Careers and Jobs

I attended a seminar in Ballsbridge Court Hotel on Wednesday 23rd organised by PA assist and Osborne Recruitment. The seminar was titled “staying up in down times” and focused on motivational advice and personal marketing expertise to help jobseekers in a tough economic climate. This was a great evening with 3 key speakers – Kirishna De, James Sweetman and Brendan of Osborne Recruitment. Due to the nature of my work I am aware of many of the strategies but I still left with great tips and nuggets of information. Speaking to some of the other attendees they left the seminar burdened with positive energy and ideas.

The event commenced with a motivation and success presentation by James Sweetman. I have been aware of James but never met or heard him speak before. James outlined some excellent motivational strategies for jobseekers in difficult job market conditions. He encouraged individuals to cast off the shackles and move out of their comfort zones into uncharted waters. James touched on a number of key strategies I feel strongly about – Jack Canfields E+R=O and the importance of shutting out the bad news and negative people. James delivered the presentation with humour and laced with excellent motivational stories.

James was followed by Brendan Murphy of Osborne Recruitment. First thing that struck me about Brendan was his honesty. Brendan delivered an open and frank assessment to the job market followed by some of the key elements for marketing yourself during job applications and interviews. Even with the limited exposure to Brendan & Osborne I get the impression that working with his recruitment company would be a positive experience from an employer or a jobseeker perspective. Osborne Recruitment is a successful recruitment consultancy recruiting across a number of industry sectors.

Last but certainly not least Krishna De spoke about the use of online technology and social networking to market yourself, enhance networking and make yourself recession bullet proof. This was the session of personal interest for me and it did not disappoint – very informative and again well executed. I had a great interest in this section from a business development point of view BUT to enhance my knowledge to support my private career coaching and corporate outplacement clients. Krishna De is a leading personal branding consultant and social media marketing expert.

Overall I though the night was very worthwhile and plenty of new ideas but also reinforcement of existing ideas and strategies. As pointed out it is very easy to slip back into old habits and comfort zones.

Well done guys and gals!!

You have all heard of the saying “you get what you pay for”. This is true when dealing with the topic of CV and CV writing. Some of the most popular keywords searched on Google are CV & FREE. We all want the best jobs and best salaries yet we are obviously not prepared to invest in our CV. Would you go to a butcher for a hernia operation? With free CV advice you have to ask yourself two questions.

(1) How much value is the free information?

From experience you will get the basic information – standard script. Is it worthwhile or any value? Well, it will help you write a CV with basic information on format, layout and content BUT the CV won’t make an impact and sell you in a tight market. I can tell you from experience most CV’s I review are sub-standard. The problem is that many jobseekers have been getting away with poor quality CV’s because of skill shortages in most sectors. As things tighten in these markets these poor CV’s will be found out.

(2) Why am I getting these free CV tips and advice?

Free is a tool to attract you to the site to sell something else. I had the experience recently where I took the option of availing of a free book from a popular life coach. Basically I was hounded for about 3 months after trying to sell me other books and seminars.

If you want a professional CV there are many CV service providers in the market including Measurability. Like anything else in life shop around, get references, samples of work before you make a decision.

Happy CV writing!!

While on my work placement at college I participated in the job interviews to replace me when I returned to college. This was my first experience of being on the other side of the table. Interviews are a stressful time for the jobseeker but they can equally be a stressful time for the interviewers – as I found out.

We had seven interviews scheduled for one particular day so we decided to add a bit of fun to the day. First question we asked each candidate was to tell a joke. We did this to lighten the atmosphere, put the interviewees at ease but also to make it more fun for us. I will point out that this was not a critical hire for the organisation!!

I met with an interview coaching client the other day who had recently been asked to tell a joke at interview which brought up the whole subject again. He asked my advice on this. 99% of you will never be asked this question at interview BUT if you are I would fall on the side of decency and caution. If I was the interviewer I would be hard to offend me BUT you won’t always get me. If you are asked this question then the likelihood is that the interviewer has a sense of humor but this is not set in stone. So when you are preparing for your next interview make sure you practice a few jokes. Here is a safe one: Why are they putting the accountants at the bottom of the ocean?
They found out that deep down they’re really not so bad.