You might already know that the wurk network will be launching again soon. Right now, we’re looking for post contributors, guest authors and other bloggers who can contriibute high quality, informative and entertaining posts to the network.

In terms of industry-specific content, we’d love to read anything related to looking for jobs and tips and tricks on being successful in your work. And when it comes to city-specific content, we’re looking for posts on how to make the most of working in a particular city - stuff like where to find jobs, how to beat public transport so you get in on time, where to grab the best working lunches, and where’s first choice for an apres work beer on a Friday night.

You’ll receive full credit for all of your posts - including links to your own website - together with the chance to make it into our ‘Top ‘Contributors’ list which appears on EVERY single page in the network.

So, whether you’re a jobhunter, a recruiter, an HR guru, or someone with plenty of tips and tricks to share, it’s a chance to brush up on your writing skills, and get published in one of the highest-quality recruitment publications on the web.

To get started, sign up here, or drop us a line to barrybell(at)gmail.com if you want more info!

Thanks

B

Online Recruitment reports that job hunters now have a new friend to help them secure the career of their dreams, with the launch of a virtual career coach at Top Briefings.

Your virtual career coach is called Duncan after real-life career coach, Duncan Gotobed, who founded Top Briefings in 2006. Duncan says:

“The virtual me is an affordable way of providing as many people as possible with the tools they need to go and get the perfect job. Duncan, ’the virtual coach’ makes it easier to create a CV that will be noticed for all the right reasons. He adds the personal touch to our e-briefings, and helps engage users as they learn new interview skills.”

You can check out Duncan (virtually, of course) at Top Briefings.

Wonder what happens when I do this…?

So Money Magazine listed the 50 best jobs in America the other day.

I see that blogging isn’t on there. Or at least it’s not on there yet.

But I digress. I know lots of you will have seen this list, and you know what - I think it’s a missed opportunity. So let’s capitalise on it. Instead of simply listing the 50 best jobs in America, why not join wurk and tell the world how to get one of the 50 best jobs in America.

Any software engineers, college professors, financial advisors, HR managers out there who want to write for wurk?

Postcards to the usual address.

Hey all - some big news for you. With upwards of 30 top writers in the network, trying to staying in touch with everyone regularly by email was just getting crazy stupid.

Anyway, we can now boast our very own Community Director who’s gonna be making sure that all the wurk writers are up do date, and that everyone keeps on talking to each other, rather than AT me.

;o))

Better still, our Community Director is non other than hyper Hsien-Hsien Lei, pro-blogger extraordinaire, and currently Science and Health Channel Editor at that other top blog network, b5media.com.

You’ll probably find Hsien over at the wurk writers’ forums, but if you want to read what she’s writing in there, there’s only one way to do that.

;o)

Hsien has loads of blogging experience and she’s an absolute natural at building online communities and getting people talking to each other - which, to be honest, is equally as important to a blog network than the content itself.

Before I start getting any deeper than that, just fire off any questions or info requests you have for Hsien to hsien@wurk.net, and I’ll leave you with the press release…

**********

wurk expands its core management team to include a dedicated Community Director.

11 April 2006 –- wurk, the web’s only network of career and job focused weblogs has expanded its core management team to include a dedicated Community Director.

Hsien-Hsien Lei, who currently writes and manages a number of blogs, including healthcare.wurk.net, GeneticsandHealth.com, and AHeartyLife.com, brings a wealth of professional blogging and online community-building experience to the wurk network.

Hsien’s main responsibility will be to facilitate conversation amongst the growing team of wurk bloggers, get everyone talking about the best ways to drive the network forward, and to manage any community initiatives that wurk launches.

“The wurk network brings together nearly 30 professionals from a huge variety of industries, and I’m looking forward to building a platform where we can all share our ideas”, said Hsien.

“The wurk network is unique in the blog network market, and is fast becoming one of the premier career resource brands on the web. My blogging goals have always been to share information and knowledge, and encourage conversation, and at wurk, I get to do that on a much bigger – and much more exciting - scale.”

About wurk
wurk is making it easier than ever to find the very best career advice and jobhunting tips on the web. wurk uses the popular blog – or weblog - format to enable its team of experienced Content Editors from across the globe to provide a unique, easy-to-digest and regularly updated stream of useful, interesting, and entertaining articles, links, news, views, opinions, interviews, and more. It’s perfect for school or college research into jobs and careers, for people wanting to break into a specific industry, or simply as an information source that can help anyone stay up to date with working life in their field.

Contact
Barry Bell, Founder
info@wurk.net

Hsien-Hsien Lei, Community Director
hsien@wurk.net

# # #

(Test) Okay, okay, this is something I really need to stay on top of. So, lets get straight into it: here’s some of the highlights from the last few days worth of blogging across the wurk network. Enjoy!

Oh, and make sure you visit all these fantastic writers. Really. Go. NOW!! ;o)

At Career Opportunities, Douglas writes about how his Career-Op podcast has reached number 77 in the top 100 business podcasts in Apple’s podcast directory. A brilliant achievement considering the thousands upon thousands of podcasts that are in the directory!

Steven over a the Asia Pacific Headhunter (love the header graphic) investigates current thinking on how to make your company the ‘best place to work’, in light of the recent San Francisco Bay Area award.

Louise at Blue Sky Resumes, and Billie at Career Hub ask whether you landed in your current career by chance or by choice.

Hsien at healthcare.wurk.net discovers that the world only needs, oh, another 4 milllion healthcare professionals. Someone’s got their work cut out.

Anton at advertising.wurk.net heralds an uncertain future for the M&C Saatchi ad agency.

Ian at the Being Bold Blog offers some key insights into transforming the traditional objective statement at the top of the first page of your CV or resume.

Jane Chin, our resident Scientist turned Entrepreneur, advises us to be selective with some of the advice we might receive.

Alicia at freelance.wurk.net does her usual fantastic (and thorough) job of hunting down some great freelancing opportunities.

More in a couple of days…

Are you a coder, a developer, a DB admin, a tech support, or, or, or….

If you work in any kind of role in the tech industry, and you want to write about careers, jobhunting, and working life in your industry - no matter how narrow your niche or job title is - get in touch.

I’m aiming to build a whole new category of wurk blogs that focus on tech-related jobs and careers, and it’s a great opportunity to position yourself as an ‘expert’ on careers in your field.

Fancy it?

Advertising on the wurk network can put your products, services and messages in front of thousands of professionals from a range of industries every month. Right now, we offer a range of advertising options.

Network wide advertising.

Currently, network-wide advertising can be bought via our advertising partner, Blogads. Ads bought through Blogads will appear in the sidebar on all live core wurk blogs, together with any that are launched while your ad campaign is still active. To advertise across the wurk network via Blogads, click the link in the sidebar of any core wurk blog, or click here.

Blog-specific advertising.

Blog-specific advertising is available as week-long or month-long co-branding packages. If you are interested in this option, please get in touch at info@wurk.net.

Editorial space.

‘Featured’ editorial space within each blog’s main content is available exclusively for covering single jobs or group vacancies, and in terms of communicating vacancies to jobseekers, it is an excellent alternative to posting on a job board. Unlike advertising on a job board, we are able to provide much more in-depth information to jobseekers in a creative, professionally-written, and exceptionally well-targeted format.

What’s more, jobseekers are quickly beginning to lose trust in the traditional online job board model as more and more fake jobs are posted each day. In addition, many job board postings simply consist of ‘cut and pasted’ job descriptions and person specifications that fail to properly, coherently and effectively communicate either the details of the vacancy, or the employer brand of the hiring organsation.

It’s no wonder that many hirers and jobseekers believe that the traditional method of advertising vacancies online - using job boards - is broken.

However, blogs are a form of new media that people really do trust. Regular readers generally build up a strong rapport with bloggers, and this can be seen throughout the conversations that happen on millions of blogs each day across the planet. This two-way trust is one of the reasons why it’s a great idea to communicate your vacancies on the wurk network, and it’s also why we are fast establishing ourselves as one of the ‘go-to’ sources on the web for career and jobhunting advice.

The service includes professional copywriting and creative development, and while our writers will give each vacancy their own personal ’spin’, you’ll still be able to check any copy before it goes live. And because we have around 10 years’ experience of creating award-winning recruitment and employee communications for all kinds of businesses, from huge multinationals to local players, you can rest assured that the integrity of your brand will be protected - and the details of your vacancy will be properly communicated.

Please note that editorial positions for Featured Jobs are limited in number, and are available on a strictly first come, first served basis. For more information on prices, special offers, and the way we work, please get in touch at info@wurk.net.

New blog network launches to offer the very best career and jobhunting advice on the web.

25 March 2006 –- wurk, a unique network of career and job focused blogs is making it easier than ever to find the very best career and jobhunting advice on the web.

wurk is a fresh new idea that overcomes a clear lack of high quality, up-to-date, reliable and easily-accessible industry-specific career advice available online, and adds essential news, information and opinion about working life to the mix.

“Each core wurk blog covers a specific industry sector, and provides an insider’s point of view on how to break into that industry and how to develop your existing career within that industry, together with tips, tricks and suggestions on how to make the most of everyday working life” says wurk’s founder, Barry Bell.

The wurk network uses the popular blog – or weblog - format to enable its experienced team of Content Editors to provide an easy-to-digest and regularly updated stream of useful, interesting, and entertaining articles, links, news, views, opinions, interviews, and more.

“Each of the wurk writers are either experts in their industry with years of experience, or are currently trying to break into their particular industry – which means they’re the ideal people to ask if you want advice or other work or career related information.”

The wurk network also includes a hand-picked selection of some of the web’s leading independent career advice and career coaching blogs, which cover virtually every related subject from resume & CV writing to advice on jobhunting.

As an online destination, it’s perfect for school or college research into jobs and careers, for people wanting to break into a specific industry, or simply as an information source that can help anyone stay up to date with working life.

Contact
Barry Bell
http://wurk.net
info@wurk.net
+44 (0) 77 99 77 49 77

# # #

I’m moving up in the world. I just had an email from BBC Radio 5, who want someone from weird.wurk.net to appear on a short slot tonight that’s going to focus on strange and unusual careers.

So, allow me to introduce myself as the UK’s leading expert on ‘weird and unusual jobs’. Or something like that.

Amazing what a blog can do for your reputation, eh?

As I said, I’ll be live, tonight, on UK national radio, sometime between midnight and 12.30am GMT. No, not quite a primetime slot, but hey, it’s a start. Never done anything like this before, either, so it should be a laugh.

Plus, the wurk network will be featured on BBC Radio Birmingham sometime next week, on one of Ashley from Shiny Media’s new slots.

Exciting stuff.