I got an e-mail earlier this week that gladdened my heart. A young lady I had coached in preparation for job interview told me that she had been successful and had landed her dream job.
As is usually the case when I am coaching for interview the client has talent and skills in abundance. Sadly what is also often the case is that they struggle to recognise and value them!
The reason that most come to me is that they are terrified of the thought of the interview and that they will do badly. I know from general conversations that is really common but the big issue - for both candidates and recruiters - is where that fear gets in the way of learning whether they are the right person for the job.
As an interviewer myself I have met with people who on paper have everything we were looking for but who are unable to tell me ( and provide evidence )- by the answers to the interview questions or in any other information they give - that that is really the case. What a disappointment.
I know that it is common to worry about not being able to answer the interview questions and this is where I believe that those who have faith in their own ability stand a better chance of being impressive as they will be better placed to draw confidently on past experiences and tell their stories thoughtfully and persuasively in answer to the interviewers questions.
I would like to make some suggestions if you are looking for a job ( or your loved one or friend is)
- Think about what you love doing at work ( even if you hate your current job there must have been something that gave you satisfaction) and why that is. What do you get out of it? How does it make you feel?
- Remember the good feedback you have had in the past. What were the common themes ? What did it say about you? What did it say about your level of skill?
- Why do you want this job? What caught your interest? How well do you match the lists of essential and desirable skills and what stories can you tell to illustrate that ?
- If you will have some learning needs to meet all of the requirements for the job how will YOU take responsibility for taking responsibility for that? Work out a plan.
Now is not the time to be shy or coy about your abilities. Interviewers are not ( usually) mindreaders! You need to talk your way into a great job .
There are of course no guarantees - you may just not be the right person. But at least you will know you did the best you could and take what you learned with you to the next interview.
If you would like more information on coaching for interviews just get in touch
jackie@consultcameron.com
I was about to start writing an outline for the new Financial Education programme that I will deliver in Scotland with my colleagues from Speakersbank sponsored by a major global bank when an e-mail from the CIPD ( the UK body for HR professionals) arrived in my inbox which lead me to this ( incredibly detailed) article about why HR people need to understand the financial side of the business they are in.
It got me thinking about what levels of financial literacy we need.
Lets think about the basics
The training I am preparing is aimed at young people in school. The English and Scottish school curriculums are different but I think ( hope) that their aims to develop knowledge of money and how to manage it - personally and from a business perspective - are similar. The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence outlines stages under the heading of “Money” which sits under the main heading of Maths starting at early years in recognising what money looks like and is for through to being able to compare financial products and make informed choices. Our training - over one school day- will be aimed at speaking about issues like comparing costs when making buying decisions, the costs and benefits of using bank cards and considering savings and credit.
When working with youngsters on this topic recently I was encouraged by how much they knew about money and related this to their own spending habits. The media coverage of the banking crisis clearly had had an impact on their knowledge ( and views ) on what banks do. But when I spoke about this more generally I was struck by how many people were surprised that it needed to be taught in school and when I questioned where they learned about money the usual answer is from their parents. Now I hate to have to say this - but sometimes, in some areas , doing what our parents did is not necessarily a good thing! But knowing what to do with your first salary payment when you leave school can be really helpful in preventing some of the financial disasters that lurk out there.
Then the obligations
Then there is understanding your financial obligations regarding outgoings about which you have no choice. I spent many years as a tax consultant specialising in personal tax. The UK income tax system is very very complicated ( is there a simple tax system anywhere?) but the basics are that everyone has an allowance up to which no tax is due. For employees, that allowance is divided into 12 monthly chunks and is allocated against the income for that month before tax is charged. National Insurance Contributions are also due on income between certain levels. I have lost count of the times when people tell me they were surprised ( shocked actually) how much tax they had to pay when they started work and can only assume that they did not learn this at school. That needs to be addressed too and I am sure that it will be.
Finally finance in relation to business
One of the sections on the Money part of the Scottish Curriculum though is ” I can use the terms profit and loss in buying and selling activities and can make simple calculations for this” and I think this leads neatly into what they CIPD article talks about. This is aimed at “decision maker” level HR professionals and I liked the comment from Vanessa Robinson when she said “A big part of business is making sure that the books add up. Not being able to do that means it’s harder for you to connect and converse with the people you are working with.” . Absolutely.
I believe though that any employee at whatever level who has a clearer idea of how businesses work have an advantage in that they can understand the issues that affect their own business. For example an employee who feels unhappy with their current salary level and who can access and understand the company accounts will be better placed to negotiate - or, as may be more the case right now, understand why increases may not be possible.
So as I go back to my writing the school programme please tell me what do you know now that you wish you had learned about money and finance when you were at school that I should include. And what do you know now about finance in relation to business that you think could be helpful for all employees to learn?
I was recently diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis. This explains symptoms I have been having over the past few years and I am not sure how I really feel about it. My consultant and I have not yet worked out the best way of medicating for the pain and swelling. I am keen to avoid strong medication for as long as possible but I am aware that I need to focus on limiting joint and tendon damage as much as possible too. I am still looking at alternative approaches too.
The actual impact of this came into sharp focus this week. I spent the most wonderful weekend in Berlin with my son. As is to be expected on a city break on a first time visit we tried to see and do as much as possible. I ground to a halt on day 3 when trying to reach a museum out of the city centre. Whereas up til recently walking the 4 or 5 blocks to get there would have been fine it was a step too far this time. Then followed a convoluted public transport combination to get us back to our hotel.
None of this would have mattered if I had not been booked to deliver speaking skills training in 2 schools on 2 consecutive days straight after and afternoon workshop in a Young Offenders Prison. This would have been a wonderful week for me if I had not had to cope with the pain and exhaustion of the PA too.
To say I am frustrated is an understatement. I realise now that I will need to look at how I book training days differently. I am absolutely certain that the youngsters I have worked with over the past couple of days got the best training possible and that I appeared as the same bubbly, fun, engaging Jackie that others who have worked with me would expect. But I need to be mindful of the impact it had on my health.
Of course I am not alone. Lots of people have to work with health conditions in a way that impacts on their health. Employee legislation here in the UK allows for employees to request changes to be made to the way they work if their health is affected. When I had the role of business manager in a school a couple of years ago I re-established back to work interviews for the staff who had been off sick. I had to make it clear that this was not to “police” periods of sickness absence but to ensure that the employee was well enough to be at work and to make any changes needed to support them. They simply did not appreciate how good health at work could be a 2 way thing. Yet I know from experience that very many people choose not to raise issues with employers. Whilst my current issues are physical and obvious ( to me!!) when mental health comes into it I think - even in apparently more enlightened times like this - there is even more reluctance to ask for changes.
Take some time to think about what your body is telling you in relation to your work patterns at the moment and if something needs to change I urge you to talk to someone about it.
A while back I posted about helicopter parents and their impact on the world of work. Over the past few days I have been part of a thread about partners of employees who involve themselves in their loved one’s workplace issues which culminated in a couple of great posts by Venting HR Guy.
I have no direct experience of either helicopter parents or for that matter interfering/protective significant others though in the past I did get calls from mums/husbands/ friends to tell me that a member of my team would be off sick that day. I usually start from the point of giving people the benefit of the doubt in life but somehow this would always made me suspicious. Anywhere I worked had sickness absence policies which said that the person themselves had to make the call - unless extreme circumstances prevented it of course. I guess that was meant as a way to detect if someone was taking liberties.
There is of course the matter of perspective in any situation. I recall a conversation I had with a lady whose husband had been promoted at work. Initially she had been very excited about this and had shared how much she was looking forward to going to company events and that she had already earmarked his salary rise for a holiday and some serious spending on their house. As is so often the case the promotion also meant a significant increase in his workload and he had to work longer hours and weekends. She was less than happy about this and said “they should have made that clear. It would affected his decision to take the job”. I wondered out loud who “they” were. I was sure that her husband had understood totally what he was taking on. I could only deduce that he had played it down and that the extra money did not make up for his absence.
Having spoken to a couple of HR manager friends I learned that they have experience of members of the family contacting them about work issues for their employees. Most times it is when the partner/spouse has been told one version of the story - which is at odds with the organisation’s version.
So it is more common than I realised. Have you ever been tempted to get involved in your partner’s work issues? If so - what happened? And if have been on the receiving end - please share.
I have been keeping up with the Scottish Learning Festival stories from various sources. John Connell mentions the work of Charles Leadbetter and I need to find out more as I am intrigued by the explanation that John gives that according to Leadbetter today’s young people are
“….a generation infused with an attitude of ‘I can’, and not the attitude of ‘i want’ or ‘I hope’ that perhaps typified earlier generations.”
If this is the case many of the workplace issues that managers comment on regarding Generation Y and the challenges in managing them might make sense. If “I can” and, just as importantly, “I will” is their way of thinking then why would they settle for what is already there if it doesn’t fit their aspirations?
Obviously I need to read some more. Will return to this when I have!
