CareerHub Blog

The new CareerHub Individuals functionality is in it's final stage of testing! In about a week or so, it is going to be rolled out like any other update. 

• Employers have been branched into two distinct types: Organisations and Individuals. This change allows individuals to quickly create an account with CareerHub and post jobs without the extra steps an organisation has to go through.
• Employer registrations have now been divided into the four employer types on the Employers site: (Organisations) Direct Employer, Non-profit Organisation, Agent for Employers, (Individuals) Individual. The descriptions for each of these types can be modified. 
• Each Organisation Contact can now have their own login account: Previously, each Organisation account only had one shared login, now each contact at your institution can have their own login and their actions will be logged on the system. Much like CareerHub Central. 
• Employer banners have now been labelled as Advertisements:  Like all strings on CareerHub this can be reverted if need be.

The big change coming through with this new update is the individuals employer type. Think of individuals as a sole employer contact who can post jobs. We created this user type for individuals who are not representing a registered business but who still wish to advertise vacancies on CareerHub, so the registration process for them has been shortened, and they are not required to attach contacts to their jobs as they themselves are the only contact. 

Employers registering as an organisation are now required to supply a valid ABN, which we verify via the Australian Taxation Office's ABN formula. ACNs and ARBNs are also accepted and validated. This validation is not enforced on administrators when editing or adding employers. 

Be sure to run through the employer registration process as both an Organisation and an Individual once your CareerHub site has been udpated with the new individuals employer type. It will help familiarise you with the new registration processes.

Login details are now stored under each employer contact whereas previously they were stored underneath the Employer. So if you are contacted by an Employer with login problems:

1. Verify the person's name and identity. Once confirmed, check if they are an existing Employer Contact under their said Employer.
2. If they are, click on their Employer Contact details in the admin, if they already have an existing login you may forward on the details, if not, you can quickly set up new login details for them.
3. If they are not an existing Employer Contact, add them as a contact under their Employer and set up new login details for them. 
4. If the employer account doesn't exist, ask them to register as the appropriate employer type on your CareerHub Employer's site. 

If you have any further questions about this upcoming update, please contact support@careerhub.com.au. 

Sincerely,

Tim Tran

Overview

Event waiting list is a feature which allows students to place themselves in a fully booked event in CareerHub. CareerHub will subsequently send an email notification to students when a spot or booking is available for that event.

When is it available?

When an event has been booked out, the "book-in" button dissapears and a "waiting list" button replaces it.
This allows students to be placed on the waiting list for that event.

What happens if a student is on a waiting list?

Whenever a "booked-in" student decides to "book-out" of the event, an email is sent to all the students on the waiting list notifying them that a booking is open. At that point, that remaining spot is available on a "first come, first serve" basis.

If there are 3 students on the waiting list, all 3 students will receive a notification email about an open spot irregardless of their waiting list order.
There are 2 cases that can occur:-
-Another student books out of the event(there are 2 open spots now) no new notification will be sent out to students.
-1 of the 3 students books into the appointment; the event is fully booked again and the remaining 2 students will stay on the waiting list until another spot opens up and another notification email is sent to them.

Most people have probably heard me talk about the power of RSS,and usually most people are impressed with the capacity of this but… RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' however it is not really that simple for normal (non-tech) people. Most people grasp the concept but the implementation is a bit bewildering and often in the 'too hard' basket.

This week I was setting up a Work Group at one university and discussing how to get live feeds of current jobs and events into a blackboard group. A moment of realisation arrived when I saw that Blackboard (at this institution) doesn't even have an RSS reader - doh!! So it wasn't so easy to share our CareerHub content after all due to a Blackboard limitation - so what should we do?

I remembered a bit of geek speak occurring in our office Yammer (kind of like internal business Twitter) about Google doing something cool with JavaScript reading RSS feeds into a page. And .. of course we're just as cool as Google;) so we though - let's do it!

So, within a day we now have a much easier way to put your CareerHub content into another webpage. This could be your general Careers page, a faculty page, a blog or whatever website is appropriate. CareerHub will update this page content automatically every 30 minutes or so with the latest information from CareerHub. And there's no need to have an 'RSS reader' on the site.

All you have to do is login to CareerHub Admin and click on Configuration (if you have permissions to get to this area). Once in here click on 'generate RSS feed' and select what you want syndicate (jobs, employers etc) then apply any filtering you require (faculty, category, labels, search criteria etc).In the first image below I am creating a feed with all of the employers that are confirmed to attend the Careers Fair in 2010. After you click the 'continue' button you will now be presented with both a link to the RSS feed AND a little bit of HTML code (second image below).

If you want to be able to put the results of the RSS feed into your website now you just need to edit the HMTL and paste in the little bit of code where you want your feed to appear. Most people can do this themselves OR just give the HTML code to your web person (or to whoever you want to syndicate content to) and they should be able to implement the feed without the complexity of having to have an RSS reader.

I'll be putting a tutorial on the training site soon so keep your eyes on the training blog if you are still unsure how to use this. Of course feel free to call for support if you need it.

:Dee

Over the last year we have had several requests to implement a new 'Individual' type within CareerHub. Primarily this request has been to make it easier for non-business users to list jobs such as tutoring, personal carer etc where the employer is not a registered business. 

While evaluating the request we realised that this additional user type would also benefit other areas of CareerHub. A good example of this is for management of mentoring programs. Often mentors are not 'employers' but are better seen as an 'individual person', it is not important to record their 'employer'.

Also with CareerHub CRM functions being increasingly used to manage events (eg: Careers Fairs) and other relationship information, it has become obvious that the terminology of 'Employer' should be changed to 'Organisation' as it is not always the case that the (previous) 'Employers' in your CareerHub would be listing jobs.

Now... doing this change was no simple task, and it does mean substantial changes (for the better) to CareerHub. Some of the major changes that will be rolled out to all 54 Insitutions using CareerHub are:

• New 'Individual' entity type
• Renaming of 'Employer' to 'Organisation' 
• Both 'Individuals' and 'Organisations' can have jobs (both are termed as 'employers' in the context of searching or adding jobs)
• 'Individuals' can have their own username and password to access the employer console
• All individual 'Contacts' within an 'Organisation' will now have their own unique username and password instead of one username and password for the entire 'Organisation'
• The 'Employer' console has now been re-written to make it easier for both 'Organisations' and 'Individuals' by creating an 'entry point' for each user type and customising the registration and management processes to their usertype. For example, individuals listing personal carer or tutoring positions will no longer be aske to complete an employer registration asking them about the size of the Organistion or if they are multinational etc. 
• 'Individuals' can be added to 'WorkGroups' which is particularly useful for Mentoring programs or WorkIntegrated Learning program management.
• 'Individuals' can have a 'profile' which can be managed through admin only so that other users in a WorkGroup can read about the 'Individual'

While doing this change we have also taken the opportunity to do a few more funky bits of development such as Pete's new AJAX validator, making the user experience faster and better. Users will now see what errors are on the form as they type - without having to hit the submit button!

Mostly this is new functionality that will not affect current users. However the change of usernames and passwords to individual 'Contacts' for 'Organisations' rather than the 'Organisation' as a whole is something that may affect people. While the benefits into the future are obvious, the transition may create some workwhere some users used to working in the current system will have to adjust to the new processes.

The password changes may cause a bit of extra work for administrators during the transition period

We recently introduced a new field for employers registering through CareerHub Employers Console called "Description"

Due to its ambiguity, we have received some feedback where employers are inserting their Job description instead of their employer description in the field.

We have changed in the terminology of the field from "Description" to "Describe your Organisation" to improve clarity when employers are registering through employers console.

For the second time now we are rolling out a major upgrade of the CareerHub appointments system.  CareerHub appointments have been in action for over a year now and we must thank everyone for their extensive feedback throughout this time.  It is due to this feedback that we have been able to steer appointments into new and exciting directions.

Appointment Types

Appointment types are now a crucial and central part of the system.  They have been added to empower the administrators with the ability to customise every facet of the appointments while still keeping the system simple, quick and easy to use.

Permissions

To update, add or remove appointment types you will need to have the Appointments.Manage Permission, though anyone with the Appointments.Use permission will still be able to view the type's details.

The General Type

The general appointment type is a special type with limited options that cannot be deleted.  This type serves several purposes:

• To rollout this update all the current appointments needed to be given a type  that would ensure the system would keep functioning as normal.
• If you were to delete an appointment type all appointments under that type would be converted to the general type.
• The general type defines a set of default settings that all new types are initially based off, streamlining the process of adding new types.

Deleting vs. Deactivating

For record keeping purposes it is general advised not to delete old appointment types as this will convert all its appointments to the general type.  So that the appointments calendar doesn't become overrun with old and irrelevant types we have added an option to deactivate them (the 'Active' checkbox).

Deactivated types will still be visible in the calendar and to students; they just won't show in the types drag / drop listing on the calendar

Types Names

Make sure you pick an appropriate name for your appointment types as they are what the students will see when booking.  Type names are generally appended with 'appointment'.  Eg. General will display as 'General appointment'.

Default Duration and Location

These settings only dictate how the appointment will initially be added to the calendar.  Once added to the calendar you are still free to change the location or start / end times.

Note: If you don't set a default location the system will use a best fit algorithm that decides on a location based on what has been used more often and most recently for that administrator.

Bookings Message

You can now add custom messages that students will see when booking in to appointments of that type.

Attachments

The appointment type can define weather the appointments will support attachments.  If checked both the students and administrators will be able to attach documents to the appointment.

Topics

Topics are the category that students select when booking into an appointment.  Topics use to be the category called 'appointment type' and has since been renamed.  You can now define the specific topics students can select from when booking into appointments using this list.  If no topics are selected students will be able to select from all topics.

Visibility Settings

Not all appointment must be visible to students anymore.  If you uncheck the 'appointments are visible in the student console' the appointments can be managed solely through the admin console.  Through if appointments are visible to students there are a few settings for you to consider.  Hopefully they are fairly self explanatory:

• Students can view for [x] days before start date
• Students can book for [x] days before start date
• Students can't book for [x] minutes before start time
• Students can't cancel bookings for [x] minutes before start time
• Students can only book again [x] days after / before start date

Note: the daily settings do not count the day of the appointment.  For example if you were to set the bookable days setting to 0 (Students can book for 0 days before start date) the students will still be able to book in on the day the appointment is due to commence.  You could use -1 to ensure that students can never book the appointment.

Targeting

Targeting is now controlled through the type instead of the individual appointments.  It enables you to be more selective about who will be able to view and book appointments.  Students can be targeted on the following properties:
Student type

• Labels
• Services
• Disciplines
• Workgroups

Appointments workgroups are now managed through their type.  You can change the workgroup through the actions panel.
 

Types and the Appointment Calendar

Just as with the old appointments templates system, types can be dragged and dropped on the calendar at will.  As dragging and dropping appointments at the bottom of table can be quite troublesome when you have to scroll between the templates and drop location we have also made it possible to select the default type (the type the will be added when simply clicking on the calendar).
 

Appointments Schedule Page

We have added a new page to help administer appointments.   It shows every administrator's daily appointments and events in a dynamic timeline for any given day.

The schedule for today can be accessed through the main menu: Appointments > Today's Schedule.  You can also link to the schedule page straight from the calendar though the actions panel or by clicking on the calendar's header for the day you want to view.
 

Automated Emails

A few more automated emails have been added to the appointments system in an effort to help streamline workflow.  The following emails are now sent out by the appointments system:

Appointment Bookings Student Notification
Notification email sent to students when they are booked into an appointment (either through the student console or by an administrator).

Appointment Cancelled Student Notification
Notification email sent to students when their appointment booking is cancelled (either through the student console or by an administrator).

Appointment Booking changed
Notification email sent to students when crucial details about their appointment are changed.  These details include:

• Start date / time
• End time
• Location
• Counsellor (only if your institution has elected to show counsellor information to students)

Editing Expired Appointments

It has come to our attention that for the purpose of record keeping administrators require the ability to manipulate expired appointments.  Expired appointments can now be manipulated just as a current appointment is though we have added an alert dialog when editing expired records to ensure that administrators don't accidentally remove / alter valuable records.
 

Editing Appointment Topics

We are currently developing a system that will let you add, update and remove appointment topics.  This feature will hopefully be complete in the next few weeks.
 

In Conclusion

Thanks again for everyone's feedback that have made this upgrade possible.  We hope you enjoy the new features.

Here at CareerHub we always strive to keep our Central Employers up to date. Every year we complete an audit of Employers registered to Central. During this audit we ask our Employers to update the details and contacts appropriately, in the hopes of preventing future communication difficulties between University Staff and outdated Central Employers.

Should you encounter an out of date Central Employer account on your CareerHub site, we have created two new actions to help you deal with their outdated account.

If you're aware the Employer you are dealing with is still actively recruiting on CareerHub, but their account details need updating, click on the 'Email update instructions' action. This will bring up an email form, automatically addressed to the Employer's primary contact appended with update instructions ready for you to send off.

However, if you are sure the Employer is no longer active on CareerHub or there is an error in their account which requires urgent attention on our behalf, you are also given the option to 'Report an error'. Clicking on this will bring up an automatically generated email form with instructions addressed to CareerHub Support which we can follow to address your issue.

We hope that these two new options will aid you in dealing with Central Employers.

Pete has been a Software Developer and Designer for CareerHub for the past 3 years. While Pete has been working on CareerHub, he has come to appreciate the challenges it provides, and the reward of finding a solution to each universities' requirements and problems. Pete especially likes the reward of being able to see his work in action, such as with the appointments system which he was the main developer for.

Although Pete is an excellent programmer, his real passion is rock climbing, a sport that often sees him travelling all over Australia. Similarly, Pete also loves mountain biking, kayaking, bush walking, wind surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding and any other adventure sport you can think of. In fact, Pete's love of adventure sports recently extended to him endeavouring to create a mountain bike frame completely out of bamboo. However, this was perhaps a little too ambitious for him, so any comments as to how this could be successfully completed would be much appreciated!

Having grown up in Jakarta and Hong Kong, Pete also wants to spend more time travelling overseas, especially Thailand, Vietnam and China. He is currently looking at the possibility of becoming involved in a program such as AYAD which would allow him to live and work (and do adventure sports!) in the Asia-Pacific.

And of course, if Pete were a fruit, he would be a banana because they too are tall, skinny and love the sun.

With our new blog site up and running, we thought this would be a good excuse to profile some of our staff so you can put a face to a name. 
 
If you are a CareerHub administrator, then chances are you will have talked to Tim Tran, CareerHub's Head of Support. For the past two years, Tim has created and worked on various projects designed to make CareerHub more user-friendly and effective. 

Tim has always worked around computers, except for a two year stint at Subway during university.  He has worked for companies such as A.C.I.D (Australasian CRC for Interaction and Design) and CipherCities doing web design. Web design was a logical choice for Tim after completing his Bachelor of I.T. and Communication; though he prefers the interaction with clients, and diversity of projects at CareerHub. However, he still feels Subway has offered the best work experience because he can now brag about being a "sandwich artist," and lists this as a special skill of his.

Also on Tim's list of special skills are having a black belt in traditional Kung Fu, and being a singer/songwriter and guitarist for his indie band. His interest in drawing and design also enables Tim to create the band's promotional material. If Tim didn't work at CareerHub he would probably be pursuing a career in music or animation.

Oh, and if he were a fruit, he would be a coconut because they are so useful! So if you ever need a question answered, send him an email at our support address and he will be happy to help.

UPDATE: Tim's MySpace page for his band, The The The Stutters, has some older lo-fi song recordings if you're interested. Velvet Lover is lyrics, vocals and lead guitar by Tim. If you're in Brisbane, join their Facebook group for invitations to see Tim working his night job . - Luke

The Daily Endeavor is a new website that asks the question "what's that job like?" Using insider perspective, the website wants to give people who are considering entering the industry an insight as to what it is actually like to have that job.

At the moment, the website is restricted to an "invite only" list while the creators gage the response to the idea, and take on suggestions (so don't bother looking it up just yet!). Luckily, we were asked to test the website out, so we can show you what it looks like.

This is an example review, and most have the "At A Glance," "Highlights," "Lowlights" and "A Day In The Life" sections, which give you a pretty good feel for what the position is all about. All the reviews are written by people in that role, so its basically a personal opinion about what it's like to have that job.

The great thing about this website is that the creator's eventual aim is to market the site to universities, so the site is set up pretty well for showing it to students.

The creators also say they aim to focus the content on areas of social change, like education, human rights and microfinance.

Although there are only a handful of reviews up at the moment, the site aims to have 100, 000 job descriptions posted in the next three years, so it should end up being a very comprehensive list!

Thoughts on whether or not you would find this site useful? Other comments?