Good morning and welcome to funky media radio. You're listening to me Fiona catchpowle, aka funky cyber grand. And today we are going to be getting some top tips and talking with career coach Tina Neve. Good morning, Tina.
Good morning. Thank you so much for having me on the show. You're more than welcome. And now tell me what is a career coach? Let's just get straight to it.
Yeah, a career coach is an individual who helps and support someone move from where they are in their career now to somewhere else. And that could be for a number of reasons. You know, you stop, you don't know where to go. You're not sure what type of job you do, other than the one you're doing at the moment, but most importantly, trying to find out what you want to do. Rather than just trying to I move from something Don't lie.
Okay, so but that nicely in my head career is something that sounds very cool pretz and I remember we dread career fairs at school and tell me I'm wrong.
As the term career gets caught up with all sorts of connotations from our school days, you know, it's got to be the doctor. It's got to be the lawyer somewhere you say stay for life. But the Career Development Institute have come up more recently with a definite career which not many people would recognise. And that is a sequence of variety of work roles, paid or unpaid individuals undertakes throughout their lives. So essentially, a career is essentially your working life.
Okay, so whether you're self employed or not, or you're in their corporate industry, and you have what we would say in the olden days, because that's how old I am. We would call it a nine to five job. Yeah, it's anything that you have are doing that is your your way of perhaps well, even though you've just said not earning money. I think I like the idea of actually earning money, though. Yes, I agree.
Right. Okay, just so we clear on that one then. And kind of how did you get into this, then how does it Creek coach evolve in one's own right?
Yeah, I mean, my sort of PR person, what I'm doing now is emerged over a sort of lifetime of experiences. And I come at this from a number of angles, which I think is a little different. And my sort of career has been mainly within HR. So from a human resources perspective, I've sat within organisations and recruited individuals for a wide range of different roles within different organisations. And I've also spent over 20 years within executive search. So from that perspective, I've actually been a recruiter, working for an organisation. So I've had the benefit of lifting up the lid on hundreds of organisations, seeing how they work and seeing, you know, and recruiting for them. And so, I've also been a lecturer and a teacher 1016 plus. So I know what the schools and colleges are saying to young individuals and the workforce, you know, what they need to have to actually know succeed? And sometimes that doesn't always match the reality.
Right? Okay. Now, I had a quick look at your website, which, for those of everybody that's listening, it's human decisions. co.uk and you have a slightly different approach to career coaching. And you mentioned something to me about reflection and values. Tell me a little bit more about that and why it's so important when it comes to communicating.
It is a lot of people who sometimes approached me or talk to me about career coaching think that the starting point is a CV, you know, to help me with my CV, you know, crying for jobs, and to you know, interviews, but there's huge amount of work that I do with individuals, usually before we even get to that point, because if someone's feeling in their in the wrong way, you know, there's a disconnect, things aren't working, and they don't really know why. And it's often because they don't really understand what makes them tick within the work environment. Hmm. You know, finding that sense of who they really are, what makes them tick, know, they often don't have, you know, confidence to talk about skills and capabilities they bring to the table, or potentially understand you know, the types of organisation environments that allow them to flourish in go spend some time with them talking through that. I guess it's also like nurturing your skill set, isn't it and knowing which of those skill sets that you enjoy developing?
Exactly, yeah, I also work from a strengths based perspective. And that actually effectively means that you know, you there are things that we just do, you don't think about them, there are strengths that we all inherently have, that will automatically play out in a situation. So I help people really understand what they are so they can leverage them that we're sort of moving forward.
Hmm. And is that what you call your career essentials template where you help guess outline need to have in their work? Exactly. Yeah, indeed. And that sort of gets them to think about, you know, you know, what their skills really are. And we often have, I think, in our heads, this sort of narrative about what we're good at what we're not a nerd This oh I can't do this I can't do that should be doing this like I should be doing that and I actually work on those sort of beliefs and assumptions that we potentially have about ourselves and put them onto my bit and actually challenged them.
Okay so I'm getting a little bit of an insight now into career coaching and and the most interesting what you said like this is all things that need to happen before the CV because I guess is this like, if you don't do this bit first, you're not really going to be happy in your job?
Quite often, yes. Because we move on to the next job that things will lead you there and the questions you potentially ask interview may replicate, you know, you'll come thoughts about yourself to some extent, I can only do this for example, you know, I work mainly with with women and quite often they will not they apply something that's slightly Less than they're capable of doing. So the next job is only a small step up from the one they've got now and not necessarily a bigger one, because they've got that sort of, you know, limited beliefs to some extent about what they're capable doing. So when you move into that job, you're going to actually a successful, but it might be quite a short period of time before the challenge may have gone or, you know, it's not giving you what you actually, you know, enjoy playing to your strengths, etc. Yeah, there's definitely I do recall something I'm saying like there's definitely a male female mindset when it comes to applying for job roles, and a woman will only apply for a job if she thinks she's got 100% skillsets, whereas a man will apply when he's only got like 50% or something like that exactly, completely. And the other thing is, is that what do you bring to the table from working within the executive search field? Is I used to challenge my clients and descriptions, you know, not all job descriptions are equal, and they're often a wish list and they hope they're gonna get X amount that's not on there. But they know they're not going to get hundred percent. And women do like to tick all the boxes.
Yeah, we do, don't we?
Yeah. And it's actually following the rules. That's a really good article, I think it was in the Harvard Business Review. And it was actually about women like to do things properly in the right order, and therefore you have to tick all the boxes. And actually, you might actually be wasting someone's time you actually apply. And, you know, you haven't got everything on there type of thing, right? Yeah. There's that sort of mindset, as well. But yeah, men will often go Yeah, they're probably looking for 70% of this. I've got 50 I'll give it a guy. But for a woman that is rarely the case.
Yeah, so why would we want to choose career coaching specifically as opposed to any other kind of business or life kind of coaching? Where's the the added bonus?
The added bonus here is the the interplay between the two. I think it's on the life side and you're sort of self knowledge plays out first, which is finding out who you are. But then the career coaching, then add seeing those specific practical skills around CV writing, you know, looking at your type of organisation is going to work best for you, you know, being able to really be confident about going into a situation and make it work for you. That could be an interview situation, it could be an internal one to one with your manager, internal promotion, you know, being able to sit there and go, you know, this is who I am, this is what I bring. And this is what I'm looking to take out of this meeting.
Right? Okay, so he kind of gives you like his strategy for coping with these things completely. I think that the understanding yourself gives you a total foundation of knowing what the skill set is the skills are what your values are very important. And they can help you set boundaries, you know, deciding what you want out of a situation. And therefore, you know, you just go in there from a position of strength, I think as well, yeah.
Yeah. Okay. I consider it a certainty.
Mm hmm.
And how does your How does your methods unfold or so like, how would do we connect with you now, so, and we have a chat with you. And I'm guessing obviously, this has to happen online now and things like yeah, so talk me through the process. I'm on the phone. I'm on the email. We're in there with you, Tina, and we want to hear what happens next.
Yeah, we have conversation, I will ask you a number of questions about your current situation in a sort of discovery call, which is 45 minutes, there's no charge involved. And find out, you know, what you're hoping to get from the situation, what your issues. So tell you in more detail about how I work, because it's very important that in any situation like this, that, you know, chemistry is there, it's about a relationship. You work together. So it's making sure that fit is there. And then you sign up if you want to, for initially a minimum of three sessions. And then we take it from there.
And how long does the process takes if I'm looking for a new job tomorrow? Hopefully not. I'm thinking with the radio. I love you.
If I was and how long does it this process, the career coaching process take?
It does depends on the individual. But if someone was completely at a loss as to what to do next and really wanted to examine, you know, you know what they're good at, you know, their strengths, their capabilities, their expertise and how they could use them. And I think a rule of thumb would probably be around eight sessions. And then whew, from I'm really not sure what to do. I'm not sure what I'm good at what can I do next three to actually I've got a prime, I've got to see VA. I know how I'm going to present myself interview and I feel more comfortable with what I'm doing.
I'm not something that's overnight and, but it's something that you you need to spend the time doing, I guess as well is I mean, to some extent, it's an investment in yourself. Eight hours can change Life effectively, yes. If you look at it like that, you know, you go from, you know, you create that new perspective of yourself. That will, in some cases, you know, change the course of your career and your life and how you feel about your, your work as well.
Yeah, we all know how quickly things can change the eight hours isn't actually that longer time really isn't. And obviously things have been quite different the last few months. So, and I'm guessing the landscape of what maybe the people that you're working with currently is slightly different than mindset must be different. Do you have any kind of top tips that we could take away with us?
Yeah, I suppose one in particular, and I thought this had sort of gone away pre been sort of dispelled after the 2007 2008 crash, but I've been fortunate to do so. placement as individuals in hospitality at the moment who've been hit extremely hard, and when, but for those out there who had been made redundant, and there is no shame or stigma attached to redundancy, and there's no need to apologise for it, you know, I spoke to somebody a couple of weeks ago who started a new job in January. They went on furlough in March and now they've been made redundant. And that is just a set of facts. And actually, when you're presenting yourself to future employers, etc, you just have to explain the facts. And that's it. You do not have to apologise, you'll make it undone. And for those people that have perhaps been in for a job longer than that and were made redundant, the majority of the time it is not personal. It is just a set of criteria that the organisation will have applied. And that's that, so if you do go to apply For another organisation, you weren't there for X amount of time COVID happened you put on furlough, and then you were made redundant. And I'm now looking to do X. Noni apologise, no need to be ashamed,
huh? Okay, well, that's a really good good thing to remember and be comforted by rarely so and then just just see, what's your opinion. Okay. So, what's the employment landscape? Like out there at the moment? How is it has it changed massively in the last couple of months?
I think we're in a complete shift to some extent of the world of work. There are huge areas of the sector sectors who are losing jobs and potentially when furlough finishes who will lose more, or other organisations who have been less hit and those that are actually Doing well. So quite often in the press, we only see the bad, but there are some areas that are flourishing in this environment. But I think the area that's quite interesting is the whole working from home. Just from an anecdotal perspective, one of my clients earlier this year, was working in a very traditional financial services business. And when we started working, you know, flexible working was something they just didn't want to embrace. But they, they were able to do a complete shift very quickly, with over here, and everyone started to work from home.
Hmm. I mean, yeah, in that respect, what life dynamics have changed, obviously. And I guess that kind of affects your mindset a little bit, doesn't it?
Yes, it does. And I've also been working for an organisation funnily enough But it's important some employees from a career perspective which isn't about moving jobs, it's just about being just supporting them in their current role in the current environment. And, and because I used to work at home one day a week, and I know other people have worked from home prior to working for myself, and I think when you're in an organisation, something doesn't go quite right. If you're in the office, it's far easier to negotiate. You're sitting home, it can be magnified enormously, and you're sitting right and it's going through your head. No x happened, why? And what do I do next type thing. You haven't got those water cooler moments. You haven't got someone next to you in the office and Oh, don't worry about that. You know, Joe Bloggs is always kicks up for those situations or whatever. You know, it can be really hard working at home. You know, there are lots of pluses but it's not perfect. Always. It can The whole dynamics different.
Interesting, interesting. Well, we are in interesting times, aren't we? So I think chatting with us, it's been a real insight. I now know what a career coach is and what you can do for us. So how would we get in contact with you? What's the best way to do this?
get in contact with me is by email, which is tinaneve@humandecisions.co.uk . And those details are on the contact page of my website. That's absolutely brilliant. Well done. Thank you very much team for joining us. And we'll see you again soon. And we can tell us a little bit more about the landscape and how things are looking for people.
I would love to Thank you. All right. Thank you very much.
Tinas Details:
https://humandecisions.co.uk/tina-neve/
Call Tina: +44 (0) 7950 916 894