Our Explorer's Journey

Acts of Kindness

Posted by Paul on Jun 14, 2013 in careers | Comments

“Behind anything anyone ever achieved, was an act of kindness by somebody else.” How did your thoughts go on this? The more I explored this idea about connected kindness, the more it made sense. Take your career for example. It goes without saying that all your achievements (large or small) rely on the effort you put in but can you really say no one else had a hand in there? I for one couldn’t say this for sure. So if I can’t deny other people’s involvement in my achievements, what does this mean? For a start it...

Jargon, Buzz-Words & Inactivity

Posted by Paul on May 28, 2013 in careers | Comments

The other day I read this article about talent communities. The author explained what talent communities are and how important it is to have a talent community of your own. In case you don’t know, “a talent community is an interactive group of people joined together by a common interest or affinity.” It was good to get this definition because I had absolutely no idea what a talent community was. This article was actually the first time I had ever heard one mentioned. This recent ‘talent community’ experience reminded me...

Comfort, Stretch, Panic

Posted by Paul on Apr 30, 2013 in careers | Comments

A comfort zone is usually a nice place to be. Everything is where we need it, Doing what we expect it to do, How and when we like it to be done. In a stretch zone things are different. We’re not so confident or assured, But there’s this feeling we’ll get there, We’re not worried, we got this. In panic zones all bets are off. Everything compresses, Comfort shatters, stretch snaps. In panic we get lost. These three zones are normal. Perhaps even good. No single zone is permanent or all powerful. All three have downsides...

Lines and Lines of Questions

Posted by Paul on Apr 8, 2013 in careers, job search | Comments

Immediate answers are a trick. Their trick is to make us think they are instant when in reality even the most immediate answers come from long, long lines of questions. Lines, strings, chains, streams, paths, roads, cycles, flows, trains and planes and galaxies of questions. There are no immediate answers. Immediate answers are a trick. Sometimes lines of questions are very long, reaching way back to the past. Sometimes the string or stream is shorter. Often the path of questions follows an offshoot, tributary, smaller road or turn we took...

Job Search Success

Posted by Paul on Mar 15, 2013 in the job seeker's interview | Comments

This week’s Job Search discussion on our Facebook page has reminded us of one of our all-time favourite ‘search & find’ stories. It’s a simple enough story. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated. But whenever we need a memory-jog or someone new comes along and asks, ‘What really happens on a job search?’, we find ourselves coming back to this. All job searches are unique tales of knock-back and rejection. Each one can tell its own story of the Herculean effort it takes to turn disappointment around....

The Job Seeker’s Interview #8 – Andrew

Posted by Paul on Mar 7, 2013 in the job seeker's interview | Comments

The Job Seeker’s Interview is back! This time the answers are from Andrew, who we are delighted to say has just landed a new job after 4 months of searching. Here’s what he had to say about the experience… 1. What’s your name? Andrew 2. Where do you live? London 3. How long were you looking for a job? 4 months 4. How would you sum up the story of your job search? Very stressful and disappointing 5. What went well? I managed to get a few temp assignments only through contacts/friends 6. What could have gone...

National Careers Week 2013

Posted by Paul on Mar 4, 2013 in careers | Comments

Careers guidance for young people has never been more important, with nearly one million young people unemployed in the UK and businesses vocal about the skills gap they face when recruiting at entry level. This, coupled with the cuts to services for this age bracket makes National Careers Week an essential vehicle of support for young people and their career journeys. National Careers Week runs from the 4th – 8th March 2013 and is now in its third year. The whole thing is the brainchild of those very clever bods over at Careersinfo. All...

The Perfect Careers Adviser

Posted by Paul on Jan 14, 2013 in careers | Comments

Last year, quite a few people contributed to our group exploration on the subject of ‘What careers advisers love about their job‘. This year we wanted to ask a question everyone can have an opinion on. Last time around we were stuck in the real world (some might say stuck in the past!) because we started at a meeting. This time around we’re kicking things off here in the wonderful online world first. You don’t even need to leave your seat in order to have your say. So this is our new group exploration, Who is the...

Career Easter Eggs

Posted by Paul on Dec 28, 2012 in careers | Comments

I recall when I first found out about virtual easter eggs, the cool little treats developers sometimes hide in software, apps and games. What a nice way to reward insight, determination or just plain clicking about. Recently, this got me thinking about easter eggs for our careers. If some of the good things that happen throughout our careers can be thought of as career easter eggs, is there a way to make more of them happen? Is it possible for each of us to sow seeds and help more delightful little breaks occur in our future? Not only is...

How Careersbox Works

Posted by Paul on Dec 20, 2012 in careers | Comments

1. Someone we know very well is studying to be a midwife 2. We said, ‘Pop over to Careersbox, they probably have a film about that’ 3. A quick search and up popped this film of a real student midwife talking about her experience and her degree course 4. Our friend listens and learns from this genuine, first-hand source 5. Outstanding! For more films & more experiences (because we don’t all want to be Midwives) visit Careersbox.co.uk * * * *...