about her job.

Listen to François talk about some aspects of his job as an IT Networks Engineer.

Child development refers to the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy.

Listen to Linda, a Canadian, talking about her job and experiences.

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Email has become the top method of communication in the workforce. Reasons for emails vary from business correspondences to personal messages.

They can be as short as one word and as long as a novella, but that does not mean that these are all appropriate or even effective.

If you have access to this method of communication in the office, then it is necessary to learn how to effectively use email at work.

Worldwide email use continues to grow at a healthy pace. In 2015, the number of worldwide email users will be nearly 2.6 billion. By the end of 2019, the number of worldwide email users will increase to over 2.9 billion.

Over one-third of the worldwide population will be using email by year-end 2019 and this is forecasted to increase over the next five years.

In 2015, the number of emails sent and received per day total over 205 billion, reaching over 250 billion by the end of 2020.

Despite the growth and prominence of mobile messengers and chat apps, e-mail is an integral part of daily online life.

In 2018, the number of global e-mail users amounted to 3.8 billion and is set to grow to 4.4 billion users in 2023.

Around 281 billion emails were sent and received each day in 2018, the figure is expected to increase to over 347 billion daily mails in 2022.

So, if you are struggling to manage your emails today, then things are set to get even worse for you.

With this in mind, is it time for change?

With the average worker spending 13 hours a week dealing with emails, businesses are potentially losing up to 28% of work time to managing email.

Listen to this podcast where we give some effective tips to manage emails and to reduce the number of emails you receive on a daily basis.