| Career Development And Change Advice Blog |
| Career Advice, Job Search, Redundancy and Career Change |
One of the most difficult assessments to make if you are not happy at work is whether the problem lies in your choice of career, or in the company you work for. It is a difficult assessment because for most people the only way to really find out is to get a similar job in a different company and see if it is any better. To be really sure you would need to do this several times. And of course this is very impractical. (more…)
It looks as if the formal retirement age is to be abolished next year. Although we will still be able to retire and draw a state pension at 65 new legislation will enable us, if we wish, to continue working and making contributions to our pension beyond that age. Which has profound implications for the way we view our careers and what we want to do in our retirement. (more…)
One initiative being touted in influential circles is known as Alternatives to Redundancy, or ATR. Under this scheme, rather than making staff redundant, employers will pay them them the equivalent of Job Seekers Allowance, in addition to the benefits they receive from the government, for up to six months. After six months they will get their job back. (more…)
Over the past few days we have been exploring how you can protect your job if redundancy is looming. This is the third and final article in the series. All three articles will be circulated shortly to our mailing list, so if you would like a copy please go to careerenergy.co.uk and enter your name and e-mail address in the boxes on the right hand side. (more…)
Those who manage their careers well will find it much easier to protect their job against possible redundancy. I know that is not much comfort if you are fearing redundancy and are not proactive in managing your career but before we discuss instant solutions let’s look at what career management means and how it can assist you in the long term. (more…)
Surveys recently have suggested that we could be in for another twelve months of redundancies before the economy really starts to turn around. Unemployment could reach 3.2 million, maybe more. Redundancy is a possibility for most of us, and the question has to be, how do you protect your job in a climate like this? (more…)
There are grumblings from certain quarters about BT’s plans to offer staff time off work in return for big pay cuts. The argument is: If they can afford to be without so many staff for so long they can afford to be without them permanently; why don’t they go the whole way and announce redundancies? This is both an illogical and a retrograde argument.
More evidence has emerged this week about the parlous state of the graduate recruitment market. Research shows vacanices down by 13% this year for graduate training schemes. Accountancy and the public sector show the greatest recruitment, but the armed forces is the only sector to actually increase its numbers, by 11%. Nevertheless there were only two applications for each graduate place in the armed forces, against 15 for each accountancy place.
But could the decline in graduate places actually be a blessing in disguise?
The Department for Work and Pensions have been testing employers’ adherence to the discrimination laws by sending out bogus job applications from fictitious people with foreign names. They have found that employers ”still discriminate against people solely on the basis of having an ethnic minority name.” Employers are up in arms about the DWP’s tactics but the DWP says it will use the research to help judge levels of discrimination in the jobs market.
A new regulation has been introduced which requires all MPs to declare any income they have from second jobs. This has pleased some people and upset others. Those who are pleased believe that it is inappropriate for MPs to have second jobs, it deflects their attention from their work in Parliament. Those who are upset believe that second jobs keep MPs in touch with the real world and the economy. But a second job is as much a part of one’s career as the first job, and having a second job must surely reflect in some way on one’s attitude to the first job.