Interviewers need to clean up their acts on childcare and interview questions We are constantly inundated with soundbites from high-profile women such as Marissa Meyer, Anne- Marie-Slaughter and Sheryl Sandberg  who vie for media attention in the business stratosphere. Now we have the  ex-CEO of Burberry drifting or jumping into the fray, I’m not sure which. The…

How do to find a position post retirement

When building your career, your hard skills are your foundations. But soft skills are very often the cement. Find out why you need to synthesize your career into a coherent story for delivery both verbally and in writing.

In an attempt to attract younger users to a new university section of the website, LinkedIn has reduced its minimum age limit for members from 18 years to as low as 13 years of age in some geographies. Coming into effect from September 12th, the age limits will vary according to statutory requirements  in different countries:  14 years old: United…

Brush up your networking etiquette. It’s not about you!  Make one person feel comfortable at every event Do you ever wonder which sadist put eating, drinking, standing up and networking in the same sentence? At networking events, do you feel genetically challenged and your fine motor movements suddenly seize up?  Does securely balancing your glass, clutching a cocktail napkin and finger-food plate in your sticky fingers become an…

  Repatriation can be more stressful than the original move. I am a long term expat with two international moves under my belt. Three if you count the move from England to Wales. Both my children are “Third Culture Kids”  (TCK) having been born outside their passport country. o I know first hand that a successful international experience can be an enriching…

Do you have a career plan? The likelihood of most of us sitting down every year with a professional career coach to create an annual career strategy is about as great as chocolate cream cake becoming a zero calorie dessert any time soon.  No one would think of having a medical with an unqualified doctor or getting their cars serviced at an…

I was born with light red hair. Back in the day it was called strawberry blonde which I never really understood, because strawberries are actually really red!  Sometimes and more ostentatiously I was a Titian blonde. Apart from the odd building site worker yelling “Hey ginge”  from time to time, I was never subjected to any sort of name calling, teasing or harassment that many redheads are now…

The Peter Drucker phrase “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” has been around in management training manuals for decades. With some dissenting views, it is widely accepted if not as a business truism, certainly as a useful guideline and management tool. In career management what is also gaining credibility is the line “If you can’t…

DIY recruitment is short sighted and lazy Two people apparently join LinkedIn every second  of every day. This platform and others like it have changed forever the way organisations identify and recruit talent. Some aspects are improvements. Others are not. These platforms should potentially reduce the need for external recruiters and change the way they are managed by corporations.  Historically the…