jdconsulting

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When you are looking for a job, future employers are particularly interested in what you have achieved. Yes they want to know what your job involves so that they can paint a picture of what it is you have done however, it is what you have achieved that will make you stand out and differentiate you from the other people who have similar experience.

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Do you find it difficult to think about what it is you’ve actually achieved? You feel as if you’ve just been doing your job, doing what you were paid to do? An achievement doesn’t have to be something enormous that changed the world, it can be something small but significant such as, an idea that you came up with that resulted in improved efficiency in your department. If you are finding it challenging to think of what you have achieved, try these sources:

• Past Appraisals or Performance Reviews
• Certificates – Education, Qualifications
• Company or Industry Awards
• Emails/Letters of thanks
• References from previous employers
• Recommendations on LinkedIn
• Referrals that you have received
• Your manager, your colleagues, your clients – they will often remember things that you have done

By using these sources, you will be able to gather evidence of what you have achieved. You can then use this evidence when you are writing your CV and when you are selling yourself at interview. Some of these items will become part of your brag file.

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This entry was written by Judith Drysdale, Director and Coach at jdconsulting,www.jdconsulting.com

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There is a huge choice of careers out there, so many exciting opportunities to choose from. I have attempted to put together a comprehensive (but not exhaustive) list of career options to which you can refer.

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Whether you are at the beginning of your working life and deciding where you would like to start your career or you are looking for a change of career and keen to find out what opportunities might utilise your transferable skills, this list should provide you with some useful food for thought.

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Click here to read the A – Z list of careers

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I welcome your thoughts on this list and will happily add any other suggestions that you might have.

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This entry was written by Judith Drysdale, Director at jdconsulting, www.jdconsulting.uk.com

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I have just interviewed Rachel Newell, Managing Director of Max Resourcing, a successful recruitment consultancy specialising in placing professionals and senior managers within the clinical, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries across Europe.

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Rachel was happy to share her expertise with me on how her team at Max Resourcing have had a great deal of success using LinkedIn to source candidates. She also provided some advice to help you optimise your chances of being found by relevant recruiters. Rachel started by sharing some very interesting and bang up to date LinkedIn statistics with me :

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Rachel: There are currently 66,000 recruiters using LinkedIn in the UK alone and LinkedIn has 70 million users worldwide.

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Judith: What percentage of your placements come through LinkedIn?

Rachel: 33% of our placements last year were candidates who we found through LinkedIn, this is the single largest source of candidates for us.

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Judith: How do you go about sourcing candidates through LinkedIn?

Rachel: We have paid to be a featured user which gives us some additional tools to be able to search for people and send messages to them. We do a key word search on such criteria as industry experience, geographical area, qualifications and job title. We will then review the profiles that come up from the search and contact the candidates who meet the criteria through InMail. There is a limited word count that we can use in InMail so we can only send a brief message to candidates to let them know about the role we are recruiting and we will ask the candidate to connect with us. Once we are connected we can have an open dialogue with the candidate and find out if it is the right opportunity for them.

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Judith: How can candidates make sure that their profile is found by appropriate recruiters?

Rachel: There are several things that candidates can do to give themselves the best chance of being found by the right recruiters:

• Job title – some companies use unusual job titles which will not be easy to find in a key word search – try to use a more generic title which will be easy to find, for example if your job title is Regional Sales Manager but you are actually a 2nd line manager, you’d be better to put National Sales Manager in the job title if that is the more common title for your role. You can mention your actual job title in the sub-text
• Key words – use the key words that are relevant to your role several times in your profile. It works in a similar way to SEO in websites – the more often you mention the key words, the more likely your profile is to come up in a recruiters search.
• Join Groups – If you join several groups within you area of expertise and get involved in discussions, it will increase your profile and again you’ll be more likely to come up in a recruiters’ search, it will optimise your chances.
• Career history – you only need to show your relevant career history, usually showing your last three jobs is enough. Try to show the career progression that you have had.
• Qualifications – it’s a client led climate currently, so in order to make yourself stand out, include all the details of your qualifications – it might just give you the edge.
• Career Opportunities – we only contact people who state on their profile that they are looking at career opportunities. In your Profile, Account and Settings, make sure that you put a tick to show that you are interested in Career Opportunities.

Judith: What other advice would you give to someone who is seeking a job in this time of online networking?

Rachel: Start thinking about your own network and make sure that you regularly update your contacts, very often people find that the key influencers and decision makers are within their own network. I would also urge people to realise that HR Directors will often do a search online before inviting a candidate for interview – 80% are using social media to support their recruitment process of which over 95% are using LinkedIn and many of them will use facebook as a back up. Remember, ‘what goes on in Vegas does not stay in Vegas anymore.’

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Many thanks to Rachel for sharing her expertise with us and for being as helpful and informative as ever.

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This entry was written by Judith Drysdale, Director at jdconsulting, www.jdconsulting.uk.com

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“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is a command dating back to biblical times and is advice which is still regularly handed out today usually in the form of; “treat others as you would like to be treated yourself.”

In many situations this is sound advice however what it overlooks is the fact that we’re all different, instead it makes the assumption that we all like to be treated in the same way. Many managers follow this advice and make the assumption that what motivates the members of their team is the same as what motivates them and they manage their team in the way that they like to be managed themselves. This approach may work with some members of your team however, one size does not fit all and each individual needs to be treated as just that, an individual. For example, for some people being praised in public can be very motivational, for others the very same action can cause excruciating embarrassment and consequently be incredibly de-motivating.

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It’s critical to ask each member of your team what motivates them and how they like to be managed, only by doing this can you possibly get the best out of them. So, the platinum rule is to treat people as individuals and with respect and…

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“Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.”

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This entry was written by Judith Drysdale, Director at jdconsulting, www.jdconsulting.uk.com