Women an untapped resource for our male dominated think tanks The World Economic Forum, one of the world’s most recognised think tanks, issued a report indicating long-term talent management issues were actually being concealed by high levels of unemployment. “In today’s global and fast-changing business environment, access to highly skilled people – not just top talent,…

Employed during the recession but ready to make a move? The last 2 years have seen dramatic changes in the job search market characterised by massive job reductions and a significant discrepancy between the number of job seekers and jobs created. Those that were fortunate to remain employed during that period, kept their heads down,…

Behavioural interviews have always been popular with major international organisations for carrying out in-depth selection processes. Recently however, interest in them seems to have peaked after being popularised by the TV show, The Apprentice just screened in the U.K. The reason I don’t write about this programme is because when I do watch it, for…

Why do we get job profiles so wrong? Lost in translation As both an executive search professional and a career coach, I am frequently bemused how hiring managers and job seekers fail to communicate with each other and misunderstand or even misrepresent themselves in the process. I’m very mindful there is a strong sales role…

Can you be too flexible? Are additional discretionary duties a normal part of a job description? A contact of mine has recently started a new job. Everything went smoothly, the whole search process completed in record time, a contract was presented and signed, a draft job description included in the on boarding programme, a corporate…

Recently I have had conversations with three very different individuals who wanted to return to the workplace for a range of reasons: Maria had recently lost her husband and saw returning to work as a way of supplementing her income and giving structure to her new life as a widow. Bob had suffered badly in…

  The salary expectation question should not be stressful I came across a discussion on LinkedIn recently posted by J. Paige Freedland about how to handle the salary expectation question. There were almost 400 responses covering a wide range of viewpoints from all participants, some of them conflicting and contradictory. It became very clear that…

Why it’s important to network with recruiters The value of passive candidates I saw a post from someone recently complaining quite vociferously about being contacted by a head hunter. The message from this individual, was that if he was looking for a job he would **#!** well let them know. I checked out his LinkedIn…

Women and networking.  Another hornet’s nest  Last week was a busy week for women! It started off with Katherine Bigelow  winning an Academy Award for Best Director for The Hurt Locker, followed swiftly by International Women’s  Day.  Much was written about women’s roles, the progress  they have made and the steps they could make in the future. Then the wives of the UK party…

As the number of permenant jobs shrinks and the competition hots up – can you afford not to have a career management strategy?