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August 27th, 2010
A recent enquiry asked me if two years out of his desired career path will mean that he will never get back to doing the job he wants.
It depends.
Like many, this person had been made redundant and after a few months of not getting as job in his desired field took on a different job, it took him time to get to grips with the job and a year had gone by before he started looking for a job back in his specific branch of HR. Since then he has applied for many jobs and has yet to get shortlisted.
He is now concerned.
So I asked him what he has been doing to get a job in his desired field.
· He is registered with agencies
· He is making applications online
And that’s it.
He is not doing anything about building contacts and finding out more.
Asking him to be honest he said that some weeks he is spending about 5 hours a week on job search, but some weeks he doesn’t do anything.
Some of this is down to motivation, and it can be hard to keep ourselves motivated without support. It’s similar to losing weight or getting fit, you could do it on your own, or you could go to a weight loss club or see a personal trainer, both would help. And so working with a career and job search coach can help.
I’m not sure if we will work together, but what I’ve suggested to him is that
- He gets his CV/ application approach reviewed and improved. I can see some significant enhancements to his CV and he could implement some of these himself using the advice in my book – How to get a job in a recession.
- He looks to enhance his CV by demonstrating that he is keeping up to date on his professional area, such as getting qualified, doing short courses, attending professional meetings, reading journals and writing reviews on Amazon of business books. The later will also enhance his online profile.
- He gets an online presence, starting with LinkedIn and my eBook How to use LinkedIn to find a new job will help.
- He increases the amount of time he spends on job hunting, and he could do this by getting up an hour earlier and doing an hour each evening, this would double the amount of time he is spending on job search.
- Finally he decides if he actually wants to return to his desired field. If he is comfortable where he is then he won’t have the impetus to really give as much as it takes to get a new job. He really has to want the new job. It would be easier (I don’t mean easy) if he really disliked the job he was doing or didn’t have a job. Then he has the pain to escape from, so now he has to concentrate on the pleasure he will get from being successful and to make sure that every day he is doing something that moves him slightly towards his goal.
Any thoughts, comments, questions? Do leave them below.
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Denise Taylor is a chartered psychologist, registered guidance practitioner, author and award winning career coach. I love my job, and love helping other people get their ideal job both helping them get clarity on what this is and also ensuring they are successful in job search. I haven’t always loved my job and like many people climbed a ladder and when I got close to the top realised it was the wrong one. Read more on my web site www.amazingpeople.co.uk . Any questions? email me Denise@amazingpeople.co.uk.
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Posted in Career Motivators, Client Stories, JOB SEARCH
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August 20th, 2010
Open a newspaper, switch on the news etc and there will be more and more about the number of young people with great A levels who are unlikely to get to university.
We know this is tough and I really sympathise. You could say they’ve been ’sold a pup’, they thought if the studied hard and got good grades they would get to university. Plans are not going to happen and there’s so much uncertainty for both young people and parents.
Watching Newsnight on Monday evening a representative of the Russell Group of Universities said that there was a danger of young people choosing the wrong course at the wrong university, but not everyone can get the right course at the right university. Many would love to study, for example International Politics at Warwick, but if you don’t get in do you opt for whatever you can get at university of wherever?
To go to a good university is likely to increase your chance of a high paying career, plus there are the contacts you make.
The Labour party have been encouraging young people to go to university, and have wanted to get the numbers up to 50% but what is the point when there aren’t the jobs?
I’m over 50 and when I left school after O levels at a Grammar School I had 4 job offers – 2 banks, a building society and working for ICI. These were ‘good’ clerical jobs, but nowadays most of the people in these jobs have degrees, and so much debt. So graduates are doing the jobs that school leavers used to do, and it goes back down the chain so a girl with limited qualifications who when I was young would work at a supermarket is highly likely to struggle to find anything.
So what are the options available?
· Get a job
Umm, but there are so few jobs and so many people, so you have got to be highly focused to stand a chance of being successful and now is the time to get talking with people, so often people will get a job through someone they already know. You could be successful but it takes hard work, and never ending enthusiasm.
· Study part time with the Open University, Birkbeck College etc.
I did my first degree and my MBA with the OU. I also studied for my MSc in occupational psychology with Birkbeck College, part of London University. Studying part time alongside a full time job was perfect for me, it meant I could develop my career and, especially with my masters degrees, plus what I was learning into practice, and it made my studies easier too.
Of course it was hard work, you need to manage your time, but it gives you many personal qualities that employers look for, and certainly my determination, proactivity and resilience gained through part time study were very helpful when applying for promotions.
What I missed out on was the social life, and the developing of long term friendships, but as I was already married once I started studying I’d have continued to live at home and would have missed out anyway.
· Seek an apprenticeship
No idea why this is being raised as an option, this is just as competitive a field, and many companies may question why someone who was set on university is now seeking a more practical career,; why hadn’t they opted for this before?
I work with young people from 15 upwards, helping them make the right choices – will this be to study at university, may perhaps going into accountancy be the better choice, studying part time alongside work.
For some it may be university but not yet. Too many of the people I work with as a career coach wish that they had taken time to explore options, find out more so they make the right choice. It’s very frustrating for them to realise that they need to study for another degree.
Many people won’t have the budget to work with a career coach like myself, so that’s why I wrote my first book – How To Get A Job In A Recession and my 3rd book Now You’ve Been Shortlisted to provide deeper advice on interviews, assessment centres and psychometric testing.
I’m always willing to offer advice on my FaceBook page
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August 20th, 2010
Hi I’m at the end of my tether, I’ve been looking for a job in graphic design since I graduated in 2009. Please can you suggest any relevant help. I don’t need any generic links, I’ve read them all but would appreciate any practical advice anyone can give me. Thanks.
First thing I’d suggest is to review what you have already done. You may well have been applying for jobs, but to what extent have you been contacting companies direct, have you approached companies from a position of REALLY knowing what their business issues are and how you can help. This can be both design companies but also companies who may not realise the benefits of what a graphic designer can do for them.
I know you will want to do paid work, but could you see about doing work experience for a couple of days a week for a month. Or look to do some work as a freelancer for small businesses to help expand your portfolio.
There is lots more advice in my book – How To Get A Job In A Recession.
Posted in Job Hunting in a Recession, STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
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August 19th, 2010
Why do people keep talking about the ‘graduate premium’ of 100k over a lifetime. This figure is an average over all graduates.
So this means some people, e.g. those that work in the city or become senior managers in blue chip companies could earn well in excess of this, but also there will be many that will not earn anything like this in addition to if they had ‘worked their way up’ or studied part time whilst working.
But let’s take this 100k.
From this deduct 25k debt that a typical graduate leaves university with. Plus the £15k a year they could have earned if they had worked over 3 years (leaving the difficulty in getting a job at the moment to one side), so this is 45k.
This takes the extra money an average graduate will earn as £35k which over a 40 year working life is well under 1k per year. So is it really worth it?
Will be writing more on graduates later.
Love to know what you think, do comment below
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
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August 17th, 2010
I’ve been encouraging my clients to get unpaid work experience, now called Internships, as a means of developing their skills and gaining relevant work experience to increase their chance of success with job applications.
My view of unpaid work experience, is as something you would do for a few weeks, where you would do supervised work and actually learn and develop. Possibly not even full time, as 2 days a week unpaid work over 3 months could be a brilliant addition to a CV and can also help to test drive if a career is something that you should really give your all to try and move into, better to find now that the reality doesn’t match your thoughts.
For years I’ve been hearing from clients that certain careers demand a year or more of unpaid work experience, from George who wanted to work as a lobbyist to Rachael trying to get work in TV, others seeking work in fashion and PR, George and Rachael were unable to work for nothing and had to adjust their plans. George was also interested in advertising and is doing really well. Rachael has a job in another industry, not exactly what she wanted to do but she could segue into a job within a TV company with a bit of creative thinking and an upturn in the economic climate.
There are quite a few stories from interns such as this one from Sarah Geraghty.
The media today refer to Alan Milburn’s idea to offer all young people the sort of internship that the well off can offer their offspring, but I can’t seen this happening. Even if some form of payment was available, you still need to find these opportunities, and there’s a lot of competition for even unpaid work.
Paid internships are available – see Graduate Talent Pool and Wexo but the opportunities listed include many that are unpaid, or just with expenses covered.
Many people think you have to go to London to take up these Internships, and for some careers this will be true, but you could still look to create your own opportunity local to where you live.
Here’s what I suggest to my clients:
You can read more here >>
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
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August 10th, 2010
Just received this email from a client.
I’m so pleased I got in touch with you and took the Highlands Ability Battery and the Strong Interest Inventory.
The Highlands results have explained a lot of things for me, including why I’ve been going round in circles on my career ideas for so long. I could do such a diverse range of jobs that picking just one is difficult!
Pretty much all the jobs we discussed yesterday I have thought about at one time or another but some, like Interior Design, I had dismissed out of hand because I didn’t think I was “creative” enough.
Our session has encouraged me to think differently. Whatever I end up choosing to do as a career, I also now have some ideas for hobbies I could take up which is an added bonus!
Suzy, Communications Manager
Posted in Client Feedback
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August 9th, 2010
I’m included on Alvin Hall’s Generations of Money second programme in the series which focuses on young people. Out of a 90 minute interview just a couple of quotes are included but this is quite typical. When I was on The Tonight Programme we spent around half an hour walking through a shopping centre and just a couple of seconds were included.
One of the other speakers was Patrick Ainley who, along with Martin Allen has written a book – Lost Generation?: New Strategies for Youth and Education. On the radio broadcast he said that we are seeing the bursting of a huge education bubble, young people, and their parents, were sold a pipe dream which can be compared to a package holiday but the end result is a lack of jobs.
By 2009 the number of young people going to university had reached 45% but those who enter the professions tend to be those who went to a certain group of universities where the companies have connections and visit.
Now far too many young people end up in the sort of jobs that were taken by those who left school 35 years ago. Back then 4 O levels got you a good office job, now they are mostly taken by graduates.
It is a challenging time, and this is when expert career advice can be helpful – both in helping young people work out what sort of job they ideally want, what will be a useful interim step or steps and in helping them to present themselves well both in application, at interview and assessment centre.
If you would like to discuss working with me please email me. Alternatively you may like to review the articles and blog posts on my site. You may also like to buy one of my books:
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
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August 5th, 2010
The August edition of the Love Your Job newsletter is available for download here:
http://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/newsletter/Aug2010.pdf
It’s a different style and layout with masses of mini articles. You can read about:
* New Graduates
* I’ve lost 80lb since October 9th
* Taking time to chill
* Will you make the time for career coaching?
* Career Programmes
* I have a good job but am I happy in my job?
* Quotes
* Job Search help
* How to choose a career coach
* Amazing People Intern
* My books
* Denise the film director
* Denise on the radio
* Denise on DVD
* Advice for career professionals, or those who want to be
* Random acts of kindness
* Using LinkedIn for job search
* Twitter
* Working with Denise Taylor – Why I’m different
* Group Job Search Programmes
* Blog
* What Denise did last month
I hope you enjoy it
Best wishes
Denise x
Posted in Newsletter
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July 28th, 2010
Lots in the media recently that 8 out of 10 graduate recruiters refuse to interview applicants who don’t have a 2:1. This is being written as if it is something new, but 15 years ago when I did graduate recruitment, this was always the criteria we worked to although was possibly not told to the candidates.
I’ve never been sure why to use this as a criteria, as ability to get a 2:1 or first does not always translate to the best workers. Far more important is drive and application, being willing to get stuck in and get a job done, and to be proactive.
What gets me about all this doom and gloom is that it is referring to the ‘top’ graduate recruiters – people trying to get into the big 4 consultancies and blue chip training schemes, but there are so many jobs available outside of these traditional graduate schemes.
There was a good article on this in The Independent and some key advice from Martin Patrick.
Other newspapers seem to set out to be a scaremonger, with one saying that up to 270 graduates are battling for every job vacancy, but I don’t know how they have come up with this figure, although reading into the article there is a more realistic 45 applications per vacancy raising to 270 in some industries such as Unilever and Proctor and Gamble.
However, when I used to do graduate recruitment with companies such as those a percentage of the applications were extremely poor and put in with little thought, especially when people apply online. I think that this was because they would probably have an initial attempt to understand the questions and then go back in and put in a proper application. Sometimes that’s the only way to get a list of questions so you can take your time to create a well considered application
Another article says that a third of graduates are in low skill jobs or on the dole 6 months after leaving university. But that has always been the case as graduates decide what it is that they do want to do, or take a job as a stop gap till they get the job they want.
There is certainly a need to be proactive and flexible, as The Independent writes more on the ‘doom and gloom’ for graduates.
Being proactive could mean setting up your own business and any businesses were started in a recession.
It’s also being flexible and being willing to ‘work your way up’ In an article in The Times Sunday Magazine the writer Eleanor Mills reminds people that the world does not owe us a living, and says that back in 1992 her first job was working on a trade magazine and she learnt that you have to start somewhere. Her flat mate who wanted to work for Goldman Sachs had to start as a waitress but eventually got into her preferred company as a temp and worked her way up to a top analyst.
So much is written about the high earning potential of graduates, but this Is in general terms, not for everyone. Even back in the 1980s when just 12% of the population went to University, not every graduate got straight onto a great graduate job. some did later, and others, for various reasons did no better with a degree than they would have without, although they had had an enjoyable 3 years at uni. now 40% of young people go to university and they aren’t all going to get these high paid jobs.
Back when I was young (sorry for sounding so ancient) you could get a great office job with 4 O levels, now companies have so many applicants with degrees that the entry standard has raised. Which makes it very hard for those with 5 or 6 GCSEs.
How to stand out from the crowd – and ideally you should be doing this before graduation
* Seek an internship in the area you want to work in
* Demonstrate you are able to work, you understand the requirements of being an employee and have work experience to back this up
* Create a CV targeted to the job you seek and be proactive and contact companies direct.
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
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