To this end, there is an urgent need for you to upgrade your knowledge and skill. Particularly you now need to acquire employability and career coaching skills. Wait! I know you are about to tell me why that role is better left to the professionals. Or perhaps you want to remind me that parents don’t make for good advisers. I know I know I know.

But let me explain what I mean, why it is necessary and how you might achieve that.

We read daily about graduate unemployment and of the efforts (?) of government to sort it out. Well I am here to suggest that parents have a big role to play in ensuring their future graduate children do not become part of the statistic.

My suggestion is not to make professional career advisers redundant. Rather it is to remind parents of their critically important complimentary role in supporting their children to gain employment as at when due. And the only way to do this is to become better in understanding your child’s attributes, skill and talents. You need recognise the employability skills of your child, it is the foundation upon which professional advisers can build. It is the hallmark of responsible parenting.

Before your child steps out of home to meet professionals – teachers, carers etc he/she would have spent a long time with you. Even after then, they still spend an enormous amount of time with you than anybody. In other words your capacity to help them discover who they are is always there. You should be able to provide basic but important background information to work which ensures that they have a head start in the future scramble for jobs.

And that is where your role as employability advisor begins. Afterall employability advisers can only do their jobs when they have taken time to understand their clients. If we expect these professionals to achieve result with just a few meetings of getting to know them, then we should be better in helping our own.

Why is it necessary to acquire employability or career coaching skills? These are tough times for getting jobs if you are young. Therefore it is particularly important to upgrade your knowledge if your child is currently in college. The reason is that going by current economic predictions; the national economy will still not be strong enough to absorb every graduate when your child graduates in a few years time. The queues are likely to still be there.

Graduate unemployment is at its current worrisome level because many young people can’t seem to make up their minds early enough what career path to follow upon graduation. As a result of which they would not have developed the essential skills. Where this occur, it is easy to trace the cause to weak home support and encouragement.

Also, if your child is in this age bracket, it is about your last chance to offer any positive life changing assistance for them. Beyond that age, your efforts becomes interference and hence rebuffed. Young adults do not take much advice especially from their parents. They feel entitled, and rightly so, to follow their own counsel. It is an opportunity that you must seize.

If you are interested in learning tips about helping your child with career and employability skills, then register for the parent’s awareness evening scheduled for Feb 16 2012 in London. Details here.

What can parents do to stimulate the creativity and innovativeness of their children to be job creators and not job seekers? What do future job hunters need to do to stand out and more importantly, get ahead of the crowd upon graduation?

There is no gain saying that future graduates will face tough competition for the available jobs. In other words, many future graduates will suffer some extended period of inactivity and inability in applying their knowledge, creativity and innovativeness. It will be a shame indeed that some will lose some of their youth to anxiety about finding jobs.

While pressure is being mounted on government, parents too should take some responsibility about turning things around. They should ask themselves the question ‘What can a parent do to encourage, develop and support their children to be job creators not job seekers of the future’?

Particularly, parents of teenager currently in College, A’ Levels or University have a golden opportunity to make this happen.  This crop of teenagers will be affected more than those who are in secondary school today. They are the ones who will be graduating within the next 6 – 8 years when the impact of the recession will only just be receding.

The key question for such parents to answer is: ‘What can I doing to enhance the career prospect of my child? This is particularly important unless of course you have an empire that your children can walk into upon graduation. Otherwise, parents have a big role to play.

The crowded unemployment market is not so much a respecter of the graduate’s academic prowess, their University status or other excuses which were sufficient in the past. There are benefits to those attributes, but they are no longer adequate in today’s market situation. The reasons for that are not far to fetch; for one, there are thousands of academically clever graduates every year. And for another, international labour mobility is at its highest with people able to travel far and wide in pursuit of employment.

But there are a number of actions parents can take to ensure that their children stand out and ahead of the crowd in the search for future jobs. These actions include the following:

One, encourage them to make a decision as to what they would like to do in the future. Youngsters have a worrying trend of not knowing what they want to do when they ‘grow up’. Ask most of them what they would like to do and the answer you get is ‘I don’t know’.

It is difficult to say what is responsible for this state of things – is it due to the fact that they are spoilt for choice or simply because they are confounded and confused. Or is it because they lack the courage to embrace the ideas in their heads? Whatever be the case, one fact remain true, in order to get ahead, they have got to decide and work with something until they are sure what they want.

Secondly, help them capture their ideas. Teenagers are thinking machines with thousands of ideas flowing in their head daily. Unfortunately, their beautiful, brilliant and potentially beneficial ideas are allowed to waste away. With support and direction, these ideas could turn out to make our world a much better place.

Thirdly, help them discover and explore their entrepreneurial side. Capturing their creative and imaginative ideas is a good place to start. Ideas are gems that if nurtured can be translated to businesses. It is about time our children became job creators rather than job seekers.

This is a great opportunity to discharge the second part of your parental duty – that of ensuring that they put their talents to optimum use. If it be true that ‘there are only two lasting bequeaths we can give to our children, one is roots; the other wings’; then this is the later of those bequeaths. Remember that by the time they graduate they would have become their own person. In essence this is about one of the final chances to discharge parental duty. It is a chance you must grab and discharged with total commitment.

I hope you are not doing the usual in your job hunting activities. If you are STOP IT NOW! These are unusual times; to do usual things in unusual times is an invitation to disaster that you can’t afford.

Let me tell you the background to this ‘doing the usual’ story. Recently, I attended the Graduate Recruitment fair at the Olympia where I conversed with many graduates who are job searching. I asked questions about how useful the event was for them, how their job search is going, and what contingency plans do they have in place etc. From the answers, I noticed a growing anxiety among many.

Particularly, I spent more time with a young lady; a 2.1International Business graduate. Our conversation went thus:

“How is it going in job search front?”

“Not like I want it” she replied.

“What are you doing to change things then, like what strategies do you have in place to find a job?”

“The usual” she answered.

“What do you mean the usual?” I queried

“Well, I send my CV, register online, and attend exhibitions like this.”

“What more do you do?”

“What else can I do? There is nothing I can do but wait for recruiters to find me and call me for interviews”.

Our conversation went on a little bit further during which I commended her that doing the ‘usual’ is the right thing to do.

But today, doing the usual things is grossly inadequate to make secure employment as soon as possible. Whereas sending CV’s are great but that is a passive way to gain visibility. In the market with so much competition, you need to be a lot more visible. One way you could gain more visibility is to write articles for your professional body, newspapers or magazines.  

Doing those extra little things will give the necessary exposure to places where you would not normally have access.

Wishing you the best!

This letter is a reminder of the module that was left out of your course at Uni. (it does not matter which one you attended). It is about what you need to learn as you enter a critical phase in life – that of career phase.

The career phase is vitally important for two reasons:

1) Everything that is going to define you in terms of your contribution to your profession, community and the world will happen to this phase.

2) It is incredibly long about 45 years if you are now 22. Because we are living longer, government everywhere are reviewing retirement age. In the UK for example, the proposed retirement age for men is 68 and for women 65.

Due to these reasons, it is critically important that you have a thorough understanding of the career phase. More than that it is essential to be adequately informed and fully prepared for it. It will be crazy of anybody to go into it without this preparation.

Some have argued that since it is a long period, maybe there is no big deal in not planning adequately from the outset because there will be enough time to correct mistakes along the journey. Hmm, that is a terrible gamble; it is always a better to get it right the first time.

The Career Planning Toolkit for Graduates was developed to equip you to hit the ground running. It will deliver essential information as well as inspire you to be fully prepared for the critical career phase you are entering.

There are other critical reasons for planning now:

1) Our career determines to a large extent what our lives will be. It can make it boring, stressful and unhappy. It can also make it lively, exciting and fulfilling. Now you are looking forward to settling into a career that will make maximum use of your talents and experiences and in return pay you handsomely. This toolkit gives you the hints and ideas about how to make it happen.

2) There is tremendous competition in the work place. Five key factors are responsible for that. One, more and more people are graduating from universities annually. For example, in the 2009/10 academic session, about 200,000 graduates passed out of UK universities. The trend is the same in every country. Two, we live in a shrinking world. E.g. the EEC is a community of 27 countries who have opened their borders for trade and economic activities among members. Graduates from one member state are free to look for and gain work in other member states. Thirdly, the internet has made it easy for people to know what is happening in other countries. Jobs advertised in one country can be easily picked up by candidates from other places. And finally, the recession of the last 4 years, led to the closure of many companies while those still managing to survive have had to downsize – further throwing more people out of work.

As a new entrey into the career phase, you need to understand and fashion tools for yourself in order to not merely survive but thrive in great competition that lie ahead. Especially if you:

• Do not already have an empire to walk straight into.

• Have to search for job vacancies.

• Complete application forms.

• Go for job interviews.

• Particularly if you are a graduate from the non professional courses/fields i.e. social sciences or liberal arts. Remember that in a world of tremendous competition, you are doubly disadvantaged if you belong here.

As it is always the case, having a strategy will do for your career more than all your technical knowledge and hard work you could put in. A good strategy will ensure that you:

Create a career plan

Build a network or support system

Become a brand

Develop your soft skills in cost effective ways.

I believe if you understand and take these steps you will reach the top faster than you ever thought possible.

I will be delighted to work with and support you in getting the job of your dreams. Now do one of three things:

1. Subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter – for tips, news and information

2. Purchase the career enhancing “Career Planning Toolkit for Graduates”: download now for £9.99 or buy the DVD for £12.99.

3. Join my Graduate mentoring scheme:

Finally, as you are looking for work, don’t lose your enthusiasm; do not be discouraged at the crowd you see at exhibitions. And never ever listen to people who constantly tell you about the gloom in the economy.

The very best!

Be inspired by it.

“If you fail to reach the top, the fault will not be because of your race, colour, level of education, or what part of town you were born in. It will not even be because of the state of the economy. The fault will be because you failed to market yourself adequately”.

To many, the idea of self-promotion is brashness at its disgraceful heights. It is abhorrent. It is obnoxious. And by that token, it must be avoided. This writer however takes a different, even, opposing view. The path to a fulfilling career or happy life is the willing to disregard the well-intentioned but misguided and erroneous misconception that self promotion is bad.

Without a doubt, life is more likely to be dull and anxious without self- promotion skills; but with it, life will be exciting and rewarding. It may be true that this skill was not necessary in the past, but then, that was in the past when you were probably the only guy in the neighbourhood with your skill, now there are thousands like you. In other words the world has moved on, so old habits must change less you will be left behind.

Now, the ability to promote yourself is fundamental, vital, and even critical. Countless researches in human psychology have proven beyond every shadow of doubt that career progress depend on the degree to which you can self-promote. Successful people (whatever that means to you) are skilled in the art of marketing themselves. The bulk of those who are unfulfilled have been found not to have the skill. Of course there are other contributing factors to lack of career fulfilment; the most critical remain: not being able to market your abilities adequately.

It will be true to say that more people recognise how vital self-promotion is than actually practise it. The reason is simple, Self promotion is not natural and by that fact, it is not quite easily done.

Obstacles to self promotion and their causes.

Nothing speaks for itself anymore:

Too many of us underestimate the damage that lack of self–promotion can cause. Many believe that their skills or talents are so apparent that others should recognize them. Also when some people are not moving as quickly as they desire in their career, they usually jump to the conclusion that it is because they do not have what it takes, such as additional qualification, more experience, or even because they belong to the wrong race or colour.

Orientation

The next obstacle to self-promotion is orientation or upbringing. Most people were taught from childhood to ‘be humble’; ‘not to blow their own trumpets’ and of course ‘not to be brash’. The childhood training is then reinforcement in adulthood with religious orientation that says ‘it is vain to talk about the self’. These internalised concepts become so strong that the dictum ‘old habits die hard’ rigidly applies.

Sensitivity to others

As humans we develop a strong sense of belongingness to a group, either family or community. This need, according to Abraham Maslow is very high up on our hierarchy of needs. One of the things we do to maintain this need is to, not make people feel little, or foolish in our presence. Many of us assume the best way to do this is to talk openly about our weaknesses and not about our strength or achievements. Or as Nelson Mandela put it, ‘we shrink so that others won’t feel insecure around us’.

Lack of current evidence

In the light of the above, abilities are not openly accepted or recognised which means there will be ‘no current evidence’ to prove ability. Where there is no evidence to show for what you perceive or know of yourself, it becomes almost impossible to market that innate ability. It takes guts to pursue ultimate life goal when current achievement is small. In this situation either of two things is likely to happen: Openly voice what you feel and invite ridicule from people who don’t believe you, or keep quite about it to be at peace with the world. Usually the majority opts for the latter.

Perfectionism:

The final obstacle to self-promotion is the desire to be perfect. Your desire to be excellent or be without blemish in the things you do is commendable. The problem with this however is that refusing to attempt anything until you’ve got the facts right or until you are able to do it impeccably means that you are perpetuating mediocrity. Considering that you only get better when you practise, the chance of getting better diminishes for lack of practise. In this state you will find it difficult to Market Yourself.

Considering that these obstacles are more about mindset, the easiest way to overcome them is to develop a new consciousness – a new mindset.

Do you need help with marketing yourself? I should like to help

The issue in many business conversations is now whether you are for hype or against it. It is important that we throw a little more light onto this seemingly confusing phenomenon. It is hoped that such an exercise will remove the confusion in order that you may derive maximum profits from your talents, products and services.

Recently, a Facebook commentator wrote inter alia “… It is bad to believe your own hype and doubly so to believe in the hype of others”. According to him, people should not have to ‘hype’ a good product or service. He admonished people to be suspicious of any product that has been ‘hyped’.

Let me declare my stand. I am for ‘hype’ and it is my mission to convince you here that ‘Hype’ is good for you, your skill, your product and your services.

First, in order to make the correct judgment as to whether it is right or not to ‘hype’, it is important that to understand the world in its truest sense.

The Oxford dictionary, ‘Hype’ has two broad interpretations – (perhaps, the source of the confusion).

1. An instance of short-changing that is to say cheating, deception, a confidence trick and a swindle.
2. To promote with extravagant aggressive or intense publicity.

The first definition comes from a moral perspective and the second, a marketing perspective. Perspective one is the domain of moralists – of which most of us are – we are moralists at heart. But perspective two is the exclusive domain of marketers, business owners and skill merchants. Marketers of products and services have no choice but be in total agreement with perspective two – i.e. to promote with extravagant aggressive or intense publicity.

Those who oppose and object to hype do so, on the basis that it is immoral. By that they mean that often, the hype tells or paints more than a faultless picture of the service or product being offered.

The answer to that is that ‘there is no such perfect product or service’. Everything has an inherent fault. But that should not distract from the overall usefulness of the product or service being hyped. In essence, it is not enough reason to stop us from promoting.

It is safe to say that opponents of ‘hype’ do not object on the basis of ‘perfection’ or quality of the product or service being ‘hyped’. They object because they lack the skill required to ‘hype’ their own product or service. This may be as a result of not possessing a marketing mindset commensurate to their offer.

Protagonists of Hype, of which I am one, posit that we cannot but ‘hype’ for the following reasons:

1. Competition: We are today faced with tremendous competition where only those who are able to articulate their offer to the largest audience are the only ones who will survive and thrive. Moralists need to understand and accept that unless you are able to reach out to a large market, you cannot survive. You either market aggressively or you die. In the words of one writer, “without marketing something terrible happens…Nothing!” 
2. Similarity: Coupled with the above is that there is a lot of similarities in products and services in the market place today. Unless you are able to distinguish your product or service from others, you will not do well at all.
3. Nothing speaks for itself anymore. In the days of old, ‘Res Ipsa Loquitor’ (the thing speaks for itself) is a popular legal dictum. But that is no longer the case. Nothing speaks for itself anymore. In the cacophony of the market place, you cannot even, dare not leave your offer to speak for itself. It’s voice will be completely drowned out.

An example of the moral argument to not hype is that things must be left to happen via synchronicity. This is a term that has often been used in place of hype. Synchronicity is now a buzz word and a popular movement advocating that it is better to walk the talk. Incidentally, synchronicity was hyped into the self development lexicon about 10 years ago.

In conclusion, may I suggest that you take stock of where you stand on this debate: are you for or against Hype? If you are against, then chances are you have not marketed your skills, product and service adequately until now. This is a good time to change in order to reap abundant reward from your talents and abilities.

Yesterday, I listened to a conversation between my two teenage sons. I do not know what their conversation was about but I heard my older son say, “I can’t imagine him saying that. He has not done it himself so how does he want me to believe that it is okay? He can’t possibly give what he does not have”. Then the younger turned to me to ask “Dad can somebody give you something he does not have?”

I was delighted at being presented with another golden opportunity to enlighten the youngsters about another well intentioned but often misinterpreted and misleading conventional wisdom of life. This particular wisdom has been the undoing for a lot of people. It is a concept that I have ruminated over for a long time. I now hope to highlight the dangers inherent in having such a mindset.

The direct and ordinary meaning of the saying is that I cannot give you £100.00 if I do not have that amount myself. My mission here however is to throw some lights onto this how this phrase particularly the word ‘give’ is misinterpreted and misused. However, this popular phrase is not interpreted in the ordinary and direct sense. It is used in the sense that only Richard Branson can teach you how to run a successful business; only Roger Federer can teach you to play tennis; only Elvis Presley can teach you to compose songs etc.

Whereas it is true that only a Physicist can teach me physics, and a surgeon can teach me to dissect an animal, but this phrase is mostly used in day to day human interaction. I will like to suggest that life is not as technical, rather it is emotional matter and by that fact fact does not comply with simple and straight forwards rules.

Many people follow this advice to their own detriment. Perhaps it is safe to conclude that the originator of this saying meant well but he/she has often been quoted out of context. As a career mentor, I have seen people miss out just because they hold the less than direct interpretation of the saying.  People often refuse to ask for help from somebody who they consider as not having what they want.

A few years ago, a prospective client came into my personal development bookshop to buy a book. She picked up and inquired about Napoleon Hill’s masterpiece ‘Think and grow Rich’. With excitement I said “if you read and follow the principles in that book, you will become truly rich in under 10 years”.

She asked “have you read it and how long ago?” To which I replied, “I read it over ten years ago”. She then asked the clincher “are you a millionaire then?” I answered “Not yet”. She dropped the book right there, turned and walked out saying “it obviously does not work!” She completely forgot to ask me whether I had followed the principles.

In another example, recently, a lady told me that she cannot take relationship advice from another lady who has had a marriage breakdown. When I questioned the premise of her decision, she replied, “Because what I want is how to have a great relationship”. What she forgets is that the lady may have been so pained by her experience that she wishes other women learn from her experiences.

These ladies are well schooled in the convention that says ‘if she does not have it she can’t give it’. Unfortunately, these people overlook the important factors – care, awareness and the patience. People do not necessarily ‘give’ they equip, enable and support others to get what they want.

One, an important element in this dynamics is the duty of care. Does this person care enough to support your ambition to get whatever it is that you desire? It needs be emphasized that ‘it is not about one giving to the other; it is about one helping the other to get things’.

“The truth is, people don’t give but they can enable and support you to get if they care”.

Anyone who has ever watched kids at play will testify to this fact. I once witnessed one little boy climbed onto his brother’s shoulders to pick a ball from on top of a high shelf when the mother refused to let them have it. Imagine if they had waited until mummy was willing to oblige them?

Awareness is also a big factor. Do the supporters have the awareness of what is at stake? Do they have any forward thinking attitude regarding the matters at stake? Do they have any experience in this area? What mistakes did they make that stopped them from achieving similar goals?

The trick for getting anything is not only by looking for those who have it, but also by looking for people who care, are aware and are supportive enough, to help you get it. Often those who have it neither have the patience nor the care to help you get it, much less give it to you. And many who have it do not even know how to teach it. The notion that only millionaires can help you become a millionaire is false.

My parents never went to school, but somehow knew the value of education and toiled through rain and hailstorm to pay for my education. Imagine if Serena and Venus Williams had refused the mentoring of their father (Richard) – because he never won any tennis championship. Imagine if Susan Boyle had refused to come on BGT because Simon’s album never topped the charts.

My submission:
Everybody who crosses your path has something to teach you towards the achievement of your goals. Jettison the idea that only millionaires can make you rich. Often look for the care quality: Do they care? Do they believe in you? Once you are sure this is the case, then you are on the right path to recruiting another great member into your fighting army.
Good luck!