Career Coaching: How to negotiate a salary increase

Our Managing Director Career Coach Hannah McNamara was featured in an article on how to negotiate a salary increase for Chemist and Druggist magazine.

Click here to read the article

Career Coaching: How to network your way into a job

It’s estimated that only around 10 to 20 per cent of job vacancies are advertised to the public. This means that whenever you see an advertisement you’re likely to be up against stiff competition.

However, there you do have alternatives. The key is to find out about job vacancies before they are advertised.

When a vacancy arises an employer has several options of how to fill it.

They can:

• Promote someone from within
• Hire someone who used to work for the company but moved on (maybe they were on a short contract)
• Advertise the job internally and get employees to recommend someone they know
• Go through the CVs of people who have sent them in on spec
• Contact people you’ve worked with in the past and see if they are looking to make a move
• Contact people you’ve met in the course of your work who you think would be suitable
• Go through a recruitment consultancy or head-hunter

In almost all these cases, the employer is hiring someone who they know personally or is known to someone they trust. It’s usually only after these options have been exhausted that jobs are advertised (unless it is company policy to do so or there is a legal requirement).

So often it’s a case of “it’s not what you know, but who you know”. With this in mind how do you get to know the people who make the hiring decisions?

Be clear about the companies you’d like to work for. It’s much easier if you say to friends and family, “I’d love to meet someone who works in HR for RBS or John Menzies” than “I’d like to meet someone who’s hiring in Edinburgh”. They are then able to think about who they know who might know someone there.

Get your social networking profiles up to date, especially your profile on LinkedIn. It’s one of the most popular work-related networking sites and lots of recruiters use it to find candidates. One of the things they look for is who you know and what people say about working with you, so get back in touch with your contacts and get linked in.

Depending on the line of work you’re in, there may be organised networking events where you can meet your peers. Many professional bodies and associations run them as social events where you can chat, have a drink and meet new people. It’s quite usual to exchange cards with people and to stay in touch after the event.

When you see friends and family, don’t avoid talking about work. Tell them you’re looking for a new challenge and explain the kind of work you’d like to do. There might even be vacancies where they work.

With all of these options it’s important to follow up on any conversations.  People are busy and tend to forget what you’ve told them. They might need reminding a few times.

When you’ve met new people or been introduced to someone, contact them quickly – ideally within one working day. Again, people forget and where someone might have been expecting your call and would have been willing to talk to you, if you leave it too long they won’t recognise your name and ignore you.

Networking your way into a job is a very effective way of developing your career. As time goes on, you might find you never have to apply via an advert again because people put you forward for roles.

© Copyright Hannah McNamara, Managing director of HRM Coaching Ltd. Hannah McNamara is an experienced career coach.

Interview Coaching: How to handle an interview with the CEO

When faced with an interview with the CEO, how to do you ensure you perform at your best? Interview Coach Hannah McNamara provides top tips for senior executivesdue to have an interview with the CEO. What questions might be asked and how should you respond?

Meeting the CEO

No matter how much experience you have of being interviewed or conducting interviews yourself, that all-important meeting with the CEO can make or break things. How do you ensure you come out on top and differentiate yourself from other candidates?

Here are 5 key questions almost every CEO needs to have answered in the interview. They may not ask them out loud, but you can be sure they’re thinking them.

Are you commercial?

Your technical skills may have got you to this stage in your career, but unless you have well-rounded commercial skills and business acumen, you are unlikely to progress further. To shine in the interview, talk numbers and results. Show that you understand what’s going on in the business outside of the confines of your own department and show financial intelligence.

Tip: When preparing for your interview, go back through your key achievements in your career and find out what the numbers were. It’s not enough to say the work you did resulted in ‘improvements’ – prove it. Show the Return on Investment (ROI) for the projects and activities you led.

Are you strategic?

You may be fantastic operationally and this is a good skill to have. To bring in someone at a senior level, the CEO needs to be satisfied that the person they choose thinks and behaves strategically. They are looking for someone who thinks further ahead than next week or next month. They want a person who understands the organisation’s vision, mission and goals. If they don’t have them documented, they may want you to help create the vision, mission and goals, so you need to show you’re up to the job!

Tip: Think about examples when you have behaved strategically and practice talking about what you did. You probably won’t be asked this question outright so you need to weave your strategic abilities into the answers to other questions and make sure you use the word ‘strategy’ at several points in the interview. Look at their website to see whether their vision, mission and business goals are stated and make sure you refer to them in the interview.

Do you understand our culture?

Every organisation believes their culture is unique and the reality is that they indeed are. Even when you’ve worked at a very similar organisation, there may be differences in the way things are done here. This is as much about understanding the organisation’s values as the personalities within it. As with recruiting for any other position, the CEO needs to be satisfied that you are going to fit in and not rock the boat too much. This isn’t about you being a ‘yes’ person, more about how well you will work with the other senior executives – will they accept you in the C-suite?

Tip: You can get a good feel for their culture from their website. Look at how they present themselves to the world. Go through the site with a fine-toothed comb to see what they say and how they say it. Also look at how they have photographed the senior people in the organisation. These portraits can be very telling and also give you a good indication of the dress code.

Do you respond well to being challenged?

At a senior level, you are likely to be challenged on your decisions and the work of your department. Will you run out of the office in tears, explode in rage or deal with it calmly in an appropriate manner? You might be asked this question or more likely the CEO will be challenging in the interview to test how you really respond.

Tip: Be ready to back up anything you claim in the interview. Avoid giving vague answers as these are likely to be challenged. Deal with any challenging comments assertively but not aggressively – after all, this person could be your next boss.

Can I trust you if I confide in you?

As they say, it’s lonely at the top and the CEO is well aware of the political games being played at work. It can take a lot for the CEO to open up about any development issues they have or any decisions they are struggling with. They need to know they can trust that anything they discuss with you will be confidential and handled discreetly. Do you want to be seen as their right-hand person or the gossip who goes blabbing to the rest of the executive team? Most likely you chose the former.

Tip: Demonstrate that you have a trusting relationship with your current boss by not being drawn into any discussions about what you like or dislike about working with them. If you have been a sounding-board to a senior person in the past, you let them know this is the case without divulging any confidential information.

In order to perform well in an interview with a CEO, it’s time to think like a CEO. If you were in their position, what would you be looking for?

© Copyright Hannah McNamara

Hannah McNamara is the Managing Director of HRM Coaching Ltd an Interview Coaching company based in London, UK with clients all over the world. They have a team of Career Coaches available to choose from and will manage the coaching programme for you from start to finish.  for more information call +44 20 7939 9910 or contact us.

“I have to work with them but they drive me mad!”

We inherit our relations, we create our friends, but work colleagues, business partners and employees are often thrust upon us (even if they seemed like the ‘perfect candidate’ when you hired them).  Hannah McNamara Managing Director of HRM Coaching in London suggests some humane ways to deal with those who you would normally cross the road to avoid.

You have probably been there.

If a certain car is missing from the car-park, your heart leaps and you arrive at work with an instant feel-good emotion. If it is there, you proceed with reluctance. It is not the car that influences your demeanour. It is the car’s owner who is the typical colleague from hell.

It needn’t be that way if you follow these few simple ways for dealing with tricky types.

It is difficult to change yourself, but it is a thousand times harder to change someone else. There is an easier option. You simply change your attitude towards that individual. Begin with an understanding of why your colleague behaves the way that they do. Begin with the knowledge that, although we all inhabit the same world, we each have a unique view of it. Your view may not be inferior or better than mine, it is just different.

For a few moments, see if you can get a handle on the way that your obnoxious colleague sees their reality.

Without becoming a mentor and advisor … don’t even think of going there … see if their behaviour is rooted in pain, domestic problems, insecurity, or whatever. Don’t allow them to weep on your shoulder but listen for clues that may help your understanding. Imagine them with this negative baggage in a black bin-liner that they drag around with them and that you choose to ignore.

If your colleague is a bully, then simply stand up to them by quietly and calmly telling them that you find their behaviour hurtful because….

That word ‘because’ is crucial as most individuals will accept reasons, even if they are too thick to appreciate the harm of their actions. If this approach fails, then promise that you will pursue the disciplinary options that are open to you.

Don’t make idle threats.

Make that promise and keep it! If someone threatens you, create a quick mental picture of them sitting on a toilet. You will ‘see’ them at their most vulnerable and their threats as the powerless. A bully is just a control freak with a self-confidence problem. Use a similar approach to ward off unwelcome sexual advances. Light-hearted flirting can be fun as long as you are in control. Humour is often a great way of letting someone know that they are getting towards your no-go limits. If that doesn’t work, then a verbal warning shot, including the word ‘harassment’ will probably make the office tart [of either gender] run for cover and desist. If flirtation progresses to bodily contact, crude language or invitations to intimacy, then you must act at once, using all the company procedures at your command.

So your colleague is lazy and leaves you the lion’s share of the work?

As far as you can, do your fair share and then stop. Explain what you are doing and why. Workplace politics are a minefield for the unwary. Do not enter the minefield. Let the politicians play their games but quietly ignore the gossip or manoeuvring as you do your own thing in your own way. Never allow a gossip to involve you in their scurrilous rumours.

Stay away from the washrooms or water cooler when the politician or gossip is there.

Beware of those who proudly proclaim, “I am not a gossip but …’ All of these people are in control of their behaviour and, in some way, seek to control you. You will find it useful to learn and develop your rapport building skills which will allow you to co-exist in harmony without becoming bosom buddies.

Then there are the unfortunate people who have a personal freshness, flatulence, or inappropriate scratching problem.

Here, I am afraid, you must just learn to put up with them until they seek appropriate professional advice. On the topic of professional advice, when you would like to learn more about rapport, about changing your attitude or, dealing with deep-rooted colleague problems, then have a chat with a coach who, I promise, will not exhibit any adverse behavioural tendencies.

To find a coach, call me, Hannah McNamara on 020 7939 9910 (+44 20 7939 9910)

Career Coaching: Naked on the Career Ladder

It may sound uncomfortable, even slightly immoral and not something that you would do every day. Even so, to get into a job that you enjoy, you need to strip back the layers of other peoples’ expectations and get down to the basics of what makes you tick – with no hiding place, no blame and no excuses.

It has been said that, when you do the work that you enjoy, it is like being paid for having fun. Even if you deliberately chose your current job, it is quite possible that it has changed out of all recognition since then. You too will have changed your goals, interests and opinions as you matured.

So where are you now? And what can you do about it? If you could do absolutely anything to earn your living, what would it be? These are the types of question that your career coach will ask you, quite early on in your relationship.

Hannah McNamara of HRM Coaching Ltd says, ‘Career coaching can be done face-to-face or by telephone. Some clients come to us a result of redundancy and then realise that this apparent bad news was the best thing that ever happened to them. We have clients who are ready to escape the familiar rat race of office politics to do their own thing and develop their leisure interests and passions into their own business. Even a jet-set lifestyle that is the envy of many can begin to pall after the umpteenth long haul flight, the hundredth identical hotel room and the repeated promises to your significant other as you attempt to sustain a relationship’.

It is because of this very diversity of career situations that HRM was established with a network of trained and qualified professional coaches, each personally selected after rigorous screening, to ensure a perfect match between each client and their coach.

HRM Coaching offers you a free introductory discussion by telephone where your questions can be answered and your career needs assessed. Then, you will be offered a shortlist of coaches who are ready and willing to move you forward just as soon as you are ready.

Hannah McNamara Managing Director of HRM Coaching says, ‘It’s not our job to tell you what to do. In a series of simple questioning procedures we can ascertain your true goals, ambitions, interests and motivations.  You work with your coach to define actions that will move you ever closer to the perfect occupation. We are here to help you open up some amazing possibilities and to convert them into your reality’.

The first step is yours, the time is now and yes, you can keep your clothes on!

Call our friendly team now on 020 7939 9910 (+44 20 7939 9910) to arrange a time for a complimentary 20 minute discussion on how coaching works.

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