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I was thinking the other day that I must make time to do an analysis of the different customers from my career change workshop over the last 6 months. It’s easy not to this, as there’s plenty of other tasks to do, but investing the time can create some really useful insights for better targeting and making the product even better and more relevant to their needs.
Historically, most of my customers have been people wanting career change – planned purchase, whereas now, because of unemployment and shrinking sectors, it’s mostly people having to change – emergency purchase.
I think that one segment would be people experiencing ageism, another rusty re how to market and differentiate themselves in challenging market conditions, a third wanting to become self employed but feeling daunted about it having always been in full time employment. As a former account planner, I love this kind of insight mining exercise!
Before I specialised in career strategy, I did a segmentation of my coaching clients, and I thought I’d share them with you to get your thoughts on any needs I might have missed:
What do you think – any other groups for people wanting change? How are you feeling about your career at the moment?
The next Energise Steer your career workshop is Monday 5 October and the one after that is Tues 20 October. Anyone registered at JobCentrePlus as ‘an Unemployed Professional’ can get their workshop place funded by the government. (Energise supplier reference is STL 67302 – spread the word) We have had enquiries from as far afield as Leicester and Plymouth which shows that our product is a bit different as there are suppliers in all regions and we do the workshop near Oxford.
More info re the workshop at this link:
http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/more/events-energise
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One of the things I love about helping people in their careers is the variety. What people want and what they need varies hugely. It’s not just about achieving goals. It gives me so much pleasure hearing years after I have worked with people that they have made the changes they wanted happen and are enjoying more satisfying work and better work life balance/I remember one workaholic client forgetting to turn up for a coaching session which for me as his coach was great as it showed he was chilling out and getting more relaxed about work! Ironic success! Another client was so blown away by the new self-awareness about herself when we did her values that she hardly spoke for 3 days and her husband wrongly jumped to the conclusion that she was having an affair! Helping people to think about what they want and identifying how and why they stop themselves is hugely fascinating and rewarding. The career strategist part of what I do is very practical and about insights, trends and marketing and branding an individual and the career coaching part is also practical but psychological. Humans are really creative about stopping themselves doing what they really wan too! Part of my job is being a detective and work out how people stop themselves! ‘Aha!’ moments of insights and clarity and hearing the successful outcomes are so rewarding. What have been yours? What would be your next one?
It's not always revolutionary change either. One client started enjoying her business when she subcontracted the parts of work that bored her to a reliable contracter taking a healthy margin, got 2 part time workers who didn't want the hassle of marketing themselves plus bought a shed to use as an office in her garden, so she could close the door on work at the end of the day.
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One of the hardest things at the best of times is getting cut through and grabbing the attention of your target audience. People are hugely busy and especially at the moment post redundancies, doing more than one person’s job. Frustrating recently at getting no response to a proposal I had submitted, I decide to have fun and be creative. I did empathise with their busyness, but I still wanted to know if the project was happening or not! I ordered a personalised humorous card from this web site Jobsworthcards.co.uk/ and sent an SAE back to me with the following tick box choices in a bright yellow jiffy bag:
Please tick one or more boxes and return in the supplied envelope. Merci! My feet haven’t touched the ground in weeks, I feel like a human helicopter. Bear with me, I will be in touch I have spontaneously combusted and no longer exist I have chosen my pet agency and don’t like you lot as much. B***** off The project is as dead as a dodo Project? What project? The project is on hold I have left. Please delete me from your address book All our budgets have been cut. All I have left will pay for a packet of Post It notes, one purple magic marker pen with sparkly ink and a college student from Outer Mongolia Not responding to your various e mails and phone calls is an initiative test to test your mettle. You’ve passed! I’ve stolen the approach in your proposal and am delivering it myself, hee hee! Other …
It worked! Anyone got any stories to share or ideas for grabbing the attention? I need some new ones! RSVP – thanks!
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I did another career workshop yesterday and we had some great people and a very diverse bunch too. One lady was about mid 40 and realised she has always hated her career which made me think how many people out there hate theirs and never get around to making a change until it's forced upon them with redundancy.
25% of the attendees had chosen to leave a job because of stress/poor works life balance and 75% had been made redundant.
I LOVE my job and learn so much from my clients' ideas and insights.
What makes people afraid to change career?
There are many fears about career change. Here are 20 I've spotted - can you think of any more? Which do you reckon are the strongest? RSVP - thanks!
Look forward to hearing your views. By the way, the next workshop is Tues 8 Sept. E mail me for details rachel@liberateyourtalent.com If you know anyone who is an 'unemployed professional' and registered at JobCentrePlus, they can get their place funded and a contribution to travel costs, so do mention it to them. Thanks!
Marketing and advertising is a ‘young’ profession, but does ageism really exist? It is true that older workers can be expensive compared with younger workers who do the same job, at a time when cost is under the microscope, but aren’t experience and wisdom even more important in challenging times?
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I'm not a parent myself, I find it hard enough to get myself out of the house in the morning, but those of you that are, this is for you:
Working Families, a work-life balance charity, has launched a list of the best family-friendly employers from the past three decades.
Winners have shown leadership in one or more of the following areas: flexible working, childcare provision, maternity and/or paternity policy and help with eldercare responsibilities.
The employers (listed alphabetically, not ranked), which have been selected from a final shortlist by the panel of expert judges, are:
In the small and medium enterprise sector were Eden McCallum, Happy, Loop Customer Management and Wragge & Co.
If you want your CV updating, I have been doing them since I was 22, half my life ago, so let me know if I can help!
Just a quick note while I remember that the next 6 hour Energise Steer your career workshop is Tues 8 July and the one after that is 21 July. There are none in Aug and then in Sept the dates are 8 & 21 Sept.
As you know, there's alot of people losing their jobs at the moment.
The workshop is £113.85 but for unemployed 'newly unemployed professionals' registered at JobCentrePlus, they get their workshop place funded. The government are keeping it very quiet so please spread the word!
More info on my web site:
http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32&Itemid=51
I do the workshop with another career coach, so 2 for the price of 1!
According to People Management *, the magazine for Human Resources professionals, (alias ‘company kicking post’ - the deliverer of bad news like redundancies and wage freezes), employees at Nestle are being encouraged to hold meetings while walking, as part of the company’s efforts to promote workplace health.
Employees at the firm’s Croydon headquarters have been fitted with pedometers as part of a four-month challenge to walk 14,000 steps a day. As well as going outside at lunchtime for some fresh air (*** break) and taking the stairs instead of the lift, staff are being given permission to hold ‘walk and talk’ meetings in the local park. “We are effectively paying people to walk and are legitimising it. During the recession, a lot of people are worried about leaving the office.” Dr David Batman, Nestle’s head of employee wellness Since not only is the country broke and stressed, they are also getting too fat, what better way to link these challenges together in a ‘kill 2 birds with one stone’ effective productivity and health initiative? What else are companies up to in the employee productivity department? ASDA wear hats in their open plan office if an employee doesn’t want to be disturbed because they are concentrating, which is politer than saying ‘b***** off I’m busy’. They also have a policy for employees greeting colleagues within a certain specified distance. That could be a bit scary if you are out on a dark night after too many glasses of champagne in a dodgy part of London and forget where you are. I guess companies will have the ‘How to remember people‘s names and engage them in 10 seconds’ course will be back on the training agenda when learning and development budgets stop getting slashed post downturn. What next? Luncheon vouchers for eating no lunch? Juggling fruit competitions? ‘Stand in the rain and pretend you’re a smoker and unlock the unconscious mind take a break schemes’? Perhaps there is a new media and revenue scheme opportunity to create personalised computers in the gym so execs can work while they work out? Ideas please – get those creative juices flowing; it’ll burn off some calories so you can still see your feet past 40. Sorry it took me so long to share this news, but I was at the spa determining the colour of fluff in my navel while drinking Chablis. (* Source = People Management Notepad 18 June 2009)
I think of career change as a jigsaw puzzle, and it’s important not to lose or miss a piece, or you don’t have a clear and complete picture. The jigsaw pieces of happy and sustainable career change are; what’s important to you; what motivates you; your transferable skills; researching what’s available and where you fit; marketing yourself; getting your self-belief strong; creating a plan and taking action. People get so close to themselves, they find it hard to see what’s possible beyond what they know and there’s a lot of fear in change. But humans aren’t very open about feeling fear even though we all do! When you work in marketing or the communication, it can be more not less hard to market yourself!
I didn’t formerly train in career strategy, all the bits of my 22 years of career led to it and I have a funny wide angle zoom lens brain that analyses, makes connections and goes lateral. When working with an ophthalmologist, ideas for him included; spy and journalist, which seem unrelated but actually played on his strengths and avoided the bits of his job that he hated.
Next workshop dates are: Tues 30 June, Wed 8 July and Tues 21 July and they are booking up fast.
Update about my client who’s just resigned. Her leaving has left her employer in a bit of a hole so they have asked her to stay on a bit longer which leaves her in a very strong negotiation position. She’s now sussing out whether to work an extra month as an employee or freelancer and what terms suit her. Her employer are not a great fan of flexible/home working but I suspect they will happily set her up with remote access now!
I remember when I left full time employment. My employer was looking at the structure and roles and they found it difficult to find the right people to fit the culture – it was a bizarre culture!
I knew I was going to go freelance imminently as an account planner, having researched the market, set up my database and having had enough of full time employment. I decided to tell my boss that I would be leaving in the not to distant future as I felt that it would be unfair of me to accept a new role only to leave soon after. My boss was surprised and asked me to come back for more of a chat after lunch after he’d had a chance to think about it.
After lunch, he asked me to resign that day. I was shocked! Then he said that he’d like me to work 3 days a week for 2 months going down to 2 days a week for month 3. It was perfect! I couldn’t have planned it better myself – some bread and butter steady work and time to get out and market myself.
A few weeks later having sent out my CV and covering letter, I came home to 18 messages on the ansaphone from agencies asking me to contact them. I hadn’t even followed up the letters at that point! There was a shortage of planners at that time because of lack of recruitment and training in the recession of the late 90’s. My self employment had begun and my belief in following my values strengthened!
Energise do a monthly career workshop. Next dates are: 10-6 Sat 9 May, Sat 13 June, Sat 11 July 2009 at The Bell Hotel in Charlbury, Oxfordshire OX7 3PP. Charlbury is 70 mins out of London Paddington and a peaceful place to take a step back and reflect on your future. Cost is£113.85 inc VAT. E mail me for more info: rachel@liberateyourtalent.com
Last Friday one of my clients resigned. It was a very exciting day as we had been working towards this since the previous September, working together for a total of 10 hours, meeting once a month. She is going to become a piano tutor for kids and leave the long hours and stress of the city behind her. Her boss was shocked and surprised and if the truth be known, a little jealous as he will probably never change his career now, even if he’d like to. More and more people are changing their career to something that’s more ‘them’, something with more meaning and purpose which makes a difference or gives better work life balance and less stress. In the past, most of my clients changed their career because they wanted to and the moment because they have to, because their sectors or professions are shrinking and they simply can’t get a similar job. Complete career change can be scary which is why it is important to think it through carefully – the work suiting you, addressing what can be the isolation working from home, IT help without an IT department, the money side and of course the marketing. Being self employed you wear many hats from new business, the cleaner, office managers etc. It’s not for everyone, but more and more people are choosing it, even with the perceived insecurity of the down turn. Many people find marketing themselves really tricky, even the people you would think would have bags of confidence. That redundancy cheque could just be the start of something amazing. For many redundancy is a kick to make a change, it’s easy to stay in your comfort zone. What burning desire do you have to change your work? What do you really want to do? How has the downturn affected your career aspirations and ambitions? I look forward to hearing your story.
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Who are you and who do you want to be? Are you living the life you want, doing the job you want or running the business you want? If not, why not? Just imagine what it would be like if you were to not only believe that this is possible but make it happen. What’s going through your mind? Life’s not like that; I don’t have time; I don’t deserve it; I’m too stressed; I don’t know how to make those changes happen; it will cost too much; I can’t be bothered; I should look after other people’s needs and not think about my own; I didn’t have the right upbringing or the wrong education; it wouldn’t make any difference; I can’t affect fate. Really? Is that true or are they just excuses? Do you really know what you are capable of? How good you’d feel if you were to maximise your potential and what this would do for the world? Why wait? It is very easy to put it off. We all do it. Not quite getting around to making that first step. So you stay still and stay stuck, feeling out of sorts and counting the hours or days in at least one area of your life or work. Isn’t life too short? Imagine getting to the end of your life and looking back. Do you really want to carry on exactly as you are? I know it isn’t always going to be easy, I am not pretending otherwise. However, anything in life is a choice and both change and challenge are a great way to grow and learn. So how about it?
Make some time to think about what you want.
Next Steer your career workshops are Sat 4 April and Sat 9 May - a 6 hour workshop with 2 career change experts with 40 years of experience between them for only £99 + VAT. E mail rachel@liberateyourtalent.com for more information or call 0845 22 55 010
“Only in growth, reform and change, paradoxically, is true security to be found” Anne Morrow Lindbergh Many people at the moment, because of shrinking sectors such as property, automotive and city banking are being forced to rethink their careers. They may have been with the same company or in the same profession for their whole lives, so this can feel very daunting. In times of growth, I help people change career direction because they want to, e.g. for better work life balance, to have more fulfilling work or to turn an enjoyable hobby into paid work. Today’s school leavers will be masters of career reinvention, as it is predicted that they will change their career about 7 times in their lifetime. Generation Y (18-28 years olds) embrace change more than their parents’ generation, and can seem quite unloyal to their bosses and parents with their attitude, but their flexibility will serve them well in our fast changing times. I love career reinvention because it is helping people to see what they find it hard to see themselves as they are too close. Some people have an idea of what they want, e.g. my client Duncan Goose who wanted to do something meaningful and others don’t know what they want but know they want something different to what they have. Often they feel that they are ’one trick ponies’ having done the same thing for years, when actually they have hugely transferable skills and just need help to see this and to market themselves, as they feel rusty, not having updated their CV or had an interview in ages. My career reinvention clients include helping someone working full time in insurance to become self employed, teaching children to learn the piano; helping a barrister to identify a new career as a company secretary and a direct marketing expert to become a self employed photographer.
Normal 0 "Happiness is not a destination, it is a method of life" Burton Hills One of the most important things in life, in my opinion, is to live your life based on what's important to you - your values. So many people live life to other people's agendas and values, whether it's parents, teachers or society as a whole.This means that they are not being true to themselves. It's not selfish to be true to yourself, it is wise, because if you are happy within yourself, you have more to give back to other people. On aeroplanes they say "Put the oxygen mask on your own face first" - same principle Helping people understand their values is one of the key things I help clients with and then we design goals around these values.Everyone has different values, not better not worse, just different. I find that often people are feeling ‘out of sorts' because they are not honouring their values, i.e. what's important to them. Values not being honoured shows up in different ways. For example they have a partner for whom different things are important or their employer values tradition when they value modern.People can have the same value e.g. love but it's honoured in a different way; one partner may like to hear their partner say that they love them 25 times a day, the other partner likes being hugged to feel loved. One of the reasons that relationship issues come up all the time when I coach people is because different people have different values, but they haven't articulated them.This is what causes the tension - not articulating/understanding values. I find values are a useful check-in. If I am feeling frustrated with a person or situation, it's normally because one of my values is being trodden on. If I am lied to, my Honesty value isn't honoured, if I feel forced to do something against my will, my Right to choose value is squashed. It's like a framework to help make sense of life and to deal with difficult emotions. The Credit crunch has taught us to question what we used to trust without question.Companies have values too and the good companies live and breathe them through their behaviour and how they act. They don't just stick a list of words on the corporate wall like integrity, honesty, success and fun. Sometimes an individual has clashing values - it's like having an inner tug of war. Freedom and Belonging is one example; part of you wants to be part of something but most of you wants to feel free, a direct inner conflict.Another example is Security and Adventure; part of you needs security and another part wants to break out and be adventurous. Understanding and managing your conflicting values is vital.Without wishing to state the obvious, 2009 is likely to be a challenging year for many. If you do one thing and one thing only in 2009, honour the things that are important to you and make sure that the people you care about are able to honour the things important to them.Energise do a monthly Steer your career workshop for people at a career crossroads - Next dates are 10-4 Sat 10 January and Sat 7 February 2009 in Charlbury, Oxfordshire. £99 + VAT. E mail rachel@liberateyourtalent.com for more information or see www.liberateyourtalent.com Individuals/Events. We also do individual career coaching and bespoke redundancy workshops for companies. 10 tips to live your values
1. Think about what's important to you
2. Reflect on times in your life when you felt really frustrated - what was the cause?
3. Get a coach to help you understand your values
4. When you have a difference of opinion with people at work/home - analyse what value isn't being honoured
5. Picture your ideal life - what would it be like?
6. Think about people you really connect with, What is it about them that works?
7. Be specific in your articulation of your values e.g. Expressing and demonstrating kindness rather than just Kindness
8. Explore whether your values are compatible before committing to a long term partner
9. Prepare incisive questions to get a potential employer to give examples to demonstrate their values and culture
10. Check in every month to review to what extent you have honoured what's important to you
Your CV is a very important document. It is a summary of who you are, where you've worked and needs to convince the reader very quickly to read on beyond the first page and that you are worth investing more of their time in. Its main objective is to gain you an interview and its second objective is to give an initial impression of you as a brand.As someone working in the marketing and communications field, remember the skills that you apply to brands can also be applied to yourself, so keep your objective in mind and create a strategy and plan for your CV. In an ideal world, your CV would be targeted 100% to each individual job, but lack of time can prevent this.A good CV:· Is no more than three pages in length· Its content and style is targeted to your target audience, i.e. the interviewer (s) · Its design/layout matches your target employer/profession, i.e. modern if modern, traditional if traditional· Says enough without saying too much · It needs to convey both what makes you different or better than your competitors, and give an indication about your 'brand' character.Common mistakes on CVs· Putting the education section first· Not putting the most recent information e.g. jobs and qualifications first· Making it too long/wordy so the reader switches off· Having too much detail about what you do in your job, rather than how you've added value · Including references· Not giving enough thought to the design and font used· Lying/exaggerating your roleTips to create a good CV:· Create a clear and consistent structure using tables/borders/different size fonts or bold/underline/italics for headings· Put the key information on the first page, i.e. your name and address, paragraph summary about your years' experience and achievements and initiatives. · Unless you have under 5 years experience, put where you've worked and what you've done further back in a tidy format· Include training and other information such as hobbies to give a flavour of you the person· Don't repeat information - summarise your core skills· Think about what you want the reader to feel and think and then design your CV to elicit this response· Use action words and data £ budgets, % increases etc to build evidence e.g. achieved, initiated etc · Get feedback from people you know and trust and recruitment agencies and interviewers can also provide useful pointers· For more information on CV writing Energise is running a workshop, please see below for details.ENERGISE STEER YOUR CAREER WORKSHOP Next date 10 - 4 Sat 10th January 2009
Rachel Brushfield
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Last login: 18 Nov 2009
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