Sometimes even the most adept professionals underperform at interviews. They might be the perfect candidate on paper and still walk away from the interview without having secured the role. In this blog, we’ll discuss some of the reasons why this might be the case so as to help you preempt and avoid finding yourself in the same position.

It goes without saying that the power of LinkedIn shouldn’t be underestimated for anyone who wants to maximise their career potential. That said, it’s easy to make faux pas on this platform, especially with Connection Requests, the focus of this week’s blog.

As we’ve reached the halfway point in the year, it might be time to take stock of the state of your career health. At Career Mentor, our goal is to help Financial Services professionals build careers that better align with their lives, values and ambitions. So in this blog, we’ll go on a journey that will enable you to ask some searching questions and to gain an insightful snapshot.

It would be something of a cliché to say that it is not the strongest that survive but the smartest and those most able to evolve. This very issue came up in a coaching call this morning and I think that there are some ideas you might find useful, which we can unpack further and use to create an action plan.

Without a doubt, one of the most common interview question is ‘Why do you want to join us?’. At a surface level, it’s fairly easy to answer by pointing out the obviously good and impressive things about that firm.

According to LinkedIn research, the average time that it takes to find a new job is six to seven months. Those that don’t get a job within 12 months fall into the category of long-term unemployed and one might reasonably argue that the longer someone is out of work so it becomes more difficult to get back into a similar position.

An outstanding salesman once said: “People buy for emotional reasons and then justify with logic”. If we accept the premise that a job interview as a candidate is in fact selling, then there’s a lot that we can learn from this idea. In this blog, we discuss the importance of leading and capturing imagination in an interview.

Before you embark on any journey, it’s essential to know where you are now and and where you want to get to. Without the answers to those questions, you’ll surely get lost. This is most certainly true of a job search journey.

So, you met a recruiter or a firm some weeks ago but you haven’t heard anything from them, despite everyone getting back to work. Should you be patient? Are they ‘ghosting’ you? Should you chase them and if so, who should you contact?

One of the most common concerns that my coaching clients come to me with is that they feel their career has plateaued. Typically, they will have risen to the higher echelons of their firm or sector, and have known real career success and fulfilment. They will have once been at the top of their game and been recognised as a leader in their field. However, there sometimes comes a time when things seem to have stalled.

Should you find your career plateauing for any of a number of reasons, there are a number of things that you can do to get the ball rolling again.

Turning down a job offer can seem like a risky thing to do. It can even seem foolish. This is especially if you’ve been applying for jobs over a long period of time and have had little success. However, accepting the wrong job offer is more likely to damage your career in the long-term than turning down something which isn’t quite right.

You might think that a job interview is a lot like a sales call from the perspective of the candidate. However, this is only partially true. In this blog, we discuss how you can play a critical role in shaping the direction of an interview by smoothly and effectively influencing the interviewer.

During times of change and perhaps crisis, you might start to ask: ‘Is it time for a rethink?’. We can say that a career is built on skills, momentum, direction and desire. The topography is always shifting but much of the time, change is almost imperceptible. However, there are times when something big happens and that forces reflection. So is now the time for a rethink?

It’s one of the most frustrating job search scenarios that my coaching clients talk about. You secure a job interview. Everything seems to go well in the interviews. And then, it turns out you didn’t get the job.

Staying motivated in a job search can be difficult, especially if you’ve applied for jobs, made it to interview, and then fallen at the final hurdle.

Momentum is a critical factor in closing any deal and the same is true for getting hired. So why to firms sometimes lose momentum in hiring and what if anything can we do to keep things moving forward at more than glacial pace?