Blogs

"I just saw a job that looked as though it might be right up my street in my inbox. The thing is, it said I could ring up the person on the mobile number listed, or I could drop an email through. Which is best?"

"I've heard that 20% of young people are unemployed and risk being largely unemployable. I didn't go to a 'good' school, far from it, and I've only got six average GCSEs. Realistically, what chance do I have?"

"I feel sick when I walk in to an interview, my voice sounds unsteady when I speak and every so often my mind goes a compete blank when I'm asked a question that is unusual or that I didn't expect. I'm okay when I settle down, so what can I do to be like that all of the time?"

"What's the best line of approach to take when being interviewed by my present employer for an internal promotion? I don't want to appear critical of the other supervisors and managers because they'll all still be here, whether I get the job or not."

This was a question I was asked recently by someone I was helping to rehearse for a forthcoming interview and it's a very valid one.

During the interview, the best way to stand out is to try and put across two things:

"Over a few drinks, my friends and I compared notes on how many jobs we'd each had in the five years after leaving school or uni and it turned out to be an average of 6! Is that normal?"

For most people it used to be that, when you took a job, you thought of it as an ongoing thing that would last for as long as you felt like staying, or until your lottery numbers would come up. Today the 'job' world is an entirely different place.