After a long career in engineering, Barry decided to retire when the company closed his office. But adjusting to life outside of work was a struggle – he found it difficult to fill his days and he lost the sense of purpose his job had given him. With the right guidance and support, Barry discovered…
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How do you feel about the rapid development in AI? Fascinated? Terrified? Maybe a little bit of both? Whilst the possibilities it offers are undoubtedly exciting, we’ve all seen the alarming predictions in the media about how AI could kill certain jobs – and this has left many of us feeling anxious about how our…
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As we approach the final weeks of 2025, it’s time for that familiar yet crucial exercise: reviewing your professional development over the past year. But this year, I’d encourage you to add a new lens to your reflection – one that’s reshaping careers across every sector and at every level. Are you actively building AI…
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Too many hires don’t work out At a recent talk I gave to HR Directors about unconscious bias in recruitment, the overwhelming consensus was that far too many new hires don’t work out. If that doesn’t surprise you, you’ve probably been stung in the past. So what can we do to get it right first…
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After a long career in engineering, Barry decided to retire when the company closed his office. But adjusting to life outside of work was a struggle – he found it difficult to fill his days and he lost the sense of purpose his job had given him. With the right guidance and support, Barry discovered…
Read more
A career crisis – like losing our job or being treated unfairly at work – can trigger a storm of negative emotions that batter our self-worth and wreck our work identity. It’s perfectly normal to feel these emotions at difficult times in our work lives. But if we don’t let go of them, they can…
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Struggling to find joy or purpose in your career? Need an antidote to feeling enslaved by work?
After a long career in engineering, Barry decided to retire when the company closed his office. But adjusting to life outside of work was a struggle – he found it difficult to fill his days and he lost the sense of purpose his job had given him. With the right guidance and support, Barry discovered…
Read more
How do you feel about the rapid development in AI? Fascinated? Terrified? Maybe a little bit of both? Whilst the possibilities it offers are undoubtedly exciting, we’ve all seen the alarming predictions in the media about how AI could kill certain jobs – and this has left many of us feeling anxious about how our…
Read more
As we approach the final weeks of 2025, it’s time for that familiar yet crucial exercise: reviewing your professional development over the past year. But this year, I’d encourage you to add a new lens to your reflection – one that’s reshaping careers across every sector and at every level. Are you actively building AI…
Read more
Too many hires don’t work out At a recent talk I gave to HR Directors about unconscious bias in recruitment, the overwhelming consensus was that far too many new hires don’t work out. If that doesn’t surprise you, you’ve probably been stung in the past. So what can we do to get it right first…
Read more
Struggling to find joy or purpose in your career? Need an antidote to feeling enslaved by work?
Do you feel like a slave to your career? And if so, what could you do to free yourself?
How can you get ahead in your career in an unpredictable world that is ever-evolving?
So many of my clients can recall times when they had to manage a difficult or unpleasant situation at work – like making a person redundant, or taking them through a disciplinary procedure – and the wheels came off, despite their best efforts. Has this happened to you? If you wished you’d had some strategies…
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A career crisis – like losing our job or being treated unfairly at work – can trigger a storm of negative emotions that batter our self-worth and wreck our work identity. It’s perfectly normal to feel these emotions at difficult times in our work lives. But if we don’t let go of them, they can…
Read more
If your business is struggling to find the right candidates for the right roles, don’t write off older workers. It’s time to get ‘age-smart’ and rethink what a ‘good’ candidate looks like. This means not writing off older workers, and instead recognising the unique value and wisdom they bring to the workplace, and putting in…
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It’s hard to ignore that the World is in the grips of a crisis. Times like this often lead to people experiencing redundancy and losing our jobs.
A key part of successfully managing your career is building good relationships with others – which is why developing effective communication skills is so crucial.
Recruitment can sometimes feel like a merry-go-round – as one person gets on, another gets off.
If you really want to start managing your own career, rather than sitting on the sidelines, the most obvious thing to do is to have a word with your boss.
Don’t you hate it when you try to talk to someone at work about something that’s bothering you and the communication goes wrong?
Staff retention is the biggest issue at board level – at least that’s what I’m hearing every day from my clients in businesses both large and small. With the UK facing a skills shortage, too many companies are chasing too few employees, and as a result, many tell me they’re struggling to attract the right…
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Career change can be scary, but it can also be an incredible opportunity to re-evaluate what it is you really want from your career. Whether you’ve been made redundant, or decided to leave your job of your own accord, managing a major change in your career can be challenging. There are so many different decisions…
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Before you make a career change and leap into the unknown, just take a minute – those new pastures might not be quite as lush as you think
Sam’s* a 35-year-old office worker. Her experience of diversity and inclusion is negative and her career seems to have stalled. She’s bright, capable, skilled and experienced, but she hates her job. At work, she feels undervalued and excluded. She’s also frustrated that she’s not able to realise her true potential. She’d like to leave, but…
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Hiring is much like a rollercoaster, it’s full of twists and turns... How can we be retaining new employees effectively, beyond the first 90 days?
We are in a tough hiring market in the UK and the way we recruit is being seriously shaken up. Employers should be focusing on recruiting potential.
There are 1 million job vacancies. If you're considering a career change, it's time to show off your transferable skills and secure your dream job!
Recruiting in 2021 needs a fresh approach - opening your eyes to inclusivity and diversity in the workplace is how to score top talent, and retain it.
COVID-19 has triggered significant change for us all. Where are you in your career cycles, are you facing a new beginning?
The past year has allowed us all to revaluate a lot of things. From our jobs, to our home lives and hobbies, to our work-life balance. And as a result, I’m seeing a real shift in the way people think about work. No longer is having a job what’s important – we’re thinking more about…
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Has the global pandemic prompted an unexpected career change for you? Find out how to turn it into a purposeful experience.
How to tap into the power of words and language (the LAB Profile) in order to streamline and increase the success rates of recruiting and retaining.
The way we work is changing – not slowly, but rapidly – all thanks to the coronavirus quarantine. Businesses are quickly being forced to adapt all their processes and people to a new style of remote working. This flexible approach to the workplace is something I’ve been encouraging for a while, as remote working can…
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Working environment is one of the most common causes of employee dissatisfaction. How does a working environment contribute to increased retention rates?
When there is mass uncertainty and economic instability, people are often made redundant. So what can you do to make your career resilient?
During times of uncertainty, how can we do things a little differently, so that we can take advantage of the uncertainty and maintain our business or career?
I recently visited the new offices of Abcam, a local Cambridge business supplying protein research tools to life scientists. They’ve recently moved to a purpose-built building and had the chance to completely change the working environment for their employees. I was so struck by how fantastically flexible and smart Abcam’s new offices were, that I…
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Clients are often telling me that they don’t feel they are reaching their full potential at work. When I ask them why, they usually aren’t sure! The most common answers centre around ‘opportunities’ or ‘colleagues’, but rarely ever do people mention ‘work environment’. What’s your current working environment? Is it, open plan, private office, remote…
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When you think of a job advert, it’s usually skills based. Only a small section of the usual job advert is given to describing a candidate’s attitude or approach to work. Yet this is usually the most important part of hiring!
Mid-Brexit, organisations are tightening their belts and preparing for the challenges that we are about to face. Outplacement support will help you through uncertain times however redundancy has affected you.
It's never too late for a career change. Many think it's risky to change careers over 50. But that's no longer the case. We live 100 year lives, and retirement age is constantly getting later... why stick with a job that you don't love?
Before you read on any further, I want to ask you a serious question... How often do you step outside of your comfort zone at work?
Last week I received an email from a client challenging and telling me that “the vast majority of recruiters are looking for carbon copies” - recruiting based on keywords alone. Are they?
Transferable skills are undoubtedly one of the most overlooked requirements when it comes to job descriptions and job applications. We've all got them, so why are we not mentioning them to potential employers?
When we hit the job market, there’s one thing we focus our job-seeking attention on – our external career brand. But your career brand isn't just external.
Interview situations are often nerve-wracking. It's no surprise that this pressure often leads to brain freeze.
Career profiling with the LAB Profile unlocked the power of communication for this client.
Career Ambitions offers a profiling system as part of our career management coaching called the Language and Behavioural (LAB) Profile.
Many candidates have told me that they are worrying that the job market is slowing down due to Brexit. But what real evidence do they have?
Earlier this year, I was interviewed by the incredible Adelina Chalmers (a.k.a. The Geek Whisperer) and James Parton (of The Bradfield Centre in Cambridge) for their podcast, Scaling, Failing & Prevailing. We talked all things start-up recruitment.
Careers are not for life! How often do you re-calibrate and re-evaluate your career?
80% of the people we spoke to said they had not yet found their ideal career yet. Why?
We chatted to style advisor and fashion industry expert Lesley Clarke, to find out how to dress on your first day at work.
In hiring, bias is bad. There are no two ways about it. Be it unconscious or conscious, bias gets in the way and stops us from making the right hiring decisions. But we've all got it!
The typical job interview process fixates on ensuring that new hires are technically competent. Only 11% of respondents in the study cited technical competence (or a lack thereof) as the reason for an employee leaving.
It seems as though every month there’s a new approach to recruiting. The beer test, video interviews, assignments… candidates never know what to expect. These various approaches are often driven by recruiting managers to find the people they need – but leave everyone else in the process confused and unsure in which direction to go……
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How often do you recruit based on talent alone? You might think, always! But the truth is it’s probably less often than you would like to admit. Opening your eyes to a new pool of talent will help you to develop a more inclusive, diverse workplace.
As a recruitment and retention coach, clients often come to me having experienced a recruitment failure. In fact, 85% of HR decision makers admit that their organisations have made recruitment mistakes.
Our workforce is fragile – with a severe talent shortage predicted for the UK post-Brexit. How can we protect our teams and organisations from the changes that many believe are just around the corner?
The world of work is changing, and so are candidates... What skills will they need? Persistence and curiosity says Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google. But how can we attract these top candidates and identify who to hire?
There has been a rise in The Beer Test where a candidate is invited to join the team for lunch or a drink, in order to test-drive them and see if they can get on with colleagues in a more relaxed, social setting. How accurate is it? Find out more ...
Recruiting has personal and financial costs that we often don't think about. The results of miss-hiring are significant.
What exactly is "Blind Recruitment" and how can you find your ideal candidate without being able to see? I trialled the approach on a senior role with surprising results!
Words have power. They have the power to make or break someone’s career or send your business down the pan. When writing a job advert, it’s important to consider the long term.
There are plenty of models and research available around how to identify who will fit into your workplace culture when recruiting. But when it comes to the crunch time, do these really apply?
One of the biggest and most common mistakes most companies make when hiring is that they don’t seriously think about the type of person they are looking for and what they specifically need them to achieve before jumping into the recruitment process with neglected job descriptions. Most job descriptions are a visible indicator of just…
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This week was a first – being interviewed on a Google hangout by Ann Hawkins on one of my favourite topics: “Are introverts or extroverts more successful in business?” Ann asked some thought provoking questions that pushed me to the brink of revealing the answer! LAB profiling allows us to listen to what people are…
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Negotiating a new job offer can seem scary, but it doesn't need to be! How to negotiate successfully and secure your dream job (on your terms).
Stress can help us to perform and rise to the challenges that life and work throws at us. But if you don't manage stress well, you may experience burnout...
If you’re looking for a new job, networking is an extremely important part of the process. The most important networking tool is the Elevator Pitch.
