Aid and Development Workers Resume Search (ADRS)
ADRS is a new private-sector initiative in the Aid and
Development Sector. Over the last few
years, jobs-by-email services such as DevNetJobs, DevJobs, Topica/EPSA-Cori and
ReliefWeb have been very successful and highly useable.
Despite that, many or most project management companies
still maintain some kind of in-house database of consultants, with the
attendant costs in manpower, hardware and software.
ADRS is a combination of a resume distribution service and a highly useable extremely simple
rapid search database, where the encoding of resumes is done by the consultants themselves, and indeed
forms an integral part of their resume(s).
Advantages for consultants:
-
Get your resume to many companies by submitting it to one email address only.
- Control the keywords and other properties which are attributed to you.
Advantages for project management companies:
- You get the power of a database with no IT staff, no database software, no data entry staff.
- You get lots of resumes and resume updates with one download per month.
- You can continue to use the jobs-by-email services for the majority of your requirements.
Consultants can register
at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AidAndDevelopmentWorkersResumes
Companies and Organisations can register
at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AidAndDevelopmentProjmanCompanies
ADRS is a new highly automated project which brings benefits
to both consultants and to consulting companies. The business model and logistics operate as follows:
- Consultants
prepare their resumes in Microsoft word.
They add properties to the file which specify all the parameters
required by employing companies – e.g. nationality, country experience,
skill keywords, age, rate, language skills etc.. These properties are not visible in the document, and are
therefore acceptable for P11 UN forms, EU format resumes/CV’s etc.. This
coding system is specified on the website http://www.cd3wd.com/WindexService/
- Consultants
name their resume(s) according to a simple naming convention, also
specified on the website http://www.cd3wd.com/WindexService/
. Consultants can submit multiple
resumes in multiple formats and in multiple languages.
- Consultants
email their resumes to ADRS.
Consultants will be contacted periodically through a yahoo groups
mailing list to remind them to email updates, and also to inform them as
to ADRS project developments.
There will be a list of resume filenames on the ADRS website with
the latest update date to assure consultants that their email resume
submissions are being processed and distributed. When an updated resume is received, it
overcopies the same file with the same name as per the naming conventions;
thus there is no plethora of obsolete and duplicated resumes on the
system.
- ADRS
consolidates these resumes, zips them into one file, and places that file
on the ADRS website for download by participating employing
companies. The file is encrypted
by a password on winzip, or by the encryption program http://www.cd3wd.com/Wencrypt/
. This is to ensure that the
resumes are only available to participating bona fide companies and not to
every junk mailer and identity thief.
Participating companies will receive the current password by email,
and the password will probably be changed every month.
- ADRS
issues monthly updates of additional consultants plus updated resumes of
existing consultants – also for download as above.
- Companies
unzip the file to their central server, and the files go automatically to
their correct directory and sub-directory; they can also make incremental
copies to an unlimited number of PC’s using the free Microsoft utility
robocopy.exe. Companies are
informed by yahoo groups mailing list when a new update release is ready –
as stated above it is planned to be about once per month.
7. Companies make
unlimited searches using simple or advanced criteria using the free search
utilities WindexService and WfindStrDotNet, available at
or
These search utilities, combined
with the very clever but quite simple resume-coding system, bring database-type searches to text search
system, with instant response and with zero database overhead.
- The service is and will remain free to
consultants. It will start as a
free service to companies and may convert to a chargeable service to
companies – we will see. If yes,
then the charges will be in the region of US$ 100 per company per year
only.
- Timescale
– the 2 yahoo groups necessary
were established 27 and 28.04.2006.
The website for downloading is ready. The search and encryption utilities are both
mission-ready. We should expect
the call for resumes around 15.05.2006 (05/15/2006) and the first download
to be ready around 30.05.2006 (05/30/2006)
- Background
and history – I ran CPS – Consult Project Search – from 1987 through till
about 1998, and again briefly in 2002. I am a professional
software developer operating in UK and European commercial sectors and
also in the Aid and Development field.
Find my resume at http://www.cd3wd.com/resume/
Best regards to Consultants and to Employing Companies,
Mr Alex Weir
4 Brechin Drive
Marlborough
Harare
Zimbabwe
Africa
Tel +263 4 301 047 and +263 23 824 045 (GMT +2 hours)