Late last year we did a series on the approaches different religions would take towards job seeking. We ran posts on “job seeking - the Jewish way” and “job seeking - the Protestant way. Today I want to make some observations about the role that Islam plays in influencing young Muslims in their approach to possible careers.

The MyTalentPlace team recently spent a day helping out in an inner London school. The day was all about helping the students to understand possible career choices and what it takes to get there. The pupil population was really diverse with a healthy dose of Muslim kids. One of the exercises the students had to complete asked them to identify their career goals in order of importance. Most of the students came up with what one would usually expect from an audience of 15 year olds - big car, big house etc. Bling was emphasised at the expense of any deeper motivations such as making a difference, learning new skills, developing real expertise in an area etc.

What really struck me though was the responses of the Muslim girls to the exercise. Their career ambitions focused around the following:

1) Being faithful

2) Being a good Muslim

3) Being a good mother

To me, there’s a positive and a negative take on these results. The positive is that the girls are clear on their objectives and that these objectives are more meaningful than the superficial ones expressed by other students. Of course, they might not have a clue on what “being a good mother” actually involves, but hey! The negatives though are also clear.  Given that these kids are in London (not rural Pakistan), does this mean that Islam’s influence is so much stronger than the broader culture within which these kids live and study? Based on what I observed, I’d say yes. So these young girls are being encouraged not to think about careers, not to develop themselves but to take up the role that women over the ages have fulfilled - albeit with a strong religious twist.

I find this concerning. It suggests that Muslim teengage girls are not challenging the traditional roles they’re expected to carry out. What’s the point of any education if that’s what the future holds? The stated objectives are also unlikely to generate the desire to work hard and achieve at school. So if an individual decides to change their mind and try to achieve their potential at a later age, they face an uphill battle on a number of fronts.

It’s that time of the year again. Most people are really enjoying the great weather, the beaches of Greece and elsewhere beckon and many of us are drinking just a bit more than we should (it’s the heat)! There is that small cloud though hanging over the heads of many recent graduates and that is “how the hell am I going to get a job”? Those grads that do a better job of identifying and then clearly describing their skills will do better.

The first point to make is that there’s a big difference between skills and experience. When we look at our CV’s, it’s clear that most new graduates have little experience. That doesn’t mean though that they don’t have skills. Working in a holiday or weekend job and approaching this with the right attitude can develop a range of skills really quickly. What if you haven’t approached your part - time job with the given level of dedication? Well, that’s another life lesson to be digested. Almost everything you do comes back to you in one way or another. If you’re serious about being successful in your career, be successful and take pride in even the small things.

When it comes to identifying your skills, try answering the following …”what do I know how to do well”? Often as individuals, we find it difficult to identify our skills. Sometimes this is due to a sense of not wanting to be immodest. For others it’s because we don’t really know how to think about skills. Let’s keep it simple. Skills are things that you can do - preferably well. Obviously these things have to be useful in a business context. Many youngsters trying to get a job now will have decent IT skills. I get irritated if I see skills listed in a CV such as “proficient in Microsoft Word”. That is a given and I believe you’re cheapening your personal brand by listing things like this. Let’s take the example of identifying the skills of someone who has started their own blog. Some of the skills that come to mind immediately are:

• Writing persuasively for a given audience
• Structuring a written argument
• Using social media to influence an audience

So, the challenge is twofold - identifying your skills and then describing them persuasively. Try not to be too matter of fact. How you describe your skills has a lot to do with how you market yourself and how you will come across to recruiters.

Finally, if you’ve had a part - time job while studying, you should be able to identify at least 8 skills you possess to incorporate in your CV. Do this and you’ll find yourself feeling a lot more confident in your CV.

Yesterday, while enjoying the sun and discussing the NHS with 2 friends who work there and are really committed, we were all left shaking our heads at the things that happen and don’t happen in the institution. One of the friends told me about a work colleague who is in a managerial position and has been for many years. Her sick leave record is appalling - and she will take the equivalent of 6 - 8 weeks of sick leave every year. Her staff always move on to other trusts or hospitals because she’s so useless and guess what ….? She’s still there and she probably will be in 5 year’s time! The other friend spoke of a new raft of area co - ordinators brought in to “manage” therapists in the field. These area co - ordinators apparently manage the leave and other very important administrative duties for teams in the field. When they call meetings to discuss some exciting bit of admin anyone could learn in an email, these co - ordinators are disappointed when no one comes.

If the government wants to find costs to cut, how about introducing proper performance management in the NHS? In the NHS, you are judged on your knowledge and skills. That’s very nice, but any commercial company will tell you that’s only part of the requirement. How about motivation, innovation and competence? I would love to know what percentage of NHS staff will get fired this year for poor performance. Both of my friends said that they’d never heard of anyone being fired in their careers in the NHS. The reality of any organisation, particularly one so large, is that there will always be poor performers who are taking home their pay and not delivering anything. These people need to be ejected from the system. They’re a drain on resources and on morale. When committed staff see their manager behaving in this way, it’s hard for them to remain as motivated. My guess is that there is a small percentage of useless staff clogging up the system, hampering others’ best efforts and taking home a salary that you and I are funding. If that percentage is 5%, we’re looking at savings of £1.5 billion every year. OK, some may need to be replaced, but not all of them.

How about that for an idea Mr Chancellor?

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Zhuang Chen for BBC China recently. The focus of our discussion was the challenges faced by foreign graduates in getting jobs in the UK post graduation. Of course, Zhuang’s interest is mainly in the challenges faced by Chinese students, however the principles we discussed can be applied across the board.

I’d hate to be a foreign student graduating now and hoping to gain some decent employment in the UK. Why? Well, although the Association of Graduate Recruiters sees some silver linings, most people know that it’s going to be really tough to get a first job. Employers are being really selective and there simply aren’t the number of graduate positions as there were 3 or 4 years ago. So that’s the first problem. The second problem is that the UK has a fundamentally conservative business culture. When push comes to shove and a recruiter is considering employing Jim Jones from Manchester and Lee Tong (also graduated from Manchester, but lives in Beijing), I’m not going to bet my house that Lee get the nod. Recruiters here often go with what is familiar. When combined with the nagging suspicion that Lee may want to go home to China in 2 - 3 years time, his chances are further reduced.

Another minefield lies in the area of the soft skills required to impress recruiters. Recruiters will expect candidates to express themselves clearly and confidently, to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as a minimum. In the case of assessment centres, the required level of soft skills rises substantially and foreign students find themselves competing to look good in challenging and competitive activities. Many of these require a subtle grasp of interpersonal communication that many foreign students are likely to struggle with. According to Zhuang from the BBC, Chinese students find it difficult to describe their weaknesses as this is not a cultural norm in China. So, the odds are really against foreign graduates. What can they do to improve their chances?

The first consideration is to think of the generic strengths that foreign students possess. Firstly, if you’re interviewing with a company that has operations in China (or whatever your home country is), that’s a great opportunity to sell yourself. You can gain a few years experience in the UK and then be transferred back home to help the operations there. Secondly, Chinese students in particular are thought of as being diligent and disciplined. These are very attractive traits to recruiters and should be mentioned and supported with examples. Thirdly, there is an opportunity to turn a supposed weakness into a strength. If soft skills are so important, foreign students need to do their research into these as well as potentially get some coaching. Start by looking at press releases detailing the soft skills that employers say most students are lacking. Then find out more about these and get friends, lecturers etc to give you some feedback on each skill. This will give you a starting point of awareness. Even though many of these soft skills take time to develop, recruiters will be impressed to see awareness of the skills required as well as some proactive action taken to identify your starting point and plan for improvement. Of course, if you’re really serious about getting that job, consider some coaching from our experts!

This is a guest post by Claire Turnbull - experienced career coach.

Don’t fall into the trap of drifting into a career – design a career plan that meets your values!

I did well at university. I got a 2:1 in French and Politics at a redbrick university, then went on to do a Master’s in History. I thought the world was my oyster when I graduated. Fast forward 3 years however and my view had changed somewhat. I was an award-winning sales consultant, had been promoted several times and was earning more in a month than my entire student loan but was deeply unhappy.

Before you get the violins out, let me explain further. Nothing in my career was meeting my values and it took me several years to realise I could never be professionally fulfilled in sales, and another year to do something about it! I want to make sure you don’t fall into the same trap.

So, values. What are they and why are they important? A value is something you hold dear, something vital to the core of you, like honesty, freedom or creativity. If you act in conflict with your values you’ll get a funny feeling that something’s not right, like if you make a bad decision that’s in conflict with your instinct. But if you are true to your core values, then wow, you’ve got the blueprint to happiness, success and fulfilment.

Ask yourself the following questions and write down your responses without thinking:

1) What’s important to me in life?
2) What do I look for in a partner?
3) What do I look for in a colleague?
4) What advice would I give my best friend about what’s important?
5) What motivates me?
6) What do I need to get out of a holiday for it to be a success?

You should have a big long list of about 20 answers. Now’s the time for reflection. Highlight the 8 most important ones, the ones that resonate with you when you read them. These are your core values. Then rank them, 1 to 8, 1 being absolutely vital, 8 being important but not crucial.

What you now have is a decision making tool. Whenever you have a big decision to make, like which career to pursue or (hopefully!) which job offer to accept, compare it against your list of values and score each out of ten. For example, you may be looking at a law conversion course and have identified creativity as your top value. Would this career satisfy your need for creativity? If it scores less than 7, you may want to reconsider.

Try this exercise for yourself and see what new self-knowledge it brings. If you make sure your values are being met whatever you do then you can’t fail to get what you want out of life.