Bits about everything....
When people are:
· Been made redundant or
· Opted to take voluntary severance where offered
What next?
This might seem harsh in the current climate, but the rationale for this is simple, how we deal with what may be presented to us personally i.e. Redundancy, can determine our sense of well being, which contributes to our overall happiness and success in our lives. A plan is essential. Options are paramount.
Redundancy can either be a new beginning and a positive experience, or the end of what we know and very stressful, depending on how we deal with it.
There are a number of key factors when redundancy is presented, to consider before leaving your organization:
1. What is the difference between Redundancy & Voluntary Severance (VS)? – Redundancy/VS both mean essentially that a job/role is ‘at risk of redundancy’. When presented with VS, it normally means that most likely (if preferred) a person can remain employed by the same Company, but very often and most likely, in a different role but with the same terms and conditions i.e. the option to accept VS should be your choice (voluntary), however the role may not be your preferred one. It also often means that you will be offered more generous severance terms, than that offered under statutory redundancy.
2. Is Redundancy the only option? – in some companies redundancy may feel like the only option, and for some it is, but there are ways to retain jobs i.e. the Employment Subsidy Scheme, salary cuts, - you as an employee should be well informed on all options, particularly if you work for a small company – you may be able to help your company keep you employed!
3. I am being made Redundant - When do I have to leave? - when a person is being made redundant their employer must follow particular fair procedures, for example you must be afforded 2 weeks notice of your redundancy in the first instance as a minimum depending on your length of service, and on the date of your dismissal your redundancy payment.
4. What are my options now? – This is the key question, and what you do next will determine how you feel, and how you are in your life, as a result of being made redundant. In my experience there are a number of options, but it is crucially important that these options are thought through, and decided on ultimately by the person who has been affected by the redundancy i.e. not helpful friends of family. Ultimately this has to be your decision.
The options are as follows:
a. Look for work that have experience at or similar - Its usually better to try and work at what you know, and/or are trained to do
b. Upskill - This might be an opportunity to upskill – if it’s financially viable this could be your opportunity to do/study something you have always wanted to do but didn’t have the time!
c. Rebrand – what is your brand? What do you bring to an employer that sets you apart? There may be an opportunity to seek professional support with this in terms of you/your CV/interviewing skills. If you are lucky enough to get that interview you want to make sure you get the job!
d. Don’t dilute your proposition – don’t go to every employment agency in Ireland. Know your Brand and be represented accordingly
e. Mobility – are you mobile? There is work in other countries. Are you prepared to travel? If so is this your opportunity to take that ‘Gap Year’ you never did when you left school/College? Some employment agencies have offices in other countries and update you on any vacancies that they may have at the moment without having to travel at a cost.
f. Be prepared for a reduction in your overall remuneration package – this is not the same climate as it was even 12mths ago. It is important to know how much of a reduction you can afford. There is no point taking a job only to find you simply cannot afford to live on the salary offered. Conversely you need to be practical, and understand that this is an employer’s market with a lot of talent available, so you will most likely need to take a reduction.
g. Think outside the Box – this may mean taking a part time role Monday and supplementing it with other income or reviewing some of your other outgoings. Consider options other than the standard -Friday,9am-5pm jobs
h. Be Positive – this may seem like an obvious one, but the positive candidate brings energy into an interview and will be remembered. It also helps you to stay focused. You will get a job!
Finally, in many cases Redundancy/VS is an opportunity to be grasped. I have read articles more recently referring to ‘funemployment’ where those made redundant are secretly happy to be unemployed and enjoying the time out for now. Also, an important point to make is that while you may have lost your job, cost of living is reducing also.
However, Redundancy can also be very unsettling, where there are financial and family commitments particularly, it can be a very stressful time. People who are made redundant often refer to a sense of failure and loss of self esteem. Naturally, it is a blow especially if the job lost was the job of your dreams, BUT importantly, there are options, always! They may not in the first instance appear to be your 1st choice, but where there is a loss financially perhaps, in the first instance there may gain in other areas! For example, consider how busy we have all been over the last decade, complaining of no time – well maybe now we will have that time back, to give to what we always said was THE most important thing (family, friends) while we rushed to the next meeting!
Finally, to those of you who haven’t been made redundant, consider all your options, to stay ahead of any announcements or rationalisation plans your Company may be considering, and to those of you who have been made redundant or offered VS, consider this your new beginning and never the end….it is how you approach it, and your (many) options!
source:www.hrri.ie
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Dream job
I always envy people that know for 100% what they want to do in their life and what exactly turns him/her on. When I was made redundant I felt a bit lost for a good while. I could not identify for myself at that time – what is exactly I want to do career wise in future. I had some experience in my professional life so I could judge what I liked what I didn’t. However, my knowledge was not enough to answer my question – “what I want to do in future career wise”.
All that free time while redundant really set me on thinking about my future. I could not decide which path I should take and that was making me angry and stressed. To ease my pain I was looking through web trying to understand what profession may suit me
www.prospects.ac.uk
www.howtochooseacareer.com
I went further to see what profession I may suit:
www.humanmetrics.com
However, the real thing that helped me and set me going was an idea that came to my mind one day “Maybe, I worry too much about what to do instead of doing anything at all”. At the end I realized that I could not decide in advance what I want to do and where exactly I see myself in 5 years time. There are so many things that attracted me and I was changing my plans every day… Eventually, I decided simply to let it go and start doing some things that I could do and some things that were interesting for me to do at this particular moment of time. The search is yet to be finished, however I feel much more optimistic now. If I see position that I may like – I apply. If I see education program that I can afford and I am interested – I apply… Maybe, your dream career is waiting for you with the next CV you sent.
Thank you but no
If you are looking for a job for a while now you probably heard this a lot then : “Dear…. Your skills and qualifications are so great, you are definitely number one. However, you most certainly don’t suit this position. We will let you know if any openings will arise in future…”, and they never come back.
It is very hard to stay positive at most of the times while looking for a job when redundant, specially, when all you hear is constant and loud “thank you, but NO”. Continuous anticipation of rejection can lead to the false believing that there is something wrong with you or your personality. Be sure it is not true! There is nothing wrong with you or with your personality. There 100 mil small details that may or may not influence your interview or CV screen check such as: today mood of HR persons, weather, or something as complicated as your nails or your knowledge in comparison to theirs.
I would like to share with you few examples from my personal or stories that I heard:
1) I passed successfully 3 stages of very difficult interview to big corporation. However, something went wrong and I was rejected on the fourth stage. I called HR asking to find our more details. That is what she said: “You are very good for the job. You have strong profile, etc. However, manager of this particular department feel you would not suit this job in his department. Again, you are very good for the job, but not for this department…” The only way I could interpret this – it was something personal that lady, who was interviewing me didn’t like. In fact HR called me later to ask me to go through interview to the same company, same job, but different department.
2) My friend was looking for new person along with his boss to his team. There were official requirements to the job, however, manager of the department had his own extra criteria that candidate had to match. It was need to be a man (because there were all girls in the department, so boss wanted to mix the crowd) and he need to support manager’s favorite football team. In fact new person was not as strongly skilled as some (females and males) candidates; however, boss is a boss.
3) One of the lad, who passed interview very successfully was on his way out from the office. When secretary asked him “which of the jackets is yours” he said “the one that is the best one”. Of course, guy was just joking. Unfortunately, potential employer didn’t share his scenes of humor and rejected him.
4) I passed one interview to the company of my dream, and thought I was getting closer…. However, they didn’t call me back again. As I found out later they decided don’t hire new person and just transferred work to different country.
Looking for a job it is hard process weather you have been made redundant, or simply can’t find job you like. Don’t get disappointed in yourself when you start to receive all those NO from potential employers. Because you never know all reasons for rejection, there is no point to blame yourself. Being rejected at interview or on CV screen it is just part of the process. The more you send CV the higher chance you have to win lotto called “new job”.
Please share how are you facing NO.
It is very hard to stay positive at most of the times while looking for a job when redundant, specially, when all you hear is constant and loud “thank you, but NO”. Continuous anticipation of rejection can lead to the false believing that there is something wrong with you or your personality. Be sure it is not true! There is nothing wrong with you or with your personality. There 100 mil small details that may or may not influence your interview or CV screen check such as: today mood of HR persons, weather, or something as complicated as your nails or your knowledge in comparison to theirs.
I would like to share with you few examples from my personal or stories that I heard:
1) I passed successfully 3 stages of very difficult interview to big corporation. However, something went wrong and I was rejected on the fourth stage. I called HR asking to find our more details. That is what she said: “You are very good for the job. You have strong profile, etc. However, manager of this particular department feel you would not suit this job in his department. Again, you are very good for the job, but not for this department…” The only way I could interpret this – it was something personal that lady, who was interviewing me didn’t like. In fact HR called me later to ask me to go through interview to the same company, same job, but different department.
2) My friend was looking for new person along with his boss to his team. There were official requirements to the job, however, manager of the department had his own extra criteria that candidate had to match. It was need to be a man (because there were all girls in the department, so boss wanted to mix the crowd) and he need to support manager’s favorite football team. In fact new person was not as strongly skilled as some (females and males) candidates; however, boss is a boss.
3) One of the lad, who passed interview very successfully was on his way out from the office. When secretary asked him “which of the jackets is yours” he said “the one that is the best one”. Of course, guy was just joking. Unfortunately, potential employer didn’t share his scenes of humor and rejected him.
4) I passed one interview to the company of my dream, and thought I was getting closer…. However, they didn’t call me back again. As I found out later they decided don’t hire new person and just transferred work to different country.
Looking for a job it is hard process weather you have been made redundant, or simply can’t find job you like. Don’t get disappointed in yourself when you start to receive all those NO from potential employers. Because you never know all reasons for rejection, there is no point to blame yourself. Being rejected at interview or on CV screen it is just part of the process. The more you send CV the higher chance you have to win lotto called “new job”.
Please share how are you facing NO.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The hardest interview in my life
I have experience of being interviewed as well as interviewing. Usually the process is straight forward – there is set of standard questions that normally asked, you simply prepare the best possible answers and make sure to cover it all in interview. Of course, there are some tricky questions as “what is your biggest disadvantage? Or why do you think we should hire you?” Answers for those questions should be found in the job description itself. Basically your task is to show your potential employer that you suit job perfectly. At the final stage of interview process it will all come down to weather you have established connection with your potential employer or not.
However, my last interview to one of the IT Company was the most difficult interview in my life. The difficulty was that employer built up questions from my answers and was looking for more and more details on every statement I was making. At the end of the day I didn’t get a job, I am not sure what the reason was exactly. Nevertheless, there are few key points that I picked up from that experience:
1) Be prepared! Even though I did my homework before interview there were some tricky questions like: what you want to do in 5 years? Why you want to do it? What do you think this job will involve? What expectation you will have from that job?....
2) When you are answering question make sure that you are answering true and you would be able to explain any detail of your answer. For example: I did training on one of the sales techniques and the question was please describe what this technique all about. Because training was nearly 4 years ago, I barely remember about it. In this case it is up to you weather you want to go along and try to remember and explain or just simply say – Sorry it was so long time ago, I simply don’t remember- which is also good option.
3) Don’t say too much, simply answer the question. If you will go in too broader answer you are risking ending up with too many questions that could be difficult to answer.
4) Try answering in sort of directive/navigate way – to make sure you are asked questions you want to answer. This is very hard to do on practice, however with lots of preparation possible. For example: I was doing training on one of the sales techniques few years ago and remember perfectly what it was about. Even more, I finished it with distinction. It is a good time to mention that I finished training and end result was marked. Be sure, question – what was your grade will follow, that will give you extra opportunity to shine!
I absolutely encourage you t o share your interview experience! Just write me...
However, my last interview to one of the IT Company was the most difficult interview in my life. The difficulty was that employer built up questions from my answers and was looking for more and more details on every statement I was making. At the end of the day I didn’t get a job, I am not sure what the reason was exactly. Nevertheless, there are few key points that I picked up from that experience:
1) Be prepared! Even though I did my homework before interview there were some tricky questions like: what you want to do in 5 years? Why you want to do it? What do you think this job will involve? What expectation you will have from that job?....
2) When you are answering question make sure that you are answering true and you would be able to explain any detail of your answer. For example: I did training on one of the sales techniques and the question was please describe what this technique all about. Because training was nearly 4 years ago, I barely remember about it. In this case it is up to you weather you want to go along and try to remember and explain or just simply say – Sorry it was so long time ago, I simply don’t remember- which is also good option.
3) Don’t say too much, simply answer the question. If you will go in too broader answer you are risking ending up with too many questions that could be difficult to answer.
4) Try answering in sort of directive/navigate way – to make sure you are asked questions you want to answer. This is very hard to do on practice, however with lots of preparation possible. For example: I was doing training on one of the sales techniques few years ago and remember perfectly what it was about. Even more, I finished it with distinction. It is a good time to mention that I finished training and end result was marked. Be sure, question – what was your grade will follow, that will give you extra opportunity to shine!
I absolutely encourage you t o share your interview experience! Just write me...
Thursday, February 10, 2011
“Get creative” – from unemployed that is earning money
Here is true story from friend of a friend. Lorraine is 28 years old. She was working as HR in one of the small companies in Ireland until last year she was made redundant. Now being unemployed, Lorraine started to look for something new. One day she saw this course about making jewelry, got interested, and started to do it for money. It is not very expensive and time consuming to do. Jewelry she is making unique and nice. As the distributors Lorraine is using her friends, who simply bring made jewelry at work and sell it to the fellow co- workers.
Unfortunately, it is not big money at the moment. However, she is making enough to keep her going and happy. There is always a room for enlargement and improvement in this industry!
Unfortunately, it is not big money at the moment. However, she is making enough to keep her going and happy. There is always a room for enlargement and improvement in this industry!
Hard truth about employment
Some of the guru of HR may give you the below advise when you have faced redundancy:
"Find a job that makes you happy"; "Follow your dreams and the money will follow"; Discover your passion and that will lead you to success"; "Go to college, discover what you love and a career will follow."
However, how Joyce Lain Kennedy (syndicated columnist focusing on business and career issues) said”-
Not wrong, but not necessarily so. Even when the job market was happily employee-driven, there were holes in that advice -- as I remind people: "If you can't hit high C, you can't sing opera."
In the times of economic crisis EPLOYERS become more and more PICKY. For example, I currently work in the bank. There were several positions opened in my company, so I decided to recommend some people. In spite of the fact that there are currently few employees in the bank that don’t have collage education requirements to the possible newcomers were very high. They were meant to have specific industry qualification! Some of newcomers have even PHD…. People that had accounting background but not in the bank were not considered….Total amount of people my company was looking for was about 30 people… As to me this is a sign that there are lots of well qualified people out there that competing with you for a job… These days if you don’t have specific qualification within certain business area or you are looking to change industry things may be harder then you thing. There is something to think about and to consider….
"Find a job that makes you happy"; "Follow your dreams and the money will follow"; Discover your passion and that will lead you to success"; "Go to college, discover what you love and a career will follow."
However, how Joyce Lain Kennedy (syndicated columnist focusing on business and career issues) said”-
Not wrong, but not necessarily so. Even when the job market was happily employee-driven, there were holes in that advice -- as I remind people: "If you can't hit high C, you can't sing opera."
In the times of economic crisis EPLOYERS become more and more PICKY. For example, I currently work in the bank. There were several positions opened in my company, so I decided to recommend some people. In spite of the fact that there are currently few employees in the bank that don’t have collage education requirements to the possible newcomers were very high. They were meant to have specific industry qualification! Some of newcomers have even PHD…. People that had accounting background but not in the bank were not considered….Total amount of people my company was looking for was about 30 people… As to me this is a sign that there are lots of well qualified people out there that competing with you for a job… These days if you don’t have specific qualification within certain business area or you are looking to change industry things may be harder then you thing. There is something to think about and to consider….
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