October Issue PROFESSIONAL EDITION
Investing In Your Career
4
Job-Seekers, Stop Beating Yourselves Up!
8
Continuing Professional Development
12
Types of Interviews
14
Top Tips For Making Your CV Stand Out
16
Photography Feature
20
Puzzles & Brainteasers
22
EDITOR’S LETTER Hello everybody! It gives us great pleasure to welcome you to the October Issue of the Careers UK Magazine. Our goal is to be your go-to place for career-related advice. Our aim is to guide you through each step of your career development and job-hunting journey. We intend to be the best career information hub with a great job-hunting platform and a great easy-to-read magazine that is freely available to everyone. We’d love to hear from you on social media if you have any feedback or enquiries.
EDITORIAL POLICY: The views, comments, statements and opinions are not necessarily those of Careers UK. Careers UK will accept no responsibility for any loss incurred by any person or organisation as a result of using any material from this publication.
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EDITORIAL: Shareen Akhter
CIRCULATION: Kirti Patel
MARKETING:
Sham Tizora & Aiden Brocklehurst
DESIGN: Jess Griffiths
IT:
Sky Shazad & James Hall
@careersuk www.careersuk.org
Investing In Your Career
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Investing in your career should become a permanent fixture on your ‘To-Do’ list. Why? Because 75% of who you are – where you live, your status, your dressing, your present and your future – are all somehow influenced by your career and your earnings. We believe having a continuous personal career review/ audit and evaluation is critical in ensuring you are maximising your personal ROI (return on investment) for the time you are putting into your career, given that more than 50% of the time you are awake is spent working.
Have a clear mission and vision
Create your own personal mission statement, briefly defining your values, beliefs, motives and purpose – both in life and at work. Based on your mission, create a vision about what you want to achieve from your job.
Create a career game plan and SMART objectives
Use your mission and vision to create a simple game plan and objectives you can use to achieve this. Use the popular management mnemonic; SMART to ensure the objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. Make small, realistic, and measurable steps which you should constantly review. If you’re looking for a job: • I want to create/update my CV and LinkedIn profile in the next 48 hours • I want to register my details with job boards and recruitment agencies in the next 3 days • I want to search for jobs on job boards, employer websites and recruitment consultants’ websites by end of week If you’re aiming to getting promoted: • I want to start connecting and hanging around with key people such as XYZ from this month • I want to mention my intentions to get promoted to my manager, and I want to clarify the key criteria to progress within the organisation • I want to propose having meetings with a key manager to discuss my accomplishments and progress to make my achievements visible • I want to enrol on this course XYZ next month and I will be updating my manager on my
progress on a regular basis • I have identified a need which could help the business, I want to speak to my manager if it’s possible to action this in the next 3 months
Build a network
Build your ideal trusted network to advise, support and guide you in the career enhancement process. Some useful networking tips include: • Befriending and linking up with key decisionmakers and people in high places • Identify a few people who could act as your mentors and professional allies • Connect online with people you think could be relevant to your career progression • Join relevant professional associations or LinkedIn groups
Identify career-enhancing initiatives
Through embracing a bit of curiosity and an appetite for learning, investigate what people at the roles you want have that you don’t have. Possible gaps could include: • Specific qualifications or training courses • Experience of a specific nature • Skills such as soft skills or technical expertise
Maintain a positive attitude
Whether you’re looking for a job or you’re faced with dissatisfaction, always maintain a positive mental attitude. Positivity helps you see beyond your current situation and visualise a broader spectrum of possibilities available to you and the great potential within you. • Positivity energises you, enabling you to widen your perspective and think of how you’re more than capable of getting the extra skills and competences to take you to the next level • Positivity helps you to think long-term and avoid a myopic mind set • Positivity enables you to overcome fear and to embrace change (new job, new challenges, new environments)
ARTICLE CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE Thriving at work • Page 5
PART 2 OF ‘INVESTING IN YOUR CAREER’ On the flip-side, negativity yields fear and a whinging personality, which could be costly to yourself, your team and the entire organisation – it could even cost you your job. Avoid complaining, blaming others and believing that someone owes you a favour or apology. Tips to maintain positivity include: • Invest in positivity - feed your mind with positive inputs and surround yourself to create a truly positive atmosphere • Think positively, speak positively, act positively – tame your tongue, mind and body to view everything and everyone in a positive way • Create a positive lifestyle; whatever works for you – laughing, humour, taking breaks, eating healthy, gym, getaways • Celebrate little successes and daily, weekly or monthly high points • Take responsibility, train yourself to anticipate challenges and to create positive solutions
Carry out a SWOT analysis
Another tool is the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities Threats) Analysis. This enables you to self-reflect and identify your: • Strengths – your key selling points and your strongest attributes, those that you excel in and are within your control • Weaknesses – your weakest attributes that negatively impact your career and are substantially within your control • Opportunities – these are positive external environmental influences that are not within your control but could potentially benefit you • Threats - these are negative external environmental influences that are not within your control but could potentially affect you if you do not take action to protect yourself After carrying out a personal SWOT Analysis, you then use it to seek for possible actions you can use to enhance your strengths, overcome your weaknesses, maximise on your opportunities and mitigate your threats.
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Be willing to invest in your career • Invest your time and money through getting relevant qualifications, education or training • Invest your time in teaching yourself soft skills. Use relevant books and YouTube videos • Invest time in building a solid online brand on the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter • Invest your time volunteering in charities, clubs or as a non-executive director • If relevant, consider learning a new language
Calculate your Return on Investment
When deciding where to invest your time and money, consider the following technique of determining your ROI. This will enable you to determine: how much time or money do I need to spend? What am I expecting to get from this career investment? How long will it take before I realise the gain? The return on investing in your career is way higher than average property value increases, savings or stock markets investments. For instance, if someone on a £40,000 salary invests in their career development and it leads to a promotion with a £50,000 salary; that’s a 20% per year return, for the rest of your career! Annual house price increase averages around 5%. Personal development increases your personal net-worth, boosts your self esteem, selfactualisation and courage.
Avoid being average
Personal career development gives you that allimportant safety net, reducing your risk as you face each day in this complex and unpredictable world. With the level of competition on the job market, you can’t afford to be average. In a market where only the fittest survive, ensure your hard and soft skills are exceptional in everything you do, be it your current job, writing your CV, attending an interview or working on a career enhancing project.
STAND OUT AND SHINE, BE CONFIDENT AND FEARLESS, MAINTAIN A CHAMPION MENTALITY.
Job-Seekers,
Stop Beating Yourselves Up! Are you still judging your ability as a job-seeker by how many calls you receive? If you’re older than millennials, you’re probably being too hard on yourself. LinkedIn is a gamechanger in the recruitment & job seeking industry. Yes, that’s one industry but from two perspectives – the recruiter is the buyer, the job-seeker the seller. Unlike the old days, the buyers now do their research online probably through LinkedIn or other social media. Even if they ‘google’ you, your social media presence will probably be top among the results that pertain to you. So, these days, when searching for prospective candidates, they research you online and more often than not, will glean enough information to reject you for a role you haven’t even applied for! Therefore, they have no reason to call you in the first place. But you can’t withhold information about yourself in an attempt to get them to call you; that doesn’t work.
If you, the job-seeker (seller), don’t reveal enough about yourself online, before the application stage, they won’t call you, they’ll simply move on in pursuit of other potential candidates (online).
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When I started in recruitment in the mid-nineties, when the internet was born but long before it was useful; we called everyone, because how else would we find out more information about them? We knew most people weren’t right, but they might have known someone who was.
oranges. So, don’t beat yourself up about it. You should however keep an eye on who’s viewing your LinkedIn profile.
It’s all changed now, because of the internet.
When people call me for a free consultation, I usually need to reassure them that the problem is not so much their capabilities or experience, but the way they play the job seeking game. Most such calls are from job-seekers (sellers) who have been failing to generate enough positive attention from the recruiters and hiring managers (buyers). They suspect traditional job seeking tools – online job boards, advertised vacancies and recruiters – are failing them. And they are usually right! Seeing as you can’t remove the associated emotions of job seeking from the job seeking ‘game’ itself, you have to reframe your emotions, to make them work for you. A negative emotion can paralyse you or spur you on. It depends on how you handle your emotions.
Whether you like it or not, to be a competitive job-seeker, you must play the game online. Yes, the recruiters/buyers still need to talk to people but only the ones who remain potential candidates after they’ve found answers to their initial pre-qualifying questions. It’s not enough for them to know you are a Project Manager, they will need to know, for how long, Prince2 or PMP, with what industry background, having led what sized teams, et-cetera. Recruiters these days would rather pre-qualify you from a well-written LinkedIn profile than by having to chase and read your CV. Why? Because it’s quicker! Don’t worry, they’ll get around to your CV eventually, but only if they recognise you as a potential candidate, not just a random job-seeker. First things first, right? The competitive job-seeker must be prepared to divulge more about themselves publicly, than ever before; and the number of calls you receive today as compared with yester-year…apples and
Stop doubting your ability and experience; the problem is communication.
Your inability to communicate effectively as a job-seeker doesn’t render your knowledge and experience useless. Or put another way, your inability to flirt well doesn’t make you any less the loving partner when you do eventually find love. No, the challenge lies in the communication or ‘selling’ of yourself. So get flirting!
About the author Richard Pimm is a vastly experienced recruiter and job-seeker career coach specialising in jobseeking technique. He is also a former President of Tunbridge Wells Speakers, part of the global organisation Toastmasters. He has been helping job-seekers since the mid-nineties. He founded PimmCo through which he continues to help jobseekers obtain competitive advantage. Here’s a link to his own introduction video on the PimmCo website: www.pimmco.co.uk Richard Pimm Founder of PimmCo www.pimmco.co.uk richardpimm@live.com 07771370811
Job seeking has nothing to do with how good you are at what you do; it has everything to do with convincing people you are good.
Take back control. In my last article – Job Seeking and Happiness – Fighting Back! – I wrote about changes you need to make to be happier and the need to be a better job-seeker to bring about this change. And in this article, I’m encouraging you to go easy on yourself, especially the neurotics among you. To that
end, might I suggest you rely less on the traditional job seeking tools mentioned above and instead, take back control by learning to find, articulate and promote your personal brand. And then, crucially, tap into the unadvertised or ‘hidden’ job market. There is massive opportunity in the unadvertised or ‘hidden’ job market, but you must learn how to tap into it.
Managing your emotions better as a job-seeker will allow you to be more motivated, more effective, and generate better results. In my next article, we’ll look at personality types and how a better understanding or yourself, will help you get out of your own way when interviewing.
This is a fairly specialist thing requiring far too much information than this short article affords us, but just knowing there’s more out there than traditional tools, should intrigue and encourage you. Job Market • Page 9
Continuing Professional Development Most people look forward to the day they sit their final exam as the end of the era of learning - mission accomplished! Unfortunately, that will change when you realise your work colleagues’ performance are superior to yours. The 4 most important secrets for a successful and fulfilling career are: never stop believing, never stop dreaming, never stop trying, and never stop learning. The CPD standards (2019) define continuing professional development (CPD) as an intentional and planned maintenance and development of one’s knowledge and skills required for better performance within a professional context. This ranges from enhancing current skills, taking them to a superior level, or learning completely new skills. Continuing personal development (CPD) is a conscious, ongoing effort that should take place throughout your career. It’s a way of ensuring that you continue to develop, learn and become more effective and competent throughout your career. CPD refers to a number of different activities and events designed to enhance personal career growth. These include: • External courses and training sessions • Magazines and journals • Online learning and YouTube videos • Reflective practice and peer reviews • On-the-job training • Mentoring and voluntary work • Conferences and seminars • Networking events
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WHY IS CPD SO IMPORTANT?
It helps you focus on your goals
Reflecting on and analysing your progress can be the push you need to remind you of what direction you’re heading in. Seeing where you started out compared to where you are currently can provide a little needed inspiration. Consider both you short term and longterm goals when you’re thinking about how to take the next step.
It ensures your qualifications don’t become outdated
There may be skills or qualifications you acquired through education that you rarely use. By practicing CPD, you can make sure these skills don’t become stagnant and lost and can find ways to apply them to your current role. Search for a way to take refresher courses or upgrade your qualification.
It’s a great way of collecting examples for future interviews
Thinking of examples to respond to competencybased questions with can be tricky, however, by recording your own personal development, you are
arming yourself with specific examples that may become useful. This way, when the time comes for you to be interviewed for a different job or a higher position within your current company, you can adapt these examples into STAR formatted answers.
It allows you to grow
It can be easy to get stuck in the same continuous cycle when you’re at work. Searching for ways to grow within your industry opens new doors and opportunities for you, so that you don’t fall out of love with your career.
It keeps your customers happy
CPD ensures your skills remain sharp and quality of your performance remains top notch, increasing the chances of meeting and exceeding your customers / stakeholders’ expectations.
It futureproofs your career
CPD ensures that your development doesn’t stop after completion of your studies and keeps you in control of your own professional development, thus safeguarding and also futureproofing your career. CPD ensures that your skills and knowledge stay relevant and up-to-date, especially in an age when an astronomical pace of change is the new normal. With the way technology is disrupting professions left right and centre, standing still will rapidly make your skills ancient and is absolutely not an option.
It’s a key driver for promotion and career progression CPD enhances your contribution to your employer and often make you stand head-and-shoulders above your colleagues. Investing in CPD rarely goes unnoticed by bosses and makes it easier when negotiating a bonuses pay-rises.
It motivates you and makes you love going to work
CPD finetunes your skills, helping you stay interested, engaged and satisfied. Carefully planned CPD opens you up to new horizons, new possibilities and new innovations.
Personal reflection
Recording your CPD can be an important reference for personal reflection. To track and plan your own CPD, you need to consider your current situation, where you want to be and what steps you need to take to achieve your goals. You should record your personal development throughout your career; updating your CV or LinkedIn profile is the perfect reminder of how far you’ve come. Keep in mind that being in charge of your own CPD requires you to be honest, critical and self-reflective about your own performance. Most professional bodies have made CPD a mandatory requirement. It is a fundamental part of their codes of ethics as a way of ensuring high quality service whilst satisfying the expectations and requirements of regulators and stakeholders.
Thriving at work• Page 13
Types of Interviews Face to face Face to face interviews are by far the most common. You will have to visit the establishment and be interviewed in person by either a manager, senior staff, or a panel. They will ask you a series of questions that will determine whether they think you should be hired for the job.
Group A group interview is when an employer invites you and other candidates to one interview and assesses you all at once. Usually, group interviews will take place before the one-to-one interview so you will have to try your absolute best to secure one. It can consist of having a group discussion or group activities so make sure to pipe up and let your voice be heard.
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1. Research the company before the interview. Some employers like to ask what you know about the company and will judge you based on your knowledge of it. 2. Research different interview questions and practice your answers. Come up with answers for the most popular questions so that if you do get asked, you will know what to say. 3. Arrive on time. This is very important! 4. Don’t forget your firm hand-shake, eyecontact and positive body gestures. 5. Remember the STAR interview technique when answering competency-based questions.
1. Some group interviews will have team building exercises. Show the employer that you work well in a team. Listen to the group and give your opinion but don’t take over. 2. Avoid talking over people when they are trying to speak. Give others a chance to speak and when they have finished, you can include your opinion as well. 3. Show that you can manage team challenges, stress, criticism, and a competitive environment. 4. Avoid getting lost in the group. Be confident and assertive in articulating your views but without creating tension. 5. Be inclusive, to showcase your true leadership skills. Support the quiet people and encourage them to contribute.
Phone A telephone interview is a short call that will consist of the employer getting to know you and asking questions. It is often the first time the employer makes contact and some use it as an initial screening strategy. In some cases it may be due to geography – a recruiter may want to do a first interview over the phone with the hope of a second face-to-face interview if the candidate is looking promising.
Video Some employers like to interview by video calls so they can see you without having to spend time and resources on interviewing you in person. This is usually done on Skype, FaceTime or other similar software. Make sure you have access to a quiet space, a good Wi-Fi connection and a device with videocall capabilites.
1. Make sure you have good signal so the call doesn’t lag or drop. A poor quality connection will make you look unprofessional. 2. Pick a time and day when you know you’ll be able to conveniently talk on the phone. 3. Sometimes employers won’t arrange a telephone interview and will call you without prior notice. Let them know if it’s okay for you to talk at that time. If you can’t talk, politely tell them and re-arrange a time for when you can. 4. Have your notes, CV, job description or specification ready in front of you. 5. Speak clearly and confidently, not too slow, not too fast – and show your energy and enthusiasm in the way you talk. 6. Don’t try to multi-task. Not only do distractions cause background noise, losing focus can make you sound disinterested.
1. Dress smartly - remember they will be able to see you! Ensure the background is tidy and the room has sufficient lighting. 2. Make sure you have good Wi-Fi, and ensure the room has good acoustics – no echoes or outside noises. 3. Avoid background distractions. Put your phone on silent. Test your technology prior to the interview - you will need a camera, microphone, and a stable internet connection. 4. Again, avoid multi-tasking. 5. Smile; and use your body language – they can still see all of your facial expressions, gestures and posture.
Job Market • Page 15
Top Tips For Making Your CV Stand Out 1. Employers have seen an increase in CV’s that
include a picture of the candidate. Some have welcomed the trend, but others prefer to keep things traditional. If you prefer to stay safe or you feel it’s not really necessary, don’t add a photo - not only is it a grey area, but if an employer chooses not to hire you it may be interpreted as an act of discrimination. But if you feel it will help in your particular field, go for it – one thing for certain, it will make your CV stand out.
2. Adding your professional title beneath your name can be a good way of catching an employer’s eye. Sometimes something as simple as a couple of keywords can help your CV stand out.
3. Have a neat, professional but unique layout.
Templates are a great way to get started - there are plenty available to download online. It’s okay to use a friend’s or relatives CV as reference with their permission. For creative roles, a more imaginative design may be necessary, as it may be a key part of the employer’s decision-making criteria.
4. Get someone to proofread it for you - they
may spot something in terms of layout, grammar and content that you may have missed including something as small as a spelling error.
5. Be truthful- it’s been said a thousand times but the
more honest you are, the less likely you are to fumble in the interview.
6. It’s not uncommon for people to have more
than one version of their CV. This is a useful tactic for graduates who are looking to break into their desired career but need an alternative option in the meantime. Don’t overwhelm yourself but have at least two solid templates you can tailor to specific job roles. Before applying for any role, it’s always advisable to research more about the company and the role you’re applying for.
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7. Don’t be afraid to seek advice - most universities, colleges and job centres have careers advisors that can assist you in creating your CV. If you’re struggling, pay them a visit.
8. Stay away from generic buzzwords and dull,
commonly used phrases such as ‘hard working’, ‘motivated’, ‘punctual’. Instead evidence your skills with examples from your career history. If possible, try borrowing the language of the job description to help establish a natural connection with the employer.
9. Avoid negative and ambiguous words such as ‘I
have basic knowledge in’ or ‘I was required to perform various tasks’. Be more positive, specific, assertive and confident in your skills.
10. Don’t limit your experience to your paid jobs,
but spice it up with any other activities – charitable activities, volunteering, sporting activities, club and society memberships, travelling abroad, competitions and college/university projects.
11. Use relevant keywords to allow your CV found in
searches on applicant tracking systems, job boards and social media profiles such as LinkedIn. Recruiters use these systems to filter out applications, and using keywords increase chances of your CV coming before a real human being. These could include professional or industry qualifications, systems used, technical processes or unique experience relevant to that profession.
12. Stick to a maximum of two pages. One page
for entry level candidates or those who are good at summarising. If going for the two page option, avoid leaving the second page half-empty.
13. Avoid using uncommon acronyms, unless if its
something as obvious as GSCE. If it’s something not that obvious, write in brackets what it stands for.
Lastly, key sections to include on your CV:
Personal details
Key things to include: name, address, phone number and email. Adding your LinkedIn Profile or your website is also a great idea. Avoid including your age, gender, nationality, marital status and date of birth. Also steer away from including details of your other social media accounts, it’s doubtful there are any relevant details worth including! Avoid unprofessional email addresses and just open another one – it’s free, after all.
Personal profile
A brief pitch of who you are, your USPs (Unique Selling Points) / key skills, strengths and core competences/experience; as well as your main career aim.
Work experience
Make sure you include the roles you have had in the past. Its common to lay them out in chronological order, starting with your current/ latest/most recent role. Include your key achievements and skills acquired in each role. Most people tend to use bullet points to keep them short, snappy and easy to skim through.
Education and qualifications
Include all the major qualifications you have attained including the dates you qualified. Again, it’s common to have them in chronological order. Avoid including short courses or listing every GCSE you have studied; unless that’s all you have. Include
qualifications you are currently studying and a predicted grade and anticipated date of completion, if known. For degrees, if relevant, you may want to emphasise any key modules/ dissertations/thesis/projects.
Skills summary
An optional section that can used to showcase your core skills. By breaking down your key skills into easy-to-read, well formatted points you make it easier for the employer to scan through your main abilities and strengths.
Interests and hobbies
Show your personality and social side by including things that you do outside work. This could include volunteering, charity work, clubs, travelling and sporting activities.
References
Stay away from writing the full references. Just mentioning that ‘references available on request’ usually suffice. Some modern recruiters advocate for not including this section at all, it’s a waste of valuable space and adds no value. POPULAR CV BUILDING WEBSITES: www.online-cv.co.uk www.cv.co.uk www.resume.io www.cvmaker.uk www.canva.com www.livecareer.co.uk
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Job Market • Page 17
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PHOTO OF THE MONTH JESS GRIFFITHS Bradford Photo taken at the Peak District National Park @grifficdesigns
Special Features • Page 21
PUZZLES & BRAINTEASERS RIDDLES 1. What do you call a skeleton that makes you laugh? 2. What did the ghost teacher say to her class? 3. What room do ghosts avoid? 4. Why did the witch refuse to wear a flat hat? 5. What happens when a ghost gets lost in the fog? 6. Why are graveyards noisy? 7. What is a mummy’s favourite type of music? 8. Why didn’t Dracula have any friends? 9. What does a ghost panda like to eat? 10. Why didn’t the zombie go trick or treating?
ZOOM IN FOR ANSWERS Riddles:
Letter Scramble:
1. A funny bone
6. Because of all the coffin
11. Spooky
15. Treat
2. “Watch the board and I’ll go through it again”
7. Rap music
12. Ghost
16. Undead
8. Because he was a pain in the neck
13. Scary
17. Mummy
14. Scream
18. Coffin
3. The living room 4. Because there wasn’t any point to it 5. He is mist
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9. Bam-boo 10. Because he felt rotten
LETTER SCRAMBLE 11. O K Y P S O
15. A R T T E
12. T H S O G
16. N U D E A D
13. S C Y R A
17. M M M Y U
14. R M A E S C
18. O F F I N C
START
FINISH
Puzzles & Brainteasers • Page 23