Shopping for Jobs - Looking for a new Job Online

After two years of selfless dedication to informing shoppers of whats up and coming, the best offers and where to get them as well as things to avoid it is surprising that no job offers or potential employment opportunities have arrived. It could be that this blog has no contact form and in this day and age of spam attacks only the foolhardy would put their email up for all to see and abuse.

If the mountain won't come to the blogger then I will have to approach the mountain.

Mirroring the shopping growth, online recruitment has also become a regular tool for job hunters and employees. The number of UK job sites offering vacancies with interactive questionnaires, cv submission and regular rss feed is growing to reflect the changing job market and even with the economic trends creating insecurity appear to be well populated with a wide variety of jobs in many different sectors.

Finding a new job is very much like shopping - both the employers and applicants want to know if they are a good fit or match, is the money appropriate, what about aftercare service, are there any guarantees are in place and as all good shoppers have come to expect what negotiations can be explored and perks thrown in?

When searching for shopping jobs the results returned reveal opportunities to apply for jobs as mystery shoppers. I dabbled with this joining Grass Roots Mystery Shopping three years ago. Not only was I sent to small local branches of Lloyds TSB in remote Devon villages to find they were not open every day but that the job involved completing enormous forms and writing detailed reports which when added to the actual mystery visit totaled 3½ hours - for twenty quid!

Well other than my tremendous insight into shopping I thought I should look to utilise my training in finance and checked out what accountancy jobs were currently available - the result? lots - but like a shopper hunting a good deal I remembered that a bargain is only a bargain if its something you wanted - and seeing the dreary positions for control accountants and book keepers I soon realised that it wasn't time for my return to that profession.

Top tips for when looking for a new job online:

• Register with several online job sites
• Select and review keywords carfully - locations such as "south west" will return Devon Cornwall and South West London.
• Stuff your cv with the latest buz phrases and words - quality, proactive, communicator, team etc as the scanning and subsequent entry onto databases will favour these.

Happy job hunting.

Land Rover Freelander or true British Bentley - the drive of your life

Hats of to Mel B aka Scary Spice for letting it slip that she drives a Bentley whilst living in LA. Good to hear that in these uncertain economic times our celebrities are flying the flag for our precious exports.

Mel commented "While it's beautiful, fast and only for the rich, some hairs on the back of the neck still stay down" and asked.. "is it because it's four-wheel drive?"

Much as we love the Spice Girls number one hairy (Scary Spice) one has she not considered the usefulness of a four wheel drive on the flat, straight streets of California?

Whatever Next - All Terrain SUVs dominating the States? You only need to see this video clip that demonstrates the style and grace of the freelander in a variety of circumstances - driving conditions, terrains and challenges.

Well the "Shopping Info Guide" is hardly qualified to discuss the merits of four wheels - we touched on the subject of the exceptional tyres that allowed a Landrover Freelander to circumnavigate the world and following the recent Royal endorsement from Sara Phillips of the Freelander we decided to have a closer - if Land Rovers Freelander is the hottest selling compact SUV we think it worthy of inclusion in our guide to help visitors make and informed decision before they buy.

So what doe the Freelander offer that adds those extra thousnads to the price tag?

Safety first

The Euro safety report award the Freelander maximum marks on many of its critical tests

Comfort zone

The UK broadsheet newspaper The Independent's let its motoring journalist Roger And-Out take the Freelander 2 for a comprehensive test drive and the resultant write up was one that described the sheer comfort for both driver and passenger whilst off road and emphasised the smooth traveling whilst on the road.

All Round Performance

Finally the motoring institution Top Gear summed up the vehicle -
"The Land Rover Freelander is a capable SUV, with more off-road ability than its rivals and a more grown up mini-Discovery."

Fuel Economy - glug

Top Gear was the only review that offered the helpful suggestion that "Diesel engine suits it best, petrol version is thirsty" worth bearing in mind as we see oil prices continue to inexplicable rise.

Quick Simple & Easy Style Solutions - Bedding

Barbie House Wiff a friend from across the pond picked up that we were running a set of features about home decoration - already looking at interior designs for windows - looking at both curtains and blinds and pointed out that a quick simple and easy way to give a bedroom a new look is to invest in a new bedding set as detailed in her post of the same.

Music to our ears - quick, simple and easy - but will it meet all of our four favourite criteria - is it cheap?

Quick trip over to our new found Euro Shopping Directory Elib to find a selection of online suppliers and to check whats available and recommended this listing a one stop shop for curtains, blinds and bedding.

Once you enter the world of home fabrics the choices presented are overwhelming and if your not careful you could easily find yourself ordering enough free fabric samples to assemble a patchwork quilt.

So Whats on Offer?

The fabric warehouse displays a wide range of bedding sets and duvet covers that are available for most of the standard bed sizes - single, double, kingsize and super dooper kingsize and no sooner than you can say "quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" you'll be arguing which of the styles you're going to order.

For those who shy away from using duvets in favour of more traditional bedding due to the notorious difficulty in putting them on we found this video - how to put on a duvet cover that may be helpful. For site link details opening times and directions see the Brownbook listing Bedding, Duvet Covers and Quilts

Coffee Confusion - Gold Blend Lid Scandal

One for my coffee slurping colleague over at wordsaboutthings here - although I doubt he stoops to use Nescafe instant coffee in anything other than an emergency. This chap is so into coffee he recently wrote an entire post about the new Starbucks logo
and doesn't hold back when big supermarket names fail to deliver on their label's aspirational promise - Tesco's far from finest espresso.

These marketing men just can't help themselves - its better, new, improved, best ever, absolutely bloody brilliant.

Take Nescafe Gold Blend. Gold Blend Coffee has risen to be one of the most popular instant coffees found in UK households today. Ever since the nauseating "will she wont she" nescafe tv advert campaigns Nescafe Gold Blend has almost succeeded in maintaining its brand integrity. The words have lead a merry dance around trying out different positions on the label traditionally being displayed in a straight forward horizontal manner with occasional lapses of designers urges to rack them vertically but the lid has always been errm the lid. Until now that is.


See the jars above - the one on the right is the "proper" lid in the accepted non-gold mocha brown colour and has the words Nescafe written from left to right across the width of the lid.

Now check the left hand version....not only is the colour now a garish shade of gold (how crass) but the silly buggers have the writing wrong (in my opinion)

Maybe it is time to join the aspirational set and source a shiny new counter top coffee machine
and brew my own the way I like it.

Online Shopping - Can I be of assistance madam?

Wouldn't it be great if todays interaction with the web when shopping online was more like the shopping in bygone days - a time when individuals served you from behind specific counters and assistants actually offered genuine assistance. Of course some top range shops do have dedicated knowledgeable staff that man counters - Harrods immediately springs to mind but on the whole shopping online is a lonely pastime.

Seeing the problems online shoppers faced a new breed of websites have sprung up that although hope to make money do try to inform and help customers. A typical independant site that is packed with "how to guides" and top ten tips features is JJ's Hints and Things. The breadth of topics covered is staggering - you may be looking for information about choosing stuff for babies such as suitable baby sleepwear and you'll find an entire nursery section crammed with tips and helpful suggestions.

Hints and things aims to have something for everyone and being focused on the home the site is organised in a room by room structure. Even the kennel is included in the garden and garage
areas.

It would seem appropriate to use the subject matter of recent posts here and demonstrate the functionality of helpful sites when choosing and buying home furnishings.

Moving around the different rooms on Hints and things you almost always find something that spurs you on to follow up - this feature in spare room explained how you can make your bedding stay in better shape and last longer and a workshop article gives a whole load of tips about choosing curtains and curtain fabric.

Throughout Hints and Tips there are links to recommended online stores and shopping price check sites where you can search for the best deals.

Save-Buck$ currently offers the facility to check the prices and delivery details on home furnishings and its recently revamped interior decoration and curtains section allows you sort through different fabrics and ready made curtains and find matching curtain poles all from the comfort of your home.

Don't forget that sites like e-bay and online classifieds adverts will have a continually changing range of hardly used goods especially with the fast changing styles and fashions of curtain and home furnishings offer and if time permits they are well worth checking too.

Venetian Blinds - Affordable Style

Following the previous post about curtains we were pleased to be in touch with JJ at Hints And Things who brought her site's excellent workshop - building, decorating and DIY section
which included a feature about choosing curtain fabric which seemed appropriate to the post.

Whilst on the site we couldn't help notice the prominence of features about using blinds as an inexpensive yet stylish alternative to fitting curtains.

Blinds Vs Curtains

Various types of blinds were discussed but as the summer approaches the versatility from a range of venetian blinds offered won over all - being able to let in varying amounts of light depending on the time of day and the position of the sun was considered to be vital to a blinds success and as described here venetian blinds achieve this well.

A close fitting metal blind can prevent daylight penetration as well as any black out roller blinds
whilst keeping a contemporary look to the room it's fitted in.

Another very popular choice for UK homes is to fit wooden blinds that don't entirely block all light but if well chosen can help keep a room bright and airy whilst offering privacy.

From the feedback on this How to Fit a Curtain Pole video we shall find and publish a series of how to videos which will cover the various pitfalls when measuring, choosing and fitting blinds.

Well Hung Curtains - Pole or Track?

Well after following the video mentioned in last weeks post about making curtains its now time to consider how best to hang them. Checking other peoples homes it became clear that there was some choice in how best to fit them.

This feature in Ideal Home was of some help but barely scratched the surface - more focused on curtain fabric rather than the supports to hand them from

For a sleek look many choose to use slim curtain tracks - plastic curtain rail that is not visible when the curtains are drawn although fairly inconspicuous the tracks aren't very stylish whilst the curtains are open as they rarely blend in with the wall paper or paint.

Other fittings include curtain poles which hold large rings that the curtains then hand from. These are available in many different materials and styles - metal and wooden curtain poles and even specially designed poles for bay windows which can look amazing and lift the "old" bay window appearance to become a super chic space.

On careful consideration the decision is often about interior design. You may have spent a lot of time and money having double glazing fitted - new windows or a conservatory building to make your home look great from the outside so its just as important to consider the look and feel of the windows from the inside.

For many contemporary homes curtain poles offer a stylish and affordable solution to window decoration and are fairly simple to fit.

In the same way last weeks post included a video link you can check out this excellent "How to fit a Curtain Pole" video which explains what tools you'll need and give great tips for making sure the pole is the right length and fitted at the perfect height to suit your curtains.

There's also some more suggestions about which type of poles you may consider in this article "Choosing Curtain Poles". Use a price checking site to get the best value curtains and poles
and investigate visiting factory supply curtain fabric warehouses and shops.