by admin on December 11, 2009
I went to the book launch of “And What Do You Do?: 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career” by Barrie Hopson and Katie Ledger a couple of weeks ago. The book is a guide to anyone who wants to explore having two or more ‘jobs’.
Having now read the book (it’s great by the way – very practical and full of examples and stories) there were a few of things that struck me.
Firstly how technology has enabled more people than ever to have portfolio careers. Katie and Barrie are bang up to date in their exploration of this, from the practical delivery of work to marketing yourself using social media.
Secondly, that while anyone of any age can be attracted to a portfolio career, there is some evidence that younger workers (Generation Y) are more comfortable with the idea of finding ‘clients’ to sell their skills to, rather than looking for just one job. I guess this is a result of seeing work more as something to do, rather than a place to go – a hang up that Generation X and the baby boomers find harder to shake off. This combined with the changing world of work and more enlightened companies benefitting from the flexibility this provides suggests this may become far more the norm.
by SimonWalker on July 17, 2009
There’s been lot’s in the press recently about 300,000 people in the UK graduating this year into one of the toughest job markets for a long time. (Sunday Times – Graduates face the toughest tests)
Most of the time we work with employers, but what practical help is out there for graduates?
This led us to Tanya de Grunwald and her excellent book ‘Dude, where’s my career? : A guide for baffled Graduates’.
The book focuses on helping ‘normal’ graduates (what Tanya calls ‘the baffled’) who haven’t put much (or any) thought into their career planning and certainly haven’t had a master plan to become president of the universe since they were 6 years old.
Looking back, I’d firmly put myself in that category when I graduated.
And the truth is that these normal, ‘baffled’ graduates , are the backbone of most organisations and hugely valuable, if only they can find the right career to play to their strengths and are allowed to grow and flourish.
What we really love about the book however, is the ‘emotional support’ approach Tanya takes. Most graduate careers help just focuses on the (important) nuts and bolts – like writing a great CV, but not on helping people understand what really makes them tick, how to get motivated and importantly how to deal with the inevitable knock backs. Dude gives this support in a highly practical and accessible way.
If you know one of this year’s 300,000, buy them a copy of Dude or take a look at Tanya’s blog.
by Sally Bibb on May 7, 2008
One of the great things about job-hunting if you are a Gen Y is that it is so easy to get the inside track on a companies that you may be thinking of working for. For us poor old Xers and Boomers it was nearly impossible to find out what it was really like in a company until we actually worked there. Today the internet makes it easy. Graduates only have to go onto Facebook to find out whether the truth of working somewhere matches the marketing messages they have been fed.
There are more and more websites springing up that give the inside story and where grads can ask specific questions about careers, selection methods, hours of work in particular sectors/companies and much more. They make interesting reading and no doubt provide an invaluable service for young job hunters.
wikijob was started by two graduates of Manchester University. is a site used by students and graduates to network with peers, and exchange information about jobs, employers and interviews.
I love www.rollonfriday.com , not least of all for the gossip! It pro.vides news and views about the legal sector.
They are good reminders to companies to make sure their marketing matches reality. There is no hiding place!
Sally
