How to Manage a Camel, the project management and recruitment issues blog for Arras People, began publishing posts in September 2006 under the guidance of Arras People co-director Lindsay Scott and with posts from Arras staff. Four years later, Scott has hired a co-editor, expanded the breadth of writing talent to include a variety of PPM-related guest posters, and watched as the posts were published each day of the work week.

“Our blog is all about the issues, trends and matters concerning recruitment, albeit finely tailored to the confines of our niche within the community of projects and programmes. We saw the blog as an opportunity to share our feelings and expertise on matters pertaining to project and programme management, but, again, in a manner that specifically allowed us to address recruitment issues. We felt that the personality and face of Arras People had an opportunity to shine through here and we’ve strived to take full advantage of that.”

Nicknamed “The Camel”, the blog has become a first stop for tips on turning project management skills and expertise into new job opportunities.

“Our internal and external bloggers bring a wealth of project management experience first and foremost to any piece they write”

Although certifications are not seen by Arras People as a be all and end all item in a candidate’s arsenal, Camel bloggers do find time to write of their relevance in the job search. It’s little wonder that in an age of instant qualification for the budding PPM professional, some of The Camel’s best-read posts revolve around PRINCE2.

“Who Takes the Prince2 Qualification and Why? is our most highly read article to date.

As to her personal favourites?

• Are you guilty of these project management CV errors – “It lays bare some of the hidden errors you might not necessarily look for on your CV. It’s rated third in number of views as well, so we’ve reached our target audience.”
• Chartered Professional: Will it be Worth the Effort? (guest written by Paul Naybour)- ”Another strong effort for our readership that showed our strong collection of external talent to generate interest in crucial project management matters, especially the APM Charter Application.”
• PRINCE2 Meets the Grumpy Old Man (written by Arras People’s John Thorpe) – “And the comments runneth over on this one! This post is wrought with sarcasm that rang true about what a highly-valued qualification like PRINCE2 has become in the industry. You could practically feel the cash register chimes in these words, but sadly, not one good feeling about the face of project management’s next generation.”
• APM or PRINCE2 Qualifications – Or Both

We also have a regular feature called “Project Management Recruitment Ideas” which are posts directly related to the recruitment aspects of project management and include tips, advice and how-tos for job seekers. We also have a new feature called Project Management Careers Q&A – an opportunity for readers to post questions about their careers directly to us.

You can find Lindsay on Twitter (appropriately entitled projectmgmt) and LinkedIn. But even as things have evolved since that September 2006 day when it started, The Camel remains as the main portal for sharing PPM recruitment know-how with the world. New for 2011 – Project Management Training Directory.

URL: http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/camel-blog

RSS Feed: http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/camel-blog/feed/

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