If we need an estimated 358 billion kilowatt hours to keep the lights on, perhaps you would favour advocating putting another jumper on, switching off your standby button and increasing the grants for home insulation to reduce the needs for fossil fuels, nuclear energy, renewables and imported energy.

Well now you can find out, with a great little interactive calculator from the BBC, would your decisions meet the emissions targets and keep the lights on.

Click on the link to take you to their energy calculator for instant feedback on the impact of your choices.

Let me know how you get on!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/electricity_calc/html/1.stm

If the question is a comparison between CVs which are in the written format, ie traditional resumes which can be printed out, vs the video CV, then I believe that there will be some sectors which will lean towards the video CV, for instance the creative industries or roles which rely more on personal presentation skills than academic or technical qualifications and experience.  In these roles I can envisage how a video CV may be useful as a show reel for personality and presentation skills, and I can see the potential for this medium particularly with the growth of personal use of video.  However knowing how many applications are generally received for job adverts and how few seconds are taken up on first sift reading of CVs, I wonder if the video CV might be a second stage CV after the more quickly read “paper” version.

There are many roles where personal presentation skills come secondary to a persons technical skills, qualifications and experience. For instance a senior mechanical design engineer working for an oil and gas producer in an engineering office would be judged almost entirely on his technical ability to fulfill the role.  He or she may have two heads (well not literally!) but I am not interested if they have the potential to be a news presenter or look good on a shopping channel.  My client will only be interested in seeing CVs from skilled, qualified and experienced mechanical engineers regardless of their personal appearance or ability to have the confidence to front a video.

I suppose the other factor is that like writing CVs, creating an effective video resume is an even taller order for most people, and whereas I can help my candidates to present themselves in the best way on paper, through interview and editing of their CV, it is a far more time consuming and costly process to produce a video.  I always recommend that candidates tailor their CV to each application, whilst this is easy using the electronic or paper format, editing different versions of a video would be again more difficult.

If the question relates purely to the comparison between an electronic and paper CV, then in this age most companies and recruiters are geared up to processing any documentation electronically, and so almost instantaneously.  A paper CV sent through the post may well have missed the boat, and certainly when being sent via internal post between departments often on remote sites would be at a disadvantage over an electronic copy.

A paper CV arriving through the traditional post will be at an instant disadvantage arriving at a recruitment agency whose clients expect them to present all candidates in electronic format and in a standardised presentation format.  A paper CV presents problems in that it would have to be either retyped or scanned and edited using character recognition software.  The electronic resume can be dispatched to multiple interested recipients within a company regardless of location, it can be edited quickly and easily, firstly by the recruiters to improve presentation and include extra content derived from initial interview, and it will arrive in perfect condition straight to the desk of the intended hiring manager or HR person.  The electronic CV will most likely only be printed out as a paper copy for interview purposes, as interviewers still like to put the old fashioned pen to paper to make notes during interview.

In conclusion my answer is that I believe there is a place for paper CVs, electronic written CVs and video resumes. For more information on how to create a good CV I have prepared written articles and short video presentations which you can view in other sections on this blog.  And before you write back and comment on my video presentation skills, I would like to point out that although I know I will never make a TV news presenter or shopping channel sales person, at least I don’t have two heads.  (Although the saying does go that 2 heads are better than one!)

This is a short article on one specialist area of mechanical engineering in the Oil and Gas industry – Subsea Seawater Lift Pumps.  This article  is aimed at giving an insight into the type of work a Mechanical Engineer might be involved in  when working in the Oil  & Gas industry.

One of the specialist areas that a Mechanical Engineer may be involved in when working in the Oil and Gas industry is the design, installation and maintenance of subsea submersible seawater lift pumps (SLP) on fixed platforms and FPSOs.

Submersible Seawater lift pumps are key to the safe and efficient running of production facilities offshore. The seawater lift pump supplies utility water with the pump lying approximately 10 metres below the deck and under the surface of the sea water. There are two main types of seawater lift pump, the conventional vertical line shaft pump which uses a diesel engine and 90 degree gearbox which the diesel engine drives. The other type is the ESPs which stands for Electrically Submersible Pump (and not Extra Sensory Perception!) The ESP helps to free up deck space and weighs less, other benefits include less noise and vibration and reduced, and less maintenance and capital expenditure. Both pumps can be used on fixed offshore platforms and FPSOs.  Vibration analysis, reliability and condition monitoring of such equipment is another specialist area you might choose to work in.  This work would be involved with ongoing assessment of the condition and operation of the equipment which has many moving and rotating parts, in order to ensure regular maintenance would prevent unnecessary and costly breakdowns.  Analysis of rotating equipment often uses high-tec methods such as laser alignment to check that vibration and movement out of alignment is not causing wear on the moving parts.

If you are thinking of following a career as a Mechanical Engineer you may choose to take a path which leads you to this interesting and lucrative area of oil and gas production engineering. The design and maintenance of the moving parts in this piece of mechanical rotating equipment would be within the remit of a mechanical engineer, and your work would be integral to the safe and efficient working of the oil rig.

We are currently seeking a Mechanical Engineer with specific SLP experience in UK waters, for a job description of this work go to our live vacancies page

http://www.girafferecruitment.co.uk/jobs/index.php/component/option,com_neorecruit/Itemid,158/id,298/task,offer_view/