With the vast increase in the number of individuals going to university in recent years there has been a seismic shift in the job landscape for 18-30 year olds. Historically it was predominantly the academically focussed who progressed through A-levels to tackle a degree at university. In more recent times the percentage of young adults taking the university route has increased vastly. On the up side this has lead to a generally higher level of education throughout society: with many more people educated to a high level and as such better equipped to excel in the business arena. On the other hand however, this increase in university graduates has really impacted upon the job prospects of those who both attend university and those who choose not to.

Gone now are the days of walking; diploma in hand; straight into the career desired. Instead, graduates on the whole face tough choices straight from their graduation: which can ultimately shape their future. With so many graduates entering into a business landscape ravaged with the cuts and redundancies of the recession, it is the lucky few who even enter the industry they had their heart set on, let alone the position they had anticipated when accepting their place at university.

Not only are students competing with each other for entry level jobs but also with considerably more experienced individuals who have been cast from their more senior roles by the downturn in the economy and forced to start from the bottom rung of the career ladder once again. With companies now being cut down to size by the powers that be for committing ‘ageism’ when recruiting new employees, it seems that fresh graduates have a serious fight on their hands to even enter paid employment.

Bearing this hostile recruitment arena in mind, savvy graduates need to carefully consider their options when searching for a route into their chosen area of employment. One of the single best choices in the present economic environment seems to be work experience. Few forward-thinking organisations would decline the offer of a few weeks unpaid work from an enthusiastic, educated individual looking to make their name in the industry. By undertaking a work experience role not only does a graduate get a taste of working in their chosen industry but also gets some experience to back up their qualification: in such a competitive recruitment situation as is prevalent today, those few weeks experience could make all the difference. In the best case scenario, the company for which they volunteer their services for free for a short period may find that the temporary addition fulfils their duties with aplomb and consider offering them fulltime employment.

It is a scary time for ambitious graduates, but with focus, determination and willingness to put the extra effort in: they needn’t stray from the career path they had in mind when choosing their university course, just make a brief, unpaid detour.

Written by Jamie Lyons when really it was office supplies Salford and office supplies Manchester that should have been the focus of this blogpost.

Writer’s block is the scourge of all writers: whether authors of popular fiction, factual content writers or journalists. It’s seemingly random descent can cast doubts on the feasibility of meeting deadlines and cause general unrest. This strange affliction often comes on unprovoked and seems to strike at the most inopportune of moments. Although there is no cure as such (most notably because it is not an ailment per se) there are certainly things that can be done to stimulate the creative zones of your brain back into action to get you back on track.

In many cases, writer's block is simply an absence of motivation or a prevalence of distractions. Spending too long poring over a written task or spending an inordinate amount of time attempting to re-work or rewrite existing passages can really drain the will to work. Quite simply, writer’s block is generally a side effect of boredom, lack of urgency or pre-occupation. In order to counter this there are a number of techniques, the effectiveness of which is dictated as much by the nature of the individual as it is by the situation.

If you’re unable to complete a piece, article or chapter due to a temporary inability to focus then the first thing to do is step back from the work. Quickly assess your emotions: are you tired, hungry, worried, excited? Although such a seemingly simple, even silly thing to do: by distancing yourself from the task at hand you are more able to focus on the underlying issue. Having established the root of the distraction action can be taken to remedy the problem and regain focus. Obviously time constraints are important here: if you’re exhausted but have a strict deadline then unfortunately short-term remedies such as a boost of caffeine or a brisk walk may be on the agenda. Equally if your distraction spawns from worry about something else then you may not have time to fully address this external problem. A sound alternative in this instance would be to spend a few minutes planning how you will remedy the issue responsible for the distraction once you’ve finished the more urgent writing task- giving you at least some relief and a little more focus.

Some people react well with tight deadlines: others react in the exact opposite manner. The key is to mentally organise yourself in the manner which is most effective for you. If you have no set deadline for completing a task and work best when you do have a deadline then set yourself one! Conversely, if you have a tight deadline but are dwelling on the pressure of completing in time then set yourself smaller deadlines with incremental rewards leading up to completion in the set time.

Writer’s block is a purely mental phenomenon and can be resolved by learning as much as you can about the circumstances in which you work best. Once you know the ideal environment and form of motivation for you then it is easy to go about tailoring the situation to induce maximum productivity.

Written by Jamie Lyons when he was technically meant to be writing about office supplies Warrington and office supplies Bolton but couldn't think of anything to say.

Facebook has revolutionised online social interaction and communication. The high level of engagement possible with others around the globe has been one of the major driving factors behind the perpetual ascendancy of the social network’s popularity. While bringing people together it has however also started to tear people apart. As more and more people join the website and more and more mutual friend links develop it becomes increasingly difficult to conceal your activities: whether innocent and innocuous or somewhat more seedy and sinister.

Anyone who has been ‘tagged’ in a somewhat unflattering photograph will be more than aware that Facebook isn’t always your friend when it comes to concealing the more embarrassing moments captured on film. In fact ‘removing tags’ is high on the priority list of many regular Facebook users: particularly following instances of indiscriminate photo uploading by unscrupulous friends. There is however always that gap between the time when a photograph is assigned to an individual and the point when they login, realise they’ve been tagged and promptly remove all evidence. For those dabbling in infidelity, this gap can be relationship destroying.

Being ‘caught with your pants down’ by Facebook is extremely hard to prevent: although a picture may seem innocuous enough to the individual uploading it to the website, they may be unaware of the repercussions. Allied with the danger of having unexpected ‘mutual friends’ and the attention this draws to inexplicable connections: the cheat-catching power of photo tagging makes it seem as though Facebook is in the midst of a war with infidelity...however absurd that may sound.

If you will insist on playing with fire and doing things which could potentially prove disastrous to your relationship, then it’s essential that extreme caution is exercised when it comes to social networking. The first port of call when proofing yourself against Facebook-based relationship disaster is ‘privacy settings’ in the ‘account’ menu of the website. Check and double check that only those people you want to have access to various parts of your profile do have access and while you’re there make sure that those individuals who aren’t your Facebook ‘friend’ can’t find out more about you than you’re happy for them to. An additional security measure is to turn on SMS alerts which notify you when you’ve been interacted with: thus acting as a warning system to check that you haven’t been ‘tagged’ in a compromising image. Beyond that, the only solid advice available to those dishonest types out there is to either stop cheating on your other half, or delete Facebook altogether. The first option will probably be easiest on your conscience in the long-run!

Written by Jamie Rock Lyons

There have been many great players over the years, but what exactly makes a great player? This subject has been debated in great detail but there must be some characteristics that all of these great players possessed? What follows are my thoughts on the subject and just what makes a great football player.

Vision – All of the greats have been able to pick a pass out even before the run has been made. It is this football brain which truly makes a great player. Although having excellent vision can often be misunderstood for a poor ball unless you have a team around you who knows your capabilities and who are willing to make runs even in seemingly pointless situations.

Control – Having excellent control is a must as great control buys you the time to make the best use of the ball. All of the greats have killer control and can control the ball in any situation. Be it with their head, hip, shoulder: it doesn’t matter. Having even a split second longer on the ball due to excellent control can make the difference between a goal or a killer pass.

Bottle – Having bottle is probably the most controversial element in my list to being a great player but I thought I would put it in as all of the great players in my list have had no fear what so ever and will make tackles even when damaging themselves is a certainty. It’s this passion that drives them on and makes them successful. Some people will call it stupidity but by having bottle you will gain respect from not only your team mates but from other players who will no doubt be more careful when it comes to fifty/fifty challenges.

Cool Head – Moving on from being passionate and oozing bottle, there is also the flip side of course. Those players who seemingly don’t really care yet turn up with the goods when they are required to time and time again. Those players that don’t chase round the pitch constantly for ninety minutes but can ultimately change the entire game with one brilliantly executed pass or goal.

Playing Fair – Nobody likes to see a cheat but unfortunately it seems that diving is becoming more and more a part of today’s game. Although playing fair doesn’t generally count as making you a great player: it can make a difference in terms of winning decisions when you are actually fouled as you are more likely to get the decision if you are generally known for being a fair player in the first place.

There are lots and lots of traits that make a great player but if you posses a true passion for the game, have excellent control and can read the game so much so that you can pick passes out and execute them clinically even before the runs have been made you are well on your way to becoming the best.

There are lots of articles on the internet on search engine optimisation and how to do it successfully both on your own website and for others. You will notice however that there are differences of opinion in every article that you read. The reason for this is simple. Search engine optimisation is an art rather than an exact science. The only people who can say 100% that what you are doing is correct are the search engines themselves.

There are a lot of people out there who have had success with their own methods of performing SEO and who regularly produce information for us all to read. The successful people in the world of SEO have one thing in common. They are all extremely passionate about the subject. It is this passion that drives them forward with second guessing the ranking factors that are updated regularly by the search engines.

Whilst SEO isn’t an exact science the SEO world and the experts have reported quite extensively various consistencies in ranking factors and it is these consistencies that the whole industry has been built upon.

I need to mention quite quickly that SEO isn’t a quick process unless you have an extremely niche idea that nobody else has had before. There are no set timescales or secret formulas that lead to top rankings and anybody telling you otherwise are probably doing something that isn’t ethical and should be avoided at all costs. If you look at it logically if it were as easy as simply doing x y z then why share the knowledge when they could keep it for themselves and optimise their own websites for financial gains only.

After looking at hundreds of SEO articles and attending many conferences it is fair to say that the one thing that overrides anything else is quality content. If you can ensure that your website content is original and interesting to your market you stand a real chance of ranking well. The reason for this is the search engines reward quality content and the better the content the more chance you have of people linking to you. I’m not going to go into detail on how to optimise your website here as there are thousands of articles out there that can guide you on this subject.

What I will say is that after top quality content and quality inbound links to your website this is where people’s opinions differ on the subject, and it is really difficult to decide who to believe. Going back to an earlier point why should you believe them in the first place as if they have the answer why are they sharing it with you? The fact is, unless you are the person who decides who ranks where and why, you are never really going to know how to truly optimise your website.

As a result if you are going to optimise your own website you need to be prepared to put the time in as you will need to read as many different article, blog post and attend as many conferences and webinars as humanly possible on a continuous if not daily basis so you can hear other people’s ideas on the subject and keep up with the latest trends. Then to be successful you need to perform your own testing and come up with your own theories based on your findings and everything else you have read and listened to. It’s a long continuous sometimes frustrating journey SEO and for this reason only the passionate are successful.

Written by Jamie Lyons (actually Mark Farrell pretending to be Jamie Lyons) when they should have been writing about office supplies and debt management help.

The televised Prime Ministerial debates have added a compelling new edge to the electioneering campaigns of all parties. One of the most notable and potentially momentous implications of this new form of political canvassing has been the unexpected leap in open public support for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. Following the first debate, polls showed that the party had gained huge popularity, to the extent that some polls lead to the conclusion that they were in fact serious candidates to gain a majority in the impending election. The backlash to these results has been interesting to say the least.

One of the major arguments for the sudden leap in popularity of the Liberal Democrats following the first televised debate was the fact that Clegg for the most part was distanced from the bickering and belittling evident between the leaders of the Conservative and Labour parties. By escaping the brunt of the targeted attacks rife between David Cameron and Gordon Brown, the Liberal Democrats leader was able to focus upon delivering the party’s policies as opposed to being tied up in trying to address accusations levelled at him. The headlines of the vast majority of the newspapers today imply that during tonight’s televised debate the tables will have turned. The onslaught of slurs against Clegg and his party to be found emblazoning the front pages of tabloids and broadsheets alike not only show that both the Labour and Conservative parties now consider the Liberal Democrats to be a big enough threat as to warrant assaults in the press, but that the majority of the major newspapers are happy to do their bidding.

It is well known that most newspapers have a blatant political leaning or bias, with some publications noted for their Conservative leanings and others for their Labour support. There are however no major printed news outlets with a Liberal Democrats affiliation: this fact has never been more evident than today, when the slurs of the party and its leader have graced the prized spots of both the Labour and Conservative affiliated publications. From a political stance, this demonstrates that the Liberal Democrats are indeed becoming a formidable force, hence threat in the forthcoming elections. From the stance of the public in general it is further proof that the national press is far from objective and raises questions about the impartiality of our news sources.

What remains to be seen: and will be seen this evening, is just how much ammunition these slurs in today’s papers provide for David Cameron and Gordon Brown in tonight’s Prime Ministerial Debate. The media is a powerful force, is it being abused? Or simply used to provide an insight into all aspects of life from steadfast perspectives? Whatever your view, it all seems a little distant from the objectivity the media in general purports to extol.


Written by Jamie 'Rock' Lyons while he should have been writing about office supplies