My 3 interesting things this month…
1. Conversations are key to smashing your career progression
A couple of stats I came across recently:
🤯 Google gets 3 million applications for its jobs every year.
😱 Deloitte gets 2 million.
That’s a lot of CVs / resumes right?
I have clients who have been desperately applying for new jobs, sending applications in all directions. But with no luck.
So what’s up? Are they just not very good?? Nope – it’s all about the numbers.
(So the first thing to note is that an enormous proportion of advertised jobs don’t really exist (think 50%+), but let’s assume that they are real opportunities.)
Here’s the thing:
The barriers to entry to applying for jobs are now SO low, that there are just too many applications to get through.
Check out this awesome graphic from https://www.careerfair.io/online-maze 👇
The Y access is 1-10 minutes. Most companies are clustered around 5 minutes. That’s nothing!
Even with a perfectly honed CV that ticks all the right algorithmic boxes, how can we rise above the noise?
Conversations.
We need to speak to someone in order to progress our success.
Anyone who can influence the chance of you getting to the next part of the process: a recruiter, an internal staffing person, someone on the team, or maybe even the hiring manager! (Note: this last one is high risk – high reward)
How do you speak to them? Look for clues.
Most job specs will list a contact person. If they don’t and you can figure it out, even better! Send them a quick LinkedIn message, or if possible, an email. Ask for 10 minutes to talk about the role. Be ready to send a CV. Make the message short, and easy for the other person to respond to.
The trick to this is your LinkedIn needs to be enticing for someone else – most importantly: do you look friendly and approachable in your pic.
Once you get that conversation, the rest is up to you.
Get in touch if you want more advice on what to do next 😊
2. The most scalable leadership technique
Through October, I’ve been working with a number of clients who are struggling with time management.
It’s a super busy time of year for many of us (me included). And when other people put demands on our already tight time, it puts us in a difficult position.
So how do we balance the things we need to get done, with the help and support other people need?
People come to us for help – our teams, business partners, peers, even our leaders. Sometimes they need us to do something, but often they want our help, input, advice, thinking.
In situations where they want support, there is an efficiency that can be gained, one that also gives the asker a massive boost.
That efficiency is switching from mentoring (telling people what they should do) to coaching (asking them what they should do). This approach is not easy (otherwise we’d all be doing it), however its incredibly powerful.
Coaching questions:
- What do you think we should do?
- What is stopping or blocking you?
- Where are some places you could find solutions?
- What would this look like if it were easy?
Instead of climbing into the issue and all the details and solving it with them, we are giving them the space to work through the issue.
Much of the time, they will start to make progress on their own.
This powerful coaching technique will often result in improved empowerment, the magic that many of us are seeking in our team.
3. ICAEW CPD is changing (a free & exclusive resource)
Wait!!!!! Before you switch off on this *yawn* boring topic and skip to the book recommendation further down – this matters so please just read on for 4 more sentences.
If you, or any other finance people you know, are ICAEW members, from this month we need to provide more evidence about the CPD (continued professional development) work we’ve done this year.
So what does this mean for you?
I have recently launched a simplified guide on what it means for ICAEW members in industry, as the ICAEW have made it hard(er) to understand.
If you’d like a copy, email me with the title “Yes please!”
See, that wasn’t too bad, was it?
That’s all for now
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