Networking - can Technology help? - 27/10/2008
You would have to be plugged in 24 hours a day to keep up with current changes in the evolution of the internet. It has always been a perfect tool for keeping in touch easily and, now, clever entrepreneurs have created businesses out of that ability. Those businesses-online networking and online bulletin boards- are becoming new marketplaces for job searching.
Does that mean you can dispense with the hard work of creating a brilliant CV? As consultants in outplacement and career management, we would advise not! Sorry, it cannot be shirked. While your CV may still be dropped into the post box, there are additional options to find an appropriate audience for it.
Networking. Social networking online brings together acquaintances and near acquaintances for social connections as well as business connections. Two of the most well known social networking sites are Facebook and MySpace. While they are still very much social and chat-up sites, keep an eye on them for, as they are growing up, their members are using them for business purposes. They are starting to look like LinkedIn.
According to Wikipedia, LinkedIn, a business networking site, was used by over 24 million people from more than 150 industries during the month of May 2008. Now, in October, there are 30 million members. LinkedIn allows registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. This way, people who do not know each other can gain introductions through mutual, trusted contacts. Worldwide traffic to LinkedIn increased 123 percent year-on-year in the three months to the end of September, according to Nielson, the research group, compared to growth in the internet market of 10 percent.
Some large organizations encourage employees to set up sections to socially interact, thereby removing the cost and responsibility for company newsletters and such. Employers can list jobs and job seekers can post CVs on LinkedIn.
Xing is the European rival to LinkedIn. Listed in Frankfurt, Xing saw third-quarter revenue growth of 86 percent to over 9m euros. the bulk of this revenue came from its half million paying customers. The website states there are 6 million members in all.
Bulletin Boards. A second important change in searching for jobs, impossible without the internet is Craigslist, a huge bulletin board. So huge in fact, that Alexa Internet, Inc., a website that provides information on web traffic, reported in August 2008 that Craigslist receives over two million new job listings each month. It is now found in 450 cities in 50 countries. Twenty seven British towns and cities currently have local Craigslists. Started in San Francisco in 1995, it retains a rather casual USA West Coast sensibility. However, don′t be fooled by it′s pared-down and no frills look. Millions of employers and job-seekers find each other through CRAIGSLIST, all over the world.
Be aware of technology′s power and consider your CV in a world where it represents you on its own more than ever before.
To access the sites mentioned above, go to
Determining the Career Objective - 15/10/2008
Has anybody ever told you "As soon as you start a new job you should be working on the next one"? It sounds a little extreme, but it′s not a million miles from the truth.
One of the rules of good career management is to always have a career objective out there in front of you. As professional consultants in outplacement and career management, we know that people need to take responsibility and develop a mid-term career objective:
"In five years time, I want to be the Finance Director of a medium sized company with a turnover of £500m."
In the earlier issues of Career Talk, we have touched on the importance of looking at the Four Factors. They are My Strengths, The Market Place, My Needs and My Career Drivers. These are the four areas which need close analysis. We draw our conclusions and we list our career options:
"Based on the Four Factors, my career objective is to be........".
If you are in a good job now, ensure you use it as part of your strategic plan. If your job is at risk or it has recently slipped from under you, don′t just go for a quick fix and take the first hire that comes along. Far better to choose a job that supports the mid-term career strategy. Ask yourself what route and which jobs will best lead you to achieving the five-year plan.
Taking responsibility for making decisions about career moves, both inside and outside your present organisation, is a smart thing to do and,frankly, it′s essential.
Finding Yourself - 07/10/2008
As professional outplacement and career management consultants, we are helping individuals to make fresh career decisions and reposition themselves, every day. Many have been successful and so could you. Here′s how you might start.
Observe yourself for a week. Live your life as you normally do. Don′t change, just because you are observing yourself. Set aside a few minutes in the morning, whilst having a coffee. Start thinking as you go home on the bus, Tube or train or just before you go to sleep. Take note and make notes. Don′t obsess but be aware of your day.
What do you do in those seven days that you:
1. Like to do
2. Must do
3. Avoid doing but do anyway
4. Avoid doing and don′t do though you will have to sometime
Again, be ruthless with yourself. don′t observe the person you think you are. Observe who you are. Be honest.
At the end of the week, look at your notes. Arrange events, tasks, meetings and pleasures into the four categories above. Is it a reasonable pattern? Where are you generating your income? Is it from the things you like to do or from the things you must do...or even worse, the things you avoid?
If you feel it is too big a step to say goodbye to the industry you know, that you are, for example, educated and trained in supply-chain but find yourself day-dreaming over the spreadsheets when your talent is dealing with people, why not consider the sales-side of your industry? Sell yours firm′s services instead! That way, your hard work getting to where you are now isn′t thrown away but your success is bound to increase because you like what you are doing.
Sometimes changing your job doesn′t have to mean changing the firm or the industry. Maybe you are in the right industry but the wrong department.
What would you have to do to get where you would like to be? Be brave.
Dale Carnegie′s belief that by changing your actions, you change the REaction of others holds true now as it did then, 72 years after he wrote his famous book, How To Win Friends And Influence People.
Why would anybody hire me? - 03/10/2008
If you can′t identify what you′re good at, how can you sell yourself to a company? Based on many studies, reports and practical knowledge of career management and outplacement, we know that organizations look for three things when they hire someone:
1. Business and technical skills.
2. Market knowledge and experience based on specific situations.
3. Personality traits that fit the culture of their organization.
Armed with this knowledge, you can then assess yourself. Hard to do? Yes. Must be done? Yes.
Don′t exaggerate but don′t short change yourself either. Identify as many achievements in your life as you can. What was the situation? What action did you take? What was the result? These achievements do not necessarily have to be business situations. Events in our personal lives take fully as many skills and test our mettle as do those in our business lives.
After you have identified as many achievements as you can - try for 20 - go back. What strengths did you draw on in each of those situations? Write them down.
Look at these strengths. Do any appear several times? Do you have a real or perceived weakness? Does it appear? Do trends appear?
What did you achieve? Did you achieve anything? Were you satisfied with the results?
Now look again at your strengths. Which of these situations presented you with an opportunity to do something you really enjoyed? When you can link a real strength with enjoyment, you are looking at the core of yourself.
Next time we will figure out what we enjoy.
Difficult Times - 30/09/2008
How many times have we seen these words over the past fortnight? Lehman Brothers, Bradford & Bingley, AIG, RBS, Outplacement - it just goes on and on. But hold hard. Outplacement? Is that failing too? Quite the contrary! If you get offered outplacement support, when your job is made redundant, take it. Outplacement aims to help people get a better job and sooner. If you are employed but worried about your job, don′t just bury your head in the sand like an ostrich.
With the financial markets in disarray and the effects of the shift in that influential industry as yet unknown for the rest of the market place, is there anything of comfort for workers?
Yes there is. We can use the experience of our past, combined with the knowledge of ourselves, and prepare as best as possible for any eventuality. We can, in other words, be practical.
We can identify the transferable strengths we use at work, such as business & technical skills, market knowledge and work traits. We can examine what we have now, in our tool kit of survival skills which are marketable. We can check, ruthlessly, to see if they still serve us well. If we were thinking to become part of an industry currently in tatters, perhaps we might reconsider that ambition. Or, alternatively, we might go out to find opportunities where none previously existed.
In the light of evolving techniques for CV writing and the job-search, we can refresh and polish up those resumes and examine them with the cold eyes of someone else′s expectation. Then, if necessary, massage or rewrite them. If, in the examination of our career history and what we have achieved, we find our path forward is no longer as clear as once appeared, we can even consider retraining for a change of career.
Difficult times require acts of bravery. As Joseph Campbell* said:
"Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging."
*The Hero With A Thousand Faces
The Ten Commandments of Career Management - 18/09/2008
As Career Management and Outplacement consultants, we find that friends and people we meet will talk about their job and then ask:
“What IS Career Management? Surely all I have to do is make sure my most recent job is in the CV!”
Many books have been written on the subject and some have become international best-sellers. We all have our own view, but here are ten ways which I suggest will help people to take control and enjoy a satisfying and fruitful career:
- Complete a structured Career Assessment once or twice a year. Find a mentor to discuss the issues and challenge your deductions.
- Develop a strategic Career Objective, maybe looking five years out. Keep it in mind and continuously have a “next job” aiming point.
- Rewrite your CV at least once a year. Update your CV Profile to reflect your “next job” aiming point. Refer back to your most recent Career Assessment and add in the new Business Achievements and any job changes.
- Become and remain well briefed about your profession, your market sector and your customers. Maintain up-to-date files on products, people and statistics. Attend conferences and seminars, which will keep you informed and add to your network.
- Build extensive Networks which include colleagues, competitors, customers, media people and individuals who come from as many other market sectors as you can penetrate.
- Lay aside time for self-development in new business & technical skills, in knowledge and in personal growth.
- Preserve your career integrity by managing your personal finances and maintaining a financial reserve which would allow you to resign from an unsatisfactory job and survive for six months.
- Guard your employability by remaining fit and looking your best. We need energy and a sense of well-being to remain on top of our careers.
- Engage with another compelling interest outside your career. Develop a passion for something which will stimulate your mind and your senses and allow you to return to your working day, refreshed and renewed.
- Hold on to your personal values. Stand by your moral code, spiritual life or views on humanity. Preserve your self-respect and respect for others.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and to achieve all of these is challenging - start to think who can help you.
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