The industry for professional careers advice is similar to the estate agent business, generally people do not have a good word to say about them, even the clients that use their services, so it is nice to be able to sing the praises of one that stands out in its field.
At a senior executive level professional careers support does not come cheap, I have been approached by many firms and received "modest" quotes of five figure fees. When you are not employed as many are currently, finance is a major issue even when money is in the bank, as the light at the end of the tunnel cannot always be seen or if it can be it cannot be discerned whether this is the end of the tunnel or simply the 07.45 Express to Glasgow.
The Career Practice is not cheap! I have done cheap and it is nasty! The Career Practice is value for money and was not, in cost terms, in the league of the services mentioned above. It is, however, well in the league and at the top of it in terms of understanding of the needs of its clients, whether they are the bright and cocky ones expecting a job round the corner or the battered and bruised ones who have found the market place tough.
As part of its commitment to us, the actively seeking to develop a career, free resources are available, regardless of whether we sign up or not and you can get a free CV review, and yes this a marketing tool to get into an interaction with you, but its not heavy, no hard sell and it is always beneficial to get advice on your CV from people who see CV's and that includes head hunters you speak to. One point on CV's is get as much advise on it as you can, but only use the advice that you feel comfortable with. As an extreme example, it was once suggested that I use my middle name on my CV to be more acceptable (removing Kap for Jim). Even though I am known as Jim to some, my business name is Kap and apart from that, when I turned up at interviews, i would have difficulty hiding my heritage. Anyway, I digress.
My contact at The Career Practice is Nigel Cowdrey who is an experienced executive. If you work with Nigel, don't think he will give you an easy ride, he won't, he is hard but fair. I had met him before he set up The Career Practice, but having thrown off the shackles of other peoples businesses, he displays the ability to help clients mould and develop their careers. Working alongside him are Denise Mulchrone and Crispin Reed. Both of whom I have met and are good at their job.
I have known The Career Practice for a year now, although not registered with them and if you are looking for careers development support and advice I would put them at the top of your list to have a discussion with, I can assure you even if you do not decide to register with them it will be time well spent.
Showing posts with label 30daybloggingchallenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 30daybloggingchallenge. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Thursday, 31 March 2011
A world of information in 140 characters
A world of Information in 140 characters can only mean one thing - TWITTER!! I joined a company back in 2009 and was responsible for their social media strategy, or so I thought.
"Lets use twitter" says I,
"Lets not" says them
"Its a way of developing a following and interacting with our customers" says I
"Its a load of rubbish" says them.
In the end, I won a hollow victory but they would not tweet effectively. To be of use, twitter, like a blog needs to be used regularly and be relevant.
Twitter needs to get over the stigma of personal tweets, "Just got up, feeling crabby", "Just eaten an egg!" even from celebrities, its hard to justify anyone wanting to be interested in this stuff.
However, many companies are building there business on twitter and their relationship with customers. Part of the reason is that twitter is more than 140 characters. The 140 characters can be used as an appetizer to something bigger more useful, that has an infinite number of characters. The attachment facility of twitter creates the communication power that twitter is.
Companies use twitter to direct their customers to their websites, deliver special offers, communicate customer service records, build communities.
A community driven website that appeals to me is "Make it and Mend it" which is the brain child of four women – Clare Flynn, Clare O’Brien, Hilary Bruffell and Anne Caborn. The aim is to grow a community keen to share ideas and inspiration and which empowers everyone to re-use more and throw away less. This coven of commercially astute women have used the full gamut of social media channels including twitter @makeitandmendit, to build their community. In this throwaway community that contradicts its self with concerns about the environment and conservation, MIAMI hits the mark for many housewives and quite a few of their husbands too.
However, focusing on the twitter aspect of MAMI, this has been used strategically and effectively to build up the audience and at the same time has been beneficial to other businesses that support the ethos of reuseability and recycling such as Lucy Robert who makes some weird and wonderful home craft items.
Twitter has built up businesses greater than MAMI and is a useful communication tool that can be as powerful as to build a multi million pound business or as useless as telling every one about your breakfast.
Know more about the power of the tweet, now go and open up your own account at www.twitter.com and follow me @kappacino, MAMI @makeitandmendit, search what interests you and follow twitterers who interest you. Visit www.makeitandmendit.com and become a member.
"Lets use twitter" says I,
"Lets not" says them
"Its a way of developing a following and interacting with our customers" says I
"Its a load of rubbish" says them.
In the end, I won a hollow victory but they would not tweet effectively. To be of use, twitter, like a blog needs to be used regularly and be relevant.
Twitter needs to get over the stigma of personal tweets, "Just got up, feeling crabby", "Just eaten an egg!" even from celebrities, its hard to justify anyone wanting to be interested in this stuff.
However, many companies are building there business on twitter and their relationship with customers. Part of the reason is that twitter is more than 140 characters. The 140 characters can be used as an appetizer to something bigger more useful, that has an infinite number of characters. The attachment facility of twitter creates the communication power that twitter is.
Companies use twitter to direct their customers to their websites, deliver special offers, communicate customer service records, build communities.
A community driven website that appeals to me is "Make it and Mend it" which is the brain child of four women – Clare Flynn, Clare O’Brien, Hilary Bruffell and Anne Caborn. The aim is to grow a community keen to share ideas and inspiration and which empowers everyone to re-use more and throw away less. This coven of commercially astute women have used the full gamut of social media channels including twitter @makeitandmendit, to build their community. In this throwaway community that contradicts its self with concerns about the environment and conservation, MIAMI hits the mark for many housewives and quite a few of their husbands too.
However, focusing on the twitter aspect of MAMI, this has been used strategically and effectively to build up the audience and at the same time has been beneficial to other businesses that support the ethos of reuseability and recycling such as Lucy Robert who makes some weird and wonderful home craft items.
Twitter has built up businesses greater than MAMI and is a useful communication tool that can be as powerful as to build a multi million pound business or as useless as telling every one about your breakfast.
Know more about the power of the tweet, now go and open up your own account at www.twitter.com and follow me @kappacino, MAMI @makeitandmendit, search what interests you and follow twitterers who interest you. Visit www.makeitandmendit.com and become a member.
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