Daily Telegraph Careers Seminar by Philip Fanthom
On Tuesday 25th January, Philip Fanthom, Managing Director of Jenrick IT was anchor speaker at The Daily Telegraph Career Speakers event where he talked about job hunting, career change, keeping a positive mindset during a job search and more.
The seminar focussed on all aspects of career change from interview tips to building a top career profile.
Careers Seminar - by Philip Fanthom
Start at the beginning:
I always start any ‘refresher’ seminar with two fundamental questions that often get overlooked in the furore of job hunting. However, in order to have focus and perspective, I believe, everyone should ask these questions of themselves regularly.
- What am I good at?
- What do I really enjoy doing?
Whilst these question sound very basic or theoretical, they are the fundamentals of the next step.
Explore your skills:
Once you have honestly answered the above questions, you can then ‘drill down’ deeper into you as an employee.
- What are my core skills (ie managing teams, being creative, delivery…etc)?
- How have I utilised these skills in the past?
- How transferable are these core skills?
- What skills can I bring to a future employer which will add value to their business?
- You will notice that I have not made reference to industry specifics. The reason for this is that in any change of career, it is the core skills you need to focus on. These are your true ‘value adds’.
Focus on the positives:
It is easy to get caught up in the ‘depressive state’ of a job seeker. This will not enhance your chances to obtain your next role.
- What have been your major career accomplishments?
- What were the ultimate ‘outcomes’
- How did you achieve these accomplishments?
- Is the core activity replicable?
- What challenges did you overcome along the way?
- Which of your core skills were utilised?
- Don’t forget to obtain testimonials / references for these achievements? These will come in very handy for CV building and your online profile.
Build your CV:
So many exceptionally experienced people that I have talked to over the years are not great (I’ll be kind) at writing their own CV. There are a number of psychological and cultural reasons that contribute to this, (one of which is the resistance to display your features for fear of coming across as boastful) which I will not cover today. There are a few very important points to raise here.
- Your curriculum vitae is NOT an autobiography.
- Make a CV relevant for the application. Have an adaptable CV to amplify your appropriate core skills to the role.
- Build your CV using your career history, but also the above information – Core Skills
- Your CV is a ‘value proposal’ to demonstrate how you can add value to the employer
- Get advice on your CV and be prepared to take critique (don’t be precious), your CV is a ‘means to an end’.
- Never add anything in a CV that you are not prepared to demonstrate or elaborate on.
- Include testimonials on your CV. This is particularly relevant in candidates such as described earlier who have come from a management environment where delivery was key.
A CV has one purpose in it’s lifetime – to achieve an interview!
Build an online presence:
More and more agencies and employers are searching online for suitable applicants. If you do not have an online presence you may be damaging your chances of obtaining your next role.
- Promote yourself in a positive manner online, utilising the various social media tools available (linkedin, create your own blog, facebook, twitter, xing…etc)
- Is your online image a positive demonstration of your value adds?
- Are you ensuring SEO for your online image (will agents and employers find you?)
- Take an active role in relevant groups and online discussions.
- Set job alerts for relevant job boards – this way appropriate adverts will come in to you.
- Work proactively with a few good agents
- Attend relevant webinars, online seminars, online events, asking credible questions.
Interview:
Regardless of experience, seniority, past history or existing circumstances an interview can be a very nerve-wracking experience. This is particularly relevant if you have been out of the job seeker market for some time.
- Prior to the interview event, go back to the start:
* What are my core skills? What am I good at?
* How does this benefit the potential employer?
* How do my previous accomplishments demonstrate this?
* Get interview advice; from a professional agent, friends, family (* no agency should charge for interview advice)
* Run some ‘mock’ interviews, perhaps with a professional agent, friends or family (* no agency should charge for interview help)
* Be prepared to go into detail with your answers, but ensure that you answer the question asked.
* Research the employer and be prepared to answer questions on why you wish to work for them.
* Research the role and ensure that you are 100% committed to going for the interview.
Continued learning:
Any change of career may involve becoming skilled in new areas. There are a vast number of courses available, with most being available online.
- Based on ‘Back to the start’ – what course will enhance the prospects within your chosen direction?
- Get advice from professionals within that sector on which courses are the best.
- Be careful, ensure that the training course will be relevant and enhance your chances of employment.
- Make sure you use accredited and recognised course providers
E.g. The ‘hot’ skill at present is Java. The best courses available at present for Java are being offered by Oracle, Home Learning College and the Chartered Institute for IT.
Be sure that the training is what you really want to do and that it is not a mode of desperation.
Case study:
Mark B (a candidate that contacted The Daily Telegraph)
- Louisa Peacock (DT Employment editor) contacted me regarding Mark to ask advice.
- Mark had got caught in a classic ‘negative spiral’ in his job hunt
- He had lost focus on what he was really good at (core skills)
- He had lost belief in his ability to add value to a future employer
- His CV was a ‘mish-mash’ of all his skills (a wide net)
- His interviewee style was to ‘try and please’
- Over a period of two weeks, I worked with Mark on the aforementioned exercises:
-We assessed his core skills,
-Identified his key achievements, accomplishments
-Identified value adds for his next employer (benefits)
-This resulted in his mental attitude becoming far more positive and raised his self-belief.
-Within 4 weeks of our initial conversation Mark was happily employed as a technical project manager, commutable from his home.
Positive Mental Attitude:
5 myths about positive mental attitude
1) Negative thinking is more ‘realistic’
a. “I’m not negative, I’m a realist” – positive thoughts or negative thoughts are merely a choice, and do not change an environment. These thoughts change your view of the environment.
2) People with PMA expect things just to happen for them if they ‘wish’
a. Everyone who achieves things in life, does so through taking action and note through wishing it to happen. Positive thinkers tend to take more action than negative thinkers.
3) Positive Thinking doesn’t change anything
a. Positive thinking is not about ignoring problems. Being upset about a problem only proves to exacerbate the issue. Positive thinkers see challenges to overcome and tend to be less phased and less likely to quit.
4) Positive thinkers are not in touch with reality
a. I have never met a positive person who has not overcome serious issues/challenges in their lives. Positive thinkers tend to have experienced major events in their lives that really put ‘life’ in perspective.
Book reference – Viktor E. Frankl - ‘Mans Search for meaning’. He talks about his ability to see positives in the Nazi camps - “we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.“
5) Positive people are annoying and cheesy!
a. Some types of positive people are a little bit ‘Disney’. Truly positive people are not the kind to spout platitudes and quotes, they are people with life experiences and life lessons (like you!) who choose to be open to opportunity, take on challenges and expect to achieve.
“Successful men become successful only because
they acquire the habit of thinking in terms of success.“
"What does having a positive mental attitude whilst job hunting actually mean?" - Napoleon Hill
- Prepare – work hard to be ready for job opportunities
- Attention to detail – your CV, your interview, your online presence,
- Take action – Put yourself out there, be proactive, make contacts, take risks and prepare to be vulnerable
- Expect positive results – optimism improves your chances of success. If/when you fail in a job application, assess, learn the lessons and continue on – smarter and better prepared.
Finally, and very importantly; when job hunting, be prepared to take advice, don’t be defensive, remain positive and make yourself available for opportunities by being proactive.
At Jenrick IT we are always available for career advice and we are happy to help.
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