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Which way does the girl spin? - By Kara Wirt

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Take a look at this article, the direction in which you see the girl spinning is supposed to predict the side of the brain that is most dominant. Some people can see both, and some can only see one way no matter how hard they try. I can only see anti-clockwise!anti-psych-tests

So… what can you extrapolate from your results? Well… some would say that this may guide you on some of your career choices, similar to psychometric testing which finds character traits you possess and tries to match that to a potential career. However, at MyTalentPlace we think that approach to careers advice sucks. If I took the advice when I was younger that I was right brain dominant and thus more creative and followed a career based on that, I would have missed out on some fantastic opportunities to study statistics and sciences which have developed my analytical skills and I would not have missed for the world. Or, if I had taken the results of my school psychometric assessment and become a zookeeper! - I may never have fulfilled my ambitions.

Whilst psychometric profiling is probably the most widely adopted form of Careers Guidence in UK schools, we have to question just how much you can tell from a multi-choice questionnaire? In our careers advice services we adopt the approach that the qualities and motivations of an individual have to be explored from all angles - in the business world this is known as 360 degree profiling. The process involves feedback from parents, teachers and peers and most importantly explores the motivations and aspirations of the student. The result? - students not only have an idea of the career they want and the ways to go about achieving success on that career path, but also helps develop their self-insight and understanding of what is important to them. See this video testimonial from Lottie who has been through the process.

Sure it’s fun to take these tests - it may give you some ideas and make you think about your characteristics (whether you agree with the results or not!) - but when its something as important as your career you want substantial foundations that you can build your success on!

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Posted in Student Career Advice, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Virtual teams - the way forward

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

In a recent post, we agreed (I think) that although Elvis might be alive, careers in their traditional sense are dead. So what’s going to replace traditional careers? The biggest change is going to be the way in which we’ll work in virtual teams.

Let’s take the analogy of making a movie. Movies are great examples of short term projects. All of the necessary skills are assembled and they focus all of their energies on getting the movie made. The casting director will source the best cast from all over the world, the location will be chosen (again, anywhere in the world), everyone knows what their role is and off you go. The reality is that bitchiness, in fighting, petty politics and all of the lovely things that go with people working together still take place. Some things remain constant!  virtual-team

Tomorrow’s workers will need to have the following skills and assets in order to work this way.

Firstly, a good network. Finding and developing relations with people all over the globe who have complementary sets of skills and interests will be a common requirement. It often won’t be good enough just to operate within a local or regional network. Cost factors and specialists skills mean we’ll need to look wider than this. In a way, we’ll need laser precision in our research to find those individuals with the skills that fit the project we’re hoping to win the bid for.

Finding the work will be a challenge. Having the tentacles out to spot relevant opportunities (again, anywhere in the world) will be important and this links to the first point. If you have a good network, they’ll be spotting opportunities for you and the team.

Delivering quality work virtually. Project management skills are going to become even more important. The ability to ensure that deadlines are achieved and that quality is excellent are vital. Communicating with a virtual team, even though it will mainly be in English, will create its fair share of problems. Very clear methods of communication need to be established to minimise the chances of misunderstanding of the brief, roles etc.

        One sure fire way of guaranteeing that people know about you and approach you is to become well known in your area through an effective blog, conference presentations, membership of online communities etc. Get these right and people will come to you.

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        Are Firefighters paid too much?

        Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

        I recently had the pleasure of meeting with 2 of London’s firefighters. We discussed what it takes to be a firefighter, the training, selection criteria and so on. At the end of the meeting I was left feeling a little embarassed at what the bright graduate responsible for our sales and marketing is being paid relative to a trainee firefighter. In fact, if I were starting over I might seriously consider this career. This is what you need to get in:

        What a career!

        1. You have to be 17.5 years of age (Most of us qualify for that at some point)
        2. Must be eligible to work in the UK (yeees)
        3. I have to declare any offences for which the conviction is not already spent. So, having served my term for posing as Alec Baldwin, I’m OK there.
        4. No beard allowed - facial hair messes with breathing equipment apparently.  I couldn’t grow a beard if I tried. Another tick for Dr. G.
        5. No make up, body piercings or jewellery. Bugger! Well I guess I might consider having that bolt removed from my nose.
        6. I also need to be able to climb a ladder without falling off. Note to self, no boozing before going on duty.
        7. I will have to complete some written tests although it does state that “no specialist knowledge is required”. In other words, this is not going to challenge the challenged unless those neurons really don’t fire much at all.

        So, we’ve established that I’m in. How did you do on the seleection checklist? Having made it through this extremely selective process, how much could I expect to earn as a 17.5 year old trainee? In London I will start on £26100! And there’s more folks. Don’t leave just yet.  If I do well, within 4 years, I can be running a station or similar. So, now I’m 24 and earning - £40K - £50K!

        Look, I know this is an essential job and that firefighters perform a needed and valuable service. At times, the role is dangerous and occasionally lives are put at risk. But let’s face it, it’s largely about faulty toasters and rushing around going bee baaa. Give me a big red shiny company car with a loud hooter as well as this dosh and I’m there. Stand in the queue mate - I got here first!

        This is a great example of the market not working efficiently. What’s the going rate for the kind of person who can pass these selection criteria. My guess is about £17K (in London) and less elsewhere. So why are taxpayers funding this excess? I don’t have a clue. Oh and by the way, when it comes to fancy dress parties, you’ve already got the kit.

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        Posted in Student Career Advice, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

        The unholy trinity - careers advisors, parents, students

        Thursday, February 11th, 2010

        I have a little theory and I know you’re dying to hear it! If we want to really improve the relevance and usability of careers advice, all 3 parts of the unholy trinity need to aligned. Let’s look at them one by one.  unholy trinity

        Firstly, careers advisors. Let me be clear here, I’m mainly talking about careers advisors at school. Many advisors struggle to find good resources and subscribe to “legacy” careers resources. So, it’s not uncommon for a careers advisor to spend a good part of his/her budget on books relating to careers. If you think about it, any book published this year was written and researched over a period of a couple of years. The content is out of date before its printed. Let’s get with the programme here! The solution is good quality web content and particularly content that’s updated on a subscription basis. The other challenge careers advisors need to overcome is the well known UK national sport called box ticking. Forget the football world cup and olympics, if there were a world championship in box ticking, the UK would win all the golds, silvers and bronzes. Many of the standards (boxes to be ticked) are the source of the problem because they set standards around knowledge rather than skill. Careers advisors need to be aware that ticking all the boxes on a standard probably means you’re achieving the minimum acceptable.

        Parents - well, what can I say, we all have them! Most parents draw on a fairly narrow set of personal experiences when they try to provide careers advice to their kids (if in fact, they do try). I suggest that one of easy ways for parents to innovate is to pool their resources. By using their network, most parents would be able to set up informal discussions in which several parents could talk meaningfully about their roles, the decisions they take, skills required, highs and lows etc to an assembled group of their combined offspring.

        Once careers advisors and parents are doing a better job, then we can require of students that they take more responsibility. It’s an exceptional student that will be proactive around career choices if the foundations are not in place.

        Dr G is founder of www.mytalentplace.co.uk

        Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

        Why interview coaching pays

        Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

        If you’ve seen any of the shift happens videos you’ll know the stat that young adults joining the world of work today are likely to have 14 different roles by the time they’re 38. Sounds a little scary and improbable? What the figures were not clear on was whether these would be different careers or different roles. In my view, it probably refers mainly to different roles and there are likely to be some career changes thrown in as well. So, what’s this got to do with interview coaching?

        interview coaching

        Firstly, if there are going to be so many role changes, there are going to be lots of interviews! It’s likely that people will be interviewed regularly both by their employers as well as partners of employers as they move between projects and roles. Those people that are skilled in being interviewed and building their personal brands will get the pick of the projects. They’ll be on the interesting projects, learning new skills etc while the rest are left with the less interesting stuff.

        Not only are interviews going to be more regular, they’re going to be more competitive. The globalised and project nature of future work will mean that you are almost certainly going to be competing for work with people who have similar aspirations and skills levels anywhere in the world.  There’ll be more “clutter” and the ability to build relationships and make a positive impact in interviews will be even more important than it is now.

        Finally, interviewers themselves are becoming more expert. Recruitment has become and will continue to become more rigorous and analytical and candidates will find there’s less room to hide. Social profiles are already freely available and who you are is open to easy scrutiny. The ability to communicate clearly one’s skills, key messages about your personal brand, engage with a broad variety of cultures and ways of working will be required to stand out.

        Convinced? One of the options is self help. That’s always a good start and indicates the right attitude. If you’re serious about competing though, you’re likely to need professional coaching. Learn the skills early and you’ll have them for the rest of your life!

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        Thoughts on how to get - and stay - motivated! by Kara Wirt

        Monday, February 1st, 2010

        There are lots of different ways that you can improve motivation in all aspects of your life. I would suggest that perhaps the most effective and measurable way is to set goals for both long-term and short term achievement. It is also important that you have a support network around you to help you and encourage you to achieve these goals (they must have some understanding of what you are trying to achieve in order to do this effectively).

        An example of this is that I train for rowing every morning and evening, before and after work and all morning at the weekends. It can get pretty tough especially in winter when everything is freezing and you are always training in the dark. People often ask me – what keeps you motivated? (I often ask myself the question too!). So here is a quick list of what I think are the most important factors:

        trial-8s1

        University trial eights racing on the tideway

        1. I love the sport – If you don’t enjoy it then what is the point! Ok - when it’s dark and miserable in the winter or when we have endless gym sessions and experience a hell of a lot of pain or when you lose a race you should have won - then it is far from enjoyable. However, I love all my teammates and coaches, I love racing and the sense of achievement when you race well after a lot of preparation, I like having a constant goal and I love winning.

          Me (front-right) and some of my team representing England last summer.

          Me (front-right) and some of my team representing England last summer.

        2. I have a massive support network – coaches and teammates with common goals. It is also really nice when family and friends are supportive of what you are trying to achieve.
        3. I want to win – this is where it starts to get interesting as firstly you want to beat your crewmates into the best boat. And then you want to make sure that as a crew you win against other teams.
        4. There are continuous goals/aims. You have to set realistic goals about all aspects of your training e.g. if you are lifting 50kg on weights then in the next couple of weeks you may aim to lift 52.5kg, but you may aim that by next year you can lift 60kg. It’s the same on the water, you may be ranked 10th and want to beat the person ranked 9th in the next race, however you may aim to be ranked in the top 4 by the end of the season. You don’t want to miss any sessions as this would hinder you progression toward these goals and this is what keeps you going day after day. Take a look at this Canadian rowing motivational video for inspiration.

        I hope this has given some insight as to how you can motivate yourself towards achieving the best you can in whatever aspect of your life. Setting goals, enjoying what you do, being competitive and letting other people support you and help you.

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        Career advice for young Gordon (Brown)

        Sunday, January 24th, 2010

        Believe it or not, the prime minister was once a teenager. Spots, at least as awkward as he is now etc. If I were his career advisor at the time, what would my advice have been? If I had been good enough to spot his need for power, I would have advised politics. A great place to be if you’re keen on power. If your top motivation is power, think no further than politics. Of course, it’s all dressed up as doing good for others, blah, blah, but politicians are generally there because they love the sound of their own voices, the expense accounts and the lack of accountability. If you’re a non performer in business, you’ll be out within a year. As an MP, you’ve got 4 and even then you’ve still got a chance to hoodwink the electorate.

        Boring himself silly

        So, back to Gordon. I do think he’s in the right career. Unfortunately though, he suffers from what’s known as the “Peter Principle”. Don’t ask me why it’s called that, it just is. The Peter principle occurs when an individual gets promoted beyond their level of competence. Happens all the time. The individual who hitherto has been a fine performer is suddenly out of their depth.

        If we look at the qualities required of an individual to lead a country, in addition to a decent set of brains (tick for Gordon), integrity (tick - I think), there’s something called leadership. Big topic. There’s been quite a lot written about transformational leadership. These are leaders who can bring about change and take people willingly along with them. These leaders have genuine empathy, the ability to keep people on their toes by being really clued up as well as some charisma. Well, on the C word, I think we have a zero score there. No person should be allowed to run a country if their only use of power is as a blunt instrument. If people like and respect you, as a leader you have a much better chance of building a strong followership.

        So Gordon is in the right career, he’s just been promoted beyond his abilities. Let’s face it, it’s really difficult to turn down the promotion when it comes around. All of us though, get to a point where we’re officially out of our depth and therefore likely to be far less effective. So, beware that fantastic promotion - it might just be your downfall!

        Oh, and if you do need good career advice, check out our programmes.

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        Do you have to be a nerd to be in IT?

        Friday, January 22nd, 2010

        A while back I wrote a post questioning whether you need to be arrogant to become a Doctor or whether this is a natural outcome of all the studying  and adoration received. Well today I’m wondering whether it helps to be a nerd in IT.

        Let’s face it, IT requires a certain mindset. It does require a good ability in mathematics, in logical thinking, in attention to detail and in the ability to talk to and possibly fall deeply in love with, a laptop. I know a few people who prefer their Macs to their partners! While we’re still at the stage that PC’s aren’t talking back to us, why not? I have to say, that the majority of people I know in IT are on the nerdy end of the spectrum. Of course there are exceptions, but here’s a game to play when you’re next in the company of IT people. Listen to the way they speak and in particular, to what they argue about. You’re likely to hear them arguing about detail and semantics. These are really important to do the job well but can become a complete pain in the butt in a human interaction.

        Loving my gadgets

        I happen to think that the nature of the industry reflects and to some extent, reinforces the nature of the individual within it. Here’s the message though … the industry is changing. Software is becoming more intuitive as well as easier to programme. More and more content is being created by users. While the IT sector will still retain a core of skilled technical roles, there are a large number of new  roles being added that don’t require such deep technical skills. Many of these roles are hybrids between the old software developer role, design and usability.  So the relative importance of technical roles is declining and insights into how customers use and engage with the software and content are becoming more important.  A more outward looking, generalist and commercial approach is going to be required for success going forward.

        Them nerds are going to have to change!

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        Happiness (or unhappiness) at work

        Friday, January 15th, 2010

        There’s been quite a bit of navel gazing in the US recently (they do navel gazing well there) about happiness at work. A recent survey shows that 45% of Americans are unhappy at work. Maybe that’s why they’re so fat. Joking aside, being happy and fulfilled at work is seriously important, given the amount of time we spend at work in our lives. I find it hard to imagine that anyone who works and is unhappy at work will be generally happy with their lives. This applies in particular to us men who tend to define themselves more by their careers than the fairer sex do.  I know I’m standing on lots of toes here.

        Career happiness

        Someone coming home from work in an unhappy state (bad boss, lack of autonomy, boring work, repetition, not learning anything, not being challenged etc) will normally find it difficult to switch over into the jolly and bright person they’d like to be.

        What the US survey should have asked is the percentage of people that would choose the same career if they were to start all over again. My guess is that the answer would be about 50%. A poor fit between who you are and the career you choose has got to be the strongest cause of unhappiness at work.

        So, we have got to get better at choosing our careers. Falling into it, doing what dad or mum does as defaults etc are not good ways of starting off and starting off badly is often difficult to fix.  Once the mortgage, partner and kid number 1 arrives, change becomes less of an option. Choosing a career is one of life’s most important decisions. You need all the help you can get.   If  you want help, check out some innovative solutions

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        Make your resolution last! - By Kara Wirt

        Monday, January 4th, 2010

        tortoise_hare2If you haven’t had time to make a New Year’s resolution yet – it’s not too late! It is important it is achievable so you stick with it – think tortoise rather than hare. If you think them through, then resolutions should be life changes that last longer than a year (rather than fizzling out at the end of January!). Here are some ideas to help you achieve 5 popular resolutions:

        1. Make yourself attractive to employers – whether looking for a job or wanting a career change, make sure you get up-to-date advice on your career. Use our career resources database – free videos, downloads and podcasts!resolutions
        2. Get yourself in shape! – join a sports club, sign up for classes or make your own club. It is a lot easier to exercise with other people, as if you commit to other people you are less likely to let them down. Do not simply join a gym on your own, as often you will have to commit for a year – and it’s a hefty fee if you get bored.
        3. Ditch your scales. If you want to make a resolution to lose weight – first of all change the way you think about yourself – think in terms of shape rather than weight. Muscle weighs 3x more than fat, therefore to get more toned you may actually get heavier on the scales.
        4. Make some savings or investments. You never know what life is going to throw at you - so see where you can cut back, and put aside the money you have saved. Simple ideas include – taking lunch to work and not buying take away coffee. You could try cycling to work and save a fortune on travel.
        5. Ask for help. This may sound easy but it can make your life a lot easier. Try to analyse a problem or situation and if there is someone who may be able to help it can save you a lot of time and hassle. If you need help in your career take a positive step and get a career advisor now to improve your success rate.

        It is important that you see the changes as improving your lifestyle, decide on a small change and stick to it! If you can make it part of your daily routine and it will soon become habit.

        Good luck for prosperous 2010!

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