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Election season, like Christmas, is a time for wish lists. A time to think about the  promises we would really like politicians to make. As a campaigner for the career profession, that is to say as someone who believes that effective career advice can only be delivered by qualified, dedicated professionals, I have a wish list too. (more…)

Financial pundits seem to be confident that, despite last week’s scare, the problems in the Dubai economy will not seriously undermine global money markets. The same however may not hold true for jobs. (more…)

It is much easier to retain your job, gain promotion or conduct a successful appraisal if your colleagues and bosses recognise the value that you add, over and above your job description. Which is why a value added strategy constitutes an essential part of  career management. (more…)

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development have reported that the number of firms planning to make people redundant has fallen and that the situation in the jobs market, although still severe, is better than it was a year ago. This doesn’t mean that we have turned a corner, but things do seem to be looking up. (more…)

Sometimes amazing things happen to us, for reasons we don’t understand. We put them down to luck, or chance. Whilst things can, and do, happen by luck or chance, more frequently outstanding things happen to us because we make them happen, even though we don’t realise it. (more…)

The news this weekend that Gordon Brown’s eyesight may have been further damaged raises some important questions. Both about our attitude as a society to disability, and about the effectiveness of disability legislation in general. (more…)

“Now is the Winter of Our Discontent”. The opening words of Shakespeare’s Richard III were used to describe the profound industrial unrest that took place in 1978-9 Schools and airports closed for lack of workers, and ambulance drivers struck,. For several months the country was riven by strikes. Rubbish piled high in the street. Thousands of petrol stations were closed. Schools and airports closed for lack of workers, and ambulance drivers struck, grave diggers in Liverpool downed tools. (more…)

The nature of our future working lives is becoming an increasingly important debate in modern society; changes to the way we work and how we manage our careers are likely to be defining characteristics of the 21^st century. But there are two, distinct pressures on the future of work and it is not at all clear which is going to win out. (more…)

One of my most frequent activities during the recession has been replying to the vast numbers of people who have asked to come and work at Career Energy as a career consultant. There is clearly something about the work we do which appeals to people; the idea of helping others is always attractive and what better to help them with than careers, which take up such an significant part of our life. (more…)

A fifty seven year old man came to see me. He had come to this country as a young man, a refugee from war in his homeland. His immediate need when arriving in the UK was to earn money to send home and he got himself the first job that he could, a fairly menial job which paid relatively well given what he was used to, but which did not stretch or challenge him in any way. (more…)