No matter what the sport - football, golf, tennis, Formula 1 - the stakes for the top performing athletes are very high. The world’s best are paid in the millions, the pressure is intense and the margin between success and failure is slim. No wonder that these highly successful individuals work with performance coaches. Furthermore, they didn’t reach the top of their game and then get a coach. No, having that performance coach was a key factor in getting there.

As I recently watched a video of a US Navy Seal talking to actor Chris Pratt as they reviewed the finer points of weapon handling and hostage rescue tactics, I asked myself: should you really be giving this information away? It reminded me of a conversation with a coaching client who is a world-class expert in his field. He’d come to realise that in a few job interviews, the interviewer was primarily seeking to extract valuable market insights from him, rather than seriously considering him for the job at hand.

With that in mind, how much is too much to give away in an interview? How can you evidence your impact without losing impact?

There are some people who frequently have opportunities placed before them. They’re the ones who get promoted or recruited. Let’s consider those who prospered as the job market plummeted during the GFC. Despite the dire circumstances, a few were able to leave the sinking ship and move to a very attractive (and lucrative) safe harbour. How did they do that? What are the things that you can put in place now that will allow you to have that level of choice in the future? 

There’s no question that annual appraisals are pivotal moments as you build your career, get paid, get promoted and increase your ability to add value in a way that opens up future career opportunities. There are quite a number of things to consider - I’ll break them into five chunks in this short read, but to put it in a nutshell, it’s all about clarity of communication, managing expectations, and delivery.

The subject of successful networking at conferences recently came up in conversation with a coaching client. It’s not as simple as it may seem. In this short read, I'll offer some ideas and some kind of structure for how to network successfully at conferences.

We know that all economies and industries go through cycles. Layer structural changes on top of these, and we can anticipate that there will be tough times ahead. So what can we do to prepare and ensure we have some degree of Career Resilience?

Everything changes and nothing lasts forever, so at some point in your career, what you’re doing and what you want to do will come to an end. This may be for one of two fundamental reasons. Let’s look at this in a little more detail as we offer you some notions to consider.

How useful would it be in business to influence future colleagues and prospective customers before you have even met them? Is this even possible?

I would argue, yes. The answer is to create a Professional Brand.

Sometimes you might feel that you’re doing all the right things in your job search, but simply not getting much traction. what should you do to get that job that you really want? The answer probably lies in one of three areas.

According to People Management Magazine, 76% of candidates have been ‘ghosted’ in their job application process. In the same survey, it was found that the majority of candidates would rather hear a ‘no’ than nothing at all. So let’s see at ghosting, when it happens, and what - if anything - can be done to reduce the likelihood of it happening to you in your job search.

Financial Services professionals might consider that optimising is a basic thing to do in order to increase the career opportunities they’re presented with during their career. Choice, allied with critical selection and a plan, are good. Here are some basic steps that you can do to take the first steps to optimise your Profile.

When preparing for a job interview, it would be handy to know what sort of things the interviewer will want to ask about. To an extent, that’s been answered by Richard N Bolles in his classic book, “What Colour Is My Parachute”, where he discusses the four umbrellas. Is it possible to go deeper than that and how much depends on who will be interviewing you?  That’s the focus of this short read.

If you’re currently employed, is it possible to say that everything you see and do at work is a valuable opportunity to build your career equity? This links to an idea that someone mentioned to me recently: everything you do at work is evidence-gathering for your next job search.

In this blog, I’ll discuss some ideas that might be useful not only to progress your carer, but also so that you’re the one considered for promotion. It will also help ensure you have plenty of material to impress in any future job interview.

As we progress through our career, it’s useful to understand the components of our career equity: the value that we’ve accumulated over the course of our career. This helps us to understand where we are and where we’ve got to so far. It also gives us the opportunity to spot any weak areas of our game and to create a plan to improve all aspects, building towards our broader career goals and vision. In this week’s blog, we’ll look at the 7 key components of your career equity.

In a recent conversation with a potential client, I couldn’t understand his reluctance to reach out to decision makers and potential employers. This was despite him being highly motivated to move to a better firm. It turned out that he had a strong sense that he didn’t want to go ‘cap in hand’ and ask (or in his mind,' ‘beg’) for help, either from his network contacts or from key people who might want him to join their firm. 

So what’s the mindset that drives this avoidant behaviour and how can we turn it around to maximise chances of job search success

There may come a time in your job search when you’re asked by a firm to present your business plan as part of the recruiting process. On the one hand, you don’t want to give away your best ideas, and yet you do want to be credible. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: “There are no second acts in American lives”. It’s the idea that people who’ve done great things don’t go on to do more.

We all know that an important way to accelerate your job search is to be introduced to people who are senior and may be hiring managers. However, we also know that whilst promises are made in the moment, follow through and actually making the connection happens all too infrequently. So, what can you do to encourage your network contacts to actually deliver on what they say they’ll do in the moment?

Behavioural interview questions are bound to come up in almost any job interview. To deal with them effectively, they need to be answered slightly differently to 'competency questions. As part of our Foundation Coaching programme, we spend a good chunk of time looking at interviews, different question types, and how to best answer them. Clarifying what a behavioural interview question is - and how to effectively answer them - is the subject of this week’s blog.

Last night, I had a conversation with someone, trying to understand his job search efforts so far. Over the course of our chat, several job search ‘buzzwords’ were thrown around: networking, prospecting, marketing, to name a few. All three are absolutely central to an effective job search. That said, it’s important they’re used - and acted upon - with precision if you want your job search to be effective.

There’s no question that being able to demonstrate that you’re competent and have the skills and experience to do the job that they’re recruiting for is critical to success. There is, however, another factor that will often make all the difference: likeability.

When giving an example to the interviewer, you want to illustrate that you’re a great candidate, perhaps the best candidate for the role. You won’t achieve this if you’re off point, boring or simply lose the interviewer in an over-complicated and verbose answer. 

So, in this short read. we’ll look at how to prepare first class examples that you can use to showcase your abilities in the very best way.

If there are common career mistakes that others have learnt the hard way, let’s learn from their experiences and avoid making the same ones. This is Part 2 of a two-part series on career mistakes that many learn the hard way.

Over my 22-year career in Financial Services Executive Search and now, having been a Career Coach since the Global Financial Crisis, I’ve noticed some common career mistakes that even the most accomplished professionals make.

Forewarned is forearmed, so here’s Part 1 of a list of mistakes that many learn the hard way and can be avoided.

There may be a different feeling at work. Some people’s behaviour towards you has shifted. You’re no longer invited to certain meetings. In all, you have a gut feeling something isn’t right. Worst case scenario, you become worried that you may be about to be let go. If you find yourself in this position, what should you do? In this week’s blog, we discuss what you should always be doing as your default and what to do as you begin to read the runes.

Effective network is all about authentic reciprocity. Should the time come where you need to lean on your network - for example, if you’re looking for a new role - you’re far more likely to be met with success if you’ve been genuinely serving your network before the need arose.

There’s no doubt that conducting a job search can be a time-consuming and arduous endeavour. This is especially true if you’re out of work and have the additional pressure of cash flow concerns. So, what can you do to minimise stress and potential burnout during your job search?

The normal model for a job search is that you go online and apply for jobs, or hope that a recruiter will send you forward for openings that they’re working on. Perhaps you do some ‘networking’ by calling people you know and you may even meet a few for coffee. Our belief at Career Mentor is that in an effective job search, you need to be more proactive and in control of the process.

When you think about all of the things that go into presenting yourself in the optimum way during an interview, your posture and body language should definitely be on that list. In this blog, I’ll run through three levels to consider when it comes to body language and job interviews.

During a job search, you’re going to be reaching out to people in your professional network. Those people may be warm, lukewarm or cold contacts. There are a variety of reasons for wanting to send a message - primarily, it’s a step to ask for help to find and secure a job that aligns with your broader career goals. You’ll likely be doing this via text, email, Bloomberg or - increasingly - LinkedIn message.