So you’ve accidentally put salt in the client’s coffee. Or you’ve pressed the ‘delete everything’ button on your PC. In the words of the late, lamented Douglas Adams, Don’t Panic! Handling mistakes is as important an aspect of work experience as any. ‘Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new’, Albert
Is Monday doomsday? Does your 7 o’clock start hit you like a falling meteor? Or does the morning just pass in a stomach-churning blur? Adeline Iziren, our award winning writer, offers a more cushioned start to the week After a weekend spent drinking yourself into oblivion, shopping till you drop or partying all night long,
Employability is now firmly on the workplace agenda, playing its part in the major shift in attitude towards employer-employee relationships. Here Tony Vickers, who has written extensively on career psychology, gives his perspective Neatly defined career paths and the golden age of a job for life are fast disappearing. Expecting to be employed on
Men and women now have equal rights in the workplace. But some, says Emma John, are still more equal than others An overwhelming 93% of employers are confident they offer women fair, unbiased pay systems, according to a new survey. Yet the poll, by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), is only one of a number
Want a super relationship with your boss? Then learn how to manage them properly, says award-winning writer Adeline Iziren Helen Sears has a great relationship with her boss Graham Lancaster. Key to its success is Helen’s ability to manage Graham. No, she doesn’t order him about, but rather than passively responding to his demands, she
Award-winning writer Adeline Iziren teaches you how to woo a potential employer over the phoneSo you’ve identified the job you want and your potential employer? Great. No doubt you’ll be trawling through the web to find out as much as you can about the company. That’s great too. But to get the edge over your
When Santa visits the City each Christmas, he leaves a bundle of slips of paper on the desks of each manager. These are the presents for the hardworking men and women of the square mile. Depending on whether they’ve been good or bad, the number on the slip will have more or less noughts. ‘Tis
Dress down Fridays and e-business casual work wear may be all the rage, but it still pays to check out the company dress code and, if in doubt, dress up When leading accountancy firm Arthur Andersen greeted the 21st Century with the introduction of a more informal dress code, it created a new dilemma
According to Management Today magazine, two in three employees say they lie to their boss. Whose responsibility is it to maintain ethical standards in the workplace? There is little doubt that a company’s ethics are becoming ever more important in the way it is viewed by its investors, its employees and its customers. Two years
How do you get a pay increase when your boss doesn’t see it as part of their 12 month-plan? Our award-winning writer Adeline Iziren shows how sometimes a gamble can pay off
Are your lunchtimes lacklustre? If you yearn for more than marmite on white, read on… You are what you eat, so they say. Unfortunately, in the cafeteria of life, most of us spend our working days as tuna-mayo baguettes. Of course, there’s nothing so wrong with that. Sandwiches are lean and efficient, and their ability
The 1990s will be remembered for giving us the Teletubbies and stress. After the workaholism of the eighties, stress-related illness broke into our vocabulary and our workplace. Along with repetitive strain injury, cases of stressed-out workers made headline news and the western world became more aware of the physical dangers of overwork.
For many people, going freelance seems an attractive idea but an impracticable reality. The benefits – no-one to complain if you need a lie-in, for instance – are overshadowed by the uncertainties. You might be able to give up your monthly pay packet, but could you survive without an office Christmas party? Catherine Masterman, a
She earns a fat salary for reading the ITN news. But believe it or not Cambridge graduate Katie Derham hasn’t always been so successful – and she’s got a huge pile of rejection letters to prove it. ‘It took me a year after university to get my first break,’ she once said. Derham had her
Candidates should approach the milk round or corporate roadshow as an opportunity to make an impression on prospective employers – and not just as an opportunity to stock up on freebies The milkround or corporate roadshow presentation should not be seen as a chance to swing a free drink, or the season when you do
Want a great career move? Try standing still, says award-winning writer Adeline Iziren Are you a young graduate with a good job? Have you found that you’re not really giving it your all because you’re too busy planning your next career move? If this sounds like you or someone you know read on……
Graduates’ attraction to dotcoms is as much to do with the freedom and scope that the new economy offers, as it is to do with making money quickly. So, how can the big companies make their corporate cultures more attractive to budding entrepreneurs? Tony Vickers, an expert in organizational behavior, assesses which cultures attract entrepreneurs
The year after your finals can often be an incredibly depressing experience for which nothing has prepared you. So what can you do to keep your chin up during those dark days? Emma John and Catherine Courtney lift the lid on post-finals blues Putting off the time-consuming chore of job hunting while you’re knuckling
There are many ways of applying for that prized job, none perfect and most designed to make it easier for the employer. Here forum talks through how candidates can maximize their chances of success Anything that makes it easier for employers to find the perfect employee should be good news for the candidate, because each should
Have you ever wished your CV (resume) showed employers the ‘real’ you? In the current recruitment climate, getting the right message across on a CV is serious business. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just tell it as it is? Well, believe it or not, that wish is fast becoming fact. Videotaped CVs are giving job
