Parents will often contact me to ask for some advice about their son/daughter.  Recently I had an enquiry from the father of an 18 year old. What I said to him was: 18 can be so young to have to make decisions about a young persons future. When young people lack motivation it can be hard for [...]

Could you provide some advice? I’m 59, and am told I look young for my age. I’m fit and healthy but I’m struggling to get a job. Since being made redundant 18 months ago I’ve applied for over 4,000 jobs in project management or consultancy but during this time I’ve only had 19 interviews but no [...]

How a 1 off session can work.   Lucy came to see me as she was disillusioned with her job and determined to do something else, but what? She had gone to recruitment agencies but found that she needed to tell them what she was looking for and whilst she said anything, that didn’t help them – it [...]

What did you like, what was helpful about our session(s)?  I found out a lot about myself and, in particular, about whether or not I was suited for my current job.   What were the key learning points for you?  That I was not suited for a fast-paced environment but, instead, a more secure profession within which I knew [...]

My husband and I are considering working together. It’s a big step, bringing someone else into a business and also seeing someone in the job and in the home. Would this the right career choice for you?  PR moments have written an interesting article on this in the weeks ‘behind the headline’. Their article includes case [...]

Friday 13th November It has been a busy week – 3 days at a conference last week meant that work has backed up and I’ve been working very hard. In the past when I’ve been working hard I’ve ‘treated’ myself by eating lots of high fat food. I would normally eat, almost continuously as I did [...]

I was reading Seth Godin’s blog today which discussed how our customers define our business. What I got from this article was that we should be clear on the type of customer we want to attract and be willing to turn clients away that don’t fit our business objectives. I’m lucky that the majority of clients [...]

Top tips for your covering letter Most of your important information will be contained in your CV, but a covering letter gives you the opportunity to impress. Do not provide too much information—one page should suffice. You want to be short listed, so leave some things to discuss at interview. Be careful to personalise your letter so [...]

The covering letter is as important as your CV and you need to take the time to create a letter that’s effective. So many people miss out on the chance to reinforce why they are right for the job. Their covering letter is either very brief ‘Please find enclosed my CV. I look forward to hearing [...]

Sunday November 8th Last week I only lost ½lb and I felt so disappointed. This past week I’ve been even stricter – I’m cutting fruit out for 2 weeks and I’m taking psyllium husk. It’s been a slightly unusual week – I was at a conference for 3 days so that meant I had to switch my sessions [...]

November 2009 I decided to get this to you early this month. Like always it’s busy for me, but really interesting, and I hope that your past month has been good for you too! People often ask me how I get so much done. It’s all down to priorities, and since undertaking part time study [...]

  4 weeks into my ‘being fit and healthy campaign’ and a disappointment. Not in what the calipers and tape measure said - 3.5cm off bust and hips,and more from round my middle is good, but the scales only showed a 1/2lb loss this week. In the past I would have thought ‘fair enough’ and I [...]

You have read above that I’m now committed to getting fit and healthy, and losing a significant amount of weight. This is a goal, just like my clients have the goal of finding out what they want to do or in finding a new job. The most important aspect of achieving a goal is setting a [...]

Networking, not all my clients enjoy doing it, but sometimes they need to look for ways to build connections with others. I’ve a client going off to a conference next week, this is the advice I’ve sent him: 1.    Plan to enjoy it – write it down and have it somewhere you will look at it [...]

I’ve been discussing how to complete application forms with a couple of my clients. In each case they were not getting shortlisted but when I reviewed their application form they had not properly targeted their application to the job spec. With a general application it is much harder for the short lister to decide whether [...]

I go out of my way to offer a high level of customer service to my clients, and am getting increasingly fed up of other companies who don’t do similar. Just recently I feel very let down by two companies. I’m a subscriber to The Times Newspaper, and received a letter offering me a half price [...]

 I’ve just realised that I’ve not been writing as many blog entries over the past few weeks. As I’m spending more time at the gym, with travel and showers etc this is probably about 10 hours a week that I am spending less time in the office. I love twitter, it means I have to be [...]

As a career coach I get people wanting to move beyond looking on my web site, to find out if I am the right career coach for them. Sometimes they are interested but their partner is more sceptical. Just recently I’ve had an enquiry, and thought my reply would interest others: If your wife is sceptical then [...]

3rd week of my healthy living and it’s still going really well. I weighed myself on Friday, my regular day and I’ve lost 3lb, so that is 13 lb in 3 weeks. Brilliant! I have given 100% commitment to my new eating plan, no deviation at all. But only went to the gym 4 times – 2ce [...]

The Highlands Ability Battery helps people to understand more about natural abilities – which are an effective way of making career choices. Just today I’ve spoken with one of my clients. Clare was interested in the Highlands assessment and had read about it on my web site. She had also been on Amazon’s web site [...]