Breathe Out, It’s the Weekend: Well Being and Relaxation while Jobsearching.

Feeling anxious and unconfident are not the only by products of a prolonged job search or looming redundancy. There are other feelings some of which can be motivating and propel you into a new career. However positive you may feel about your prospects this kind of major change does not come without its ups and downs and requires a level of perseverance that is at best taxing. You need to be at your best to score a job. For this and for many other good reasons, like your sense of perspective or your loved ones, you must make sure you look after yourself when you are looking for work or managing yourself through job transition. It is easy to let yourself become paralysed by what can often be a grind of rejections, or responses that fail to come and even easier to slip into despondency, but you are facing a long weekend, which you truly deserve, so take a break from staring at your inbox and indulge in a little R&R.

Getting the Right Helping Hand for Your Career.

There is something quite comforting when you speak with people who do the same job as you and share common experiences.  You can use the shorthand lingo, express frustrations and feel a little more understood.  It is the foundation that makes the after work drink world keep on spinning.  When career counsellors meet, inevitably the conversation turns to client expectations.

So many of us have been confronted by people we want to help, who have spent numerous years trying to work out what the right job is for them have the expectation that a single meeting with a career professional will unravel the mystery for them. 

Job Seeker – What Are You Entitled to?

Last Sunday I was walking through my local park, family in tow, when two interesting things happened.  The first was my eldest son deciding to test his balance by walking on the ledge of the lake.  The sheer delight brought on by this effort in his face made the extremely slow pace and the frequent stumbles easy to bear and also made it possible for me to overhear an entire exchange between two other park dwellers sitting on a lakeside bench deep in conversation about the current job search scene.  Both men were in the thirties and donned a degree of righteous world-weariness, nodding knowingly to each other when relating the need for qualifications and experience in order to secure a job.  “There are no longer any ways to get in,” said one to the other, “no-one will hire you without qualifications or experience.”  I wanted to go over and tell him that today even that may not be enough, but as their discussion ensued I realised that these two jobseekers were not interested in finding work today, but in yesterday’s world.

The Purpose and Importance of a Visual CV.

In today’s market getting a good job is more like campaigning for public office than the tired and reactive strategies of the past. Gone are the days when a general CV response to an advertisement in the newspaper got you the job you wanted. Today job searching requires a marketing strategy and one of the weapons in your arsenal is the creation of a visual CV. With it you can harness the possibilities of social networking, use the technology to add more relevant information about your skills to help you stand out from the pack and create and manage your online presence. If done well, it can help you to stand out and it can get you noticed.

The Fabled Secret to Getting a New Job.

TotalJobs is one of many websites that have a job board and lots of helpful aids for the jobseeker. I particularly like the CV’s and Applications  section, which offers a variety of advice, CV templates, how to remain safe in your job search, application form support and even a link to SHL for a (chargeable) career guidance assessment.  As with all the information on careers on the internet, it is wise to look around, whether you decide you wish to complete an online career assessment or engage a career professional.

Many similar sites offer comparable resources and ultimately it is down to preference and job sector which ones you tend to visit most. What is striking though is that in recent months they are all attempting to position themselves as the entrance to the hiding place of the Holy Grail of job search.

Navigating the Path to Career Success Through Learning and Development.

Skills shortages have made trade and mainstream news headlines consistently over the last few months. Skills required by British business from abroad, insufficient skills for economic recovery as well as enough to meet the challenges of the future. But who’s the responsibility for providing these skills and when to start training? Are schools doing enough, are employers and are individuals taking appropriate ownership? The results of recent research is that it you and I that need to be at the helm of our own development, and as someone whose career started in education back in 1992 and moved into adult training shortly after I am more than inclined to agree.  It does not require twenty odd years experience in a field to make the intuitive leap that people learn best when they are well motivated to do so and understand the purpose for their learning.  Even at a time when disposable incomes are low, training budgets reduced and capabilities paramount we can still do a great deal to improve our skills and chances of career success.

Celebrating Individualism in the Modern Workplace.

It is one of the great ironies of work that while we are told to value diversity we often see conformity being rewarded.  Business richly benefits from difference and yet it is also appears intensily attracted to individuals that seem easy to analyse and categorise, assess by swift tick box interventions and ‘fit in’.  If you are not the slot-in type it can be very daunting to look for an employer who will accept you let alone bring out the best in you.  Once there it becomes painful and frustrating when you are not recognised for doing a good job or for adding real value, even though many others appear to do very little to earn their position or accolades.