Work It Like A Mum
Work It Like A Mum
How to Master Career Clarity and Navigate Change
Welcome to this week's Work It Like a Mum podcast episode! This month, we're bringing you a series of solo episodes with our Host, Elizabeth Willetts, founder of Investing in Women, to help you achieve the career you've always wanted. If 2025 is your year to make a change, you're in the right place.
What's in This Episode?
In this episode, we focus on finding career clarity and navigating changes. Many of us end up in roles we don't enjoy due to societal or family pressures, but it's never too late to pivot toward a career that aligns with our strengths and passions.
Key Takeaways:
- Start with a Strengths Test: Use the Gallup Strengths Assessment to discover your unique strengths, focusing on what you're naturally good at.
- Identify Career Opportunities: Match your strengths with roles that fit your personality (e.g., extroverted roles like PR vs. introspective roles like compliance).
- Understand Your Values: Reflect on past frustrations to uncover where your values weren't met and identify environments that align with your best work.
- Tailor Your Job Search: Use your strengths and values to focus on roles that align with your passions and skills, avoiding mismatched jobs.
- Define Your Success: Success is personal. Knowing your goals will guide your career path, whether it's a big salary, work-life balance, or a meaningful role.
Actionable Steps:
- Take the Gallup Strengths Assessment.
- Brainstorm careers that align with your strengths and values.
- Reflect on your version of success to refine your job search.
Looking Ahead
In upcoming episodes, we'll cover:
- Building a standout CV.
- Successfully transitioning careers.
- Finding roles genuinely truly inspires you.
Celebrate With Us!
This series celebrates the launch of Elizabeth's new book, Flex: Smart Strategies to Build a Successful Career Around Your Life, available January 23, 2025. Pre-order your copy today for more strategies like the ones discussed in this episode.
Show Links:
Connect with our host, Elizabeth Willetts, here
Pre-order your copy of Flex here
Let's make 2025 the year of career success! Subscribe, share, or leave a review if you found this episode helpful. Your dream career is within reach—let's work toward it together!
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Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willits and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life. I'm a working mum with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women job board and community. In this show, I'm honoured to be chatting with remarkable women redefining our working world across all areas of business. They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, set boundaries and balance, the challenges they've faced and how they've overcome them to define their own versions of success. Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money struggles, growth, loss, boundaries and balance we cover it all. Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED Talk sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school. So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, make sure you're cosy and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams, or just survive Mondays. This is the Work it Like A Mum podcast. This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women. Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers. Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you. They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries, ready to find your perfect job? Search their website at investinginwomencouk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity. Now back to the show.
Speaker 1:Hello, welcome to this week's episode of the Work it Like A Mum podcast. This month, we're doing something slightly different because I'm going to be recording several solo episodes to help you get the career that you really really want, the one you've promised yourself for years in 2025. So, to make 2025 the year that you make your career dreams come true, I'm going to be offering lots of different career-focused podcast episodes for you to enjoy. They're going to be really action-packed with loads of advice for you to take away and actually do something to make those positive steps towards getting the job you know you want and deserve. And it's all to celebrate the launch of my new book, flex Smart Strategies to Build a Successful Career Around your Life, which is due out on the 23rd of January 2025. So, to kick things off, this episode I'm going to be focusing on how you can actually find career clarity and navigate career changes. That's something I feel I've come across a lot in my career coaching sessions with clients.
Speaker 1:I get a lot of people that don't like their job and haven't liked their job for years and they want to do something completely different. So this episode I'm going to be talking all about how you can actually identify what you want and how to get it, and so, like I said, a lot of people end up in jobs they don't like. So if this is you, don't worry, you are not alone. Societal pressures, family pressures, the way the education system is set up in the UK can push people into unsuitable jobs, but it's never, ever too late for you to try something new. So how do you actually identify what is the right job for you?
Speaker 1:I firmly believe that we enjoy doing something that we know we are good at. Nobody wants to feel that they're out of their comfort zone all the time, although, remember, this is really normal in the early days of any new job. So one of the first things I recommend that anybody does and actually, if you've got children that are coming up to GCSEs A-levels deciding what they want to do at university, that are coming up to GCSEs A-levels deciding what they want to do at university is to do a strengths test, because I think this is something that is so overlooked, and the one I did and the one that I recommend in my book, flex, is by a company called Gallup, and the book is called Now Discover your Strengths and basically what? What the premise is is that we are all born with unique strengths and we normally have about three or four really, um, predominant strengths, um, and actually we would be a lot happier, more productive, um, if we focused on our strengths rather than worrying about weaknesses and becoming a more rounded person. A lot of performance reviews can sometimes focus on where we're not as good. You know, in our education system, it's all sometimes focused on actually improving some of those perceived weaknesses, whereas I argue as well as Gallup. Actually it's better if we focus on our strengths and that is the key to brilliance. So, if you think about some of the top entrepreneurs, people, maybe that you work with Einstein, for example. He's obviously a scientist. I don't know what his English skills were like, but he knew what he was good at and he focused on that, and that is sort of the premise of the book, um, so I think that is the first thing we all should do is focus on these strengths.
Speaker 1:There's, um, if any of you listen to, diary of a CEO by Stephen Bartlett, it's the podcast, and he did an interview with Richard Branson and Richard Branson famously left school at 16. Um, he's dyslexic um and, by his own admission, there are certain parts of his business he is not so good at. He was in a board meeting and um his accountant was presenting some numbers to him, talking about profit and loss etc. And obviously his face he must have looked a bit confused and the accountant afterwards took him to one side and said do you understand this? Um the concepts that I was talking about? And, by his own admission, he richard branson didn't, but he understands enough. He understands the basics, but what he's been brilliant at is then hiring people that are better than him.
Speaker 1:So, whether you own a company or you're trying to progress within corporate, it's more about focusing what you're good at and delegating what you're not so good at to others, outsourcing what you're not so good at to others. If you own a business and you know, as you get higher up a career ladder, it's easier to delegate work you don't like and then also, if you're at this um work you don't like, and then also, if you're at this point where you don't really know what you want to do and you are at a point where you want to make a career change, if you know what your strengths are, then it's a lot going to be a lot easier for you to identify roles that play to those strengths, um, and I think everybody you know would be a lot more happy in their careers if they were picking roles that played to those strengths as well, um. So that would be the first thing I would do is do a strengths test, um, and once you know your personality strengths, you can obviously start making active choices about the types of roles that may suit you, and then plans on how to get there if you're doing something completely differently. So what are the actions you can take? If you're doing one role here and the role you want to do is miles apart, what steps and stepping stones can you create to get you from a to b? So have a think about that, um, and then, once you've done that, like I said, you know, once you've done your strengths based test, you may discover that you get your energy from being with lots of different people, so you can look out for roles that tick those boxes.
Speaker 1:So maybe a receptionist, an event manager, pr, recruitment, sales something like that, where you're speaking to people. Or maybe you've discovered that you are much more of a risk averse introvert, so therefore you might suit a role, um, in a quiet office with a risk averse element that complements your personality, like legal risk compliance or insurance, something like that. Or maybe you're a doer you might discover that, so you might get therefore frustrated in a large public sector environment which is full of bureaucracy. Or perhaps you have caring traits that really shone through on this personality test you've done and therefore you know that a role caring for others would be perfect for you. So at the end of this episode, I want you to go to the Gallup website and download their strengths-based assessment. And do that, because it's such an eye-opener. And if you're a manager listening to this, get your employees to do that as well, because then you can actually see what strengths you have in your team and make sure you're allocating work accordingly to those individuals, and you'll have a much higher performance team performing team because of it. So you've done your strengths-based test.
Speaker 1:Now it's time to analyze that and what it means for you and your career. So look at the strengths and think about what strength will suit each um, what personality um, what job will suit each personality strength. So keep it, um, quite objective. Initially, pretend you're doing this for a friend so you might put jobs down that you think, oh no, I wouldn't like that. But if you sort of just brainstorm, just brain dump, and then you can always go away and research a little bit later, but it just gets your brain flowing. And once you've done that, grab your cv and actually look and see what is the most obvious line from my experience as it currently is to these jobs that suit my personality and strengths and obviously ones that appeal to me as well, and try and see where those those lines are and how maybe you can strengthen that experience to get to where you want to go. And in later episodes we're going to talk as well about CVs and how to make them absolutely brilliant and the type of CVs that recruiters take notice of.
Speaker 1:So now you've got your potential jobs, it's time to think about potential industries and companies. So thinking about what you will feel comfortable in, what you enjoy, what lights you up. Do you want to work for a local, family run company, for example, or would you much prefer to work for a large corporate? You motivated by charities and having a role with purpose? Therefore, you want to work for some kind of social enterprise. So for this exercise, you can then start thinking about your values, and this is a concept that Lizzie Martin, who is the founder of Work Life Mother, introduced me to. She's a huge advocate for career success and fulfillment.
Speaker 1:So, for example, are you a teetotal person? Maybe saw a family member become an alcoholic? You don't drink. Therefore, working for a brewery or a drinks company would be a complete no-go for you. Or perhaps you're a vegan, so you won't want to work for mcdonald's, even if it was head office, nowhere near the hamburgers.
Speaker 1:Um. Do you get frustrated when your ideas aren't heard? You want to work for somewhere with open and transparent lines of communication. By reflecting on what frustrates you in your current role or outside of work, maybe in your life you will start to get an idea about what your values are, because that frustration is showing you that your values aren't being met. So that is something to think about what, in life and in work, has frustrated you in the past, because it's going to probably continue to frustrate you in future roles. So that is something that I would say is the next thing to do is to write down some of your values. What is important to you in an employer, employer, what and what has frustrated you in your previous roles? So, yeah, think about it and think.
Speaker 1:Also, think about times when you've been your best, where you feel you've been on fire, where your energy has been electric, and this means that you've been aligned with your values. So that's another thing to think about. You know how, when have you been frustrated? But when you've been aligned and therefore you know what sort of environment is going to suit you best. If you think about it, if I planted a conker and you know normally it would grow into a beautiful, beautiful oak tree if it was in the right environment if I planted in a tiny little pot in the kitchen, nothing would happen, even though it has that potential, but that is because it's in the wrong environment. So what environment is going to work best for you? And the way you, best way you'll be able to do that is to um, to think about your values.
Speaker 1:So now, obviously, we've got a list of strengths, values, and that has led into potential jobs and companies and industries. And this is a brilliant way for you now to start tailoring your c and job search. You don't want to be applying for everything and everywhere because it's just not going to land. Your CV is not going to land and if you do end up getting a job there, you might not be happy, you might not be fulfilled. Before you start doing anything more to your CV and doing that job search now, I want you to just do one final thing is to think about what your version of success is.
Speaker 1:So Lizzie Martin, who I've mentioned before, she believes that knowing what success looks like to you, know what else to you, is a really good starting point, because then you can plan your dream career and job around. What that success looks like. Is success to you a big salary? Is it a fancy job title? Is it a lovely corner office? Is it being able to pick up your kids from school every day? What actually does success mean to you? And it's going to mean something completely different to every person.
Speaker 1:Actually, knowing that version of success will also help you stop comparing yourself to others, which is the, you know, one of the best ways to actually feel really unhappy about yourself when you may not actually, if you really think about it, have a reason to feel unhappy. And if you don't know what you're aiming for, you won't be in the driving seats. You'll find yourself being pushed, pulled in different directions, responding to what others think you should be doing rather than being true to yourself. Like I said, everybody has a different version of success. Everyone has a different vision. That's okay. It's important not to compare your career path to others.
Speaker 1:Also, as well as knowing what your values and definitions of success are, then you also need to, before you dive into things, start thinking about what your boundaries are, so boundary for you. Maybe that you want to work school hours so you can pick up your kids from school every day. Or maybe you want to work from home. You don't want a big commute, or you don't want to roll where there's travel more than twice a month. Um, what are your boundaries, what? What are your career aspirations and what maybe can you flex as well for you to achieve what you really want in your career? So now you know all this, you'll hopefully know your values, your definition of success, your boundaries and your strengths. So it's a great now foundation for you identifying your ideal job.
Speaker 1:So think about what jobs will tick your boxes. You can get some friends from some input and some advice from friends and family. You could also speak to an impartial careers advisor or careers coach, because they will often have a unique perspective on what will suit you. Look back on your previous work experience. What transferable skills will be useful for your dream career? So, for example, you may have worked as an estate agent and you want to go into account management. Your relationship building skills will be brilliant in your next career. Perhaps you worked as an accountant and you want to become a project manager, so any budgeting experience will be of use in the project manager roles where you are keeping on top of project budgets.
Speaker 1:So brainstorm as many jobs now that you can think of. That would complement your personality whilst lighting you up and find people. Connect with them on LinkedIn to find out more about the job and if it is actually right for you. You can also contact your local college, your local university. Lots of people are willing to ask, answer questions and explain what they do in their job, and there is no such thing as a stupid question. Ask them what was their background before they got the job, what do they like about their role, what was skills and attributes they feel are needed to be good in the position? And then you can compare their responses with the skills and experience you have and your career history to see if you know these roles are an option for you, and then you can maybe adjust your job search accordingly or start thinking about where you need to upskill yourself to get those roles.
Speaker 1:So, before we wrap up this part of the episode, identify your skills. So use the Gallup StrengthsFinder to understand what your talents are and use these to guide your career decisions. Recognizing and leveraging your strengths can lead to more fulfillment and success. Acknowledge your unique personality traits that have been there since childhood. So, instead of focusing on improving any weaknesses, lean into those strengths for a much more satisfying and successful career. Consider what truly motivates and fulfills you, both in life and in work. So identify your core values, such as what frustrates you or what brings you joy, and this will help you clarify your career goals and choices and, based on your strengths and values, define what career success looks like for you. Stop comparing your journey we're all on our own path to others and focus on setting personal and professional boundaries that align with your aspirations.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome back to part two of the podcast. In this section I'm going to talk to you all about what to do if you want to pivot your career. So maybe you've realised you're not quite on the right career path for you. You're not in a job that lights you up, you're not in a job that plays to your strengths or you're not working for a company that shares your value. So in this part of the podcast, I'm going to be talking all about how you can map a smooth transition into a new role that's maybe not just about money, but that is something genuinely fulfilling. So hopefully you may. You'll have probably done all this inner work and you may have had a really light bulb moment. Actually, you're in a role that does suit you, it suits your personality, it suits your strengths, so that is fantastic news. So I'm going to talk to you now about something called skill stacking, so you can actually learn how to climb the career and reach the very top of your industry and doing something that lights you up. So skill stacking. Basically. I heard about this phrase from a really famous entrepreneur called Alex Hormozy, and he talks about skill stacking and acquiring skills as one of the greatest investments that you can make in your life, and he often uses the example of Jay-Z as someone who has perfected the art of skill stacking.
Speaker 1:So, for example, jay-z will have started his career as a musician. He obviously, as a child, realized that he had an ear for music and developed musical skills. Then he learned how to play beats before teaching himself how to rap and promote himself. And once he became an expert at rapping and became known for rapping, he then decided to create a label where he would then promote other artists, would then promote other artists, and once then all those skills were stacked. That skill set was completely unique to him, so he'd learned. He'd, you know, learned, discovered he's got a strength for music and an ear for music. He'd then learn about the fundamentals of music. He'd then learn how to rap. He'd then learn how to promote himself as a rapper, and then he developed a label and learned how to promote others. And that means that he has completely 10x'd his revenue potential and therefore, you know, compare him he's got now a net worth jay-z of two billion dollars, whilst eminem, who's stuck to rapping, is worth 250 million dollars, and obviously those sums are astronomical you know the types of sums we would all dream of. But it gives you the idea of how you can basically narrow your skills and what you're looking for but then build on that actually quite narrow pillar and that then makes you extremely valuable in a job market.
Speaker 1:So, for example, if you um to bring this more to every day, so you might have a real talent for personal um social media, your own social media. So maybe you're really good at making tiktok videos, you learn, obviously, how the platform works. You learn how to make tiktok, tiktoks. Maybe you know, and then you you develop a following, you become a bit known for that amongst your friends who then start asking you if you can make tiktok videos for them to help them grow their social media um. And then you might start freelancing for others. You might start charging um charging for that, and then you start looking at how other social media platforms um work and you may start offering that then as maybe a freelance service and start marketing it more widely than just your friends, but marketing it to other people. So then you um other businesses, so then you help um people grow their other people grow their businesses as well, whilst effectively promoting yourself and your services, you may start becoming really busy, so then you need to hire an associate. With your workload, your workload increases, so you hire another associate and before long you have created a social media agency. You then learn about other forms of digital marketing. You master paid adverts, for example, and social media and email marketing, and now, rather than just social media, you suddenly have a fully formed digital marketing agency, and then you can branch out. Then, from digital marketing, you may be able to offer PR in person, serve in-person events. So now you've got a big agency. You've got created a multi-million pound marketing agency that is completely unique to you and just started from a single personal TikTok video. If you're employed we'll use this as an example if you're employed as well, so you might join an organisation as a social media coordinator.
Speaker 1:You learn your craft. You learn what works, what doesn't work, until you're no longer posting content on behalf of the organisation, but you're actually doing more strategy as well of what content to put where. You put your hand up. You volunteer to do additional courses, you upskill, you learn how to maybe do paid ads. You learn how what works within email marketing. You go on a course and over time you master these additional skills. So you're suddenly really good at paid ads. You're suddenly maybe really good because you understand branding. So you've developed skills within branding or website and you now have a good reputation within your organization as someone that's creative, trustworthy, reliable and someone that puts up their hand and is willing to learn more.
Speaker 1:You volunteer for additional projects, promotions, you learn what seo is and you hone your management skills. So you start maybe coaching and mentoring other people that join the team. So eventually you're the natural choice to lead that team. So you are the natural choice to manage that team working and eventually you will probably, if you keep learning those skills, you might move away from just digital marketing. So you might then start helping organize your um employers in person events or doing their pr. So eventually you're not just digital marketing. You could become the head of marketing and you are now in a really strong position to apply for that role and get it, whether it's within your organization or externally, because you have developed a funnel, if you like. You've started with skills perhaps in social media coordination, but you've continued to build on those, created that funnel, created that column. So you are a natural person, a natural choice.
Speaker 1:When there's promotion, you're in a really good position. If you want to um, to look externally, and if you've discovered that your values are money orientated, you can then look as well if you're working, maybe in public sector or charity, to transfer your skills into a higher paying industry such as legal or financial services, so then you know at that point you've started or it's definitely within reach and reaching the top of your career within a high-paying industry. You're well remunerated for it. So that's something. If you find what you are doing, you enjoy it, you realize you've got the skills and strength. You weren't quite sure about how you could use that to climb the career ladder. That is definitely one way to do it, whilst building relationships, whilst networking on the way up.
Speaker 1:But what if you've done all this and you realise that you are not in the right career? So perhaps you have an inkling that you want to try something new, but you've never felt brave enough to try. Or maybe you were pushed into a job you knew it was. You know what your parents said you should do. Or maybe you were pushed into a job you knew it was. You know what your parents said you should do. Or maybe you just took a well-paid job because you knew it paid the bills.
Speaker 1:It's never, ever too late to change career. I love KFC and Colonel Sanders, the guy that founded KFC. I think he founded KFC in his 60s, so it is never too late. Vera Wang designed her first wedding dress when she was in her 40s. Oprah Winfrey, I think, didn't move to broadcasting um, don't quote me on this, but around in her 30s. It's never, ever too late. You don't have to have everything all figured out at 22, 21, 22 when you finish university. So don't forget that it's never too late to try something new, and now is a really good opportunity. You know what you're good at, you know what your values are, you know what, um, what's going to light you up now is a good, as good as chance as any to apply and start making those um, those moves into a new role.
Speaker 1:I spoke to Roz Hobley about this, and she is a leading leadership and performance coach. She's been on a few of our podcasts and she's a real expert on how to build credibility at work, and so it's really important when you start, if you want to apply for something completely new, that you are picking out those relevant skills and experience Because, as she says, the candidates that are most likely to be selected for interviews are ones that have demonstrated their relevance for the role. So, if you want to make a career switch, if you have an ideal role in mind, it's probably worth being realistic. Is that ideal role going to be the next role? Depends how close your existing skills and experience are. You may have to look at that dream role. I think that's a five-year plan and therefore I'm going to have to take a stepping stone. That's like my current role and close to my ideal role.
Speaker 1:A stepping stone role for a couple of years that's going to get me closer to that dream role because those, like I said, those candidates that are selected for interview are those that have demonstrated their most relevance for the position, as Ros has said to me in the past. So she said being seen as credible is crucial when applying for a role, and being credible is about being relevant. So, if you know, you do get a job interview and it's doing something slightly different. But it's doing something slightly different, but it's talking taking your personality, skills, experience, knowledge and network and having them the ability to make them relevant to the person interviewing you Show that you understand and are relevant to their world. So if you look at a job advert, take a step back and think what does the hiring manager why? Why are they hiring for this role? What do they actually need somebody to do this role and be successful in this role? And what skills and experience have I got that will demonstrate that I can do that role, that I can add value, that I can be successful in that role. So think about that. And if your dream role, I said, is completely different to what you're currently doing at the moment, how are you going to get that experience? Can you offer to do some work shadowing? Can you do some training so you can upskill? Can you?
Speaker 1:If you work in a large organisation, can you make internal moves in a large organisation? Can you make internal moves? It's often much easier to move internally and have a complete 180 pivot in your career. If you're already working somewhere and you've developed a reputation, if you've developed a network within your existing organisation and if you've developed a reputation for being, you know, good at your job, trustworthy, hard working, then an organization is going to be much more inclined and want to keep you, even if that means you doing something different. If you fit in well in that organization, in that culture, they are definitely going to want to keep you and retain your skills and and knowledge, even if it is in a slightly different capacity. So that would also be something I would definitely advise you do is to look on your internal careers page and apply for roles there as well. Don't be afraid to retrain if needed.
Speaker 1:Whether I said it's going back to college, doing an apprenticeship, taking an online course, it can give you an opportunity obviously to do something completely different and it demonstrates your commitment to your new career as well. There is just a slight word of warning If you are wanting to do a complete 180 and move into a completely different field, you may have to start at a lower level than you currently are doing, so you may have to take a pay cut lower level than you currently are doing, so you may have to take a pay cut. If you can't take that pay cut and obviously a lot of people can't can you reduce the hours you're currently doing in your existing role so you can maybe get a part-time role in the role in the industry or position you're targeting or um, while you're doing some retraining? Is there maybe a side hustle you could start in the evening that will support your um, your new venture, your new career? Um, well, as well, there's always a way, but it does sometimes create, require a little bit of creative thinking about how you know if you are doing a 180, complete 180, you may have to start um closer to the bottom of the rung again whilst you um, whilst you re-establish yourself in a new career not always, but potentially, that is something to think about if you you know how you can supplement your income and make that work for you um, and, like I said, it's often easier to do those stepping stone roles where you make more likely to maintain your salary whilst you get where you want to be and just view that as a bit of a long term goal. But it's obviously a really exciting time and whether you're skill stacking in your current role or considering an exciting leap into a different field, an exciting leap into a different field, it's all about strategy and thinking about how you ensure that your next move aligns with your values, aligns with actually where you want to go and where you see your career and your version remember, it's your version of success. And if you treat each career move like a chess piece, thoughtfully advancing towards your ultimate goal whether you know that is chief marketing officer, or it is running your own business, or it is doing something you know, working fashion, doing something completely different, thoughtfully advancing towards your ultimate goal, you'll ensure that you're not just chasing a paycheck but building a career that really is satisfying, it lights you up.
Speaker 1:Work doesn't always then have to feel like a chore, just you've got to strategically build a career. So, to wrap up this part of the episode embrace skill stacking, so understand that accumulating and combining diverse skills can significantly enhance your career potential. So draw inspiration for people like jay-z and everyday examples who have skill stacked. Create a really unique proposition and career path and opportunities for growth. Evaluate your current position, so reflect. See whether your current job aligns with your strengths, personalities and values. If it does, consider how you can develop your skills further in the role. If it doesn't recognise the possibility of pursuing a career more aligned with your real interests.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you can get that light upness outside of work. Work can just be a bit of a means to an end. But can you volunteer? Would that give you enough of that sense of fulfillment and purpose whilst keeping your financial stability. That is an option and people can get such joy out of volunteering and it potentially is something for you then to add on your CV if you do want to make a complete career switch but often is sometimes it doesn't always have to be about work. You can get that sense of joy doing something outside of work as well, and there's lots of like non-exec director roles and lots of charities that need obviously help as well.
Speaker 1:Strategic career moves so discover the power of lateral moves within your organisation to develop broader skills and experience. Definitely check out your internal careers page. Roles will go there first before they go out onto the external market and they are really keen, obviously, to keep talent within businesses, even if it means the organisation taking responsibility to retrain somebody. So that would be 100% my first port of call. But for those considering a major career change, understand the importance of making your past experience relevant to your new field and how to tailor your applications to highlight your unique background that makes you a valuable candidate. So another example would be if I was recruiting for a HR role, for example. If I had a HR role, I often might get a lot of recruiter candidates applying that haven't quite got all the generalist skills that I'm looking for. However, if I was a recruiter applying for more of a generalist role, I would be in my CV, rather than focusing on all the recruitment experience and having that at the top as the first bullet points, I'd be highlighting all the relevant any HR experience I'd had, whether that was onboarding, developing policies, training, new staff, learning and development. That would be what I put first on the CV to demonstrate my relevance to the role. So it's just little tricks like that about where you position bullet points on your CV, and I know we're going to obviously talk about CVs more in later episodes. Cv and I know we're going to obviously talk about CVs more in later episodes. Thank you so much. Welcome back.
Speaker 1:In this part of the episode we're going to be talking about where to look for jobs. So finding a job can feel like a full-time job in itself. Searching job boards for a dream job can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, and that's obviously before we get to those lengthy application forms that are on so many different career sites. Tailoring your cva, writing cover letters, preparing for interviews, and that is all going to be covered in later episodes and is all covered in my book flex. But the first thing I would probably do is if I was looking for a new role is see what's in my current organization.
Speaker 1:Like I've previously said, a business will want to keep a good person. You know, if you've demonstrated your hard working, if you demonstrate you're a good cultural fit, if you've demonstrated that you know you've got some commerciality about you, um, they will want to keep you, um, even if that means retraining you. So I would look on the internal careers page first. So that would be my first point of call would be and then reaching out to those hiring managers within your company, trying to arrange maybe a bit of a coffee or a networking meeting. Good news is the interview process is a lot less intensive when applying for an internal role than external. Sometimes it might just be one round to meet the new hiring manager and you are done and you know if you really impress in your current role. You may find that you're regularly trapped, tapped up, which is basically approached by other managers in your company begging you to join their team. So that's always a brilliant confidence boost and something to keep in mind. Obviously it's polite to give your existing manager a heads up that you're hoping to make an internal move and explain to them what you're hoping to do and why. And a good manager will always have your best interests at heart and be personally targeted as well about how much they develop their team. So they may as well keep an eye out for you and recommend you for roles that they think would be a good fit. Or put in a good word with um, with you a potential hiring manager.
Speaker 1:Um, depending upon your specialism, job boards are obviously um great. So, for example, there's quite a few niche job boards. So e-financial careers is good for those within financial services, t8, tes. So tes, if you want a job in education. My job board investing women, if you're looking for a flexible, part-time or remote job. But there are thousands of specialist job boards. So if you type your niche plus job board into google, some of the most popular job boards will appear and you can go on there. See the listings on our job board investing in women, dot couk. We encourage people to sign up for our newsletter because we sent a weekly newsletter of new jobs registered. But you'll be able to sign up for job alerts on all these job boards, potentially a newsletter as well. So there's a niche size obviously um worth visiting the bigger, more broader job boards that list thousands of jobs such as, indeed, read or monster jobs, and you can just obviously go through the listings and apply for the role. Um, remember, job board advert. Job adverts on job boards can receive hundreds of applications. So really try and demonstrate your relevance to the role when you're tailoring your cv, and a cover letter will definitely help you stand out as well and obviously demonstrates your interest in that position. And we'll cover cover letters in a later episode.
Speaker 1:Another obviously avenue to find jobs is recruitment agencies. If you find a good recruitment agent, they are worth their weight in gold. So not only will they contact you about suitable roles as they're added to their books and many time pressed employers won't actually use job boards to advertise their roles, particularly for senior positions. They'll just go straight to a headhunter. They'll also market you to their clients. If they feel that you have the right skill set and personality as well, they'll perfect your CV. They'll coach you through interviews, advise you on job offers, negotiate job offers on your behalf, and that is all for free to the candidate as well. The employer pays them a commission on your basic salary when you are offered a job. So it's in the recruiter's interest as well as yours to get you the highest possible starting salary. And, like I said, if you pick a good recruiter who stays in the same industry as you, you could literally work with them on and off for years. Every time you want to make change roles, so it's always good to keep in touch because you know they may have a perfect role for you. Added, you might not actually actively be looking, but it might be just what you need to progress your career. So, yeah, definitely keep in touch with some good agencies.
Speaker 1:Linkedin is my favorite social media platform and it's probably the favorite one of all recruiters. Recruiters spend all day, every day, on LinkedIn trying to find suitable candidates for the roles they're hiring for, meaning that your dream role could literally drop into your inbox. So therefore, it's imperative that you don't just go on LinkedIn and scroll and don't say anything, but all actually, that you have a really well-optimized profile and a relevant network and we're going to talk about LinkedIn in a later episode because it's really important, and I'm going to talk to you through in a later episode because it's really important. Um, and I'm going to talk to you through you through, about what a good profile looks like and how to build a network, and obviously all this information with examples is in the book flex as well. But yeah, like I said, you want to make sure that you've got this profile that's um, that's well optimized, so you are found by those, um, those recruiters a little bit like search engine optimization, um, in that you you know you need to make sure that your profile has the keywords that you think recruiters in your industry or industry you're looking to target will be searching on. You can also have an open, green, open to work banner, um, and which is um shown to recruiters that you are open to work banner, um, and which is um shown to recruiters that you are open to work and therefore an active candidate contact, and you can also do one of those. Really they often very popular, they often go viral and open to work type posts about the types of positions you are looking for, um, and you'll be just astonished as to how supportive your LinkedIn network will be and that you know they'll often tag roles, tag potential companies, hiring managers, recruiters in the comments.
Speaker 1:Facebook groups there's loads of different Facebook groups and particularly if you're looking for, like a local job. So you could just type your town plus jobs into the Facebook search bar and a list of groups that you may want to join should appear. Click to join, wait to approve and then scroll through the listings see if any take your fancy. You can also write like another post, like you would do on LinkedIn, saying what you're looking for, your skills, experience, etc. Then the other thing is your network. So, according to Business Insider, employers fill 70% of job vacancies before even advertising them.
Speaker 1:So using your network when job searching is essential to avoid missing out on a hidden job market. So let everybody that you can feel comfortable letting know that you are looking for work, whether that's friends, family, ex-colleagues, etc. Ask them to listen out for you. They may be able to recommend you to their employer or an employer that's hiring. And also a lot of big employers have referral schemes because that means that they avoid a large recruitment agency fee. So you could start connecting and networking with potential peers, people that would be in your team, because they're going to start trying to push you and recommend you in that process, because they are going to get a financial reward at the end of it. So tell people that you're looking for work and make sure you know, nurture these contacts on and offline, see if anyone's willing to meet you for a coffee, virtual or in person. And you know, armed with these tips, I think you're really on your way to starting to find a job and using you know, all that work you've done previously, where your skill to identify your skills, your strengths, your values, what success looks like for you, and you're well now on your way. You know what you're looking for you and you're well now on your way. You know what you're looking for and you're well on your way to identifying where you can find it.
Speaker 1:Also, networking a lot of, for example, marketing I think it's the chartered institute of marketing. There's big bodies that, um, you know, offer membership that will have courses where you can upskill. It will will have networking events. They may advertise jobs. So ACCA, for example, aca Prince 2 is another qualification. Think about what the body, the industry body, or membership accreditation. Cipd is another one for HR, and have a look, see if they've got any events going on as well that you could attend, where you could meet people that may have jobs that you want to apply for and obviously, if they've got any suitable courses as well, you can definitely upskill.
Speaker 1:But yeah, just to summarise, explore internal opportunities. So don't think you necessarily have to leave your current employer to find your dream career. A lot of internal moves can offer valuable new experiences and growth without having to start somewhere else from scratch. Obviously, job boards and recruitment agencies are invaluable resources. They offer access to targeted job opportunities and professional guidance throughout the job search process. Ensure your linked in profile is optimized and to attract the attention of recruiters and hiring managers. A strong linked in profile can lead to amazing job opportunities falling right into your inbox. And remember that many jobs are never advertised publicly. So really lean into this idea of networking and building a network and telling people what you're looking for and being quite open and honest to uncover any hidden opportunities. So I hope that helps.
Speaker 1:We've got a series of podcast episodes this January to help you achieve the career, a job that you've been dreaming of. You may have been wanting to find this job find, you know, switch careers for a long time. This year is the year to make it happen. I want you to really back in January 2026 and be so proud and astonished of all you have achieved, whether that is within your existing company or is whether that has been something making a complete switch.
Speaker 1:My book Flex is out on the 23rd of January. You can pre-order or order it in all good bookstores and it goes into all what we've talked about today CVs, linkedin, how to prepare for an interview, even how to set up a business, how to make it work and maintain a thriving career. If you're a parent, it's all covered in the book, so please order it now, and if you want to connect with me, I would be delighted to connect with you and connect with me on LinkedIn. It's Elizabeth Willits, and our website is investinginwomencouk, where we have lots of flexible part-time and home-based jobs. Till next time, thank you for listening to another episode of the work. It like a mom podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe, and don't forget to share the link with a friend. If you're on linkedin, please send me a connection request at elizabeth willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode. You can can also follow my recruitment site, investing in Women on LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram. Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dreams.