A lot can and has been written about career decisionmaking. In the UK, one of the most helpful resources is the Windmills Careers Coach. Now part of a bigger lifestyle coaching facility, it takes you through a labyrinth of interactive material to help you focus in detail on your key career decisionmaking issues.
And yet the basic structure of the career decisionmaking process is actually quite simple. The process itself can be complex but the structure is easy. In careers jargon, it all relates to your 'career focus'. In layman's terms, it means there are just three key career decisionmaking situations that you can face:
1) I haven't got a clue what I want to do
In careers speak you are 'unfocussed' or have 'no focus'. In many ways this is a very good place to be, since a lot of people grasp hurriedly at a supposed career choice only to repent at leisure and return to the square one of complete indecision, often at considerable financial and emotional cost.
Unfocussed people either admit straight out that they have no idea what they want to do, or can only make vague statements about kinds of jobs they might or might not like. They may mention a job title but with no substantial knowledge of what is entailed.
They need to start finding out more about themselves, in particular their interests, values and motivation so they can start to match their preferences to opportunities. We call this 'self knowledge'. Career interest guides, of which there are several available free, are likely to help you realise their preferences and will list some possible job titles to look into.
2) I am trying to decide between a range of different careers
In the jargon, you have 'moderate focus'. People with 'moderate focus' can name a number of different jobs that might fit their interest profile and have some knowledge of what they are about, but they need to decide what to concentrate on before they move on to actually applying.
They need to look more closely into their possible job choices by finding out as much information as possible about them. They need to use the readily available sources of careers information, and talk to people who are in the know about the careers that attract them. It may help to construct a list of 'pros' and 'cons' for each job, or a grid showing how far each job might match up to your hitlist of requirements. Or it may just be that the information gives you a better intuitive grasp for the right decision.
3) I have a clear idea of what I want to do
Then you have what we call 'precise focus' and can move on to concentrate on searching for jobs and applying for them. This isn't the end of the story as methods of finding and applying for jobs vary considerably. You often need to research them as carefully as you do information about careers, if not more so. Finding and applying for teaching posts will be different from becoming a goldsmith.
Incidentally, applying for just one particular career isn't necessarily ideal. A shortlist of three or so careers incorporating a fallback or two, or possibly even a 'longshot' you don't really expect to get (but why not try your luck?) will give you a bigger but still manageable target to aim at.
Shouldn't I apply for 'any job'?
This is a common reaction amongst many applicants who fear that they do not have the skills to compete successfully when there is a shortage of jobs. On discussion, most will admit that there are jobs they would rather not do.
The trouble is that trying for 'any job' tends to decrease your chances of success because you don't get the inside knowledge about particular jobs that will help you succeed. You can't for example answer questions like "Why do you want this job?". You'll also end up mainly applying for advertised jobs (i.e. the minority) because you haven't learned the hidden tricks of getting into any particular job.
Career decisionmaking is not an exact science but success is more likely if you treat it like one. There will always be surprises and contradictions. Career plans are not for life and can change - but stick to the idea of having a plan.
Colin Taylor is a careers adviser and freelance writer who has been publishing careers and employment related material for over five years. Find out more about him at http://www.coltext.com
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Do I sense a careers website coming on?
After some soul searching I have decided to start dabbling with Affiliate Programmes on www.coltext.com The move was at least partly conceived as a cunning move to milk the site for a bit of recurring income in my old age - rather a longshot as www.coltext.com currently enjoys very low traffic volumes. But I can afford to wait a while...
Anyway, I've ended up with two pages of affiliate links which you can see at www.coltext.com/links.htm for writing and www.coltext.com/careers.htm for careers links. They were all on the links.htm page but it was getting a bit overcrowded with all the careers links squashed down the bottom. So I decided on two separate pages.
The interesting thing about this process was how many of the links I did not even know about until I actually went looking affiliate programmes to link to. I did not for example know that there was a site you could use to get fixed up with a literary agent, or one that sells an interactive tuition programme on job interview skills. So it's quite pleasing that I might have dug up a few things that have some potential to be useful as well as paying for the parachute jump I'll probably end up planning for my ninetieth birthday.
But it's apparent that the careers page now sits isolated, begging for relevant content. Having the writers' links on a separate page isn't ideal as they would score more highly on the main page, but at least they are rattling up a few non-paying clicks through to their targets from the many would-be writers in the world. Whereas the careers links are doing next to zilch.
They might do better if they were spread out amongst a site of pages offering basic careers advice and information. And so I find myself wondering if I should write this site, interestingly with some reluctance. Perhaps it's just too near what I do at work anyway. It wouldn't be hard. Some of the material I've provided here would provide a very handy starting point. The next one's probably going to be a very cut down guide to career decisionmaking.
Watch this space...
Anyway, I've ended up with two pages of affiliate links which you can see at www.coltext.com/links.htm for writing and www.coltext.com/careers.htm for careers links. They were all on the links.htm page but it was getting a bit overcrowded with all the careers links squashed down the bottom. So I decided on two separate pages.
The interesting thing about this process was how many of the links I did not even know about until I actually went looking affiliate programmes to link to. I did not for example know that there was a site you could use to get fixed up with a literary agent, or one that sells an interactive tuition programme on job interview skills. So it's quite pleasing that I might have dug up a few things that have some potential to be useful as well as paying for the parachute jump I'll probably end up planning for my ninetieth birthday.
But it's apparent that the careers page now sits isolated, begging for relevant content. Having the writers' links on a separate page isn't ideal as they would score more highly on the main page, but at least they are rattling up a few non-paying clicks through to their targets from the many would-be writers in the world. Whereas the careers links are doing next to zilch.
They might do better if they were spread out amongst a site of pages offering basic careers advice and information. And so I find myself wondering if I should write this site, interestingly with some reluctance. Perhaps it's just too near what I do at work anyway. It wouldn't be hard. Some of the material I've provided here would provide a very handy starting point. The next one's probably going to be a very cut down guide to career decisionmaking.
Watch this space...
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Gimme, gimme good feedback...
Giving good feedback is a vital skill in any job that involves dealing with people to any significant extent - in other words the vast majority of jobs that exist in the modern world. In my job I mainly use it to help people improve their performance in mock interview situations. It is just as valid in reviewing any situation where a measure of skill is required of someone, be it giving presentations, running meetings or projects, advising others or commercial or technical functions.
But many people do not have a clue how to give good feedback. You realise this if you observe them trying to do it from scratch. Most will launch straight into a speech of variable length on their own perceptions of the other person's performance. Often what they offer is unbalanced. So some tend to pick endless faults, leaving the other person feeling depressed. Others tend to duck all the issues or offer an unrealistically rosy account of what happened, which can leave the other person no wiser and possibly feeling sheepish to have 'got off' too lightly.
Yet giving honest, constructive feedback is possibly one of the easiest and most helpful interpersonal skills you can ever hope to learn. Here's how to do it, step by step, with commentary:-
1) Whilst observing the person's performance, note down everything you think went well and everything that could have gone better.
2) Before starting the feedback, take some time to review what you have written and decide on two or three positive and negative points you will feed back to the person.
Two things are important about this stage:
This point is absolutely vital. Research has shown that people gain most from feedback that reinforces their own perceptions. If you try this approach, you will be surprised how often the other person takes most of the words right out of your mouth. It also makes it far easier for you if you can start off by agreeing with them before moving on to less certain territory, and more likely that you will take them with you when you do.
4) Having made sure the person covers both the positive and not so positive points (and not everyone does so at first) ask if they are ready to hear what your thoughts were.
A nicety perhaps, but it does give the person a chance to opt into the process or say if there is anything else that is important to them.
5) Building first on what the other person has said, start off by relaying the positive points you observed.
6) Then move on to the points for improvement, again building on what they have said. Make sure you cover all the points you decided to feed back.
7) Return to re-emphasise the positive points in the performance before wishing them well next time they try the task.
In steps 5 - 7, the idea is to build a 'sandwich' structure of positive - negative - positive which leaves the person feeling safe, but confident enough to experiment with changes in the future.
Approached in this manner, feedback situations hold no terrors for either participant and are a major factor in improving performance in any organisation.
Colin Taylor is a careers adviser and freelance writer who has been publishing careers and employment related material for over five years. Find out more about him at http://www.coltext.com
But many people do not have a clue how to give good feedback. You realise this if you observe them trying to do it from scratch. Most will launch straight into a speech of variable length on their own perceptions of the other person's performance. Often what they offer is unbalanced. So some tend to pick endless faults, leaving the other person feeling depressed. Others tend to duck all the issues or offer an unrealistically rosy account of what happened, which can leave the other person no wiser and possibly feeling sheepish to have 'got off' too lightly.
Yet giving honest, constructive feedback is possibly one of the easiest and most helpful interpersonal skills you can ever hope to learn. Here's how to do it, step by step, with commentary:-
1) Whilst observing the person's performance, note down everything you think went well and everything that could have gone better.
2) Before starting the feedback, take some time to review what you have written and decide on two or three positive and negative points you will feed back to the person.
Two things are important about this stage:
- There is no such thing as totally perfect or totally hopeless performance. There are always things that could be improved and always things that were achieved, however small. So you must have some points on either side of the balance sheet.
- Too much feedback has been shown to be overwhelming and is likely to be as worthless as no feedback at all. This is why it is vital to cut it down to the key points. Life is a learning process, but only so much can be learned at any one time ('bite-size chunks').
This point is absolutely vital. Research has shown that people gain most from feedback that reinforces their own perceptions. If you try this approach, you will be surprised how often the other person takes most of the words right out of your mouth. It also makes it far easier for you if you can start off by agreeing with them before moving on to less certain territory, and more likely that you will take them with you when you do.
4) Having made sure the person covers both the positive and not so positive points (and not everyone does so at first) ask if they are ready to hear what your thoughts were.
A nicety perhaps, but it does give the person a chance to opt into the process or say if there is anything else that is important to them.
5) Building first on what the other person has said, start off by relaying the positive points you observed.
6) Then move on to the points for improvement, again building on what they have said. Make sure you cover all the points you decided to feed back.
7) Return to re-emphasise the positive points in the performance before wishing them well next time they try the task.
In steps 5 - 7, the idea is to build a 'sandwich' structure of positive - negative - positive which leaves the person feeling safe, but confident enough to experiment with changes in the future.
Approached in this manner, feedback situations hold no terrors for either participant and are a major factor in improving performance in any organisation.
Colin Taylor is a careers adviser and freelance writer who has been publishing careers and employment related material for over five years. Find out more about him at http://www.coltext.com
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Online Application Forms
I notice that Cumbria County Council recently changed their online application form. The new version is not bad to use contentwise but there are some technical problems. You can only navigate it using the forward and back buttons on the webpage - there's no chance of skipping from section to section. So you need to press 'forward' or 'back' abvout three dozen times to review a completed form. It also seems to be hosted on a separate server. As our University server is very suspicious of rival server content anyway, it means our students can't access or print the pdf preview of a completed form when working in college.
These little local disturbances have jogged my memory to write a list of tips on completing online application forms. It's not a straightforward task as the first thing you need to know is that different online forms behave in different ways. But here goes:
Completing online application forms - seven key questions to ask yourself
1) Can you view or download the whole form before you start?
Not all forms allow you to, but it can be a big help when planning out your answers.
2) Does the form start with a few simple looking questions?
Beware of false friends. A wrong answer here may eliminate your application and block you from seeing the rest of the form.
3) Can you paste text into the form pages?
If the form allows this, you can prepare material and check it offline before copying it onto the form.
4) Is there an autosave facility?
Some forms do not save your work for you. If you haven't saved it yourself, you may have to retype everything after logging out or if the system crashes. Very annoying!
5) Is there a selection test built into the form?
This is increasingly common with online forms. Ideally, you should have an idea of the kind of test and how to approach it before you begin.
6) Is there a time limit?
Not very common, but some organisations see beating the time limit as part of the selection process.
7) Is there a space limit for the 'Supporting Comments' or similar section?
This is far more common. A page on your wordprocessor may not fit into one page on the form. There may be word limits, or even limits to the number of characters (sometimes including spaces!) you can use.
Last of all remember that all the usual rules for completing paper application forms still apply. Research the job just as thoroughly and don't resort to email or txtspeak. You can find online applications discussed more thoroughly on the University of Kent careers website and try out a (rather rough and ready) sample online form at www.selectsimulator.com
Colin Taylor is a careers adviser and freelance writer who has been publishing careers and employment related material for over five years. Find out more about him at http://www.coltext.com
These little local disturbances have jogged my memory to write a list of tips on completing online application forms. It's not a straightforward task as the first thing you need to know is that different online forms behave in different ways. But here goes:
Completing online application forms - seven key questions to ask yourself
1) Can you view or download the whole form before you start?
Not all forms allow you to, but it can be a big help when planning out your answers.
2) Does the form start with a few simple looking questions?
Beware of false friends. A wrong answer here may eliminate your application and block you from seeing the rest of the form.
3) Can you paste text into the form pages?
If the form allows this, you can prepare material and check it offline before copying it onto the form.
4) Is there an autosave facility?
Some forms do not save your work for you. If you haven't saved it yourself, you may have to retype everything after logging out or if the system crashes. Very annoying!
5) Is there a selection test built into the form?
This is increasingly common with online forms. Ideally, you should have an idea of the kind of test and how to approach it before you begin.
6) Is there a time limit?
Not very common, but some organisations see beating the time limit as part of the selection process.
7) Is there a space limit for the 'Supporting Comments' or similar section?
This is far more common. A page on your wordprocessor may not fit into one page on the form. There may be word limits, or even limits to the number of characters (sometimes including spaces!) you can use.
Last of all remember that all the usual rules for completing paper application forms still apply. Research the job just as thoroughly and don't resort to email or txtspeak. You can find online applications discussed more thoroughly on the University of Kent careers website and try out a (rather rough and ready) sample online form at www.selectsimulator.com
Colin Taylor is a careers adviser and freelance writer who has been publishing careers and employment related material for over five years. Find out more about him at http://www.coltext.com
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
I Hate Macromedia Adobe Shockwave Flash...
or whatever you call it!
It all started when I decided - for reasons I cannot remember - to look up the Army careers website...
No, actually it had started to happen a while before then. Screen freezes right when I was right in the middle of working on something. No mouse, no keyboard, no programme manager. No way out but to reboot the damn thing, which was taking a good few minutes. And of course, if I had been writing, up to ten minutes of lost work that needed redoing.
A long and freezing road
I found out there's a thing called the 'Event Viewer' (Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools in Windows XP) that lists system errors and links to Windows help to explain them. I found out that the system was looking for a non-existent driver for my old Tiscali modem. After some tut-tutting, I altered the culpable registry entry following a helpful discussion board post.
Screen freezes became less frequent, but continued. I decided that I may have more registry problems, so I bought and used a proprietary registry cleaner, not having read the helpful discussion board post "Registry Cleaners may cause your system to become unstable".
My system speeded up considerably but still hung when I was browsing. By now I was starting to realise that screen freezes only still happened when videos were playing somewhwere on the screen. At first I blamed Firefox, which could fall over within seconds of starting up, but IE6 was just better, not perfect or anywhere near.
The penny was starting to drop. I updated Flash and there was an improvement. Much Flash content would play, but advanced content with both audio and video would crash sooner rather than later.
The day the Army Careers and the NHS Management Programme websites crashed in quick succession, I decided to call in Computerwoman.
I did some Uni modules with Computerwoman, since when she has become a bit of a techie. Her workroom is very poor 'feng shui', littered as it is with disembowelled machines and other bits of kit. She suspects, as I do, that a RAM upgrade could be helpful and kindly gives me one.
The Army Careers website starts with an over the top Flash presentation featuring a battlefield overflown by whirring helicopters. With a RAM upgrade, we can get the thing to load properly in IE7 but the first whirring helicopter crashes - the screen that is.
Computerwoman expresses some surprise as even Henry, her absolute worstest machine bought at Aldi has no problem displaying a tedious stream of whirring helicopters. She decides it might be malware.
This means we wait six hours while my machine is hotwired to a laptop containing Bullguard and then is rescanned with spybot We do find and exterminate some malware, but not the error. Computerwoman replaces the video card and reinstalls Windows, but neither make any difference. She decides that my machine must stay in her emergency ward for further treatment.
When I get it back from her she has tuned it up the best she can, but the most we can get is two whirring helicopters. She now thinks there may be an obscure software conflict and I think she's probably right.
Why I hate Macromedia Shockwave Adobe etc
The reason I'm telling you all this is to show what a trouble the malfunctioning of Flash on my machine has caused - literally days of work without much result.
I've never been much of a fan ever since Flash presentations first started getting used by some sites as a prelude to opening the main pages. The presentations were, well, flashy but low on content and most people just skipped them.
But my real grudge against Flash is that it does not tell you what's going on:
- It does not tell you that it's going to crash your browser, losing all your uncompleted work and open pages. No chance of an "Internet Explorer/Firefox has encountered a problem and needs to close" type message.
- It does not tell you when a new version of Flashplayer becomes available, even though an update could considerably improve performance.
- It does not tell you that you may need to tweak other parts of your software setup to get optimum results.
- Web designers should provide alternative content to Flash but often don't and do not tell you that they haven't, so that all you get is a blank space on your screen.
Why do have to have this Flash stuff anyway? An animated gif or a more standard video technique will usually do the job without the instability. After all the tweaks I've made to my set up it still won't work all the time and I don't see why I should buy another machine (complete with Vista, but that's another story) to resolve one obscure problem.
Surely it couldn't be that Flash is just some sort of status symbol amongs the web design fraternity?...
What to do if it happens to you
I don't think I'm alone in having problems with Flash. A friend of mine recently sent out copies of her first article for "The Naval Architect" - a geat read if you're into marine technicalities. The trouble was it was in FlashBook, an electronic book format that crashed Firefox when I opened page 2. In fact so many people had problems with the format that she had to send it out again in Word.
Now I'm no expert on Flash technicalities, but here's my simple three step guide to living with Flash:-
1) Turn it off. Set your browser to disable Flash using Tools > Internet Options in IE Options > Manage Add ons > Plugins in Firefox. On the whole you won't miss much and you can always switch it on again if you really need it, having prepared that you may be about for yet another freeze.
2) If you've got to use it, take a look at the Adobe website to make sure you've got the latest version and check out what other software you may need. I ended up downloading Quicktime Player and a thing called Shockwave Director (?). Why did I need them? - dunno, they didn't tell me. Did they make a difference - might well have, it's hard to be sure.
3) If like me you are working on Word documents while you are browsing, set them to autosave every minute (Tools > Options > Save). Then you get a recovered version of your file with virtually nothing missing after the reboot.
After following my own tips, running antivirus and malware scans and deleting temporary internet files, I can announce that I actually managed to view an endless stream of whirring helicopters on the Army Careers website in Firefox last week ...until I turned the sound on.
Colin Taylor is a careers adviser and freelance writer who has been publishing careers and employment related material for over five years. Find out more about him at http://www.coltext.com
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
CV or Resume – Which to use?
Basically it depends which side of the Atlantic you are on – even though both words actually originated from Europe.
Back in the USA…
There is some difference between them in the US. At only one to two sides of A4, a resume tends to be shorter than a CV, which can take up two or three sides of A4 and even longer in some circumstances.
The resume saves space by omitting some of the headings you’d expect to see in a UK CV, such as ‘References’ and ‘Hobbies and Interests’, while ‘Education’ is often restricted to last High School or College. Often they use small fonts with limited white space, giving a rather cramped impression to an outsider.
There is also a difference in the target audience in America. Resumes tend to be used when applying for commercial positions in the private sector. CV’s are more likely to be used for academic and public sector positions that require high levels of education. The structure is fundamentally the same as a resume but with more detail on educational and professional attainments.
CV in the UK…and Europe
In the UK and generally in Europe, the term CV dominates and can effectively be regarded as the same as a resume. BUT the structure of the UK CV isn’t exactly the same as either of its US counterparts:
· Two sides of A4 is a generally accepted rule.
There are exceptions when applying to very high level posts, or academic jobs that require an account of publications or research undertaken
· References are always included, although ‘Available on request’ is regarded as acceptable.
· Hobbies and Interests and at least your last Secondary School are usually mentioned as well as post-school education.
Vive la difference!
CV conventions still vary a lot from country to country. In India photographs are still required for some occupations and many applicants in mainland Europe still use them. In Italy, CV’s must contain a standard sentence for data protection purposes and in Germany ‘Marital Status’ remains a must and some organisations still prefer an old-fashioned ‘essay’ format.
Oh!… and stay away from the so-called Euro CV promoted by the European Union. It’s just a mish-mash of all the different approaches that won’t cut it with any but the most Brussels minded employers.
Now read the really interesting bit..
Should I pay for a CV or resume?
What you really need to know is that the internet is full of FREE information on the right way to write a CV or resume where you live. FREE advice on your drafts is available from many state-run careers advisory services. That means you should NEVER NEED TO PAY someone else to write a CV or resume for you – the internet and a wordprocessor with spellchecker are all you need to get started.
Colin Taylor is a careers adviser and freelance writer who has been publishing careers and employment related material for over five years. Find out more about him at http://www.coltext.com
Covering Letters – A Step By Step Guide
Avoid the confusion!
When some people say ‘covering letter’, they don’t mean a covering letter at all, but a full letter of application.
A two or three page letter of application is a detailed piece of persuasive writing to convince an employer that you’re worth considering for the job, but it isn’t a covering letter.
A covering letter (U.S. ‘cover letter’) is a brief one-pager introducing another document that sits underneath it, most commonly your CV. Many employers will use it to decide whether to read your CV or file both quietly under W.P.B. (Waste Paper Bin). So covering letters are important.
When are covering letters REALLY important?
There are three situations when you use a covering letter:
· When returning an application form for an advertised post
· With a CV in response to an advertised post
In these two cases the covering letter may NOT be so important. All that’s required is a short couple of lines saying ‘Please find enclosed…’ and ‘I look forward to…’. It might not do any harm to add some detail but it probably won’t make much difference. The bottom line is that they’ve asked you to apply –- the door is partially open.
· With a CV when no post has been advertised
This is the crunch situation. CV plus covering letter is the main way of getting into companies who aren’t openly recruiting. But an employer has no reasons to be interested in your CV unless you provide some.
Getting Started – sample format
Here is what your letter’s going to look like:
Name,
Address,
Phone No.
Email
date
Dear ,
FOUR paragraphs of text
Yours sincerely,
DO make sure you get the name of the person to write to. Research shows that ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ is a turn off.
Now you’ve got started, each step is a paragraph of your letter… As you go through them keep to the point and don’t use flowery language.
Para 1
Write a short paragraph saying what (or who) has motivated you to write. Say what kind of work or placement you are looking for. The ‘who’ can be vital. If someone has suggested you apply, it amounts to a recommendation.
Para 2
Start a fresh paragraph explaining why you want to work there and the contribution you can offer. Base this on whatever you can find out about them. The key is to make what you say seem unique –- something they might need that not everyone else can offer.
Para 3
Here you refer to your attached CV, emphasising the two or three points that you think will interest the employer.
Para 4
Finish by saying that you would be pleased to attend an interview and (if appropriate) when. If it feels right, you can say instead that you will ring them on a specific date to ask for feedback on your CV.
Then all you need to do is check and sign your letter.
Colin Taylor
10/11/08
Disclaimer
This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any Ezine, newsletter, blog, or website. The author’s name, bio and website link must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.
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