A personal note from Annemarie...

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 Friday, 14th September 2007

Hi,

Welcome to another edition of Career Communiqué x-Press. I hope you have had a productive and successful fortnight.

Spring is in the air – my eyes, nose and sneezing fits are definitely showing the effects of all of the pollen in the atmosphere, so out has come the hayfever spray and my Horseradish, Garlic and Vitamin C tablets. (If any of you have any other suggestions to overcoming hay fever, I’d love to hear them).

Despite my hayfever, I do love this time of year with the daffodils and other spring bulbs flowering in abundance throughout the garden, along with the fresh, crisp mornings. It’s also around this time of year that my cupboards get a good ‘spring clean’, so out with all the old and unused items.

Another area that could also benefit from a ‘spring clean’ is our career. What areas of your career could benefit from a bit of a spring clean? How is your resume looking? Is it up-to-date and ready to go should you see an opportunity of interest? How are you going within your current job? Have you been finding yourself getting less and less motivated in your work, but have not done anything about it? Have you been meaning to book yourself into a course that would allow you to position yourself for that promotion, but have not yet done anything about it? I certainly encourage you to consider how you may benefit from a ‘spring clean’ and take action this fortnight – even if it is taking one action step. Remember, change nothing and nothing changes.

Happy spring cleaning! [I’m setting up a ‘Spring Clean’ Action plan in our blog. Drop by and post the action that you’re going to take. Telling someone about your plans is a great motivator!]

Remember, we always welcome contact and feedback from our subscribers and visitors, so pop across to our Ask Annemarie site and submit your topic of interest, question or comment. Or pop across to our Career Communiqué blog. We'd love to hear from you!

Upcoming programs and workshops

Re-engaging with your work.

Feeling bored and unmotivated in your job and ready to hand in your resignation but don’t fancy having to get back out there in the job market to find a better opportunity? In this fortnight’s issue see how you gain a better understanding of yourself so that you can re-engage with your work without having to move to another company.

In this issue...

Coach's Corner:   Re-engaging with your work.

Ace that Interview:  Asking for feedback.

Resources & Tools to Catapult Your Career

 

 Coach's Corner

Re-engaging with your work.

One of my clients (I’ll call him Steve for anonymity purposes*) came to see me recently feeling quite disillusioned about his career. He was in the IT industry, had steadily worked his way up the corporate ladder over the past 4 years, and now in a prominent role had generated some very impressive achievements over the past 18 months. However, even with all of his successes he had been experiencing significant dissatisfaction with his career [‘a feeling of emptiness’ as he described it] which had increasingly become worse, to the point where he was ready to hand in his resignation.

Not wanting to lose a valuable resource the company had arranged for Steve to undertake our Career Directions program to see whether there was another position within the company that could better align with Steve’s interests and values so he could reengage and reconnect with the work he was doing.

Steve’s preference was to be able to develop supportive and collaborative working relationships with his colleagues in order to get the most out of teams. He wanted the opportunity to create and inspire consensus in a group that ensured projects were being delivered on time and within budget. So he could see why he was feeling dissatisfied having to work with IT systems/data on his own for pretty much the entire day - not very inspiring at all when looking at his preferences, values and strengths.

If you are experiencing feelings of dissatisfaction within your career, one of the first steps that I recommend for you would be to gain some self-awareness around your values, interests and strengths. What is happening within your workplace or within your career that is not aligned with your values or your interests? Does you work allow you to harness your strengths and talents or is your job mundane and boring? Is the work environment conducive to your personality thus allowing you to perform at your best, or does it seem to drain your energy?

A great exercise for you to try is journalling.

Two additional resources that you may consider to enable you to enhance your self-awareness and understanding include our Career Directions program or our Purposeful Careers Journal. Both programs have powerful tools that will allow you to get clear on your career values, interests and strengths so that you can begin to create your Career Blueprint and career action plan.

Alternatively if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at Annemarie@annemariecross.com

Just to give you an update on Steve - after recognising his desire to become more involved within a team leadership/mentoring function, the company (not wanting to lose a valuable employee) supported him in undergoing some professional development in leadership and project management. Following completion of the course he moved to a team leadership/project management role which is far more satisfying for Steve.

Steve has benefited from undergoing their self-exploration and ongoing development, as he is now working in a role that is more aligned with his interests, values and strengths and the company has also benefited by not having lost a valuable staff member, but rather repositioned him to another area of their organisation in which he excels. A real win-win!

Till next time, have a great fortnight everyone!

*This article is being published with client’s approval.

To your success!

Annemarie
 

 Ace that Interview!

Asking for feedback

A question that was raised by one of our readers was: “When you know you were out of two people in an interview and the job went to another person, how can I find out the reason why I was not selected – even though I know I was perfectly suited for the role (and thought I would be offered the job)?”

This is a great question and one that stumps many job seekers. The answer is plain and simple - request feedback from the interviewer.

This is something I encourage all my clients to do and is something that you should consider doing as part of your job search. Make contact with the interviewer and ask him/her for his/her honest criticism to assist you in your job search. Ask them what led them to make the decision to make an offer to the other person? Were they more experienced? Did they portray themselves better within the interview and if so, what could you have answered differently in order for them to have offered the role to you?

While this may seem awkward (and often confronting having to listen to honest feedback), it certainly is a worthwhile exercise particularly if through the feedback you are able to change and enhance the way in which you respond to certain questions the next time you are asked that same question.

10 key steps to Ace that Interview devotes the last chapter on how to move forward confidently despite not having a successful job offer and is certainly a worthwhile read.

If you want to learn more about how to turn potential negative situations into positive situations and how to continue positioning yourself in the best possible way EVEN if you have received a ‘No thank you’ letter, then grab your copy of 10 key steps to Ace that Interview! today Send me Ace that Interview today! 

Need to get your hands on 10 key steps to Ace that Interview! immediately for an unexpected interview? Get a copy of our new e-Book version delivered to your inbox today! Send me Ace that Interview today! 

Note: Want to learn more about how our laser-focused interview telecoaching sessions can drastically improve your interview performance? Click here to find out how.

Have a question you'd like answered in this ezine? Contact: enquiry@a-e-c.com.au 

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