Careers: Five Steps to Vocational Passion: A Disciplined Plan for Major Mid-life Changes

Five Steps to Vocational Passion: A Disciplined Plan for Major Mid-life Changes

Written by Craig Nathanson

Continued from page 1
Anyone making a change needs supportive friends, and lots of them. I suggest a three-tiered model for analyzing your personal support network. The three tiers will include people who are 1) “interested” in your work; 2) “supporters” who are not only interested, but offer creative ideas to move you forward; 3) “believers,” which includes your most active supporters. Make your lists now. Examine whom you have in your support network and rank them according to these tiers. Focus on networking with your tier-one supporters, while trying to move those people in tiers two and three up repparttar

ladder. Step Five: Assess Your Risk When taking action to follow one's passion, people trying to change their life fall into one of four categories. Each requires a different strategy. Category One: Plenty of money and plenty of time. People in this category have a high tolerance for risk based on their relatively young age and solid financial means. Category Two: Plenty of money and little time. Because of failing health and/or advancing age, those in category two have some risk tolerance. But they probably lack a solid support network, since most friends will advise against change because they are “too old” or “too sick.” Category Three: Little time and little money. I define “little money” as having less than six months of cash flow in repparttar 107113

bank. Risk tolerance is low in this category, and supporters are probably hard to come by. Most people are in this category. Category Four: No money and no time. I define “no money” as less then three months cash flow in repparttar 107114

bank. Anyone is this position will have a very low risk tolerance. They will find little support to help them move toward doing what they love. What to do? Take repparttar 107115

calculated risks now. Make solid but flexible plans Get aligned around your abilities and interests Get more education if necessary Talk to people who do what you want to do! What's repparttar 107116

worst that can happen? Remember this: You won't die or become homeless if you pursue what you love. You may, however, find that your relationship to your money will change. You’ll respect money more, and you’ll find that you can manage on less of it. Also understand that pursuing vocational passion doesn’t always mean making less money. But it does mean that money is not repparttar 107117

only consideration – or even repparttar 107118

most important consideration – in choosing your new vocational path. If you don't act to pursue your vocational passion, then every seven seconds someone else will come along and ask themselves: “Is that all there is?” Many of them will answer, “No,” and will do something about it. You can be one of repparttar 107119

doers.

Craig Nathanson, The Vocational Coach, is the author of “P Is For Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day,” by Book Coach Press. He publishes the free monthly e-zine, “Vocational Passion in Mid-life.” Craig believes the world works a little better when we do the work we love. He helps those in mid-life carry this out. Visit his online community at http://www.thevocationalcoach.com.

Four Steps a Recruiter Takes to Trash CVs and Resumes

Written by Dr. Amjad Rafiq

Continued from page 1

By now repparttar recruitment manager has gladly trashed 70% of all repparttar 107112 pile and is left with around 80-90 CVs or resumes. Happy with repparttar 107113 time he has saved, he or she can now spend a little more quality time scanning what remains.

The second stage: 10-15 second glance at repparttar 107114 first page

At this point, repparttar 107115 recruitment manager is looking for what is specifically relevant. This requires a match between repparttar 107116 skills required for repparttar 107117 job and repparttar 107118 skills and achievements presented by you. So without really looking at your or CV or resume in too much detail, he simply wants to identify what have you got to offer and does it match his or her organisation’s requirements. He or she will be looking to identify this on repparttar 107119 first page and without having to try hard to locate this information. The match could be general or it could be specific. But because repparttar 107120 recruitment manager is only interested in a general match, spending a relatively small amount of time (10-15 seconds) in gauging this, he will include CVs or resumes at this stage which will still be filtered later. By now there around 40 CVs or resumes that remain, about half from repparttar 107121 first stage of filtering.

The third stage: Short listing for repparttar 107122 interview stage

Here repparttar 107123 recruitment manager spends a little more time, and picks out those CVs and resumes that have a specific match, or a very close match to repparttar 107124 job requirements, and these are considered potential candidates. Here, repparttar 107125 method of repparttar 107126 recruitment manager has changed from elimination of irrelevant CVs and resumes to picking out highly relevant and quality matches. So after this stage, about two-thirds of repparttar 107127 remaining pile will be discarded and we have around 15 CVs or resumes that remain.

The fourth stage: Picking candidates from repparttar 107128 short list

It is only at this point that repparttar 107129 recruitment manager will now look in more detail and go beyond repparttar 107130 first page of repparttar 107131 CV or resume to pick candidates from repparttar 107132 short list. There are a number of factors that repparttar 107133 recruitment manager will be focusing upon:

* Is repparttar 107134 candidate’s latest work experience related to repparttar 107135 job being offered

* Does repparttar 107136 candidate have a strong academic background

* What type of companies has repparttar 107137 candidate worked for

* What achievements has repparttar 107138 candidate demonstrated from previous jobs

* What non-technical and job-specific skills does repparttar 107139 candidate possess

After looking at these factors, repparttar 107140 final interview list will be prepared which can be less than 5 candidates. So, have you got a CV or resume that will survive these four steps? The reality of repparttar 107141 recruitment process shows that you need a targeted and focused CV or resume that not only grabs attention by showing a skills match, but is also crafted, worded and formatted to give you an edge over other candidates.

Dr. Amjad Rafiq is a careers consultant who has provided online solutions for International recruitment agencies. He is also the developer of http://www.mycvbuilder.com which is an online CV building service that combines all the various elements to creating winning CVs and resumes.

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