| Career Development And Change Advice Blog |
| Career Advice, Job Search, Redundancy and Career Change |
The first thing we all do when starting to look for a new job is to write or update our CV. But how often do we stop to think about the effectiveness of what we are doing? CVs have been around a long time but are they really that good? Might there be a better way of communicating who we are and what we offer to prospective employers? (more…)
The pious outrage expressed by sections of the media over the 50% top tax band is as ill-informed as it is partisan. It is based on the false assumption that the salaries that people earn are directly proportional to their ability and their value to the national economy. Which is patently not the case.
We had a Career Energy away day yesterday, an opportunity for senior management in the company to put our heads together and think about where we are going as a company, and where we want to go. We decided to look at our mission statement again, it is something we have never really finalised. Although there are good reasons for this, it is time that we did produce the definitive statement that says what we aspire to as a company and what we believe our role and purpose is. But it is not easy.
Today’s budget is expected to be a ‘budget for jobs’. Amongst the measures likely to be announced are a job creation scheme for youth, support for the car industry through a scrappage scheme and grants for employers in certain sectors, particularly social care, hospitality and local authorities, to employ eligible job seekers. All welcome stuff, but is it enough? (more…)
Readers of the BBC News website may have seen an item on the forthcoming research by Volunteering England which shows a remarkable upswing in the numbers of active citizens performing duties on an unpaid, volunteer basis.
As a professional Career Consultant at Career Energy I often help clients to overcome gaps in their CV by encouraging them to consider volunteering as a way of becoming an ‘insider’ in a new field. Some people still do not see volunteering as ‘real work’, and therefore (more…)
They are called efficiency savings. They are designed to save Whitehall £10bn a year. In reality a large proportion of these savings are job cuts. And they are likely to cost almost as much as they save. (more…)
Sadly, the announcement that Freedom Direct Holidays has collapsed with the loss of 109 jobs is likely to be the precursor to a rash of travel company failures over the course of this summer. When economic times are tough holidays are one of the areas that people cut back on. Every recession sees the demise of travel companies; this one is unlikely to be any different. So if you work in travel, what should you be doing now? (more…)
Unemployment is affecting young people more than any other group, according to a new BBC report. The unemployment rate among under 25-year-olds is more than double that of any group over 30. This is no surprise, youth unemployment is nearly always higher than any other group. The question is what to do about it, and indeed how to solve the problem with a positive strategy. (more…)
What is it that makes someone throw a promising career away? Whether Damian McBride, Jonathan Ross or one of many other similar cases, what is it about the way they view their career that allows them to lose all sense of proportion? Is it an overwhelming passion for the work they day, such that they no longer see things in perspective? Or is it just madness, or stupidity? (more…)
A newspaper reported over the weekend that private school pupils are to be encouraged to coach their contemporaries in state schools on debating techniques and on how to develop their self confidence. State school pupils will also be encouraged to develop networks similar to the old school tie networks to which private pupils are said to belong. The advocates of this proposal believe that private school pupils excel in the professions and business due to their childhood networks and their greater self confidence. I am not sure that this assumption is correct.