R&D for your career

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In an age of ‘information overload’ on the world wide web many job seekers seem to be poorly prepared for interview questions and unaware of the useful information that can help them to find the right job. I am constantly reminding my clients to source information on the industry and organisation they are targeting in their job search BEFORE making ANY application. I wonder why the job seeker does not value doing research to prepare for a job application?

What is research?

In regard to career management I see research to be derived from the literal translation of ‘to go about seeking’ from the French word ‘recherche’1. Think of research as an opportunity to find out new information that can help you create informed career choices.

Best practice in career management involves staying in touch with the current trends for your role, organisation and industry, whether you are job searching or not. Research is basically gathering information on your chosen industry and sector. It can help you stay up to date with current issues and be better informed when making business or job selection decisions. Some jobs even involve regular research – Investment Banking, Management Consultancy and Market Research, for example. You can save time by setting up regular information sources so that the information can come to you by using RSS feeds, online newspaper or newsletter subscriptions.

I also see networking as a crucial part of research. Information and advice from someone who has been in your role or organisation in the past can often give you great insights on what to expect when you are in the new job.

Why spend the time doing research?

Here are some issues to consider why spending some time on focused research can help your career prospects in today’s job market in Australia.

Fast and dirty communication methods

In the age of twitter and text messages, we are creating a new form of the English language. Unfortunately this shorthand and quick form of communication does not need considered thought and reflection. When you are job searching and assessing job advertisements and writing cover letters, resumes and essential criteria, you need to make a clear argument that you are the right person for the role. This task requires a high standard of reading, listening and writing skills that we are not necessarily using in our day-to-day interactions.

There is a wealth of tips and advice available on the recruitment sites (and the Action Focus website too!) Research these tips and become familiar with the techniques of writing good job applications. Also be careful of rushing an application. Read it thoroughly as the quality of your writing skills is being judged through the application process. How credible is your CV if you list ‘excellent attention to detail’ and there are spelling mistakes in the document and you are ill informed about the organisation at the interview?

Where are the jobs?

The pace of change on the web is phenomenal. How do you keep up with these new sites? In the past seek.com may have had the monopoly on job advertisements in Australia. Now there are specialist job sites and recruiters, professional bodies and organisations advertise vacancies on their websites. Simplyhired.com.au or indeed.com.au can you help stay on top of all the advertised jobs. These new search engines review all the advertised positions for a given location (state, region or even postcode).

Easily available information

One of the disadvantages of this readily available information on the web from one or two sources (eg Google and Wikipedia) is that it is too easy to find information! How do you know this information is reliable? Do you rely on one source and give up if the answer to your question is not readily available form this source? Do you simply repeat this information as true rather than writing it in your own words? Being lazy on research can result in you losing your ability to write. Don’t forget that this ‘cut and paste’ exercise can easily be spotted by the reader. The important message here is to check the reliability of your information source, look at more than one source and make sure that any view or opinion you express is in your own style of writing.

Secondly, use several sources of information. Did you know that most of the management consultancies publish their industry reports for free on their websites and that the Victorian State Library gives free access to their information databases to residents? Action Focus website also has a list of useful resources to help to find information about industries and organisations.

What would I get out of doing this research?

1. Understand the current industry trends and challenges that the organisation faces – turnover, risks, skills shortages, salary trends
2. Find more job opportunities beyond advertised jobs on one or two websites
3. Face reality of your chosen job options and become aware of the demand and supply of your talents
4. Make the right choice for the new role. Do you fit the culture? What are the likely opportunities for career progression? Am I being sold into a job that no one else will do?
5. Understand the key challenges facing the organisation and how likely they are to survive these challenges. Help you to decide if you are motivated to take up these

Asking the right questions

Think about the following questions when gathering information as often time is wasted by not having a clear focus on your research goals.

• Why does the industry/organisation exist?
• What are the key challenges facing this industry/organisation?
• What are the current skills shortages in the industry/organisation?
• Where are the jobs based?
• What are the typical recruitment methods used in the industry/organisation?
• What are the values and culture of the industry/organisation?
• Who are the preferred employers?
• What is the market rate for my salary?

To be on top of your profession and ensure that you are in the right organisation during this rapidly changing world we live in I urge you to value spending some time gathering information before starting any sort of job search. Value the time spent on gathering information as an investment in your career. Research can help you expand your career options and ensure that you are on top of the right opportunities as well as give you insights to the key challenges the organisation and you will be facing in the near future. It is not just a tool for a job search. It is a lifelong career management necessity.

Notes

1. Oxford Dictionary

Personal branding – why is it relevant to me?

WHAT IS IT?

Personal branding is considered a bit of a ‘buzz’ word but it has been around for a while. Not surprisingly it started in America when the renowned business guru, Tom Peters1, wrote an article on the importance of personal branding in 1997. This article stressed how important it is for each of us to take charge of our own career and not expect your company, recruiters, family or friends to look after you.

Even more recently career experts such as William Aruda(2) and Dan Schwabel have created their own career around personal branding. Dan Schwabel describes personal branding as “how we market ourselves to others”(3).

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO MY CAREER IN AUSTRALIA?

It may seem just a marketing hype and not relevant to the average Australian, but personal branding is important in the rapidly changing world of work in the 21st century. As it is unlikely that you will be staying in the same role or even the same organisation for a long time you need to be prepared to continually market yourself. Also the skills needed for the future world of work may be different to now.

You need to be aware of your marketability to keep up to date with the rapidly changing working world we live in. Simply dusting off a lame resume and sending it to a few recruiters will not keep you marketable.

Here’s some change scenarios where knowing your personal brand is important to your career success in today’s world and where you may need to market yourself.

1. Career transition

If you want to change career direction it is unlikely that you will be familiar with the organisations in an industry new to you and they won’t know you either! In this situation you may be making a transition to a new location within or outside Australia. You have to be able to describe your value to the new organisation to make the transition and explain why you can make the career transition. Knowing your personal brand helps you create your winning argument as to why you can do the job.

2. Changes within your own industry or organisation

One of the ‘rewards’ for a stronger currency and a stable economic and political environment is that Australia is more attractive to overseas corporate predators. Take the food retailing sector, for example. Whilst Coles and Woolworths continue to dominate the market, they have new competition from overseas companies such as Aldi and Costco. You will need to market yourself to companies with decision makers based overseas.

As stock market volatility increases there will be more mergers & acquisitions and with technological advances there is a chance of big changes in corporate Australia. These changes may affect many people within organisations and require you to apply for your own role, or make a career decision based on the reorganisation of the company.

You need to be able to assess which role is right for you in the new organisational structure. In some cases this involves marketing yourself to new owners. Knowing your personal brand will help you select the right job for you and prepare you to sell yourself into the new role.

3. New methods of job searching

A major change to the recruitment market in the 21st century is the advent of social media. This tool is enabling organisations to seek out new talent as well as check the quality! You need to be aware of where you are marketing yourself on any social media tool, not just at work. Watch this youtube video on how someone lost their job due to their facebook ranting about their favourite sports team. Facebook lost me my job.

The interesting part of this story is the media hype helped this person get a new job! His personal brand was very clearly demonstrated in the facebook entry and the media interviews. I suspect that helped him get the new job. Fired facebooker gets job offer

Linkedin is a very powerful tool to manage your business contacts but you are marketing your brand in your profile and comments expressed in this site.

Whilst facebook and twitter may be fun, remember that you are marketing yourself to the world.

4. Work life balance

Work life balance seems to be a top priority for job seekers today. Most new clients come to me because they are stressed in their current role and are seeking a happier life. I suspect that the lack people strategies in organisations has led to people being in roles that they are never able to perform due to sheer amount of work. In addition to this, poor talent management and recruitment strategies are ignoring the relationship between strengths and happiness.

Martin Seligman’s work in Positive Psychology is based on the idea that if we capitalise on our strengths we will be more productive and satisfied in our work. In 2005, research conducted by Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson found empirical evidence that using online exercises that assess an individual’s key strengths can create lasting happiness and decreased depressive feelings (4). In this study by these leaders in the field of Positive Psychology, an online assessment was sufficient to make a difference to the participant’s wellbeing. Martin Seligman is working with several institutions in the USA as well as Geelong Grammar in Australia to teach this new, empowering style of learning that creates greater self-awareness in individuals.

If you know your personal brand you are aware of your key strengths, motivators and values. This awareness helps you to target the right role and organisation and avoid stress.

HOW DO I CREATE MY PERSONAL BRAND?

Personal branding is not just about marketing yourself, but knowing what you are going to market about yourself! It requires you to look within and be able to assess a range of important ingredients:

• Identifying your strengths
• Knowing your personal style
• Being self aware
• Knowing your values
• Understanding what motivates you

Career coaching combined with psychometric tests can help you identify these ingredients and write your own marketing materials. This may sound unfamiliar or a daunting task, but as in most things in life the more time you spend on this, the more you get out of it!

Creating you as a brand involves four main steps.

1. Define your brand – who are you?
2. Create the branding materials – resume, biography, linkedin etc
3. Managing your brand – strategic approach and keep consistency
4. Reviewing and updating your brand – do this regularly to keep up to date

See William Aruda and Dan Schwabel’s websites for more details on how to create and manage your personal brand.

Notes

1. Tom Peters, The Brand Called You, Fast Company Magazine 1997
2. William Aruda www.reachpersonalbranding.com
3. Dan Schwabel www.personalbranding.com
4. Positive psychology progress, Empirical Validation of Interventions, Martin E.P. Seligman,

Social media, a fad or a new beginning?

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On the announcement of a New York stock exchange listing I received a personalised email from the founder of Linkedin®, thanking me for being a member since 2004. I am approximately # 388,000 member out of 100 million users, worldwide. This got me thinking about how quickly social media has changed how I connect with my world…..

Since I became a member of Linkedin® I have moved country, changed jobs, worked with 100’s of clients living all over the world and been able to keep in touch with a growing network of contacts. I have also used this tool to research job ideas for clients, review organisations, find old contacts and contribute to online discussion groups with like-minded professionals. This blog is even linked to the site!

I love to hear about my contacts’ news as they update their Linkedin® information. It is also great to be able to send a quick message of congratulations to new job winners or those with businesses who have won awards. When I was hunting down a past manager for a reference, Linkedin® was a more reliable tool than using an email address.

Overall, social media such as Linkedin® has enabled me to manage my growing contact list and keep up to date with them easily and efficiently, wherever we all are living and working in the world.

Are we attracted to social media?

As a rule of thumb I ask all my new clients about how they use social media tools in managing their careers and job searching. There seems to be two distinct views on the usefulness of these tools. One group love it and use it all the time. The second group seem to view social media as just a fad. Bearing in mind I work with clients at all ages from 20’s to 60’s, I could not associate their answer with their age group demographic!

Asking more questions I find that the disinterested group are also not using many other sorts of social media such as twitter® or facebook® either and they hope it will disappear as any other passing fad.

In addition to my 1:1 programs in career coaching I have presented on social media to the general public, MBA students, at conferences and to specialist professional groups. There has always been a mixed response to my question – ‘do you use linkedin® or social media in any part of your life?”

The future is here?

It seems to me that we are experiencing a change in society that is embraced by some and feared by others. This is fine for the moment as old traditional methods are still available. However, the change to social media tools as a norm for best business practice and recruitment will seriously test the luddites in the near future.

The growth in social media in the 21st century has been phenomenal. Sites like facebook®, Google®, Linkedin® are now multi-billion sized businesses that are employing 1,000’s of employees in several countries around the world. Yahoo! Research employs a range of eminent scientists, economists and mathematicians who are looking into what social media can do (and will do) for us in the future. See this video on youtube for an interesting snapshot on how quickly social media has grown.

Is this a time of opportunity for new employment into a truly global industry?

I have always held a fascination as to how the importance of different industries change society and the economy. When I lived in London I visited the Fan Makers Hall, which is the home of a City of London Guild that trained Fan Makers. www.fanmakers.com It represents an industry that started in the 1500’s and has watched the progress from hand held fans to automatic ceiling fans that are used today. I imagine that this industry in its heyday (1750-1800) would have employed many people, whereas today it is largely a museum. The guild still exists as it is changed with the times and represents electric fan production today.

The point that I am making is that there are always changing trends in industries and the 21st century is the age of technology and global connectivity. So next time you say that you ‘don’t use social media’, are you running the risk of being out of touch with the world that you live in?

If you need more evidence on the extent of social media in our world today, click on this link to a youtube presentation. Social Media Revolution 2011

Related articles

• Has Social Media Reached Its Peak? (mpdailyfix.com)
• Top 50 Social Media Blogs of 2011 (internetbillboards.net)

Stress….is it just part of working life?

Do you ever feel like this at work?

In May 2010 the Australian Human Rights Commission published a guide for Managers on how to understand and support employees with mental health issues1. This guide provides managers with a practical toolkit for understanding and managing mental illness to create a safe and healthy workplace. It has an extensive array of information on mental health and sources of support for managers to ensure that all employees are treated fairly and positive mental health is supported.

The report draws on research into productivity losses (3.2 days per worker lost each year through workplace stress2) and the cost of litigation to Australian businesses through ‘unhealthy’ work environments. It recognises that there is a business cost as well as major health issue risks from an environment that does not systematically assess and minimise health risks in the workplace.

In the recent Federal Budget over $2.2bn has been allocated over 5 years3 to make mental heath a national priority. The budget report claims that over one third of Australian’s will be affected by mental health issues at some stage of their life. Does this mean that stress is now a way of life in the workplace?

In my role supporting managers and employees in the UK and Australia through career transition and coaching programs I have observed several issues that contribute to poor mental health in the workplace. Some issues are organisational, but often the individual is responsible for the stress they experience. This is because the individual may:

1. be in the wrong job by not maximising their key skills
2. not ‘fit’ the culture of the organization
3. lack resilience and does not know how to build resilience
4. have poor social communication skills
5. not have a mentor or supportive family or friends
6. not have a long term career strategy or life goals and have lost their life’s purpose

Many clients seek my Career Coaching assistance because they are feeling stuck, depressed or grieving over a major life-changing event such as job loss. They know that they are exhibiting negative (and sometimes destructive) behaviours such as anxiety, anger, frustration or withdrawal. However, they may not have the skills or support they need to be able to work through their problem and find something that makes them happy and more positive about their job prospects.

Whilst there are no quick fixes, there is a lot that you can do to manage how you react and cope with stressful situations. As we live in challenging times, it is not likely that stressful situations will go away!

To deal with your stress you need to be in a positive frame of mind. Do you ever find that when you expect the worst, it happens? Louise Hay4, author a lecturer on metaphysics, has assisted millions of people to improve health through removing negative mental patterns. Barbara Sher, who is a Therapist and Career Counsellor, has some useful exercises to lower stress levels in her book “I could have anything if I knew what it was” 5.

In 2005 research conducted by Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson found empirical evidence that using online exercises that assess an individual’s key strengths can create lasting happiness and decreased depressive feelings6. In this study by these leaders in the field of Positive Psychology, this online assessment was sufficient to make a difference to the participant’s wellbeing.

Here are three ideas that can help you reduce stress in your working life:

1. Know what makes you happy. Are you 100% happy or only 10% happy? What is driving this unhappiness? Do you have an idea of what a ‘good’ job looks like for you? Creating awareness of what is actually wrong can help you reduce anxiety. An idea to help: Write a list of what you want in your ‘ideal’ job. Then review your current role and see how many matches you have on your list. Sometimes it only takes a couple of changes to vastly improve your perception of your job.

2. Take responsibility for your own happiness. Are you blaming others and expecting them to ‘fix’ your problems? What is keeping you the victim in this situation? An idea to help: When you are annoyed with someone, think about the expectations that you have on that person. What makes you angry with this person? What is their view (or reality!) of the situation?

3. Test your assumptions. What assumptions are you living with, instead of ‘testing’? You may assume that someone else in your workplace has a better deal than you. Solution: find out if your assumptions are correct before turning them into beliefs.

These might all sound too hard and you may feel stressed just reading these ideas? Think of it like a task that you have put off or ignored. For example, doing your annual tax return. You hate it at first, avoid looking it and in the end you are excited (and often relieved) to receive the repayment that is due!

The first step to change is awareness of the problem and the second step is taking responsibility for change in yourself

1. Workers with mental illness: a practical guide for managers. The Australian Human Rights Commission, May 2010
2. The cost of workplace stress, Medibank Private, 2008, p6
3. Budget 2011: Delivering better hospitals, mental health and health services, Treasury, Commonwealth Government of Australia, ISBN 978-0-642-74694-8
4. Heal your body, Louise Hay, Hay House Inc. 2006, ISBN 0-937611-35-2 & www.LouiseHay.com
5. I could have anything if I knew what it was. Barbara Sher with Barbara Smith, 1995, ISBN 0-440-50500-3
6. Positive psychology progress, Empirical Validation of Interventions, Martin E.P. Seligman, Tracey A. Steen, Nansook Park, Christopher Peterson, American Psychologist, 2005, p410

Procrastination….I can’t decide??

It is now the 28th February and I have been procrastinating about what to write in February’s blog. After ruminating on many ideas this month, today is now the last chance to meet my self imposed monthly deadline.

Image: rejith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What was stopping me from writing this month’s blog? So time to explore procrastination and explore what stops me (and you!) from making a decision. I have drawn on some observations from my work with my clients as well as feedback from other coaching professionals.

Some of the roadblocks to completing a task seem to be:

1. Too many choices
2. Fear of getting it wrong
3. Being overburdened by too many deadlines at once
4. Bad time management
5. Not interested or engaged in the task

Let’s explore each of these in turn and see what might be happening to stop us getting into action mode.

1. Too many choices

This procrastination roadblock could be a result of a personal style. Anyone who has completed a Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) profile or looked at the works of the psychologist, Carl Jung, would be familiar with ‘N’ for intuition preference. An ‘N’ preference means someone who sees that the world is full of different possibilities to approach life. They use their gut feel or intuition to explore these options.

The good news on this style is these ‘types’ can visualise many ways to write this blog but then they may get lost in all the different choices and write nothing. You may have guessed that I have a strong ‘N’ preference?

For more information on the MBTI go to www.myersbriggs.org or contact me (or other certified practitioners) if you would like your ‘type’ assessed.

2. Fear of getting it wrong

Fear can be a big contributor to procrastination. It is something that is imagined and not usually a reality.

Susan Jeffers*, who has written several books on how to overcome fear divides it into three levels. From basic fears such as change and dying to advanced psychological blocks that can stop us handling life all together.

Most of the time I find procrastination comes into the level 1 category and when I know that someone I really admire says that they are going to read my blog, I move into level 2 fears – fear of failure, rejection etc.

I have found the best way to deal with this fear is to review the feedback and check that it makes sense. Sometimes we take too much notice of feedback and read it as negative. Who am I writing the blog for anyway?

• Face the fear and do it anyway”, Susan Jeffers 1987 and several reprints also see her website www.susanjeffers.com

3. Being overburdended by too many corresponding deadlines

This one is definitely related to my need to say ‘yes’ to too many things. I have found that budgeting my time spent on tasks and meetings has helped me to focus on a few good things and not feeling so overwhelmed.

For example, I now have a professional development budget in $’s as well as time (events per quarter). I already attend 4-5 regular monthly meetings for my peer group supervision, 1:1 supervision as well as my volunteer board role. In addition to these groups I am a member of two professional bodies and on the mailing list for at least four other professional development groups. There are so many organisations and individuals running webinars, seminars and conferences that I feel overloaded with the emails on these professional development exercises. I now limit myself to one ‘extra’ event every three months.

Exploring this subject with one particular client who felt overburdened we discovered how they got into this state. They had no spare time due to a very demanding job, supporting a young family, various sporting interests as well as being on over five different committees!

The reason for this problem could be due to feelings of rejection for saying ‘no’, or loving the experience of learning. My client had identified one reason for their procrastination but not understood that there were several other reasons. They were also managing their time poorly and not sure if they were not engaged in the new culture of their organisation after a merger.

4. Poor time management

This problem could be related to 3, but I have kept it separate because both 3 and 4 can be happening at once! Let me explain…

Going back to the personality profiling I discussed in 1., the MBTI also looks at how we like to live our life. The ‘P’ for perceptive style of person likes to go with the flow and live in the ‘now’. Extreme preferences for this type find that they hate putting anything into the diary makes them feel very restricted. The problem with that thinking is that we have to attend appointments, get on the planes, trains and buses that run to a timetable. This style of person can often have no sense of what a minute or an hour feels like. It does not matter to them. All this is fine if you are an artist or writer who wants to create when we you get the urge, but sometime in your life you may need to get on a plane or even attend the launch of your book or art exhibition.

Another diary management problem could be that you do not look at it and imagine that you can remember all the appointments. This is where I have come unstuck. I have found that checking the diary the day before an event can also make sure that I remember all the meetings in a day and also follow up with those perceptive or ‘go with the flow’ types who are likely to forget!

5. Not interested or engaged in the task

This could be number 1! Often we do not look beyond the reason for our procrastination. I have found that the meeting I am not keen to attend is often telling me that I am not really engaged in the subject matter. Obviously we are unlikely to be engaged in the idea of a trip to the dentist but if you are not interested in attending a meeting for an interview, maybe you are applying for the wrong job?

One tip on this is to get into meeting mode for an interview try and imagine what you felt like when you gave a good presentation or attended a business meeting in the past.

After writing this blog I think that I have been using a bit of # 2 and # 3 this month but overall the #1 is the real driver. That is why I am writing the blog to use a monthly deadline to make me do something that I enjoy.

What is your experience of procrastination and how do you overcome it?

Why do new-year’s resolutions never happen?

At this time of the year we are likely to be recovering from overindulgence in food, drink and exposure to our extended families. Coming back to work this week I was thinking about what I would like to achieve in 2011. One of the first questions I was asked in 2011 was ‘what is your new year’s resolution? It got me thinking about why we feel impelled to make these goals each year and then forget them.

Exploring this topic with my clients I find that there are several reasons why people do not reach their yearly goals or new-year resolutions. We:

1. don’t spend any time on setting goals or stepping stones to reach these goals
2. set goals that are not achievable in a year or require a big change
3. give up easily because it is not really what they want
4. do not have the energy or interest in the goal
5. have no idea on where to start
6. do not believe that they can have what they want
7. try to do this exercise without any help

If any of the above applies to you then read on….

Are you blaming your job, family, the government, your employer, other people or other circumstances for you being in the wrong space now? Listen to your inner voice on how to talk about your goals and achievements. You could be avoiding taking responsibility for your career. Only you can do something about your life and what you achieve with it.

I have found from my own experience as well as my clients that achieving life goals takes a certain level of emotional intelligence. We are often unaware that we are the obstacle to reaching our goals. A well-known author on emotional intelligence is Daniel Goleman, a American psychologist who has been writing and presenting on this subject since the 1990’s. In Australia the GENOS model of emotional intelligence was developed at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne to help people in the workplace develop strong skills in emotional intelligence. Both websites have www.genosinternational.com information on this subject as well as assessment exercises to help you to measure and improve your emotional intelligence. In today’s business world leaders are now assessed on their level of emotional intelligence as well technical ability to hold a leadership role.

The first step to understanding your emotional intelligence is having good self-awareness. The following section explores some career coaching techniques that help you gain greater self-awareness.

Making those resolutions happen in 2011

Clients who have worked with me on their career goals in the past would have completed the ‘lifeline exercise’ in our first coaching session. Use this technique to review what you have achieved in 2010 by plotting your ‘personal’ and ‘career’ lines over 2010.

Then, update your long-term career strategy that we created in your 5th or 6th coaching sessions. Check that your long-term target is still on track. It may need reviewing or adjusting due to what you have achieved in 2010. Don’t forget to also celebrate what you have achieved in 2010.

If you have not worked with me try this simple exercise. Think about what you would like to be celebrating in January 2012? It maybe a new goal or something you did not achieve in 2010. Be specific. Then, write a list of actions based on:

• what you might need to START DOING to reach your goal
• or what you need to STOP DOING to reach your goal
• if you have happy about everything you achieved in 2010 think about what you need to KEEP DOING in 2011

Use a journal to keep a diary of your actions and the more that you review them, the easier it is to remember your goals and incorporate your actions. Remember making changes takes time. The bigger the change, the more time it will take to make the change. Also keep it simple and get used to the technique on achieving one goal before setting the next one.

An example of what your journal may look like:

Goal = I want to lose 10kg by June 2011.

Your list might like this:

START

• have a heath assessment or check up with my doctor

• swimming once a week • get a personal coach

STOP

• telling myself that I will always be overweight

• binging on chocolate when I feel down

KEEP DOING

• walking the dog every day

ACTIONS

January 2011

• walked the dog every day = 31 days

• had the healthcheck at my doctors and agreed a suitable diet

• started working with a personal coach on 10th January and had 4 sessions so far

• only ate chocolate five times this month when I felt down

If this feels too daunting and you are not feeling happy about the start of 2011, go back to December’s blog. In last month’s blog I wrote about happiness and why we stop ourselves from being happy! If you did not get a chance to look at these references here they are again.

Dr. Martin Selgiman’s research on positive psychology through the Authenic Happiness website in the USA and the recent Australian abc television series on ‘Making Australia Happy’. See the abc site for program reruns, DVD and books by the hosts of the series.

Enjoy January and I look forward to hearing your ideas on this subject soon. Let me know what works for your goal setting in 2011

Question of the month: Shall I job search in December?

December in Australia is often viewed as a slow month for job seekers and not worth spending time on a job search. Many people who are responsible for recruitment in companies are busy in December with loads of year-end tasks to complete before the Christmas and new-year break and the peak summer holidays in January. Alongside this the Christmas functions seem to be creeping forward to early November too!

My answer to this question is to use a downturn in recruitment activity as an opportunity for reflection and preparation. Use the quieter period from early December to prepare for the busy times ahead when the market picks in later in January.

Some of the things you can do to take advantage of this time are:

1. Review your career strategy. Is it on track? Are you doing work that you enjoy? What has changed in 2010? Taking some time for reflection can really help you decide what you what in 2011. Review what you set out to achieve in 2010 and where it was or was not achieved. If you have not achieved a goal, maybe it was not the right one for you? Apathy can be a sign of disengagement with your true career goals. You may like to use some tools to help with reflection or seek help from your career coach to help you with this exercise.
2. Update your resume or biography. It is easier to recall achievements and work activities when they are fresh in your mind. If you put a date on your resume, remember to update it at the beginning of each calendar year. Try and make these updates a regular habit so you do not have to rush into preparing them when they are needed.  Remember to also update your profile on any job or networking site. This exercise can also help you review your career and life goals in 2010.
3. Make use of all the social functions, including the dreaded annual family events for networking opportunities. Some of these people may not have seen you in a year so it is a good chance to practice your elevator pitch (30 second description of what you do and who you are) ready for your calls to recruiter and potential employers in 2011.
4. Be ready for networking opportunities on holidays preparing a list of questions. You never know who you may meet who can help you answer your questions whilst on holidays. One of my clients had an interest in a particular company and met someone who recruited for that company on holiday. As they relaxed on the beach, they both had plenty of time to chat about work opportunities that led to meetings after the break! This also meant that my client had meetings in the diary as soon as he returned from holiday.
5. Arrange some networking meetings in the diary for when you get back from holidays. A deadline can help you get kick started into the new job search period in 2011.
6. Use the long and hot days of summer to spend some time researching information that will help your job prospects in 2011. This might be reading information about the particular industry or company that you are researching or updating your social networking information. Profiles on business sites like Linkedin®  need to be regularly maintained. Use this quite period to do a bigger update, including photo and group memberships.
7. All this might sound tiring and you are feeling exhausted after another busy year at work and juggling all your family and personal duties too. The summer period is a good time to recharge your batteries and do something fun and relaxing that will boost your energy ready to get back into work in 2011.

Once you have completed these seven steps, you will be ready to be the best candidate to start your job search as soon as the market picks up in 2011. Any other ideas that are not on this list?

If you are now daunted by the prospect of spending all this time and energy on your career, maybe you need a change of career! I find that we usually find energy to do something we enjoy and will easily spend time and effort working on something that interests us. There is growing evidence that we need to understand that happiness is an individual journey and can be obtained by all of us. Research and studies into the subject of work and life enjoyment through positive psychology are conducted worldwide.

If you are interested in finding our more look up Dr. Martin Selgiman’s research on positive psychology through the Authentic Happiness website in the USA and the recent Australian abc television series on ‘Making Australia Happy’. See the abc site for program reruns, DVD and books by the hosts of the series.

Let me know if you have found any tools, reading or researchers who have helped you stay engaged in your job search.

Enjoy the festive and summer holiday season and I wish you an energised and successful job search in 2011.