AcademiWales · How is your stock? Get honest feedback from colleagues in advance. You need to know what your audience really thinks. Don’t delude yourself with false impressions

AcademiWales:Career Management Handbook

AcademiWales: Great leadership through learning

WG19392 © Crown Copyright 2013ISBN Digital: 978-1-4734-0617-9 ISBN Print: 978-1-4734-0615-5

AcademiWales: Great leadership through learning2

AcademiWales: Great leadership through learning 3

traveller, there is no path.

The path is made by walking. Traveller, the path is your tracks And nothing more. Traveller, there is no path The path is made by walking. By walking you make a path And turning, you look back At a way you will never tread again Traveller, there is no path Only foam trails in the sea.

Antonio Machado

AcademiWales: Great leadership through learningAcademiWales: Great leadership through learning4

When you focus on a subject that is well explored and part of many peoples’ experience, you gain tremendously as you are able to draw together many ideas and frameworks that have been put together over the years. In the end however, a book such as this must work for the people it is intended for.

This Career Management Handbook has been written primarily from the perspective of, and drawing on the experiences of, many people at work who have needed to take more charge of their career and life. The need for change for these people arose either because they were at a stage where they might choose to do such a thing or because circumstances at work or elsewhere in their lives forced the change.

Primarily then, we must thank all the people who have dared to engage with the management of their own career who have been willing to share stories, anecdotes and experience of what has and has not worked.

This book has been written for Academi Wales by several writers whom we must thank for their patience in talking to and collecting the experiences of career coaches and their clients. We must also thank them for their skill and

expertise in drawing together all that can be known for a publication such as this and making it available in a practical and useable form.

Acknowledgments


IntroductionChapter 1 – Where are you now?Self

PurposeVisionValuesExperience

RelationshipsFamilyFriendsColleaguesNetwork

CareerSkillsCharacterAchievementsAnchors

ContextSecurityLocationFinancesEnvironment

Chapter 2 – What sort of future do you want?IntroductionYour personal goalsYour relationship goalsYour career or business goalsYour context goalsYour financial goalsYour health and energy goals

Chapter 3 – Taking Action on your CareerIntroductionCareer Development Capability Self AssessmentPreparing your CVPreparing for Interview

Chapter 4 Action – Where to start?IntroductionYour 10 – 15 year planYour 5 year planYou plan for the next 18 monthsAction this monthAction this weekAction each day

Contents7111414151720232426272829293132343535363738

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IntroductionWelcome to the Academi Wales Career Management Handbook.This practical guide has been written for people working in the public sector in Wales, across the wide spectrum of career disciplines and during a time of exponential change.

We encourage you to revisit the many thought– provoking topics covered in this handbook often during your own career journey.

Whatever transition you are experiencing, whether it is out of choice or it is that your organisation is changing, the journey will be unique to you. We hope the advice and guidance offered in this handbook will go some way to steering you on a fulfilling and rewarding path.


IntroductionAs individuals we all make choices about our future career.Whether you do this by not choosing, and opting for the default position of allowing other people and circumstances to control your life or whether you fully take charge so that your are creator of your own destiny.

This is a choice everybody makes. Some of you want to get on in your careers and climb the ladder of promotion. Some of you will have other priorities to address and want other things from your careers, like the chance to stay in a particular location to support children at school or older relatives or the chance to continue do something you love or work with people you like.

We know from the experience of career coaches that most people are not really taking charge of their careers in a way that ensures they are both fulfilled by them and so that their career fits really well with the rest of their lives. The primary reason for this seems to be that careers are somehow seen in isolation from the rest of the person’s life.

Having career in a separate box can lead to the feeling of “having to go to work now” rather than being motivated and excited to get up, “knowing that this day I am doing something that helps me be who I want to be in my life and takes me further towards achieving the goals and aspirations I have set for myself”.

Few organisations have career development schemes that take individuals beyond or even to this point and help them prepare the plans that explicitly address their development for the future and in all areas of their life as well as their development needed to support their current jobs. Yet most of us know this is the key to really motivated employees.

The results of a survey conducted by the CIPD (2013) reveals that after years of labour market stagnation, talent is once again on the move and fewer organisations are implementing recruitment freezes.

The research revealed that the intention to look for a new job increases with job dissatisfaction but a shocking one in four employees (27%) said that they had never had a performance review at work.

A research advisor at the CIPD said: “Talent is on the move again, signaling a decline in fear around job security as the impact of the economic downturn begins to lessen. However, this should also signal a warning to employers to up their game when it comes to retaining key talent – if they aren’t monitoring their employees’ progression and providing opportunities to talk about career development, they may well risk losing some of their most talented workers, who might well vote with their feet and take advantage of a somewhat improved labour market outlook”.

So given these facts, the more you as an employee and a person can take steps yourself to manage your own career the better. The reality is that most organisations have not developed sufficiently to be able to do this in a proactive way with and for you.

This book is therefore a starting point for you to do just that. To enable you to pull together your own effective career management plan and to begin to have discussions at work and elsewhere that will help you move forward in the ways that you choose.

This Career Management Handbook is based on some very simple and effective ideas:• In order to achieve effective change in your career you will need to

understand how it can fit with the other areas of your life. Failure to do this is often the cause of lack of progress as constraints with other priorities soon surface and stifle progress.

• You will do a much better job of managing your career if you can create some help from others, often informal in nature it allows you to discuss your ideas, get other views and benefit from other people’s thoughts and experiences.

• Career management is not a one off activity it is something that we need to actively review and adjust as our life, our relationships and our priorities change as we progressively deliver and achieve our goals and objectives. Having a process to frequently review and adjust our action plans is necessary if we are to stay on track.


The Career Management Handbook helps you look at four main areas of your life:• Self: The inner you that is

influenced and created by genetics, the environment in which you were brought up and the experiences you have had so far. Self awareness allows us to know more about who we are, how we help and hinder ourselves and how we impact the people and the world around us.

• Relationships: To be in the world is to be in relationship with the environment and the people around us. Those that are most dear to us, our family and friends are important anchors and reference points in our lives. Understanding what we need from our relationships and what our relationships need from us in order to persist and support us in the way that we would wish is a key issues for our careers.

• Career: Our career sits in a context of our life and environment and is the area where our personal attributes, character, skills and abilities are deployed to deliver results for others and ourselves. Understanding how effectively we deploy our abilities and how we wish to develop this in the future is clearly central to our career management efforts.

• Context: Our context, situation or environment is often the area of life over which we feel we have least control. This seems to be because we perceive our situation as primarily outside ourselves and therefore presumably under the control of other forces. However, the more we take charge of our career in all its aspects and choose to work towards that which we really want the more we are able to achieve leverage over our situation context and environment.

When we first embark on our career management efforts and work to understand where we are now, in Chapter 1 of this Handbook, these four domains are likely to appear quite separate and discreet areas of our life.

As we move forward and think about the sort of future that we want in Chapter 2 of this Handbook, we begin to realise that these separate domains are inextricably intertwined and interconnected. To develop and manage our career effectively we must understand those interconnections and make the changes necessary so that one area of life supports all the others that are important to us.

As we enter Chapter 3 we will see that interconnectedness surface in plans that increasingly need to integrate activity in one domain of life with activity in other domains.

This leads us to the ultimate realisation in Chapter 4 that when it comes to action, it is in fact all down to self. What we think, feel, decide and do will turn into the life that we lead.

Career management is about the choices we make and the action we take to progressively and methodically make ourselves, our lives and our worlds as close as possible to the dreams and aspirations we have for ourselves.

S

ELF RELATIONSHIP

CA

REE R CONTEXT



Chapter OneWhere are you now?


In this chapter we will be helping you do a stock take of where you are now. Before getting into that in any detail you might find it helpful to do an initial stock take of the main domains and aspects of your life that this Career Management Handbook helps you explore. This will give you a baseline to which you can compare progress as you develop your career. This will help you ensure that you are developing your career in a way that is productive for you.

The diagram opposite shows you the 4 domains and 16 aspects of your life that you will be exploring with the Career Management Handbook. Using the centre of the circle as 0 and the outside circumference as 100% grade each aspect of your life in terms of your present satisfaction. Put a mark in the centre of each segment to indicate your present level of satisfaction with that aspect of your life.

SelfPurpose: To what extent are you satisfied with the current central purpose of your life?

Vision: To what extent are you satisfied that your life and career are exactly as you want them to be now?

Values: To what extent are you satisfied that you have guiding principles for your life and the things that you most care about?

Experience: How satisfied are you with your life to date?

RelationshipsFamily: How satisfied are you with the quality of your family time and relationships?

Friends: How satisfied are you with the quality and range of your friends and the quality of time you are able to spend with them?

Colleagues: How satisfied are you with the range and quality of relationships with your colleagues?

Network: How satisfied are you with the range and quality of your personal and professional contact networks?

CareerSkills: How satisfied are you that are your skills are fit for purpose for the life you want to live now?

Character: How happy are you with the quality and strength of your character now?

Achievements: How pleased are you with the quality and extent of your achievements so far?

Anchors: How satisfied are you that you have in place and attend to the things that create stability in your life now?

ContextSecurity: How secure do you feel in your life, relationships and employment?

Location: How satisfied that you are living and working in the right place for you now?

Finances: How satisfied are you with the present state of your finances?

Environment: How satisfied are you that the environment in which you are situated at work and in other areas of your life is conducive to your happiness and fulfilment now?


Skills Character Achievements Anchors Security L

ocation

F

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Env

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C AR E E R C O N T E X

T

Purp

ose

Visi

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V

alues E

xperience Family Friends Colleagues Netw

orkS E L F R E L AT I O

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Initial stock takeTo complete your diagram join all the

points you have indicated to create a radar map of the extent to which your life is as

you would like it to be and notice any areas that will need particular attention as you go through your

Career Management Handbook.

The Academi Wales‘Wheel of Life’


Domain 1 – SelfUltimately everything in your life starts and ends with you.

All that you are will depend on the decisions you make both, internally, that guide your own beliefs, values and behaviour and, externally, in terms of the actions that you do and the connections that you make with things and people outside of you. In the 4 sections that follow you are going to be looking more closely at:

• Your purpose: Fundamentally what you are about at the present time and how you are contributing to your world.

• Your vision: Your picture of how you would like your life to be right now.

• Your values: What do you feel is most important to you now and what guides and impels your behaviour in the situations you encounter.

• Your experience: What is your experience like so far?

Determining Your Present PurposeThose who manage their careers most successfully have a strong sense of who they are and what they are about. When you talk with these people they have a strong sense of personal purpose and the way they wish to contribute to other people’s lives and the environment that surrounds them.

This strong sense of purpose helps them develop the successive, specific visions of what they would like to achieve, have or be. Stephen Covey refers to this as being ‘proactive principles of personal vision’.

To identify your present personal purpose you might like to consider and write down your answers to the following questions:

If there is one thing that you most care about what is it?

What brings you the greatest happiness and fulfilment?

What brings you a sense of achievement?

What legacy would you like to leave?

If there were one thing you would like people to be sayingabout you now what would it be?

Look at your answers to the foregoing questions and considerthe underlying theme that joins them all together. Write it here.


Wayne Dyer says “Every child comes down to earth with secret orders”. Many people believe that when we feel really happy about ourselves and what we are doing or even when we are thinking about doing it we are closest to our personal purpose and that our genetics and our experience in early years and thereafter has predisposed us to do during our lives.

A technique that many people use to uncover a short and pithy statement of their purpose is to ask themselves ‘why am I here’? – as in on the planet.

Now finally consider all the answers you have given to the questions you have asked yourself about this aspect of your self as you are now and decide on a statement of your personal purpose.

Return to this statement often you may find over time you may wish to refine its wording or include other new answers or things which you subsequently realise are important to you.

Try and hold this as the guiding principle for all that you do and the way that you steer your career. The test of it over time is does it really fit with who you are and what you most care about?

Determining your visionHow do you want your life and career to be in the future – in 10 to 15 years time?

Take the same 16 headings we used earlier for each aspect of your life to make notes what you want your life to be like right now.

Overleaf you will find a blank table on which you can put your ideas about your vision for your life and career as you’d like it to be in the future.

Once you have finished your list, tick all the items that you currently have in place. Underline all the items that are not in place in your life as it is at present.

My present personal purpose is to:


Purpose Family Skills Security

Vision Friends Character Location

Values Colleagues Achievements Finances

Experience Network Anchors Environment

Describe below, for each aspect of your life, the main elements of your vision for how you want your life to be in 10 – 15 years time

SELF RELATIONSHIPS CAREER CONTEXT


For each of those values you might like to think about:

1. The name of the value or belief

2. How the value or belief affects your life – what do you do/not do as a result?

3. The likely source– The originating incident or person that gave rise to the belief. for example, family, teachers, life experiences and life in general inner conclusions etc.

4. What you might learn about it if it reoccurred today and what you would redecide about it to make it more appropriate and positive supportive of who you want to be now and in the future.

Determining your valuesValues are what you feel are important.

It is likely that many of your values and beliefs are implicit rather than explicit and you will have acquired them effectively by accident from the influences and experiences that have been part of your life since birth.

Once acquired and in some way affirmed either by a significant emotional event of simply through repetition your values are installed by your unconscious mind. They effectively reside within as auto–play decisions available for instant access every time the circumstances that fit the original decision or belief arise.

The difficulty with this is two fold:

• Firstly, the net effect is that often our values and beliefs silently impel our behaviour. They are like an autoplay response to external stimuli.

• Secondly, the response itself though fitting for the original experience that gave rise to the value or belief may not be fitted to today’s circumstances and who you have become.

The bottom line is those old decisions you have made about yourself, other people, life events and the world, and what is and is not possible for you are guiding and directing your behaviour and how you respond to life’s experiences. For this reason it is usually quite useful to become more conscious of your values and beliefs, how they affect your life, where they came from and whether they are still appropriate for who you are today and want to be in the future.

Make a list overleaf of the values and beliefs that are relevant to you today.

• The first list are the values and beliefs that support you in who you want to be and what you want to do today and in the future.

• The second list are the values that you think may hinder you in becoming all that you are capable of being.


VALUE OR BELIEF EFFECTS SOURCE REDECISION

Values or beliefs that help and support you now and in the future


Now that you have completed both your lists, use the extreme left hand column to number your beliefs and values in priority order according to their importance in terms of positive or negative effects on you and your life.

VALUE OR BELIEF EFFECTS SOURCE REDECISION

Values or beliefs that hinder and impede you now and in the future


Values and beliefs to support you now and in the future

Underneath the line write down your description of any key events that shaped who you are today, make some notes about you were affected by that situation:

• How you felt at the time?

• What you feel about it now?

• How the event shapes who you are today – what insight it gives you about who you are as a person?

• Lastly and most importantly what is there to learn about this event from the perspective of who you are today that may enable you to what this means to who you are now?

Finally, list below in priority order, the really key values that you need (ones that were already positive or that you have strengthened, or old negative ones that you have redecided and reworded so that they are now positive) to help you be who you want to be now and in the future in your life and career.

Your Life ExperienceThe way your life and career have unfolded so far will help you gain insight into the product of your decisions and choices that you have made so far. On the diagram overleaf, above the line draw a line that represents the various highs and lows over the years of your life to date.

Label peaks and troughs and periods of time with whatever was happening for you at that time.


Your life experience to date

Early years Present

Events

Feeling then

Feelings now

Insights

New perspective


Self – Where You Are Now?Look over the preceeding section about self and summarise the key points below:

Your personal purpose is to:

The main elements from the vision for how you’d like your life career to be are:

You priority values are:

What legacy would you like to leave?

Domain 2 – RELATIONSHIPS

Tony Robbins in his book ‘Unleash The Power Within’ lists six human needs that every person seeks to address in their life. Four of

these are fundamental:

1. Certainty: We seek to have enough in our life that is stable to at least enable us to exist in terms of food, warmth and shelter.

2. Uncertainty: Once we have enough certainty in our life we then seek to have some variety because if everything was totally certain we would become very bored with our existence.

3. Relationship: Once we have the balance of uncertainty and certainty correct in our lives the next thing that we seek is relationship with ideally another person, or if that is not available or contra–indicated in some way, with nature or something in our environment. This is the primary drive to love and be loved.

4. Validation: Once we have the right balance of certainty and uncertainty and the right nourishment from our relationships the next basic need we need to have is to feel validated in some way – to feel that we as a person are worthwhile in our own right.

These are the four fundamental needs that every person seeks to address. If any of them are missing then it is likely that a person will either be in a survival crisis of some kind or attempting to get that need filled through some unhelpful behaviour. So for instance, a person who had too little relationship in their childhood may become overly dependant on relationships as an adult or a young man who is denied any validation of himself as a child may later carry a gun to show his importance.

Once these basic needs are met we then, as people, begin to seek satisfaction of our higher level needs which are:

5. Growth: Once our four fundamental needs are satisfied we then seek the growth or expansion in our lives and ourselves in some way. This may arise with for examples a wish to grow our wealth or resources in some way or some aspect of our learning and personal development.

6. Contribution: The highest level need once all the others have been satisfied is that we find ways to self actualise by contributing outside ourselves. This is our ultimate proof that we are able to be in charge of our world and our relationships and we are able to validate our existence and leave some kind of lasting impression on the world that we have inhabited.

This section is all about our third basic need, our relationships. For most people they are, in order of importance, our relationships with:

• Family

• Friends

• Colleagues

• Our wider network



Your Family RelationshipsComplete the diagram opposite with your family tree as far as you know it. Starting with yourself at the centre, make a note of your partner or spouse if you have one, your siblings, your parents, your children, your nephews and nieces, uncles and aunts and any other relevant family members that are important to you in either helpful or unhelpful ways.

1. Find a way to indicate on your diagram the quality of the relationship that exists between you and the other people.

For example red for difficult relationship green for ones that are working well.

2. Think about any things about that diagram that you would like to be different today.

3. Notice if there are any significant patterns in the diagram. For example, repeated instances of illness, particular professions, common problems or common successes.

4. At the bottom of the page make a list of the things that you would like to be different today with other members of your family.

For example:

• Do you want to see them more or less?

• Do you want to have higher quality time with them in some way?

• Do you want to be closer to them or further away from them?

• Do you want to speak to them or see them more or less frequently?


Your Family Tree

Comments or observations

Things you’d like to change/be different


Your Friendship Network



Your FriendsDraw a network diagram of your current web of friendships. Starting with yourself at the centre. Position everybody else around you. Position close relationships with people you see frequently near you, more distant ones further away. Find a way to indicate on your diagram the quality of the relationship that exist between you and each of your friends – colours and dotted lines can be used to include a lot of information.One of the best predictors of how a persons life will turn out over the long term is to look at their peer group and set of friends and people that they spend time with. It is fair to say that for most of us like attracts like. One of the most important notions about planning your life and career is that ultimately you will become what you think about most of the time. So, if in leisure hours you are having conversations and experiences that are constrained or augmented by the people that you spend time with it will either hold you back or help you move forward.

Ask yourself:• Are there any patterns worth noticing in your diagram? For

example: Are all your friends far away? Are all your friends of a certain type?

• Do the friends that you have today support who you are and want to be?

• Are there other people you would like to have in your friendship network?

• Are there some people in your friendship network who you would like to spend less or no more time with?

• Underneath your diagram list the changes you might make to your network of friends in order to be more of who you would like to be today.


Your ColleaguesHow are your relationships at work? Our ability to build relationships that are productive and supportive of the work we are trying to do at work significantly enhance or reduce our performance.

Start again with you at the centre. Draw a diagram of the colleagues that you interact with – your peers, your boss, your boss’ boss and the senior managers, your team members, other professional colleagues, other teams and departments and individuals with whom you interact with in order to do and deliver what you are there for. Draw frequent or geographically close contacts near to you. Again use colours and dotted lines can be used to include a lot of information.

Find a way to indicate the quality of those relationships. Notice which way the relationships flow – do they supply things to you, do you supply things to them or is it a two way symbiotic relationship, mark this on your diagram.

Your Work Colleagues



Once you have finished you diagram ask yourself:

• Do you really have all the contacts and information you need to do your work effectively.

• Are there problems in any of your work relationships that need sorting out?

• Are there any patterns worth noticing? For example is there an imbalance of inputs versus outputs of vice versa?

• Are there any changes needed to help you be more successful?


Your Friendship Network

List below what is most important to you in your relationship

Identify for each the most important change you would like to make

Family

Friends

Colleagues

Wider network

Your Wider NetworkWhat about your wider network of contacts? Start the diagram opposite again with you in the centre and sketch out the wider network of people you have most contact with. Put close to you the people who are most important and with whom you have the most frequent contact, find some way to indicate the quality of each relationship and which way energy primarily flows, either away from you to the other person or from the other person to you or in a two way relationship that is mutually supportive for both.

Once you have completed your diagram look over it to see how well it supports who you want to be today.

Ask Yourself:• Do you have a wider network of contacts?

• Do you use the network?

• What do you already use the network for?

• What else could you use the network for?

• Do you have a tendency to isolate yourself in a little cocoon whereby contact with others other than immediate family, friends and work colleagues is minimised?

• Do you have a tendency to spend all your time talking and connecting with others regardless of your personal needs? Either of these scenarios can be unhelpful to you if out of balance.

Think about any changes you may wish to make to help your wider network to be more supportive to who you are now and wish to be in the future.


Domain 3 – CAREER

Our career is described by many as the most prominent outward representation of ourselves in our world. It tends to be determined by who you are predisposed to be by virtue of your genetics, your upbringing, your education and your experiences.

Your career is also defined largely by the relationships you are able to make as you move through life in terms of family and friends and when you are at work the colleagues and the outer network that you build for yourself.

All the work that you have done in the preceding parts of this chapter give you greater insight into how you may have the life and career that you presently have.

The purpose of this section is to help you understand how well you are doing in the career you presently have and given that it is the right one for us right now (though not necessarily in the future) how good are your:

Skills: To a high standard each time you do it

Character: Do you have the personal qualities and attributes that enable you to be an effective team member and colleague in the environment in which you work?

Achievements: Do you deliver the objectives and expectations that have been set for you by your employer?

Anchors: Does your work fit with the rest of your life, is it where you want it to be, does it play to your strengths, does it support your responsibilities for other areas of your life like family, does it enable you to work when you want to work?

This section provides ways in which you might explore each of these separate aspects of the career domain of your life.

SkillsWhat are the skills you need to do the work that you currently undertake? Is there a competence framework or list of skills relevant to your profession or activity? If so it would be quite a good idea to get that out and see how you would rate your abilities against each of the main areas of skill required to do your job well.

For many professions there are on–line assessment questionnaires related to the relevant competence framework, it would be good to seek out the one relevant to what you do.

It is also helpful to get feedback from others to find out what their view of you is in terms of your skills and competencies. The most important people to ask are your boss, your immediate peers, colleagues in other departments with whom you work closely and the members of your immediate team.

For many a 360 degree appraisal is already available. Now would be a good time to do one if you have not done one before.

If you do not have a competence framework that you can easily get access to generic competencies overleaf may have relevance to you and what you do this will allow you to score the main cross profession and cross sector common areas of required competence.


LEADERSHIP Execellent Average Poor

Strategic thinking

Vision direction and purpose

Inspiring commitment

Leading change

MANAGEMENT Execellent Average Poor

Planning and managing resources

Delivering results

Managing individual performance

Leading a team

Motivating and energising

Developing people

Managing projects

PERSONAL DELIVERY

Quality & Standards Execellent Average Poor

Customer focus

Performance orientation

Communication & Influence Execellent Average Poor

Communication effectiveness

Presentation skills

Written communication

Influencing

Building Relationships Execellent Average Poor

Interpersonal skills

Teamworking

Conflict management

Collaboration

SELF MANAGEMENT Execellent Average Poor

Self awareness

Integrity

Flexibility and adaptability

Self confidence

Learning agility

Proactivity

Resilience

Your Skills Assessment

How good are your skills in each of the following?


CharacterHow you respond to life gives clues to the inner qualities of the real person within.These inner qualities are a major element in determining your response to circumstances and what you regard as success in life.

As we have grown to understand the factors that determine and predispose whether a person will go on to be all that they are capable of being we have realised the increasing importance of:

• Emotional intelligence as described by Daniel Goleman and Stephen Boyatsis

• Character as described by Stephen Covey

You might like to ask yourself the following questions:

What dilemmas have you and do you face in your life?

Who are your role models? What are the personal qualities inthem that you seek to emulate?

How are they challenging to you and what enables you to make a right rather than an expedient choice when you resolve them?

If you look back over your past resolution of these dilemmas howwould you evaluate your actions in what you know to be right?

Talking with others: When you talk with family, friends or colleagues about how to resolve ethical or moral dilemmas in your life, in other peoples lives or in world events, what are the common themes of the moral compass that guides you?

Evaluation: Use self reflection and get behavioural feedback from others. Evaluate how your habitual behaviours align with your own values outlined in Chapter 1 and the values of your organisation.

List below the main features of your character that are emergingfrom looking at the questions in this section.


AchievementsOverleaf you will find a line plan similar to the one you drew when you were looking back over your life’s highs and lows only this time use it to indicate the levels of enjoyment and achievement you have achieved in your career.

Underneath the line make a note of any key achievements you delivered on the way. List any key skills and character traits that enabled you to deliver that particular achievement, think about those achievements looking back with what you now know and see if there is anything you can learn about yourself that might be helpful in enabling you to become more who you want to be today.


Your first job Present

Your career experience to date

Events

Feeling then

Feelings now

Insights

New perspective


AnchorsList below any key things in your life that are important to you and you want to sustain or continue doing either for the time being or permanently.

The kind of things that you might list are:• you love what you do and you would always like to do that kind

of work.

• people you work with.

• you might work within a particular technical specialism that you particularly enjoy and are good at.

• you might want to continue living in a particular place for the time being because you have got children at school and you don’t want to disrupt their education or you have ageing relatives that you wish to care for over the coming years.

It could be that you know clearly that you want to be somewhere else right now because there are a whole lot of things about the current situation that are unsatisfactory.

Career summary

What are your most important skills and competencies?

What are the most important anchors that keep you doing what you are doing, where you are doing it, when you are doing it and how you do it?

What are your most important and valuable character traits?

What are your most important and significant achievements?

Key things in my life:


Domain 4 – CONTEXT

In this section of Chapter 1 we will be helping you look at the context, environment or situation you have made around yourself at work and in other areas of your life. To do this we will be helping you look at four main aspects of your life:

• Security: How secure is your job, how secure are the income stream or streams that support your life, how secure are the relationships you have made and on which you depend? How secure is the neighbourhood in which you live, park your car, go to work, how safe are the activities that you and your family undertake? There are no right or wrong answers to these questions there are just the levels of security and safety with which you are comfortable. For some as we mentioned earlier greater levels of uncertainty are needed to provide interest in life for others they are just too uncomfortable and greater levels of certainty are much more preferable.

• Location: Do you live where you want to live, do you work where you want to work, are you in the Country of your choosing, are you in the office of your choosing, are you in the part of your organisation you would like to be in. There are lots of location questions that might be relevant to you?

• Finances: Do you have enough money in your life, do you need a debt recovery plan or an investment plan to help you achieve and deliver your financial goals? Have you got clear financial goals and aspirations for the amount of wealth that you would like to have in order to feel as secure as you would like to feel?

• Environment: What about the quality of the environment in which you live and work and play? Is it as you would like it to be today? What about the culture about the place that you work in, is it nice for you or hard for you?

SecurityBelow are the main areas of life where security might be important. Grade each on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is insecure and 5 is very secure. In the box underneath make a note of any changes you would like to make.

Career 1 2 3 4 5

Changes you would like to make to your career security:

Home 1 2 3 4 5

Changes you would like to make to your security of your home:

Relationships 1 2 3 4 5

Changes you would like to make to the security of you relationships:

Finances 1 2 3 4 5

Changes you would like to make to your financial security:


LocationThink about where you live and work. Make a note of any things that you would like to be different in terms of a geographical location or your physical location within your organisation or office.

My Location


Your Revenue Account

Make a list below of all your monthly outgoings and income.

Outgoings Income

Take your you total outgoings from your total income to calculate your monthly net loss or gain.

Your current revenue position = £

Your Capital Account

List below all the investments and assets that you own or are in the process of buying. List on the right all the debts, mortgages and loans you currently owe.

Investments and assets Debts, mortgages and loans

Take your total current debts, mortgages and loans from the total value of your assets to calculate your net worth.

Your current net worth = £

FinancesHave a good think about your finances. Look at the main areas of your outgoings and whether they are adequately supported by your incomings, what debt are you currently carrying, what assets do you currently own? Use these tables as guides.


Context Summary

List the main security changes you would like to make in your life now

List the main changes of location you would like to have in place now

Describe the differences you would like to have in your financial situation at the present time

List changes of environment you would like to have at the present time

EnvironmentDescribe below changes you would like to make to the kind of environment where you live, work or play. For example do you like urban or rural environments, flat or hilly, near or away from shops, schools etc.

My Environment


Chapter TwoWhat sort of future do you want?


Introduction

Having completed Chapter 1 you will have analysed in some depth the “where am I now?” question. Your thoughts regarding your friends, family, work colleagues, location and financial situation will have brought you to some clear conclusions regarding what elements you are content with and what areas need further work.

The ‘stocktake’ of your life enables you to start to plan your future career and life. This should be set against the vision you have for how you want your life to be in the next 10 – 15 years.

So, with all this information at the foremost of your thinking, you’re now ready to move on to Chapter 2 – What sort of future do you want? – and move into the next phase of the planning process.


1. Your Personal goals

Goals:What do you want? Write it downclearly, in the present tense

Due Date:Set a deadline. Set sub–dead-lines if you want – the more specific, the more you will accomplish

Date: Activity:

Challenges:What obstacles will you encounter as you do this?

Learning:Determine what you must learn to achieve your goal

Help:Who do you want to help you?What will you have to do to earn their support? What is in it for them?Plan:

Make a plan to achieve your goal. Organise the list according to priority

Action:What can you do each day that moves you toward and builds momentum for achievement of your goal


Goals:What do you want? Write it downclearly, in the present tense.


Date: Activity:



Help:Who do you want to help you? What will you have to do to earn their support? What is in it for them?

Plan:Make a plan to achieve your goal. Organise the list according to priority


2. Your Relationship goals


Goals:What do you want? Write it down clearly, in the present tense


Date: Activity:




Plan:Make a plan to achieve your goal. Organise the list according to priority


3. Your Career or Business goals



Due Date:Set a deadline. Set sub–dead-lines if you want – the more specific, the more you will accomplish.

Date: Activity:


Learning:Determine what you must learn to achieve your goal.


Plan:Make a plan to achieve your goal. Organise the list according to priority.

Action:What can you do each day that moves you toward and builds momentum for achievement of your goal.

4. Your Context goals


Goals:What do you want? Write it down clearly, in the present tense.


Date: Activity:






5. Your Financial goals




Date: Activity:






6. Your Health and Energy goals


Chapter ThreeTaking action on your Career


(adapted from Hawkins, P, 1995. Skills for Graduates in the 21’st Century. Association for Graduate Recruiters)

In the preceding Chapters you have worked through your vision for the future, what elements are important and the key goals you need to set to aspire to and achieve your vision.

This Chapter builds on the work you have already undertaken – giving more depth to your plan:

These two pages will enable you to assess your present abilities tosuccessfully undertake and deliver your own career developmentjourney.

If you score highly against all the questions it raises then this CareerManagement Handbook will enable you to collect your thoughts andplan the action to take. If your score indicates areas where you couldbe more prepared then the Handbook will enable you to begin toaddress and develop the capabilities you will need for success.

Career Development Capability Self Assessment

Self–Awareness No Some Yes

Can you identify your skills, values, interests and other personal attributes?

Are you able to pinpoint your core strengths?

Have you got evidence of your abilities (e.g. portfolios/certificates of competence/exam success etc?)

Are you willing to seek feedback from others, and able to give constructive and skilled feedback themselves?

Can you identify and justify areas for personal, academic and professional development?

Are you confident about these things at this point in your career?

Exploring and Creating Opportunities No Some Yes

Can you identify, create, investigate and seize opportunities relevant to your career goals – someone who has your ear ‘close to the ground’?

Have you got effective research skills to identify possible sources of information, help and support?

Are you proactive about these things at the moment?

Section 1: Career Development Capability Self Assessment

Section 1The first section is a diagnostic Career Development Capability Self Assessment (p 46 – 47). When you have completed the assessment, spend a little time reflecting on the outcome: the strengths identified and the emergent development needs. The information gleaned from this exercise should be set in the context of your career aspirations. Where appropriate, the strengths and gaps identified can be incorporated into your CV and Personal Development.

Section 2The second section focuses on your CV with some key messages, tips and recommendations.

Section 3The third section explores the Interview process.

Introduction


Action Planning No Some Yes

Can you plan a course of action which addresses: ‘Where am I now? ‘, ’Where do I want to be?’, ‘How do I get there?

Are you able to implement the plan by: organising your time effectively, identifying the relevant steps needed to reach the goal, preparing contingency plans when things don’t go automatically to schedule?

Will you monitor and evaluate progress against specific objectives?

Will you do what you say you are going to do now?

Coping with Uncertainty No Some Yes

Can you adapt your goals in the light of changing circumstances?

Are you able to identify what is and is not within your control?

Can you cope with uncertainty?

Self Confidence No Some Yes

Have you an underlying confidence in your own abilities?

Have you got a personal sense of self worth, which is not just dependent on your performance?

Have your levels of self–confidence helped so far in your career?

Political Awareness No Some Yes

Do you keep up to date with trends and developments in your profession, both locally in your employing organisations, but also nationally?

Do you use this knowledge to further inform your own career decision–making?

Do you keeping your ears and eyes open to some of the political developments in affecting your profession and your organisation?

Self–Promotion No Some Yes

Are you able to define and promote own your own skills and aptitudes with peers and colleagues?

Can you promote your own strengths in a convincing way, both written and verbally, e.g. in a CV/application/interview?

Do you think you do these things now?

Networking No Some Yes

Are you aware of the importance to develop a network of contacts?

Do you define, develop and maintain a support network for advice and information?

Are your networking skills developed at this stage of your career development?


Section 2: Preparing your Curriculum Vitae (CV)Your ultimate aim is to secure the post you are applying for.

But there are several hurdles you must surmount on the path to reaching the real test – the interview’. Your CV will usually be your first opportunity to impress a prospective employer, so it couldn’t be more important.

There are no hard and fast rules on how to present it, different employers will look for different things. However, there are some approaches that will ensure that your CV makes the employer put your name on the short–list. There follows some guidance on how you might approach preparing your CV and at the end you will find a checklist to help you ensure you haven’t missed anything.

To start with...The move now is to prepare the CV with an achievement focus. Many people hold their CV on file, usually on a PC, then update it periodically and send it out routinely. This is not enough. Your CV must be tailored to the particular post you are applying for, therefore you need to undertake some initial research.

If you are unfamiliar with the organisation, don’t be afraid to make contact. But don’t do this just for the sake of it, these are busy people, so have some questions ready that will help you identify what the organisation wants and what it is you have to offer that is likely to benefit the organisation. Try to find out, for example, what challenges the organisation is facing; what its ‘culture’ is like; how it is affected by pressures outside its own influence. Then supplement this information with a detailed analysis of what the exact requirements of the post are so you can state how closely your skills match them. Some organisations ask for this in the form of a one page statement. If this is the case make sure you don’t exceed one page. This way you can tailor your CV to these requirements. Be prepared to do this every time you apply for a post.

Preparing your CV

The Old Approach The New Approach

Chronological list / Descriptive

Tailored for the specific job

Contains everything from GCSE’s to summer jobs

Conveys your unique selling points

Routine and non–specificDetail of key recent achievements

To write an effective CV you will need to:

• Convey your achievements.

• Be tailored for the post(s) for which you are applying.

• Reflect you ‘Unique Selling Points’.

• Act as a foundation to enable you to communicate your strengths at interview.


To write an effective CV you will need to:

• Convey your achievements.

• Be tailored for the post(s) for which you are applying.

• Reflect you ‘Unique Selling Points’.

• Act as a foundation to enable you to communicate your strengths at interview.

The Initial Sift Of ApplicationsThe number of applications for a single post can run into the hundreds – a recent recruitment campaign in the public sector attracted 600 applications for nine (senior) posts – so you need to ensure that whoever is responsible for making the initial choice of who’s in and who’s out will want to read beyond the first paragraph.

A good, not too long introductory paragraph is essential. Conventionally, this is written in the third person as if you were describing someone else. The aim, perhaps, being to achieve some objectivity, or it could be a British diffidence about not wishing to appear to be ‘blowing one’s own trumpet’. However, it can appear stilted or overly formal, and in any case there’s no need to be diffident about your achievements. It might make more of an impact to be different so why not try writing this in the first person.

Apart from your name this will almost always be the first thing – together with an application form, perhaps (more about these later) – that anyone will see of you, so you must use the opportunity to make an impression. You can sometimes achieve this by thinking about what is – in sales language – your Unique Selling Point (USP). This may arise from your research or you may already have identified what special skills or knowledge make you compatible with the post. If not, in the light of your knowledge of the employer, ask yourself the following questions:

What is your ‘Unique Selling Proposition’?

What are you really good at?

What do people consistently praise about your work?

What main achievements are you really proud of?

What is unusual about you – some special skill, experience or character?

How could all of this benefit your prospective employer?


Finding your USP: ask yourself these questions

From my research what suggests I am compatible with what this employer wants?

What are my main achievements – the ones I am reallyproud of?

What problems can I be confident of solving for this employer?

What is unusual about me – for instance, some special skill, experience or characteristic?

What am I really good at – what can I do well withouteven trying?

How could all of this benefit my future employer?

What do people consistently praise about to my work?One important point here is to remember to distinguish features from benefits when you are setting out your USP. A feature is a straight factual statement, whereas a benefit shows how and why it will be a good thing for the other person”buy”. For example, it may be a feature of your career that you have a particular qualification.

A benefit of that qualification may be that you have in depth expertise in an area in which the employer ‘is active’ – you could use your specialist knowledge to improve the company’s performance in that field.


Your USP: Some examplesHere are some more examples What will your verbal USP be?

Use this space to jot down some ideas:

You may also use the questions that you ask, to give animpression of your USP. Use this space to indicate somethings that you may ask:

Feature Benefit

I was a project management engineer for two years

My two years of experience has given me hands–on understanding of engineering project–management, so in this job I would know all the places where cost and time can be saved through careful planning.

I am responsible for new product development using high–tech methods

Being responsible for product development means that I could bring you cost–saving expertise in the latest hightech methods.

I can use “Word”: I’m computer literate.

I do all my own word processing so I only need modest secretarial support.

I’ve been responsible for a lot of innovation in my current job

My track record of innovation in my current job means that you can expect to get a lot of new projects and ideas from me.


Writing your CV

Do Include:• The most important information on the first page.• Skills, knowledge and experience that are relevant to the job.• Skills and knowledge that feature in the job advertisement and

information pack.• Your achievements.

Don’t include:• Any lies of any kind.• Unexplained gaps – put them in stating why they appear.• Lots of details of jobs you did more than 5 years ago.• Unnecessary personal details: maiden name, marital status, age,

photographs, nationality, details of children.

When presenting it, your CV should:• Be 2 pages in length (max. 3) NB: More may be required for

professionals e.g. Doctors.• Have wide margins.• Be in easily read type.• Make attractive use of capitals, bold and different type sizes.• Be written in clear, simple language.• Should be sent unfolded on good quality paper.

The structure of your CV needs to include:• Introductory paragraph – in the first or third person.• Key Achievements – including scope and impact.• Skills – a bullet list matched to the organisation’s requirements.• Employment Details – in reverse order.• Education and qualifications – details that are now relevant.• Continuing training and development.• Publications.• Personal details and leisure activities.

An alternative structure for your CV might include:• Personal Details.• Career History – focusing on key achievements, main detail last 5 years.• Skills – a bullet list matched to the organisations requirements.• Education & qualifications – details that are now relevant.• Continuing training & development.• Publications.

Led

Devised

Improved

Pioneered

Directed

Negotiated

Developed

Introduced

Organised

Facilitated

Produced

Generated

When writing your CV, vocabulary needs to be:• Achievement and action orientated, preferably including outcome

e.g.: ‘Responsible for departmental budget of £X’.• ‘Budgetary management: introduced new system for planning and

monitoring expenditure’.• ‘which achieved on target spend for the first year’.• Use achievement words that suggest dynamism, creativity,

leadership and change:


Employers Want peoplewho can:

Employers Avoid peoplewho can:

Solve problems Create problems

Work as a team member Can only work solo

Show initiative Want to be told what to do

Meet tight deadlines Miss deadlines

Deliver on promises Avoid responsibility

Handle change Think the good old dayswere best

Put customers first Put customers down

Stay flexible Are inflexible

Keep positive and enthusiastic Moan and whine

Stay committed tocontinuous learning

Think that their originalqualifications are still all

that is necessary todo the job

long, aim for 2 – 4 pages. A colleague told recently of a CV so long it came with an index!

The following headings may help you focus on a format that will allow you to present yourself to best advantage.

Personal profile or statementThis will contain your personal, introductory statement. Aim for a paragraph, two at the most. Try the first person but if that doesn’t sound like you, use the third person. Try writing out several versions and styles, putting your strengths and their benefits clearly.

Key achievementsMaintain the achievement focus. Keep this in occupational terms unless there are personal achievements you are both proud of an have some relevance to the post or organisation. Present them as bullet points to save space and be quickly readable.

Include the scope of your achievements. For example: if you mention budgets include the size and dates include the numbers of staff you have managed indicate the scale of change you have implemented and its impact.

Focus on the impact you have had, the difference you have made. Resist all temptations to list the committees and task groups you have been part of unless you can state explicitly the impact of that group. Make this section live and try to match the achievements with those qualities you think the organisation is seeking (you will have some idea of these from your preliminary research). Remember also some people will be looking for the detail here and some for the ‘big picture’ so keep a balance between the two.

PresentationThe presentation of your CV can make a big difference. Being eye–catching is one thing but overdoing the visual style is another: resist it. Make sure it’s easily readable. Leave plenty of spaces, employers might wish to annotate it. Try not to make it too


competence, so go through the framework (in draft) and note down all achievements that are relevant. Ensure, as above, that you give evidence of impact/output. Using bullet points will help the reader.

Whenever giving a list, ensure that the top 3 are the most relevant or impressive, they are the ones that will stick in the reader’s mind. As for all instructions from prospective employers – make sure you read them, understand them and follow them!

Employment detailsThis is best presented in reverse chronological order staring with your current post. A simple list – not too long – is often sufficient but if you feel you need to be more expansive, you could provide a summary followed by a more detailed breakdown (as an appendix, perhaps) to include the key achievements and skills deployed in each post. This makes the CV much longer but it allows those selecting to use the summary or get at the detail if they wish.

Education and qualificationsStart in reverse chronological order, and it’s probably of little interest to anyone how many ‘O’ levels or GCSE’s (or even ‘A’ levels) you have if you have an honours degree and a master’s. But don’t assume that an MBA is always regarded as the answer to an employer’s prayers.

Continuing training & developmentEmployers will often regard this as equally (or more) important than academic qualifications. You need to demonstrate that you take your own professional development seriously, by attending workshops, using a mentor, going on courses, reading and/or participating in learning sets, professional networks or professional body activities. If you are a bit weak in this area, make sure you review your personal development needs.

For example:Don’t just put “Design and delivery of strategic workshops for senior management teams” as an achievement; put the ‘so what?’:‘’Design and delivery of strategic workshops for senior management teams that resulted in X, Y and Z” (measurable impact effects of the workshops).

Don’t put “Developed an Endoscopy Unit in Outpatient Services for older people”, put “Developed an Endoscopy Unit in Outpatient Services for older people, which resulted in X number more people being seen/the early detection of disease & prevention of longer term pathology/a reduction in the inpatient admissions by x%/98% satisfaction from all patients using the Unit” – or whatever the impact was of your action.

As an exercise, list out your achievements and go through all of them and write out the ‘so what?’evidence of impact. You can then select out those that you will include in any particular CV. If applicable, you might wish to present your managerial and professional achievements separately.

SkillsAgain, a bullet point list is probably best, and match them with the organisation’s requirements. It might also be appropriate to distinguish between clinical and managerial here also.

Competence FrameworksSome employers use competence frameworks as the basis for assessing potential and ability. In some cases candidates are asked to set out their CV against the competencies in the framework. This would replace the key achievements and skills section – unless you have relevant things to say which cannot be covered by the framework. The employers are looking for evidence that you have demonstrable experience/ability within each


PublicationsDon’t send copies of your publications – be they reports, articles or even books – they won’t be read at this stage. Include a list with, if you feel it’s necessary, a more detailed bibliography as an appendix. Make sure the list, if you include it, doesn’t look ‘past it’s sell by date’, that is that your last publication was 5 or more years ago. If that is the case it might be better to include the publication under the achievement section of the relevant post.

Personal detailsOnly disclose what is really necessary. With Equal Opportunities policies employers no longer expect you to disclose information on your age, dependants and marital status.

Leisure activities and interestsHow rounded a person are you? How much time do you have for leisure? This can be important as you don’t want to convey the impression you are a ‘workaholic’. Finally, as with all the other guidance here, (to quote George Orwell) “Break any of these rules rather than say anything outright barbarous”.

Other Ideas• Ask your mentor or some one who is involved in selection a lot

to read and comment on your CV.• Try several versions of your CV to see which one(s) you

like best.• Keep a long version on your PC and take out extracts to make

up the ‘perfect’ CV.• Read other people’s CVs to see what the range of

possibilities are.• Remember all the times you have been involved in shortlisting

and appointments, what really irritated or impressed you about CVs?

• A note about the Application Form: If you are asked to complete an application form do so as fully as you can. Employers do not appreciate a scribbled “please see enclosed CV” on an otherwise uncompleted form. The form and CV might go in different directions in the organisation, and if they have asked for an application to be completed, that is what they usually want.

Using CV templatesIf you’re starting afresh or revisiting an existing CV, you may find it useful to explore the many practical CV template examples now available on the Internet. Whilst some online resources make a charge for downloading CV templates and guidance, a significant amount of information and examples are freely available.

Additionally, many PC–based Word Processing software packages now include CV templates as an included feature. You may wish to explore the software you’re currently using in your workplace as a starting point.


Organisation Job

Business Plan Job description

Reports, strategy documents

Person Specification

Board Papers Competencies

Organisation website Manager/Director

Analysis of organisations’ performance

Who is on the Interview Panel

Visit Prior telephone discussion

Section 3: The InterviewA job interview has been likened to a first date. It could be ‘the start of something big’ or be over forever after 30 minutes or less. Remember.

It isn’t only what you SAY that counts. 55% of your impact depends on body language, more than 30% on voice tone and less than 10% through words.

The purpose of a candidate going to an interview is to be offered a job; likewise, the interviewer is keen to fill the post as soon as possible. If you can demonstrate what it is that makes you tick andwhy you stand out from the competition, why your experience and achievements make you the right person for the job, then you are doing the interviewer a favour – not the other way round.

Preparing for InterviewIn preparation for the Interview you should undertake as much research as is possible. You may wish to consider familiarising yourself with some obvious and, perhaps, not so obvious research topics that directly relate to the organisation and the position available:

If you can have a discussion or a visit beforehand then this will help inform your interview preparation and delivery.


Preparing for difficult questionsIt is a good idea to identify questions which you would find difficult to answer and prepare your responses. This is not to mislead the interviewer but to continue the momentum of the interview and increase your confidence.

Below are some examples of interview questions. Select those which may be appropriate to you and, in answering, think about the reasoning behind the question and the implications of your response.

Difficult Question Examples• How would you describe yourself?• Tell me what achievement in the last five years you are proudest of.• Why did you leave your last job?• Where do you see yourself in the next two, five, ten years?• What are your major strengths and weaknesses?• I have no more questions, but you have five minutes to convince me

why we should offer you the job.• If you were offered the job, what would your priorities be?• What are you looking for in your next job?• Give me examples of situations where you successfully and• unsuccessfully attempted to implement unpopular decisions and explain

how you went about it.• If you had the opportunity to learn new skills, what would they be?• If I called your last boss, what would s/he say about you?• Have you been for many interviews?• Why do you want this job?• Which achievement are you most proud of and why?

The key to good interviews?• Practice• Practice• Practice

Get somebody to ask you questions – practice responding to them.


Main Question Types• What skills and experience do you have that fit our needs?• How would you tackle the job?• What kind of person are you? What motivates you?• What stresses you?• What questions would you like to ask us?

Answering questions successfully• 3 key things:

• Use your research on the job 1 organisation.• Demonstrate a ‘giving’ not a ‘taking’ attitude.• Use evidence from your experience.

Wise answers• All your answers should use evidence from your experience

that links to the skills that are needed• e.g. “What is the most difficult challenge that you have had in your

current job?”• What wise reply would you use?

Giving rather than takingWhat are the main issues facing the organisation post merger?Taker:‘Staff morale will be very low and it will be difficult to achieve results’Giver:‘I am excited by the challenges of merging two different departments successfully’.

The Interview as a social occasion• Share the talking• Keep your answers brief• Keep your voice up – vary the pitch• Create rapport – match• Dance in time to the same rhythm

Asking your own questions• Prepare some in advance – it’s OK to use your notes.• Link to things said at the interview – it shows you are listening.• Present or Future orientated.• What questions will you ask?


At the InterviewYour Verbal USP When you prepared you CV you identified your UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP) It is important that during the interview you get these points across. With careful planning it is possible to give this information despite the questions asked. It is important for you to also develop a verbal USP.

Using the three broad types of interview questions below, identify the answers that you want to ensure that you give at interview:

• What skills and experience do you have that fit our needs?

• How would you tackle the job?

• What kind of person are you? What motivates you?

You can use the following information and tools to help you prepare your verbal USP.

PreparationYou should prepare about five–minutes worth of material which contains your USP. This is a piece of jargon from the world of selling. The product you are selling here is yourself. If you are well interviewed, this will emerge anyway. If you are not, or if the interview takes a turn that leaves out the aspect that you think makes you the strongest bet, then it is vital to have this prepared.


SOME EXAMPLES

Jason was on the shortlist for a job as a management training consultant and knew that he was one of six

strong candidates. His experience included equal time spent as an operational manager and as a trainer. He guessed rightly, that this would be unusual, since the majority of trainers have become trainers early in their careers and often have little managerial experience. His USP was to say that he understood the issues that participants on his course faced, as he had been at the sharp end himself. Further more, he said that this experience gave him credibility with participants. He also had an unusually wide portfolio of training specialisms and made sure that he mentioned these in away that would appeal to the hiring organisation by suggesting that this specialisms would enable it to increase its product range.

1

Geetha was a cancer specialist who was on of four senior registrars hoping to become consultants. Her

USP was to set out the high store she put on interpersonal skills with patients and their families, all of whom could be assumed to be under considerable stress. She wanted to make sure that the panel knew what had been achieved by a series of information leaflets she had personally developed as well as the patient hot-line she had established in her current role. One final piece of USP was that her Indian background gave her a unique cultural and practical insight into the needs of the large local Asian population.

2

Fiona was a finance specialist for a small firm and was being interviewed for a similar job at a considerably higher

salary in a much larger organisation. Fiona felt that her USP was the flexibility and the all–round experience that her previous job had given her. Far from it having been a disadvantage to have worked in a small company, Fiona was keen to tell the panel that it was a huge plus – she had seen every aspect of the company’s performance and it had taught her where it was important to have effective control and where it was important to stay loose. She also wanted to stress that she was keen to take on more responsibility and saw this as an enjoyable challenge.

This process can work very well, even when all seems lost:

Bob had been obliged to tender his resignation after the unit he was managing was pilloried in the press for incompetence.

A high–profile cabinet minister with responsibility for the public service in which Bob was involved was the MP for the constituency and it was made clear to Bob that he had to be the scapegoat. This view held sway even though no personal blame was attached to him and an inquiry eventually exonerated the unit. Before the interview for his new job, Bob was determined to bring this up, even though he felt that the panel might be too embarrassed to ask about it. He wanted to raise it because he felt that the whole experience had taught him a lot about the realities of managing the public sector. He wanted to say too, that he was proud of the service and felt that its undersung achievements had depended on team work and effective leadership from him and that these were qualities he was eager to bring to the job on offer.

Source: Jenny Rogers, Management Futures – Effective Interviews

3

4


The PresentationIntroductionYou may be expected to deliver a presentation as part of your interview. Regardless of whether you have to do a presentation or proceed straight into the interview you should “Make an Impression”.

Making an ImpressionBe your professional self...

Entering the room:

• sweep the room with your eyes• head up• make eye contact• breathe out smile• shoulders down• shake hands• enter• speak• pause• sit down

If you are doing a presentation first – please read the following sections.

• If you are doing a presentation – Ideally you should stand, but if you are doing a presentation without PowerPoint/aids you may decide to sit at the desk with the interviewers. You should conside all the options prior to the interview/presentation.

• If you are undertaking an interview without presentation, sit down – maybe move your chair at an angle so you seem more relaxed (and not confrontational) – make sure you do not have sunlight or lights shining into your eyes.

Know why you’re presentingIt’s not always obvious. Have you been asked to do so? If so, what does your audience expect? Write down your key objectives and be honest. Add to the usual stuff about informing and so on. Get to the detail – to impress, persuade, change perceptions or whatever. Everything follows from the objectives. A presentation designed to inform will be different to one which is destined to persuade.

Know the audienceWho are you talking to? What do they expect? What is their likely attention span? What thoughts will be crowding their thinking? How much of their attention will you realistically have? And then start to look for the subtleties. We all like particular vocabularies – words which let us know that the person speaking is talking to us. Go and talk to some of the audience or do some other research in advance and listen to how they say what they say.

Know the terrainWhen you’re trying to achieve something you need to know what the terrain looks like. Put your presentation in context. What else is going on at the moment in your organisation that you might be able to use to good effect? How much, for example, of the modernisation agenda could you import into what you’ve got to say to add weight?


Know what they think of youPart of the presentation is the way you present yourself. We’ve all met people who’ve got so much stock in the bank with particular audiences that they could present the London phone book and win people over. How is your stock? Get honest feedback from colleagues in advance. You need to know what your audience really thinks. Don’t delude yourself with false impressions.

Structure for outcomesWhen you know what you are trying to achieve and the context you can then structure your presentation accordingly. You should have an overview, a journey that you will be taking your audience on, in mind. What does it look like? How are you going to get their attention? Think impact. How are you going to sustain them through the cruise? What facts can you give them that they will then be able to use? And how are you going to close? What impression do you want to leave in their minds?

PackageIf you are trying to make your facts interesting or your arguments persuasive you will need to package your message in terms of what matters to them. A leading management guru once turned up for a presentation with a roomful of major airline executives 30 minutes late. He looked down from the podium at the assembled and annoyed execs and said, “if this was one of your airlines you would have said I was on time”. It made sense to them on their terms and got their attention.

Think emotionsHow do you want people to feel in your presentation? Be clear. Do you want to excite them, make them mad, angry, happy, sad? Know this before you set out. Think about the ways in which you can create these emotions. Look at the way in which television news reporters cover emotional events such as disasters. They will tend to focus in on the impact the event may have had on an individual. They will then show real emotions. Now, these things happen but they have

selected images to create particular emotional outcomes. As a presenter, you’re in the same position.

Influence the context if you canRoom layout can have a massive impact on the outcome of a presentation. For example, if you are talking to people who are in a circle and you are able to sell your ideas to some of those there in advance and they nod then others will see that and respond (probably positively). If the same presentation had taken place in serried ranks you would probably get a different outcome.

Think detailLittle things matter a lot to us. Little things can have big messages. Know what little things matter to the audience that you are talking to. Getting names right, turning up on time and being polite will speak volumes. But there may be idiosyncrasies for this particular audience – how they might like to be addressed, for example – that you must take account. Again, research will help.

Think problemsWork out what could possibly go wrong. Or, as they say in the airline business, it’s a lot better to sort out the problems before you leave the ground. Who might object to what you are saying? Will you be using PowerPoint and will it work? Do you have a back up? Presentations are major opportunities to connect with audiences. There are big gains to be had. But equally, big losses if they go wrong. Careers can be broken all too easily when backs of envelopes replace proper planning.


Effective Presentation Tips – In summary• What are the needs of your audience?• The three point rule.• Use personal experience/examples.• Create a structure:

Preparation• Practice.• Preparing notes.• Breathing exercises.• Warm–up.First Impressions• Check how equipment works.• Prepare index cards and OHPs.• Stand–up.• Opening sentence.• Eye–contact.Your voice• Keep the volume up.• Vary tone.• Slow down.• Use pauses and emphasis.• Passion, sincerity, authenticity.

Interview Tips – In Summary• Arrive at least 15 minutes early. This will enable you to settle

down and be in an ‘actively relaxed’ state of mind. It also gives you time to read through your CV again.

• Dress appropriately. The interviewer will have an image of the ideal candidate. Try to think of what that image might be.

• Above all, be smart and comfortable in what you wear – it will increase your confidence and help you to relax.

• Expect to be assessed on interview behaviour.• Greet the interviewer with a SMILE and remember to smile during

the interview.• Listen carefully. If you haven’t heard or understood the

question, ask for it to be repeated.• Speak clearly – with energy and conviction.• Establish eye contact (look at the interviewer but don’t stare).• Look interested.• Pay careful attention to body language (non–verbal

communication). Avoid any mannerisms which may irritate people e.g. fiddling with or clicking a pen.

• Try to be natural – have a conversation with the interviewer.

Say how you are going to approach the presentation

Deliver it

Summarise


OVERALL REVIEW poor excellent

How did it flow? 1 2 3 4 5

How was your preparation? 1 2 3 4 5

How would you rate your answers? 1 2 3 4 5

How would you rate your questions? 1 2 3 4 5

What was your overall impression? 1 2 3 4 5

How well did you relate to the interviewers?

1 2 3 4 5

Summary

Post–Interview – Interview Record

Points to remember?

Organisation/Company:

Interview Date:

Interviewer:

Job Title:

Duration:

Time:


Assessment CentresIntroductionEmployers sometime decided to introduce Assessment Centres rather than a interview process. The rationale is either to reduce the number of candidates for interview, or to introduce rigour into the interview process. and so increase the validity/success ratio of the process.

Assessment Centres are costly to design and deliver. Therefore you can expect a more intensive process than a straightforward interview. During the Centre you will be observed by either Occupational Psychologists or trained Assessors from the organisation/sector. The range of interventions should reflect the job or job family you have applied for.

The assessment framework will be based on behavioural competencies and these are usually made available in advance of the Centre. If these are not forwarded to you prior to commencing the Centre you should request a copy. You should receive feedback from the Centre regarding your performance regardless of whether you have been successful to the post or next stage.

Organisations also run Development Assessment Centres for internal participants as part of their Talent Bank or succession pipeline. In NHS Wales these centres are under camera and individuals receive a copy of their own DVD and coaching support to aide their future development and career.

What is an assessment centre?A collection of selection exercises used to assess your strengths against defined competencies.

May include:• Timed ability tests.• In–tray exercise.• Group exercise.• Personality assessments.• Interview.

Ability TestsMeasure the abilities that are required for the job. Scored by comparing number of correct answers with a standard group of managers. Types of tests include:

• Numeracy (Comprehension or computation)• Verbal reasoning.• Critical Thinking.• Abstract reasoning.


When taking ability tests the standard instructions are usually read by an administrator.

The tests are:

• Timed.• Generally designed not to finish.

When taking ability tests you should:

• Work quickly and accurately.• If you are really stuck, skip a question and move to the next.

Personality Questionnaires• Belbin, MBTI – not used for recruitment.• OPQ, 16PF and CP1 used in recruitment.• Not timed.

When taking personality questionnaires you should:

• Be Honest.• Not take too long.• Go with first instinctive answer.

Group tasksDesigned to assess group working skills including:

• Influencing.• Leadership.• Time–management.• Listening.• Negotiation and defusing conflict.• Communication.


Chapter FourAction: where to start?


This final Chapter is intended to take you from your thoughts, ideas and wishes into a practical planning process.

Starting to plan and commit to detailing your overall long term goal helps you to clarify where you are going in your life. What is important and what you are working towards. Even if you cannot be totally clear and just have a vague vision of how you would like your life to be is totally fine. Being able to describe your journey brings purpose, security and self ownership of your life and career.

Being clear about the end goal and then working back detailing the steps you think you need to take starts to bring to life the whole process.

So to make your dream or vision turn into reality you need to take action and that action needs to start today.

Of course, nothing ever really goes to plan and you will find derailments or rerouting along the way but, without a plan – without action – without the desire to make a difference to your life, nothing will change.

The power rests with you and planning is part of taking control of your life.

Now take the next step...


Your 10 – 15 year plan

5 Year Goals 10 Year Goals 15 Year Goals

Notes:


Your 5 year plan

Year 1 Goals Year 2 Goals Year 3 Goals Year 4 Goals Year 5 Goals

Notes:


Your plan for the next 18 months

Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Months 4 – 6 Months 7 – 12 Months 13 – 18

Notes:


Action this month

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

Notes:


Action this week

Action Priority

Notes:


Action each day

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Priority 1 Priority 1 Priority 1







Action each day

Day 4 Day 5 Weekend

Priority 1 Priority 1







Notes


Notes


AcademiWales:Career Management HandbookFirst edition published 2008

© Under licence via McEwan Levy Associates 2008. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

This publication may not be sold, lent, hired out or otherwise dealt with in the course of a trade or supplied in any form of binding or cover other than the one which it is published without the prior written permission of the publisher.

No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, authors or publisher.

The views in this publication are those of the authors and may not necessarily reflect those of Welsh Government or McEwan Levy Associates. Academi Wales and McEwan Levy Associates have made every effort to trace and acknowledge copyright holders. If any source has been overlooked, Academi Wales and McEwan Levy Associates would be pleased to address this in future editions.

Published by:Academi WalesWelsh GovernmentCathays ParkCardiffCF10 3NQUnited Kingdom

(+44) 29 2082 6687 www.academiwales.org.uk

This handbook is also available in electronic format.

AcademiWales: Great leadership through learning80



AcademiWales:Career Management HandbookPublished by:Academi WalesWelsh GovernmentCathays ParkCardiffCF10 3NQUnited Kingdom

(+44) 29 2082 6687 www.academiwales.org.uk

This handbook is also available in electronic format.

Documents

AcademiWales · How is your stock? Get honest feedback from colleagues in advance. You need to know what your audience really thinks. Don’t delude yourself with false impressions