Carrying on from yesterday, as part of celebrating National Careers Week, #NCW2020, I am continuing my week of blog posts about some of the key the people and events who have inspired my own career journey. Hopefully this will guide and inspire young people looking to start out in their career journeys and qualified professioanls looking to make changes to theirs.

 

Having met the HR Director I mentioned yesterday, I made a dramatic change in my career from career coaching young people, to moving into an L&D role. What started well quickly descended into chaos as I became caught up in a mass redundancy situation, being made redundant 2 weeks after I had passed my probation. Whilst it didn’t exactly feel great at the time, it proved to be quite an enlightening experience, not least of all as it was my first introduction into the world of #Outplacement companies. For those who don’t know, outplacement companies support individuals with career change, often during redundancy situations. This can range from running group training sessions to one to one coaching, on topics such as CV writing and interview skills or networking and setting up your own company.

 

I think I struck gold with the Career Coach I was allocated, the lovely Ruth Carlin. Although the careers world was one I was familiar with supporting others through, at a time when you’re feeling lost and vulnerable, having someone to support you is invaluable. A key thing she did was to build up my confidence again, checking over my CV and applications.

 

Fast forward a few years down the line and having set up my company, The Talent Cycle, the first thing I looked into doing was seeing what Outplacement companies I could work with. I am delighted to be doing some work on this and having the opportunity to help others in the way that I was helped.

 

Who was that person who was there for you just at the right time, in your career? What difference did they make?