by K B , updated on March 17, 2020
Image by JE Shoots
Applying for a job today has never been easier.
Log onto LinkedIn and they’ll suggests jobs for you, tell you how many views the job has had, and whether you’re an early applicant or not.
And that’s just the free version.
A premium account lets you see how your skills and experience compare against others who have applied.
For some applications you can just hit a button and apply through LinkedIn.
Voila – job done!
You can simply hit snooze and wait for the call back.
It’s the same every time you submit your resume to a job board or career site.
Or not? [click to continue…]
by K B , updated on March 17, 2020
Photo by Oliver Cole on Unsplash
Last weekend I was at my brother’s house and saw a flyer advertising a course on building resilience in children and I was struck by how much of that kind of help was missing when I was growing up.
The course included open discussion and sharing experiences on what failure felt like, along with some sessions on mindfulness and meditation.
For me growing up, if you ever shared what you were weak at, you got bullied.
There was a deep shame attached to not doing well.
So, like everyone else, I learned coping mechanisms.
Mine was to generally pretend I was invisible so I did not get picked on. Other kids ran with the pack and tried to fit in. I assume trying to be the same as other kids so there was safety in numbers.The really “tough” kids picked on other kids first, so they did not pick on them.
It all seems such a sad waste of energy when I think about it. [click to continue…]
by K B , updated on March 17, 2020
There’s a famous analogy about a frog dying a death in slowly boiling water, as it does not perceive the increases in temperature before it’s too late.
Essentially the water boils and the poor frog is fried.
According to Dr Karl this analogy might be misused by people like myself to spur people on to take action. He suggests we’re guilty of insulting the intelligence of frogs who may well be smart enough to pick that the rising temperature will kill them and make the leap before it’s too late.
I’ll stop with the bad puns now as Dr Karl has convinced me about the fiestiness of frogs.
But myth or not, the freddo factoid is a fitting analogy for how most of us approach taking action on changing jobs and in managing our careers.
Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash
We sit there in the security of a warm bath and neglect doing anything about our job satisfaction until circumstances force our hands. Those circumstances may be that our workload is unbearable, a terrible boss appears, there’s a restructure that’s not serving anyone or a job loss is on the cards.
The trouble is that this approach makes creating positive change longer and harder. [click to continue…]
by K B , updated on March 17, 2020
Meet my Aunt.
A self-funded retiree, she is now well into her eighties and owns a $1.5 Million dollar house in an inner Melbourne suburb. From the outside her house looks only slightly messier than the other neat federation terraces in her street.
Inside, however, it’s a completely different story.
The house is dark and smells musty. The roof has leaks. Paint peels off the walls in every room. The lights have been out in the hall and her bedroom for years. She has no hot water, never fixing her heating unit, which broke down about 20 years ago.
The half-polished floor boards have long disappeared into semi-chaotic piles of invoices, newspaper clippings, direct mailers, ancient magazines, brochures and unidentifiable notes.
Photo by Jorge Lopez on Unsplash
My Aunt will tell anyone who’ll listen that she’s not like other Australians.
She insists she’s not a house proud like an “Australian housewife.”
Instead she’ll say she’s a thrifty Scot. [click to continue…]
by Daniel Solodky , updated on March 17, 2020
Christmas brings an opportunity to slow down and reflect upon the real purpose of our life and work. The festive season reminds us that there is profound underpinning to our daily existence. That we are in fact part of a broader mystery that calls for us to explore the rich dimensions of our being.
As a career counsellor, I reflect on what it means to change careers. Is it to find a quick solution to secure another source of income that pays the bills? Or is it to slow down and ponder the deeper questions in life. [click to continue…]
by K B , updated on March 17, 2020
Not many people know this, but many moons ago I did a degree in Land Surveying.
I was one of only 2 women in my final year.
I studied Surveying not because I wanted to break stereotypes, but because it never occurred to me that I could not do it.
What strikes me about writing this now, is that more than 20 years have passed. Yet things have not changed much, if at all.
While in Australia the number of women graduating from university has increased, and women now outnumber men as graduates, we are still severely under-represented in disciplines such as IT, architecture and engineering. [click to continue…]
