Are you handcuffed to money?

Most people know you need enough money to feed and cloth yourself and put a roof over your head. Once that’s accomplished however does more money and possessions make you happier?

The research says no. As far back as 1943 Maslow’s theory (see image above courtesy of Wikipedia) states once the basic needs are met, we then move onto other needs.
Yet in our western society we seem to have forgotten this. Ghazi and Jones reported in 1997 that we have 3 times as many clothes as in the 1950’s.
However some people are fighting back. The compactors are a group of 10 American friends who made a compact to buy as little as possible. The amount of publicity they’ve attracted has been amazing. Some publicity has been abusive because they’re perceived as threat to the American economy.

(See their web space http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact/)

If you’re tied to possessions then it really reduces your life choices because you’ve got to keep earning to pay for new things and pay off the old loans. It appears the more money we have the more things we find we need. It’s very easy to get sucked into this buying culture as we’re can’t go anywhere without advertisements
The lack of timely access to a public health system and inadequate public systems means we feel compelled to have private health insurance and run a car all of which need money.

We worked with one client in a high powered job, company car etc but she had stopped enjoying her job and the Monday morning blues were constant. As we worked with her she realised she really wanted to move into a new totally different career which required substantial training. It was not feasible to combine both her job and the necessary training.
So we analysed her spending and demonstrated it was possible (despite recently buying a house on her own) to survive on a lower wage. After careful consideration she took up a part time job at a lower skill level. Sure she no longer has the latest designer clothes and accessories but she’s happier than ever 18 months into her college course. This is despite the fact her new chosen career is unlikely to pay as much as her old career.

So by objectively analysing your spending, identifying what you really need, may be you have more career options than you realise.

A last word from J. Brotherton
My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants.

Keywords
career advice
monday morning blues
handcuffed to money
career choices

Interim Management as a career option

Interim Management in Ireland is beginning to be seen as more than just a resting home for “failed” managers. Interim management is where a manager is brought into an organisation on a temporary basis to cover for an existing absent manager or for a specific project. Interim managers differ from management consultants in that they implement as distinct from recommending.

With specialist agencies now around to specifically provide interim managers there are now more opportunities than ever. I’ve have some really interesting assignments where I’ve represented one organisation who were hosting an event with the President of Ireland, participated in TV interviews as well as the more mundane walking the warehouse floor.
Contract rates are very variable ranging from €400 per day to €900.

To be successful as an interim manager you need to have

1. Significant senior management experience preferably reporting to the Board
2. Substantial expertise in a specific functional area- e.g. marketing, HR,
manufacturing, finance, etc
3. Ability to withstand temporary periods with no earnings
4. Strong interpersonal skills with good networking abilities
5. Self sufficiency
6. Excellent focus on results with a “can do” attitude
7. Ability to move on when job finished
8. Flexibility
9. Ability to work hands on (without a PA) and good PC skills
10. Ability to enjoy constant change

Most of the assignments I’ve worked on started off full time and then became part time. Often the part time work was on other different assignments. So this type of work often suits people who want to work in challenging jobs but not have constant long hours.
It will also suit people returning home from abroad or leaving long standing jobs and unsure what to do next. It can also kick start a career in freelance management consultancy.

Doing interim assignments enabled me to find the work that I really enjoy doing with a great work/life balance.
So if you have the qualities listed above, consider interim management as one of your next career building options.

Keywords
career builder
interim management
career advice
career guidance
work life balance

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Look beneath the surface- CAO trends

It's always fascinating to see how quickly CAO college course demands respond to newspaper reports.
There have been recent reports in the papers about newly qualified physiotherapists experiencing difficulty getting jobs so demand for physiotherapy courses is down 34% in 2007.

Hopefully this is because people who were not really interested in physiotherapy have opted out given the newspaper reports.

However those of you who have your hearts set on physiotherapy don't despair. A little research will show the jobs scene is actually quite bright.

First of all it can be up to 4 years before you'll be looking for work so circumstances will have changed again.

Secondly from 1998 to 2005 there has been an increase of 57% in the the numbers employed and there is still a demand for additional physiotherapists.

Thirdly the HSE recruitment procedures are slow and complex and can take a year to complete for any of the clinical professions. We understand, though have not been able to confirm that there is only one male senior hospital physiotherapist in the country so setting up interview panels is a nightmare.
(Interview boards must be representative of both sexes)

Fourthly the professional associations (Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists, Psychological Society of Ireland, IMO etc) rightly insist all newly qualified graduates work under the supervision of a senior professional. Unfortunately these clinical supervision arrangements have not kept up with the volume of new positions being created. This is also partly responsible for the inability of newly qualified students to get positions. (This whole area needs a blog entry in itself to explain)
So at worst you may need to go abroad for a while to get the necessary experience.

So there is no lack of positions just problems trying to fill jobs under existing protocols.

So don't take newspaper reports at face value, do your own research before you decide against a career which may be ideal for you.

Note
The excellent FAS career directions data base has a section devoted to the employment outlook for most occupations.(Observe how recently the information has been updated, it can be upto 4 years old)

Click here to go to this web site

The Americans have an even bigger data base of everything you need to know about occupations.

Click here to go to this web site.

Keywords

career builder
career physiotherapy
career advice
CAO choices

Promoting your career on the internet?

I read about an American parent with a 16 year old daughter (Kenzie) trying to get into 3rd level college. (3rd level in the USA is fee paying unlike Ireland)
Apparently the norm there is to send a DVD around to the various colleges.
This parent decided to create a website incorporating a youTube video in which Kenzie markets herself to coaches using video, statistical analysis, school achievements, etc
You can take a look at it by clicking below.

http://www.kenzilla.com/


I felt very uneasy watching this. This 16 year was so analytical, so driven and focused using statements like
“I may not look your typical centre but then I can do more than your typical centre.”

The Dad reports on optimising web site traffic and receiving college coaches’ replies within 72 hours.

We believe you need to start thinking about your future career from 16 years onwards as your subject choices at that age determine possible career/college options. However Kenzie’s kind of intensity is unusual in an Irish context. We could not see this kind of on line career marketing catching on here at all.

Then we came across Cora Venus Lunny a talented Dublin born- violinist who uses MySpace for generating work. Initially we thought we’d started mis reading trends then we looked at her MySpace. (link below)

http://www.myspace.com/coravenuslunny

You can see a real difference in approach and it’s more of a personal blog which just happens to generate enquiries than a hard sell like Kenzie.

The two examples illustrate how important it is to tailor your approach and style to your work. Would Cora get more work if she adopted Kenzie's approach?
I doubt it. Statistical analysis of Beethoven just would n't be appropriate.

Given American trends eventually travel world wide how long before we start seeing Kenzie like approaches here?
Hopefully easy availability of jobs and college courses means not for a long time.


Keywords
career marketing
career builder
tailor your career approach

Mika's true to his career

Interesting Irish Times interview with Mika by Tony Clayton Lea on Friday. Mika’s the guy who sings the very catchy and Queen like “Grace Kelly” song which has been number one for the last few weeks. It’s about a person trying to be different, to get some one to like them, but in the end concluding the other person only wants

“What everybody else says you should want”.

The video’s worth watching too.

Although seen as an overnight success, Mika’s been performing since the age of 12. He makes a couple of great points which are relevant to anybody trying to be happy in their career or life.

He realised because he wanted to develop his own music he’d either be a great success or a total failure. He turned down financial backing because he did not want to be

“Moderately successful, pretending to be some body else and being really unhappy”.

So he was prepared to be seen as a failure and to take a risk. Anybody who has changed careers successfully will tell you this attitude is essential. Otherwise it’s nearly impossible to leave the safety of what we’re familiar with.

Mika’s sexuality has been talked about a lot. His response

“It’s interesting how every one talks about tolerance and yet every one is so desperate to pigeon hole”.

This tendency to pigeon hole is a real problem in our society. We put labels on people and on ourselves. Dropping out of college means you’re a failure-not that you’ve taken a brave decision to rethink your career. Being over looked for promotion means you’re a failure not that your employer has decided some one else is more suitable at this point in time.

I do this labelling myself. I’m not into cars so I drive a small 7 year old car. Yet when meeting new clients I always wonder am I creating the right impression as I pull into their office car park. I think a bigger newer car would show I’m successful (i.e. make load’s of money) at what I do. Yet money is not the main motivation for me, otherwise I’d have remained in freelance consultancy. Yet I’m concerned I’m not projecting a successful image….

So we need to stop labelling ourselves and feel what going’s on beneath the surface both in ourselves and others. That way we can focus on what’s really important.

And if Mika were to be a Queen Song, he would choose
“Don’t stop me now; I’m having such a good time”

Proving being true to you can work.

Link to Mika video “Grace Kelly”on Youtube web site

Keywords
career change
career advice
mika
fear of failure

Demand your right to learn

We’re hearing reports about multiple job losses. What these indicate is no job is secure any more. Charles Handy talks about the “new psychological contract” between employer and employee as being “we may no longer employ you for ever, but will make sure you stay employable”.
So it’s generally accepted to stay employable, we have to continuously develop our skills.

Unfortunately the Government does n’t take this view, despite another report on the need for an additional 500,000 people to be up skilled. (I’ll come back to this report another time)

So if want to up skill yourself and decide to go back to college part time, tough you’ll pay fees.
If you go full time you won’t pay fees but now what do you live on? To claim the “dole” you must be available for work and to claim the Back to Education allowance you must be unemployed for a period of 6 to 12 months as appropriate.
There’s a whole range of barriers to adults trying to access further education.

Aontas the national association for adult education is launching a new

“Demand your right to learn”

pre –election campaign with ten key demands to improve the situation for adult learners.
Whether you’re thinking about a PhD or doing the leaving cert these demands if implemented could help you.

If you would like to sign their petition click here

For more details on the campaign click here

Keywords

demand your right to learn
career up skilling

Jobs Galore

Went to the FAS opportunities fair in Croke Park as we need to keep up to date on the jobs scene so we’re giving the best advice to our clients. We always find these jobs fairs exhilarating. We’re old enough to remember the bad old days when getting an application form from an employer was an achievement in itself.

There was a huge variety of companies there, large multinationals, small indigenous companies, the 3rd level sector, recruitment agencies, back to work agencies, training agencies, volunteering abroad and FAS obviously.

If you’re worried about your ability to get a new job, visiting a jobs fair is a must to improve your confidence. The efforts employers were making to fill jobs indicate they’re not finding it easy to recruit people. Huge amounts were spent on stands, literature, and free give aways. Companies are prepared to be much more flexible in their working conditions and they’re now so much easier to approach.

Talking to the FAS people though some things don’t change. They still insist any one taking on a centre located course must commit to 18 hours a week. That may seem reasonable but it totally ignores reality of life for some people.

For example you’re recovering from a road accident with a brain injury so your old job is out. Your energy levels are still poor (a common problem with brain injuries) so the most you can commit to is 10 hours. If you can do this it will really help you to recover as now you won’t be sitting at home all the time. Those 10 hours could make a huge difference to your quality of life and your eventual recovery.
Research shows rehabilitation is most effective in the first two years after injury. Yet you can’t access specialised rehabilitation because waiting lists are so long, and with FAS insisting that you commit to 18 hours within a few months, you’ve now no where to go.

So many employers can’t fill jobs and yet we’re not supporting a significant sector of the community to access work training!

Keywords
Job opportunities
back to work
disabled workers

50 Best Companies to work for

The annual “50 Best companies to work” for awards were announced this week.
Airtricity won the overall award. Accenture won the best company over 1,000 employee awards. Marathon Oil Ireland was the smallest employer to be listed with 52 employees.
There were very few public sector organisations in the list. Children’s University Hospital Temple St being one exception. Given the family friendly, flexible working practices, and generous pensions present in this area this initially seems strange

The relevant website does not list the qualifying criteria but it does quote the following definition
“….. A place where employees trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with”

This issue of trust, pride and relationships probably counts against them. Difficult to take pride in your job when you work in a dingy school building, or many of your patients are on trollies. Alternatively it could be that public sector organisations are unwilling to spend €5,500 of tax payer’s money to find out how their employees are feeling.
A pity, because I’ve found that a well conducted employee attitude survey, can really help improve morale once action is taken on the results. However don’t bother doing a survey if you’re not prepared to act on the often uncomfortable results, it just leads to increased cynicism

Interesting to see Accenture winning. It’s a while since I’ve worked with Accenture people but the long hours culture then was incredible. I wonder has it changed or is work life balance a criteria in the survey?

Companies are now using their places in the top 50 lists as recruitment advertising. But please, Deloitte and Touch drop the ad with sad guy on holidays wishing he was back in the office. Who wants to work with such a boring twat?

Hopefully we’ll see more focus on “good employers” in the future. If you’re thinking of changing jobs have a look at the list below to whether you could target any of them.

Update 5th of March
Talked to the Accenture people today who said work life balance is one of the "best companies" criteria and they had strong work life balance policies now. She herself rarely worked more than 40 hours a week. Now that's progress!

changing jobs
employee attitude survey
50 best companies
work life balance

Link to further Information

Does Work Life Balance work?

Another year, another work life balance day. The 6th one is being held to-day
Do they make any difference? Are we all working more now than six years ago?

Many people are generally working or travelling for 14 out of 24 hours. Take out 8 hours for sleeping and this means 2 hours a day left for cooking, washing, eating, seeing friends etc. So the week ends are generally a mad catch up. RecruitIreland report 65% of people fail to take their full leave.

I’ve also talked to clients trying to recruit for shift work jobs and experiencing serious difficulty because “Irish people don’t seem to want shift work”.
So like everything else there’s no one true picture. Some people appear to have balance and others don’t.

In some areas “lunch is definitely for wimps”. It appears the more status your job role has or the more well paid you are the more hours you work. For example doctors regularly work 80 hours a week. Yet we only allow lorry drivers to work 55 hours a week and we put a tachograph on them to monitor this.
The numerous life style articles about top management executives who are always in at 7.30am and leave again around 7.30pm. But they “always keep week ends free for family”. Yet the legislation states an average of 48 working hours is a maximum.

The best manager I ever worked with was occasionally in before 9am, went home for lunch and was only seen in the office after 5pm in a real crisis. When he retired longer and longer hours became the norm. One of the reasons I left was when a short week became 55 hours with frequent seventy hour weeks.

Yes, there are times long hours are required but on an ongoing basis I know from personal experience they get less and less productive. Our politicians work very long hours yet we don’t seem to have much vision and planning here.
Stephen Covey believes effective people have balance in their lives spending time in all four key dimensions Physical, Spiritual, Mental and Social. Yet so much of Irish culture does not facilitate this approach.

Ricardo Sempler runs his company in a very unusual way. He firmly believes in work life balance yet his company has expanded greatly. So it is possible to succeed in corporate life without the long hours. (His book “The 7 day weekend” is worth reading).
However as "fish rots from the head" I think we’ll need our work life balance days for a while. Maybe a new election slogan for the politicians

Step into the light with tachograph


Note
Click below for some ideas on implementing work life balance

Link to equality website

tachograph

work life balance