Don’t Quit

“When things go wrong as they sometimes will
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill
When funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.

When care is pressing you down a bit

Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a failure turns about
When he (she) might have won had he stuck it out:
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow –
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far:
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things seem worst that you must not QUIT.”

“Author unknown”
Acknowledgement: Steve Hennel

Public Sector employees shout about how good you are!

I bet very few public sector workers shout about how good they are at doing their job, how conscientious they are, the loyalty they show and case load they carry and their professionalism?

The publicity always shows the negative side perhaps not helped by their often lame management and too strong unions which have had an undue influence on working practices.

But now the public sector is facing an half a million job losses those now seeking work in the private sector must come out from behind the defensive shield and demonstrate to the private employers the skills they have and how they too can be model employees in the private sector.

 

Adjustments will be required to working attitudes, over-sensitive management practices, working hour’s, annual leave. But it does not mean they cannot become new assets to the sector bringing skills, knowledge and attitude and respect for others sometimes missing in the commercial world.

 

How to start? – start with a clean sheet – create a new CV which promotes your skills to the private sector read, listen and learn a new language of commerce. Devise a marketing strategy that best fits your skills and the market place.

 

 

Can Public Servants get jobs in the Private Sector?

Can public servants get jobs in the private sector?

I was listening to a broadcast about the opportunities in the private sector for employees made redundant from the public sector. Nothing particularly new in the content, it basically confirmed the approach I have used with my Public Sector clients over the past 11 years.

I would be useful to restate them:

The C.V.

• Create a document that sells yours skills and achievements.
• Do not create a document which is a specification of the job or jobs you have undertaken.
• List your skills, either technical or management and relate to the successful application of these at work
• Paint a scenario for your achievements, what the problem was – how you dealt with it – and the outcome.
• Use everyday language if can put down measures of success, more people seen, more projects completed, money saved. Put it terms which a business could relate to.
• If your job has one of those titles which would only be understood in public service put down a market equivalent
• Brevity is more important when applying to the market, there will be less use of application forms and again this should be completed in style which matches the organisations style.

Where to apply.

• Research the market on the web, find the recruitment agencies with the best fit for your skill or profession.
• Devise an action plan of research, contact and marketing build in reward period you will burn out without them.
• Contact a career coach specialist or manager to improve your skills.
• Practice your CV and interview skills on friends and family
• Build your own strong contact network to exploit
• Devise methods that work with the web and email, the recruitment industry has probably change since you last used it.

At home

• Don’t get side tracked into too many domestic tasks getting the next job is a job!
• Plan your day a mixture of work and reward
• Keep or make contact with people, friends etc
• Create a marketing and contact plan

For you

• Keep a positive attitude think what skills you have to offer
• Realise it’s a middle distance race not a sprint, it will take time
• Be prepared for knock backs
• Look at ways to improve your skills.

I’d be interested to know if you use my advice, did it work for you? What are your thoughts?

Are we limited by our own boundaries?

I have been working with some year 10 students (14 to 15 year olds to you and me) discussing their career  aspirations, their interests, what they are good at and what qualifications and skills they required for the career choice they were currently looking at.

It has been a refreshing change; they have not been influenced by celebrity status as we are all told teenagers are! They were interested however when I mentioned I had been to a talk by Brad Sugars the Millionaire business man. Yes they liked the sound of the trappings of success but had Yorkshire realism and their feet on the ground. Interestingly Mr Sugars did mention that you needed a wide range of business experiences from which to build your success in stages – not a quick fix!

Anyway back to the students, they did grasp the need to build a career based on experience and learning. They also felt it was important to do something they enjoyed, at this stage in their lives hobbies, family responsibilities and part-time working as well as their skills learnt at school influenced their career choice.

Unlike more senior of us they put enjoyment higher on the agenda, why not? It is very easy to get into a career rut or work for an employer who does not provide you with job and career satisfaction. So why not learn from the younger generation – yes have a career –progress but if you enjoy what you do just think how much better you would perform.

 

Every company needs a ‘Howard’

We had a ‘Howard’ on our Board. Howard was the guy who would have 50 ideas a day, seven days a week. He was not a deliverer but he could sell through his infectious enthusiasm.

Out of those ideas there might have been one or two good ideas per month and of those a quarter might have reach a product trial and one or two a year to a fully developed new product or product extension

Boy didn’t we need him? We had sales, finance, operations  professionals  but we needed someone who could think the unthinkable (I hate the term out of box) because it’s really in the box thinking we needed to make our offering stand out from the rest – our USP.

So we had a guy who was frustrating, difficult ran off at tangents; but a big but! He was whole heartily behind the organisation and aspired to see it succeed and occasionally showed his frustration at the slow pace of the slower more logical and less pragmatic amongst us.

I wish I had been coaching then because I would have helped the team value the contribution of  Howard was making.

In your team make space of the free thinker, cherish their contribution, put structures in place to allow the free thinker room to operate and develop the team capable of examining and auditing the ideas.

We all need a ‘Howard’ in our teams.