The April showers seem to be echoing the current turbulance on the financial front, but is the general economic doom and gloom starting to effect the digital market place?

Digital Pulse  is a new feature from Chinwag that’s designed to provide a monthly confidence index for the digital industry. April’s Digital Pulse is now live and it will be very interesting to see if the current climate is having an impact on the confidence index for this month. The survey only takes a few minutes to fill out and we will donate 25p to charity for each survey completed so it really is worth a look.

The index for March’s Digital Pulse is on it’s way, so please watch this space!

Digital Pulse is a new feature from Chinwag that’s designed to provide a monthly confidence index for the digital industry. Each month the results will be analysed to give us an up to date insight into the digital market - to check the pulse of it, if you will We will be able to gauge the ebb and flow of  career satisfaction and opportunities, salary views, and more, all based on your input.

It only takes a couple of minutes to fill in (honest!) and we’ll donate 25p to charity for each survey completed. Plus, we’ll send you the results and invites for further editions.

Chinwag have teamed up with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) to help them assess their UK ICT Marketing Strategy. This is a rare and exciting opportunity for our industry to really make a difference to how the government spends our money and promotes our industry abroad. By completing the survey, you will also get automatically entered into the prize draw to win an iPod Touch 8GB, brilliant eh?

The UKTI’s purpose is to encourage the best overseas companies to invest in the UK and to help UK companies take full advantage of opportunities overseas.

The Government is committed to selling the UK proposition, but why should foreign companies set up here and why should our companies be the partners of choice in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)?

For the chance to have your say and win an iPod Touch 8GB please take 3 minutes of your time to fill out the survey

Ever rolled your eyes whilst the members of the creative team complain about their great ideas being whittled back to shadows of their former selves? Ever sat there wondering why the account guys don’t get it? For a humorous look at the never-ending battle between creative and client services teams, try this…

Just remember, we’re on the same. Most of the time!

Chinwag will be having a stand at the Adobe Live event happening in Islington on the 5th and 6th June. We’re really excited to see everyone there, so do swing by if you’re planning on attending.

From Adobe:

“Feed your imagination at Adobe Live. June 5- 6, London Be inspired. Learn how Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 will change the way you work and create. Turn your creative visions and designs into reality – on the page or screen, in print or on the web.”

Book your FREE ticket at www.adobe.co.uk/live138

We’ve recently conducted a survey at Chinwag Jobs, to find out what roles our users were currently on the hunt for. The results are in, and make for interesting reading:

We’re please to launch a series of new professional services to help take the hard work out of creating, posting and managing adverts on Chinwag Jobs. So, we banged our heads together and put together a bunch of new services that aim to take away the pain.

For recruiters, why not let the Chinwag Team take the strain of posting and reporting on your roles, so you can spend more time with candidates and clients.

If recruiting isn’t your day job, or perhaps even if it is, we also have partnered with a team of crack recruitment copywriters who will write your job vacancy specifically for the web. Great for Chinwag Jobs, your own recruitment pages and other other services. Here’s a little more info on the new services:

Posting Service

Haven’t got the time to post your advert on our website yourself? Need to spend your time talking to clients rather than posting ads? For a small extra charge one of our posting team will post the advert for you, ensuring the best use of our website to maximise the use of our functionality.

Professional Copywriting Service

Crafting a job advert is a skilled and time-consuming process. Our service will take your copy and create a professional, clear, legally-compliant and responsive advert tailored to your audience. You can use this copy on any job service or publication. We use a team of copywriters with years of experience specialising in web-based recruitment marketing.

Personalised Statistical Report

All the statistics regarding your job advertisements can be accessed for free, across all your users on our website. However, should you require a hassle-free personalised report across all your users and their roles without spending any of your own time or energy; we can provide you with a snapshot and detailed account of what’s happened with your entire job postings on the website.

For more details, why not download our ratecard, which has the fully skinny on all Chinwag Jobs’ advertising, sponsorship and professional services.

The closing date for nominations for Freelancer of the Year Award is drawing close, get your nominations in by the 20th November. This is the third year of the Xchangeteam Freelancer of the Year Awards – the only awards dedicated to freelancers in marketing and creative services.

To nominate a freelance consultant – someone you’ve hired or someone you’ve worked with – or yourself please complete the nomination form on the Xchangeteam website.

We’re also helping to sponsor the event, and will be there on the night - so best of luck and hope to see some of our lovely candidates getting the recognition they deserve.

We’re always keen to try out new technologies, especially when they make it easier to browse through the job listings on Chinwag Jobs. So, it was great when one of our techies showed us a demo he’s put together using Ajax. It’s live on the Latest Jobs page.

Try hovering over a job title and, provided your browser is fairly modern, you’ll see a little box load up with a short summary of the post. Is this a handy feature? Let us know.

Our technical pixies have been busy adding new bits and pieces to the site, amongst them, my job applications. This feature has been added as a direct results of feedback from you. So, thank you for letting us know. Here’s a snapshot of what it looks like:

We’re always keen to hear comments and suggestions, especially when things go wrong.

Next up, we’re adding an advanced CV management tool allowing the upload and edit of multiple CVs. This will iron out some gremlins that exist in the current process and most importantly, it’ll make it easy to tailor a CV for a particular role and keep it on file.