I have just come across interesting information about a University of Adelaide study currently recruiting managers and bosses to talk about their experiences if they have been accused of workplace bullying. The researcher asks a question “Office bully or workplace victim?” and provides some evidence that the latter might also be true.

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Skill Shortage – What skill shortage? What does it mean to be career resilient?

Media would like us to believe that our labour market experiences skill shortage. This is true in some sectors, such as mining, engineering and trades; however, in fact most other sectors experience a rise of redundancies and retrenchments, in particular at more senior levels. Recruiters complain that their business is down because there are not many new vacancies coming in. I have seen many good candidates in my practice recently, who have been looking for jobs for more than six months.  Age seems to do quite a lot with it; perhaps because older people are looking for more senior positions than the younger ones and there are not so many senior positions advertised. Turning 40 appears to be a magical age, although one recruiter told me that in their circle mature age workers are those over 36.  “This position is too junior for you” – you can hear their response, and “I do not have anything at your level right now”. 

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When things are tense at work, it can feel just like being in a relationship that has gone pear-shaped. What do you do? Do you walk - or run - away? Sometimes this is the right thing to do, as outlined in Alicia’s article on Workplace Psychopaths. Sometimes there are other options to consider. Here are some worthy of consideration: (more…)

When coaching a female executive recently, the issue of “who do I need to be in order to succeed to a more senior role in the corporate environment…” played a prominent role in Jenny’s (not her real name) coaching assignment.

This brought to mind the book by Lois P Frankel “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office” and I decided to share some knowledge with those whose issues may be similar.

How do you survive and more importantly thrive in those corporate environments where there is a strong male presence at the senior executive levels? (I’m generalising here in that there are definitely some corporates where this does not apply.) How do you break into these ranks? (more…)

Apparently how you are dealing with adversity can tell a lot about how successful you are and will be in your life. Good news is that it can be measured and changed with a combination of self-awareness, discipline, focus and practice. (more…)

For most of us happiness is not driven by how much we earn, a short commute to work or proximity to cheap sushi at lunchtime. It goes far deeper and is a bit harder to access our true motivators. Some common signs though can forecast that it is time for a change.

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It’s undeniable there can be seasons in life where other things need to take priority, and career goals need to tread water for a bit.  However when there’s choice, why not make one?

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Workplace psychopaths, some estimate that there are about 3% of them in the workplace, and some say that their number is on a raise, but if it is the first time you are working with one and if you are a target of their attention you may start to feel like a paranoid freak. On the other hand workplace psychopaths with milder forms of psychopathic behaviours could be useful if managed properly by organisations. (more…)

First we had the ‘traditional’ interview – now well and truly out of fashion. Then, in the early 90s the “behavioural” interview arrived and slowly gathered speed and took hold – to the extent that there is almost no “traditional” style used during the interview process. Also popular is the “assessment centre” approach which is very often used during large-scale hiring by the public sector, by airlines and by the banking and finance industry.

This week a client asked me to coach her specifically in passing a “Case Study” interview, and while this is not entirely new, it is becoming more common to not only go through the ‘behaviour’ interview but to also pass a ‘Case Study’ interview (more…)

So goes a quote by Diane Ackerman, prize winning author and poet. A lot of people tell me they feel that they are passengers in their own career.

• “I just fell into this”
• “This job came along and just carried me along with it”
• “I haven’t ever really thought about what I wanted to do”

are comments I frequently hear.

Intelligent Career Management, the theme of this blog, is about being the pilot of your career rather than a passenger. In this Part II of the “This is not my Beautiful Job” post we explore the core and crucial step of making the shift from passenger to pilot. (more…)