We have helped a number of them, assisting in crafting honest CVs which are informative about character as well as experience and qualifications, but there are a number of other elements to a good job search which can help.

It seemed sensible to stick them all here so that anyone else in a similar position can help themselves to the knowledge and experience which has informed these points. All of us at ConsultART have been on the job market at one time or another, made horrifying mistakes, seen great success and generally been humans!

This advice will hopefully be useful, if not in itself by provoking thoughts of your own. If you think there’s anything really critical which we’ve missed please drop us a line by email and we’ll add (and credit you in the item!)

Start the hunt…

So, here are some things for you to do:

• Update your LinkedIn profile! This is almost literally your shop window for professional colleagues and hiring managers, and it may be some time since you last looked at it.
• Ask your contacts for a recommendation on LinkedIn. This helps potential hirers to see that you are not just ‘bigging yourself up’ and that others think highly of you. Half a dozen recommendations can give a balanced picture of you as a character as well as a worker.
• Look at major employers in your area. Work out a realistic commuting range and see who operates within this area. Check them out on Glassdoor to get an idea of their integrity, what it’s like to work there and see if there’s anyone you already know who works for them or has done in the past.
• Read regional publications like local newspapers. These often tell you which businesses are expanding, may have won a large order or the opposite. You may not want to join a company which is in danger of folding, but you certainly want to be talking to businesses which are successful.
• Look for things like ‘Investor In People‘ certification. These often show businesses which care highly about their employees.
• Be Brave! Some people do not like a personal letter or email introducing someone who wants to work at their organisation. Others may be about to look for someone just like you!
• If you don’t ask, you don’t get…

What about me?

If you’re in a position where you don’t know what you want to do next, it’s well worth taking the time to consider yourself and what makes you tick:

• Do you love travelling? Or are you a homebody?
• Mon-Fri 9-5 or shiftwork flexibility?
• Standard place of work, or working from home?
• What drives you mad about your current role?
• What gets you out of bed in the morning?

As an example, we became consultants because we realised that we enjoy travelling, like the flexibility of periods of intensity combined with periods of rest, enjoy working from home but also enjoy a good office environment. We also were really (really) irritated by things which could be done better, and found it easy to get up early when we were in roles which allowed us to help our teams to improve things.

You may be the complete opposite, but either way you begin to know what it is that you want from a future work opportunity.

Finally, ask yourself this question and think very carefully about the answer:

What does my ideal work day look like?

Mark Sheldon

Not just the work part, but where do you live, what sort of people are you working with, how do you travel to work, what are your key tasks.

Credits

This article was prepared with input from Mark Sheldon and Tamsin Martle, who are both (separately) excellent consultants in their own right.

The post Finding A Job appeared first on ConsultART.

We’re used to working from home occasionally, but the Covid pandemic of early 2020 changed things dramatically. All of a sudden we had to move to working from home full time, and the house we live in is a standard 3-bedroom end terrace. With four of us living in the house there is not a spare room we could repurpose, so after some consideration we rejigged our small conservatory.

A couple of trips to Ikea before it closed for lockdown got us most of what we needed although a few mail-order items came via Amazon, eBay and Ikea as we discovered what we hadn’t thought about. The conservatory is pretty small so we couldn’t go mad with desk sizes. Both desks are 120cm x 60cm in size.

The key things which will make the difference in day-to-day working are a good chair, and a screen at the correct height.

Alev likes to use an external mouse with the laptop keyboard, and extends her screen onto the monitor. Rob uses the monitor only and an external keyboard and mouse. Choose which works best for you and go with it!

Rob is a geek and likes music a lot, so having a way to listen to sound was a must. Alev likes things simpler and quieter so headphones were also sourced to allow for both preferences. Headphones are also extremely useful for the various video calls we have been on. The difference in approach is very much reflected in our desks.

We’ve put links to the various items so that you can source the same items or use them as the basis for a further search. Amazon links do get us a tiny commission if you buy using them.

Rob’s Desk

• Ikea desk with 2x legs and drawer pedestal
• Benq 24-inch monitor (Cheap purchase just to get screen size and decent sitting position. I anticipate upgrading this at some point)
• Ikea Sigfinn monitor stand
• Logitech 2.1 speakers
• Google Chromecast Audio (so Alev can stream to the speakers too)
• Omoton laptop vertical stand
• Ikea Milberget chair
• Novoo port expander for USB-C/Thunderbolt
• Samsung wireless phone charger
• Anker USB/USB-C charger
• Youshiko battery charger for all the AA and AA batteries
• Apple Magic bluetooth keyboard
• Apple Magic Mouse
• 3-1 HDMI switch (for switching the monitor between Apple TV and MacBook)
• Apple TV (version 3, purely for mirroring iPad onto monitor)
• Beats X Wireless headphones

Alev’s Desk

• Ikea desk with 4x legs
• Dell 24-inch monitor
• Ikea Milberget chair
• Footrest – this can add to your comfort quite considerably

Other Necessary Stuff

• Canon MX multi-function printer
• Bisley filing cabinet – we already owned this, and it’s tremendously useful, but quite expensive so have a look on Gumtree or eBay for a cheaper used alternative.

Things we’ve discovered

The lighting in a conservatory is pretty awesome – there’s a glass roof as well as full width glazing on one wall. This is a negative and a positive.

The negative is that when the sun comes out it can be challenging to see monitors and you can find that you’re a bit of a silhouette when on Zoom calls (or even Microsoft Teams calls). On the other hand, it’s lovely to sit with the rain hammering off the glass above your head, watching birds (and the occasional aircraft) fly over, and having the outdoors just a few feet away through the window.

It’s also very cold in the winter, but we have sourced a Dimplex vertical heater which heats things up nicely when required.

New stuff can be really expensive! Sometimes it’s smarter to haunt eBay, Gumtree or CEX and buy some good condition used items.

Finally, it’s often important to have personal stuff on there to remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing. Many of the desk setups you’ll find on the internet give no clue that a person actually uses the desk at all – no photos, no keepsakes from kids, no actual work, just a clean, tidy, sanitary space. This is (probably) not the daily reality for almost all the examples.

The post Working from home well appeared first on ConsultART.