Another great new Employer

Have you seen the latest employer on TalentOyster yet?

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company that has been operating in Canada for over 20 years.

As a organization that works with many large organizations, that are already diverse, across Canada diversity and inclusiveness is important to Accenture so they are serious about diversity and looking to hire candidates for excellent careers.

What kinds of jobs will you find?

The Accenture jobs listed on TalentOyster are primarily in the IT space but there are opportunities in various business, financial and supply-chain consulting as well. You can get started looking at the opportunities from Accenture on TalentOyster here.

We've been adding a number of new clients recently, besides Accenture, Trillium Health Centre and the CBC have come on board in just the last few weeks. If you haven't checked out our site in a while be sure to do so to see these new employers, plus all our previous employers and the thousands of great jobs, suitable for diverse candidates, there are on offer.

New Employers on TalentOyster

Did you know that a couple more great employers have recently come on board TalentOyster? Well if you didn't know Georgian College and the CBC are now on TalentOyster.

Georgian College is an Ontario College of Applied Arts and Technology with campuses in Barrie, Orillia, Owen Sound, Midland and the surrounding area. Georgian offers a wide variety of programs including some specifically focused on international students.

Georgian is seeking to expand the diversity of their workforce in all areas. Jobs range from administrative to services and even teaching positions. If you're a diverse candidate looking for work in the educational sector be sure to check out the jobs, Georgian College might be the place for you.

We're very excited about adding the CBC as a TalentOyster employer as well. The CBC is Canada's oldest television broadcaster in operation since 1936. Like TalentOyster the CBC offers services in multiple languages, English and French and 8 aboriginal languages in Canada and another 9 languages in international service.

Working for the CBC is a very "Canadian" career and if you'd like to feel more apart of Canada, or would like to contribute in a very real way to the growth and health of Canadian culture there really isn't a better place you could work.

The positions the CBC has vary widely and are across the country. You will find positions in marketing, graphic design, writing and even news-readers among the openings. The CBC is especially interested though in hiring technical persons with previous experience in broadcasting (television or radio). If you or someone you know is a diverse candidate with experience in broadcasting take a look at the opportunities the CBC has on offer.

Introducing OCEAN, the TalentOyster API

We're pretty excited today to be launching OCEAN a REST based API for TalentOyster. TalentOyster OCEAN lets you embed job search functionality and content from TalentOyster right into your website.

Here is an example of OCEAN in action on another site.


Our API supports both our jobs and our Connect content. That means you can add job searching functionality and display teasers of TalentOyster Connect content right from your site. The API is fairly simple, using simple HTTP GET requests and returning XML (custom or RSS) in response.

To make OCEAN even easier to use there is a PHP library available as well. This PHP class handles the connectivity and response handling aspects of the API so that you can easily add some TalentOyster functionality to your own site.

Check it out and let us know what you think. If you want to get started just request your free application key by emailing us here.

New and Improved TalentOyster with added Vitamin ®

So today as the final chapter of a lengthy legal process (perhaps lengthy is a tautology but nevertheless) TalentOyster is now an official registered trademark. The registration even came with this fancy document suitable for framing.



As I recently discovered what this means is that you can (and should) use ® instead of ™ after the name in question. So now it's TalentOyster ®

Pretty cool huh? I think so. It's kind of another sign that we've "arrived" I think. When you start a new business, even with the infrastucture of an existing business supporting you, and you have success with that business there comes a point where it becomes "real". I think anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit will appreciate that but if that's not you it's a sense of of pride in building something from the ground up.

This is just one of those little moments, a reminder of how far we have come over the past 18 months. There is still lots of work to do, improvements to make, conversations to have and roles to fill, but it feels today that we're one step closer to making TalentOyster into what we envision it to be. And that's a feeling that seemed worth sharing.

TalentOyster Mobile Beta Launch

TalentOyster now has a site designed specifically for phone and mobile devices up in beta which you can find at http://mobile.talentoyster.com The site is designed to be "light" for mobile performance and to fit on the screens of most mobile devices.

Currently you can search for and view job listings on the mobile site. Soon we will add a login feature so that you will also be able to apply for jobs directly on the mobile site. Because of file handling limitations you will still need to create accounts, upload resumes and post jobs on the regular TalentOyster site but if you're looking for jobs "on the go" we think the mobile site can help you out.

We will also be rolling out a feature to let you view some of the job seeker specific content from TalentOyster Connect on the mobile site during the coming weeks. Check out the mobile version of TalentOyster and let us know what you think.

Have a nice holiday season and see you again in the new year.

New Blog - Diversity Employment

Because there are simply more topics to blog about then really could fit the audience of one blog we're pleased to announce that we have created a new blog, Diversity Employment which is aimed at recruiters, HR and hiring managers interested in workforce diversity.

The TalentOyster blog will continue to have items of interest to those looking for work as well as general site updates and information but if you're looking for more coverage of diversity hiring and employment issues then do check out the new blog.

Plenty of site updates

We've continued to make updates to our site, including in how our site landing page looks.

We have finished the revamp of splitting our site into four "portal" each focused on a different group of users for our site an we think it just makes our site that easier to use.

The areas are

• Job Board - the place to search, find and apply for great jobs with some of Canada's most progressive employers


• Employers - services for Employers interested in tapping in to Canada's hidden pool of talent


• Campus - job listings and resources for international students in Canada. Positions listed include jobs for students as well as internships.


• Connect - Resources and information for diverse candidates. Whether you are new in Canada, born in Canada or thinking of coming to Canada, you just need to Connect. Let's Talk. Let's Connect.

Also a reminder, our weekly newsletter has been revamped and is a great source for updates on our site, diversity employment stories in the news and other resources. If you aren't already a subscriber you should try it out.

Site changes, new navigation

We've rolled out a bunch of changes to our site and particularly the main navigation. The main navigation has been reorganized (in groups) to hopefully make moving around the site a little more clear.

There are also some new sections/pages on our site like a Job Seekers page and a place to read previous issues of the TalentOyster Newsletter.

This is just the first step of navigation and look and feel changes we are making. Quite soon we will be updating the look and feel of the "headers" (that is the part of the page above the navigation bar) and rolling out a new splash page. Our overall goal is to help make the different parts of TalentOyster including the Job Board, Connect, Campus and Employers clear and distinct. If you have any feedback on the changes so far as always please let us know.

Introducing TalentOyster Campus

We're pleased to announce the launching of a new Beta feature of our site, TalentOyster Campus. As the name implies, this section of the TalentOyster site is geared towards students.

In it's initial setup TalentOyster Campus is a job board that features just student suitable jobs and intern postings. We will be expanding TalentOyster Campus over time, adding content speaking to the needs and issues of international students as well as newcomers who are looking to get their Canadian careers on the right path. Eventually we hope to have enough interest to justify splitting TalentOyster Campus into two micro-sites, one focused on students and another on interns. But we think our current start is an important step in the right direction of having specific content, features and jobs focused on the needs of these groups.

Be sure to check it out and tell us what you think.

Additionally non-profit agencies who have internships available should contact us regarding having them posted on TalentOyster Campus.

Our Press page

Our site has a new Press page where you can find press/media related materials. On this page you can find

• a list of our press releases (in PDF format)


• links to various articles, interviews and stories about TalentOyster by news organizations


• the contact information for media inquiries

If you know of an online property that has covered TalentOyster that we don't have listed please let us know

We're Up!

Whoo-hoo.

So hey. We're now officially up.

Today our site has officially moved from development to live. What this means is that the core parts of our site are now all running and we have jobs from a number of employers up on the site. More jobs from other employers will be going up between now and February 2nd.

We are still in Beta because with a somewhat compressed development cycle there may be issues still to be worked out. And we will be continuing to add new features and content currently under development.

Be sure to check out our Community section as well. We have content and areas to discuss issues relevent to diverse job candidates as well as settlement resources for those who have recently or are looking to immigrate to Canada.

TalentOyster CommunityEventBadge

Following the launch of the TalentOyster JobBadge is our CommunityEventBadge. You can see the CommunityEventBadge running on the right side of this blog.

This badge works similarly to our JobBadge but provides community event content instead and is targetted more at those who are interested in the community aspects of TalentOyster.

We will be creating a space on our site for you to create customized versions of our badges but for now to add the CommunityEventBadge to your site just copy and paste the code below (to use on bloggercom post this code into a new custom HTML gadget for your blog).



<script src="http://www.talentoyster.com/widgets/events/events.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// create a new TalentOyster CommunityEventBadge
var talentOysterEventBadge = new
TalentOyster_Eventbadge();

// should the badge automatically refresh itself? default is true
// talentOysterEventBadge.autorefresh=false;//turns refresh off

// the interval in seconds between event list refreshes. default is 8
talentOysterEventBadge.interval=9;

// the number of events to display in the list. default is 3
talentOysterEventBadge.jobcount=4;

// sets the width of the badge in pixels. default is 200
//talentOysterEventBadge.width=300; // would set width to 300 pixels

// configures the background and font colors used for the frame and content
// talentOysterEventBadge.theme.badgeframe.background="#000000";//black background
// talentOysterEventBadge.theme.badgeframe.color="#FFFFFF";//white text
// talentOysterEventBadge.theme.joblist.background="#FFFFFF";//white background
// talentOysterEventBadge.theme.joblist.color="#000000";//black text

// displays the badge. this line is required
talentOysterEventBadge.render();

// loads the badge with jobs the first time. this line is required
talentOysterEventBadge.load();
</script>

Introducing the TalentOyster JobBadge

The first TalentOyster web-badge is now up and available for our beta site. You can see it on the right of this blog, it shows recent jobs on our site and refreshes itself every so often.

We'll be adding a section to our site where you can easily create customizable TalentOyster web badges to include on your site but for now the JobBadge code appears below. You can customize the colours used for the badge, the number of jobs to display, whether or not the list should refresh automatically and the delay between refreshes. You can also of course customize the language used for the badge to use any of the TalentOyster supported languages and locales.

So just copy and paste the code below into your page (to use on bloggercom post this code into a new custom HTML gadget for your blog).


<script src="http://www.talentoyster.com/widgets/jobs/jobs.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// create a new TalentOyster JobBadge
var talentOysterJobBadge = new
TalentOyster_Jobbadge();

// should the badge automatically refresh itself? default is true
// talentOysterJobBadge.autorefresh=false;//turns refresh off

// the interval in seconds between job list refreshes. default is 8
talentOysterJobBadge.interval=9;

// the number of jobs to display in the list. default is 3
talentOysterJobBadge.jobcount=4;

// sets the width of the badge in pixels. default is 200
//talentOysterJobBadge.width=300; // would set width to 300 pixels

// configures the background and font colors used for the frame and content
// talentOysterJobBadge.theme.badgeframe.background="#000000";//black background
// talentOysterJobBadge.theme.badgeframe.color="#FFFFFF";//white text
// talentOysterJobBadge.theme.joblist.background="#FFFFFF";//white background
// talentOysterJobBadge.theme.joblist.color="#000000";//black text

// displays the badge. this line is required
talentOysterJobBadge.render();

// loads the badge with jobs the first time. this line is required
talentOysterJobBadge.load();
</script>

Less than three weeks of beta left...

Well our beta period is winding down and the full-launch date grows ever closer. Be sure to check out our site and let us know what you think.

We're putting the finishing touches on the community portal aspect of our site which will be rolled-out next week and continuing to make tweaks and changes to the rest of our site based on user experience and feedback.

And just generally getting excited/nervous about our launch. We're tracking well towards it but as with so many things a lot of work to do in a short time period.

Our site is up in Beta

The TalentOyster site is up in Beta. What does that mean? Well it means that almost all of the functionality of the site is present but that (a) we are continuing to modify how pieces of our site look and (b) there are still some quirks in functionality we are finding and working through.

So what kinds of things are we working on exactly? Well, the look and feel stuff is the main area, and improvements are ongoing. But also working on improving the user experience when it comes to things like searching for jobs. For example right now you *can* search for jobs by location but it doesn't work in a user-friendly enough way. So we're working on that. And on our community news portal. And our user-interaction components.

At any rate all pretty busy but you should come check us out. If you find an issue or problem please let us know via our feedback page.

Our Languages

It struck me today that I hadn't posted the list of what languages our site will be in once it's launched. With beta launch coming soon now seems as good a time as any. For our beta launch, depending on the translation work, not all languages may be available right away but they will be added during the launch as needed.'

So without further ado the working languages for job seekers on the TalentOyster site are

• English
• French
• Standard Arabic
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Hindi
• Urdu
• Punjabi
• Vietnamese
• Filipino/Tagalog
• Spanish

During our beta-phase we invite readers of these languages to give us feedback regarding the version of site "in-language". We're always open to feedback and improving our site for every group.

Additionally for readers with visibility issues each language version of the site is also available in a large-text version and plain-text version.

Depending upon demand we will be looking to add further languages on a case-by-case basis, from a development standpoint it's really fairly simple but it is of course an involved process to get the translations right.

Site Updates

We made some updates to the pre-beta version of our site. There was a bit of a delay in getting these updates posted because there were some minor configuration issues to straighten out.

But all is now well and so up went the site with our new look and feel, hopefully much much closer to the final version. http://www.talentoyster.com/

Over the next few days we'll be merging the work done on the back-end components of the site into the new look and feel so there should be more frequent updates.

Pre-beta site up

Our pre-beta, wireframed site is up. You can see it at http://www.talentoyster.com/ we have now moved onto our production servers and updated our DNS so DNS propagation may still be happening. (Which is a whole bunch of geek speak for you might see our old site still but in another day or two you'll see the newest one).

We will be deploying updates to this site once every two-three days as work progresses on our internal development versions.

The current site is basically just a draft framework with language plugability.