Sital Ruparelia

The phrase “Nothing happens in the summer months” is all a bit of a myth.

Yes, key decision makers may be on holiday and things may slow down – but it doesn’t mean that you have to as well.

Here are 5 ways for you to get more proactive this summer:

1. Get working on the new career or business idea

You know that great idea you have for changing careers or starting / expanding the home based business? Well now is a good time to work on it.

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So what did you do last week as part of your job search?

• Spent about 30 hours at my desk busily searching

• Tidied up my CV / resume

• Took part in an online forum

• Did research on some companies I’d like to target

• Emailed a few people

• Trawled through job sites looking for jobs

• Spent 5 hours on an application form

• Read some interesting articles about job searching

You sound like you’ve been working hard. Okay, let’s get specific:

1. How many real jobs did you apply for last week? How many CVs/resumes did you send out?

2. How many follow up calls did you make to chase up jobs or leads that you have already applied for?

3. How many real people (contacts, clients, colleagues etc) did you have a real conversation with on the phone in relation to your search?

4. How many informal one-to-one meetings (breakfast, coffee, lunch etc) did you book in the diary during last week with networking contacts?

5. How many informal one-to-one meetings did you attend last week with contacts?

6. How many face-to-face meetings did you have with recruiters last week?

7. How many interviews did you secure last week?

8. How many follow-up emails or notes did you send to contacts who you have met or spoken to in recent weeks?

Your answers to these 8 questions tell me what you accomplished last week instead of the paper shuffling and web surfing that that you did.  These are the real performance indicators that give an accurate view of how effective you were last week.

If you’ve nothing significant in the pipeline, the activities at the top of the page are just fluff.  Whilst some of them are relevant ways to spend your time,  they are not the best way to spend your time – particularly if you haven’t many open opportunities.

If all you are doing is spending most weeks doing the things at the top of the page, then you are quite probably:

- Kidding yourself

- Wasting lots of time and energy

- Afraid to get of out the door and have real conversations

- Playing safe

- Missing lots of opportunities

If you’re like many people who think sitting in front of a laptop for 7 hours a day is job searching, please stop kidding yourself.

Start judging your effectiveness based on what you achieved (outputs) instead of how many hours you put in (inputs).

When you do that, you can easily spend just 10 hours a week job searching whilst spending the remaining time with your family and your hobbies without guilt. And still you’d be more effective than most people who spend 30 hours a week at their just desk shuffling paper and surfing randomly on the web.

Guest article by Mitul Kotecha

Since we last discussed the economic outlook at the end of quarter 1, much has happened and unfortunately there has not been a great deal of positive news.  I retained a cautiously optimistic outlook for economic recovery for the Q1 Economic Review: elections, recovery and underemployment discussion article, but highlighted that recovery would be a long and drawn-out process, with western economies underperforming Asian economies.

The obstacles to recovery discussed then continue to apply now, including consumers paying down debt, high unemployment, tight credit conditions and weak confidence.

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‘Sarah’s got a great job, look how well she has done for herself’

‘Sanjay is so smart. I wish I’d applied myself to my studies like he has’

‘Sandy has done really well for herself – just look at that great house and the holidays she goes on’

‘Marco and Tina have the perfect family life. I’m so jealous’

‘Brian’s so ballsy. Just look at how he reinvented himself and started that business of his’

‘Emma is so damn organised. I wish had the kind of work-life balance she’s achieved’

Stop Comparing

Comparing yourself to others is drilled into us from childhood and school. But it’s completely misplaced and irrelevant when most of us get into adulthood and are in charge of managing our careers.

Here are 3 reasons why:

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Most of you will have very good intentions when it comes to exercising and keeping fit.

Some of you will have good habits and may be regular runners, swimmers or gym goers.

But I suspect that everyone reading with this will, at some stage, have fallen out of their exercise routine or got sidetracked by competing activities.

A busy work schedule, an injury or simply feeling lazy leads to several weeks (or months) without working out or visiting to the gym. Very soon you’re caught in a rut whilst promising yourself that “I’ll get back to the gym from Monday”- but Monday never comes.

Sound familiar?

The same thing often happens in our working lives and careers too.

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I love this track. I first heard it when visiting Colombia in January for a friend’s wedding. It was played at every party and club we went to and I couldn’t get it out of my head for weeks!

The Translated Lyrics

Apart from the music, I love the message behind the song. Here’s the chorus translated from Spanish into English:

Whilst, of course, the lyrics in the song are within the context of a romantic exchange, the message very much applies to our careers and professional lives too.

In the complex, interconnected world we live in today, we can’t predict what’s around the corner. A global financial crisis instigated by a real estate bubble in the US,  volcanic ash clouds from Iceland or major environmental disasters like the recent BP oil slick effect can effect so many industries and so many workers overnight.

Similarly, new technology, new products, new competitors can change the face of your industry immediately.

Which is why having detailed career plans no longer works.

You Don’t Know  Of Tomorrow

You don’t know if you and your employer will be together for years to come

You don’t know how a personal health problem or family matter could change the way you view your career overnight

So stay focussed on the job you’re doing right now, be committed to the employer who you’re working with right now. And then be agile in adapting to the environment as you go.

And if you’re out of work and job searching -- that’s your current job -- looking for work. So be present and stay focussed on just that. Be committed to following up those leads or the meetings you’re attending today.

I don’t know of tomorrow. And neither do you -- so don’t stress too much about it and enjoy today.

• Updating your CV/resume after days of procrastination

• Setting up or updating your LinkedIn profile

• Making a call you’ve been putting off

• Applying for a new job online

• Having a coffee with an ex-colleague or ex-client

• Finally securing a face to face meeting with that recruiter

• Following up a lead

• Getting a little more organised in your search

• Staying positive and upbeat despite a ‘bad week’

• Learning more about job searching from books, articles and blogs

None of the above actions or activities will on their own secure your next new job. They possibly won’t even result in an interview.

But they’re all baby steps in the right direction – they’re “small wins.”

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Within the last 24 hours, we’ve seen the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown step down from office. After losing last week’s general election, he will be replaced by the first coalition government in the UK for over 30 years.

Just 18 months ago Brown was playing an impressive role in leading global efforts to manage the financial crisis. Yet when it came to the election, he failed to impress the public.

While there were many policy and political factors that led to his downfall, a key part of his defeat and his exit from politics was due to Gordon Brown himself – his style and approach.

Here are 6 career lessons you can learn from Brown’s election campaign and subsequent downfall:

1. You need both style AND substance

Throughout the election campaign, Brown kept reiterating: “if this campaign is about style over substance – then count me out. I’m a man of substance, not a PR or marketing man.” Tough luck Gordon – like it or not, you’re in the marketing business. We all are. Brown, like many people, failed to actively manage his personal brand.

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Below is a excellent guest article from my friend Colin Hiles.

Colin is one of those rare people who dreamed of a more meaningful and exciting lifestyle – and then went for it.

Originally from the UK and now living in Spain, Colin is the author of the Midlife Maverick blog and runs a series of workshops and retreats (in sunny Spain!) for mid-lifers going through transition.

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How To Transition From Success To Significance

Many of us arrive at mid-life with a degree of success but find our fulfilment flags flying at half-mast leaving us perplexed, confused and unsettled.

As midlifers we can find ourselves well and truly caught up in life’s merry go round of busyness, feeling like we’re being pulled in many directions. We may find our work crosses over into our personal lives. Our boundaries become so skewed. Often we can’t even remember what they were in the first place.

The over whelmed, over worked feeling becomes part of our everyday life and energy to keep going comes from the adrenaline of non-stop “doing”. It’s no wonder that in mid-life we begin to question the meaning of it all and think about the legacy we want to leave.

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Trying to reactivate a relationship with an old contact?

Ask yourself “how can I best help them? What would be of value to them right now?”

Trying to strengthen your relationship with a recruiter?

Ask yourself, “how can I help my recruiters?”

Trying to ‘sell’ an idea or opportunity to an individual or group of individuals?

Focus on what challenges they’re struggling with. What is it they want to achieve? Now think how you, your idea or solution will help them.

Trying to engage a de-motivated team?

Focus on what challenges they’re struggling with (individually and collectively). What is it they want to achieve as individuals? How can you and your organisation help them?

Trying to increase the number of connections on LinkedIn?

Stop focusing on the numbers, and instead ask yourself “how can I help and be of value to my network?”

Trying to engage an awkward / difficult client or stakeholder?

Ask yourself, “how can I make life easier for them? What can I do that would be of value to them?”

Trying to build a stronger relationship with your boss?

Ask yourself, “how can I help him/her? How can I make them look good?”

Regardless of what your objective is, when you come at it from the viewpoint of helping someone, being of service and being of value – the ideas, strategies and opportunities will open up.

But come at it from the angle of “what can I get from him?”or “how can I turn this to my advantage?” and you’ll invariably hit the same roadblocks you’ve been running into in the past.

How can I help?