Career Advancement Programme

Career Advancement Programme Understand the process to fast track your career with this clear step by step programme suitable for every career typeProfessional people are changing jobs and careers with increasing frequency. In this course we will explicitly show you the steps for transitioning from your current job to your dream job. Your new dream job can be in the industry you currently work in or it can be in a whole new direction. Either way, the strategy and action steps remain the same. There are so many moving parts in today’s job market so you simply must have a clear plan for how you will not only make the move but how you will identify the ideal company that will complement not just your skillset but your sense of fulfilment. Because of technology, almost everybody is available outside of traditional working hours. This means you need to align your strategy accordingly, it must have clear milestones but also be flexible enough that it can adapt to unforeseen situations. Ultimately this course is about setting yourself up for success – make getting a job your job.

I Your Unique Personal Selling Points

Your career is and should be a continuously evolving game plan. Some people know exactly what they want to do professionally however most are not clear on it. So whether you are planning to make a career shift within your industry or take your career in a whole new direction you need to plan out your strategy. Although it is important to think about how a job change will impact your quality of life, salary etc., your first port of call has to be what a potential employer will see in you that will be useful for them. In this lesson we will reveal some of the key questions to identify your Unique Personal Selling Points and how this particular skill set can be put to use by a potential employer. In this first lesson we will look at the 4 main areas that will impact your career plan to ensure you can check off each one to clarify your decision making. We must then consider how you will begin to put this plan into action. Your career plan must begin with your CV.

II CV / Resume preparation

Every employer is interested in 3 things:Increasing profitsIncreasing efficiencyDecreasing costsYour strategy for a new position has to include these ideas at its core and your CV is your calling card. The issue for every single person who is deciding on a career move is that everyone has a CV. To stand out you need to think like your potential employer. Why are they going to want to read your CV? This document has to be the best representation of you and why you are the person to help the company achieve and surpass its goals. You have to make your CV irresistible for your prospective employer. You have to ensure there is clarity on your achievements backed up with facts and figures. In this lesson we will look at how to structure this written representation of you so that any potential employer will want to know more about the person it represents. Your CV makes up the first step of your job search strategy.

III Job search strategy

How are you going to implement your plan for new employment? In this lesson we give you the most up to date tried and tested techniques for strategizing your job search. The approach we want to avoid is the ‘scatter gun’, where we send CV’s to anyone and everyone in the hope of gaining new employment. We want to use laser focus when selecting possible employers. This will allow you to be selective in which companies and key employees you will research so that you are making intelligent decisions about your career plan. This lesson covers how get the right mix of techniques so that you are utilising as many avenues as possible to get the result you desire. From where to find the right people you need to connect with to ultimately landing your dream job. When it comes to a job search you need to be proactive rather than reactive. The most effective way to proactively position yourself for the next step in your career is to be referred for a position. The best way to be referred is through networking.

IV Networking

You have identified your ideal position in the perfect industry, now what? At this point you need to know how to bring it to a successful conclusion. Networking in the right way with the right people is absolutely vital for your new job prospects. In this lesson we consider the tips and tricks you can utilise for each step of the networking process. Finding the right people by entering a room full of strangers and striking up conversation after conversation is a daunting task. This lesson is focussed firstly on how to find other people to build mutually beneficial relationships. And secondly, when you have the genesis of a good working relationship how to move it forward. Networking can be seen as a necessary evil or it can be seen as a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded individuals who can both benefit from a budding relationship. When you do it correctly you will be able to leverage these connections to get referrals so that you are in a position of strength entering into the next phase of the plan – the interview.

V Your Online Reputation

As hugely beneficial as networking off line is, there is an entire world that exists on line and this is another fantastic opportunity to connect with the influencers in your preferred industries. In this essential lesson we delve into the world of your online reputation and more importantly, what it means to manage it. We look at what recruiters and potential employers are looking for in your on line profiles. We discover how to get to all star status in Linkedin and why this matters. Anything you do online that becomes public or is even sent to another person automatically becomes a part of your online reputation. So with that in mind we consider how to approach recruiters before and after you have applied for a role.

VI Successful Interviewing

When you have reached the interview stage of the process you are closing in on reaching your goal of securing a job offer. There are a variety of ways that an interviewed can be conducted. During this lesson we compare and contrast the different styles of interview and interviewers. We will equip you with the skills and tools to approach any type of interview with supreme confidence. We will delve into the key tasks that need to be completed by you before, during and after an interview. We also reveal the number 1 crucial thing that most candidates do not do following an interview. A good interviewer will want to find out about the person behind the skills and experience on the CV and this can lead to some tricky questions. These are key elements of the process as when you have understood these you will exit the interview knowing you positioned yourself correctly to discuss salary when you are offered the position.

VII Salary Negotiation

The ability to negotiate successfully is an essential tool for you to have during the final stages of the interview process. Like one of our previous sessions where a person has an aversion to networking some people can dislike negotiation. Usually negotiation is confused with confrontation. The general consensus about negotiating is that it is about butting heads with the other side about something like a yearly salary and sticking to it until the other side gives in. This approach is not a pleasant experience for either side. Just like networking, negotiating is really about finding common ground while putting forward what you will bring to the company in terms of increased profits and efficiency while reducing costs. A negotiation involves, among other things, preparing correctly with the right attitude, controlling the flow of information and building relationships. The key component to any negotiation is getting to a conclusion that both sides are happy with. The reason for this is ‘buyer’s remorse’. If the other side are not happy with the agreement they will simply renege on the deal at a later date.

VIII Your Career Roadmap

There are many moving parts when changing job or planning the next stage of your career. You may even be making your move while working full time which adds its own complications to the process. You need and want the process to be as efficient as possible while also maintaining clarity on your overall career plan. So we need to learn how to utilize our time so we do not waste one second, we need to put in place a system for tracking who you have contacted, when you contacted them and what you contacted them about. You need to know about calendar management, managing your time and setting goals. Ultimately you need to know how to get from where you are to where you want to get to as quickly and as cleanly as possible. This final lesson we will delve into planning out your career road map so that you approach the next phase of your career with focussed enthusiasm.