Career coaching
Change is now a constant feature of organisational life and often means that familiar jobs disappear. Business pressures to reduce costs and become more competitive likewise may lead to reductions in headcount. The pandemic has seen unemployment reach its highest level in three years and redundancies their highest since 2009.
Facing the prospect of finding another job is an intimidating one especially if its been some time since you looked at your CV or went for an interview.
Coaching will help you define your purpose, what really matters and what you are great at so that you write a great CV or application and present yourself confidently.
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Take another look at that CV
Re-energising your CV
If you are facing the prospect of having to look for a new role, then this might be a good opportunity to take a good look at your CV and review how you will organise your job search.
Before you put pen to paper, how would you answer these questions:
- What’s your purpose?
- What really matters to you?
- What fills your batteries (and what empties them)?
- What are you really great at?
Starting with these questions will give your job search a clearer sense of direction, give you greater confidence in what you bring to a prospective employer and re-energise that CV.
What really matters to you?
What really matters to you is about values – the guiding principles that provide us with our compass. Take a moment to think about the times when you felt at your best at work. What was it about those times that helped you to feel at your best? Is there a clue in that to what your values are?
What fills your batteries?
What fills your batteries is about what gives you the drive and energy to get stuff done. Think back to three or four times when you felt really motivated. What do those occasions have in common and what does that tell you about your motivators and the things that give you satisfaction?
What's your mission?
Purpose is about who you are and who you want to be. It’s what Simon Sinek means when he writes: “People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it”. It’s excellently summed up by Victor Frankl as:
“Everyone has his or her own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfilment. Therein he or she cannot be replaced, nor can his or her life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.” [1]
[1] Frankl, Victor E. (2004) Man’s Search for Meaning, Rider
What are you great at?
What are you really great at? This is something that we often find a challenge because of that inner voice that tells us that its not good to boast. But go for it – what are the gifts and talents that you bring to your work?
Outplacement support
Supporting people effectively to meet the challenge of finding a new job following reorganisation or redundancy has tangible benefits for both the individual and the organisation.
For the individual, especially if he or she has not had to compete in the job market for some time, it:
- Builds awareness of personal resources and transferable skills that people may have stopped crediting themselves with;
- Opens people’s minds to opportunities and possibilities which they might not otherwise have considered;
- Equips people with the practical skills needed to write an effective CV, application form or supporting statement and perform well in an interview or at an assessment centre; and
- Gives people greater confidence in the face of a challenging job market.
For the organisation and those who remain with it as employees, it can reinforce engagement. Survivor syndrome is a term that has come to be applied in redundancy situations to the impact of job losses on the people who escape them. After a reorganisation “survivors” are likely to reflect on how the organisation treated the redundant employees. Research shows that where redundancies are poorly executed, employees can feel sympathy for the poor treatment of their their redundant colleagues and their trust and faith in their employer may diminish.
Outplacement support not only provides practical support and encouragement to those facing the loss of their job, but reduces the adverse impact of survivor syndrome for those who remain.