Quo Vadis Opinions

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Sean Mc Loughney’s new book, “slave to a job master of your career” has a nice catchy title and makes some excellent points. There’s a section on how to know when you are a slave to your job and a very good checklist to see when you have an “employee mindset” on page 12.
Chapter one is about managing your career the way you would manage your own business. You need to take responsibility for your own career and not expect your employer to lalways look after you.

Great advice which I give to all my clients. There’s a nice table on page 18 highlighting the entrepreneur mindset versus the employee mindset.
For example
“I’m passionate about my clients” versus “I do my job well”
Or
“I take pride in my appearance” versus “Sure I’m fine the way I am”
Or
“I earn my wages and give value for money” versus “They should pay me more for what I do”. 

Or
“I love to smile and bring energy to my workplace” versus “First thing I do is smile to get it over with”.
However I can’t agree with
“I love to wear bright colours” versus “I wear grey, that way I won’t stand out”.   This won’t work in some workplaces, for example if you work in an undertaker.
A business slant  runs throughout the book, which can be a little grating. For example- “build your business empire around delivering extraordinary results”.  But what if I don’t want a business empire, what if I just want to make a living and enjoy my job?

 There are interesting chapters on networking and developing your personal brand which would be useful to anyone developing a career. Unfortunately the business language will put off a lot of people not working in business, which is shame, because otherwise it’s well presented  and is a useful reference book, particularly for anyone at mid management  levels  wishing to develop their career further.

Disclosure
Sean is a Chartered Accountant as am I, and this book is published by Chartered Accountants Ireland, who are a client of mine, but I do not know Sean and am not being paid for this post.

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Starting off in the  post room
A great story on advancing your career in publishing by starting at the lowest level. But the tips apply everywhere. Caroline also had a hearing difficulty, but she did not let this stop her.
Go to website article

A free personality test for people interested in working in the software games sector
Go to website

A good article on working independently of your physical location.
Before you feel forced to emigrate read this.
Go to website

CAO
CAO points set to increase for popular third-level courses
Economic downturn has led to something of a boom in the demand for third-level places.
Go to website article

Poor career guidance affecting school leavers
Go to website article

Sign up to support a petition for increased investment in education
Go to website

Participate in research on on what it’s like to be unemployed.
Go to website

Only about 33% of employees say they trust their senior managers.
I’m not surprised at this given some of the stories, I’ve  heard from clients on how they’ve been treated. Many employers are using the recession as an excuse to bully employees.
Go to website article

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I’ve warned people about scam jobs here and here before, but here’s another variation from Maman Poulet where the job exists, but the training and pay are so poor that invariably people lose out.

They may stop advertising such jobs in their current ad format, because a bright spark complained to the advertising standards commision and a complaint was upheld againgst D7 marketing. See here for  details

I  wrote  here  about assessing  whether an employer is right for you , but based on comments on Maman Poulet and Beaut I think I need to add a few further items –

• where the recruitment procedure is vague or non existent, you’re probably looking at a job that is going to cost you money

• If your experience as a marketer is limited and you’re being offered a dream job in marketing, ask if it’s door to door sales.

I’m not saying that door to door sales is not a valid career choice, but make sure your employer provides decent sales training and a basic wage while training. You’ll also need to be very tough skinned, confident and resilient

The other area that seems to be taking off again is MLM or multi level marketing; I’ll come back to this as a lot of time & effort can be wasted in this area as well.

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A good article on getting your employer to fund your course
Go to website article

HPAT
Students can now appeal the HPAT test, which is essential for entry into medicine. Heard of students with excellent leaving points but not so good HPAT results are repeating the HPAT this year so this is good news. Maybe they do listen to us bloggers!
Go to article

Education
US firm calls for overhaul of Education. This is interesting and reflects what many educationalists feel. Will anything change though?
Go to website article

Also good on the education front was that RTE series on St Peter’s school Dunboyne. very inspiring. The students were great. Of course they only showed the good teachers and not the minority of poor teachers in every school who drag the staff room and students down.
They were very strict on the school uniform, thought school staff redoing pupil ties had gone out with the ark. Interestingly none of the girls wore trousers, just that icky green & white kilt. Many schools now allow female students to wear trousers, if the school is mixed as one of the Irish equality opportunity bodies found against Bewleys cafe when they made female staff wear that appalling pinafore & hat whilst the lads could wear trousers.
If you missed the show you can also catch it on the RTE website.

College applications
College applications up by 10% with 3 weeks to go
Go to website article

Also be aware of two new pathways to help school leavers with a  disadvantage or a disability to get to college. This is real progress and it is good to see very transparent requirements being put in place.

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career coaching
career guidance Ireland

Recently I was working with a group of Irish people and as part of the session we looked at what changes they had experienced during their working lives. Usually in this part of the session the group come to the conclusion that change in working life is constant and this is going to continue.
In this particular group though, many people complained that it just was not fair, change was happening because too many immigrants were coming in and they were “too flexible” which meant they were taking Irish people’s jobs. So it was not a complaint about immigrants as such but a complaint about flexibility, their job requirements kept changing.

Blaming others and reducing your own skills
Then over Christmas I was chatting to an Irish clinical nurse manager (average salary €50,000) and when I asked her about her job, she told me that the biggest part of her job was rostering between 30 to 40 nurses. She spent most of her time assigning nurses to different departments which in this particular area worked five days a week from 9am to 5pm.
I expressed surprise that a highly paid medical professional was doing administrative work which could be done by a properly trained school leaver. (HSE average salary €30,000). Simply develop a chart which lists the nurses and their specialities down one column and the departments at a row at the top. If you wanted to get very efficient an excel spreadsheet would do the job.
However this nurse was adamant only someone with her skills  could do this job. She said when the nurses strike took place, administrators took over and it was a disaster. Though she did accept that people had not been properly trained, she could not see that it was  misusing her skills by spending so much time doing administrative work.

“Clerical staff did not have the motivation to get it right, they could not be trusted”

She’s reducing her own skills in medical care by spending so much time in administration and when inevitably the hospital management get round to recognising this, she will be less employable elsewhere. Maybe she might be at retirement age given the speed at which hospital managements move, when that change actually happens. However this hospital is facing severe cutbacks so the chance of saving €20,000 might mean they will move faster.

Only the flexible survive 
We live in high-change times. As Charles Darwin said,

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.

It’s  human nature to resist change and to blame others, whether it’s immigrants or administrators.
However successful career managers take responsibility for their own careers and making sure their skills stay up to date. This means being constantly open to change and being flexible.

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career coach
career builder
career coaching
career guidance Ireland

Happy new year to you all.  Hope you had a good break 

Increasing your value at work and reducing your chances of being selected for redundancy
I wouldn’t agree with all the tips, but some are pretty useful such as as acquiring skills that work across multiple business units
Link to article

Are  you are an employee or self employed?
Guidance from the Irish Revenue Commissioners
Link to article

 Working in one place and living in a different location
Link to article

Succesful entrepreneurs
Free lunchtime talks with leading entrepreneurs has been captured on video and podcasts by DIT.  For access to the collection simply click here

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career builder
career coaching
career guidance Ireland

A funny game where you can throw things at the boss
Click to go to game

From the BPS research blog

People think that money affects happiness more than it really does
“So zealous is our pursuit of money, it’s as if we think it will somehow make us happier. Strangely enough, whilst psychologists and economists have conducted numerous studies showing that the relationship between income and happiness is weak, only one prior study has asked what lay people really believe about money and happiness (and this was focused on middle-income, working women). A team have found that people do indeed overestimate the link between money and happiness, especially at lower levels of income.

More detailed analysis showed that people on higher incomes were more likely to overestimate the relationship between money and happiness, perhaps because they had more to fear from losing the ability to maintain their current standard of living”.

“We demonstrate that adult Americans erroneously believe that earning less than the median household income is associated with severely diminished happiness,” the researchers said. “[This is] a false belief that may lead many people to chase opportunities for increased wealth or forgo a reduction in income for increased free time.”
Full story here

“I wanted a new challenge” - Cross-cultural differences in workers’ thoughts about their career changes
“Katharina Chudzikowski and her colleagues interviewed a mix of over a hundred nurses and blue- and white-collar workers from five countries - Austria, Serbia, Spain, USA and China.
Their stand-out finding? Workers in the United States didn’t ever attribute a career transition to an external cause, such as conflict with a boss. Not once. Instead they tended to mention internal factors, such as their desire for a fresh challenge. By contrast, workers in China almost exclusively stressed the role played by external factors. Meanwhile, workers in the the European nations were more of a mix, attributing their career transitions to both internal and external factors.”

Hey we Europeans are more realistic and balanced!
Full story here

Getting involved in changing the world is good for you as activists are generally happier. (Not though if it involves extremism apparently,) I wonder does it apply to getting involved in Irish politics? Have found politician clients tend to be more cynical than happy!
Full story here

Learning a new language: reading the foreign subtitles on films helps
Full story here

As this is the last blog before Christmas. Hope you all have a lovely and restful break.

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career builder
career coaching
career guidance Ireland

My job as a career coach is not to recommend one career over another but to help people find work they’ll love by providing information on the pro’s and cons of different careers and how they relate to their individual personality, values and motivation.
However, I was asked a few months ago was there any career I would not recommend in any circumstances. My immediate reaction was well- just  anything that’s illegal such as a terrorist or badly impacts people’s health such as prostitution.

Not a church career
Lately though I’ve reluctantly added another occupation for those under forty years. Becoming a priest, nun or brother in the Irish Catholic Church.
I have huge respect for both spirituality and the many good church officers doing very valuable work such as Fr Peter Mc Verry who provides support for young homeless boys and Sr Stan Kennedy who set up Focus Ireland.

The church is  sick
I know individual religious who are deeply upset and angry at the official church response to the Murphy report on abuse of children but are unable to do anything about it as they are stuck in a broken organisation. It is very unlikely this situation will change as with the current leadership the church will remain “in thrall to status, titles and insigna… and distant from human intimacy and suffering”. (See here for the full article). So a young person with a strong spiritual motivation is likely to find themselves unhappy in the current church.

Don’t join if you’re under 40 years old 
This is the key reason why I would not recommend a career as a religious to anybody under 40. The leadership in the Catholic Church both in Ireland and the Vatican have totally lost sight of their spiritual purpose and operate to all intents and purposes as a normal business organisation. -A not very good one at that.  A normal business organisation would have gone broke or it’s leaders would be in jail or heavily fined at this stage and would have dealt with its problems.
Just one example illustrates official church  incompetence and lack of integrity. Despite the fact that sexual abuse in the church has been known about since the 1930’s, the church still does not have a centralised one church database of complaints about clergy & religious. So even at this point they cannot say whether there has been an improvement in identifying & removing abusers or whether any new entrants in the last ten years have been accused of abuse.

Contrast this to Eircom - not a particularly efficient organisation, but since the mid 1990’s they have a centralised database which tells them the location of every motor vehicle and its service history down to miles per gallon. They also have a separate database for staff which tracks all staff movements.

The frog in the saucepan 
If you join the current church at a young age, you are indoctrinated, a vow of obedience is required and the rigid church structure effectively becomes your family.
The old story about putting the frog into cold water in a saucepan on a cooker applies. The frog gets nice and comfortable as the water heats up but too late realises the water is life threatening.
However if you put a frog into hot water, he will immediately try and jump out.
When you realise you’re in trouble, you’ve learnt a way of life that’s very difficult to leave, as your entire working and social life revolves round the church.  If you’ve joined an order with a vow of poverty, you may have no money to fall back on. With just the bare number of priests available (e.g. for the Dublin diocese there will shortly be one priest per diocese,) you’ll also work long hours and days which again reduces your opportunities to reflect. I spoke to one priest who had one day off in eight months and was working seven days a week

 Express any doubts or have any issues such as alcoholism which is reasonably common amongst priests and you’ll get limited support as one ex-priest colleague discovered at huge personal cost. You’re like the frog who suddenly realises the water is killing him but it’s too late to get out.
When even it’s own members are calling for a suspension of new intake, you know you’re dealing with a sick organisation.

What’s needed to consider joining the church?
So unless you’ve

Established your own independent support networks with plenty of friends outside official religious life

Have financial stability with some independent assets or income

A home to return to if things go wrong.

Learned how good organisations operate, with experience in a range of different business and caring organisations

Developed your own self confidence and belief in your own abilities

Developed your own skills, preferably with a professional qualification.

Avoid becoming a priest, nun or brother.

Generally people won’t have completed all this before 40 years old. At that age when you join the church, you’ll be like a frog putting a flipper in to the pot of boiling water and you’ll know straight away whether it’s too hot for you and be able to jump out of the saucepan. You’ll also be able to make a stronger contribution to helping a broken church.

Note
I’m not saying that the work of the church is not worthwhile or valuable; I believe it is essential and we don’t have enough of it. I believe there is just too high a personal price to pay for becoming a priest, nun or brother in Ireland. If you feel you simply can’t wait to follow your vocation, then train abroad in a church which has actually started confronting its weaknesses. For example the Chicago diocese in America. But be aware that the Vatican still calls all the shots. 

 If you’d like to read one priest’s story click here (subscription required)

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 Institute of Technology Tallaght: Taster Course
“The Institute of Technology Tallaght have a limited number of vacancies on their “Taster Course” - this is a preparatory course for third level college. The course is free of charge and begins at the end of November. If you have any queries, please contact  Dept. of Life Long Learning at 4042101 or email lifelonglearning@ittdublin.ie

 Women in Technology and Science  are  offering free membership to unemployed  until June 2010. They’re also looking for volunteers as well so get networking! 

PS it’s open to Men as well!
Link to more details

Institutes launch programme aimed at postgraduate students
“A programme of graduate education has been launched by the Institutes of Technology Research Alliance which provides targeted skills development for students undertaking MSc and PhD degrees. The programme is fully accredited by Hetac and gives a more structured approach to masters and PhD programmes. It is the first of its kind in the Irish educational system. ”
Link to article
 

1. Networking is not a one off event.
You can’t simply meet a person once or twice and expect them to refer opportunities your way. You need to join a relevant work related networking group which will enable you to meet up on a regular basis so you can get to know a wider range of contacts.  A relevant group is one that helps you stay up to date in your field of interest, or meet potential stakeholders in your area of interest, e.g. HR managers, leading experts, potential customers etc or develop skills e.g Toastmasters

If you don’t know any relevant groups, you can find many Irish groups on www.Linkedin.com. This can also be useful for making contacts so you are not going in “cold” to an event. You should also have an online profile  on www.linkedin.com

2. Go to meetings regularly
If you don’t attend meetings on a regular basis, then people will not remember you. Initially you should aim to attend every meeting of your group, until you have established good relationships

3. Be active in your group
You need to contribute to your group, e.g. by helping out with the work involved in setting up an event or offering to research a particular topic.  This gives you a good reason to stay in touch with people.

4. Have your “elevator pitch” ready”
This is a short thirty second summary of what you’re doing now and the skills you have when you‘re inevitably asked “And where do you work or what do you do”
You’re effectively selling yourself, without boring people or begging for a job so you need to be concise and positive about yourself.

5. Give to other people.
Networking is not about getting favours from other people. Networking is also about helping other people. A good networker is always sniffing for a way to help because that helps to build relationships. For example I recently helped a colleague deal with a difficult situation. Subsequently I got a phone call from that colleague’s friend which led to a profitable opportunity.

6. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason!
You should listen and talk in the same ratio.

7. Use open ended questions
This shows your interest in the person you’re talking to and also develops your own knowledge.  Unlike close ended questions which encourage yes/no answers, open ended questions allow people to respond in a way that suits them. “So did you find the speeches interesting”, “or what’s it like to work for xx company”

8. You don’t have to be funny and clever.
People who are afraid of networking often think they have to open up a conversation with something really smart or witty. You don’t have to be either of those. Simply by being interested in what the other person has to say demonstrates, you’re a nice person and starts to create a connection.

9. Recognise networking is ongoing.
A new contact is not going to share opportunities with you straight away. You have to get to know them and they have to get to know you.  That’s why the more successful career managers always schedule time in their diaries to meet up with their contacts. They stay in touch with people they like from past employments and work relationships. That way when they do have to ask for a favour the other person is usually happy to oblige.

10. Let people know you’re interested in job opportunities
Finally once you’ve established the relationship, then you can let people know that you’re interested in new career opportunities.

Yes, it takes time and effort to network but it can be very rewarding

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 career coach
career builder
career coaching
career guidance Ireland