Career

Do you get that sinking feeling on a Sunday when you know you’ve got work tomorrow? Or perhaps you’d love to get a job and would like to look forward to work on a Monday morning?

Chances are, if one of the above sentences resonates with you, then you are ‘stuck’.

There are 4 stages where you could be stuck, so identify what stage you are at and then read on for some handy tips and advice.

Stage 1: You don’t know what job you want to do / or would be good at

Get an A3 or A4 piece of plain paper out and make a mind map with following headings:

What’s my goal or purpose in life?

What sort of people do I like to work with?

What are my transferable skills?

What are my areas of knowledge or fields of interest?

What sector would I like to work in? I.e. Financial, Charity, Marketing

In what location would I prefer to work? Would you move area?

What is the minimum salary range I would be prepared to live on?

Are there any gaps in my skills that I need further training on?

Start mapping all your answers out and I guarantee that a path will start to emerge

Stage 2: You don’t know where to look for that type of work

The Internet is a good place to start but rather than trawling all the jobs boards, use one that is a ‘catch-all’. I use www.indeed.co.uk as I like the fact that you can search by area and salary. For instance, if your minimum salary is £25,000 put that into the ‘What’ search box and then put the location in the ‘Where’ box.

Make good use of Social Media. Are you on Twitter? If so, follow all the companies that you feel you’d like to work for, and then you’ll get alerts the minute they advertise a vacancy. Same with Facebook. Not tried LinkedIn yet? You should! There are 300m+ users on LinkedIn and that’s companies as well as people. So ‘fish where the fish are’. Companies who have their own profile page will often advertise their vacancies on LinkedIn, as that is where they feel the business community is!

Word of Mouth. Does everyone you know, know what you are looking for? Let others be a ‘scout’ for you too. If they hear of anything that suits you, hopefully, they’ll hot foot back to you and let you know. Don’t ‘assume’ that people know.

Stage 3: Your CV is not opening doors to interview

It always amazes me how clients keep sending out the same old CV and expect to get a different result. If you’ve sent it out 20 times and you’ve not even got a sniff of an interview, then there’s something wrong with the CV! That’s where people like me can help with a FREE CV Review. Just send it along with a note of what type of role you are trying to get in to and I’ll give you my honest feedback and some useful notes on how to change it, for FREE.

Email:  christine@high10.co.uk

Stage 4: You are getting interviews, but not getting the job

Then this is definitely your interview technique that is letting you down. Again don’t go into the next interview with the same old patter, as you’ll get the same old result! If cash is tight then invest in a book. I’d recommend ‘Brilliant Answers to Tough Interview Questions’ as a starter. And if cash is really tight then the library will have a copy. If you can afford it, find a good Career Coach in your area and ask them to take you through a mock interview and give you honest feedback.

As always, if you have a quick question, or need my help, do contact me – I don’t bite!  Email:  christine@high10.co.uk

Now hate is a very strong word but I’d certainly endorse that figure by saying that 75%+ of people get little or no enjoyment from their career/role. Are you one of them?

It’s so easy to ‘fall’ into a role because

1. The salary was attractive
2. Someone else said you’d be good at it
3. You were promoted

But I’ve spent the majority of my career coaching sessions

1. Coaching people who seem to have it all – title, salary, benefits – but are extremely unhappy
2. Are following someone else’s dream career (that the person who suggested it, always wanted to do themselves)
3. Suddenly find that they have been promoted and now have to manage ‘people’ rather than processes (which is the bit they probably loved and excelled at)

So how do you get yourselves out of this pickle, so you don’t become part of the 75% statistic?

The first step is to have a strategy/plan of moving from where you are now, to where you want to be. And then be prepared to take ACTION to get there. (After all, you wouldn’t go on a holiday without doing a bit of research first and then making a plan – visiting travel agents, looking on the map, researching the area, buying the currency etc. etc).

However, although this option is open to everyone, some people seem to get some pleasure from being ‘stuck’. Is that you?

If not, get that plan together and have the trip of your life into a career you truly deserve and love.

Here’s a FREEBIE to get you started:

The Career Lens is a great place to start. Download this free exercise and within 10-15 minutes you’ll already be on your way to a new start.

Click here to get your instant Career Lens – no sign up required!