Career management programme - career consultants work with you

At Appleby Associates, a professional career consultant will work with you on a one-to-one basis. Everything we do is tailored to your individual needs, situation and aspirations. In order to give you a flavour of how we might work together, the following steps would constitute an example of a career management programme:

Understanding yourself
Identifying your transferable skills
Your options
Packaging yourself
Your marketing plan
The unadvertised, hidden or informal job market
Your interviewing technique
Your negotiating technique
The offer
Resources to support your campaign
A programme tailored to your needs and objectives

Understanding yourself

Your career consultant will first get to know you to understand what makes you tick and how best to challenge, stretch and support you in your career search. Together you will identify your critical success factors i.e. those things you enjoy doing and do well.

Appropriate psychometric evaluation can be a useful pointer and as qualified and registered practitioners, we are authorised to use the widely respected Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. An analysis of your personal and work achievements is another good source of information.

A clear grasp of your needs, values and motivations is essential to ensure that your next position offers you the right fit in terms of organisational culture and balance between work and home life.

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Identifying your transferable skills

As you well know, employers are only interested in people who can deliver results. The problem you face at the moment is that all your achievements are in a particular context of which a potential employer may have little or no knowledge.

It is our job to help rigorously examine your achievements to identify these underlying skills (leadership, organising, planning, creativity etc.) that you have used and honed in your career to date.

Later in the programme, we will show you the best way to express these skills to potential employers.

Your options

Having developed a thorough understanding of yourself and documented your specific transferable skills, you will then be in a position to consider different career options that are both realistic and challenging.

Most people have a limited view of the choices available to them because they are only able to draw upon their own experience and that of their immediate circle.

Through research and insight from your career consultant, you will discover more options including some that you may not have considered.

Packaging yourself

From a marketing perspective (and let’s not forget, this is all about marketing) it is vital that you are "packaged" in the most positive way possible so that you can enthuse and excite a potential employer and demonstrate what you are genuinely able to offer.

An important part of the packaging is your new CV – or Statement of Capabilities – which is your marketing brochure. Its purpose is to win a job interview or support a referral meeting.

Your marketing plan

The advertised job market is particularly useful for those seeking a similar role. Ads typically attract several hundred replies with most applicants displaying comparable skills and experience. It is therefore essential that you differentiate yourself in some way.

We will help ensure that your application – your CV and crucially the covering letter – gives you the best possible chance of securing an interview.

It is estimated that there are between 12,000 and 15,000 recruiters in the UK. If direct contact is appropriate, your career consultant will know how to identify and approach the right firms. Simply posting your CV on a recruiter's web site unfortunately is not enough.

The unadvertised, hidden or informal job market

If your aim is to change sector or role, if you face a barrier such as ageism or if you lack certain formal qualifications, it is unlikely that the advertised job market will prove effective. You will need an alternative route. And your career consultant will show you one that accounts for between 65 and 70 percent of all available positions at mid to senior level.

We will help you build an armoury of tools and techniques that will enable you to develop a network of senior decision maker contacts – people who have the authority to employ you or to create a position for you and who know others with similar influence.

It is this market intelligence that will allow you to home in on opportunities that meet your objectives.

Your interviewing technique

Working closely with your career consultant, you will learn advanced interview techniques and the subtle differences between types of interview. Using role-play, we will teach you how to gain control and build rapport. That way, you will become adept at steering the interview towards your transferable skills and what you can do for that organisation.

It is possible you will be asked questions about your current situation that you find difficult to answer. We will help you pre-empt many of these potential pitfalls by preparing – and rehearsing – the best way to avoid them.

You will then be ready to make the most of the interview opportunity.

Your negotiating technique

We will share with you all the skills and subtleties of astute and successful negotiation, ensuring you achieve the best possible package. After all, assuming you stay in role for a few years, if you fail to secure the extra two, three, five or ten thousand pounds of base salary in the budget at the outset, you could potentially be out of pocket by many, many thousands of pounds in the long run.

There are of course many other elements in addition to the salary that are negotiable. Your career consultant will ensure that these are also covered.

The offer

Even at the point where you receive a contract of employment, should you choose we will be there to give you advice and guidance. Your career consultant will help you make sure that your offer contains everything it should. For example:

Were there particular aspects of your discussions with the employer that have been omitted?

Does it include all the benefit entitlements you expected?

Is the notice period appropriate to the position?

Resources to support your campaign

When we launch your marketing campaign, you will have access to a number of subscription services. These we buy in on your behalf to help you identify unadvertised opportunities and generally make your campaign more effective.

Crucially we will provide regular review meetings to ensure your campaign stays on track through the inevitable highs and lows. We will provide ad hoc feedback, advice and additional support to make sure you achieve your goal.

A programme tailored to your needs and objectives

No two career management programmes are ever quite the same. Everyone we work with is different in some way. For that reason, your career consultant will ensure that your programme is designed to meet your specific needs and timescales.

Some clients want to move forward as quickly as possible, some prefer a more gradual approach. We will work with you in whichever way suits you best. You and your consultant will work together at your desired pace in line with your availability and personal objectives.