Al Joins Fuji Staff

A short one tonight, since I'm a bit pressed for time. In the same general area as last night's Toshiba island I came across Fuji Staff. At first I assumed it was an island intended for the staff of photographic company, Fuji. While exploring the sim I came across a solitary web link, which told me rather less than I had hoped. However, Google came to my aid, and informed me that Fuji Staff is, in fact, a recruitment agency (d'oh!) - and one of many that have entered Second Life this year.

The sim itself is fairly basic, being split into 3 small islands. The first is aimed at social networking, with a bar, a dancefloor and a hot tub/foot spa thing. A large modern office building occupies the second island, with 2 floors of relatively formal seating. The third island has a cafe and a lot of characters based on the letter "F" - and which seem to relate to this webpage, referring to FujiCa! Point - whatever that may be.

I took a few snaps - more to show I'd been there, than anything else:


The build is OK, but nothing spectacular. Most of the textures feel somewhat flat and dull, though the foot-spa was better, with more detailing present. In terms of the overall layout, I thought it had been thought through - with a good social area. The general absence of weblinks or events was more worrying - but maybe this will come in time. Would I recommend a trip there? Well.... only if you are a Japanese companies "completist" like me! Mark you, I did notice that I seemed to have build rights (which can't be right!) so if you are seeking a quiet sandbox, this could be the place for you. But be quick - I doubt such rights will exist for long.

Spanish Jobs with Infoempleo

I've been meaning to visit the Infoempleo island in Second Life for a couple of weeks now, since discovering that my company's Spanish division had taken part in a recruitment fair there in mid-October. I finally got around to it tonight. It took me a bit of digging to find an English language description of the company, but eventually I found this:

• Infoempleo.com is Spain’s leading employment site for qualified job seekers. With over 15.000 vacancies and more than 1.4 million registered users, Infoempleo is an ideal meeting point for candidates and employers and a comprehensive showcase of the Spanish labour market. Infoempleo is also notable for its specialisation. As well as being a general employment site, we offer nine specialised channels focusing on specific industry sectors. These channels represent an excellent source of information and job opportunities in consulting, finance, construction, auditing, tourism, telecommunications, IT, secretarial and franchising.

They have a rather busy site in Second Life, comprising 4 tall pillars, each supporting a number of interview platforms (each basically a room and some brand information), along with an auditorium at ground level. At the time of writing, it appears to be supporting 19 different Spanish companies. I don't intend to list them, but you can perhaps discern who they are on the sign in the picture set below. Among the list, I spotted several IT consultancies (including the one I work for) and a couple of banks.



The site is perhaps best described as "functional." It is there to do a job, and people will come here because they are interested in the jobs available, rather than to marvel at the architecture. But I was concerned about how close the various platforms were to one another. I'm sure the distances have been calculated (surely!) to avoid "conversational leakage" from one to another. Also, I am not sure whether all of these companies were holding inworld interviews on the same day.

Whatever the truth of the matter, it is encouraging to see Spain taking a role in Second Life. Kzero has some interesting stats (from May'07) on Spanish residents in Second Life, while highlighting in this article (from June'07) the general absence of Spanish companies. Perhaps that imbalance is changing.