A CV stands a much better chance of being read if it is relevant. The person that you send your CV to is looking for an applicant with specific skills and experience. If your CV looks as if you will meet the criteria then it will be read. If however it is immediately apparent you do not fit the bill then, irrespective of how short it is, your CV will be discarded.

So the first thing to do is to target your CV to the job you are applying for. Read the job description and personal specification carefully. Make sure your CV explains why you are the right candidate. You will probably have to refocus your CV for every job you apply for. It’s worth it, if it gets you the job.

The other important thing is to make your CV interesting. You may have all the skills and experience for the job but you still need to motivate the reader to pay attention to what you are saying. The chances are that yours will not be the only relevant CV to cross their desk, so why should they pay more attention to yours than any other?

The key to making a CV interesting lies in the first paragraph, your profile. If you can summarise yourself in two or three short sentences that make you sound like a person worth meeting, your CV has a much greater chance of being read in full.

Your profile should summarise your career and achievements to date. It should do so without using descriptions that can apply to anyone, like ‘hard working’ or ‘enthusiastic’. It should not include a statement about your career objective; save that  for the interview. Whatever you write in your profile should be backed up by evidence later in your CV.

Writing a profile is an art; it needs careful thought and you will probably go through several drafts before you are happy with it. It is worth taking time over. It may be the most important paragraph you ever write.

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Before the spending freeze many public sector workers could expect some sort of support from their employers in the event of redundancy. The extent of the support varied from one organisation to another, and depended on age, seniority together perhaps with other factors. Now that many is tight, this level of outplacement support may not be available.

So what other support can you get if you are looking for a new job? There are Job Centres of course but they have come in for a lot of criticism recently; they are a resource but should not be relied on as the only one. More pertinent perhaps are job clubs; local groups of unemployed people who provide peer support for each other, work together to improve their CVs, networking and interview skills and share job opportunities with each other. Job clubs are sometimes run by the local council, others are independent. An internet search should tell you where your local job club is.

Alternatively, although employer funded outplacement support may not be available, there is no reason why you should not engage the services of an outplacement company yourself. If personal, one to one support is too expensive, consider joining together with some colleagues and commissioning us at Career Energy to provide you with Job Search workshops. These can be highly cost effective and will give you a head start in the jobs market.

It will take time before the jobs market stabilises. Those who take a pro-active approach and seek out support for themselves are bound to get back into work faster than those who sit back and wait for jobs to come to them. This is not a time to be complacent.

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Capello may be a master tactician but his style is authoritarian and disciplinarian. His team appear to in fear of him, rather than in awe of him. England lost their first two games, against inferior opposition, due to poor morale. Exacerbated so we are told by the manager’s style and selection tactics. They had a player’s revolt before the third game.

The team may well have made their peace with Capello before taking the field against Slovenia, and they did win the game. But I suspect that this was due more to the players’ desire to demonstrate their own talents to a disillusioned fan base than to any particular magic worked by the manager.

Football managers are frequently used as role models for managers in the workplace.  Successful contemporary managers, whether at work or on the sports field have a  collaborative and consultative style. When the most successful football manager of our times, Alex Ferguson fell out with his star player, David Beckham, one of them had to go. Beckham was not disciplined into staying; it would never have worked.

I do not believe that Capello’s style should be a model for managers in the UK workplace. Authoritarianism belongs to a previous generation. Good management today requires a far more subtle approach.

Of course, Fabio could prove me wrong. If he wins the World Cup.

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So, just as it was at the beginning of the credit crunch, the priority for us all is to protect our means of earning an income. If you think the organisation you work for is likely to lay people off it is no good trying to beat the rush by applying for a similar job elsewhere; that is likely to be at risk as well. Protecting one’s income at a time of mass redundancies requires a much more carefully thought out, strategic approach.

The best place to start is by reviewing your career. Has it worked you the way you had hoped so far? If not, if there was no pressure on your job but you were feeling motivated to put things right, what would you be doing now? Looking at the bigger picture, what would you really like to achieve through your working life? When you reach retirement and you say ‘this is what I did’, what would you like that to be?

Reviewing your career requires self knowledge, an awareness of what careers are out there and a clear understanding of what is realistic for you. Some people, but not many, are able to evaluate this information for themselves. Most find it useful to get an objective, professional opinion.

Reviewing your career allows you to devise strategies for progression, or changing direction, depending upon your need. The self knowledge that you gain will help you to be clearer about what you offer to employers. Your awareness of what careers are out there and what is realistic for you will help you to appreciate where your unique qualities will be in demand. All this makes it far more likely that you will get another job quickly, that it will be a job to which you are well suited, and that you will have a far greater level of job security and satisfaction.  

A career review, and the planning that it generates is not an academic exercise. It is a practical, essential process that everyone should undertake from time to time. Particularly at times like this, when all jobs are at risk.

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The government’s view is that cuts are necessary in order to reduce the national deficit. The opposing view is that spending is the best way out of the recession. This is an economic argument which can run for ever; the truth is that nobody knows which view is right. However recent events in China may overtake the argument, and make a job creation scheme far less necessary.

China is being hit by a wave of strikes. Toyota is the latest company to be affected by a walk out of workers. The Chinese Communist Party is calling for higher salaries for workers. The Prime Minister has indicated that the country’s economic model is changing.

China has been an important source of low cost labour for a decade. The country is becoming more prosperous and, like most economically successful societies, its citizens expect a higher standard of living. China is unlikely to remain a source of cheap labour for long. And although there are other countries ready to step into its shoes, it is likely that many British-based companies, who presently outsource their manufacture to China will, resume manufacturing operations at home.

If so, the impact on UK jobs will be significant. It will not happen overnight but the chances are that long before the Future Jobs Fund two year work or training guarantee expires, British manufacturing will be recovering. And the poliitcalrow over job-creation schemes will become less important.

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Whilst we all have sympathy for those who are being made redundant, there is another group of people who have an equally daunting prospect ahead of them. It may not be as far reaching as a job loss, but they will be expected to perform an unwelcome and unpleasant task. These are  the managers who will have to tell the members of their team that they are being made redundant.

Delivering a redundancy notice is a thankless task. It is an emotional process and one which most people would prefer to avoid. It needs to be done in such a way as to not add to the distress that the affected employee will feel on hearing the news.

The news needs to be delivered sympathetically and at an early stage in the interview. There is no knowing how someone will react, there may be tears, there may be anger, there may be an a refusal to accept reality. In some cases it may take some time, perhaps even days, before the news finally sinks in.

There is no point in hedging the news around with small talk, nor in trying to soften the blow with unrealistic reassurances about the state of the job market and the prospects of finding another job. The most important thing is to deliver the news, allow a time for the message to sink in, and then move into counselling mode.

This means that the people delivering redundancy news need to have good listening skills and empathy. The fact that one is the line manager of the person being made redundant is not good enough reason for them to deliver the news, if they do not have the skills and resources to do it effectively. Senior management and HR need to plan carefully how redundancy notices are to be delivered and who will do it. It is not an easy task. And certainly not one to be dumped on someone else because you do not want to do it yourself.

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And yet we all have a very limited view of the careers that are out there. How often have you thought about what else you can do, and come up with a very limited list? We see the careers that our friends and colleagues do, we are far less aware of those that are beyond our immediate experience.

But those people considering a career change do need to be aware of the full spectrum of careers. Not every job title of course, that would be impossible. But it is important to have a good overview of what is possible. Which is why good career research is essential when considering a career change.

There are many ways to research careers. You can start with the Guardian or Penguin guides to careers, both of which provide a good general summary of the most popular paths. To get better depth, once you are aware of the general areas you are interested in you can access a corporate research database on the internet to drill down in your chosen sector. Better still you can meet and talk to people working in the fields that interests you. Best of all, go and do some work shadowing or work experience in a company that operates in the sector you are looking at. As you work there, explore the roles in the company, and in the companies that supply to them or who are their customers.

The more research you do, the more you will uncover new ideas and new career paths. You will still need to work out which careers you are best suited to. But without good research your options will always be limited and your career change may not be as good as it could be.

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Of course statistics can be used to prove anything. In the previous quarter over 50s’ unemployment fell whilst under 50s remained broadly flat. But behind every statistic is an individual, and in the past three months at least 53,000 over 50 got themselves jobs. In fact the number is higher because many more older people replaced others who were leaving.

I think this puts the whole ageism debate into perspective. There is no doubt that, irrespective of employment legislation, many employers will choose a younger job candidate over an older one. They tend to be cheaper, in better health and have more energy. But there are many jobs that a younger person cannot do, and that is where older people come into their own. Once cannot imagine a twenty five year old being appointed to a senior management post in a multinational company, for example.

The secret to overcoming ageism is to not put yourself in a position in which it affects you. Older people are more experienced and more mature. There are some jobs for which these qualities are prerequisites. Young people just do not qualify. In order to overcome ageism, whether perceived or real, target suitable jobs. If you are an old person, seek out jobs which call for maturity and experience. If you are younger look for jobs that require energy and lifestyle flexibility. In this way we can nail the ageism myth once and for all.

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It sounds like a platitude but it is essential to remain physically fit. Healthy body, healthy mind really is true and you need your mind to be healthy to stay on top of things. Gym membership may no longer be affordable, or perhaps you were never really a gym person, but there are plenty of free ways of exercising. Create a regime for yourself so that you feel fit and positive about yourself.

Make sure that you are not carrying the job search burden alone, or sharing it only with your partner or those who are emotionally too close to you. Job Clubs are an excellent, inexpensive way of getting peer support, provided the group is well facilitated and does not just provide an opportunity for whingeing. Ideally seek out the support of a career professional who can mentor and coach you through the job search process.

Remember that looking for a job is a full time job, and treat it as such. I have met people who dress in their working clothes every day, leave the house at the same time that they did when they were working, who spend the day at the local library researching vacancies and writing their job applications from there. They feel that they are engaged in a full time activity, and that they are continuing to work, even if they are not earning.

Finally, remember that periods of high unemployment do come to an end and that there is every possibility that you will get back into work, often sooner than you think. The very fact that you are reading this blog shows that you are still engaged in, and exploring the job market. It is simply a matter of attitude, focus, energy and time.

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People are not stupid. The vast majority of those who are interested in running their own business know that it is not a passport to instant wealth, that it demands a huge amount of time, that there are serious risks of failure and that it can be very stressful. So why the interest?

I think that first and foremost it is about autonomy. The idea of being in control of one’s own destiny is attractive, and is reinforced by an educational and social system which places an emphasis on personal responsibility. Of course business owners are not wholly in control, they are subject to the demands of the market, they are generally answerable to customers, banks and the tax authorities, to name but a few. But underlying all this is the sense that we are doing something of our own making, that we are responsible for our own decisions, that success or failure will be the result of our own work and will benefit us, not someone else.

Of course most people ultimately decide not to set up their own business. But the appeal of being in control lingers and needs to be addressed. A desire to be in control which is not fulfilled can lead to serious disillusionment, or worse. Which is why it is so important for anyone smitten by the self-employment bug to make sure that whatever they do, they remain in control of their career.

It is perfectly possible to work in an employed role and yet be in control of one’s career. Indeed, this is the ideal state. It means being clear about our ambitions and goals, having a plan for achieving them and ensuring that the plan is put into practice. Taking control of one’s employed career is a realistic alternative for the majority of people who consider, but decide against, running their own business. It is not difficult, it just requires structured planning.

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