It seems relatively common for most people to get on with their job, accepting that there will inevitably be some rough with the smooth. Sometimes, we just have to tolerate the downsides of an imperfect work environment. However, should that always be the case? What’s the point at which you should make the decision to walk away?

Is it fair to say that you’re more likely to influence the interviewer if you have a conversation, rather than a simple question and answer interrogation? I’d argue so. With this approach, the calculation as to how good a candidate you are is out in the open and can be discussed. The focus of this week’s blog is on how we can achieve this shift in interviews.

Back in 1998, Spencer Johnson published the motivational book, Who moved my cheese?, selling over 30 million copies worldwide. Although time has passed and many similar books have since been published, it carries an important lesson for anyone trying to navigate and optimise their career. 

Optimising your LinkedIn Profile is straightforward when you want to be found for the job that you’re currently doing. Let’s say you’re in Quant Research and you want to stay in Quant Research - it’s relatively easy to align your keywords and profile content with what firms will be looking for. However, what do you do if you want to change track or conduct a job search for two different roles, concurrently?

Most would agree that job interviews are the key gateway to getting your next new job - be that an internal move, or one to another firm. With that in mind, anything that you can do to give yourself an edge and thus, significantly improve your interview performance, is critical in optimising your career. In this week’s blog, I’ll offer 8 simple ideas to do just that.

Loyalty is a virtue that is, naturally, valued highly in companies, alongside reliability, trustworthiness, honesty and integrity. However, is it possible to be loyal to the point where it actually works against you? In this short article, I’ll explore the theme of loyalty in the workplace.

If you’re not being promoted, there’s probably a reason. Being introspective and truly understanding what they are is key to helping you move forward with your career.

One of the things I often work on with my Foundation Coaching clients is how to move an interview from being an interrogation to a collaborative, and perhaps more productive, conversation.

As you’re conducting your job search, it’s usually a given that the ‘what are your comp expectations?’ question will come up. So, clearly, it’s important to have a good idea of where the market is for someone in your role and responsibilities. So, how can you do that?

It seems odd that you see a job ad or get approached by a recruiter for a job that ends up not existing. From what people in my network have been saying, it seems to be happening more and more frequently.

It probably goes without saying that making a career change is a big deal. In order to do it successfully, there are a number of considerations, both in terms of making the decision and making it happen. Let’s have a look at 6 things in particular.

Being made redundant is, for most people, a shocking and emotional event. Indeed, it can be so shocking that it’s quite difficult to think straight for a while. In this blog, I will discuss seven things that you can do now to be prepared, should the axe fall. This will help reduce the stress and shock, avoid simple mistakes, and can ensure you start your job search with a clear head.

As soon as someone thinks that it’s time to upgrade their CV, a whole load of questions come to mind. Here are the answers to the top eleven questions that you might have. There are as many opinions on CV writing as there are CVs; these ideas are gleaned from over 20 years as a recruiter and almost as many in Coaching, as well as conversations with industry experts and the top selling books on the topic.

If you’ve decided to leave your current firm, there are a number of ways in which your employer can try and make it difficult to move. In this blog, I’ll discuss how they can make moving on challenging, and what you can do about it.

Whether you’re currently employed and want to move, or out of work and need to get a job, there are certain things that are worth considering in order to be successful. In many ways, your time is your most valuable asset. That means that anything you can do to achieve your career goal as quickly as possible is absolutely key.

No matter what the sport - football, golf, tennis, Formula 1 - the stakes for the top performing athletes are very high. The world’s best are paid in the millions, the pressure is intense and the margin between success and failure is slim. No wonder that these highly successful individuals work with performance coaches. Furthermore, they didn’t reach the top of their game and then get a coach. No, having that performance coach was a key factor in getting there.

As I recently watched a video of a US Navy Seal talking to actor Chris Pratt as they reviewed the finer points of weapon handling and hostage rescue tactics, I asked myself: should you really be giving this information away? It reminded me of a conversation with a coaching client who is a world-class expert in his field. He’d come to realise that in a few job interviews, the interviewer was primarily seeking to extract valuable market insights from him, rather than seriously considering him for the job at hand.

With that in mind, how much is too much to give away in an interview? How can you evidence your impact without losing impact?

There are some people who frequently have opportunities placed before them. They’re the ones who get promoted or recruited. Let’s consider those who prospered as the job market plummeted during the GFC. Despite the dire circumstances, a few were able to leave the sinking ship and move to a very attractive (and lucrative) safe harbour. How did they do that? What are the things that you can put in place now that will allow you to have that level of choice in the future? 

There’s no question that annual appraisals are pivotal moments as you build your career, get paid, get promoted and increase your ability to add value in a way that opens up future career opportunities. There are quite a number of things to consider - I’ll break them into five chunks in this short read, but to put it in a nutshell, it’s all about clarity of communication, managing expectations, and delivery.

The subject of successful networking at conferences recently came up in conversation with a coaching client. It’s not as simple as it may seem. In this short read, I'll offer some ideas and some kind of structure for how to network successfully at conferences.