Sital Ruparelia

• 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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1. The Trigger

Something happens which stops you in your tracks:

• Major changes at work which make you think… “Is this what I really want?”

• Redundancy

• A major health problem (for you or a family member)

• The death of a close friend or family member

• A divorce or major a relationship break-up

• Financial difficulties

• Extended travel or volunteering activities that make you question what you’re doing

• External factors that move you (e.g. 9/11, the tsunami in Asia, earthquake in Haiti)

Tip:

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Next week I’ll be at the Vitality Show at London’s Earls Court to offer career advice to visitors as part of the Career Shifters Career Advice Clinics.

The Vitality Show is the UK’s largest health, beauty, fitness and well being event. And this year is host to the annual One Life Live event which is the biggest  annual UK event for individuals looking to make major changes in their life. Featuring a range of workshops, seminars and specialist career advice, it’s a unique event for anyone facing a big career decision.

So if you’re interested in shifting careers, taking a career break, starting a business and want some advice, come along to the free career advice clinics where you’ll be able to book a 15 minute session to get advice from some of the UK’s leading career coaches.

The career clinics run for all 4 days – Thursday 18th March to Sunday 21st March.

I’ll be running clinics on the following dates / times:

So if you are visiting the show next week, drop by and say hello!

For more details about the event and tickets click here.

A few months back I began working with a bright, talented lawyer shortly after he was made redundant. Like every client I work with in this market, from the outset I explained the importance of focussing his job search campaign via networking and contacts much more than targeting recruiters and jobsites.

Not because the other search channels were ineffective – but because in a tight job market a much larger proportion of roles are being filled by employee referral programmes and direct hiring from firms rather than recruiters and job sites. An abundance of candidates, smaller recruitment budgets and slimmed down HR teams (who manage and process applicants) being the main reasons.

Over the last few months he has made some progress – but hasn’t secured a job offer despite is impressive resume / CV. This is largely (in my opinion) due to the fact that he has been searching mainly via recruiters and job sites (i.e. the complete opposite to what I suggested) and so faces huge competition for a smaller pool of positions.

When we met 4 months into his search, I suggested he changed his approach to focus much more time and energy on networking and less time and energy applying to the same recruiters and job adverts that every other lawyer in town is applying to.

He told me that I was wrong.

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Scared of making a vital call?

Worried about sending an email to that contact?

Anxious about confronting your boss or colleague about a situation?

Fearful about making a big decision?

…..do you consequently feel paralysed and powerless?

Okay, following these 5 steps:

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“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Reinhold Niebuhr

You’re employer is going through a major restructuring process and you don’t quite know what will happen to you or your job.

You’re department has reorganised and you’ve ended up in a make-shift role that is unclear.

You’ve been given (what seems like) a pointless project to work on. You get the distinct impression that you’re being ‘frozen out.’

Your firm is cutting costs and you feel vulnerable

Sound familiar?

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Last Christmas, I spent two days volunteering at the Crisis homeless shelters in London.

Crisis is a charity that runs centres each Christmas to provide London’s homeless people with food, shelter, entertainment and companionship through the Christmas period. In fact they ran the biggest ever volunteer event in the UK, with 9,000+ volunteers over a 10-day period.

I’d never done anything like this before but, having read about the record numbers of people becoming homeless last year due to the financial crisis, I thought I would volunteer my time on the 23rd and 24th December – after all it was just two days.

I was part of the “Learning and Skills” team of volunteers who helped the homeless ‘clients’ improve specific skills such as literacy, numeracy, language skills, computer skills, artistic skills etc. Given my background, my main focus was to offer advice and help to people about finding work. After all, finding work and earning money has a knock-on effect on being homeless. Helping a homeless person find work could literary change their life.

But in reality, most people that come into the shelters are looking for a warm meal and people to chat to rather than for advice on how to improve their skills. So on Christmas Eve I found myself and a fellow volunteer (Carol), chatting to a homeless 60-year old Irish man over a cup of tea in the canteen of the school that was hosting the shelter.

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Are you frustrated with waiting for that call?

- The call back from the recruiter who has sent your resume/CV to a client

- The call back from the contact who is discussing your details with some of their colleagues

- The call back from the potential employer that’s trying to find a budget to take you on as a contractor

Well stop waiting

Waiting around for people to call you is one of the most frustrating parts of  job searching. And usually makes you feel as if you have little or no control of what’s happening to you.

Well here’s a suggestion: stop waiting and take control.

Always keep control

Where possible don’t ever ever give people the opportunity to ‘call you back.’

Instead, make sure its YOU that keeps control by ensuring it’s YOU that is doing the calling back. And ideally, agreeing to call back at a pre-agreed time and date.

“You can’t do that…(can you?)”

Yes you can. But only if you ask.

In my experience, most people don’t even try to keep control of the conversation. When a recruiter or contact says “I’ll call you back” most people roll over and meekly say “..Ok thank you” fully expecting a call back that, often, doesn’t materialise.

What you should be doing in these situations is seizing control by politely suggesting that you’ll make the follow up call (after all you’re the one job searching and their likely to be incredibly busy). Once they’ve agreed, find a time and date to make the follow up call. Invariably you will hit their voicemail when you call back – but at least you now have control. You can leave a voicemail and say you’ll call back – instead of asking them to call you.

You won’t always get control, but you must always attempt to get it

I accept that not everyone you speak to will agree to this and some will want to keep control and call you back when they are ready to do so.  But you must always attempt to keep control by asking the question. And you’ll often find you need to make several attempted follow ups to get an answer. But that’s ok. It’s part of the course. But at least this way you have some control.

Asking the question and keeping control helps you separate you from the crowd. It quickens up your job search and helps you feel like you have some control over your destiny, rather than just being another number. Another person that get’s lost on a database or in a backlog of  unanswered voicemails…

Some people come into our lives for a reason

Some people for a season

Some for a lifetime

I came across this wise saying a few years ago when I found myself asking the “why question.”

You know the one we all ask when we lose people that are close to us  - be they friends, family or a close relationship.

I’d lost a close friend and really couldn’t make sense of things. All I kept thinking was: “Why? Why did it happen? Why oh why…?”

Then one day I randomly came across the above quote which helped me look at things a little more philosophically. It didn’t change the situation – but certainly changed my perspective on things and , in time, help me move forward.

Moving forward is the greatest challenge many people face after any loss – including the loss of a job.

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