Career Advisory postgraduate studies – after the fifth weekend
“I am looking for a job in an area where I have no experience. How long might such a process take?”, “I am looking for a job consistent with my experience, but outside my current industry. How can I stand out among candidates who know the industry?”. These are challenges that candidates often encounter in the dynamically changing job market. During 5th meeting of the Career Advisory postgraduate studies, the following issues were discussed: assessment of career goals in the context of market realities and dynamics, and services within the organization, including outplacement.
Assessment of career goal in the context of market realities and dynamics
The first day of 5th meeting was led by Anna Mady who focused on the topic of “Career goal assessment in the context of market realities and dynamics”. She discussed the complexity of the job search process and its “standard, medium, difficult” difficulty levels, which derive from the following elements:
- demand / supply on the job market (number of public job ads vs number of similar candidates)
- readiness of the profile in terms of the purpose, and showing it in the CV / on LinkedIn
- relocation: showing a connection or motivation that is real / realistic (e.g. I am moving for family reasons)
- possible / available technical configurations, e.g. reporting to someone outside Poland when you are not on the management board.
Anna also discussed real examples with the students, such as:
- Senior Business Solutions Team Manager who wants to be promoted to the position of Regional Head of Support Function within the current organization
- an employee who wants to take up a managerial position responsible for several countries
- Head of Sales & Business Development who considers 3 scenarios: 1) the same position, but in another, large international organization, 2) GM in a medium-sized, but also international organization, 3) changing the profile to broadly understood HR
- Chief Security Officer who wants to become a member of a management board in a larger, international corporation
- experienced manager with an international profile who wants to move to Berlin.
Outplacement
The second day of 5th meeting was also led by Anna Mady who this time focused on the topic of outplacement – a comprehensive program of advisory and training activities aimed at supporting dismissed employees in taking up new professional activity. During this day, students deepened their knowledge of the types and elements of outplacement programs, benefits for the participant and the company, and the role of the consultant and participant. To help students feel more confident, Anna discussed examples of “difficult cases” as well as formal issues and logistics.
On this day, a guest speaker joined us – the Director of Conduct and Ethics who talked about his experience with outplacement. He revealed what surprised him in the past and what he would do differently today.
Students’ thoughts after the fifth meeting
“In my opinion, the day about goal diagnosis was the most intense so far! I really liked the large number of cases to analyse and I feel that I am ready to start putting my knowledge into practice and implement new strategies.”
“The opportunity to see so many different CVs and cases was a very interesting experience! I learnt to capture various details in a CV and skilfully help candidates describe their successes and projects.”
“I realised that not every goal is realistic and well-chosen, and that goals often need to be clarified with the client.”
“I learnt how important it is to ask questions to get the right information from clients.”
“I think a lot of people are not aware of what outplacement looks like; what are the limits of the consultant’s help, that the consultant will not find a job for us. Often, participants do not realize that it is their responsibility to take action.”
“It’s fantastic to hear such stories from guest speakers. I realised that it is possible to find a job in your fifties, you just have to want it – change your attitude and use modern tools.”
“I went through the outplacement process myself in 2011, and now I see what went wrong… Unfortunately, I did not receive adequate support in the form of an individual approach. My employer paid for the service, and that was it. I didn’t know then that it could be done differently – in a better way.”
We will keep you informed about our students as well as the progress of our studies.
PS. Read more about the first, second, third and fourth meeting.
PPS. Registration for 3rd module of our studies – Navigating the Job Market – is still ongoing. Check out the course details and apply here.
