How do global risks and trends factor in on your job search?

There are abundant global financial and economic trends that may impact on your job via changes to interest rates, productivity, imports and exports. Diana Day from The Career Bureau is this week assisting the Marsh Company in their launch of the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report for company directors and executives through the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Diana will Chair the launch that explores the key global risks and how they may impact on your business and indeed the growing need to review your professional development.

Some key impacts we need to look for include the growing wealth disparity between rich and poor, the occurrence of extreme weather events impacting on public and private assets as well as community sustainability and  the interconnectedness between global financial systems and the Internet of Things.

It is imperative that we all become more of the digital native in protecting and managing not only our money but our careers. The on-line universe is key to your job search and interaction with mentors, search professionals and allies. Keep up to date with new sites, search techniques and apps.

New book tip.

Resilient Me    by Sam Owen.  

Work where it is all happening!

The Federal Government Department of Employment puts out regular vacancy reports. And the current report reinforces the trend. There is a real decline in jobs in the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry arena. Not only that, but as expected, also in Mining and Manufacturing. The latter area is the worst hit with an expected 14% decline in the next 5 years. And I think this calculation is optimistic.  The Department also gives us the growing areas for work over the 5 years to 2020 and this projection is a reasonable beacon for the future.

First up, Health care and social assistance will be the largest contributor to employment growth with its share of growth to be  23.2% by November 2020 according to the projections. Health care is certainly the number one growth area and whatever your background or expertise there are plenty of jobs that might suit you in this expanding field.

The expansion of professional, scientific and technical jobs and services is the next largest growth projection at 14% growth to 2020. And thirdly Education and Training is expected to grow at 11.3% of he employment pie.  Retail trade will be next at 9.8% growth.

Lots of detail is provided in the Department of Employment Vacancy Report which is recommended reading for those who want to look into the future and those thinking about what fields that interest them. All this information and much more is to be found on the Federal Government Labour Market Information Portal. 

QF32 Qantas Pilot's Business and Career Tip

"You have to be aware of your options and not be afraid of change or failure.

In fact, change is vital. A company that is not changing and improving is going out of business. So while some pilots are creatures of habit and don't like converting to new aircraft, I take the opposite  approach and go for it-its better than being made redundant."

Quote from Richard De Crespigny   from the book  'QF32'  2012, p96.

Sydney Career Expo -Top Issues and Tips for Attendees

The Career Bureau attended the 2015 Sydney Career Expo and worked hard with many other career consultants to give free advice and workshops to attendees.  We gave a workshop and seminar on how to find work and indeed with a focus on networking.  It is really important and quite a relief for all of us to find out that networking when you are looking for a job is NOT about asking for a job. Networking here is asking for advice and who else to speak to and information to help your job search. Networking is all about firstly listing out your extensive network.  You could find and network amongst family, friends, colleagues, teachers, alumni, friends of friends, professional assocations, church groups or sporting clubs. While it is easier to answer jobs advertised,  you are competing with everyone else and for only  30 or 40 percent of jobs advertised. The  best way is to search for jobs, the whole 70 or 80 percent, that are not advertised. Less competition for a start.  Issues for people who popped in for career advice at the Sydney Career Expo included concerns about being overqualified and ignored, being too old in their view, not being of the dominant cultural group and not knowing how to network to find leads and work.

The Career Bureau helped clients with a range of issues such as: - not being able to win at interview even when really qualified for the job; unemployed and using up last savings instead of seeking help from Centrelink for unemployment benefits; wanting to be a fitness trainer and not sure which course to take; wanting to work in human rights; being made redundant from Defence and needing to retrain; wanting to get into the Police Force and finding it very competitive; redundant from a TAFE due to technological changes; and wanting to be a manager without any good experience.  

The Career Bureau recommends a great job search networking video on UTube called

Creative Job Search, Accessing the Hidden Job  Market  by  Gradireland Summer Fair

Free Career Advice at Reinvent Your Career Expo Sydney 17/18 October 2015

The Career Bureau -as part of the free offerings of the Career Development Association of Australia- is offering 2 FREE seminars at this Career Expo at Sydney Olympic Park- The Showground.

The Career Bureau will give a free seminar on:- 

10 Ways to Dig In and get the job and career you want

and also a free workshop  on

Proven Ways to find the Job and Career You Enjoy.

The big treat for those who come along is further free advice to be had at the Career Development Association of Australia booth at the Expo.  Professional career consultants will be giving free advice on your own resume and job search issue in 15 minute time slots per person. Grab this chance. Bring your business card and resume!

Make sure you get to this Expo for lots more free seminars and workshops and those free consultations.  Dozens of employers and educators will be there as well.

For those who attend THE CAREER BUREAU's free seminar  on '10 WAYS..' there will be the opportunity to have some of your own career and  job search questions answered later on within this blog.  Stay tuned.    

Board directors and those tricky Minutes

There is always someone who wants to write lots of meeting notes. Not the minute taker mind, but a board member. Often it seems to be the women who take notes. Well they have to don't they? Some observers may think women need to take notes as they are learning or for some other diffuse reason.  But these observers would be wrong.   Some women board directors actually want at least one record of what they said at the meeting or indeed what actually happened.  Board minutes can be tricky representation of what was said or achieved. For fair representation of the meeting, make sure accurate Minutes are your responsibility as a Director or meeting participant.

SLEEPERS IN THE BOARD ROOM

Some boards have an occasional sleeper and I have seen a few good sleepers in my time. One, a good contributor when awake, used to basically shut down after lunch and sleep at the table like a purring baby. His recurrent violent sleep-snorts used to keep the rest of us quite awake during the afternoons.   

Another board director took the cake. He rarely contributed and also had a fatal attraction for after lunch sleeping. It was always my pleasure to see how he was dealing with the post-lunch torpor. Very soon the eyes would ram shut as phase 1. For phase 2 the upper body would ram upwards to assume a more erect sleeping posture. To show he was there. But obviously he had checked out from the work at hand. Occasionally he would reactivate. But not for long.  This director was also known to shut down in the mornings and for embarrassingly long periods at stakeholder meetings where even a hiss, call or kick had no impact.  At one  meeting I saw him actually sleep throughout, and I will never forget it. Of course he accepted directors fees for all his work.

Women must create their own success

Thanks to Conrad Liveris ("Women on boards: Men must must lead by example in debate on gender diversity" AFR, July 14) we have the laudable suggestion that "women are promoted on a track record, where for men it is on potential". Glad a man has said it and it resonates right. Perceptions around a women's capacity to be promoted to high office are sometimes shrouded with a particularly disturbing multi-dimensionality. Antipathy, uncertainty and a feeling of a downright threat to the proper order.

Men can indeed personify promise of future winning performance. Imbued and additional unseen strengths and potential seem to attach to a very confident and good male candidate.  A male candidate might have a patchy back-story of achievement. But so what? Men seem a little better at convincing  talk about success. If you add in the lessons learned, the sports links and the networks. Bingo!

This almost reasonable outlook is not always shared for the woman candidate. The vision of a woman potentially leading an organisation is not always there. Even less clear is her potential to higher trajectory. Why the uncertainty? Is the achieving woman as full of potential and strong future achievement as the achieving man?

Women can also 'lose' potential as they actively rise towards the top where there is tough competition. Strangely an inverse situation often applies to men. Their leader potential keeps rising.  A male corporate vision of expansive growth at interview might lead to board comfort and excitement. Yet if a woman with the same vision moves forward and talks this up the response might surprise. Maybe the executive or board might not be as comfortable.

The research literature is clear on average bottom-line business improvements with women as chief executive or chairwoman or across the boardroom versus all male leader teams.

Women who want to lead have options. They have to create and drive their success narratives. Unfortunately it appears you still have to behave and look like a credible leader too.

Diana Day,  published in The Australian Financial Review- Letters- 17 July 2015, p35     

Career Care Quote- Christine Valdez

I don't care what people think as long as I feel I am doing the right thing

Christine Valdez, Architect     Sydney Morning Herald June 7 1997

CAREER CARE QUOTE FROM DIANA DAY

I hope you don't mind if I call a spade a spade. But for the average person the job search is a war. Its a tough assignment.

in 'Fighting Them in the Trenches'   by Diana Day, The Newcastle Herald  15/1/1997 

Career Care Quote: Tyler Cowen

'Many people are seeing the erosion of their economic futures. The labor market troubles of the young- which you can observe in many countries- are a harbinger of the new world of work to come.  Lacking the right training means being shut out of opportunities like never before'.

Tyler Cowen,  

Average is Over-Powering America  Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation.  2013 p3.

Career Care Quote : Morella Jane Calder

' Pursue your goals with passion, be kind to others and yourself.

Never be afraid to stand up and be counted and always speak your mind'

Morella Jane Calder

Maritime Lawyer 1948-1994

Career Care Quote : Tim Jarvis

'Life is a series of junctions and you have to keep taking the one that leads you in the most rewarding direction. I don't think you ever go : 'There it is, its the beacon over there'.''

Tim Jarvis  in 'Real Life from Pole to Pole' by Jenny Wiggins

Australian Financial Review [AFR]  3-4 May 2014 p52.

Career Care Quote from Katy Perry

'Sometimes your biggest bully in life can be yourself, you can be the person standing in the way of your success and sometimes you have to give yourself a boost. That was what ROAR was about'.  

 in Frankly Speaking with Katy Perry ;  Marie Claire Australia Dec 2013 p 44 

Get That Job Interview with a Ripping Resume

I recently worked with a client who wanted to change careers. and had a good idea of a new field she wanted to try. I asked her to bring whatever resumes she had to our meeting.   It turned out that just before our appointment she had revamped her resume to fit the new field of interest.  

It soon became clear that the  Resume brought to our session was not a good match for it.  So we had to start again.  This frustrated the client who had invested hours redrafting the resume.  We worked together to develop a strategic overview of what was needed to bring out expertise and experience that was a fit for the new job title she was aiming for.  We roughly summarised what was needed in the new headings structure and dot points.  I encouraged the client to email me a final version for my quick review prior to posting.

From this client experience, here are some tips to save you wasted resume writing time and to get attention of employers.

 ·      If you are seeking expert help in the job hunt and needing a new resume for a specific role, avoid spending too much time  before your appointment drafting up what you think might work. Seek out the advice of a career professional first.  Bring all your old resumes and portfolio material along. 

·      Resumes simply serve as a passport to an interview. Your main aim is to get that interview with a good job-fit resume.

·      It can take hours to develop a compelling resume that fits middle to senior roles. Don't underestimate the time it takes for a resume targeting a well-paid position.

·      There are often several components to a job application. The cover letter, which must be crafted to sell you in a short few paragraphs, your document addressing the selection criteria [which requires a lot of thinking], and often the resume, which must fit the role.

·      By all means search the Internet for resume advice. There is an ocean of it. However you need to tailor your job application and resume to the job you are after, not the job you did last.

·      Expect to have a box or computer file full of resumes and selection criteria from different applications as you go through your career.

·      Remember a CV is really a repository for all your achievements and you draw from this store chest to create specific resumes.

·      Make sure you always have a good resume that fits your current role. Always have a latest resume on hand. Even if you go on holidays, pop your key resume material on a jpeg or file. You never know when you can take advantage of it in your work.

·      Make sure you regularly update your resume with achievements, new skills and courses completed. Keep it fresh.   Keep a work diary and use this as a record of your projects and achievements and as source material for your evolving resume. 

·      If we are in the workplace or looking for work we all need an evolving resume with current activities.  So keep learning new skills, undertaking new courses and working on challenging assignments.

7 Tips for Job Security

 

How secure is your job?  Do you know?  The workplace is shifting rapidly.  Jobs change, people change and the economy is volatile. And it appears whatever your economic environment whether in NSW Australia, The UK or China, it is  becoming  more unpredictable as time goes on. Take a look around and see if people are disappearing from your ranks.  Are people sort of morphing and moving around to new roles that surprise you?  Are you included in all the new projects and plans?  Do you feel even a bit left out? Think about what this might mean. Are you moving slowly to the outside, to the grey zone, where the less involved, more socially shunned and more vulnerable group live?   

If you want to get more control over a slipping situation, here are my top tips for staying employed or moving  to new more lucrative involvement and fresh air pockets.

1.  Develop some new enthusiasm for your work. This needs a little self-talk. Find out exactly what you are supposed to do and expand on it.  To get a grip on the lie of the land, liaise with your boss or manager so they are on side. Yes, work on expanding your workload and value.  Do a better job than before. Volunteer at work. And sorry, but you are going to have to let people notice your value. Do not beaver away extra hours for no reward of any kind for anyone. If you are the only person who will ever know what you are doing, and no one really cares, then that is not enhancing your job security one iota. 

2.  Network more and differently and work on being authentic as you do it. Don’t get the wild and desperate look of a born again religious nut.  Get to know more people on your floor and all the others. Go to staff functions. Chat to a wider group of people.  This is the time to make new contacts across the organization. Do lunch.  Maybe this will help you sidestep a retrenchment. It may also present new opportunities for promotion or make your role less vulnerable. You may also find good referees for when you need them.

3.  Speaking of vulnerability, try not to look weak or hidden.  Don't look like you are scared in car headlights at night. This means dressing more  up than down. It means being there in all your work hours. It means showing a bit of grit, head up shoulders back. Be in control. But be you at work. Be there at staff events, be noticed. Don’t make all those agonising personal calls that people can hear. And I have heard more than a few. Make more work calls, be phone networked. Be involved in your business, be available. 

4.  Check out how your firm or organization is doing in the business stakes. We all must do this. What is the local and regional economic news? Well right now it’s a little quiet. The only people not affected by economic decline are in the graveyard, or spaced out.  So do your own research, find out what is going on. Do some newspaper and web reading.  What is happening to your industry in particular? There is always some writing on the wall. What is it? What do others think?  Where are the safest places to be at work? Can you find your way to the growth areas to keep a job?

5.  This is time to invest in a good career practitioner or careers consultant. Trust me that you  will really benefit from independent input to evaluate what you are highly skilled at and to re-examine your work issues and ambitions.  A qualified career specialist   will be able to assist your interpretation of the job market and  show you where the jobs are in your line of interest and expertise. You will  also get expert assistance with your resume revival and have a line of actions to consider. Check out the Career Development Association of Australia www.cdaa.org.au  for career expert links and  lots of  career information.  

As an Australian trainer for other career counsellors on labour market information and where the jobs are, I recommend several on-line information sources such as the national  report, Australian Jobs 2014 [2015 not yet released] , The federal government Labour Market Information Portal, My Future  and Job Outlook [http://joboutlook.gov.au]

6.  If you have a pulse, enhance your own financial survival plan right now. You must be prepared to protect yourself if you still have a job but are not sure for how long.   Have a radical review of your financial situation and your budget. This is always vital but never as much as it is right now. Get a handle on all your finances. Develop or rework your budget so it is contemporary with feeling poorer. There is a great on-line budget calculator that you can print off or download called ‘fido’ with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission ( www.fido.asic.gov.au ) . This site gives tips on managing your money and keeping to your budget ‘so you can find extra money to spend’ it says. It clarified my income and expenses scarily fast and when you multiply  the program out out to see what you spend per month, quarter, or year,  it bites as it should do. The calculator clarified my greed for spending on new books, newspapers and magazines. I now haunt the local library. Fido even showed me I was overdoing it on presents for everyone. Not this year!  Make Christmas and birthdays leaner!   I now have a cheap phone, am not ripped off by telecommunications companies, and avoid shopping rip offs.  Enough of my budget, Fido’s Budget Planner is a must for all of us ordinary folks. Budget planning is a huge important back end of  personal and job security and career thinking.