CareerSeek 12th Edition

Your guide to a great career

October 2013 12th Edition

LEADERSHIP LESSONS

FROM LEGO YOUNGPRENEURS SET UP SHOP IN CANAL WALK

SHORT COURSES

CAN HELP YOU CHANGE CAREER PATH

HOW TO ASK FOR FEEDBACK AFTER A JOB REJECTION

WHY GENERATION Y YUPPIES ARE UNHAPPY

YOUR OWN PERSONALISED VIDEO OF WHERE YOU COULD BE IN A FEW YEARS!

Featured Career

12th Edition: Put the Spring Back in Your Step

Welcome Dear Readers

It’s spring season and it seems everyone has an extra bounce in their step. So while you are feeling slightly more motivated, why not work on your professional life?

There’s much to look forward to in this edition of CareerSeek; from browsing SA’s coolest office spaces and travelling back in time with technology to practical advice on your 1 page CV, the job hunt, tax and much more.

Gear up for the final quarter of the year and be ready for new and exciting opportunities. Don’t forget to tell us what your favourite movie is and get your hands on a free movie ticket.

Happy spring!

The CareerJunction Team

Here’s what you have to look forward to: CareerSeek 13th Edition “A Step in the Right Direction”

email us with your suggestions or your story.

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CONTENTS featured articles

what’s inside...

10

Can you afford to consider a new career direction

12

Keywords & buzzwords in your CV

14

How to manage a myriad of office personalities

16

Healthy cooking: The South African way

18

Salary spy

20

2 Lessons from 15 years of Google’s evolution

24

Q&A with career coach Kerry Dawkins

26

Movie night

32

How I hire: You’re not interviewing for the job you think

34

All you need to know about Paye

40

Job seekers should look to the IT sector

42

The one page CV: How to get it right

45

Career corner

46

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6 Youngpreneurs set up shop in Canal Walk

Could this be SA’s coolest office

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Featured Career Contact Us Click here to LIKE and Follow our Facebook page.

DISCLAIMER

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All information provided in our online magazine is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute a legal contract between CareerJunction nor its parent company Times Media Group and any person or entity unless otherwise specified. Information, pricing and conditions in CareerSeek online magazine are subject to change without prior notice.

Although every effort is made to ensure that the information contained within this online magazine is accurate and up to date, neither our online magazine nor its parent company Times Media Group is to be held liable for inaccuracies in information, prices and conditions products and services being advertised in this magazine.

The information in this online magazine is subject to human error in the input of data concerning our products and services and as such cannot be used as a valid source of information. If there is any doubt concerning the accuracy of the information contained within this online magazine, please contact marketing@careerjunction.co.za so a representative can help you.

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If you notice an inaccuracy, please contact us on marketing@careerjunction.co.za and we will update the online magazine as quickly as possible.

Tel: +27 21 818 8600

Must read!

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3

Tips from a recruiter how to ask for feedback after a job rejection

28 Why generation Y yuppies are unhappy

Leadership lessons from LEGO

22 Short courses can help you change career path

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Featured Career

youngpreneurs set up shop at Canal Walk Author: Youngpreneur

Source: All4Women

Link: www.all4women.co.za

FIRST PUBLISHED ON ALL4WOMEN.CO.ZA

You’re never too young to see your dreams become a reality, and you don’t have to be an internet guru to make it big.

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Featured Career

Two young women who started out designing clothing for themselves have now become the talk of Cape Town fashion circles.

Layla and Zara Cassim, with the help of their mother, founded the Lazuli brand.

In a short space of time they went from having an idea for a ‘one-of-a-kind’ clothing concept, to opening a store in Access Park, showcasing at Cape Town Fashion Week 2013, and now, opening a concept store at Canal Walk - one of Africa’s biggest malls.

The duo say that their success comes from their brand’s focus on quality, and the sacrifices they have had to make.

Both are still students, and they juggle their time between the operation of Lazuli and their academic requirements.

Continually learning about what it means to be businesswomen in South Africa, they are inspired by the dream of employing South Africans, and empowering other female entrepreneurs.

The ‘iamyoungpreneur’ webshow series was set up to inspire young South Africans to become entrepreneurial.

It promotes taking the initiative, and setting up your own business, as opposed to becoming a job seeker. It also offers young successful South African entrepreneurs the platform to tell their own stories in their journey of entrepreneurship.

The 10 part weekly documentary series profiles 10 young successful entrepreneurs from across the country. Each segment offers an in-depth profile of the entrepreneur’s journey to success, with the entrepreneurs having the space to tell and own their story.

Each entrepreneur has been selected from a different region in SA, with each story showing a different facet of the South African entrepreneurial story.

Website: www.iamyoungpreneur.co

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Featured Career

Leadership Lessons

from LEGO Author: Penny Haw

Source: Forbes

Link: www.forbes.com

My colleague Ken Perlman is a devoted father of two girls. He feels that many of the lessons learned in fatherhood apply, on a certain level, to teaching our clients change leadership. Here he shares the parallels between building a complex LEGO set with his daughters and coaching a client through transformational change.

As my daughters and I tackled a three-day LEGO project, I realized that what makes these projects so fun and satisfying are the same things that help my clients love leading change in their organizations.

Now, we all know “love” and “change” don’t get used in the same sentence very often, but some of the same principles that made for a wonderful, LEGO-filled weekend with my girls are also at work with my clients. These principles are present with my larger clients (thousands of employees around the globe) as well as my smaller ones (a few hundred employees in one location).

So here they are – lessons in leadership courtesy of LEGO.

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Featured Career

LESSON #1:

Start with what success looks like. LEGO provides a complete – and exciting – picture of the final product right there on the box.

It always looks AWESOME. There is little mention of the number of bags, number of pieces, number of steps, and so on (which would only deflate your excitement). You fall in love with the end result before you even buy. After buying the set, you feel that the finished project is just a few steps away because you already know what success looks like – and it looks AWESOME. Many times, executives outline the daunting and timeconsuming strategies required to get from today to tomorrow – deflating excitement – rather than building momentum around the picture of the finished product. Most fail to paint or show a clear (AWESOME) picture of what success looks like. It’s this picture that makes people fall in love with the idea; that makes them eager to spend their time putting all the pieces together to make it a happen.

LESSON #2: Consider interchangeable parts.

It’s rare, but occasionally, there are missing LEGO blocks. Instead of stop-mode, these challenges put my daughters into innovation-mode – they pull out their bucket of spare parts to find what we need and we keep building away. How many times have our colleagues said, “That won’t work because …” or “We’ve already tried that”? Although these excuses occasionally save us some time not repeating old mistakes, it’s unusual that we go back to see what pieces (lessons, learning, accomplishments, etc.) can be reapplied. Often times people, tools, resources, and lessons are there for the picking, it’s just rare that we go back to those buckets to get them.

LESSON #3: Instructions are only so helpful.

The instructions are great, usually. But there are cases where you simply cannot tell which round peg goes into which square hole (with LEGOS, literally). Whereas I turn the instructions round-and-round, flipping ahead to get another view, my daughters simply put things together as best they can. They say, “Let’s try it and see if it works.” This fearless experimentation is a critical element to accelerating innovation.

What’s the worst thing that could happen?

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With LEGOS, the consequences are nil. In many business or organizations there are real risks.

But, more often than not, the main risk is not the unforeseen consequences, but in the risk of being seen as wrong. By eliminating that fear, we increase our ability to iterate in fast cycles.

It is key for leadership to encourage and reward those who experiment, learn, and build.

LESSON #4: It’s more fun when more people

are working together. Working on a LEGO project on your own is great. But sharing the experience with my daughters (or more specifically them sharing it with me) is so much more fun. My clients find it easier to get 100 people to volunteer one hour each than to get any one person to find 100 free hours. The different people, perspectives, and experiences make for open collaboration. Each volunteer brings different strengths, allowing the innovation to go faster, further, and freer.

LESSON #5:

The quality of the final product relies upon the input of imagination. When I was growing up there were few custom LEGO parts, perhaps a wheel or a windshield. Today, there are a huge number of set-specific parts (e.g., tools, flip-up cockpits, weapon launchers, etc.).

Yet my daughters still make modifications or, in their words, “improvements.” One daughter built a LEGO motorcycle which was destroyed when she sent it down hardwood stairs. Instead of being bummed out, she saw an opportunity.

“Now I can make it better,” she said. “It was too heavy to go as fast as I want it to.” She stripped it down, leaned it out, and launched it again. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the builder’s imagination.

Look, as a leader, you set the tone for how your employees experience large-scale change. You could be the one that enables fearless (but informed) innovation and experimentation – or you can be the one holding up the instruction book saying, “That’s not how we do it.” The choice is yours.

By the way, friends at LEGO, Star Wars X-Wing …

Best. LEGO. Ever.

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Author: Nashira Davids

Source: TimesLive

Link: www.timeslive.co.za

OFFICES ARE OFTEN DULL AND ADORNED WITH LITTLE BUT THE BASIC CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT ACT ON THE WALL. BUT THERE ARE EMPLOYERS WHO HAVE GONE TO GREAT LENGTHS TO TAKE THE AWFUL OUT OF OFFICE.

COULD THIS BE SA’S COOLEST OFFICE

Think a three-storey slide, beer on tap, a tattoo parlour and musical instruments. These are some of the features taken on board by companies on the Coolest Offices list compiled by Adzuna, an online job search engine, for The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the UK. “The list is a selection of really impressive [offices] that we thought were of merit and should be celebrated,” said Flora Lowther, head of research for Adzuna.

Missing Link, a corporate presentations company in Johannesburg, made it onto the list. Its profile reads: “Their office is so bizarre - a place staff want to be and clients want to go to. It contains a tree house, a shooting range, a tattoo studio called Missing Ink, for staff and clients (free), a deli caravan and a rock-star stage.”

Missing Links founder Rich Mulholland and his business partner, Samantha Leontsinis, are the brains behind it all.

“We created our space on a budget in six weeks - from an empty shell to the awesomeness you see today,” said Leontsinis.

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“Having the coolest office is a huge pride thing for us - and we work every day to walk the talk . you don’t need to be serious to add real value. Slaying boredom is what we are in business to do,” she said.

Their tattoo parlour also hosts a hair stylist and beautician for “that little bit of TLC”.

Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, in Cape Town, has also made it onto the list for, among other things, its colourchanging rooms.

Gavin Levinsohn, the MD of the Cape Town operation, said: “Our business is about generating creative solutions for clients.

“We need to collaborate and communicate all day. Our beautiful building gives us the space to do that.”

Corus Entertainment, in Toronto, Canada, was listed for its fivestorey atrium with three-storey slide.

Also in Canada is the head office of Hootsuite Media, where beer taps are turned on in the kitchen on Fridays.

Copyright ©1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

Copyright Š1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

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Featured Career

GETTING A NEW JOB IS HARD ENOUGH, BUT STARTING A NEW CAREER IS A WHOLE NEW CHALLENGE. THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR CONSIDERING A NEW CAREER DIRECTION: BEING LAID OFF AND WANTING A FRESH START, BEING UNHAPPY WITH YOUR CURRENT LOT, OR FINALLY WORKING UP THE NERVE TO PURSUE A LONG CHERISHED DREAM. BUT SHOULD YOU TAKE THE CHANCE? GOING IN A NEW DIRECTION MAY SEEM DAUNTING, BUT IT COULD BE THE BEST MOVE YOU’LL EVER MAKE IN YOUR LIFE. THERE’S NO WAY TO KNOW UNTIL YOU TRY, RIGHT?

GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME Before you do anything else, know and accept that what you’re doing is not without its risk, but that that’s okay. Actually it’s more than okay, it’s exciting. Imagine your biography being written in 50 years’ time; this step might be a defining chapter where the entire momentum of your life veers off from the course it was plodding along, and becomes the kind of life you always wished you had. Or into a life you never imagined could be yours. Isn’t that worth the risk?

BUT LET’S ALSO BE LEVEL-HEADED ABOUT THIS Balance is usually a pretty good standard to go with. While you don’t want to be paralysed with the fear of taking a risk, you probably shouldn’t throw away all your reservations just yet.

Consider the reality of the situation. Will you have to take a pay cut or struggle for a while before you make it? And in the worst case scenario, is there a chance that the new direction won’t work out for you?

d r o f f a u o ny

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Featured Career In that case, do you have children to support? A mortgage to pay off? Having these considerations doesn’t mean you can’t have a go at a new career, but it does mean you have to be smart about it.

HAVE A SAFETY NET

Very importantly as well, expand your knowledge and skills base before you take the leap. Think about what your new career will require of you, and make sure you’re prepared for it. For example, if you will need writing skills, take a business writing skills course. If you want to start your own business, make sure you’re savvy about what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

Do you have a spouse that would be willing and able to support you until you’ve gotten into the swing of things? Are you in a position where you could move back in with your parents if the worst comes to worst? Would you be able to fall back on your old career, or be able to supplement your income somehow?

These options would be pretty nice to have. But if not, do not despair! There is a way…

Save.

Another way to minimise the risk is to move into the new direction gradually, rather than making one decisive move all at once. For instance, perhaps you could start volunteering, working part-time or doing freelancing jobs in your own time.

That way you’re gaining valuable experience, making contacts and learning the ropes, while still enjoying the stability of your usual paycheck.

Save as much as you can. Experts say you should always have three months’ salary saved up somewhere as a reserve fund, but aim higher in this situation. The more money you have saved up before the big move, the more wiggle room you’ll have carved out for yourself to explore your new frontier.

So long as you toe the fine line between risk and prudence, you’ll find that a new direction can be not only a thrilling venture, but a practical one too.

Autho

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www .jobb

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Featured Career Author: Scott Simons

Source: The Online Recruitment Resource

Link: www.onrec.com

& Buzzwords

in your CV A recent survey revealed job seekers are harming their applications by not spending enough time on their CV’s before submission. One of the main highlights was the overuse of buzzwords.

Contradicting this survey though, are the hundreds of articles online that advise buzzwords and keywords can strengthen your application.

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Featured Career

Confused? You’re not the only one.

After talking with some of our recruitment consultants here at Networkers International, I’ve put together some key highlights about the differences between the two, and how they affect your CV.

What is a buzzword?

These are essentially ‘empty’ words.

They sound impressive and exciting, but when you look a little closer, they don’t really mean anything.

What is a keyword?

This is a word or phrase an employer will look for in your CV to match against the job advert. These can be specific skills or experiences that are important for the role.

What kind of buzzwords should you avoid?

CV space is tight, so it can be tempting to use buzzwords to get across a lot of information quickly. However, as these examples show, you can come across very differently to prospective employers.

Motivated: What you think you’re saying – I know an interest in the job is important.

What the employer reads – So you’re interested in working at my company… just like everyone else that’s applying.

Hardworking:

What the employer reads – I’d hope so.

I don’t want to employ someone who is just going to sit back in their chair all day long.

Creative: What you think you’re saying – I can approach a problem with a different way of solving it.

What the employer reads – Yes, it’s very creative to state that you’re creative, on a CV that looks like every other one I’ve seen this morning.

People person: What you think you’re saying – I’m easy to get along with.

What the employer reads – People person? That’s good, because I don’t think my team wants to work with someone who hates other people.

Good communicator: What you think you’re saying – I can easily express my ideas and opinions effectively.

What the employer reads – I’d say being a good communicator is a basic requirement. I’m not interested in hiring someone who can’t talk to people.

What kind of keywords should you use?

Although you should keep away from buzzwords at all costs, it is important to include keywords in your CV. As I mentioned above, these should reflect skills employers are looking for from their ideal employee. Following these steps should help:

Step 1 Read the job advert carefully and identify exactly what the employer is looking for.

Step 2 Pick out and create a list of keywords you need to include that reflect this.

Step 3 Sprinkle them throughout your CV, using examples to back them up.

The key here is ‘sprinkle’. Cramming your CV with keywords and phrases will have the exact opposite effect on your application, as the employer will assume you’ve just copied and pasted the job advert into your CV. If you follow these steps, you should avoid the recycle bin on your next application.

If you find yourself using some (or even all!) of these buzzwords, try replacing them with examples that prove you can do those things. So instead of saying you’re a team player, describe the team you currently work in and your role within it. This way you avoid being cliché and strengthen your CV in one quick step.

What you think you’re saying – No matter what job you give me, I’ll do my best to complete it to a high standard.

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Featured Career

HOW TO MANAGEA MYRIAD OF OFFICE PERSONALITIES Source: All4Women

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Link: www.all4women.co.za

FIRST PU BLIS H E D ON ALL4WOME N.CO.ZA

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Featured Career

Looking around any company, you will encounter many different people. With some, you will get on like a house on fire…..

With others, you will constantly clash, but even at these moments, you need to acknowledge that it takes a variety of personalities for a company to be successful.

“There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to managing the array of personalities in the workplace,” says Kay Vittee, CEO of Quest Staffing Solutions. “But pin-pointing the types of personalities and adapting your management style accordingly, can bring out the best in your team.”

Vittee looks at a few recognisable personality types and how to manage them:

THE WORKHORSE The workhorse is the person you can rely on the get the job done. They put their heads down and you will see them again only when the task is complete. They consistently go the extra mile to produce excellent work and their work ethic is extremely valuable to the team. Although they will become impatient with other personality types, their drive can motivate other team members to put more effort into their work.

“Their quiet nature often means they are placed in supporting roles and overlooked for promotions or other developmental opportunities. They probably won’t raise the issue, but will feel the injustice of this, as they believe that their hard work should speak for itself. Moreover, because they are not likely to make a noise about how stressed they are, managers may give them many tasks and responsibilities, believing they can handle it when, in fact, this is just compounding the pressure,” explains Vittee.

Vittee suggests that managers need to keep a close eye on the workhorse’s workload - ensuring that it is realistic - while providing them with opportunities that will force them to work with others, take on leadership roles and develop their interpersonal skills so that they can become more noticed in the workplace.

THE CREATIVE The creative person embraces the bigger picture. They think out of the box and can invent new strategies. Their ideas are often contagious and they can inspire others to think in an innovative way. Creatives are also open to other people’s ideas and are great team players. They think visually and

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have a clear picture of the end result, but may have trouble planning the practical steps to bring this about.

Says the CEO: “Managing the creative requires a fine balance. They do need to be brought down to reality, but beware that it is not done in such a way that it demotivates them. Creatives become easily discouraged and so if they feel their contributions are constantly being met with a negative reaction, they will stop contributing altogether. Without their creative outlet, other aspects of their work may begin to suffer.”

She goes on: “Instead, be open to their ideas and guide their thinking along the practical route by asking how they suggest their ideas work within the constraints. Their creative thinking will probably mean they have hidden problem-solving abilities and with the right guidance, this ability may come to light.”

THE SMOOTH TALKER The smooth talker is the person who is obviously extroverted and the one you will hear before you see.

They are the ones who contribute in meetings and are great at getting others to buy into an idea. The smooth talker is a people person who enjoys forming relationships. Their relationship focus means that their work ethic may suffer and while they are likely to make promises they cannot deliver on, they will also be able to talk themselves out of any bad situation.

Managing the smooth talker can be difficult because you can find yourself won over by them. “Managers need to be aware of exactly what the strengths and weaknesses of their smooth talker are, and take steps to ensure they meet their deadlines and take responsibility for their actions. Although the smooth talker may need to be reined in, remember that their sales abilities are an advantage to the team, so do not restrict them to the point that they feel stifled. They know many people and will easily be able to jump ship,” Vittee warns.

“What helps a smooth talker is to give them a very clear goal,” she says. “Explain that their natural leadership qualities will make them great managers, but in order to get there, they need to achieve certain work ethic objectives.”

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Featured Career

HEALTHY COOKING

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAY

Source: Cooking From the Heart Link: www.cookingfromtheheart.co.za

Check out some delicious recipes, they are healthy, affordable and easy to make!

Butternut & Sweetcorn Bake Butternut is a versatile veggie with a naturally sweet flavour. The creamy sweetcorn makes this a sweet and delicious side dish without the need for cream or butter.

400 g butternut, cut in cubes 400 g sweet potatoes with the skin, cut in cubes ½ onion, halved and sliced 1 tbsp (15 ml) sunflower oil ½ x 410 g tin cream style sweetcorn ½ tsp (2,5 ml) ground nutmeg black pepper to taste Preheat oven to 180 °C. Preheat oven to 180 °C. Mix butternut, sweet potatoes, onion and oil together in an oven dish.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the veggies are just cooked.

Pour sweetcorn over veggies and season with nutmeg and pepper.

Bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve as a side dish with meat or chicken or a braai.

Pharma Dynamics is SA’s leading generic supplier of cardiovascular medicines and has significantly increased the accessibility of many life-changing medicines to hundreds of thousands by making them more affordable. The reality, however, is that South Africa is facing a major health crisis with rates of heart disease reaching epidemic levels. In an attempt to proactively address the problem, Pharma Dynamics has partnered with the Heart and Stroke Foundation SA to bring Cooking from the heart to life. This recipe book is a heart-friendly, multicultural, budget cookbook by South Africans, for South Africans.

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Mac & Cheese with Lentils

Featured Career

This mac and cheese is not rich and heavy like many other versions.

300 g macaroni

White sauce

½ tsp (2,5 ml) salt

3 tbsp (45 ml) cake flour

1 tsp (5 ml) sunflower oil

600 ml low-fat or fat-free

1 cup (250 ml) cooked or

milk

tinned lentils, drained

1 tsp (5 ml) Worcester

1 cup (250 ml) frozen mixed

sauce

vegetables, rinsed

1 tsp (5 ml) prepared

2 slices brown bread

mustard

1 tbsp (15 ml) dried mixed herbs

½ tsp (2,5 ml) salt

¼ cup (60 ml) grated Cheddar

lemon juice and black

cheese, preferably reduced fat

pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add macaroni and salt. Cook until tender and drain well. Stir in oil.

White sauce: Meanwhile, mix cake flour with a little bit of the milk in a small pot to make a paste.

Heat gently and gradually stir in the rest of the milk until a smooth mixture forms.

Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens and season with remaining ingredients.

Preheat oven to 180 °C. Mix white sauce with the pasta, lentils and veggies. Spoon into an oven dish.

Crumble bread with your fingertips into smaller pieces and mix with dried herbs and cheese.

Sprinkle bread mixture over pasta and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and heated through. Serve with a salad.

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Featured Career

Have a look at some salary indicators for the top 10 industry sectors in this year’s Salary Review by the CareerJunction Index.

salary spy

it’s time to check out what you’re worth on the job market!

engineering

admin, office & support

building & construction

manufacturing & assembly

mining

sales

information technology

marketing

telecommunication

finance

* The findings are based on salary information gathered from job ads posted on CareerJunction during the last quarter of 2012 and first quarter 2013.

Learn even more about your industry.

Download the CJI monthly Executive Summary

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www.cji.co.za

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Featured Career

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Featured Career

SHORT COURSES CAN HELP YOU CHANGE CAREER PATH

Don’t know how to boost your CV skills?

Feeling stuck in a rut at work, on the wrong side of a precarious economy?

Invest in short learning programmes as an effective way to beef up your CV with up-to-date and marketable skills in a reasonably short time.

“In buoyant economies, spending money on yourself is easy to justify,” says Dr Felicity Coughlan, Director of The Independent Institute of Education, “But we are observing a concerning trend of consumers forgoing exactly those investments that would enable them to improve their skills, certification and ultimately career prospects.”

Be careful which courses you choose “Short courses are largely unregulated and consumers therefore are left with very few of the traditional indicators by which to measure the value of the training they are to undertake,” says Coughlan.

“Good short learning programmes enable students to immediately apply new skills or knowledge to their current positions or to demonstrate mastery of new skills when applying for new positions.

Currency of curricula is therefore a key indicator of appropriateness.”

Continue working while studying Coughlan says students sign up for short learning programmes because they can continue working while studying, and because

these programmes are generally a more affordable way to improve one’s skills, qualifications and ultimately career prospects.

Additionally, there is a host of short courses available which will allow further study without drastic changes such as resignation or taking out massive student loans.

“Like all education, it is an investment. And while short term sacrifices may be needed to finance the course, if the right selection is made, the return on the investment will come.”

Wide range of courses available Courses available are wide-ranging, meaning that those seeking a mid-career change can head in a completely new direction, study to bolster their current qualifications, or simply study to gain some fresh insights, stimulation and energy. Many mid-career people also enrol in short courses for the networking opportunities they provide.

Weigh up the options before making your final selection Coughlan advises those who are considering a mid-career education boost, to spend some time weighing their options before taking the plunge.

“Imagine where you want to be and what you want to be doing in a decade from now. Then look at the available courses and see which of them ignite a little flame of excitement. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and throw all that information together to see which courses could take you down the road you want to walk.

“Additionally, there are many online tools available, to assist you in sorting your personal career option wheat from the chaff.”

Author: The Independent Institute of Education Source: All4Women Link: www.all4women.co.za

FIRST PU BLIS H E D ON ALL4 WOMEN.CO.ZA

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Featured Career

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Featured Career

Author: Avinash Kaushik Source: LinkedIn Link: www.linkedin.co.za

2LESSONSFROM 15 YEARS OF GOOGLE’S EVOLUTION

It is always fun/surprising to have a vast expanse of evolution put together into one easy to see picture, as in the case of Google’s evolution above.

Reflecting on the picture, two key lessons came to mind for me.

1. It is hard to believe Google is just 15 years old. From domain registration to evolving search to DoubleClick to YouTube to Android to automated cars to Glass to balloons beaming down the internet in just 15 years. 15.

As an employee, as a user, and a deep lover of disruptive innovation, it has been amazing to see all this hyper-speed evolution and see its benefits.

Predicting the future is always a career-limiting move, so I won’t. I do believe that to ensure it stays relevant and useful for the next 15 years, Google will figure out how to keep delivering on its innovation agenda. The company will learn a lot of lessons from those efforts, and so will the rest of us.

2. My biggest surprise from this timeline was how quickly we all become spoiled/take things for granted. Two quick examples...

I dislike any search (web search, intranet search, Windows file search) that does not have instant results as I type. I

dislike the fact that the right answer is not instantly there after I type two characters. :) But that has only been around on Google since 2010, less than three years!

I open my phone when I land in Santiago, Chile, and the Google Now widget on my phone’s home screen has the local currency conversion, it has the key phrases I can use (depending on time of day), it has maps to my appointments, and based on my past behaviour it recommends the local spots I would love (hikes, museums). Without me telling it anything. All I did was unlock my phone. I’ve only had it for a year, and yet it feels like I’ve had it for 900 million years!

There is a lesson in that for companies. People like me, crazy consumers, love your latest innovation and a couple months later take it for granted and are ready for the next one. Nay, demand the next one! Your challenge is… are you structured to deliver against this speeded up cycle of expectations, are your people incentivized to help you be a perpetual innovation machine?

My favourite companies that do both of the above things, some for longer than Google, are Life Technologies (sciences), GoPro (products), RedBull (media), Amazon (digital and beyond), Patagonia (marketing), and Siemens (engineering).

The mantra innovate or die was never more true.

Happy birthday Google.

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Featured Career

Whether you’re starting out or a professional looking to further your skills or do something completely different, why not browse our selection of Online Courses and Study Destinations?

There are many options to choose from featuring SA’s biggest and most trusted course institutions.

SkillSoft’s award winning courseware offers tens of thousands of hours of interactive instruction and assessment on a wide range of relevant IT, computer desktop skills and compliance subjects.

Established in 2001, iLearn provides both ONSITE Instructor led and ONLINE training solutions. Training solutions offered range between business skills, IT desktop applications, IT technical, design & media and language courses.

College SA offers a broad range of courses to cater to the individual needs of prospective students from all walks of life. You will find anything from businessrelated courses to purely creative courses. College SA has a variety of options to choose from.

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We offer a range of study options, from our academic programmes, including the MBA and the Executive MBA, to Executive Education short courses as well as masters and doctoral studies. Our campus is located in the heart of Cape Town.

UCT presents a portfolio of over 40 online short courses in partnership with leading online education company, GetSmarter. All courses are presented part-time and entirely online. Students receive a certificate issued by the University of Cape Town upon completion.

CareerSeek 25

Featured Career

Q&A

with Kerry Dawkins Author: Mvelase Peppetta Source: Irvine Bartlett Link: www.irvinebartlett.co.za

Kerry is the founder of Potential At Work, a consultancy specialising in engagement and development solutions.

ARE YOU READY?

As part of her role in the business, she has created and implemented a mentoring system that, on an ongoing basis, provides support and guidance to young South Africans.

Current mentees include graduates as they enter the workforce in large South African corporates, key talent as they move upwards in a corporate, employment equity candidates and the benefactors of Foundations including the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Shanduka Foundation.

You can follow her on Junction, Facebook – Kerry DawkinsPatwork and on Twitter @KerryDawkins.

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Copyright Š1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

Featured Career

Q: My feelings about my current job range somewhere on the

scale of “mild dislike” (Friday afternoon) to “stab me in the eyeball” (Monday morning). The job looked good on paper, but it’s not what I expected. At the same time, I need to pay my bills and I know that I am not ready to make the jump into a new job.

Some wise words to get me started in the right direction would really help!

ARE YOU READY?

A: Thanks for a great letter!

Your experience echoes that of many of our readers: the world of work is very different to what our parents or grandparents encountered, and we have to adjust the way we think about job, work and careers. We’ve only a small chance of finding secure, long-term employment, and are much more likely to have to change jobs frequently as a result of corporate strategies (like mergers or right-sizing) and technological (r)evolutions. But changes at work needn’t be scary: there are as many opportunities and possibilities as threats, if you are alert to them and are prepared. So how do you do that?

Well, being prepared depends on awareness and a clear understanding of yourself. You might like to try this exercise: think of yourself as a collection of attributes and skills, not a job title. In other words, think of all that you know, and all that you can do, as separate ‘things’ that can be combined in innovative ways. It’s much like Lego blocks that can make hundreds of different toys, not just the one pictured on the box. This kind of flexibility creates possibilities. If you were applying for a job, either a totally new one or a different position in the same company, the discussion becomes about how your range of knowledge, skills and attributes could meet the various challenges of the position. Considering your suitability on the basis of job title alone generally presents only two options (yes/no), and employers are quick to say ‘no’.

THIS QUIZ COULD ALSO HELP YOU NAVIGATE YOUR CAREER, BOTH NOW AND IN THE LONG-TERM,

BY DEEPENING YOUR SELF-AWARENESS. ALTHOUGH IT WAS DEVELOPED BY A CAREER ADVISOR IN THE 1990’S (WWW.CAREERVISION.ORG), IT’S AS RELEVANT AS EVER: • I know which of my aptitudes offer the greatest potential for success and satisfaction • I can identify three things I enjoy doing • I meet with a professional annually to evaluate my career goals • I have a financial plan • I have completed at least one class or technical training course in the past year • I belong to and am active in at least one professional or technical association • I schedule at least four meetings a year with people in similar occupations to keep my network active • I have clearly identified annual goals in my work environment • I have updated my resumé/cv • I can clearly state my accomplishments • I take care of my health • I know where to find career and employment resources

• I know what is important to me • I keep current on employment trends

TF TF TF TF TF TF TF TF TF TF TF TF TF TF

Few people will have ticked ‘True’ for all of these statements: we know we should do these things, but never seem to get around to it. We believe that you can start to change things, right now. Choose just one thing that you can do for your career and put it in your calendar. Commit to spending 30 minutes on it – whether it’s looking for career resources, sending an email to invite someone for a chat about work over a cup of coffee or finding one event to attend. Plan to do just one thing. And then do it.

And don’t forget to let us know how the steps that you’re taking are working for you.

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Featured Career

Author: Wait But Why

WHY GENERATION Y YUPPIES ARE UNHAPPY 28

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Source: HuffingtonPost.com

Link: www.junction.co.za

Lucy is part of Generation Y, the generation born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s. She’s also part of a yuppie culture that makes up a large portion of Gen Y. I have a term for yuppies in the Gen Y age group -- I call them Gen Y Protagonists & Special Yuppies, or GYPSYs. A GYPSY is a unique brand of yuppie, one who thinks they are the main character of a very special story.

So Lucy’s enjoying her GYPSY life, and she’s very pleased to be Lucy. Only issue is this one thing: Lucy’s kind of unhappy.

To get to the bottom of why, we need to define what makes someone happy or unhappy in the first place.

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Featured Career

It comes down to a simple formula:

It’s pretty straightforward -- when the reality of someone’s life is better than they had expected, they’re happy. When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, they’re unhappy.

To provide some context, let’s start by bringing Lucy’s parents into the discussion:

After graduating from being insufferable hippies, Lucy’s parents embarked on their careers. As the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s rolled along, the world entered a time of unprecedented economic prosperity. Lucy’s parents did even better than they expected to. This left them feeling gratified and optimistic.

Lucy’s parents were born in the ‘50s -- they’re Baby Boomers.

They were raised by Lucy’s grandparents, members of the G.I. Generation, or “the Greatest Generation,” who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II, and were most definitely not GYPSYs.

Lucy’s Depression Era grandparents were obsessed with economic security and raised her parents to build practical, secure careers. They wanted her parents’ careers to have greener grass than their own, and Lucy’s parents were brought up to envision a prosperous and stable career for themselves.

Something like this:

They were taught that there was nothing stopping them from getting to that lush, green lawn of a career, but that they’d need to put in years of hard work to make it happen.

With a smoother, more positive life experience than that of their own parents, Lucy’s parents raised Lucy with a sense of optimism and unbounded possibility. And they weren’t alone.

Baby Boomers all around the country and world told their Gen Y kids that they could be whatever they wanted to be, instilling the special protagonist identity deep within their psyches.

This left GYPSYs feeling tremendously hopeful about their careers, to the point where their parents’ goals of a green lawn of secure prosperity didn’t really do it for them. A GYPSYworthy lawn has flowers.

This leads to our first fact about GYPSYs:

GYPSYs Are Wildly Ambitious

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Featured Career But something else is happening too. While the career goals of Gen Y as a whole have become much more particular and ambitious, Lucy has been given a second message throughout her childhood as well:

This would probably be a good time to bring in our second fact about GYPSYs:

GYPSYs Are Delusional The GYPSY needs a lot more from a career than a nice green lawn of prosperity and security. The fact is, a green lawn isn’t quite exceptional or unique enough for a GYPSY. Where the Baby Boomers wanted to live The American Dream, GYPSYs want to live Their Own Personal Dream.

Cal Newport points out that “follow your passion” is a catchphrase that has only gotten going in the last 20 years, according to Google’s Ngram viewer, a tool that shows how prominently a given phrase appears in English print over any period of time. The same Ngram viewer shows that the phrase “a secure career” has gone out of style, just as the phrase “a fulfilling career” has gotten hot.

“Sure,” Lucy has been taught, “everyone will go and get themselves some fulfilling career, but I am unusually wonderful and as such, my career and life path will stand out amongst the crowd.” So on top of the generation as a whole having the bold goal of a flowery career lawn, each individual GYPSY thinks that he or she is destined for something even better --

A shiny unicorn on top of the flowery lawn.

So why is this delusional? Because this is what all GYPSYs think, which defies the definition of special:

spe-cial | ‘speSHel |

adjective

better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.

According to this definition, most people are not special -otherwise “special” wouldn’t mean anything.

Even right now, the GYPSYs reading this are thinking, “Good point... but I actually am one of the few special ones” -- and this is the problem.

To be clear, GYPSYs want economic prosperity just like their parents did -- they just also want to be fulfilled by their career in a way their parents didn’t think about as much.

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A second GYPSY delusion comes into play once the GYPSY enters the job market. While Lucy’s parents’ expectation was that many years of hard work would eventually lead to a great career, Lucy considers a great career an obvious given for someone as exceptional as she, and for her it’s just a matter of time and choosing which way to go. Her pre-workforce expectations look something like this:

Copyright ©1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

Featured Career Lucy’s extreme ambition, coupled with the arrogance that comes along with being a bit deluded about one’s own selfworth, has left her with huge expectations for even the early years out of college. And her reality pales in comparison to those expectations, leaving her “reality - expectations” happy score coming out at a negative.

And it gets even worse. On top of all this, GYPSYs have an extra problem that applies to their whole generation:

GYPSYs Are Taunted

Unfortunately, the funny thing about the world is that it turns out to not be that easy of a place, and the weird thing about careers is that they’re actually quite hard. Great careers take years of blood, sweat and tears to build -- even the ones with no flowers or unicorns on them -- and even the most successful people are rarely doing anything that great in their early or mid-20s.

But GYPSYs aren’t about to just accept that.

Paul Harvey, a University of New Hampshire professor and GYPSY expert, has researched this, finding that Gen Y has “unrealistic expectations and a strong resistance toward accepting negative feedback,” and “an inflated view of oneself.” He says that “a great source of frustration for people with a strong sense of entitlement is unmet expectations. They often feel entitled to a level of respect and rewards that aren’t in line with their actual ability and effort levels, and so they might not get the level of respect and rewards they are expecting.”

Sure, some people from Lucy’s parents’ high school or college classes ended up more successful than her parents did. And while they may have heard about some of it from time to time through the grapevine, for the most part they didn’t really know what was going on in too many other peoples’ careers.

Lucy, on the other hand, finds herself constantly taunted by a modern phenomenon: Facebook Image Crafting.

Social media creates a world for Lucy where A) what everyone else is doing is very out in the open, B) most people present an inflated version of their own existence, and C) the people who chime in the most about their careers are usually those whose careers (or relationships) are going the best, while struggling people tend not to broadcast their situation. This leaves Lucy feeling, incorrectly, like everyone else is doing really well, only adding to her misery:

For those hiring members of Gen Y, Harvey suggests asking the interview question, “Do you feel you are generally superior to your coworkers/classmates/etc., and if so, why?” He says that “if the candidate answers yes to the first part but struggles with the ‘why,’ there may be an entitlement issue. This is because entitlement perceptions are often based on an unfounded sense of superiority and deservingness. They’ve been led to believe, perhaps through overzealous self-esteem building exercises in their youth, that they are somehow special but often lack any real justification for this belief.”

And since the real world has the nerve to consider merit a factor, a few years out of college Lucy finds herself here:

So that’s why Lucy is unhappy, or at the least, feeling a bit frustrated and inadequate. In fact, she’s probably started off her career perfectly well, but to her, it feels very disappointing.

Here’s my advice for Lucy:

1) Stay wildly ambitious. The current world is bubbling with opportunity for an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success. The specific direction may be unclear, but it’ll work itself out -- just dive in somewhere.

2) Stop thinking that you’re special. The fact is, right now, you’re not special. You’re another completely inexperienced young person who doesn’t have all that much to offer yet. You can become special by working really hard for a long time.

3) Ignore everyone else. Other people’s grass seeming greener is no new concept, but in today’s image crafting world, other people’s grass looks like a glorious meadow. The truth is that everyone else is just as indecisive, self-doubting, and frustrated as you are, and if you just do your thing, you’ll never have any reason to envy others.

Copyright ©1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

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Featured Career

ACTION / ADVENTURE/ DRAMA

RUSH Everyone’s driven by something.

ENTER NOW!

careerjunction is giving away... free movie tickets to 2 lucky winners each month. all you have to do is tell us what your favourite CareerSeek 32 is movie of all time and why!

A spectacular big-screen re-creation of the merciless 1970s rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, whose clashes on the Grand Prix racetrack highlighted the stark contrast between these two extraordinary characters; a distinction reflected in their private lives.

Cast: Chris Hemsworth , Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino BOOK NOW / WATCH TRAILER

88%

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Featured Career

ACTION/ COMEDY / ADVENTURE

R.I.P.D. Defending our world, one soul at a time.

Two cops are dispatched by the otherworldly Rest In Peace Department to protect and serve the living from an increasingly destructive array of souls who refuse to move peacefully to the other side.

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds , Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak BOOK NOW / WATCH TRAILER

39% ACTION / ADVENTURE / SCI-FI

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA Too much of a good thing is wonderful.

Before Elvis, before Elton John, Madonna and Lady Gaga, there was Liberace: virtuoso pianist, outrageous entertainer and flamboyant star of stage and television. A name synonymous with showmanship, extravagance and candelabras, he was a world-renowned performer with a flair that endeared him to his audiences and created a loyal fan base spanning his 40year career. Liberace lived lavishly and embraced a lifestyle of excess both on and off stage. In Summer, 1977, handsome young stranger Scott Thorson walked into his dressing room and, despite their age difference and seemingly different worlds, the two embarked on a secretive five-year love affair.

The film takes a behind-the-scenes look at their tempestuous relationship—from their first meeting backstage at the Las Vegas Hilton to their acrimonious public breakup.

Cast: Michael Douglas, Matt Damon , Dan Akroyd, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds BOOK NOW / WATCH TRAILER

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95% CareerSeek

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Featured Career

How I Hire: You’re Not Interviewing For the Job You Think You Are By the time I’m considering a senior-level candidate, the final decision rarely comes down to their ability to relate a prior experience or convince me they can perform specific tasks in the job description they’re interviewing for. Frankly, if I’m doing my job, by the time they get to me the candidate’s experience and proficiency has been vetted and established.

Author: Charlie Collier President and General Manager at AMC

What I’m looking for is what they are going to be able to do to make us successful beyond their job description.

How does the individual sitting in front of me relate to people, approach unusual challenges, flex when blind spots are exposed? In essence, I want to find out not just how they “fit” their defined functional role but how they will be able to quickly adapt and make decisions that will have impact well beyond it.

Those able to spot opportunities for change, early, and flexible enough to move strategically toward addressing them, even when they may be outside business-as-usual parameters, are going to add disproportionate value. Most of the best executives I’ve observed take their roles well beyond what an organization can even contemplate at the time of an open position. Further, they have enough emotional intelligence to be able to push the organization forward without leaving a cloud of smoke in their path. I want those people on my team and I try to use the

Source: LinkedIn

Link: www.linkedin.com

interview and vetting process to find them.

If proficiency in the skill set can be presumed, I might ask interview questions about flexibility and off-the-top-of-one’shead decision making to an analytical thinker; or perhaps I’ll push a discussion of business specifics and timely action with someone seeking a more traditionally “creative” position. Give me the marketer who sees that their role goes far beyond a piece of key art to promote a new show, for instance, and actually understands that marketing truly lives in the center of our organization. Or a finance person who is energized - and not paralyzed - when the story the numbers are telling and the aspirations of the business seem to conflict at forecast time.

The assumption I’m comfortable making in interviews, if a candidate has made it this far, is that they can do the job they were brought here to talk about. What I really want to get down to is their ability to perform beyond the specific functional tasks that are written on the paper in front of us.

Copyright ©1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

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Copyright Š1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

TIPS FROM A RECRUITER Author: Levo League

Source: BrazenLife

Link: www.brazencareerist.com

Job rejections have got to be one of the tougher forms of rejection. The more interviews you go on, the tougher it is to hear the news that a company “isn’t moving forward” or “went with another candidate.”

If this is you, you’re probably wondering “why?” yet have no answers in sight. The question then becomes: should you ask for feedback?

While it depends on your relationship with the company, getting feedback on why you didn’t get the job will be incredibly helpful as you continue on in your search.

When you should ask for feedback The more a company has gotten to know you, the more helpful the feedback will be. If a company turns you down after a phone interview or initial screen, they’ve only spent a limited amount of time getting to know you. Chances are there was something on the surface that made you not the right match for that job — whether it be your skill set, a culture fit or many other reasons.

No harm in asking, but don’t be surprised if the answer isn’t very insightful and seems pretty basic.

I’d say the most meaningful feedback you’re going to get is when you’ve gotten to a second or third round of interviews and then get rejected.

Copyright ©1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

HOW TO ASK FOR FEEDBACK AFTER A JOB REJECTION

Featured Career

If you’ve gotten past the first round, it means your skills and work experience are viable for the job — so the reason for not getting the job could be a little more interesting. (Maybe you talked too much, maybe you came off as disinterested in the company, maybe you didn’t know Photoshop as well as the candidate they hired.) Knowing that reason (after a second or third round) is a lot more likely to help you the next time you’re interviewing for a similar role.

Who should you ask for feedback?

This always depends on the situation and who you’ve interviewed with, but the best person to ask in general would be the recruiter. Not only can they give you feedback from their own interview with you, but they also probably were the one to gather feedback from others.

If you interviewed with one person and it wasn’t the recruiter, just ask the person you did interview with.

Keep in mind that you won’t always get feedback after an interview. There are various reasons for this, but more often than not, the recruiter or interviewer won’t give you anything too meaningful because there are risks in doing so. However, in my experience, I’ve been the most likely to give feedback to someone I have built trust and a relationship with — so those are always the best people to ask.

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Featured Career At what point should you ask for feedback?

Generally the best time to ask is after you’ve been turned down for the job. It’s usually best to ask for feedback over email versus phone or in-person because people don’t love being put on the spot in this scenario.

Keep in mind, it’s always a good idea to respond to a job rejection to keep the relationship in good standing for the future.

How you should ask for feedback?

You’re asking someone to: Potentially have an uncomfortable conversation.

Take a risk (legally).

Take the time in general to have a conversation with someone they’re not hiring.

This means you’ll want to approach the conversation in a way that is gracious, open and not entitled.

First, thank the interviewer for their time and consideration.

Then give them the option of providing feedback (without demanding it). Something along the lines of, “If you do have any feedback for me, I’d love to use it to make myself a stronger candidate for the future” is a good way to approach it. If you don’t tread lightly, you could come off as sounding defensive or basically arguing, “Why didn’t you hire me for this job?”

In real life…

Getting feedback and hearing the truth can be really tough.

Your natural reaction will probably be to get defensive and think, “I didn’t sound like that,” “I didn’t say that” or “I totally covered that,” but resist that urge.

I’ve seen clients get feedback that hit them like a ton of bricks (eventually in a good way). They went on to take that feedback to heart and become much stronger candidates. So have the courage to ask, and then really use it to your advantage the next time around.

Have you ever asked for feedback after an interview?

Jaime Petkanics is the Founder of The Prepary, an online resource providing honest and accessible job search advice based on her past experience in the recruiting world. She also works with job seekers one-on-one to help them land their dream job or internship. Prior to starting The Prepary, Jaime worked as a recruiter in both the fashion and finance industries and got her BA in Psychology from NYU.

BRAZEN LIFE IS A LIFESTYLE AND CAREER BLOG FOR AMBITIOUS YOUNG PROFESSIONALS. HOSTED

BY BRAZEN CAREERIST, WE OFFER EDGY AND FUN IDEAS FOR NAVIGATING THE CHANGING WORLD OF WORK. BE BRAZEN!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: LEVO LEAGUE IS A THRIVING COMMUNITY OF YOUNG PROFESSIONALS, ROLE MODELS AND INNOVATIVE COMPANIES TAKING GEN Y BY STORM. LEVO, THE LATIN ROOT OF THE WORD “ELEVATE,” ENCOMPASSES LEVO LEAGUE’S MISSION: TO ELEVATE YOUR CAREER. JOIN LEVO TO DISCOVER THE BEST JOB OPPORTUNITIES, MASTER NEW SKILLS AND CONNECT WITH THEIR GROWING GLOBAL NETWORK TO START ACCELERATING YOUR SUCCESS NOW.

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Featured Career

WATCH INTRODUCTION VIDEO

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Featured Career

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

ABOUT PAYE Author: Raul Jorge

Source: www.moneysmart.co.za

Link: www.moneysmart.co.za

Tax might not be the most exciting topic, but it certainly is an important one. By working through the jargon and learning the basics you, as a taxpayer, can learn how to better utilise our tax system.

to make two or three tax payments throughout the year to avoid having to pay one large chunk of tax every year.

Non-provisional taxpayers on the other hand earn fixed salaries and normally pay their tax contributions to SARS via PAYE which is deducted off their paycheques by their employers every month. Non-provisional taxpayers submit one tax return every year.

Not to mention the fact that you can gain a better understanding as to how and why money mysteriously disappears off your paycheque every month.

PAYE: What It is and How It Works

Tax in general is collected in the form of either provisional or non provisional tax: Provisional taxpayers don’t earn a fixed salary. Due to the fact that their income fluctuates SARS allows provisional taxpayers

40 CareerSeek

For the majority of taxpayers non-provisional tax is applicable, hence the PAYE deductions that go off their payslips every month.

PAYE stands for “Pay As You Earn” and refers to Income Tax which is withheld by your employer and then paid over to SARS on your behalf. Your total income including bonuses, fringe benefits and other allowances, is taken into account for this calculation.

Copyright ©1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

Featured Career Your employer determines your tax payable by making use of the SARS Income Tax tables:

TAX RATES FOR INDIVIDUALS Taxable Income (R)

Example where tax deductions are applicable John worked for the full 2013/2014 tax year, from 1 March 2013 to 28 February 2014.

Rates of tax (R) He earned R15 000 per month, coming to a total of R180 000 for this tax year.

0 – 165 600

18% of each R1

165 601 – 258 750

29 808 + 25% of the amount above 165 600

258 751 – 358 110

53 096 + 30% of the amount above 258 750

358 111 – 500 940

82 904 + 35% of the amount above 358 110

500 941 – 638 600

132 894 + 38% of the amount above 500 940

638 601 and above

185 205 + 40% of the amount above 638 600

TAX REBATES FOR INDIVIDUALS Primary Rebate R 12 080 Secondary rebate (for persons 65 years and older)

R 6 750

Tertiary rebate (for persons 75 years and older)

R 2 250

TAX THRESHOLDS Persons under 65 years

R 67 111

Persons 65 years and older

R 104 611

Persons 75 years and older

R 117 111

PAYE basically ensures that an employee’s income tax liability is settled at the same time that their income is earned. The responsibility to deduct this form of taxation lies with the employer.

In cases where the taxpayer has only worked part of a tax year or where tax deductions are applicable, individuals may claim a tax refund due to the fact that too much tax was paid.

PAYE Case Studies Example where an employee only works part of the year John worked for 4 months for the 2013/2014 tax year, from 1 March 2013 to 30 June 2013 (the 2013/2014 tax year runs from 1 March 2013 to 28 February 2014).

He earned R15 000 per month, coming to a total of R60 000 earned for these 4 months worked.

The employer deducted PAYE of: R1777.33 x 4 = R7109 in total (rounded off).

However for the 2013/2014 tax year John was under the tax threshold of R67 111 (see Tax Thresholds above) and therefore should not have paid tax at all.

His employer deducted PAYE of: R1777.33 x 12 = R21 328 in total (rounded off).

However John made monthly contributions of R800 towards a Retirement Annuity coming to a total of R9600 for the year.

This amount can be claimed as a deduction for taxation purposes and can therefore be deducted from his gross income when calculating his tax liability for the 2013/2014 tax year.

His Retirement Annuity contributions of R800 fall within his allowed tax deductible Retirement Annuity contribution range (see What is a Retirement Annuity? for more details as to how much you can contribute for taxation purposes).

This example assumes that he doesn’t belong to a Pension or Provident Fund.

Due to the fact that he made R9600 worth of Retirement Annuity contributions his gross income comes to a total of R170 400 (R180 000 – R9600) for the 2013/2014 tax year which means that he will pay less tax for the year.

His actual tax liability for the 2013/2014 will then be R18 928 as opposed to R21 328. Which means that he will save R2400 in tax as a result of his Retirement Annuity contributions (R21 328 – R18 928).

This example illustrates how certain financial products can be used to reduce your overall tax liability.

John effectively only contributed R7200 towards this Retirement Annuity as the remaining R2400 would have been spent on tax anyway had he not made these retirement savings contributions.

In this case since the tax has been paid but none was due, the employee will be entitled to a full refund of R7109 when they submit their tax return.

Copyright ©1997-2013 CareerJunction, all rights reserved.

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Featured Career

Job seekers should look to the IT sector Career experts recommend that young South Africans seek employment in growth sectors like technology, where the entire continent is currently experiencing a major skills shortage.

“With current unemployment levels in the region of 25% the job market is incredibly competitive,” says corporate coach Godfrey Madanhire, “and job seekers need to be smart.” He advises recent graduates and those looking into new career paths to look into sectors where skills are in high demand.

“There is such a shortage of IT professionals in South Africa, for example, that companies are outsourcing them from overseas. South Africans entering the job market need to look to careers in sectors like app development and e-learning in particular, where there are currently plenty of job openings and where future growth is expected.”

SKILLS GAP IN LOCAL MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT Lynette Hundermark, Apps Business Director at one of South Africa’s leading apps, mobile, and digital agencies, Prezence, says that there is a major skills gap in the local mobile app development market, which is growing steadily. App development is a highly skilled field and many companies expect junior app developers to have a tertiary level qualification in computer science or IT. “The digital space changes constantly,” says Hundermark, “so this is a field in which you never stop learning.

Based on experience, the average salary for a junior app developer ranges from R8,000-R10,000 and most companies are dedicated to upskilling their staff by necessity, meaning salaries increase as over time as skills do.”

E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT

Another sector seeing dramatic growth in South Africa is e-learning development. The international e-learning industry is expected to be worth US$107 billion globally by 2015 and South African organisations are increasingly investing in the technology, meaning employment opportunities are likely to continue to increase.

The industry currently has the most demand for instructional designers, who need a wide range of skills.

Author: Mvelase Peppetta

Source: www.irvinebartlett.co.za

digital devices like computers and cellphones, need a number of skills, not least a background in education,” says Kirsty Chadwick, director of e-learning design and development company The Training Room Online. “As an employer I look for talented graduates who combine creativity with technical ability.”

The e-learning industry also has positions for e-learning designers and e-learning developers. E-learning designers normally have qualifications in design and are involved in creating the “look” of e-learning courseware, while e-learning developers need to have computer programming skills. There is no specific degree or diploma you should work towards to get a job in e-learning. Beginner salaries in the e-learning industry range from R8,000-R10,000.

“What you study depends where your interests lie,” Chadwick says. “While most of our instructional designers have some kind of teaching background, many of our employees who work in production have completed filmmaking or animation courses.”

“No matter what career path you choose, job seekers need to learn all they can about the job before they start studying towards it,” Madanhire advises. “It’s a tough market out there so choosing a career in a growing sector is vital. Job seekers must also make sure they pick up as many skills as possible as soon as possible. It is never too early to start preparing.”

“Instructional designers, whose job it is to take learning material and make it fun, interactive and suitable for

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ABOUT LYNETTE HUNDERMARK

Through Dreamworld Promotions, and based on his life experiences merged with extensive knowledge of the concepts and skills around motivating and inspiring individuals, Godfrey has held seminars helping people grow and organisations such as MWeb, Engen and the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants to build their workforces.

The Zimbabwean-born professional speaker is also a member of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa and the Global Speakers Federation.

Prior to coming to South Africa, holding a Diploma in Education from the University of Zimbabwe along with a Bachelor of Technology in Education and Management from the Tshwane University of Technology, Godfrey was a teacher in Zimbabwe.

A true geek at heart who lives and breathes mobile and digital, Lynette Hundermark, has been carving her chosen career in the IT sector for more than 10 years.

Having formerly been the Head of Product Strategy at Prezence, one of South Africa’s leading apps, mobile, and digital agencies Hundermark has recently taken on the role of Apps Business Director.

Hundermark thrives in working in the constantly evolving mobile sphere to create award winning mobile products for a wide spectrum of clients across the financial, travel, and entertainment sectors

Despite various hardships faced upon his arrival in South Africa, Godfrey was offered a position with a marketing company promoting short-term insurance, ultimately being tasked with setting up a branch in Cape Town.

In 2006, Godfrey decided to pursue and fulfil his dreams with Dreamworld Promotions which now employs more than 100 people countrywide.

ABOUT KIRSTY CHADWICK

ABOUT GODFREY MADANHIRE

A professional motivational speaker and life coach, and the driving force behind Dreamworld Promotions, Godfrey Madanhire is indeed a man who realised his dreams.

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Having worked in the education field for over twenty years, Kirsty Chadwick is adept at developing education solutions. Before establishing The Training Room Online in 2008, she worked in the financial sector, managing a successful mortgage brokerage for 6 years. Kirsty has spoken internationally on incorporating technology into training, and is passionate about developing people.

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THE ONE PAGE CV

HOW TO GET IT RIGHT Author: Chantel Harris

Source: JobBase

Link: www.junction.co.za

When job hunting, it’s likely that you’ll come across a few recruiters who ask for a CV that’s no longer than one page. This is an easy task if you’ve just graduated, but it’s no mean feat if you have a lot of experience under your belt. In fact, trying to fit your entire career onto a single piece of paper could seem impossible.

It’s not, however. You can cut your CV down to size, so to speak, if you use a critical eye and the following tips: ONLY INCLUDE RELEVANT INFORMATION You should tailor your CV to the job you’re applying for, whether it’s one or three pages long, but it becomes especially important when you only have 210 x 240cm to work with. Scrutinise your current CV to see which experiences, skills and qualifications are most relevant to the job you’re applying for. Keep only those.

Don’t include information that won’t be of any importance to the recruiter. Examples of extraneous information are short courses that aren’t related to the industry you’re currently in or holiday jobs that did not equip you with skills that adds value to your current occupation.

PUT THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION AT THE TOP Despite the fact that your CV will just be one page long, it’s still highly likely that a recruiter or potential employer will only scan it. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that the information in your CV is arranged to catch the eye.

When it comes to experience and qualifications, experience goes first and then qualifications. List your experiences in descending order; starting with your current job and then listing previous positions. Do the same for your qualifications.

You also want the top quarter of the page to work really hard – it has to convey the most critical information to the person reading it. If you arrange your experiences as explained above,

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you’ve done a great job already. In addition, you could consider adding a short paragraph (no longer than three lines) about your strengths, weaknesses and competencies. Make it your ‘personal brand’ statement.

CUT THE FAT The only information of a personal nature that you need on a one-page CV is your name, contact number and e-mail address.

You don’t need to list your location, race, marital status or languages you speak. You also don’t have the space to share hobbies or volunteer projects with a potential employer.

Move references to your cover letter If you have two or three references, they can actually take up a lot of space. If you’re having trouble fitting yours in, give the name and contact details for one reference in your cover letter.

If you have more references, you can mention this fact in your cover letter as well.

MENTION TASKS ONLY ONCE If you’ve been in the same industry throughout your career, you would’ve performed similar tasks in each role. So if you’ve mentioned, for instance, that you’ve done filing in the first job you did, don’t mention it again. Recruiters will still be able to see that you have the experience they’re looking for. But – if a task is particularly relevant to the job you’re applying for, be sure to mention it at the top of your CV. When you have the final product in front of you and you feel that it’s just not saying enough, include a link to your Linkedin profile, either at the top of your CV or in your cover letter.

Linkedin enables you to set up a comprehensive CV. Recruiters and employers who require more information will follow the link to learn more about you. And they’ll be suitably impressed by the fact that you have established an online presence.

Winning them over in the interview will be so much easier!

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