Monday 26 March 2012

A LinkedIn profile, a C.V. or both?

Many career experts advocate the importance of having a profile on LinkedIn as well as a well-crafted C.V. but what should you do to maximise the effectiveness of your online profile? In a recent article on The Guardian’s careers blog, career coach Denise Taylor goes through what people do wrong and how they could do better. A turn-off for potential recruiters is often an incomplete profile. As Denise writes, “ Registering for LinkedIn and not doing much with it is like joining a gym and expecting to get fit - you have to do the work.” More positive things to try include writing in the first person, getting at least 5-8 recommendations and use key words in your main profile. The article also warns against how you write about your current position particularly thinking about company confidentiality. For more tips on getting the most out of LinkedIn, read the whole article http://careers.guardian.co.uk/linkedin-better-than-cv

Monday 19 March 2012

Stressed? Need a holiday?

Can taking a holiday reduce rising stress levels? According to Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR), business leaders who took the most holidays reported lower stress levels. The U.K. was one such country as well as The Netherlands, Russia and Denmark where more holidays were taken and less incidences of stress reported. At the other end of the scale were countries such as Japan, Thailand and Greece.
Although the research was done amongst senior executives, some of the main reasons cited for causing stress are probably familiar to many other job roles. The top five areas in order were reaching performance targets, volume of communications, office politics and the elusive work/life balance. The good news is that the report found a trend of falling stress levels but maybe senior executives in Greece would disagree. For more about the survey read the article on the Grant Thornton website http://www.grant-thornton.co.uk/thinking/elevate/index.php/elevate_templates/article/uk_business_leaders_are_less_stressed_and_taking_more_holidays/

Monday 12 March 2012

Protecting your job, planning your career

Even when you’re happy in your current role, being prepared for change and the next step is crucial according to the three part series on workawesome.com. For example, the series recommends always having an up-to-date C.V. – ‘your resume is the most financially important document you will ever own because it opens the doors of professional employability for you’. The article looks at protecting your job by both working effectively in your current role and always being open to new opportunities. In the third part of the series ‘Stay Connected and Visible’, recommendations include networking internally and getting regular updates from employment agencies to always be aware of the opportunities in your area. Even consider a ‘career management database’ to hold all the contacts, job postings and company news that you collect to focus on your career plans. Whether you are actively job-hunting or not, read the full article here http://workawesome.com/career/stay-connected/#more-15933

Monday 5 March 2012

EU proposals for more female directors

With female directors still only making up a small percentage of top company boards, different countries are taking different approaches to redress the balance. They may be even forced to make changes. According to the BBC’s Robert Peston on his BBC blog, the European Commission's female Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship commissioner ‘ wants to see a mandatory increase in female representation on boards: 30% of big companies directors to be women by 2015 and 40% by 2020.’ In Britain, a government report called for 25% of the boards of FTSE companies to be female but all change is on a voluntary basis. Some countries, however, such as France have already introduced legislation ‘requiring 20% of directors of listed French companies to be women by 2014 and 40% by 2017.’ For more details and analysis of how such potential legislation could affect British companies and employment read Robert Peston’s full report at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17257124