At this end of the year, many of us are evaluating how the work year has passed, whether we're giving and getting all we can from our jobs and considering if the grass really is greener on the other side of the hill. If you're planning a job or career change in 2019, what are some the things you need to consider? What are the key skills you should develop to open up your horizons?

A winning LinkedIn profile can get you noticed by recruiters. But that doesn't mean CVs are less important.

I have to admit that it's been a while since I've needed to brush off my CV to apply for a job. But a recent experience with a member of my family highlighted to me how much the job search and application process has changed. Despite online profiles through LinkedIn being valuable, it's important to still have a CV according to some experts.

Earlier this week, we discussed the challenges that businesses face in creating a diverse workplace that is inclusive of different genders, ethnicities and cultures. One of the tools advocated by Heather Brunner, the CEO of WP Engine, was to ensure names and genders weren't provided to selection panels. Employment marketplace SEEK has launched a new tool called ‘Hide Names’ which aims to reduce unconscious bias in the hiring process.

Workplace diversity has been a big deal for some time now. Anyone who attends a tech-focussed event can see the challenges many businesses face. Not only are women under-represented but different ethnicities, age groups and educational backgrounds are also an issue. Heather Brunner has enjoyed a long career in the IT business and is now the CEO of WP Engine. She is setting out to build a company that embraces diversity through a series of deliberate actions and policies.

Now that the summer shutdown is well and truly behind us, IT job hunters are back on the prowl for their next big opportunity. But what are the in demand skills that will help land your next gig? Recruitment firm Hays has looked through their listings and pulled together a list of the skills that are being targeted by IT businesses looking for new personnel.

Fake CVs cost businesses a lot of money. Anyone who's been involved in recruitment understands the cost of finding and employing good people. And with competition for high-paying jobs on the up, particularly as wages have been quite stagnant for a while, there's a lot of temptation to either embellish or lie on CVs. So, how do you spot a fake CV?

It's Force Friday and that means we get to celebrate all things Star Wars. But as well as some awesome new toys from Sphero and the revelation of new details of the upcoming movie, The Last Jedi, it's a chance to look back and pick up a few tips for successfully managing IT in this galaxy.

Over the last couple of days, we've seen an interesting game played out at Google. An unnamed employee has said, in a 10-page memo that was widely circulated at the company, that the reason women are under-represented in IT is because they are psychologically different to men and, therefore, aren't as well suited to the jobs in the tech sector as men.

Now, that man has been fired according to reports today. I want to discuss a few things before coming back to the specific situation at Google.

During the opening address to Veeam's channel partners and resellers, Co-CEO and President Peter McKay discussed the company's recruitment plans for the next year. The privately owned company, which is pursuing some very rapid growth as it strives to push past the US$1B sales mark over the next couple of years, from today's US$607M, they plan to add a lot of new staff, bolstering the 1000 they've added over the last year or so.

Recruiting the right people is one of the toughest jobs a manager has to accomplish. Somehow, based on a CV, a letter and a couple of interviews you're meant to ascertain whether a complete stranger has the skills, temperament and personality to not only complete the work you need but fit in with an existing team and complement their skills. It's little wonder we can, unconsciously or consciously, apply some bias in the process. Hays Recruitment has released some research finding ageism is a real issue - but not just against older employees.

Recruiting the right person for a role is hard. When I spoke with Dr Hugh Thompson, who was with Blue Coat Systems at the time and is now the CTO at Symantec, he told me one way his business went about recruiting infosec professionals was to find people with great analysis skills and curiousity first and then worry about teaching them technical skills later. Finding people who could learn was more important than finding people with ready-made skills.

Over at Elegant Code, David Starr gives some thought to the most important attributes of a great development team member.

This week Uber president Jeff Jones quit because his "beliefs and approach to leadership" were incompatible with what he "saw and experienced at Uber." Uber has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently and this is yet another PR snafu for the former darling of the start-up circuit.

How much effort do you go to in order to sanitise your online presence and reputation? We've all seen stories about how celebrities and politicians have been put under intense scrutiny when some activity or preference is considered salacious enough to hit the headlines. But what about the rest of us? What does our online profile mean for job prospects?

As a small business owner, you may not be able to offer a salary to employees that large organisations can afford. But money isn't everything and your business could appeal to potential workers in a variety of different ways.

According to numerous studies, the average job recruiter spends less than ten seconds perusing a resume before moving onto the next candidate. If you don't grab their attention in those fleeting moments, the job opportunity is gone. If you never seem to get a callback, it probably means your resume needs some work. Thankfully, there are a number of quick fixes you can employ to help it stand out. This infographic breaks down what you need to know.

The perks and promises that startups offer to attract top tech talent are legendary -- on-site chefs, ping pong tables, gym memberships, the list goes on. But even startups with a seemingly endless list of perks and a good chunk of funding under their belts can find it hard to recruit a quality team. In response to this problem, Blackbird Ventures has launched Sirius A, a program to help 'concierge' top computer science graduates into startup jobs.

Payments startup Stripe is currently experimenting with a new way of hiring. Instead of recruiting just one individual, the company wants to bring in an entire team all at once. Stripe is calling this 'Bring-Your-Own-Team' and here's why it thinks this is a good approach.

You can have all the qualification and skills for your an advertised job but distilling that down into a few pieces of paper can be stressful. We have some advice to help you write up a resume and cover letter that will aid you in your quest for your dream job.