Newsletter September 2020
Doggedly seeking new opportunities
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You've got this
Hello from Fay
Have you ever spent ages on a job application, taking lots of care and consideration before submitting it, and then hearing absolutely nothing back from the hiring manager? Some companies rely on bots or applicant tracking systems to sort through the floods of resumes they receive for open positions, so even though this could possibly be why you don’t hear anything back when you apply for a job, you can’t help but wonder what happened, or what went wrong. After watching a video clip from dating app Hinge about ghosting, I realised that the two concepts are the same! Could this be referred to as ‘professional ghosting’? This got me thinking about what you need to do to get a head of the queue, have a read of my thoughts here.
When it comes to your CVs, according to Virginia Franco, an expert storyteller and resume writer, you should consider converting your resume to plain text, not putting your personal contact details into headers or footers and not putting information into text boxes…I found this interesting so wanted to share this with you!
In this month’s edition we have included some top tips for your LinkedIn profiles, redundancy roadmaps and a great conversation with me and Robert Kenward about virtual interviews. In an ideal world I hope that you have no need for these resources, but if you find yourself in a position where it is needed, I hope you find it useful…good luck!
Lots of love,
Fay
FF15 Shero’s
Women who inspire us with their strength, ambition and fearlessness.
Continuing with our series of FF15 Shero’s, this month we would like to introduce Abi Wright.
Having struggled, as too many females do, with a lack of confidence, Abi was only too aware how this has held her back in life, with poor posture being a key element to this. Through practising yoga and the Alexander Technique, Abi was able to slowly re-build her confidence and self-esteem, and learn the tools needed to stand tall and own her space. From this she created She Stands.
Through She Stands, Abi wants to help create a society where women and girls feel at home in their bodies, are fully seen and heard and where we all feel able to stand up for ourselves and others. However, wanting to do more for girls led to her co-founding Festival of The Girl and putting on their first event last year. Read more of her fascinating story.
LinkedIn Top Tips
Do you consider yourself a good user of LinkedIn? Well think again!
We caught up with Helen Carmichael (with the help of Pamela Doran) who shared with us her top tips on how best to ‘show up’ on LinkedIn – whether you’re searching for a new job, staying in touch with people or selling your wares!
Like any other social platform, LinkedIn has a habit of changing the way it does things on a regular basis, making it hard to stay up to date with the latest trends, so here are a few tips and tricks to use the platform to promote not only yourself, but the company you work for too. Have a read of her article here.
Have you been affected by or facing redundancy? Check this out.
Gill Harvey has created The Redundancy Support Roadmap to support those in events, hospitality and tourism who are facing redundancy because of Covid-19.
The programme starts with ensuring you sort out the initial practicalities, such as understanding your full entitlement from your employer as part of the process and then what else can you do to ensure the bills continue to be paid etc. whilst you look for work. The programme offers lots of advice including tips on reducing household costs etc. and from the mental health aspect, talking about the grief cycle and explaining how our minds work.
After this initial stage they get to helping you discover your values, passion, purpose – looking at what you want and what you don’t want; drawing out your skills and then achievable setting goals and putting them into action.
The programme also features sections on CV tips, LinkedIn profile, personal branding, starting a business, on-line interviews, tips on how to manage fear and procrastination and lots more to assist with a structured and effective approach to rebuilding.
Find out more about the programme and how it can help you if you are affected here.
Virtual Job Interviews
I caught up with Robert Kenward from You Search & Select, on how best to present yourself in virtual job interviews. We talk about preparation, presentation and Robert gives his top tips!
