Dec
22
Danger - Social Networking Can Seriously Damage Your Career Prospects
Filed Under Your Career | Leave a Comment
The growth of social networking sites such as Facebook has been phenomenal over the last few years and now anyone who is anyone needs a Facebook site. But be careful what you actually display on your pages, because a potential employer (including representatives from a recruitment agency) could look you up and if they don’t like what they see, well you will not get the job they have on offer.
So it may be tempting to write up about how drunk you were, how you lost all your money, woke up in a strange flat (or worse) but the reality is that many employers actively seek out Facebook pages and they may make assumptions based on the information that you have provided. If you come across as irresponsible and someone who cannot be trusted or who may even have a drink problem, well that will not help your career at all. It undermines your CV and you wont even get any interviews.
No one expects you to be a saint and everyone enjoys a laugh, but any comments that may be viewed as derogatory, racist or sexist etc will not endear you to potential employers: it will actively turn them off.
You should also be careful not to post any comments that could bring their firm into disrepute, so always stick to a kind of fun approach, but nothing that could land you into trouble.
Increasingly people forget that the internet can come back to haunt them. So you may be a trouble free student now, but when you are a graduate, looking for a responsible career, it is still possible that some pages could paint a negative picture of you, even if you are not incredibly responsible and respectable.
The best way to deal with Facebook or other social networking sites is to treat them as a bit of fun, but don’t post anything which you would be embarrassed if employers read it. Be restrained and be mindful of the fact that Facebook pages may appear on search engines for many years to come.
Dec
19
Are you stuck in a dead end job, hoping, against hope that someday you will see an advert for your ideal job and that you will apply, be appointed and your life will be transformed? Well, here are the facts ! If you are stuck in a boring job and you want to escape, then you are going to have to get qualified for better positions, with better pay! Unfortunately, jobs that command good salaries are not dished out to people who don’t have the necessary qualifications.
But, the good news is that it is never too late to get qualified. There are lots of courses available, from evening classes to study modules at college, university, or even the Open University.
Studying in your own time will dramatically improve your chances of landing your dream job, because it will demonstrate to employers that you are keen, hard working and willing to act on your own initiative and soon you will probably find that you are able to access much better paid positions and your career suddenly takes off.
Like anything in life, studying can be difficult, particularly if you are juggling a full time job and you may even have a family. But the Government wants around 50% of young people to go to university, which means that if you don’t have any formal qualifications or just very basic ones, then you are at a significant disadvantage.
If returning to night school or college scares you, then why not take a course in basic literacy or numeracy first? You can ease yourself back into studying through taking on a course like this and then the next natural progression is to work towards other formal qualifications.
Don’t put off taking positive action to land your dream job: day dreams are great, but what you need are some good qualifications to show that you really are worth that perfect job and you are serious about your career.
Dec
17
Fancy A Career Change?
Filed Under Career Change | Leave a Comment
Are you sick and tired of your job, or is stress so bad at work that your job is literally making you sick and tired? Well, if so, then you need to start thinking about what steps you can take to change things. Many people advise that even if you are sick and tired of your work, then you should try to change things, so that you can effectively make your working life more tolerable and that way you can enjoy work better.
That’s is fine in many instances. However, it has to be said that there is also instances where changing your work environment will do little to help: what you actually need is a career change. Most people feel after the age of say 35 (or even younger) that it is very difficult to bring about a career change, but in fact it is quite simple.
You need to think creatively about what kind of career your second career will be, and then equip yourself with the necessary skills, training and qualifications to ensure that you can apply for positions in this area. It really isn’t rocket science!
If the training and qualifications seem like too hard a struggle, then think about taking a more junior position and gradually working up to securing better positions and thus your career may not be as quick to flourish, but you will at least have followed your dream and made sure that you don’t just put up with ‘second best’ but that you follow the career of your dreams. It may also be worth checking out if a recruitment agency could help secure you different junior positions in a variety of firms, so that you can road test your new career before you make a final commitment. Also sign up with online employment agencies, as well as keeping an eye out for different positions in newspapers, since you may be able to secure a job yourself. But remember, following your dream is always the right thing to do!
Dec
13
Currently many people in the media advise that one of the best ways to get started in the media is to undertake some kind of media studies course, film and photography degree or performing arts course etc. But these are not options that everyone can afford to undertake and what is more, there are other ways to start off a career in the media.
Most people assume that a career in the media means that they will be working in TV or radio, but the media is actually bigger than that. There are different sorts of media type jobs and you could be working for a magazine, for a newspaper or even online in some capacity. So think about the media as being more than just TV and radio. After all creativity is valued in the media, so think creatively about how you are going to start off your career!
Many people have started off in the media from very junior positions. They have signed up with a recruitment agency and gone to work as a receptionist, admin person etc. But over time they have actually changed jobs, either through applying for internal vacancies and gradually working themselves up the career ladder, or they have shown their competence and worth and gradually been given more responsibility and opportunities to progress. Sometimes this can happen very quickly, other times it may take a little longer, but it is a start.
So if you don’t have a degree in journalism or communication studies and you may not even have very good qualifications, then think about starting off at the bottom of the career ladder in the media, but working towards having a really successful and rewarding career. OK this may be about humble beginnings, but at least it is a start and is better than not giving yourself a chance to establish yourself working in this very dynamic and exciting field.
Dec
12
What To Expect from a Career Coach
Filed Under Main Content | Leave a Comment
A Career Coach can certainly help you to maximise your career potential and ensure that you actually realise your potential in terms of your working environment. But it is important to be realistic about what you can expect from a Career Coach: they can only work with the raw materials that they have i.e. you and they cannot transform you into a whole new qualified person, if you have no formal qualifications.
So, you are the material that the Career Coach has to work with and they will also have expectations of you. They will expect you to get motivated and to start taking affirmative action to help kick-start your career. They will not expect you to simply sit on your hands, shrug your shoulders and complain that you never get a good job. Any good Career Coach will work with you to help you get the confidence that you need to make changes, often one step at a time, but some of the work has to be done by you.
Career Coaches will also help you to plan your career. They will talk to you about your work history, your skills, what you want to achieve and help you come up with a plan of action as to how this can happen. (This is where you have to do some work, by putting the plan into action). They can also help you expand your boundaries, perhaps working for a recruitment agency in different settings, or encouraging you to study.
Often the nature of the coaching is designed to help you gain confidence, so this is not just about ‘job coaching’ it can also be a little about life coaching.
Whenever you choose a Coach, make sure it is someone that you feel you can talk to easily. You will need to be honest and open throughout the process and there needs to be some good honest dialogue between you.
The most important expectation that you should have from a Coach is that this will be along term plan, more than likely and that you have to keep your ambitions realistic, at least in the short term. It is fine to have day dreams, but Career Coaches work in reality.