Irufushi Beach & Spa Resort in the Maldives to become a Hilton

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Irufushi Beach & Spa Resort in the Maldives to become a Hilton

A Hilton subsidiary has entered into an agreement with Sun Travels and Tours, to manage the Hilton Maldives/Iru Fushi Resort & Spa. A conversion hotel project, the property currently known as the Irufushi Beach & Spa Resort is scheduled to open as a Hilton Worldwide Resort in July 2009.

Martin Rinck, President Hilton Hotels Corporation – Asia Pacific, said, “The beauty of the Maldives, its pristine white beaches, turquoise waters and fascinating underwater world continues to entice yachting and diving enthusiasts, spa seekers and honeymooners looking for an island hideaway. This is one of the most exotic and idyllic island destinations in the world, and we are delighted to add the Hilton flag to the Conrad brand already present.”

Comprising 220 villas, the Hilton Maldives/Iru Fushi Resort & Spa will sprawl over 52 acres of powdery white sands and abundant tropical vegetation on Medhafushi which is nestled within the unspoiled Noonu Atoll.

The resort will offer a range of room options, from beach villas that open onto private shores and are surrounded by rich tropical foliage, to over-water villas with private whirlpools and sundecks from which guests can take in uninterrupted views across the Indian Ocean.

Four unique restaurants will enable guests to embark on an epicurean journey during their stay. From an alfresco restaurant with live stations and grills serving freshly caught seafood to a fine dining restaurant blending local and international flavours. A selection of distinctive bars and an over water wine cellar will allow guests to unwind with beverages and watch the famous Maldivian sunsets.

Located approximately 60 kilometres north of Malé International Airport, the resort is easily accessed by a 45-minute seaplane flight.

A spa sanctuary with 21 private spa pavilions will be complemented by a fitness centre, swimming pool, tennis courts and a range of water sport activities, while book lovers can curl up at the resort library and Internet cafe.

Famed for its beautiful and rare underwater reefs, warm water temperatures and high visibility, the Maldives enjoys a reputation as one of the best diving destinations in the world. The Hilton Maldives will have a diving centre on property to enable guests to learn to scuba dive with qualified trainers as well as enable dive enthusiasts to make the most of their experience of the house reef and crystal clear waters of Noonu Atoll. Over 30 dive sites are available to explore within an hour from the island, all with an abundance of marine life and a rich variety of colourful corals.

"We're thrilled to welcome the Hilton Maldives/Iru Fushi Resort & Spa to our portfolio," said Jeff Diskin, senior vice president - Brand Management, Hilton Hotels & Resorts. "This beautiful location, coupled with our unique brand of Hilton hospitality is sure to make this hotel a favorite among the world's travellers."

The management contract will further enhance Hilton Hotels’ presence in the Maldivian archipelago, where the company will have several of its Hilton Family of Hotels Brands. The Hilton Maldives will build on the success of the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island which opened in 1997 (originally as a Hilton hotel before being rebranded to the Conrad in 2007). The Doubletree by Hilton Malé is also scheduled to open in the Republic’s capital, Malé, in 2011.

www.asiatraveltips.com

The Job Interview - Get Familiar with The Jargon

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Today we are presenting you very useful tips that you can learn when you get prepared for an interview. If you apply these simple rules you will never fail in an interview.

To make a positive and lasting impression at a job interview, you have to be prepared. The interview is where an employer will decide if you will be an asset to the company. Knowing the proper way to conduct your self is a key factor to achieving a successful interview. You need to be familiar with the interview jargon. The following is a list of language tools you should be well versed in before attending a job interview:

1. Don't Use Unfamiliar Terminology. Don't use terms an interviewer is not familiar with. You should be well versed in the language the employer understands. For example some employers are not well versed in computer technical terms. If possible, research information about the employer and the company.

2. Don't overuse the Word "I": If you use "I" too much when discussing past experiences, an employer may think that you are taking all the credit for work that others did. If you don't use "I" at all, the employer may think that you unable to work independently from others. Make sure you use both "I" and "We" during the interview.

3. Relaxed Communication: An employer wants to learn all about you. You have to be able to speak as though you are having a conversation. Say more than just "yes" or "no". You're your speaking style should flow and demonstrate that you are comfortable in any situation.

4. Overusing a Word or Phrase: Don't use a word too many times as it gives the impression that you are nervous. For instance, saying a word like "however" many times can distract an interviewer

5. Don't Use Marginal Words or Phrases: It does not sound professional if you keep repeating words or phrases such as "Like" or "you know" Always use professional words.

6. Engage The Employer: Don't just list your experiences. Use experiences to highlight particular qualifications. For example, if an employer wants to know how well you work with others, tell a story about an experience about when you and former employees worked together to solve a problem.

7. Prepare For Basic Questions: Don't focus solely on difficult questions an employer might ask. There are general questions that almost every employer asks. One such question is: Why do you want to work for us? You should be prepared to answer general questions

8. Don't Slight Past jobs: Don't ridicule past jobs. If you worked at a fast food restaurant and make negative comments about it, an employer may think you have a bad attitude. It would be more impressive to say what you learned from working there and how it allowed you to save money for college.

9. Be Attentive: Make eye contact with the employer. Listen carefully to what the employer is saying and make your answers complete to show you understand what the employer is saying. If there is more than one interviewer, make eye contact with all of them as you speak.

10. Don't use Slang: There is standard of acceptable business communication. Words like "buddy" and "dude" will not impress an employer. The employer wants to hire someone who communicates professionally.

11. Avoid Profanity: If you swear during an interview or use vulgar and offensive language, don't bother sitting by the phone waiting for the employer to call. Businesses expect their employees' language and behavior to be professional and respectable.

12. Body Language: Don't fidget in your seat. Keep calm, relaxed, and always smile. Don't play with your hands. It is important to keep your mind and body composed during the interview. By maintaining a relaxed and happy composure, you will give the impression of competence and confidence.

13. Ask Questions: Employers expect that an interviewee is going to ask questions. Make sure your questions are clear and relevant to the business. Do some research about the company so that you can ask a good question.

The job interview is the stage where one can make a first-rate impression. How you conduct yourself at an interview will drastically increase your chances of getting a job.

About the Author

Learning English is easier than before with free English lessons now offered online. Visit our job interview questions section.

Do You Want a Job or a Purpose?

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The title question in today's article prompts us to explore the differences between having a career that gives us a job vs having a meaningful career that gives us a sense of purpose.

What is the difference?
The difference is that a job is a much narrower description of what we do. It trades time for money. It focuses on 'what I get,' and 'how much can I get?'
A purpose allows passion and love and contribution to enter into the equation. We become broader in how we look at what we do. We allow ourselves to access a deep sense of personal mission that we wish to express in the world through our work.

I don't believe it's an accident that our economy is in decline right now. While it's not been true everywhere, the forces of greed have dominated many of our institutions and companies. There has been microscopic focus on quarterly results and quick results; and by results, companies mean profit.

Companies were forced by shareholders to examine each quarter's results and if those results weren't positive, they immediately began laying people off. The same thing happened with the mergers that began in the 1980's and continue to today. Once the mergers took place, hundreds and then thousands of people lost their jobs.It wasn't always this way.

Prior to the 1980's, companies were focused on long-term results. They understood that in the natural cycle of things, they might have downturns and quarters where they didn't make much profit, but they kept their eyes on good business practices and on building a business for long-term success.

We've all been infected by a need for instant results, instant profit and instant success. Just look at what has happened with the stimulus package. The President and Congress passed the largest stimulus bill in history and not a week later, Wall Street and investors were complaining they weren't seeing results yet.
That is simply crazy thinking!

What does this have to do with having a job or having a purpose?
Just this. For the past twenty years, young people flocked to schools of business, focused on how much money they could earn in their first year in a full time job, how quickly they could 'climb the ladder,' and how quickly they could accumulate their first million.

There's nothing wrong with wanting a secure income, building wealth or providing for one's family. But when that is the primary focus, things get out of kilter. The deeper needs of our nature go unaddressed.

When that happens, we can feel a sense of ennui, dissatisfaction and boredom. We ask, "Is this all there is?" We feel at sea and adrift in our own lives.
The wise person, however, knows that the job we hold HAS to be connected to meaning, to a sense of purpose, to the ability to make a contribution. If it isn't, or if we feel we aren't able to make a contribution through our work, we are greatly dissatisfied and life seems dry as dust.

So what can we do?
We can ask ourselves, first of all, if we feel that what we are doing for a living is making a difference. We can be honest about whether our contribution is valued in the company we work for, or if it is being replaced by the value of money.
We can ask ourselves if we really want to make a contribution in some other way. Or, we can research whether there are companies and institutions that will more readily support our desire to make a contribution.

We would not dismiss the need we humans have to make a contribution; to ease the suffering of others; to solve tough problems; to resolve issues; to make the world better so that when we leave it, it is better than when we entered it.
No matter what career stage you are in, beginner, old-timer, or somewhere in between, make sure that you keep alive within you your desire to make a contribution, to have a purpose beyond that of making money.
In a survey done a few years ago, people were asked about the top 20 job satisfiers. Money came in 16th!

We focus on getting money if we don't have enough, but once we do; our attention turns naturally to ways in which we can make a difference.
So, instead of waiting until you make your first million, decide beforehand what you are passionate about doing. What do you love?

What would you do even if you weren't paid to do it? What gives you joy?
THEN, from that expanded awareness, drawing on the best of yourself as a human being, launch your career so that you stay connected to your purpose.
If you do that, not only will the money follow, so will the additional wealth of happiness, contentment, and knowing you've made a contribution. You've lived your purpose.

About the Author
Anita Web Weaver is the owner of Design to Shine Consulting, offering coaching, mentoring and speaking services to help people shine, no matter what, in their career, their life and their health.
Get her FREE Audio: Busting Through Fearto Have Your Dream Career

How Technology Is Affecting Our Lives

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Today's world is full of pieces of technology that we take for granted, the microchip has truly revolutionised the way in which we live and do business. The world we see would not be recognisable to people of a few generations ago and nowhere is this truism greater than in the world of computing. Hence it is important to stay up to date with technology news; while many may think that this type of news is purely for geeks it is clear that all of us should have at least a passing interest in news of technological developments.

Technology pretty much touches all of our lives in some way and hence technology news is a vital resource that can keep us up to date with developments and ways in which the world will be changing. For instance, the onset of digital television is something that will affect most people; news stories that inform us of the dates for the switch over are vital so the average member of public can understand when their analogue signal will be turned off. In the same way, news of technologies that may make our cars safer and more efficient is important to all those who drive on our roads.

Anyone of a reasonable age will remember the BBC's 'Tomorrow's World; a technological news show that brought us stories of the latest developments and the ways life would be changed in the future. It was as sad day when this news show was cancelled; maybe it meant that people were no longer interested in new technology. If people are less interested they should not be; being up to date with what is coming around the corner is just as important as being informed on the politics of the nation and world affairs.

Any lack of interest has been sidestepped by the internet, which has seen the creation of a platform for thousands of writers who feel it necessary to publish regular news stories on technological developments. It is not just the bedroom 'bloggers' however that is publishing detailed news stories. Major reporting institutions are now likely to have a technology dedicated page in order to cope with the huge demand for this kind of news.

The fact of the matter is that technology now covers such a diverse range of subjects that it would be foolish for any reporting company not to write stories on the genre. Technology can apply to elements of the medical industry as well as the automotive industry. It is this diversity that makes technology news articles so interesting to read and why subscribers from all over the world regularly catch up theses stories.

It can be argued that will now live in the 'computer age', whether this is true or not is a matter of conjecture but what can be assured is that we live a period where computers are becoming increasingly important to our way of life. Ultimately we are becoming evermore reliant on our computers and without them we would be lost; there are even news stories of some now being addicted to their computers and handhelds. This is the extent that technology has encroached upon our lives that people now do not feel the need to 'unplug'.

The phenomena is only set to continue, as computers become more powerful and have greater and greater applications it will not be long that we will plan our lives around the computer. This is not an attempt to act as a harbinger of doom, it is just theorising on ways in which technology will impact upon the human race. This is why keeping up to date with news stories about technology is so important, technology is about forward momentum and understanding what is at the crest of the wave is only half of the battle.

About the Author
Industry expert Thomas Pretty looks into the importance of technology news in keeping up to date with technological developments.

How to get a job offer from every interview

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About four years ago a friend told me one night that she had an interview the next week and was looking for some comfort as she was extremely nervous, as most people are about interviews. I thought back on my my carreer and realized that in the nine year of my career I had been to thirteen interviews and, more importantly, that I had received a job offer from every one of those interviews. I did not accept all the offers, but the point is that I had not once been to an interview without getting a job offer from it. In the past four years, I have been to another 6 interviews, of which I did not get job offers for 2 of them. The one was an interview at Volkswagen which a friend had setup because he "wanted" me to work there and by the time we started the interview, I realized that the position was not in my field at all. The second one was a telephonic interview, which I hate, and I simply did not see eye to eye with the person who interviewed me. I did go for an interview with another manager at the same company a couple of weeks later and started working there 2 days later.

Job offers from 17 out of 19 interviews is not a bad track record and no, I am not some kind of a technical genius that every company would want to employ simply by looking at my resume. I am a computer programmer and there are many programmers out there with better technical skills than me.

The secret, I believe is confidence. Not necessarily confidence in yourself, but creating confidence in your interviewer's mind. I once had a 4 1/2 hour interview in Sydney, Australia. Before that I could not imagine such a long interview was possible, it was for a very senior position. If, like most people, you don't like interviews in general, imagine sitting there for 4 1/2 hours. Anyway, about halfway through the interview, the interviewer told me that he had another 2 or 3 people that he's considering for the position, but that he's got a "warm and fuzzy feeling" about me. Not something I really want to hear from another male, but when he said that, I realized that the job was mine.

Your objective, then, is to create that "warm and fuzzy" feeling in your interviewer's mind.

Before an interview, I always think of what I would like to see in the other person if I was on the other side of the table, in other words, if I was interviewing somebody else for this position. Computer programming is considered as a technical field, even on a managerial level, but the technical aspect has very seldom been the deciding factor, unless the interviewer has poor people skills or a lack of experience. Generally anybody with a bit of experience will be more interested in your personality than your technical abilities. I am assuming, of course, that you are applying for positions which you are in some way qualified to fill. So how do you focus on your personality and what personality traits should you try to demonstrate? Let me give you some examples of what I consider as important in an interview.

There are two dreaded questions that used to come up in every interview a couple of years ago, though I haven't heard them for a while now. What are 5 of your strengths and what are 5 of your weaknesses? Whenever I got the first of these two questions, I would start my answer with "Yes, I knew this was coming so I thought about it last night and..." or something along those lines.
It sounds wrong, because the intention of those questions is to see whether you know yourself. If you have to think about it the previous night, it doesn't say much about your self-knowledge. Nonetheless, I do this for two reasons. Firstly, I'm being honest with them. Everybody prepares for an interview, or at least you should! I'm just showing them that I'm a real person and that I don't claim to have all the answers. Secondly, it's a tension breaker. Quite often, if it is an experienced interviewer, they will make some comment about you having to prepare your answers in advance and this gives you an opportunity to sidetrack from their "prepared" questions. The more you can get to speak freely with the interviewer and not as a response to a question, the more opportunity you have of showing them your real character. It also passes the time so that they don't have to think up irrelevant technical questions to make the interview "long enough".

Also keep in mind that nobody is expected to have all the right answers. As I said before, I am not the know-it-all genius of computer programming, so in most interviews there is at least one question for which I do not have the answer or topic that I do not know about. When this happens, I do not pretend to have the answer or try to sound intelligent about the topic. I simply tell them that I do not know. What's important, though, is the way you say you don't know. Even if the words coming out of your mouth are as simple as "I don't know", the perception that your attitude should portray is that he or she does not know, but it's okay that they don't know. In other words, say it with confidence and self respect. "I don't know because I've never needed to use that in the past" or "I normally use such and such instead" and, if possible, tell them why you prefer your alternative. Also try to tell them how you would learn this topic if it is required in your new position. This, again, achieves two objects. It shows them your problem solving abilities and it gives you another opportunity to speak freely. Finally, if you have no clue what they're talking about, ask them to explain the topic or to give you an example. Again, speaking freely and showing them that you are interested in learning and also that you are comfortable in their company.

I also think one of the key factors for anybody in an interview is to see that you can think for yourself and that you have your own opinions. DO NOT use yes/no answers!! Every question that an interviewer asks should be seen as an opportunity for you to speak and not a hurdle that you have to cross as quickly as possible. Of course you must stay on topic or they will think you are trying to evade the question. However, try to elaborate and give them examples to show your experience and understanding of the topic. Even if this is your first interview and you have no working experience, it should not be a problem - remember you are trying to steer the conversion towards your personality and not your technical skills. Even after 13 years in the industry, I still use a lot of examples and stories (short stories, stay on topic) from my personal life to answer interview questions.

I have now mentioned this "speaking freely" a number of times and I guess that's the basis of it all. Remember that the person on the other side of the desk is nothing but that, just another person. I always try to be early for an interview so that I have some time to relax after the traffic. During those last couple of minutes, I stand outside having a cigarette and I play out a little scene in my mind, which I would rather not repeat here. Anyway, it boils down to me having a casual conversation with the interviewer and explaining to them that we're all in the same boat. We're all here on this planet for a short time and all just trying to make the best of things. Yes, it sounds stupid, I know. But for me it re-affirms in my mind that the person I am about to talk to is just another person and that I should treat them as that.

So let me summarize. Focus on your personality, not your technical abilities. Unless you're the best in your industry, in which case I'm talking to the other 99.999% in your industry. Remember that the interviewer is just another person and treat them as one by speaking to them as you would somebody that you have known for a while. This is the only way you can have some control of steering the conversation in the direction you want. While being comfortable and speaking your mind, do show respect at the same time and remember, it's still their interview, so let them have the final control. FinallyArticle Search, BE HONEST.

About the Author
Dirk Wessels is a computer programmer and runs unique-jobs.co.za in his spare time.

www.job-maldives.com