I just got this press release and wanted to pass it along, though hopefully no one reading this is un- or under-employed:
- Business Travel Coalition (BTC), with support from several individual travel industry practitioners, announced tVillage Talent Connections as an industry-service project to assist unemployed, about-to-be-unemployed or underemployed colleagues in all travel and tourism industry segments from around the world. LinkedIn has been chosen as the platform to organize this non-commercial and no-cost initiative.
This private and invitation-only site on LinkedIn was designed for support and networking purposes to enable members to help one another through this very rough patch for the travel industry and its practitioners. Members can benefit from and provide support to colleagues in numerous ways. For example, BTC will waive membership fees and contribute Travelogue, its daily roundup of business travel news from around the world, to help members keep current on travel industry news and analysis.
Additionally, members will be able to: (1) post their resumes on a sister public site for employers and executive search firms to review at http://public.box.net/mitchell30149, (2) share job leads that they may not be interested in, qualified for or geographically near, (3) provide letters of recommendation where appropriate, (4) share insights about industry segments that other members may be interested in exploring, (5) share contacts and make introductions, (6) help critique resumes, (7) post travel industry-related employment information, (8) offer general advice and (9) provide moral support to each other.
BTC emphasized that tVillage Talent Connections is purpose-designed for unemployed, underemployed or about-to-be-unemployed travel industry participants only, i.e. it is not a free-riding opportunity to just float a resume into the industry in search of better career opportunities. The focus is on those in need of support right now, the Coalition says. Qualified travel industry participants can initiate the free membership application process at http://tinyurl.com/bpmpvq.