Jude Allan Career Coach

Here are some tips to get you started on your cover letter

Employability skills also known as transferable skills should always be included in a resume, tailored to the specific role you are applying for. Outlined in a key capabilities section within the resume, it’s important to do more than simply state the skills. What matters to employers is also ‘how’ you got the skills, offering examples and proof of those skills in action.

Finding a new job can be a tiring process. From the times you submit your application and hear nothing back, to when you go through the interview process, get shortlisted and then miss out on the role! It takes time and when it drags on it can be tough, often impacting your confidence. If this is you, play the long game. Focus on the positives and the small wins along the way.

You’ve revamped your resume and can tailor it to each role✔️you’ve now got recent experience in the interview room✔️All of this practice matters and will ultimately support you to land the right role.

Many people only focus their search online on recruitment websites such as Seek or LinkedIn or on company websites. Make sure you are covering all of the bases beyond these sources.

By writing a resume that simply summarises, you are focusing on what it felt like to be you.  Compared to a resume that sells, which makes it easier to understand what it feels like to hire you. Demonstrating the benefits of hiring you increases your chances of being invited in for an interview.  

I hear clients saying, ‘Oh I just got lucky’ or ‘I happen to be in the right place at the right time’. By addressing the role of chance in career development coaching, and assisting clients to acknowledge and exploit chance encounters, helps them grow increasingly open to noticing and acting on unplanned events in the future. For example, a chance encounter with a colleague or contact within your network can lead to an opportunity that sends your career on another trajectory. The key learning is to focus on the skills that exploit unplanned events as they arise throughout your career. Among those skills are developing and maintaining curiosity, persistence, flexibility, optimism, and a willingness to take risks.

Gain career clarity by learning and reflecting through the lens of your systems of career influences. Useful for anyone considering a career change or during organisational restructuring, retrenchment, or work dissatisfaction.

You may recognise parts of yourself in each of these types. I find this a fascinating topic, with the phenomenon remarkably common. In studies of successful people, 70% of them reported experiencing it at some point in their life. If you suffer from Imposter Syndrome, at its core, it identifies a strong internal expectation that you meet a standard of performance that is rarely achievable and not sustainable. By recognising this rigid thinking and reframing competence in more realistic terms, it offers the opportunity to feel more confident and competent.

Golden rules for finessing your personal brand.

Career decisions are value-based decisions. When considering whether to accept a job offer or when planning a change in career direction, people generally find themselves valuing some of these workplace attractors more so than others. Identifying what matters to you and doing your research prior to accepting a role or changing course can help you to make the right decision.
If you need support navigating the path ahead, please get in touch at [email protected]

When working out what’s next in your career you need a bias to action. Because action creates momentum and motivation follows. Just. Do. Something. Learning a new skill, volunteering your time, reaching out to someone in your network, taking on a new project at work, updating your resume. Remind yourself that you change your life by doing, not by thinking about doing!
If you need support navigating the path ahead, please get in touch at [email protected]

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck’s popular work on growth suggests we hold either a fixed or growth mindset about our abilities. A fixed mindset stunts learning, eliminating permission not to know something, to fail, or struggle.  As we progress through our career, a growth mindset can shift our inner dialogue from beliefs about our ability (fixed mindset) to beliefs about our opportunities and potential (growth mindset).