Welcome to June, the start of summer, and more rain.

If you are a regular subscribe you know how much I love music, and I've now been to my first 2 festivals of the season - Off The Tracks near Castle Donnington and Wychwood Festival at Cheltenham race course. I so enjoy being able to listen to music and dance. It really is a passion of mine, but alas I just don't have the natural ability to learn a musical instrument but I've always had a bit of a dream of being a DJ, I've even found a course to go on.

At this weekend's festival one of the workshops was on DJ techniques, I went along, and now have a much clearer idea on what equipment to buy and am going to go to a store and look into buying my decks etc next weekend. Music is my passion but will never be my career, but that’s fine, I think it does us good to have something that we really enjoy outyside of paid work.

When I'm working with clients I'll ask people about their passions and interests - some people can list lots of things but others can't think of anything, so I get them to think about the things they enjoy doing, it doesn’t have to be a passion, but I think we all need to have some non work interests.  Its a bit of a wake up call for some when they realise that outside of work and household and family chores all they do is flop in front of the telly with a few cans of beer.

It's been a busy few months for me, too busy at times. I can look back and think how much time I wasted on something that didn't work out, like preparing a big tender for a company, going to meetings, getting to the final and then coming second. but if we don't pursue these things we'll never know what might have been, a bit like Signature coming second on Britain's Got Talent.

In this months issue you can:

• Read an article on Career planning for graduates
• Read about the Featured assessment -The Strong Interest Inventory
• Read an article on Where to get career help
• Read about my media appearances! - Radio Gloucestershire and The Apprentice Magazine

I hope you enjoy reading this.  Do get in touch if you think I can help in any way, and I look forward to talking to you again next month.

Kindest regards,

p.s if you like this, do pass it on to a friend, and suggest they sign up for the 10 Steps to a Job you Love eProgramme, my complimentary gift to all subscribers.

This past month I've been contacted by 3 parents, all of whom wanted advice on behalf of their sons.  One of the emails is typical: “I am looking into what assistance there is available for my son.  He got a 2:1 B eng degree in Sports Engineering last summer, but is still at home working in a pub.  We are not clear what his motivation or direction is?”

It’s so hard isn’t it we want our young adults to find a career that suits them but it isn’t always easy, and we can’t do things for them.

Some young people have worked so long and hard for A levels and a degree that they need some time to chill out a bit and reflect on what they want to do in a career.

This can be time well spent if people are looking into what they want to do but too often the weeks turn into months and then a whole year has gone by. This means when they start applying for graduate jobs they are competing against the current graduates as well.

As parents we can get frustrated, wanting to help our children but we can’t do it for them, they have to want to take action.

Working in a pub isn’t a bad job – you meet people and develop good people skills but probably 6 months is long enough. 

So what do I suggest?

You can make suggestions, perhaps forward them a copy of this newsletter, but you can’t do it for them. As we all now the more we suggest something the more stubborn some people become. However you may like to tell them some of my top tips

If you want a low cost way to find out about alternative jobs you may like to take the Strong Interest Inventory. This is a questionnaire that covers 291 questions that looks at a number of different careers, details on your interest in subjects and activities, your thoughts on different leisure activities and also the sort of people you would like to work with.
It’s based on the work of John Holland which loosely states that both people and occupations can be categorised into 6 types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. I've got some details on this here.

The research says that people with similar interests are often attracted to the same kind of work, feel comfortable with others who share their interests, and are likely to be successful in a work environment that reflects those interests.

The Strong is especially useful for people in the early stages of career planning. It will not predict with certainty what occupation you should consider. However, by indicating how similar or dissimilar your interests are in comparison with people in a wide variety of occupations, it can be a useful step towards identifying work settings and occupations that may be satisfying to you.

It costs £50 or £60 and for this you get a full colour report (minimum of 9 pages), an in-depth, personalised account of your results, which clearly shows how your specific interests, learning, leadership and risk taking link to various jobs, work settings and careers.

Read More

Where to get career help? Once you know you want to make a change in your career there are many options for help. both free and paid. Here you can read about the options to choose the best option for you. 

It details free services available: freinds and family, governemnt help, university career services and recruitment agencies.

It also outlines the paid services and the differences betwen them

• Outplacement consultants
• Executive career coaching
• CV writing services
• Chartered psychologists
• Career guidance counsellors
• Life coaches
• Job search strategists

I contributed to an Article in The Apprentice Magazine on Gossip in the Workplace. "According to Denise Taylor, career psychologist, it can be bad, but it also serves a purpose too. ‘Gossip is generally seen as harmful and hurtful to people but in some cases it can be constructive, such as when it helps you find out that the company you work for is in difficulties and you need to sort out your CV quickly so you can apply for a new job,’ she says.

You can read page 1 and page 2 of the article here.

I have also been on Radio Gloucestershire twice this month, for my regular morning slot and also talking about Retirement and the psychological perspective for when people should start planning. More

What Denise did last month

• Worked with 21 clients
• Worked with 4 students at Gloucestershire University to help them with exam preparation - practical and psychological
• Made 23 entries on my blog
• Undertook 12 MBTI feedback sessions for 2 senior management teams
• Facilitated a top team workshop
• Went to 2 festivals - Off The Tracks and Wychwood Festival
• Chilled out at Champneys Health spa

In the Blog

http://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/blog/

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