Future of Work Trends (and how you can prepare for it)
Industry insider with Gillian Kelly
Welcome to our industry Insider interview, where we put theory into practice. And we're joined by somebody who lives and breathes the topic of the month. I couldn't be any happier to be joined by Gillian Kelly, who is literally an expert in that field.
She's been in the future of work space for such a long time. And she knows what it takes for people to strive in their careers, and also how to position themselves that they are getting chosen over all the others. And this is what we're going to discuss:
· What are those future of work trends?
· What would it mean for us in our career?
· What does it mean in terms of positioning?
· How can I make myself visible in front of decision makers?
· And in a more competitive environment?
· How can we stand out?
Petra:
Gillian Kelly, before we get started - how did you get to where you are now and what got you into this future of work space?
Gillian:
I've been in this space for quite a while, as you mentioned, it's that I actually a little bit like yourself I started in marketing years ago and like a lot of people my career evolved as my life evolved.
So I had some, I started in marketing products and somewhere along the line started marketing people and moved into the career coaching space, which is just an area that I love. Started in career practice, which was just working with individuals probably about 20 years ago now and I found that there was a lot of people going through change. So moved into the corporate space, outplacement. So, I'm head of telemarketing for that place in Australia. And basically we work with organizations all over Australia going through change, which is just about everybody at the moment. So lots and lots of organizations experiencing change.
We work with them, to help their people move forward with confidence. So work with a fantastic career coaching team and resume writing team and I guess it's my role to kind of just arm them with what's going on out there in the future of work, what's changing in the world of health. Hiring, what's changing in the new technologies that are coming in and all of that sort of area? So that's my role. And it's a busy role at the moment change, trying to keep up with what's changing in the market, what's changing and technologies. what's changing with COVID. What was already changing. It's Yeah, it's an exciting adventure.
This is why I'm so excited about this conversation because as I said, we're all going through change. And we all need to learn more and more how can we reposition and reinvent ourselves and also communicated in a way that makes sense to those decision makers.
And what you also said where personal marketing comes in. This is what we see is one of the future of work skills: that you can market and sell yourself because you're not the only one with your skill set in your area or competing with talents from next door, but we've got now a global talent pool and the makes it so much more competitive.
Petra:
So I'm really looking forward to dig into this, and what kind of insights we can share. You also mentioned there have been so many changes. What exactly have we seen, especially over the last six months in terms of changes and employment market?
Gillian:
There's been so much I think what's happened in the last six months is a lot of the changes that we're already seeing have been just massively accelerated. So where we kind of were talking about we kind of use some change was coming. We were just hurtled into it at a massive speed.
And so a lot of the things that obviously we're seeing now is the remote working, issues coming up and the flexibility people suddenly whole workforces shifting to work from home, massive, you know, job losses.
Rapid upskilling online, so many changes happening really quickly, that we're already kind of coming into today. Play prior to this all starting. So yeah, it's been interesting.
A lot of what I've been watching is the talent acquisition community and seeing how their HR and how they are responding. And they're like, so many of the rest of us are just trying to work out what how much of this change is going to be, you know, permanent, how much of it is going to be temporary, what this means now what this means as we move forward, and it's gone to become quite a chaotic sort of space, but a lot of positives coming out of it as well.
So it's a it's an interesting time. For sure.
And if we can briefly speak about the employment market, what have we seen in terms of jobs, you know, because initially job advertisement has gone down significantly.
Petra:
I was seeing it comes back up and if so, is it more full time roles, contractors, caterers, can we make already some predictions about this?
Gillian:
Yeah, that the last six months, a lot of what I've been trying to do is just feed what's going on in there. Because the hiring market has been a just shifting landscape. And what I describe it as searches and purches, there has been, you know, areas of the market that have been decimated, and we know, you know, travel and areas hospitality and all of those areas that were just immediately, you know, halted.
And then you've got other areas that are going for massive surges. And particularly at the beginning, there was lots of stuff with the, you know, the retail, but the essential retail, you know, sector was suddenly advertising for 20,000 people and we had logistics, you know, all the online deliveries that was suddenly happening, lots of advertising in that space.
You know, there was such as in areas that we probably would have, if you, you know, think about it from what we were doing at home search, so communication tools, all those sorts of things had surge of employment. So there was areas of the market that were very, very strong and there were areas of the market that were really really struggling.
What we're starting to see now I think is a stabilization and all the vacancy indexes are showing that things are stabilizing and slowly coming back positively, which is nice to see, you know, the optimism in the market is returning a little bit. But it's still incredibly, incredibly tough out there.
Um, definitely a different market to it was before. So last year when I was talking on, you know, what we were seeing in the labour market, there was shortage of talent shortages, you know, hires were chasing talent a lot of the time.
And now, you know, they're trying to work out how do we deal with mess hiring in some areas, and so it's been a very different market, or they're trying to find some recruiters or in areas that you know, there are not a lot of opportunities yet coming back. So, yeah, it's been a real mixed and mixed market of opportunity is one where people have really needed to keep that eye on the horizon and today Think imaginatively about where the opportunities are if they were seeking immediate work? So yeah, interesting time,
Petra:
And when we talk about the actual employment type, because traditionally it was full time employment and the future of work trends we've seen already for at least 18 months that it's more gearing towards contract work careful employment project work, or part time or she had part time or 80%. For 80% of work. What do you think are is is going to be the normal and moving forward? What what kind of trends to receive there?
Gillian:
I definitely think that there's going to be a significant increase in contingent work. I heard that from me. You know, when I was attending the talent acquisition conference recently, they were talking a lot about that.
And I think there's almost going to be there may be a little bit of an arm wrestle in the or challenging the market in that. I think a lot of people might be looking for security now. And having been through this and the instability, and I think, on the other hand, organizations may not be wanting to offer as much security as they had previously.
So I think people are gonna have to start changing their mindset a little bit about their connection with organizations and more about decoupling from that thought of being tied to one organization and more about themself as you know, the skills that they offer the market.
Because I think that might be a continuing trend that we're going to say.
Petra:
Absolutely. And I mean, moving forward, because that also means that we've got multiple roles or multiple engagements, and what we call kind of a portfolio career. What's a good way for us to actually establish us that we say I can only work for you 12 hours and you can work five hours and you know, I mean, the extreme stuff, but how can we set ourselves up to be that kind of flexible talent? Ah, do you mean have from a personal perspective how Do you manage those demands?
And also how can we get in front of people say, you know, I have 10 more hours of capacity, how can I make money with those 10 hours? I guess,
Gillian:
It depends on how you're promoting your skills. You, you know, a lot of the time, there are platforms that a lot of people are using Now, obviously, with that are in the gig economy that, you know, ways of promoting their skills.
Then there's also just your general building of your brand and keeping your connection with people and continually, you know, interacting with those people that are looking for your services.
Petra:
Looking a little bit further ahead, what do you see is the future of work?
Gillian:
Oh, the future of work. That's such a big decision.
I think a lot of people are worried about the future work. I'm hopeful and optimistic about the future of work that it's going to be a better place.
I think it's going to be a fluid place. I think it's going to be a frenetic place. But I also I think that we won't be as constricted by as we have been in the past.
So I think it's going to be a place where we're going to see humans and machines, you know, side by side, I don't think that, that, that we're going to necessarily lose jobs, I think we're going to now have that combination.
But I also think it's going to be a time where a little bit more of the rebels of us are going to be able to be recognized. I think that you know, the creators, the carers, the rebels, I think it's going to be less prescriptive.
I think there's going to be opportunity for people to really work in their area of opportunity. But it's also going to be a market where you have to be proactive, you in the proactive the visible and the credible will rule the future of work. So yeah, perfect summary.
Petra:
And if we speak of being proactive, what can we do now as in three steps or five steps that we can do now to be proactive and prepare for the future of work? Can you share any tips with us?
Gillian:
There are a few things you need to understand; first – you need to understand yourself really well obviously, and I'm sure you've spoken on that extensively, you need to have a good understanding of the value you bring to the market, what makes you tick, what gives you energy, you know, where's the space that you bring value and you like to play, you need to understand that really clearly, I think you need to really understand the market and that is a shifting arena, of course at the moment.
You need to keep your eye on that, see where the opportunities are that are emerging. And then you need to work on your brand.
So you need to be proactive about building your network, building your visibility, building your credibility through tools like LinkedIn, through your own general networking, you know, all of those things that we know are just great career practices, but yet the connected the visible and the credible, you know, those things are so so important.
So yeah, understanding self understanding market and where you fit with all of that, and then building your brand within that, I think is probably my key tips of excellent.
Petra:
And when we talk about hiring and the future of hiring and this is where your sweet spot is, how does it change? And how will it change? And how important is having a LinkedIn profile set up for success? Do recruiters still hire this way? Or is it more technology driven? Where do we see the future of hiring?
Gillian:
Yeah, the future of hiring has changed massively already. In the last few years, we started to see the impact that technology is having, I guess, on hiring, so what used to happen was, you know, you'd seen a job ad go out and you know, you'd apply for that job in a way you'd go.
Now hiring has become the hire is going out and seeking talent, so and they're using multiple channels to do that.
What we're seeing is they're not just putting a job ad out on a job book, but they're proactively seeking growth. talent, which means that you're facing, you're facing an open market, essentially.
And you're also working in a world where hiring technology is now helping them with that. So there's new technologies that will help with them. Everything from writing the job ad to finding people, to screening people, to screening your resumes, to matching you to jobs, every possible aspect is being enhanced through technology applications, which is great, you know, that they reveal that there's some real significant benefits to that, including reduction of bias, better candidate experience, all things we really, really want.
But what is really, I think, important to know is that in this proactive space, they're actually using technology to find people. So a lot of technologies are now able to search the open web search LinkedIn, they're not just going to job boards.
They're using talent pools. They're using their existing databases. If you don't have an online footprint, if you are not visible, you're significantly limiting your opportunities there are being found for opportunities. So yeah, LinkedIn, LinkedIn and other places, anywhere where you've got a visible footprint so important.
Petra:
Do you find this is the same in traditional industries, for example, in accounting, or is it just in specific industries the case that technology is impacting it?
Gillian:
Look, I think it's impacting across a lot of areas, probably volume hiring areas are obviously I guess, the urgent areas that hires would look to apply technologies to or areas that they find it hard to hunt talent.
So for example, it you know, there was a there was a real, you know, that massive demand for certain tech sets and technology.
They were specialists who just go out and find talent for that proactively search out talent. And you know, they'll use LinkedIn, they use all sorts of amazing innovative grads to do that. So yeah, it really depends on the return on investment for them.
But it is certainly more widespread. LinkedIn is a great example of one of these technologies, you know, a lot of capability behind the LinkedIn recruiter side of things.
Petra:
And when we talk about the LinkedIn profile and the search ability and the screening is such a massive part in finding the right tenants, what kind of recommendations would you give us to optimize our LinkedIn profiles? What do we need to look for?
Gillian:
Okay, I think again, it comes back to having a very clear understanding of who you are, who you're targeting, so that you know who you want to be looking at your profile and what's important for them.
So look at it from the perspective of being found. They're doing what they would do. In a lot of other areas, which is entering their search field, looking at things like titles, skills and locations, to find talent, of course, today now with our remote workforce, our location has broadened. And in fact, I think we're looking at a global market. And that's going to change things significantly. But as far as LinkedIn goes, it's really about understanding who that target market is, and, and really crafting your LinkedIn profile to tell your story so that it shows your value to those people and so that you're also able to be found.
So things like your banner and images, obviously one of the very first things they see, so making sure that that reflects and is on brand for you. I'm looking at your headline, you know, making sure that that's optimized because that's one of the areas that is you know, highly searchable.
So you're wanting to make sure that you're not just having your headline, which is automatically your current position that you're actually editing that headline to real align with what you offer to the market and the keywords that they might be using to find you. You want to make sure your story's coming through really well. And then it's it's written for LinkedIn.
A lot of people use that I think one of the biggest mistakes is pasting your resume summary into LinkedIn, which I see so often. But nobody wants to know that often.
That's a third person, they're talking about themselves. There's nothing engaging or interesting or warm about that. And this is a social media, it's very, very different to your resume.
Your resume is that reverse engineered formal document LinkedIn is about conversation and connection.So really sharing your story in your summary is so so important in a way that makes people want to connect and engage with you.
And also making sure that from an optimization point of view, your strategy is right. So that comes down to making sure your job titles are aligned that they heavily optimized in the LinkedIn search function.
So making sure again, that they are aligned to what you're targeting, if possible, and also your skills, the skills that you've got in your section, make sure that you've got ones that if they are things that hires are searching for that they are in your skill set, if you offer them obviously, and get endorsements for those.
And finally, I guess also your testimonials, I think social capital these days, other people's recommendations hold so much value, and it's so much nicer to hear somebody else, say something nice about yourself and have to try and write about yourself.
So, you know, you've got great recommendations, they can hold a lot of weight. I
Petra:
think everything is also when I look for, you know, speakers, for example, or anyone who is kind of an extension of my friend because I engage them in one way or the other way.
I always look for their recommendations and what other people said about this, because as I said, this is social proof. This is where we validate is this person legit or do we just say they're amazing? What they're doing is a lot of ways. And also, this is how we shop these days, when we look for an apartment to stay or for restaurants to go, we're looking what other people said about them, how many five star ratings have they got? This is how we base our decisions on.
And it's the same with the purchase decision, quote, unquote, with people, we're also looking for that because what it does, it reduces the disappointment or the risk of being disappointed with getting the wrong person on board.
Gillian:
And I think people want to help you know, so don't be afraid to ask for people to give you a testimonial. If you feel like you've done a great job and you've connected well with somebody, people are, you know, genuinely happy to give a great testimonial. And you can even you know, give them some suggestions about areas that are important to you if you want to as well. So yeah, it's a really great tool, really marketing yourself.
Petra:
I love it. You speak to the converted here.
Gillian:
And what about the storytelling because this is what we find so hard usually and ourselves that we can tell our own story, especially if we have multiple interests, or we're not quite sure what's next, or if we don't want to continue doing what we're doing now.
But at the same time, we can't necessarily say what we want to do next is already the reality because it isn't.
Petra:
Have you got any suggestions how we can position ourselves that it isn't confusing, and at the same time, it gets across the point what we actually want?
Gillian:
So I think, first and foremost, it's a common dilemma. I think so many people, particularly if you're making a pivot, it can be a difficult thing. But that's the beauty of LinkedIn. You know, in a resume, you don't have the flexibility that you have in the story section or the summary section of LinkedIn to tell your story.
So I think my key tips in that is one to understand where you want to go and to start to talk to the to the things that are prompting you to take that journey.
The strength of your passions, what led you to that part can be really powerful in your LinkedIn summary. It really depends on your situation, the strategy you take in that section, it depends on whether you whether you're running your own business or whether you're in a current organization.
I mean, if you're in a current organization, sometimes you still want to keep an element of talking about them in your summary. So that, you know, while you're even if you're making a pivot, so I always say be conscious of the fact that this is a public forum, if you suddenly go out there and change your story, you know, dramatically away from where you are, and you're still with your current hierarchy.
You know, really keep that in mind. But yet, if you can talk from a journey perspective, I think that really connects with people so and your first opening line is so important in that summary section because really, they only see, you know, the first half a dozen words of what you're saying.
So you want to make sure that you're really starting to connect right from the beginning. So don't start with something boring. Start with something interesting that tells them a little bit about you. Personal passions values where you want to go, what gives you energy, they're all good things to include in that section.
Petra:
I think, as you said before, it all comes down to personal marketing. And this is follows exactly the same principles like traditional advertisement, you get the attention or you want to get people's attention with a hook or with something really interesting. So what could be a good statement to get people motivated to open up the entire section of our personal summary and good any of these shouldn't be a quote should be a statement should be effect.
Gillian:
It really depends on the individual. I think it has to connect with you. Quotes are a great way of doing it. Some people start with humour, some people will start with a brand statement.
I help organizations to you know, they'll go direct plea to what the heart and soul of their brand is. It really depends on the individual.
But as you say, I do think you want to make it something that's interesting. And that's relevant and personal. So yeah, that they're my key tips. But I don't think you need to be too prescriptive with it. I think you know, yeah, as long as it's interesting and personal. I think that's the most important thing.
The trick with LinkedIn, I think is don't be afraid to change it and my LinkedIn changes consistently. I can't tell you, it's gone from every kind of, you know, every kind of style that you can possibly see from talking about my son's heart surgery from you know, in my journey to where I am today through to, yeah, all sorts of different so I guess the key then would be that it's actually not a CB that's online. It is a European personal story.
And like it just, you just see what you like, if you like yours I really like I'm not a recruiter, so I can't use it. It doesn't apply to me but you just go and pick and choose what you can see from others but he okay, because I always kind of thought LinkedIn should be a bit more professional but not as clean as the CV I guess.
Petra:
What is the difference between LinkedIn and a CV?
Gillian:
Yeah, that the CV, your CV is essentially a reverse engineered document for one purpose. So if you've got a job ad, and you are responding with, whereas your LinkedIn is you, it's your story. And your story changes as your goals change as your life changes as, as everything else changes.
So the most important thing when our team crafting LinkedIn profiles with people is that we say to them as this has got to have your voice, you know, this has got to be you coming out and that when they when they read that summary, they should feel like they're talking to you. They should feel that they want to connect with you so warm and approachable is, you know, as well as interesting is so important and encouraging that contact I think. But thank you for saying that you liked me.
Petra:
You're such a perfect example of really speaking so casually about yourself and you know, you feel you get to know you very quickly just by browsing through your profile. I think this is the main point of differentiation, say I know exactly what you do. I know exactly for who you do it, and I know how you do it with your personality and movement in there.
Gillian:
Yeah, and I would say again, even with the visuals, don't be afraid, you know, your headline your you better don't be afraid to change those. Sometimes I change mine to match sometimes.
A couple of times. I'll try out clients stuff in my headline and then realize that I have accidentally left it up there and everybody's wondering why I'm an award winning graphic artist.
Bizarre but not change it you know, feel free to change it.
For example, my headline talks about helping people during with career continuity through COVID.
Because that's relevant at the moment, and that's part of where I think I help people at the moment. So if that's relevant to you, and that's something that you're doing and bringing value to the market, then you know, feel free to tweak your your headline as often as is needed, as long as you keeping some level of consistency.
How you bring value and consistency are so important in your brand.
Petra:
This comes over again, back to the traditional marketing principles that we always say recency trumps relevancy.
So when you can address it to what's happening now and identify what your services can do to help in this current situation and current common use so much more relevant, because you can talk about I hate people to find their jobs, great, this is relevant.
But if you say I had to go to find the jobs during COVID, or throw crisis now all of a sudden my ears are all up like this is happening to me right now. So you are my go to person. So you understand what I'm going through. And this is the main key differentiator.
Gillian:
And as I say LinkedIn is so fluid for that.
I think the other thing I think is so important is, is whilst it's great to have great profile, it's really about your activity on LinkedIn, I really genuinely believe that. It's about the conversation that you have, you know, if you are having if you are doing the right things regularly on LinkedIn, you will build your visibility, it is a great authority tool.
It's a great way of sharing your thoughts and ideas on particular areas. And it's a great way of connecting with, you know, your target audience. So if you've got an organization that you're really wanting to target and you're wanting to get in contact with, you know, you can find people on LinkedIn that work there and then follow their activity.
So just hit follow, you know, find them activity, see the posts that they're making? Read them.
And when they resonate with you, don't just like them, make a comment, you know, engage with them and start to build your visibility and relationships with them.
And I can tell you referrals and warm recommendations, trumps anything else when it comes to finding work.
We know that we know that a warm referral will give you three to four times more likely to be hired if you do that. And organizations love referrals as well.
You know, they bring better quality hires, so organizations, a lot of them look for referrals now. So yeah, your relationships are golden, just using that activity to find connect with people.
Petra:
I think this is also backed by research that about 70- 75% of all jobs don't even get advertised for exactly that reason. We asked first, who do you know, or could you recommend me to anyone who does xyz are we looking for so and so it usually goes through your immediate network.
And then they are talking about that in their network. And this spreads the fire. And as you said, it's preferred from companies because they save on hiring costs and recruitment can be quite expensive.
But at the same time, if you get a referral from somebody who is, you know, already on team who knows the culture, it's so much better fit because they already know what the company culture is looking for.
Gillian:
Yeah, Australia posted them during COVID. When they were just doing all their recruitment, they had a family and friends referral program going for their Christmas sort of peak period back when COVID came that's how they did a massive amount of this search hiring was through family and friends for exactly those reasons.
So you know, if you've got a connection in my advice to people is always if you see a job advertised that you want or you've got a target organization that you want, go to your network first and find out who do I know in this organization that I can start talking with?
Or who do I Who knows someone in that organization that I can start talking with? Because Yeah, that conversation leads more opportunity than anything else. So yeah, definitely agree with all those things.
Petra:
And networking is such an important part in every single every day. Basically, it's the building relationship opens up so many opportunities, but often we don't know quite how to start the conversation or how to take it to the next step. And we don't want to come across as sleazy or salesy or just Hey, hire me, I'm free. What are your tips on how can we approach those kind of conversation starters? And we can really take it from there that we'd get a step closer to agile.
Gillian:
LinkedIn is a great forum for that if you don't have an existing connection, so it's a great way to start those conversations.
But I think respect is probably the biggest, particularly at the moment. You know, networking at the moment and informational interviews and all those sorts of things that we know are great ways of starting conversations. Hire is a really busy at the moment.
So I think in any conversation, it's about being respectful, reaching out, knowing that people want to help. Keep that in mind, and open that conversation.
But be really respectful of that time and flag that early that, you know, you'd love to have a few moments of their time, but that you will keep it to a certain amount. And be clear on what you want from that conversation as well. And if you can give them a heads up on that, that that is really appreciated as well. What does this person want from me, particularly alleviating that you're not hitting them up necessarily for a job or anything goes straight up is a good thing as well.
And then I guess once you've got that conversation going and you've been respectful, then moving that if you can do a face to face conversation now obviously that's not as easy at the moment. Same scrape. You know, zoom is terrific.
I don't know about you guys, I know, we're probably all zoomed out by now. But it is a great way of you know, people find it easier to schedule in a quick zoom meeting than they would have, you know, when we were previously on the market, you know, saying let's grab a coffee or whatever, it's easiest to squeeze in resume. So I would say making the most of that is really important as well. Yeah.
Petra:
Great tips. And because we've been talking so much about LinkedIn, the question has also arrived. What about CV’s? Do we still need one? Do we need to focus on it? Do we need to get onto LinkedIn? What's your take on this one?
Gillian:
Yes. Because there's still a major part of the process there. There are some things that you really need to know I guess about CV’s at the moment, when I do think so as a resume writer by trade. I think that you know, resumes are being slowly removed from the process, sadly to say
But they are still quite, you know, at the moment, they're still a major tool. And the most important thing to keep in mind with CV’s these days is that there's a lot of technology using to screen CV’s.
Now, not all of them. But there are applicant tracking systems that will pass resumes.
So you need to make sure that your resume is written for both hire and the technology. The reality is both of those.
Yeah, both the heart and the technology are doing the same things. They're just assessing your brief, if you're fit for their role. So as long as you are sort of following those principles, still, you know, you know, I think that's the most important thing.
So the three tips I would say is:
· make sure that you're positioning yourself really clearly. So read the job ad really, really well highlight all the right relevant paths, and then tailor your opening profile to really sell your pitch for that role. So this is a one it's not a generic way.
A generic resume is a dead. You're really minimizing your chances of getting through if you don't use a customised CV.
So optimize your opening profile. That's what we call the above the fold section. So that as soon as they pick up that document, it feels like it was written for them and it tells them in no uncertain terms why you are, you know, a perfect fit for their needs. And then once you positioning is right in that document, the next most important thing is making sure that you are evidencing your capability for that role. So one, you're a fit for the role and you've sort of optimized your opening section so your headline and your opening profile section, and then in the content of the document then most the next most important thing is really telling you story and showcasing your achievements.
· Don’t tell them what you did. Tell them how well you how you did it and how well you did it.
So you know they'll know what a marketing manager does.
They don't know how well you did that compared to every other marketing manager that is applying how many new clients you brought, how much growth you delivered the conditions that you did it in for that organization, you really need to tell that story and use metrics to evidence those.
And I would also say, you know, a few nice solid achievements up in that above the fold section can be really valuable too. So picking out a few best highlights to pop them in and get them to read on. And the only thing I would say with from the technology point of view is the technologies are looking at your content, not your design.
· You need to make sure that the keywords that they are using are as much reflected in your resume as you possibly can.
So they if they're looking for Occupational Health and Safety Officer, you're using Occupational Health and Safety not okay to this. So then these systems, you know, they're getting more complex, they're getting more complicated.
They're getting smarter all the time. But you do want to make sure that your content is optimized and reflected the same as we were talking about with your LinkedIn profile, you know, except the system's just looking at the job, add your resume to try and see if you're a good fit for that role. And they're doing that for matching your content and the requirements of the role.
Petra:
And I mean, this is especially applicable if we want to simply shift our role into a different environment.
But what if we want to do a complete career change and going from one industry that is not there anymore? Or we're not interested in anymore?
How can we make the shift especially if we don't tick all the boxes with those kids that they're listed? But we know we've done it, which is called a differently How can we position ourselves there?
Gillian:
I think it's great because a lot of employers are now looking more at potential than past
I think there has been a shift in the last year or two where organizations are starting to realize that and because of the market or because of the types of roles that There may not be perfect match people already out there.
So I think that's a great, you know, I guess change we've seen in that landscape. But the important thing to know when you're making a shift is you need to make sense. You need to repackage yourself. So you need to look at the skills and the areas that you offer value and then repackage yourself in your resume to show your fit.
It's not your story. It's your pitch. You're trying to, to showcase why you're a fit. So that's about highlighting the relevant parts of your background and story. That opening summary is a great way of repackaging yourself.
And again, even in your positions, you're highlighting the relevant parts of those and dropping away the parts that weren't as relevant or interesting to that hire. Just as something as simple as putting a you know, if you've got an achievement bullet point, putting a keyword in front of that to draw their attention to it like negotiation.
If that new aspect of that, you know, an important aspect of the new role, you might go negotiation, and then put your achievement and that will, you know, helps people to start to see those relevant transferable skills that maybe you're trying to emphasize. So you're bundling and packaging your skills and helping hires make sense of your background. I would say for me, the letter is huge.
If you're making a career pivot, you need to start to you need to differentiate and explain why you're so such so interested in that.
And I think letters can open doors that resumes may not have. And I think more than ever, as I say, warm introduction or referral if you're trying to make a pivot or change, it comes back to networks, again, really highly.
The technologies that are in place now are looking for perfect fits.
So if you're going through a traditional advertise position and they using technologies, they're going to be looking for the perfect fit. If you're making a pivot, the reality is you're probably not that perfect fit.
You need to go around those. That comes back to understanding where you add value, understanding where your value set, and then going to really start to build your connections with people in target organizations or in those industries so that you can get around those systems, find those hidden job market positions, and start having conversations and talking about how you bring value in more creative ways than maybe just sitting watching job boards.
But if you do, again, make sure that you are tailoring the hell out of that resume. And what he said before that the future of work is more fluid.
Petra:
So it's not going to be just a one off event through our current situation. We're going to see that more often over the next few years and we constantly need to make sense, we need to connect the dots. What happened done previously?
What were those tasks? And what kind of skill sets did they use in those tasks? When I said I did a lot of reporting or research, what does it mean high attention to detail? Being very analytical, being able to make sense out of data, it doesn't matter if I'm looking into clinical results or in so marketing data, it's still not the same approach. But this is where, as you said, it comes down to self awareness and knowing exactly what is this skill that I'm bringing to the table every single day?
Gillian:
And how can I translate that into the next organization or industry that I want to get into, and again, I'm hearing the talent community talking all the time, at the moment about looking more at skills than pedigree or, you know, qualifications or titles.
They're looking for skill sets, and that's a really good thing for when you're trying to make a pivot to know that that and you need to consider yourself as that don't look at yourself as what your past job titles are.
We're looking at those areas of value and where you consistently bring value and how you use your strengths and energizing skills and all those sorts of things to, to Yeah, to bring value to potential organizations.
So yeah, I think that's really important.
Over to you! What’s been your take out?
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