The Career Cruising meme - please stop!

[wendymr]

ETA: I've been away on holiday with no internet access for a week, so just now seeing these responses. First of all, thank you to everyone who's been kind enough to take down/remove password information, and who's spread the word elsewhere. I really appreciate it.

Yes, the cat's pretty much out of the bag and I suspected that would be the case - but

Comments

[bulky_monster]

So, you're a career counselor? I didn't know that.

[wendymr]

Yes, I'm an employment counsellor. I work at a not-for-profit agency specifically providing services to new Canadians to help them prepare for employment in Canada/our city, including arranging volunteer placements to gain Canadian work experience. I do also see Canadian-born clients.

This is a new career for me, though (and before I decided on it I accessed employment counselling services myself ;) ). I used to be a university professor in the UK (university lecturers, they're called there), specialising in industrial relations and human resource management.

[the_sandwalker]

Hey, would you happen to know anything about work visas for American non-students? I think I'm just going to have to give in and call the embassy. I was hired a year ago at a summer camp outside of Vancouver, but my work visa was denied. The camp director told me there's another way they should've done it, and that if I wanted to go through the application process another year, they'd do it.

...I just wonder if there's an online resource I hadn't looked at. Not sure if that's up your alley or not.

[wendymr]

Damn, if only I wasn't going away for two weeks tomorrow! If you're not in too much of a hurry, ask me when I get back; one of my colleagues is an American citizen here on a work visa. She's also a US-licensed attorney. So if anyone knows how it's done she will.

It's not anything I've ever had to look into for a client, but it would be interesting to find out because I'm sure it's not an unusual situation.

If you want to contact me when I'm back, email me at wendy at lcfanfic dot com and I'll send you my work email address - easier for me that way.

[the_sandwalker]

I saw that one going around. I thought it looked pretty shady.

I'll point people over here if I see it on my f-list. :)

[wendymr]

Thanks - appreciate it :)

I'm not sure whether the NY organisation whose login info is being used is not-for-profit (where most of the agencies I know of are non-profit); it isn't clear from their website, but even if it's not this could still cause problems generally in the system.

[the_sandwalker]

Understood and agreed. Some folks on my f-list have already taken it down. Most cases it's just a case of not knowing what the site is and what it's really used for.

[wendymr]

Oh, I was pretty sure that people didn't know - after all, there are so many free quizzes and personality tests and so on out there. There are even a couple of free career tests a little bit similar to Career Matchmaker - LiveCareer, for example. But start using it and you'll see why it's free and why people like me don't use it ;) - full of ads, full of supposedly 'helpful links' that end up taking you to the University of Phoenix's home page, and none of the helpful links to further occupational information that the reputable sites have.

It's easy, too, to get access to the reputable sites, if you're looking for work or have access to your university careers service, so anyone who really is interested in finding out more about possible career matches for them can get help - including one-to-one assessment and counselling, if wanted.

[brianamj]

Hmm. I was wondering whose login was being spread. Down it goes.

[wendymr]

Thank you! :)

[elbales]

I've posted excerpts from your request in my LJ, with a link back to this post. Hope that's okay. :)

[wendymr]

Absolutely - thank you! :)

[judosas]

I had wondered about it. I had a post all ready, but had second thoughs about it. So I kept it pending for a while, until I got home, tired and brainless. Then I just hit post.

I'll go edit my post and link to this post. Thanks for alerting me. :)

[pinque]

I too wondered about it, what with the login supplied, but eventually did the meme too. My alarm bells stopped ringing though because of a few sites that do provide a random login to access parts of the site they want to keep tabs on.

I too will link back here (I'm glad I posted this on my private journal ratehr than my public one) and take down the link at the very least. The site is wonderful and I don't want to jeopardise the use of it.