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Author Archives: Dasha Amrom

My first live TED adventure

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“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it”
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Unusually for me, this post is not about job search, interviews or other employment-related issues. It is about my experience of attending a live TEDx conference at Warwick University on 9th March.

In my spare time, I enjoy listening to inspirational, educational TED talks and normally select the ones directly relevant to me and my interests – principally business and economics. For instance, a few days ago, I listened to a talk by Simon Sinek on how great leaders (both companies and individuals) can inspire action and innovation, where he discussed his concept of the ‘Golden Circle’. I find that these business-oriented talks are a perfect way to update my knowledge in the most time-effective manner. In a way, each talk is like a ‘mini MBA’ on a particular subject compressed in twenty minutes. I deeply admire the ingenuity, creativity and talent of many of the presenters I have listened to.

The conference I attended at Warwick covered areas I would not normally choose to listen to on TED.com. The main theme of the day was ‘Building Bridges’ and it included a number of talks on the scientific issues, such as the human genome and its link to various genetic and life-threatening diseases, such as cancer and MS. My main takeaway from the talk given by Gilean McVean was that humans are the least diverse of the species on Earth and there is only tiny variation in our genetic makeup whether we are from Europe, Africa or Asia.

There were also speakers talking about inefficiencies and delays in aid provision in war-stricken parts of the world, such as the former Yugoslavia and Africa. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that it takes on average 13 weeks for humanitarian aid to be delivered to those in need!

 In a totally different vein, a blind musician Derek Paravicini played several amazing pieces on the piano – a true musical genius who, despite his autism, taught himself to play and compose music and is now an internationally acclaimed pianist.  Have a look at his website and listen to some of his masterpieces: http://www.sonustech.com/paravicini/.

I was mesmerised too by the incredible photographs of Fabian Oefner who has managed to capture the sound waves coming from a speaker in an image so usual that when I saw it for the first time, I thought it was a photo of a volcanic eruption! You can see for yourself here: http://www.fabianoefner.com/64838/556897/projects/dancing-colors.

During the whole event, the only talk that was related to my original interests was the one by Jasper McMahon – a co-developer of a new economic model called ‘now-casting’. The model is designed to address the inefficiencies and propensity for error of ordinary forecasting models of GDP and other economic variables.

I have stepped of my comfort zone by listening to the talks I would not normally listen to and it was an unbelievable experience completely worth the time and effort. For me, this amazing conference was a proof that the world is still full of innovative, passionate and talented individuals with strong principles and incredible ideas – all that is required from us all is to listen to them and try to spread their word to improve and better ourselves and the world we live in.

Dasha Amrom

How to succeed at interviews?

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‘By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail’ (Benjamin Franklin)

Have you just submitted your application to the job of your dreams and now wait to hear if you are going to be invited for an interview? Or perhaps you have already received the long-awaited call confirming a date and time to meet with an employer. Then continue reading – this post is for you.

My first (and main) piece of advice is to prepare. Your preparation should start not a week or a few days before the interview itself, but at the point when you notice the job ad and decide that you are going to apply. It should start with in-depth research into the company, its size, the financials, recent managerial appointments, its competitors and any recent deals it has been part to. You could read relevant independent reports (for instance from Mintel and Euromonitor) relating to the industry in question. These reports often contain  detailed list of competitors and their market shares. Keep in mind that each industry has its own set of popular trade publications so you would need to identify and read those. LinkedIn is a useful source of information at the research stage – you can find the current and former employees of the company and possibly get in touch to book a quick ‘informational’ phone conversation. Start following the company on Twitter – this will help bring you up to speed with recent company news and relevant media coverage. I would encourage you to actively engage and comment on Twitter posts of interest to you.

The second piece of advice is closely linked to the research you will be conducting. During your research, you will invariably encounter things that you would like to clarify further, issues that you do not fully understand. I would suggest jotting these points down as you go along and by the end of your research process, you will have accumulated a sizable list of issues that you can convert into questions to discuss during your interview. This is a more time-effective way to prepare questions for your interviewer and it also helps you consolidate and organise your knowledge about the company and identify the gaps you would like to be filled during the interview itself. Interviewers look favourably on candidates who demonstrate extensive knowledge and curiosity about the company. Thorough research and well-thought-through questions will help you stand out – companies tend to prefer people who know small details about them to those with great achievements in the past but know nothing about the company or the department they are applying to now.

The third and the final piece of advice is to practise and role play the answers to the most difficult questions with a family member, a career coach, a friend, or just with yourself in front of the mirror. It will not only boost your confidence but will also make you pay attention to your body language (if somebody else is role playing with you, ask them to be as honest as possible in their feedback) but also how long it takes you to answer each question. The length of time per question is an important metric and you should be able to express yourself in a succinct and clear manner. I would suggest picking out the most challenging questions for your practice role plays. I would normally recommend selecting questions about your weak points and carefully preparing the answers for those. For instance, ‘please give me an example of the worst mistake you have made in your career’, ‘what is your greatest weakness’, ‘if I were to speak to your former boss, which thing would they mention as your weakest link?’ There is a myriad of similar questions you can find on the Internet so there is no excuse not to prepare answers for at least some of them.

In the words of Confucius, ‘Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure’. So the three keys to your success at interviews are preparation, intelligent questions and rehearsal!

I would be interested to hear what worked for you during your interviews and what you found to be the keys to your interview success. Please share your experiences here.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” (Confucius)

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How many times have you overheard your colleagues, friends and family complaining how much they don’t like their jobs?  And how many of us have thought to ourselves at least once how much happier we would be living a simple lifestyle somewhere in the picturesque countryside without the constant worries of commuting to work in overcrowded buses and trains and then rushing to the nursery or school to pick up our kids.

I had these thoughts on an almost daily basis when I was working for an international company in London many years ago. I liked the working environment and my colleagues, who all had interesting backgrounds. But I didn’t enjoy the job itself. I started as an analyst there straight after university and, at first it was all very exciting with my responsibilities including recruiting international teams of researchers, travelling to the Czech Republic and Slovakia and presenting to large multinational corporations. Then after about a year into my job, I grew tired of the same repetitive tasks, the same people I had to manage, the same queries from the same clients. And I knew it was time to leave…Work had become a chore, not a source of inspiration and self-improvement.

Doing something you don’t enjoy can make your life seem dull and unrewarding. It can kill your creative side and turn you into a human ‘robot’ doing the same thing over and over again with automatic precision but with a lack of thought and enthusiasm.

I was talking to my friend yesterday and mentioned that after I set up my own business, I felt that I have finally uncovered my creative side, which seemed long lost during my previous employment. When you do a job you are passionate about, working at the weekends and in the evenings no longer seems like a burden. In fact, you start to look forward to more work, become more of a risk-taker, learn to overcome difficulties and challenges with a positive attitude and self-belief. Setting my own business, for instance, made me  free to discover new angles and approaches, unconstrained by bureaucracy, rigidity and strict reporting lines of an organisation I used to work for.

If you feel stuck and unhappy in your current job, then it is time for you do something about it. It may be hard to break away from something you know so well (and are good at) and venture into the unknown, but it is well worth the risk. Once you start the process, you will discover the inner strength and motivation you need to make your life-changing move. Don’t be afraid to explore opportunities and new avenues in your professional life – even something you have never thought you could be good at. Be daring and take calculated risks and you will get a return on your investment! I love this quote by Alexander Solzhenitsyn “If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?”

I will be glad to hear your thoughts – please feel free to post your comments!

Dasha Amrom

Transferable skills: from motherhood to a job

Young Mother Kissing InfantI have recently met a middle-aged woman who has been out for work for the last three years. She told me that before she had her two daughters, she had worked in a large international FMCG company and was responsible for marketing of one of the world’s famous brands. When she decided to try and get back into employment after her maternity leave, she received rejection after rejection and as a result, lost her confidence and inspiration to look for more jobs. She confided in me that at one of her interviews, a sympathetic hiring manager openly told her that it would be much harder for her to demonstrate her skills and abilities after such a long ‘break’, even though she had completely dedicated her time to caring for her children and hadn’t had a free moment to herself for a very long time.

This story has inspired me to write this post. I believe that being a mother teaches a woman a number of invaluable skills that can be easily transferred and add value in the world of work. We can call it ‘a competitive advantage’ of motherhood.

The first one of these transferable skills is efficiency. Being a mother forces a woman to learn to juggle a few tasks at the same time. Motherhood is a challenging, high-paced job and you don’t just stop because it is time for lunch or Friday 5pm has struck. There is an endless list of things that need to be completed with the baby being a demanding ‘manager’, continuously assessing your efforts and evaluating your progress. This ability to multi-task is invaluable in a workplace where you may, for instance, be required to prepare a presentation while answering client calls and contacting the technical team for assistance – all at the same time. And on top of this, you are subjected to tremendous time pressure to accomplish all of these tasks.

This brings me to the next crucial transferrable skill – effective time management. Being a mother, you normally don’t get a chance to read, relax, and listen to music in the privacy of your own company unless a baby is napping or is in bed for the night. So you learn to use these precious couple of hours to catch up on the latest news, answer long-neglected emails, return phone calls and maybe if lucky, do a spot of shopping online. You become a ‘master’ of time management, taking seconds to skim through interesting articles, book pages, long emails, listen to the news while preparing the next batch of pureed food for your constantly hungry baby. Let me tell you – the modern workplace ‘screams’ for employees who can plan and execute an important project in the matter of hours and while at it, do it to the highest standard of quality. And then keep taking on more tasks and assignments not to waste the remaining time. Mothers do appreciate the value of time and how best to use it!

The third transferable skill I would like to emphasise is the ability to regroup fast after numerous setbacks. Mothers face many frustrating rejections and challenges on an almost every day basis – the baby may refuse a bottle or his vegetables for lunch, or suddenly change his mind about the time of his nap. The woman needs to be able to adjust fast and find an alternative course of action to achieve the result. Thick-skinned employees who can pull themselves together after a failure or any kind of setback are respected and in high demand. Say, for instance, the client is not satisfied with the final report you have produced on the back of a long and difficult project. It is easy to get de-motivated and start blaming your colleagues who have also contributed to the report. Alternatively, you can just pull yourself together and spend some time re-writing and perfecting the parts of the report your client is not happy about. Being a mother teaches you to choose the latter path.

I believe that being a mother equips you with an arsenal of many highly-transferable skills that employers seek out in their candidates. It is a matter of believing in yourself, emphasising these abilities and the ways they can be of use in a workplace. For some, it may take years to develop and perfect these skills so take advantage of this other gift the motherhood has given you!

Dasha Amrom

 

‘How long should my CV be?’ and your other questions answered here!

 

 

Q: Should I include a photo on my CV?

A: Generally speaking, I would recommend not to add a photo on your CV since it can distract from the actual content and is not relevant for a job application (unless it is for a modelling agency!)

 

Q: Shall I include A-levels on my CV?

A: I would only include A-levels if you are in the very early stages of your career and either studying for your Bachelor’s degree or have recently graduated. You could also choose to leave your A-levels grades for longer if they are good grades!

 

Q: A skills-based or chronological CV?

A: I would suggest a chronological CV since it is much clearer than a skills-based one and provides complete transparency of the lengths of time you have spent in a particular job or doing a degree/course. In my experience, employers usually tend to prefer chronological CVs

 

Q: What do I do if there is not enough information on the company in their job ad?

A: I would conduct thorough research of the industry and the company’s competitors to gain a fuller understanding of the relevant marketplace and what other similar companies in the field are doing. I would also search LinkedIn for the names of current/former employees who you could talk to for their opinions/suggestions.

 

Q: How long should a CV be?

A: I would say no longer than two pages but it all depends on the sector you are applying to. For instance, if you are applying for a junior position in the financial services or sales sectors, then one page is a must. If, on the contrary, you are a mid-career professional, I would advise for a two page CV since you are likely to have a number of years of experience that you would like to be reflected and one page may not be enough for you. The length of a CV is not exact science and it all depends on your years of experience, stage in your career and how many employers you have had.

 

Q: Shall I disclose the prolonged period of sickness on my CV/Cover letter or try to hide it somehow?

A: I would fully disclose it in your cover letter. Sickness is nothing to be ashamed of and you may find that many employers are very sympathetic. If you have undertaken any reading/courses during your sickness leave or anything to keep you up to date with the latest industry developments, it will be worth mentioning it in your cover letter as well

 

Q: How can I make my cover letter stand out?

A: The key thing is to use the language that demonstrates your energy, enthusiasm and interest in the advertised position. The cover letter should not be longer than one page and it should ideally consist of three to four concise and succinct paragraphs. In your cover letter, you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of your target company and what is distinctive about it. Try not to be too general and demonstrate how you fulfil the key parts of the job spec by reference to specific past experiences.

 

If you have any other questions/issues that you are not sure about, please post them here and I will endevour to address them.

Dasha

 

 

 

 

‘3 S’ framework of effective networking

 

‘A group or system of interconnected people or things’ – this is how the Oxford dictionary defines the word ‘network’. But how big should this group be? How should you go about building your web of connections?

I address these and other related questions in this article about job search-focussed networking and provide some tips on how to optimise your career progression through consistent and well thought-through networking efforts. Say, for instance, you have been looking for a job for quite a while and you have been doing it via submitting your CV on various job sites or through recruitment agents. But, unfortunately, to no avail. Or you got bored with your old job and would like a change. In these and many other cases, networking could be the key for you to succeed in attaining these goals.

I believe that the broader you spread your networking ‘net’, the more people you are likely to touch and be able to fall back on when the time of need comes. Some networking experts would disagree and claim that it is not the number of people you know but the quality that counts. Quality is also essential of course – you could, for instance, get to know only a few senior managers from your target company. But would they help you understand what is happening on the ground? Would they be able to share an unbiased opinion of what the working environment is like on say, the middle management level?

Perhaps,  but you are more likely to get a thorough understanding of the company if you aim to establish connections with people from all different levels of seniority including more junior employees across different departments. To accomplish this, you would first need to map out and understand the structure of the company in great detail.

So the first ‘S’ of efficient job-focussed networking is:

–         Structure. You should aim to research the company’s organisational structure and ideally, draw out a diagram representing the layers of management, departments and reporting lines. I recognise that it can be a challenging and, sometimes, seemingly impossible task, but there are many different ways to source this information. Search the news, press releases, company website, LinkedIn and you will gradually start filling the gaps and the missing links on your organisational map. Keep updating and refining it on a regular basis and you will soon end up with a good representation of the target company’s structure including the names of the people you might want to approach.

Similarly to any other worthy pursuits, you should strive to allocate a certain amount of time each day to your networking efforts. I would even go as far as to suggest that you should consistently aim to devote at least an hour per day to developing your network but it all depends on your personal ambitions and the speed with which you want to expand your connections. So now we have arrived at the second ‘S’ of efficient job-focussed networking:

–         Sustained effort. It is crucial to put in sustained regular effort into building your network. It is no use, for instance, to research five companies in one day and then give up until resuming the work a month later. You could aim to prepare a plan – possibly in Word or Excel – where you can input the newly acquired information making it easier to track your progress and expand the information at a later stage. You could add the contact details for a person, their industry of expertise, their position and brief details of your personal relationship with that person. You should try not to leave the document unupdated for more than a few days.

Although you should always aim for a bigger and broader network, you should also be careful not to spread your efforts too widely. You would want to include people who are relevant to your job search so, for instance, it wouldn’t make much sense to research a local supermarket unless you are aiming for a career in retailing. Once you have compiled your initial contact database and started getting to know people, make sure you approach them on an ‘informational’ basis, to learn more about them, their experiences and ask them for advice and guidance. Don’t take people for granted and make sure you keep a close watch on your phone conversations, emails and personal meetings to prevent producing the negative impression that you are just trying to get a job.

So here comes the final ‘S’:

–         Put all your networking efforts under close scrutiny to impress your contacts, to gain as much knowledge as possible about them and to avoid the ‘just to get a job’ attitude. Keep track and log all the key points and learnings from your conversations and change the direction immediately once you spot the warning signs. Trying to be sincerely interested in the other person, wanting to understand how their company operates, asking for their advice and being grateful for their time would help you build a rapport with you contact and make them more inclined to talk and help you in the future.

I would be interested to know your tips for successful job search-focused networking. Please feel free to share your examples and experiences.

A note on self-belief

 “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill

Every one of us has faced rejection at certain points of our lives and we know by experience how disenchanting it can feel. We, as human beings, strive for recognition, approval, praise, affirmation of our strengths and achievements. Rejection does the opposite – it brings us down, pinpoints our weaknesses, and erodes our confidence and self-belief. This is not to say that we can’t unlock our inner strength to overcome the ‘blues’ of rejection and turn it around in our favour.

Take job interviews, for instance. You have been fighting for this amazing opportunity by putting yourself through multiple rounds of gruesome interviews and just when you thought you got the job, you receive the dreaded phone call informing you that, unfortunately, despite your great performance at the interviews, they have decided to go for someone else. The situation sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

So what do you do next? You have two options really. The first one is to sit back and give up on any further attempts. ‘What is the point? They will reject me anyway.’ Or alternatively, you could pull yourself together, pick up the phone and try to find out what was the exact reason why you have not been chosen. Most likely, the company is not going to be upfront with you and will say they don’t disclose their reasons for rejections. But the main thing is trying to overcome the stifling feeling of unworthiness that may set in after you get a rejection call. And for this to happen you need to act – do anything to stir your enthusiasm – maybe you could try putting your feelings in words in a blog, in an email to friends or family or simply on a piece of paper in front of you.

I believe it is possible to make a comeback from pretty much any job-related rejection situation you may be faced with. The only real tool you need is belief in yourself, in your strength, intellect, use your will power and keep going. Never give up.

Around five years ago the company I was working for got dissolved and I found myself unemployed at the height of the recession, I applied to many jobs and got straight rejections from most of them. What did I do? I persevered, searched for more opportunities through a different route – contacting companies direct rather than through recruitment agents. I went for interviews, was pushed back, went for more interviews and eventually found a job I really loved. The lesson for me was that a rejection can lead to the bout of creativity and inspiration and make you approach things from a different perspective. For me it was a realisation that I didn’t want to use recruitment agents in my job pursuits but instead, to get in touch with companies directly.

I have also been turned down for promotion at the job I had been doing for a long time and excelled at. Despite being one of the top performers, I was rejected and somebody with just a few months experience was taken on instead. Did it upset me? Yes, of course, it did! I began to feel depressed and it started to have an impact on my performance and my life in general. Then I decided that enough was enough. I went to my managers and asked them to create a plan for me on what more I had to do to make that or any other similar post in the future. I prepared training seminars for our employees, worked hard on my targets. As a result of taking a deliberate action, I have reinforced my self-belief and confidence and moved on from that disappointing experience.

I have learned some important lessons from my life and experiences:

–          Act (do something) immediately after you have experienced a job-related rejection. It could be a follow-up phone call, re-designing your CV or devising a new approach to your job search. You could, for instance, write down a list of all your main achievements to date and send it over to an employer in addition to your CV.

–          Never give up. Take a different look at what you are trying to achieve, assume a new perspective, change your course of action 360 but do not give up. Keep going no matter hard it may seem. You will eventually reach your ‘destination’.

–          Believe in yourself. No matter what happens, know that you can do it and overcome the challenges. All you really need is self-belief. With it, you can make your life a success – without, you may be lost.

It all sounds easy you may say, but in reality, self-belief doesn’t come to some people naturally.  Cultivating self-belief, like many other pursuits in life, requires patience, perseverance and practise.

You could, for instance, seek out opportunities to try something new, something you have never tried before. It could be giving a presentation without notes or slides to support you, learning how to create your personal website or attempting to write articles and blogs. In other words, find something that will force you out of your comfort zone and seek people’s feedback on what you have accomplished. Encouragement and positive comments are certain to bolster your confidence and self-esteem and promote your self-belief. Well, in any case, it is worth a try.

Dasha Amrom

‘SHINE to the TOP’ competency-based interview framework

 

I have developed a technique, which you can use at different kinds of behavioural interviews. There are certain competencies an employer would like you to demonstrate during this kind of interview.

So this framework I have designed could help you remember the key things you would need to describe during your competency interviews along with providing examples of situations where you have exhibited all or some of these competencies.

I called the framework – SHINE to the TOP. I hope that by employing it during your interviews, you will ‘shine to the top’ of the shortlisted candidates for the next selection round! And it will give you an idea what examples you will need to prepare to shine!

So SHINE stands for:

S – Stress tolerance. It is crucial for you to provide examples from your work experience when you were put under pressure. It could either be a situation when you had only a limited amount of time to complete a certain task, or a client has suddenly decided to make a last-minute change in a project plan and that has put you and other colleagues under stress. Or possibly, you thought you have almost made that important sale but the client has pulled out from the deal at the last minute and you are now faced with a challenge and stress of how to explain it to the boss. Make sure you don’t merely provide examples of stressful situations but also the ways you have dealt with your stress, such as for instance, sitting down and writing out your plan on how to make up the money lost through a client pulling out – day by day or maybe even hour by hour.

H – Honesty. This really speaks for itself. It is crucial you find suitable examples to demonstrate your honesty and integrity in the workplace. If you are running out of the work-related examples, you could perhaps provide some from your personal life.

I – Initiative.  Initiative is something all employers would love their employers to demonstrate on a daily basis. So try to find examples where you can show how you have volunteered for something at your job. For instance, it may be that your boss wanted somebody to prepare a training course for the team and you felt you could do it well and volunteered. Or you have expressed your wish to go to a different office for a week to train people there or simply share experiences. Or to work at the weekend to polish that important presentation. Or you have decided to test the ground and apply for a management post advertised at your company (this would also demonstrate confidence and self-belief!)

N- Networking skill. Have you managed to up sell a product by networking with your current clients? Have you attended an important conference and networked efficiently, which resulted in a few new clients coming on board? Or maybe you have networked within your current company between departments and established a regular inter-departmental meeting? These are just a few thoughts on some of the examples you may give to demonstrate your outstanding networking abilities.

E – Ethic (work ethic.)This is quite an elusive term and quite hard to define. I guess for me, good work ethic would mean coming to work on time, completing all the required tasks and serving a good example to the colleagues. But this could also include workplace integrity and honesty.  This competency is a hard one so you should think carefully about the examples that could be of relevance here.

And TOP stands for:

T – Team work. This all important team work! How many times have we heard about it at the job selection process or after we got the job. I believe it is relatively easy to find examples of successful team work but be warned – it is so easy to start talking about how your team has achieved this or that. Instead you would need to single out your particular contribution within that team. I would advise to use ‘I’ more often than ‘we’ when talking about the project you have completed in a team, or your leadership skills when leading a team towards a certain goal.

O – Organisational awareness. This is another difficult one. Here I would recommend collating two or three examples of when you had to speak on behalf of your company and promote its values and mission. It could be at an international conference, a trade show or an inspirational team building day with your colleagues or just simply as a manager inspiring your subordinates to achieve their monthly sales target for instance.

P – Problem solving. This is a relatively easy one in my opinion. Make sure you think of two to three occasions when you have solved a particular issue/problem or faced and overcome a challenge in a workplace. Some ideas may include, your subordinate has not attended his scheduled meeting with a client so you are faced with a potential disciplinary. What do you do? How do you tackle it? Or the project you have been leading is running late and is out of pocket – how do you deal with it? I would say this competency is one of the easiest to provide examples for since it is based purely on facts and outcomes.

Hope it was useful and you have enjoyed it. If you have any further questions on the framework or need some particular advice on how to prepare for an interview, don’t hesitate to get in touch at careercoaching.ccv@gmail.com.

Working part-time: can you make the best of it?

Many of us, especially women with small children often face a dilemma – ‘shall I go back to work full-time or reduce my hours and go part-time’? People also ask these questions when their employer has downsized and they are faced with an option of staying in the part-time capacity or leaving the company. Or possibly, they are juggling two jobs – both part-time, which makes it even harder to be efficient and achieve results.

Some people also may end up feeling second-rate in the aftermath of going part-time. It could be due to their working environment (unfortunately, some employers still look down on their part-time employees) or it could simply be the result of how they start viewing themselves as opposed to how they used to be when they were working full-time.

Those working part-time (this is particularly the case when women return from their maternity leave) may start feeling less confident, less efficient, which in turn can lead to worse performance, procrastination and feelings of unhappiness and dissatisfaction with their jobs (and lives in general!).

We should always remember that a lot of high-achieving individuals work part-time while heading up companies and running international divisions. I had a look at the recently compiled list of the famous part-times and was amazed to see that a Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Investment banking division currently works just four days per week after coming back from her maternity leave! This is simply unbelievable (and inspiring) – a woman working part-time in such a macho and super-charged environment interspersed with frequent inter-continental travel.

http://www.timewisejobs.co.uk/staticpages/11000/revealed-the-uk-s-power-part-time-top-50/#list

If they can do it – we certainly can do it! And while at it – achieve the highest posts within an organisations and prove that a part-time worker can be as efficient (if not more so due to time pressure) as a full-timer.

Here are a few trade secrets compiled by me:

–          Strive to be on top of all your tasks time-wise and plan ahead carefully for each day you are going to be in the office. You can for instance, pre-set your agenda on Monday for the next few days – outlining for yourself your schedule and the tasks that need to be accomplished hour by hour. Yes – hour by hour no less no more! Try not to leave any tasks unfinished by the time you leave for the week. This will hopefully help you stay focused and motivated and project a positive impression.

–          Provide contact details for co-workers/clients to be able to get in touch when you are not at work. This should of course be done within reason – so it may be a good idea to provide a one- or two-hour slot during the day when they can call or email you. This would help you ‘be present’ at the office even when you are at home.

–          You could also ask your colleague to follow-up on certain tasks for you in your absence or in case something goes wrong. It would be best to provide a detailed written outline of where you are with your work and what may potentially go wrong and the suggested ways to mitigate it. This would allow your colleague to get to grips with the situation relatively quickly and would leave a good impression of you for the management.

–          Aim to have a regular update/catch up session with your boss. It would help both of you – for him to stay in the loop and to feel included and involved and for you – to build a good impression of yourself. I would suggest as often as twice per week – at the beginning and the end of your working week.

–          Occasionally you should try and stay for a meeting for which you are not paid or which falls outside your working hours. Or possibly, participate in an activity alongside full-time employees. This will aid your image and show that you are on the same page with your full-time colleagues.

These are just some of the tips you may find helpful and I would be delighted to hear the ideas and comments based on  your personal experiences!

Dasha Amrom

How to write a winning resume?

No doubt you have thought to yourself many times about what a great resume should look like. I have thought about it too and have recorded a video that would hopefully help you start thinking about the key features of a high quality resume. Have a look here:

I have also prepared a short slide to accompany the video and you can refer to it here.

Six key features of a winning resumé

Dasha Amrom