Quo Vadis Opinions

From Blogger to Wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:09:00 +0000

I mentioned before, I wanted to transfer from Blogger to Wordpress software as Wordpress seems to have more features and I’ve had problems with Blogger.

Thanks to Steve the Wordpress blog is now working. Because the blog is hosted on the Quo Vadis web site we can’t do an automatic transfer of previous blog entries or update your RSS feed.

So if you’re reading this using an RSS feed, you’ll now need to click on this link and then click on the “subscribe in a reader” link on the top right of the page to make sure you continue to see new posts.

If you want to look back on previous posts you can still access them on the new Wordpress blog either by using the “search” button on the right hand side or clicking on the right hand side orange button “Working life advice & news from Ireland”

Thanks for reading

Apply for an in-service training grant

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:23:00 +0000

Just to let you know that Leargas are offering grants of up to €1,500 for training in another European country.

You have to be involved in some form of adult education, be it as a manager, teacher, counsellor, street advisor etc. (Part timers qualify as well)

It does not have to be a formal course- visiting a leading organisation in another country qualifies.

At the time of writing, the deadline on the Lèargas web site is out of date. Current deadlines for application are

31 January, 31 March, 30 June and 30 September.

Link to further information on event web site

career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
Leargas Grants

Don’t choose courses by CAO points

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:20:00 +0000

A serious mistake is choosing 3rd level courses on the sole basis of the Leaving Certificate points required for entry in previous years. Some students (and their parents) assume high points means a good course with low points indicating a poor course.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The number of points required to enter a course are simply the result of supply and demand.
So a very simplified example. 100 students apply for a course with 10 places. So not all students will get in. The students with the highest number of points and required entry qualifications will be accepted. Let’s assume the top ten students have 475 points and all the entry requirements. So the points required to enter this course will be 475 points.

But now let’s assume the course has expanded to 100 places, all students with the entry requirements (say a pass in Maths) will be accepted. So points will not be quoted and you’ll usually see “AQA” – All Qualified Applicants accepted.
The course quality is exactly the same but points are lower.

The expansion of college places and reduction in the numbers sitting the Leaving Certificate means 3rd level colleges are now competing for students. Additionally the education sector is under funded and dependent on individual (capitation) grants which are based on the number of students.
Research funding however is increasing, but good research requires a ready supply of academic high flyers , who commonly come from the college’s own student population. Colleges are thus likely to have a vested interest in manipulating the CAO points to ensure their students are high academic achievers and also maintain “perceived prestige” for their colleges.

As Brian Mooney,( past President of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors) stated over 170 courses have 10 places or less. The Irish Times reports only 30 courses have more than 120 places out of a total of 1,200 different courses. Brian argues it is possible to offer all students eight or nine basic choices, and then allow specialisation in later years of study. A much more sensible approach as it allows students to take a more informed decisions on college choices. This would mean however that points would drop!
(See Irish Times for the full article. You have to pay the IT for this).

If we take Trinity’s very popular psychology course(TR006) which has no major capacity problems such as clinical work placements, there could be substantial increases from the existing 31 student places. However this would mean points would probably drop from the 545 points currently required.

UCD makes no bones about wanting only the best students but like other colleges also need to maximise their capitation grants. Whilst UCD has an excellent track record, less academically/socially able students will suffer in the more impersonal atmosphere of UCD. (They even use porters for crowd control in lecture theatres sometimes) In fact in order to retain students who are considering dropping out of science, UCD and Institute of Technology Tallaght have had tentative discussions about some UCD students transferring to the Tallaght science course, during the academic year.

So course quality involves selecting what’s right for you and points are not a reliable indicator. University degrees do have a certain snob value but this is decreasing. For example, contrary to past practise, Pricewaterhousecoopers now interview all candidates with a good accountancy degree irrespective of college. DIT’s architecture degree is generally more highly regarded than UCD’s equivalent.

So do your research on the course to see whether it will suit you. Enter your college choices on the CAO form in order of your preferences not in order of points required.
To find out more about how the points system works, please click here for a presentation by the CAO.

Others posts that may be of interest

Pick right CAO course for you
Look beneath surface - CAO trends
CAO change your mind time starts
CAO under attack

Key words
CAO Points
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Having goals is important

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:27:00 +0000

I’m a great believer in setting goals because as Harvey Mackay says

“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline”

I find setting goals and writing them on paper helps me to keep moving forward as I’m clearer to what I want. We usually know where we want to go when we turn the key in the car ignition, so why not know where we want to go in life?

Here’s a few tips on setting goals

First of all understand what’s important to you.
Is it family, money, fun, health, career advancement, friends ? Susan Jeffers in her book “feel the fear and do it anyhow” suggests making a nine box grid and putting the nine most important components in your life into it.
What changes would you like to make when you look at this grid? For example leisure might be important but you’re always too busy working or doing housework to get any, so a goal might be to have more leisure time. So make sure your goals relate to your grid.

Don’t set too many goals.
It’s very easy to get carried away and try to tackle every area of our lives, but it’s better to focus on one or two aspects, as then we can be more committed to these.

Leave out the “ I should have’s”.
For example, I had set a goal to migrate this blog from blogger to wordpress over Christmas. I did actually make some progress by helping a friend set up this blog on dual diagnosis but I decided it would take too much time to learn fully. Time I’d rather spend relaxing. I did not “should” on myself by saying “I should have done it”, as this creates a sense of failure. Instead I recognised I’d under estimated the time commitment so I’ll pay Steve our web site developer to do it instead .
I find this is often the biggest problem with clients I see. “I should have worked harder in college etc”

Be patient and let go.
We can’t always achieve our goals when we want to, so we have to be patient and wait sometimes. We have to let go. I had wanted to finish my psychology masters by February 08 but a family member’s illness and work demands meant a decision to defer. Hopefully I will finish by November 08 now. Again I’m not “shoulding” on myself.

So having set broad goals, often they need to be broken down into smaller targets, if they are very ambitious. In a work setting these are usually called objectives which many people use in their performance reviews. So some tips on setting objectives.

Make sure your objectives are specific and measurable.
Saying I want to be physically fitter is not as psychologically useful as saying "I will be be able to climb the stairs at work without panting and puffing half way through". You can actually measure this achievement as it’s very specific.

Make sure your objectives are achievable.
For example, saying “I want to be CEO of RyanAir before the 7th of January 08” is unlikely to be achievable. Focus your objectives on what you can control. So an achievable objective might be “I will have developed my management skills to ensure I’m in the running for future CEO jobs that might arise”

Make sure your objectives are realistic within your time scale and priorities.
So the person wanting more leisure time might find getting an hour a week to do something fun is more realistic before moving to a hour a day.
I’d like to post to this blog more often, but it’s not my priority to spend more time on this so I’ll have to find a way of getting information onto the blog quicker in 2008 for this objective to be realistic for me.

You’ll notice the tips for objective setting make up the acronym SMART :
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timed.

Finally don’t worry if you fail initially as the Japanese proverb says
"Fall seven times, stand up eight." If you can learn from your failures you’ll be further along the path towards your goal then when you started. Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb had thousands of failed experiments before he was successful.

Bo Bennett put it well when he said
"The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself."

Other posts that might be relevant

On promotion
Getting that promotion
Overlooked for promotion again
Persistence pays off for first female gondalier

Reviewing your job situation
Muddling along in job
Skills development- its never too late

Work life balance and money
are you handcuffed to money?
does work life balance work?

Christmas Greetings

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:30:00 +0000

Been a little remiss in blogging lately due to client and other commitments. Sorry about that.
During the holiday break I’m looking at migrating the blog from blogger to word press as currently I find blogger very slow. So there will be no new entries until January

In the new year I’ll be covering a review of the Irish recruitment market and making college decisions.

So hope you all get some time off over Christmas from work and hopefully enjoy a relaxing break.

Double jobbing in the education sector.

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:43:00 +0000

Oh dear, apparently if the media is to be believed a lecturer has been caught performing two full time lecturing jobs in Galway and Athlone since 1998.On occasion he acted as head of department and was also very active in research.
Full story in the Independent newspaper

This will give plenty of ammunition to those who say public sector employees are over paid and under worked.

Initially this lecturer was working on a contract basis, which is very insecure and often very badly paid, so it’s not surprising he took up a second job. But keeping it going for so long?

Actual teaching hours vary according to research commitments and the type of 3rd level establishment. Generally IT’s have more teaching hours, –approximately 16-18 hours per week. Usually you can allow 2-3 hours preparation/correcting for every hour of lecturing. This preparation time reduces though if you’re delivering the same material to different student groups and if there’s not much updating required from year to year.

So hours wise it’s possible to do the two jobs. Plenty of energy is needed however as good lecturers treat each lecture as an actual performance which requires them to give 100% when they’re in front of students.
Personally I found part time lecturing very tiring, as all my lectures started at 9.00 am and most of my students were still asleep (if they had bothered to turn up) They would briefly awake when I used some thing like Man Utd to illustrate a point but then they resumed their slumbers.

I know some very talented individuals who double job, often working to midnight on a regular basis, but this is an exception. I think the key issue here though is the apparent lack of performance management? How could a lecturer teach in two different colleges, miles apart, over such an extended period of time, without it becoming known or his deteriorating performance being noticed?

Apparently one of the colleges is going to pursue him for breach of contract. Many lecturing contracts have a specific clause barring additional work unless expressly approved by a senior person (usually the college president) in writing.
These clauses are also included in most full time management and professional positions as well.

So if you’re double jobbing, check whether you’re in breach of your contract!

career builder
lecturer double jobbing
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Accountants need career guidance

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:04:00 +0000

Apparently it’s world accountancy week commencing 3rd of December. This one commemorates the 30th Anniversary of the founding of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the global organisation for the accountancy profession.
There’s a week for everything these days.

Anyhow, it seems appropriate that we announce this week, that we’ve formally signed an agreement with the Institute of Chartered Accountant’s in Ireland to provide career guidance services for their members. Yes, even very well paid Chartered Accountants seek career guidance advice. In one sense, when you’re earning great money and firmly on the upward rungs of the corporate ladder, it can be even more difficult to make a change. So far, this has been the main issue we’ve seen. No complaints about the often long working hours of accountants.

So, as it’s accountancy week here’s a link to a specialist blogs for accountants. I like this one Jobs in the money because it brings a wide variety of opinions together. Here’s an example

“And I don't much like the focus the Big 4 have these days on work-life-family balance and diversity. Not because I am against work, life or family or diversity, but because I think the job is one you choose and the rest is something that you implicitly agree to adjust in order to fit in and do the job well. If I wanted to be off during the summer, I would have been a teacher. If I wanted my team to not miss me when I'm out and clients to be able to live without me when I'm away, I would have become an assembly line worker, able to turn off my job when the whistle blows. If I wanted everyone I work with to know about, respect and celebrate my personal, sexual, and lifestyle choices I would have become a nun”
You can read the full post here

So, no namby pamby focus on work/life balance here. Simply accept the prevailing culture and fit in with the organisation. But surely there’s a balance between fitting in and looking for a life outside work?

Thankfully, the Big 4 are realising people now days want more than a corporate drone life, so in order to continue to attract the best people they have to focus on work-life-family diversity balance.
A very senior auditor friend of mine gets the summer off, because the firm want to retain her, plus there’s less client pressures at that period. The firm save on wage costs and retain a valued member of staff. If there’s a client issue, which needs her input, she’s contactable. A win win situation surely?

The legacy of our Celtic Tiger economy means highly qualified people can now call the shots more.
So with a little bit of innovative thinking, earning good money and working reasonable hours does not have to be an “either/ or” situation.

Other relevant posts you might enjoy
Jet pack pilot
Accountants take pay cuts
Does work life balance work?
Are you handcuffed to money?

Key words
career builder
career advice accountants
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Late for work?

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:47:00 +0000

A friend sent me this. (A PowerPoint presentation) Watch it till the end.
Looks too weird too be true, but a great reason to be late for work!

More interesting than saying you're late yet again because of traffic .

Have you ever noticed the way Dublin traffic gets worse and worse coming up to Christmas and then eases after Christmas? Operation free flow started today- more commonly known as operation go slow in our neck of the woods.

Thankfully, I don't commute every day, but I still can't believe how much time I spend travelling to our corporate clients. Friday, due to roadworks, I took a wrong turn and spent 40 extra minutes sitting in traffic as a result. Luckily I'd allowed the additional time as I hate the stress of being late for meetings.

I always carry extra paper work (non client of course) with me, so that way if I do arrive early, I can work away, be it in a cafe or in the car. It's a great way of getting more work done without increasing hours or stress.

I've actually turned down work, because of the commute involved, so when considering a new job always look at this issue.
Talking to a few very tired clients, this week,who spend up to two hours travelling each way daily, the impact on their quality of life is obvious.

So before you commit to a new job try travelling to the proposed new location at peak times if you're unfamiliar with the area.

career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Frying pan into the fire

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:51:00 +0000

I’ve noticed many clients are nervous about moving jobs. They are worried the new job will turn out to be worse than the old job i.e. the cliché of moving from the frying pan into the fire. But there’s a lot you can do to minimise this risk. In this post I’ll concentrate on using the actual recruitment process to assess a company.

How a company manages the recruitment process is a very good indicator of how they will treat you as an employee. After all if they can’t be bothered to present a good image whilst trying to attract employees, what will they be like when you’re on the payroll? Whilst it can be difficult to ask all the right questions you can use your eyes and ears to learn a lot.
Make sure you use every opportunity to observe what is going on around you. Does your potential new employer

1.Acknowledge your application promptly and professionally?

2. Does the recruitment process appear efficient- i.e. plenty of advance notice of interviews or test times, availability of job descriptions, phone calls returned, clear timetable?

3. Are the receptionist and other people you deal with courteous or unfriendly? Do they appear committed to the company?

4. Are you left waiting beyond your appointed time for interview or test and if so is a sincere apology given

5. While waiting in the reception area, you can often hear the receptionist taking phone calls or dealing with visitors. What kind of queries are being raised? Are there many calls from dissatisfied customers/clients? Is the receptionist able to deal with the calls or is he/she constantly apologising for staff not returning previous calls?

6.What is the atmosphere like in this building, is it busy and efficient, or is the receptionist/people passing though moaning amongst themselves or at anybody else who enters?

7. If interviewed in the office building, is it clean, bright and attractive?

8. If you use the toilets are they clean?

9. If you are not interviewed in the office building, is a reason given?

10. Is the manager you are going to be working to, on the interview panel?

11. Does he/she appear supportive and enthusiastic?

12. Do the other members of the interview panel appear friendly and interested?

13. Does the interview panel appear to operate as a team, indicating good team working in the company or do they appear to be operating independently?
( Tends to indicate intense office politics.)

Whilst I have no academic research to back this up, I’ve noticed companies presenting a good image of themselves during the recruitment process, tend to be well managed and have respect for their employees, with proper training and induction. If your answers to the questions above indicate a poorly run organisation, you may need to do further research to find exactly what you’re taking on before accepting any job offer.

career builder
moving job
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Thanks to Karin for picture

Are you young at heart?

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:17:00 +0000

What a rotten week. Went to the doctor on Monday morning who said I would be out of action for at least a week due to a viral infection. So no fast acting antibiotics for me. He says it can’t be the flu as I’ve had the anti flu vaccination. Feels like the flu to me, I’ve got a red hot poker in my throat, my head is on fire and every muscle and joint is giving out. Plus the least effort and I want to go back to bed and sleep for a month.

Not listening to the doctor, I decide to just cancel Monday’s and Tuesday’s appointments- I’ll be better by Wednesday. On Tuesday I have to cancel Wednesday’s appointments. After some bouts of vomiting and coughing on Wednesday I decide to cancel the rest of the week’s appointments. The relief I felt when I did this was amazing. Realised I should have accepted what the doctor said and just cancelled all appointments on Monday.

Would have been less stressful, as I was still worrying about letting clients down, passing on the infection etc rather than concentrating on getting better. Once I made the decision and rang clients- who were all very nice, of course I was going to feel better.
I’m guilty of not following my own advice which I give to clients. When you’re in a situation you can’t control, the first thing you need to do is to accept you can’t control it. Only then can you take the right actions.

I was still feeling sorry for myself until I remembered this video. It shows young@heart who got together singing in a senior citizens home and now tour the world. Unfortunately I missed them singing in Dublin recently. They keep losing key members on a regular basis(they die) but they just get on with it. Notice the male lead singer is singing and walking with an oxygen feed. The voice quality has decreased, they can’t dance like younger people, but the sheer fun they appear to be having is amazing. It's highly entertaining. They are definitely young at heart. Every time I watch this, it reminds me that life is not just about surviving but about making the most of what we’ve got.

So, I’ve just got a virus, and the family appreciate me a lot more, now they’ve had to do without me. So if you’re stuck in a job you hate for what ever reason, do you go in young@heart or do you go in a bad mood which gets worse as the day goes on?
Hope you enjoy this video as much as I have. Maybe show it to some older people you know who don't have access to the internet.

Key words
career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

CAO under attack!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:19:00 +0000

The President of DCU, Dr Ferdinand von Prondzynski has called for the abolition of the CAO points system because it’s putting students off careers in science and technology.
He claims students with high points are being advised by Career Guidance Counsellors, parents etc to go for high points courses rather then follow their interests.

I’m not sure what he bases this on, as we and other career guidance counsellors we know, always advise people to follow their interests. Looking at the points required, is towards the end of most career guidance services- after you have established your interests and aptitudes.

Colleges are now competing fiercely for students, a point I’ll come back to. So no doubt this has influenced Dr Prondzynski’s call.

The CAO process is one of the few processes in Ireland where “who you know” or how much money you have does not dictate what course you’re offered. Yes I know your social class tends to dictate your points, but that’s a broader education issue, not a CAO issue.

Meanwhile, over in the high court the Irish Times reports that Frank Prendergast junior is taking a legal challenge about the quota on undergraduate medicine places. Having achieved an excellent 550 points he could not get into medicine. He offered to pay fees and be classified as a non EU student,(lower points for them) but he was not accepted.
Hope he wins his case, he’s a brave man to do this, as the medical profession do not like people who attack the status quo. (An Irish junior house doctor has written a book called the Bitter Pill, which really exposes the medical world. Afraid for his career the author is known simply as Doctor X. It’s a must read for all aspiring caring professionals)

I’ve often wondered why we have not simply quadrupled the number of medicine places available to bring points down to a “non genius” level.
I know the medical professions say there won’t be enough jobs for all the graduates, but world wide there’s a huge shortage of doctors and we currently import from developing countries. Literally, we’re robbing valuable resources from much poorer countries which cannot be justified. Once it’s made very clear to aspiring doctors that not every body will be able to work in Ireland, could we not consider the education costs as part of our contribution to the developing world?

More competition for medical posts might also help to improve patient treatments. Every week, we seem to hear about yet more misdiagnosis of cancers whether it be in Portlaoise or Cork. In some specialities there is so little demand for positions, there may be no applicants! So employer’s ability to choose from candidates is severely limited. I recall on one occasion interviewing a candidate even though the CV indicated this person was not a strong match for the position, we were just so desperate to fill a long vacant position.
The shortage of suitable candidates also helps to explains why consultant power is so strong in the medical world. In his book Dr X writes about consultants not washing their hands between patients and every body else being afraid to say anything!

If you’re interested in a career in medicine and unlikely to achieve the necessary points, don‘t despair. You can do a very innovative post graduate course in Limerick which is running for the first time this year. Also Minister Hanafin is talking about a new entry arrangement where Leaving Certificate points will be capped, and a universally accepted psychometric test for medicine applicants will be used to assess candidates. The Minister is planning to introduce this system in 2009. The Universities still have to approve this though, so 2009 is very optimistic. Expect lots of negotiations around this one!

Possibly Related Posts
Look beneath the surface -CAO trends
CAO is digging a
hole
Pick the right CAO course for you

Key words
career builder
career advice Dublin
cao medicine points
career training Ireland

Workplace Ghosts

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 09:48:00 +0000

Halloween yesterday and despite the ban, loads of amazing fireworks and the bonfire was good.
Some of the fireworks were let off in a very dangerous way. Thankfully no body was hurt at this spot, though that’s not the case elsewhere unfortunately.

I though Irish people were big on ghosts and banshee’s but over in the very reputable English Chartered Institute of Personal Development they’ve been discussing ghosts in the work place.

Here’s a sample posted by Shoz Rahman

“I worked in a building which had a ghost.
When a staff member told me I was scared stiff, but was not wholly convinced until an incident later. It was remarkably clever and thankfull(sic) fell under the category of a 'good ghost'.
One day, at about 1.30am in the morning, a passer by saw white smoke in our premises (we had large windows). He called the Fire Brigade. A few minutes later, a single fire engine arrived. They too saw that the premises was full of white smoke, and cut a hole in the door and went in. The firemen found grease-proof cooking paper smouldering in an oven, and that was the source. There was no fire.

You can read the full story over on CIPD

We have a winner on our draw who we’re meeting next Monday. Hopefully every body who participated has now received a personal email from me, as distinct from the automated acknowledgement. Unfortunately we can’t provide a prize for everybody. We got some great emails so thanks to every body who participated.

Keywords
career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland
free psychometric Assessment

Free Career Consultation

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:42:00 +0000

As regular readers will know we’ve been trialling SHL psychometric products. As part of this trial we are delighted to offer one lucky person the opportunity to participate in a totally confidential and personal career consultation.

So what’s the benefit to you?
You’ll get a much broader insight into how you behave as well as an understanding of what drives you. The SHL product we are trialling provides measurements across 32 different personality dimensions ranging from relationships with people (persuasiveness, outspoken, control etc) to thinking styles (evaluative, conventional , conceptual etc) to feelings and emotions, (relaxed, worrying, tough minded etc). We’ll also provide an occupational interests assessment. This is a great opportunity for you to identify a variety of areas that suit you from a work perspective. Experience tells us that those who enjoy their work are more productive, happier and have a better life balance.

Some examples of how we have helped people are given below:

One client could not understand why her safe, family friendly, not too pressurised, well paid job was so stressful for her. We helped her to identify the reasons and supported her to take action without necessarily moving job.

Another client didn’t understand how he might be seen as dominating any groups or teams he took part in. We helped him to recognise this and how this would impact his future management success as well as relationships with family and friends. We suggested ways he could change his approach.

A third example is of a client with very high caring tendencies. She was considering making a change to work as a Counsellor. However, very high caring tendencies can sometimes mean too much involvement in other people’s problems, so we suggested ways of managing this issue. As she also really liked working in teams, the idea of working on her own a lot of the time may have been a problem. So we also identified some other suitable options. She also found particularly helpful, identifying how much of a worrier she was and the strategies we put in place to help her manage these (See direct client testimonials by clicking here)

You hopefully can see there is no right or wrong or measurement of ability in the assessments we normally use. The assessments are a starting point for discussion rather than an end in themselves. We don't judge, label or tell people what to do, instead we ask useful questions in a very supportive and safe environment.

So what’s involved in this free career consultation?
Attendance at our office in Mount Merrion(near Stillorgan) on two separate occasions, (each session between one to two hours) and completion of an on line questionnaire. (maximum 50 minutes required) as well as a pen and pencil exercise. In the first session, we discuss your work experience, values, motivations, review your CV and discuss any issues you want to raise in addition to the questionnaires mentioned above. In the second session we feed back the results of the assessments and discuss options on how you can get more from your working life. You'll note from our web site that we operate a strict confidentiality policy and secure paper control.

So what strings are attached?
None, there is no publicity, no ongoing commitments, no subscriptions to newsletters etc All you have to do is
1. Sign a confidential form confirming you have received the service.
2. Attend the 1st session before Friday the 9th of November 2007
3. Attend the final session on or before Monday the 26th of November.
(If you can’t do this, please do not enter the draw)

How do I enter?
All you have to do is email us at drawcareer(at)quovadis.ie (replace (at) with @ when emailing) on or before Sunday the 28th of October and in no more than 100 words tell us

1. Why you want to use career guidance services
2. What are your primary concerns at this moment
3. What end result you expect to get
4. What is your biggest concern about using career guidance services

You must be 17 years or older, but you don’t have to be currently working outside the home. For example you may be considering returning to work.

All entries will go into the draw and one will be pulled out at random. The lucky person will be notified by email or phone on Wednesday the 31st of October and will have 24 hours to confirm acceptance of the prize. Should we not hear from you within this time, we will repeat the draw.

So as you can see entry is very easy and you have the chance of winning a very valuable prize. All entries will also be acknowledged. If you have any queries please email info(at)quovadis.ie. (replace(at) with @ when emailing) Sorry we have to present email addresses like this because of spammers!

Other areas of interest

Career assessments- do they work?
What is psychometric testing?

Key words
career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland
free psychometric assessment

Life coaching compared to career guidance

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:38:00 +0000

With the emergence of life coaching, there appears to be considerable confusion over the difference between this and career guidance.

Life coaching is defined by the Irish Life Coach institute as
“ the art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of others. It is about improving effectiveness and achieving results. It focuses on measurable steps of success. Perhaps, most importantly of all, it facilitates personal transformation for people within the work environment & beyond”

Career guidance is defined by the OECD as
“Career guidance refers to services and activities intended to assist individuals of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers”

So even within accepted definitions, an overlap can be seen. To complicate matters there are also executive and business coaches. These tend to focus on business growth, management and leadership skills and are usually engaged for a period of months. Because this is a relatively new field, there are quite a number of different professional institutes in the coaching arena.

A key difference with career guidance counsellors though, is they are normally qualified to perform a wide range of psychometric assessments, either personality, interests, motivation etc. These assessments can be very useful if you are uncertain about future career choices or where your strengths lie. Often there is an initial session with assessments, then a feedback session with a written report, which enables the client to take action. Life Coaches do not usually specialise in performing a range of assessments and will often meet with the client on many occasions.
In Ireland the major professional institute is the Institute of Career Guidance Counsellors in Ireland. The majority of their members work in secondary schools and 3rd level colleges and are focused on young students.

So how to choose who can best help you if you’re considering some support? Well there’s not a lot of information available, but research in the related counselling area, suggests the biggest factor for success is the relationship between the client and the coach/ guidance counsellor
So the key issue to focus on is whether you feel you can “get on” with the coach/guidance counsellor. Do you like their personal style? Do you feel you can talk openly to them?
Try to assess this in a telephone conversation, but it is difficult so an initial meeting might be required. Normally you pay for this, but some life coaches may offer an initial free session. This rarely happens with executive/business or guidance counsellors.
Fees also vary widely from €75 an hour, to €1,000 per month commitment.

For some questions to ask when choosing a psychometric tester click here. For more general questions on choosing a counselling/coaching service click here.

Finally don’t expect the coach/guidance counsellor to do the work for you. They can give you expert feedback, insights and objective opinions but they won’t get you, your dream job. Only you can do that!

If you are interested in career guidance, I’ll be posting details of an open draw for a totally free, personal “no strings attached” career health check consultation, so don’t forget to check out next weeks blog.

Other areas of interest
Career assessments do they work?
What is psychometric assessment?

Key words
career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland
free psychometric Assessment

Blog Action Day

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:22:00 +0000

Over 15,000 blogs, with twelve million readers are participating in blog action day on the environment. So am I, with this post.
The majority of scientists are now in agreement that human action is the cause of increasing global temperatures with its consequent impacts on our environment and economy.

I often get cheesed off, with the Irish approach to the environment. Being lectured to leave the cars at home and take public transport is fine- if there’s good public transport. However our approach to this area and overall environment design reflects a lack of “joined up” thinking. For example, recently our 15b bus terminus was moved three miles up the road, but the newspaper adverts stated bus departures would be doubled. Sounds good. However the reality is that instead of buses leaving every 10 minutes as before during peak hours, the buses now leave every 15 minutes with the result that buses are often full by the time they reach here. So now people around here are more likely to take the car!

But as the Dalai Lama says

“if you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito”

Both as individuals and as employees/entrepreneurs we can make a difference to the environment, save money and be happier in our working lives. A win win proposition despite lack of public sector joined up thinking!
I’ve blogged before how our obsession with possessions, restricts our choices and can mean we stay in jobs we don’t enjoy or commute long distances to earn extra money than can be earned locally. So reducing the number of possessions we need can have a positive impact on the environment.

But every single day, we can decide to make a difference without making life changing decisions. Working in big organisations means many people don’t care about costs. So lights are left on in unused offices, waste paper is not put into the recycling bin, but into the ordinary bin for land fill.

Recently, I attended a meeting where three managers travelled out of town in their separate cars to Tallaght for a meeting that could have been easily conducted over the phone using teleconferencing. (Teleconferencing suppliers now provide facilities with no set up charge and you only pay for what you use) This would have reduced carbon emissions, travel costs and freed up valuable manager time.

When we used teleconferencing in a small nationwide charity, it made such a positive difference to people’s working lives as it meant less travel and improved communications. Sure we still had the face to face team meetings, but teleconferencing meant we could tackle urgent issues quickly and effectively and meant staff felt more connected to their work which in turn benefited clients.

Self employed people can also make their businesses more profitable by being environmentally friendly. For example Fujitsu Siemens will perform a free study to demonstrate how companies can make 40 per cent savings in their data centre costs. They are so confident they can do this they will donate €10,000 to an environmental charity if they don’t succeed.

So why not examine your working life and see what simple changes you can make that can benefit you and the environment?
Click here for some suggestions on the Power of one web site.

Other posts which may be relevant
Seven day weekend
Accountants take pay cuts

Keywords
career builder
blog action Day
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Parent Coaching in macho City of London.

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:05:00 +0000

The Finance sector in London city does not have a reputation for being family friendly.
Think Gordon Gekko, “greed is good” in the film “Wall Street”

So very surprised to see companies like Morgan Stanley, HSBC and Barclays are now offering seminars on parenting skills on issues such as
“How to succeed as a working parent”.

These sessions are not just aimed at women but at men too. The thinking is that if parents are under less pressure at home, they’ll perform better at work. Great to see that workplaces are recognising that employees have lives outside of work. Also good to see that parenting is been recognised as requiring some skills as well.

I wonder will Irish employers start offering these services?

Click here for full details on Times web site

Keywords
workplace parent
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Monster Mistake

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:39:00 +0000

A big kerfuffle when Michelle reported a Monster marketing manager had send a spam email around to members of IT@Cork. Damien covered the incident when Michelle was threatened with legal action. News of the incident started spreading not just around Ireland but around the globe. Eventually saner voices prevailed and a different Monster representative issued an apology.

Lots of lessons in this incident
• Key lesson is when in a hole you stop digging. If you’ve goofed, don’t go on the attack. Try and see how you can stop the damage spreading. An apology usually helps

• If you feel you’re under attack, don’t take action right away, sleep on it and talk to some one you know with a logical and calm approach.

• Know what you put on the internet is public. In this instance the conversations were recorded and put on the internet. Lex Ferenda even put it to music- the monster mash!

• When emailing lots of people, always use the BCC option. This means each person only sees their email address, and not the email addresses of 99 other people. As unencrypted email is not secure, using BCC maintains privacy and helps prevent yet more spam.

• With the exception of gmail your email address can quickly be used to find your IP address, which generally gives clues to your organisation. So don’t email from work as our Monster Manager did if you want to remain anonymous .

• If you have responsibility for, or access to personal data, (email addresses count as personal data in many circumstances) Make sure you’re familiar with the provisions of both the Data Protection Act and your own organisation’s policies and procedures.

Job boards such as Monster really help the job search process, but in America there’s examples of boards being used to steal people’s identities. To see advice on how you can avoid this from Careerhub Click here.
Given the lack of understanding shown by Monster of the importance of protecting personal data on this and other reported incidents I’d wait for future developments to see do their standards improve before registering with them.

Key words
career builder Ireland
monster Ireland Spam
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

The Spirit of the wild is enjoyable but is it real?

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:32:00 +0000

I went to see the Steve Bloom
“Spirit of the wild” photograph exhibition in St. Stephen’s Green. Thoroughly enjoyed it as the photographs are amazing. Well worth a visit. It’s free and runs until October the 7th. Steve actually gave up a very promising career in the graphics industry, to follow his dream of being a wildlife photographer. The commentary on one of the photographs, details how Steve spent two weeks crouching in a boat to capture the image of a dolphin jumping out of the water. The dolphin jump lasted all of ten seconds.
Two weeks of crouching in a boat, for a 10 second opportunity really demonstrates the old adage of success being 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
Originally this blog entry was going to be about Steve as an illustration of the perseverance necessary to succeed.

In doing the research however, I came across a discussion that many of the Bloom photographs are digitally altered. I was disappointed to hear this, as I’d though the photos were “real” but it seems to be normal these days. For example, Dove who ironically sell beauty products have produced a short video which shows how the super model look appearing on advertising billboards all around us is artificially made up. It’s very short, so worth watching by clicking here .
So much of what we see and hear is digitally altered for an ulterior purpose.

But does watching these altered images matter, if it’s the viewers choice? I think it does, because these images are selling values, images and definitions of success. Advertising works by telling us we can increase our sense of self by buying the advertisers product. Kilbourne believes advertising helps define who we are and who we should be, all of which should be absolutely flawless. I think she’s right and it’s not just Americans being affected. Last week’s Sunday Times reported that a perfectly good looking, slim 29 year old girl went to 3 different plastic surgeons of whom 2 recommended plastic surgery.
A major Irish times survey reports that women put personal care(skin/hair) as their 2nd most important priority, so advertising is obviously having an impact on how people view themselves. Click here to see a 6 minute Kilbourne video on this topic.

Recently we’ve had a few clients, who had great understanding of themselves and were very clear about what they wanted to do with their working lives. I wondered why they needed to come to us. Subsequently, I realised it was because they needed reassurance they were doing the right thing, because they were going against the accepted norms.
We have become so bombarded with images of success that we have started distrusting our own thoughts and feelings, our own sense of self, it’s not okay to make mistakes any more.

So how to ensure we’re not being unduly influenced by all these images?
The answer is we probably can’t.

We can however reduce their influence by critically evaluating what we see and read and not always accepting things at face value. (Also a very useful skill in any job)
We can reduce the amount of TV we watch, or the number of glossy magazines we flick through. All these magazines are selling perfect relationships and perfect lifestyles, which they tell us we can have, when in reality there is no such thing.
Getting outdoors to the hills or parks can be useful. Or talking to people with a different perspective on life to yours on a regular basis.

What ever you do, realise we are constantly being bombarded with images trying to sell us something. Taking an independent view does require constant alertness in much the same way that maintaining physical fitness requires regular exercise. So enjoy the photo exhibition, but see if you can spot the digital manipulations. I know I did not.

Note
If you have a keen interest in the area of staying detached from media/consumer society influences you might find Eckhart Tolle’s book, The power of now“” useful.

Other possibly related posts
Are you handcuffed to money?
Accountants take pay cuts
Mikas true to his career.

Key Words
Photographs Stephen’s Green
career builder Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Apologies if you’ve had RSS problems.

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:14:00 +0000

RSS is Really Simple Syndication, which allows you to check out what’s new on your favourite web sites without constantly going through the entire web site.

If you’re using an up to date internet browser, you should see a button like the one above on your browser toolbar.

If the button is a grey colour, then no updates are available for that web site. If how ever the button is orange as shown above, this means you can sign up to see new updates. You don’t need to even give an email address.

On the Quo Vadis website we host two blogs

The first one- opinions talks about work related issues.

The second one- events, provides details of free or low cost work related events in Ireland .( If you’d like us to mention your low cost, work related training or information event, don’t hesitate to email us with your full event details and we’ll post and link back to your web site.

Unfortunately, until a kind reader informed me, I had not realised the events RSS feed was over writing the opinions RSS feed. This is now fixed. I had to republish both blogs, so apologies for any problems. It’s now possible to keep up to date with both our blogs, very simply by using the RSS feed option.

For example, to sign up to the opinions blog, simply take ten seconds to click on the link below http://www.quovadis.ie/atom.xml

Then click on “subscribe to this feed”.

Once you’ve done this,

by clicking on your favourites button on internet explorer ,

and then clicking on feeds you can see new information without scrolling through old stuff.

The only down side, is you don’t get to see any graphics or the occasional video we use, you have to click onto the post entry itself for these.

If you’re trying to keep up to date with a particular web site or blog, use RSS.
It will save you time and ensure you don’t miss any updates.

career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Be a firewalker or a jet pack pilot!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:00:00 +0000

The traditional image of the accountant as a dusty old bean counter is changing fast.
On the 27th of September, fifty of them are literally walking across fire to raise money for charity.

Even so, I was surprised at the latest student recruitment campaign from the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Last year, they had their biggest student intake ever, so existing campaigns were obviously working. However the Institute has obviously decided to move towards a more modern image. (Full disclosure, I’m a member of the Institute and Quo Vadis Solutions are currently in discussions with the Institute on career guidance services).

The new approach reflects the more positive aspects of our current economic climate. Colleges, professional organisations and employers all have to chase potential high quality candidates. Compared to the dark 80’s when my employer kicked us trainees out of his office because we’d dared to ask for the Institute recommended salary. His response was

“You used to have to pay for articles(training with a specific employer) and that’s coming back!”

So I think it’s great that these days people have so much choices, even if it does make life more complicated.

Anyhow, the current radically new recruitment campaign is a thirty second video of a carton character with a back pack which is jet powered. (see the video below) He rapidly alters appearance depending on the industry he’s working in. I showed it to a few teenagers and they all thought it made accountancy seem appealing. Only one complaint from the rabid business hating teenager, (my own daughter ) that the accountancy end with the logo was dull!

The ad will appear on TV stations like MTV, in cinemas, online and radio over the next six weeks.
It’s interesting the ad is aimed directly at students themselves, rather than at the parents who often have a huge influence on career choices.
Parents often encourage their children to do “safe” careers like accountancy so perhaps the Institute feel they don’t need to encourage the parents any more.
What ever the reason, it’s better if students make their own decisions on their own careers.
I always remember one fellow trainee, with a Dad who was an accountancy firm partner. The poor guy kept failing his accountancy exams and he was not cut out for the work. He always seemed to be miserable. Yet you just had to look at the ever present doodles on his books to see this guy had amazing artistic ability and a huge interest in this area.

So yes accountancy is a great career, if your personality and abilities match the job requirements. If you’re interested though, do the research. It’s not just about an ability with numbers!

You’ll find further student information from the main accountancy institutes listed below.

You can see the recruitment video by clicking below.

Student Information on Accountancy
websites.
ACA

CIMA

ACCA

Keywords
career builder
trainee accountants Ireland
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Slash and Burn in the HSE

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:32:00 +0000

There’s been comment in the news about the HSE actions to deal with a deficit to date of €140 million on it’s €14 billion budget. There’s been criticism of the actions being taken which include amongst others a ban on the recruitment of frontline staff i.e. staff who provide direct services to patients.

The bulk of the HSE budget is payroll costs, so I can understand why payroll costs are being tackled. Yet, one of the demoralising aspects of working in the HSE is the length of time it takes to recruit- up to two years in some cases. In May 2007 the manager of Cork University hospital wrote to the HSE saying they could not be held liable for the medical consequences of delays in filling crucial replacement posts.
It appears both HSE headquarters Finance and HR senior management do not appreciate the impact of this type of crude decision making.

I was speaking to a senior professional in a health care provider recently. He went to a special meeting to discuss this issue and he stated he could literally feel the increased stress and tension amongst staff as he walked through the building.
At one stage in this professional career, was the CEO of a major commercial organisation, so this guy knows all about targets and has a tough no nonsense approach. But as he says “how do you tell staff, Johnny can’t be replaced because of the recruitment ban and then expect them to deal with the ever increasing number of patients?

Often organisations have to take action to stay within budget targets. It’s a key responsibility of management. As an old boss of mine used to say though you had to do it “without doing violence to the future, slash and burn not allowed”. In other words, short term action now must not harm the future growth of the organisation. With unions threatening industrial action, confidence in the HSE is being further undermined by the ban on recruitment.

So as a manager what type of action should you take when you’re in a budget overrun situation?
First of all, identify what the Management guru’s call the “low hanging fruit or quick hits”. These are actions you can take quickly with impact in the short time and don’t do “violence to the future”

For example, HSE management could immediately reduce the temperature of hot water in their centres. I’ve been in three different hospitals recently (as a visitor thankfully) and in each hospital the temperature of the hot water for washing hands was close to scalding. Reducing temperature by 10F can give a 5% reduction in energy costs.
Other simple easy to take actions, include faxing instead of posting, telephone or video conferencing instead of travel to meetings. Every organisation(except possibly Ryanair who are notorious for their focus on costs ) will have short term opportunities to reduce costs without damaging customer or patient service.

Secondly, identify actions that may take longer to implement but will also reduce costs whilst improving service to customers. Sounds like a contradiction, does n’t it? But this is always possible.
For example in the BBC series “Can Gerry Robinson fix the NHS”most doctors were removing eye cataracts as a day case operation with a local anaesthetic. However one doctor was still doing cataracts under general anaesthetic, which not only uses more resources but also has increased risks for the patient.
By supporting this doctor to move to day case procedures, patient service would improve and costs would be reduced.

I don’t think any one would question that our health services have hugely increased resources at their disposal and that there is substantial waste and inefficiency.
HSE management in local centres need to take a lead on cost reduction. They should involve staff in cost reduction on the basis of reducing costs to improve service.
Creative thinking tools like De Bono’s six thinking hats can help generate ideas.
I can’t find the reference but I recall one De Bono project in an American public sector organisation where staff were allowed to take lucrative redundancy packages, if they eliminated the need for their job without adversely impacting customer service. Nearly 40% of staff were able to come up with qualifying ideas!

If such an approach was adopted in the HSE with it’s highly trained staff, the outcomes could be amazing.
This type of approach does require leadership and trust. It requires an ability to think creatively and laterally and questioning of all “sacred cow” assumptions. All qualities that successful high performing managers have developed.

So, rather than simply rely on ever increasing budgets,and blaming the “top HQ” . Local managers need to be proactive and take action to ensure budgets are used more effectively. National HSE management need to further develop budget structures which ensures local centres are rewarded and not penalised for more effective use of budgets.

Linking key words
career builder
career advice Dublin
career training Ireland
HSE cost cutting

You & Your Money Expo

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:34:00 +0000

I’m speaking at the Eddie Hobbs “You and your Money” expo on Friday on the ten steps to setting up your own business. You can see a copy of the PowerPoint presentation by clicking here. A list of useful sources of information can be seen by clicking here.

So what personal qualities does it take to be an entrepreneur?
Well there’s no magic profile of the personal qualities required for the perfect entrepreneur. People set up in business for so many reasons, from a drive to be their own boss, to a passion for a particular idea or increasingly to achieve a better work life balance.
However we can point to some attributes successful entrepreneurs commonly display.

Relationships with people
Successful entrepreneurs tend to be independently minded and are prepared to follow their own approach, often ignoring common wisdom. They will ignore the people who say “it can’t be done” and will be very resilient. Denis O Brien, the Telecoms billionaire came within half an hour of the banks pulling the plug on his loans.

They are often persuasive, enjoying selling and changing other people’s views.

They like to control, and are happy to be in the lead.

Feelings and emotions
They are fairly focused and career centred, enjoying working to demanding targets. For example, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University to focus on developing computer software which was promised to a supplier – before it had been fully developed.

They dislike losing and can be fairly competitive.

Most successful entrepreneurs are self motivated and keep going even when they’ve achieved their financial goals. Irish examples include Michael O Leary of Ryanair, a multi millionaire many times but still looking for new challenges.

Thinking Style
They tend to take a long term view, setting goals for the future with a very strategic perspective. Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon.com would be in this category.

They are generally innovative, generating new ideas, they enjoy being creative and thinking up original solutions.

They are evaluative, critically evaluating information, looking for potential limitations, focusing in on solutions to problems.

The most successful entrepreneurs though are very self aware and self knowledgeable. They know how they are likely to react to different situations and they surround themselves with people who have strengths they lack. For example Richard Branson who is very much a visionary innovator, has an analyst type 2nd in command who develops the detail behind his vision.

Another good Irish example is a young insightful lad (whose name escapes me right now) who saw an opportunity when contraception was finally allowed into Ireland in 1979.

The only problem was he had was no funds! Undeterred by this he backpacked all the way to mainland Europe to a pre arranged meeting with the condom franchisers. On the day of the meeting, he changed into a good suit, rented a room in a swish hotel, arranged a limo to collect the franchisers' representatives, treated them to lunch, made his pitch and was awarded the contract for Ireland.
With the contract in his pocket he then backpacked back home again.

So if you’re considering setting up your own business and wondering whether you have the necessary personal qualities why not invest in a professional personality assessment?

Keywords
personal qualities entrepreneur
career advice Dublin
career training Ireland
you & your money expo

Work is going to the dogs

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:29:00 +0000

A funny piece in Friday’s Irish Times via the Financial Times service.
Hills pet Nutrition allows employees to bring in their dogs to its English office, as do American Advertising Agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. They have approximately 40 to 50 dogs to 850 people! They say it creates a good environment with only the occasional scuffle.

The lengths employers are now going to in order to attract scarce talented employees!

Now we have two very gentle dogs ourselves, so I do like dogs. The Collie sheds hair however at an amazing rate and if patted at all by visitors, both dogs will tend to jump up on them. Many of our visitors are visibly nervous around our dogs.
(Ok, so may be we’re bad at training dogs. So is it practical to have dogs in the workplace? I know guide dogs are allowed in, but usually guide dogs have been extensively trained from an early age and must have a certain temperament .

A more serious problem is the poo (or poop to non Irish readers) and a real life example illustrates. We used to have a very boring teacher, for a particular class which took place in a prefab with an external porch. (This means the classroom was not part of the main school, but sat out in the school grounds) One day the teacher arrived in a very agitated state. A dog had pooed in the external porch. Seeing the chance to miss class, my friend and I immediately volunteered to clean up. When we walked out into the porch, the dog, a little Chihuahua ran off, who obviously had diarrhoea. That’s when I got the smell. The most disgusting, ammonia ridden, powerful pong ever. Worse than any stink bomb or blocked sewerage pipe.

My eyes started watering and we ran out to get the caretaker. Unfortunately, he just gave us some cloths and buckets and told us to do it. Every few minutes, we had to run back out into the open, before our stomach contents added to the mess. I’m sure I smelt of dog poo for days. Certainly the class room did. Thirty years later, I still remember it and am still astonished such a little dog could produce so much poo. The only upside was we missed the entire class, the teacher thought we were “little saints” and treated us very well from then on.

So how do dog friendly employers ensure non dog lovers don’t feel threatened? How to ensure all these dogs don’t poo in the wrong places? Our dogs poo all over the garden, and there’s always rows over who is going to pick up the poo this time. So you can just imagine the row when a dog poos in the wrong place in the office. It will put the arguments over washing the coffee break cups in the ha-penny place.

“ It was your dog that pooed, no it could have n’t been. My dog’s poo is always yellow, small and round, that turd is brown long and curved” and so forth

The same article also notes a three foot long python escaped from his cage at Google. (New York, not Dublin, so Dublin readers can relax) Expert herpetology assistance ensured the snake was recaptured. See the Google official blog for details if you don’t believe me.

On a less smelly note, if you’re currently in a rotten work situation, I sympathise. But at least this entry shows employers come in all shapes and sizes. There are some employers out there who do really try to make their employees happy. The Celtic tiger means you don’t have to put up with a difficult Doberman employer. So don’t be a lap dog. (Groan)

Key words
career builder
career advice Dublin
career training Ireland

Skills required change, as you move up the management ladder

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:47:00 +0000

In London last week, training with SHL as we’re increasing the range of psychometric test instruments that we offer to our clients. A very interesting and intense course. We covered a wide range of instruments from different ability tests, to personality, to interests to motivation. We had to use each of these instruments on ourselves, so I feel very over analysed! We were then rated on how well we used these assessment tools with paid volunteers. (Most reputable test developers won’t allow you to use their tests, until they they are satisfied you can use these tests correctly and sensitively).

One of the topics we covered was Lominger’s 6 Q’s of Leadership. This has the following elements or quotients.

IQ – Intelligence Quotient – how “bright” you are.

TQ – Technical or Operational Quotient – how well you are able to get
things done.

MQ – Motivational Quotient – how driven you are to achieve
and grow.

XQ – eXperience Quotient – how many of the required kinds of work
experiences you have had.

PQ – People Quotient – how well you handle yourself and work
with others (sometimes referred to as Emotional Quotient).

LQ – Learning Quotient – how deftly you adopt new skills,
behaviours and beliefs

Depending on what stage of your career you are at, the relative importance of these quotients vary. So when you start off in your management career, the IQ quotient is really important, but at senior management level this is the least important quotient and the PQ (People quotient) becomes the most important. Makes sense when you think about it. At junior management level you are likely to be more “hands on” completing jobs directly yourself. At senior management levels, you are more likely to be trying to get other people to perform the actual work, so you need to be good with people.

Many people seem to think that once they achieve a certain level in their careers they can stop learning. How ever, Lominger’s research (backed up by many other studies) demonstrates the importance of continuous learning. This does not mean simply achieving additional qualifications, but being open to new experiences, beliefs and adopting new behaviours.
Lominger points to the importance of the MQ (motivational) and LQ (Learning) Quotients. Both of these are very important at junior and senior management levels. So according to Lominger, if you want to move up the career ladder, you have to be prepared to (in order of priority)
1. Develop your skills in understanding yourself and working with others (PQ)
2. Consistently learn new skills, behaviours and reassess your beliefs (LQ)
3. Be motivated towards climbing up the career ladder
4. Develop your working experience in your preferred area of interest (XQ)

Other posts which you may find relevant to this area
Getting that promotion
Overlooked for promotion
Why feedback is good for you
Hard work is not enough

Keywords
career builder
career advice Dublin
career training Ireland

How to respond to racist, sexist or anti gay jokes

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:30:00 +0000

Despite all the equal opportunity legislation in place today, I’m still hearing frequent complaints about unsavoury jokes in the workplace. It can be very difficult to handle these, laughing implies you support the joke, but it does maintain your relationship with your co-worker(s) Staying silent does not get your distaste across, but saying something against the joke can lead to you being ridiculed as “over sensitive” and contribute to a bad workplace atmosphere.

Carmen Van Kerckhove suggests the best response should accomplish the following

“ 1) Communicate that you find this behaviour unacceptable.
2) Demonstrate that the joke is racist. (or sexist, or ageist, or anti gay etc)
3) Inflict as little damage as possible to your working relationship with the
joker.”

She suggests the best way to handle such jokes is to feign ignorance, pretend not to understand the joke-simply saying “I don’t get it” and asking the “joker” to explain.
She uses this example below.
“Co-worker: Did you hear that Angelina Jolie adopted another kid, this time from Vietnam?
You: Oh really?
Co-worker: Yeah. The poor kid probably doesn’t even know he’s Asian yet. He certainly doesn’t know he’s going to be a horrible driver. Or that he’s going to be amazing at doing nails. He has no idea! [Laughs heartily.]
You: [Look perplexed.] Sorry, I don’t get it.
Co-worker: What do you mean?
You: I guess I’m missing something. Why is that funny?
Co-worker: [Looks embarrassed.] Um, well you know how people say that Asians are bad drivers. And a lot of people who work at nail salons are Asian.
You: But those are just stereotypes, aren’t they?
Co-worker: Well, all stereotypes have some truth to them.
You: So you actually believe that all Asians are bad drivers and are good at doing nails?
Co-worker: No, no, it’s just… Never mind.”

The full blog entry is well worth reading and can be seen by clicking here.

I think Carmen’s approach could be very effective, but if the joke stereotype is really blatant, I think I’d find maintaining an air of complete ignorance difficult.
I’d be interested in hearing from readers whether they think this approach would work or any other approaches you find has worked for you. You can use the comments button below or email me directly at blog(at)quovadis.ie. (Sorry no direct link, because of spamming problems)

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Key words
racist workplace jokes
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