This is unusual for me as you probably know. I like to share positive career and job finding experiences and tips with you. Yet LinkedIn’s recent sneaky tactics have let me down.

Last year I spent a lot of time promoting LinkedIn to hundreds of individuals facing major upheaval in their careers through job cuts and company closures.

How many other career management tools enable you to promote yourself, find jobs, network with decision makers and do market research all in one place? For FREE.

But is LinkedIn free?

What is your reputation worth?

A few weeks ago I was sent an email from a coaching colleague asking me if I was aware that LinkedIn had quietly introduced new settings with the default set ON which allow them to use your profile information, name and photo in third party advertising.

My initial reaction was disbelief – this was a Facebook tactic!  Would that explain why I had been starting to receive unwanted e-mails and spam from people I wasn't connected to?

Within a few minutes I had alerted my entire LinkedIn network of 422 contacts (which is not inconsiderable) and changed my settings to OFF.

Is the price of “personal branding” our privacy?

Sara Maim’s article in today’s Independent shrugs off privacy concerns claiming that we are all becoming individual brands, selling ourselves online.

“Welcome to the lives of anyone under 23. We are the social networking generation. Our lives have been played out online since before we hit our teens.”

You have to smile …

If I think back to my early twenties when my career was a series of jobs to earn money to pay back student loans and save up for a mortgage, I might have said the same thing.  Shrug off the future you can’t imagine.

Yet we are all living longer. And the Facebook and LinkedIns of the world have elephant memory banks that can come back to haunt us just when we want to get serious about our careers.

Would I suggest you use LinkedIn to promote yourself online – YES.

However, have your eyes wide open and recognise that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Social networks will always find ways to make money – with your data – so check your privacy settings regularly and create a personal brand that will contribute to your career success, not destroy your reputation.

Katherine Wiid, founder of Recrion, is a Career Management Coach and Behavioural Specialist.  Helping you to move away from uncertainty towards clarity in your working life. Telephone 01780 484910.

What does the image of Cambridge, England conjure up for you? Perhaps an ancient seat of learning where tradition and the preservation of centuries of art and antiquities is paramount?

With my meetings finished for the day, I was walking past these ornamental lions guarding the entrance to the Fitzwilliam Museum and glanced up to see a man and his dog snugly reclined against the flanks of these beasts.

Both man and dog looked so comfortable and in the “zone” enjoying a quiet moment of introspection getting away from it all.  There they were, perched on an ancient work of art 2 metres high holding a finger up at the establishment.

We made eye contact.  Smiled at each other.  I felt drawn into their subterfuge, nodded towards them and said “nice dog” before carrying on.

Now in my experience, when an "Ah-ha" moment occurs, it is usually accompanied with satisfaction, joy, or a sense of accomplishment. And this is what it did for me.

I had been wandering along Trumpington Street frustrated by my lack of purpose – feeling I should have had a plan on how to spend my afternoon productively. Yet this startling vision of a man and his dog taking time out to just “be” showed me what can be achieved by standing back and watching the world go by.

Look for those special moments; they are wonderful and will be remembered for a long time.

Katherine Wiid, founder of Recrion, is a Career Management Coach and Behavioural Specialist.  Helping you to move away from uncertainty towards clarity in your working life. Telephone 01780 484910.

Last night I had the most awesome experience having dinner with Amelia Russell, a 29 year medic who is currently studying to become a surgeon.  Amelia came to talk to Peterborough's Clinical Society about her 500 mile walk  from Canada to the Geographic North Pole with her boyfriend (now husband) Dan.  They did this completely unassisted (no dogs, guides, TV crews or fanfare).  Why?  Because they wanted to do something really hard.  And have a holiday!

Never Give Up

I give Amelia an A for Inspiration.

A few facts about her trip that inspire me to push myself harder:

• She and Dan took 57 days to walk 500 miles to reach the Geographic North Pole
• Every day they were cold, hungry and survived on 6000 calories and 4 hours sleep
• Falling on the ice that was as hard as concrete  happened daily – once Amelia dislocated her left shoulder which she quickly pulled back into its socket and kept going (ouch!)
• She lost 10 kgs in body weight and suffered malnutrition
• They each pulled a sledge double their body weights
• They trained for two years, pulling 4 car tires up and down the Suffolk hills to build their strength

Two days from the North Pole, Amelia fell into water without an immersion suit and was submerged in icy water for 10 minutes.  Dan wasn't around and she knew she had to find the strength to get out on her own.  After a few failed attempts and a dodgy left shoulder, she managed to heave herself onto the ice.  She says her "Never Give Up" attitude saved her that day. She was so close to reaching her goal and wasn't going to give up.

Above all, I give Amelia an A for Authenticity.

She is friendly, warm, humble and tells it like it is.  And she loves sharing her experiences with anyone who is interested to hear or read about their expedition.  Unlike most polar explorers, she and Dan share their tips on equipment and preparation with others attempting similar trips.  For free.

All the best Amelia with your career as a surgeon.  I am sure you will continue to inspire others to dig deep to explore what they are made of!

Katherine Wiid is the founder of Recrion, specialists in career and people management. Helping you move away from uncertainty towards clarity in your career - www.recrion.co.uk; +44 (0)1780 484910

 "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle."  Steve Jobs

Whilst simply walking out of our jobs is not an option many of us can afford to take, few of us are exploring all of the options that are available.

Even fewer are actually investing in ourselves to gain a better chance of getting a job that is more suited to our skills.

Though many are happy to splash out on the latest smartphone or tablet to make both our personal and professional lives easier, there aren’t many of us that will actually invest in the most important thing of all: ourselves and our careers.

Whether you lack confidence, are unsure if you’re in the right position or want to take the next step-up in your career, it makes sense for you to seek the support you need to ensure that you’re fulfilling your potential.

And it makes sense to seek it now.

Many people who have had a change of career forced on them by redundancy often say that being made redundant was turned into a positive, because it meant they were able to switch to something that they enjoyed whilst using their skills more appropriately.

But why not seek training while you have the security – and finance – to do so?

Here at Recrion, we facilitate the Peak Performance Mentoring Programme (PPMP), which addresses all of the concerns you may have with your current working life.

Want to build your confidence, develop a positive mindset and, perhaps most importantly, find  the career that is best suited to your skills?

It’s all covered.

By taking the PPMP, you are not only taking the first step to progressing your career to the next level, you are also giving yourself the best possible chance of being happy at the prospect of going to work.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Find out more about the Peak Performance Mentoring Programme and see what it can do for your career.

Recrion is a specialist in career and people management helping you to move away from uncertainty towards clarity in your career - www.recrion.co.uk; +44 (0)1780 484910

If the candidate has made the effort, why shouldn’t you?

Few employers enjoy the recruitment process. Some are more thorough then others, but it is rarely anything other than a long-winded, stressful process.

Are you performing as an interviewer?

The problem many find is that, at a time when unemployment levels remain high, businesses can be unrealistic in their expectations, or attempt the en-masse interview approach when attempting to find the right candidate.

For example, is it really fair or worthwhile to make graduate-after-graduate traipse down to your offices, for a 10-15 minute interview?

And, just because there are stacks of candidates, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to find the perfect candidate. You’re not. Because they don’t exist.

The point is, whether you have 5 or 500 applications for your position, you need to know that you’re getting the best candidate out there.

And you can only know you’re getting the right candidate by ensuring that you are using all of the tools at your disposal.

With the help of social media tools such as LinkedIn, recruitment can now be a much calmer, simpler process. LinkedIn not only enables you to make a ‘passive’ (someone who’s not applied) candidate ‘active’, but it also now gives users an ‘apply for job’ option.

Better still, is their recently unveiled Talent Pipeline, a tool which instantly gives Recruiters and Hiring Managers their own FREE CRM tool.

This will make recruitment on LinkedIn easier than ever, giving recruiters an ‘Add’ button that provides them with easy-to-use access to over 116 million CV’s.

So, finding candidates is easy.  However, deciding on the right candidates to interview can be difficult. Why not make it simpler?  A conversational insightful tool such as LAB Profiling will tap into a candidate’s mindset and motivations at work, giving you a clear idea on whether they’re exactly what you’re looking for.

Recruiting the right candidate can be time-consuming and, at times, expensive. But, when a candidate has spent lots of time and money of their own ensuring they give you the best possible interview, surely the least you can do is return the favour?

Sound interesting? Why not find out more about LAB Profiling and see how it can improve your recruitment efforts.

Recrion is a specialist in career and talent management, and works with organisations to retain and motivate their employees. For more information, contact us on 01780 484910 or email katherine@recrion.co.uk. 

A recent survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) found that the main reason people gave for switching jobs was a desire to ‘increase pay and benefits’. This had changed from the same survey taken a year before, when ‘improving job satisfaction’ was given as the top reason.

This is a sign of these economic times, with people (understandably) striving for financial security – often even more than career progression.

Even if you suitably reward your staff though, a happy workplace doesn’t always equal a successful one.

It is often the little things that make people happy – not the “sticking plasters” of bonuses and financial incentives. Doug Shaw, CEO of What Goes Around Limited recently asked the question:

With social tools everywhere, why do some companies try to restrict access to these tools for fear of what their employees may say, about the company, about each other and about the customer. Why do companies persist in employing people they clearly don’t trust?

I bet you never thought that that was what you were guilty of.

That is because your perception of the world of work isn’t the same as the people around you. Just like them, you have 14 unconscious motivational patterns that lead you to communicate, act and make decisions in a certain way.

We have previously discussed how LAB Profiling can help when recruiting new staff, but how about using it to optimise the performance of your existing workforce?

Though you may feel you already know the capabilities and knowledge of your staff, LAB Profiling can scientifically give you the information you need to determine their motivations and attitude. This will help you to redesign or adapt individual task assignments to make  your staff feel both happy and fully challenged.

Instead of using “sticking plasters”, why not use a tool that takes each individual’s needs into consideration so that your team can go from good to great?

Recrion is a specialist in career and talent management, and works with organisations to retain and motivate their employees. For more information contact us on 01780 484910 or email katherine@recrion.co.uk .

Will this job motivate him?

For many, there is no such thing as the perfect candidate.

Even after sifting through 100s of applicants and orchestrating a rigorous interview process, it can feel as if you haven’t found exactly what you’re looking for.  And like many employers who can’t afford to wait for that "elusive" individual to turn up, you adapt the job criteria to suit the individual strengths of the next best candidate.  And then hope they are worth the gamble.

I recently discussed how social media had begun to change the recruitment process, in that it enabled you to broaden your search for talent and tap into passive candidates – who aren’t necessarily looking for a specific job.

But, even if you’ve added Social Media to your recruitment arsenal to source the people you believe will fit seamlessly into your company, what then? How can you ensure that you’re making a worthwhile investment?

LAB Profiling is one way of keeping consistency throughout the recruitment process, ensuring that – from start to finish – you are clear of exactly what it is you are looking for.  So that when you do adapt the job criteria and select the next best candidate you are no longer taking a gamble.  Instead, you are making a confident decision.

The key to making a confident hiring decision, is to understand what behaviours candidates need to have to be motivated to do the job.

For example:

If the candidates are going to be troubleshooting and solving problems most of the time,  they need to be motivated to prevent bad things from happening and have an Away From pattern.

If they are more interested in moving Toward a goal, then they might have trouble recognising what should be avoided or identifying problems.

These two motivations move in the OPPOSITE direction!

The LAB Profile is a conversational tool rather than a psychometric test and is used to assess the candidate's 14 sub-conscious motivational patterns at work.  By understanding what triggers their motivation and then keeps them motivated, you are able to take the risk out of the appointment enabling the candidate to thrive in your environment.

Sound interesting? Why not find out more about LAB and Job Profiling and how it can derisk your recruitment process.

Recrion is a specialist in career and talent management, and works with organisations to streamline their recruitment and retain and motivate their employees. For more information contact us on +44 (0)1780 484910 or visit www.recrion.co.uk

“I just wanted to let you know that I got the job that I applied for at Cambridge Uni.  I had the interview yesterday and I have to say that I felt very prepared for it thanks to the notes and guidance I was given on the Interview course.  The one main thought I had all through the interview was to maintain eye contact which I managed to do and I tried to look relaxed even though I didn't paticularly feel it!

Thanks again to you and Katherine for all your help over the last couple of months.”  Dawn Cox

Are you looking to fine-tune your interview skills, conquer your nerves and actually enjoy the interview?   Why not come along to our next Interview Masterclass on Friday 21 October in Cambridge.

Call Katherine on 01780 484910 or email her to book your place.

Does the prospect of a Job Interview give you sleepless nights?

It doesn't matter how successful we get, or if we are used to being on the interviewers side of the table – many of us find it hard to conquer our nerves and truly excel in a job interview because so much is riding on it.

Even with extensive preparation and research, nerves can often reduce our confidence and with it, the dream job.

Don’t let fear ruin your job prospects.

Recrion is hosting an all-day workshop that will take away all the accompanied stress and panic that goes with interviews and leave you feeling wholly prepared and full of confidence, no matter how ‘big’ or desirable that job may be.

Our ‘Interview with Confidence’ Masterclass is being held in Cambridge on Friday 23 September and will give you:

• Genuine practice of interview situations
• Tips and advice on the body language that will impress interviewers
• Advice on what’s been holding you back in interview situations – and what you can do about it
• The skills to ensure you’re in the right frame of mind for your next interview situation
• The key to building a rapport with an interviewer
• Tips on making an impact and building rapport with the interviewer
• And so much more!

"Today has been a really useful session which went beyond your basic interview skills training!  I now feel that I have the skills to showcase my abilities in an interview much better than before."  Laura Halstead

This session is being co-presented by TWO career experts, Recrion Founder and former Mercury Business Personality of the Year Katherine Wiid and Master NLP Practitioner and Confidence Coach, Lindsey Reed, who has over 20 years’ experience in the field.

And the best thing is, under the Redundancy Support scheme, you could be entitled to attend this career-changing session for FREE!

The session kicks-off at 9.30 on Friday 23 September 2011 and is being held at Wolfson Court, one of Cambridge’s university colleges. The cost of the workshop – unless you qualify for the R2R scheme – is £149. The seminar will finish at approximately 16:30 – refreshments and lunch will be provided.

By the end of this workshop, you will be left feeling revitalised, confident and, most importantly, be able to put redundancies and interview nerves behind you.

Can you afford to not to do something that could dramatically boost your career prospects?  Sound interesting?  Why not find out more and take action – today!

Recrion is a specialist in talent and career management, which means we are able to work with you in order to ensure you are on the right career path. For more information contact us on 01780 484910 or www.recrion.co.uk.

Recruitment moves on

Unless you’ve spent the past three years living under a rock, the growing impact of social media in modern-day society won’t have escaped your attention.

Facebook is no longer solely for teenagers, Twitter isn’t just a device to monitor your favourite celebrity and 100 million people worldwide are rushing to upload a virtual CV on LinkedIn.

The popularity of Social Networking continues to rise, especially with Google+ gaining over 20,000,000 users within three weeks of its launch.

Whether we like it or not, Social Media is here to stay. And it’s only going to get bigger.

In the Recruitment sector, opinion is divided as to whether this is a good or bad thing. What does it mean for the future, in terms of how we go about finding people for our jobs?  With LinkedIn recently giving users an ‘apply for job’ option, giving would-be candidates the option to apply for a position directly through the social network, it’s clear that social media websites are playing a growing role in the job recruitment process.

When recruiting, it’s important to maintain a sense of perspective here and keep our feet on the ground. Social media isn’t going to kill the CV any time soon. But to ignore Social Media websites altogether would be highly foolish.

Recruitment constantly evolves and it’s important to utilise all the tools that we have available. LinkedIn, in particular, gives us the opportunity to make a passive candidate active, approaching quality, highly skilled individuals discreetly.

Similarly, if you’re embracing modern technology and modern-day techniques in the application stage, the interviewing process needs to be adapted to reflect this.

As Recruitment moves on, so does interviewing – with the ‘standard’ one-to-one meeting no longer giving you enough assurance that you have the candidate you really want at a time when fewer employees are staying with a company for a significant period of time.

With passive candidates being approached for interview on social networking websites, it’s more important than ever for both you – the company – and the candidate to get a mutually clearer picture of each other.

One way of doing this is through LAB Profiling.

By using LAB profiling to tap into someone’s sub-conscious mind, you are not only guaranteeing that you have the best person for the position, but you’re also making the interview process much more meaningful and giving top candidates the assurance they need that they are making a sound career decision. Most importantly, you’re also using all of the tools at your disposal.

Sound interesting? Why not find out more about LAB Profiling and what it can offer your business.

Recrion is a specialist in career and talent management, and works with organisations to retain and motivate their employees.  For more information contact us on 01780 484910 or email katherine@recrion.co.uk .