
30-Dec-2011
Most people start planning their "New Year" and fail to meet some of their goals. Because we don't focus on changing habits and setting realistic goals for ourselves to achieve we often miss the enjoyment of fulfilling such goals. Career & Life Planning's course in January will significantly help you improve all aspects of your life by helping you become more aware of what areas you need to improve on and help you set multiple goals for you to start really fulfilling those new year’s resolutions.
I am running 10 week night classes starting in January in both Limerick and Loughrea. Both courses are limited to 20 and pre-registration is required. Full details on the link below.
File Downloads
Motivation2012.pdf
30-Dec-2011
Most people start planning their "New Year" and fail to meet some of their goals. Because we don't focus on changing habits and setting realistic goals for ourselves to achieve we often miss the enjoyment of fulfilling such goals. Career & Life Planning's course in January will significantly help you improve all aspects of your life by helping you become more aware of what areas you need to improve on and help you set multiple goals for you to start really fulfilling those new year’s resolutions.
The 10 week course is limited to 20 and pre-registration is required. Full details on the flyer attached.
File Downloads
Motivaion2012Loughrea.pdf
19-Nov-2011
Career & Life Planning has announced additional classes for January in both Limerick and Loughrea. Each class is a 10 week evening program on improving life coping skills and follows on from the recent class that was held in September 2011.
Details will follow shortly on dates and locations for people to book. The classes will run each week for 10 weeks and will help people improve the quality of their lives.
07-Sep-2011
Commencing on Tuesday September13th
LIFE COACHING SKILLS 1Hour 7.30 – 8.30
Venue: Crescent Comprehensive School, Limerick
Want to improve your personal life, career or business performance? Coaching can help overcome barriers that you feel limit your performance. This class addresses critical skills required for today’s many challenges including; dealing with stress, time management, setting goals and objectives, building self confidence and esteem, managing family relationships, assertiveness and improve your decision making skills. The classes will give you tools and strategies to overcome barriers that are holding you back and improve your personal performance.
Fee €95 10 weeks
15-Feb-2011
Career & Life Planning has been appointed as member of the South West Gnó Skillnet approved panel of trainers for 2011. South West Gnó Skillnet is a not for profit training network funded by the national Skillnets Training Program which aims to underpin the maintenance and growth of existing businesses and foster the development of new businesses in the Munster region by providing key strategic training and networking initiatives.
• Achieve close alignment to the business goals of its member companies.
• Deliver top quality training and development right across the region.
• Employ the spending power of the network and the funding provided by Skillnets to deliver extremely cost effective training
08-Feb-2011
Provides business owners with useful advice on how to start improving their business and personal performance.
File Downloads
CalpBusinessPlusArticle.pdf
17-Aug-2010
After almost 10 years recruiting professional candidates, it is surprising the number of jobseekers who fail to prepare and embrace what is required in looking for a new position.
In 2010 your job seeking efforts have become increasingly difficult as the employment market has changed and while there are limited opportunities available, jobseekers need to embrace the multiple strategies which can increase opportunity.
You may not require multiple plans, however from my extensive experience, if you have prepared well, you are more likely to succeed in gaining employment over those who have not and therefore act passively.
Seve Ballesteros when talking about winning quoted the following which highlights the importance of preparation; “To give yourself the best possible chance of playing to your potential, you must prepare for every eventuality. That means practice.”
The following questions I hope will help you improve your ability to increase your opportunity and chances in gaining employment
1. How can I promote myself on paper?
The first point is the big elephant in the room that I hear from candidates on a daily basis; “I don’t like talking about myself” or “I wasn’t going to put my accomplishments on my CV...I was waiting until I get an interview first, then I’ll tell them!” Whatever format your CV takes, it has got to:
- highlight where you have added value in your career to date in order to stimulate a positive response from the reader.
Put yourself in the unenviable task of a hiring manager trying to shortlist over 50 or 60 applicants for a job and identify 8 for interview. You can be assured that professionally prepared CV’s highlighting skills and achievements relevant to the job advertised, will be favoured
A lot of employers in Ireland are still reeling from the recession and when needing to employ a new hire are asking - Do we hire the same level of position that we made redundant, or do we look for candidates that can perform and have a history of adding more value?
To prepare look at your career history and;
- examine the roles that you have performed
- highlight any accomplishments in your CV in a highly visible and presentable fashion
- start learning how to deliver those accomplishments when asked in interviews
2. Ask yourself are you really serious about this job search
The job boards, recruiters and newspapers are not the only route to finding jobs. There is a hidden jobs market in Ireland and it will remain a valuable job seeking tool plus is becoming increasingly popular as a method of recruiting for all industries.
NETWORKING
Networking through online channels can be achieved through a variety of dedicated communication sites:
- Linked In
- Discussion boards
- Blogs.
This is all part of the process of becoming informed about what is going on in companies and industries and ensure that you are well prepared and informed.
Networking can ensure you identify who the relevant people are in the organisation and that you are known to them. If they don’t know you are looking and interested in joining them, then you can’t fault them for hiring someone else. Start increasing your profile confidentially to increase your chances.
Don’t rely on others to get your CV in front of the hiring manager. Be proactive and focused and you’ll start getting noticed. This changes your mindset where you are in control of your search and are solely responsible for its results.
Proactive and focused job search will create your momentum and although it alone won’t get you a job, it will get you well on the road.
3. Create a CV that is different to others and my competition
If you are confident that your accomplishments, experience and education are better than the other applicants, then it should be obvious that some or all of these are distinguishing factors.
What if both applicants have the same level of attributes, how does a company decide? Well one of the immeasurable factors is the person’s attitude. Hard to quantify it but if you take all your traits and demonstrate how you know when to use those skills when required; you have your personal advantage. Backed up with examples and results reinforces your message.
While the CV is critical in getting you through the door and can be improved significantly by preparing it accordingly and delivering a solid and confident performance during the interview stages.
Interview coaching beforehand can give you confidence to deliver your answers. Best advice for you is to KISS – Keep Interview Skills Sharp – you’ll never know when someone will ring you on a Tuesday looking for you to meet them on a Thursday morning about a job. If you have your interview skills current, then all you have to do is research the role and company background. Don’t forget to look at analyst reports on companies or blogs to see where they have got recent coverage. Employers are not impressed when someone cannot deliver relevant company and standard interview questions during an interview. It reflects very poorly on their preparation.
4. Create a CV that will gain enough attention to warrant a call back
Take your present CV, email it to some friends, former colleagues that work in HR and ask them this question, if my CV came into your inbox for a job, would you;
a) Call me immediately and ask to meet me
b) Close it and go to something else.
c) Delete it, ignore it or reply with a thanks but no thanks response
HR staff, recruiters etc are there to screen CV’s to make sure only the best get through to the hiring manager. Again, think of that hiring manager in his or her role. They are probably working under serious pressure as they are missing a person for their team and want to hire someone immediately. Your task is to make it easy for the recruiter or HR manager to introduce your CV to the line manager.
If your CV doesn’t deliver that level of interest, then you can’t really expect good results. Make your CV stand out to an independent person who doesn’t know you and get them to say; “That is impressive”.
I am very aware of the many people who are out of work and feel as if they have limited job prospects. I know it can be very annoying and frustrating to get an acknowledgement of a CV when sent to a company. A question for you if you are in that situation; if you are knocking on doors with the same CV for a couple of months maybe it is not your experience is the problem but how it is portraying you to a prospective employer.
Even more worrying is why are you even sending your CV to a prospective employer unless you know there is something coming up that you can add value to?
As the saying goes, the difference between success and failure is only 6 inches which isn’t an awful lot. Developing your plan and persisting with it are the criteria required to get employed in Ireland now and likely to be the way going forward.
By Joe Delaney – Professional Recruiter & Qualified Career and Life Coach
For more information on career planning and for a free CV review, contact me today:
Web: www.calp.ie
Email: info@calp.ie
Phone: 353 61 305800 / 353 87 6461968
13-Mar-2010
The article on “Improving and Enjoying Your Recession Time” has been published in the March 2010 edition of Ireland's Life and Business Coaching Association (LBCAI) newsletter. The article highlights how people can make a change to their lives during their "Recession Time" by changing the way they look at their individual situation.
The LBCAI is the accrediting body for Irish life, business and executive coaches ensuring a professional standard of coaching in line and professional code of ethics. A copy of the edited article is listed on my blog;
http://careerandlifeplanningservices.blogspot.com/2010/03/improving-and-enjoying-your-recession.html
If you would like a copy of the full article, please email me
05-Jan-2010
Limerick’s Career & Life Planning Service is offering a FREE talk on Thursday 11th February from 7pm to 9pm at the Absolute Hotel in Limerick covering the topics;
Improve Self Esteem & Confidence
Dealing with Redundancy
Managing Stress
Time Management
How to re-enter the workforce
Designing a Career Plan.
The talk will be a mix of visual slides, video clips and questions and answers. While the event is free, those interested in attending are asked to pre-register by contacting Career & Life Planning;
Office 061 305800
Mobile 087 6461968
Email info@calp.ie
21-Dec-2009
Career & Life Planning’s recent article "Improving And Enjoying Your Recession Time" is to be published with leading Finance magazine, "You and Your Money", Ireland’s leading money and lifestyle magazine.
The article is aimed at people who have recently been made redundant and are wondering how they can improve the quality of their life during their own personal recession. It gives people a practical perspective on how you can use your time to be more creative and productive during this time.
The article will be published in February or March 2010.