SA Rocks

Have you noticed how many expat-Londoners are returning to SA recently? If you haven’t I think it’s time that I pointed it out.

It’s a strange anomaly I’ve begun to notice. The brain-drain scare has been around since ’94 in South Africa and rightfully so, people have been leaving.

I had noticed it over the past, say, six years. I left high school and a few mates left for “greener pastures”. I graduated from University and a few more left to travel the world, gain more skills, find something new and try out different places. Many left with a bitter taste in their mouths and many swore never to return. However many of them didn’t plan on the recession. Many didn’t plan on the UK working visa taking a turn away from South Africans and many simply realised that with all of our problems, South Africa is still their home and probably always will be.

I attended a pleasant little dinner part of Friday night. I was astounded to note that out of the eight people there I was the only one out of the group who hadn’t traveled to and lived in London. Even more exciting and intriguing was that all seven of the others had been to London, earned some money, saved, gained some extra skill sets and decided to return to SA over the past year or two.

Is this the great reversal of the brain drain? Is it possible that there are many, many more South Africans who are set to return in the very near future? I think it might be. I think there are many young South Africans realising that the earning potential for them if they return to our country is greatly improved now that the recession has hit, now that their visa’s have come to an end and now that families are beginning to buckle down here and stick it out.

The current political climate could also have a great affect on the decisions of returning South Africans. The fact that the ANC is being shaken up, that there are more options and that the political environment has become more competitive things are starting to look more interesting.

I have said this before and I will say it again, it is a very exciting time to be a young South African. Things are happening. We are beginning to realise that we have the potential to earn, to change, to fix, to heal and to make this nation the nation it has the potential to become.

To all the returning expats I say well done and welcome home. We hoped you’d come back.

Popularity: 7% [?]

There are many recruitment websites in SA and the world. Job Farm is a new addition to this long and not-so-decorated list.

They emailed me and asked me if I could help them spread the word. My interaction so far with the guys from Yellow Lama have been fairly solid. I browsed the site and noticed a lack of media representation. I let them know and they responded and are looking in to it, nice touch.

So for now, here is a little interview I conducted with Mark from Job Farm:

There are alot of job networks out there. Why start another one?
Yes, there ARE a number of existing South African job portals. However (excuse me for saying so), most of them are pretty crappy. They’re lacking in their design and in the functionality they offer. That’s why we decided to change all that with a job listing portal that is as good to look at, as it to use.

How is Job farm different from the others?
The Job Farm is easy to use: Companies can have a listing added in minutes – seconds, if they type fast J.
The Job Farm is good to look at: A clean Web2.0 design that is simple to use, yet effective.

Are you trying to attract a new, different market? Or capture the same market but move them across to your platform?
The latter. We’re trying to show people who use these types of sites that they don’t have to settle for a site that is substandard in any way. We’re confident that we have an awesome product and if users of other job listing sites move across to the Job Farm, well it’ll be for good reason.

What sort of background do you have to be qualified to do this sort of site?
I run a web design studio based in Port Elizabeth, The Yellow Llama. We’ve been involved in web design, development and application building for about 5 years now. Personally, I am South Africa’s only accredited Adobe Community Expert for Dreamweaver and Photoshop and a number of my designs have received awards on various CSS showcase sites. We take pride in developing websites that not only LOOK good, but that WORK well too. Every job is personal and the Job Farm is no exception. I am working along with Norio de Sousa of Maxiware: a coding and development guru. Together, we have big plans and goals for the Job Farm – we’re going to make a powerful site that people will love to use.

What do you think are the most sought after jobs right now?
Definitely nothing at Eskom J. Based on the Google Analytics of the Job Farm over the last 7 days, the IT Sector category has been most visited. I think that with the way the web has been transformed over the last 2 years with Web2.0 designs, and coding technologies like Ajax, XML powered Flash and others, IT is an industry that offers endless possibilities. It’s an industry that doesn’t pay attention to race, culture or ethnicity. In my view, it’s a field that will never lose its appeal and I’m confident that we’re still going to be wow’d by online developments and advances.

Do you plan on making use of your blog extensively in the project?
Most definitely yes. Every development, change, update and noteworthy fact is going to be blogged on. I want people to feel like it’s a project that they can be a part of, albeit perhaps only as a spectator. The blog will cover as much of this detail as possible and I’ve opened commenting up to the public so that I can get a feel for what people think about the project.

Are there the regular web 2.0 aspects to the site, comments, networking on the site, friends etc?
Job Farm is currently in its initial phase. We released a ‘base’ version of the site so that we can start growing the site’s traffic and job listings whilst we work on phase 2. The Job Farm blog’s developments category goes into more detail on what’s in store on the Job Farm. Phase 2 will offer companies a full admin system where they can manage their own profile, their listings and their applicants. Freelancers will be able to create accounts with all their personal & skill set details and can apply for jobs with a single click. At the moment, user networking is not on the cards for the Job Farm. It’s not really a feature that we feel will work in an environment like this. If however, we receive a lot of recommendations for this kind of functionality, we’ll definitely look into it.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We’re really confidant of the success and growth of the Job Farm. Right now our main aim is to let as many recruitment type agencies know about the Job Farm. We want word to spread quickly because we know that as soon as people try the Job Farm, they’ll love it for its ease-of-use and its aesthetic appeal. Norio and I are going to be working hard on this project and we hope that we’ll have the support of the South African blog community in helping to spread the word about this awesome new product.

Now for my impression of the site itself. Continue Reading

Popularity: 4% [?]