While we weather the COVID-19 storm it’s tempting to sit back, watch a few box-sets and wait for things to normalise.  There are two ways of looking at this, both requiring some deliberate action:

1. Make the most of it, use this period as proper down-time for all those things you’d promised to do if ever quarantined for something like an alien invasion, incoming meteorite or a pandemic virus. 
2. Keep up the job-search.  Don’t lose focus on all that it takes to get employed because if we’re all agreed on one thing – it’s that we’re going to come through this in time – and we should be prepared.   

Plan A is none of my business but Plan B certainly is, so hear this:

This surreal situation is the ‘new normal’, and you should assume that everybody’s preparing themselves for life beyond COVID-19 without having a guess at when we’re released from lock-down.  Many companies are officially ‘on hold’ but it’s more important than ever for them to stay engaged, protect their customers, safeguard their market share and seek out opportunities for winning new business.  You can see how they’re going about it too; the ones who remain in the front of our minds are those who are proactive in doing good, volunteering their services for free and devising whatever ways they can to pave the way ahead.  They’re also the ones who are providing as much clarity to their employees as possible.  They might have to lose a few, but they’ll want to retain those who might otherwise be inclined to stray. 

Do the same.  Stay tuned and don’t slow down on the job-hunting.  There are still openings being advertised so don’t hold back from putting in an application, and don’t lose sight of how that’s done. 

• CV-writing.  Keep this up-to-date for you’ll be sure to be asked how you made use of this time.  “COVID-19 self-isolation” will probably have its own bullet-point so you must have something to say. 
• Linkedin.  Get your profile as it should be. Use key-words in the prose, shed some light on your interests and above all – ENGAGE by liking/sharing/commenting or writing posts of your own. 
• Soft skills are the new hard skills (see previous blog “Be Human” 27^th March). It’s a perfect opportunity for recruiters to turn a blind eye to what’s become the threshold for academic qualifications and focus more on what their customers really want.

Skype, Zoom, Houseparty and Facetime are all coming into their own during this time and so could you.  Don’t get lost in the rush for the job market once the light shines from the far end of the tunnel. Stay Tuned, get in touch with us NOW while the competition’s watching re-runs of GoT.   

If you worry for the threat to the traditional job market from AI and machine-learning, take heart from what you see happening right now. 

It might have taken a viral pandemic to get us to this point, but have you noticed how it is that the ‘human’ element has stepped in to provide so many workable solutions?  No matter how robust the mathematical modelling to predict the gradient of a viral infection curve, so many of the problems have been unforeseen, and it has taken creativity and imagination to provide answers. 

Somebody came up with the idea for a round of applause for all those health service workers and it won’t have been a machine that clocked the need for an outpouring of empathy or the simplest means of conveyance.  It took human initiative to set up neighbourhood action groups to ensure that self-isolators are being looked after.  In business, it never previously made good economic sense for restaurant owners to provide their workers with free food but that’s what you see happening, and there are countless more examples of communication, empathy and emotional intelligence being put into practice.  Sure, technology plays a hand in facilitating such decisions but it took a human to be inspired in the first place. 

And it’s not just the little things either.  Governments are having to think on their feet, working in collaboration with foreign regimes in the sharing of infection data, research of vaccines and ramp-up of testing equipment for the benefit of all.  As for the gigantic rescue packages, financial modelling will have played a part in reducing the guesswork as to the potential economic cost, but since we don’t really know how it’s all going to pan out it’s still a guess and a human one at that.

SOFT SKILLS ARE THE NEW HARD SKILLS – Remember that list of qualities that include Emotional Intelligence, Communication, Adaptability, Creativity, and Collaboration.  We can do all this, and what’s more we’re better it than any machine, because we’re human.  As Jacob Morgan points out in his succinct post on Linkedin (well-worth following), it is the people who help others out that are going to be of most value to an employer, and we shouldn’t have to wait for a crisis event such as COVID-19 for such skills to be recognised and valued.  If we’re savvy we should be doing this all the time.

To follow on from a recent blog on soft skills (Softly, Softly does it), if you’re in any doubt as to their importance in the workplace, look no further than the graphic here:   What it shows so brilliantly (sadly, it’s not one of mine) is how employers’ needs have changed and what it is vital that job applicants can bring to the party.

If you’re wondering why this has come about – don’t take my word for it but let’s say that the global mega-trends (Demographics, Geography & Technology) have played a blinder. Thanks to technological advances businesses can work around the clock using input from a global employee base.  AI has made it easy to screen from many ‘000s of applicants drawn from a global talent-pool.  There’s a different way of doing things, there’s a different mind-set needed in the workplace, and the workplace itself – if it exists in ‘office’ form at all – has changed for ever.  

If employees must evolve in order to arrive in the workplace equipped with the necessary tools, they’ve not been helped by a national curriculum that has been slow to keep up with the pace of change.  Schools aren’t to blame, for their main aim is to enable you to pass your exams. It’s not their fault that the examination boards have been asking the wrong questions.

So – what to do? Even if you happen to have an innate talent for all the skills that you’re going to need (draw from a long list of Leadership, Time-management, Communication, Problem-solving, Teamwork, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience etc, etc…) you are going to: a) have to know how to demonstrate that you truly do have these talents, and b) recognise the moment in the interview process when you’re being screened for them.    

The good news is that this is all doable. Work Savvy can’t do much about your academic results but it can help with everything else, and enable you to prove how well you’ve evolved.   

At a typical careers fair, alongside all the represented professions hoping to enlighten students on their possible career paths you will find people helping to spread awareness on apprenticeships, gap-year vocations and other higher educational routes to market.   Work Savvy also has important relevance at these events, and I’ve compiled a list of FAQs to illustrate a typical engagement with a parent/child:   

What’s Work Savvy all about then?  

We equip young people with everything they need to get jobs.  

So you’re a careers coach?  

No, but we can maximise the chance that a student successfully becomes one of these (cue the sweeping hand-gesture around the room).  

How do you mean? 

We don’t have to be experts in any particular field, but if there are 10 people applying for the same job, we can make somebody stand out from the other 9. 

How?

By ensuring they know how to demonstrate the skills that all employers want to see, over and above their academic qualifications.  We highlight the wide gap between what students know and what employers demand that they know.     

What skills? 

They used to be called ‘soft’ skills but nowadays have become known as ‘core competencies’.  To draw from a long list, things such as emotional intelligence, commercial awareness, communication, resilience and integrity.    

Don’t schools address this?

Invariably not, and not in any great depth either.  They are fully aware of what employers want but their main focus is on the academic curriculum, and until exams start to ask the right questions this gap will remain.   

Surely they will learn all this at Uni.  

Most universities have huge resources yes, but they have a problem engaging anyone except those who are already driven, focussed and confident.  They can’t engage with the vast majority who fail to use what’s on offer.  Once they’ve graduated it’s all too late, and if they then tackle the job market they’re going to find they’re unprepared  

So how do you go about doing this?  

In the space of a few hourly sessions face-to-face you can develop these qualities, none of which you are with born with or without, and learn how to demonstrate to potential employers that you have them.  

Who is Work Savvy for? 

Anybody from yr 12 to post-graduate, plus anybody in-between since they’ll be looking to fortify their CVs with meaningful work experience.   They’ll also need to know how to network effectively, write a CV that’s aligned with the right job description, compose an appropriate cover-letter and be on top form in interview.  

How did you get started with all this?

I was approached by a friend whose son had already won a place on a graduate scheme, but needed help understanding his job description, payslip and the art of creating effective emails/voicemails.  In short, a general demystifying of the workplace was a way I could put my own years of work experience to good use.  

So when are you first needed? 

For those early in the 6th form there is much concern as to what sort of work experience they should feature on their CV.  At this stage, employers are actually very open-minded and simply want to discover if somebody has learned anything useful. We teach people to demonstrate some commercial awareness no matter how menial the work experience. 

And how else are you different?

We also teach the practical basics of subjects that might represent gaps, such as Economics, Politics, Accounting, Personal Finance etc, etc.   Young people may decide to explore a career-path that requires knowledge in subjects never studied, and it doesn’t have to be the case that a child doesn’t engage in topical subjects merely because they weren’t studied at school.  This too can be explained in a few short hours. 

So it’s a confidence booster too?

Absolutely.  Fear of interviews and the whole transition process from school to whatever lies beyond the school gates is invariably due to lack of preparation.  They need to be able to give the best of themselves in interview, get that job offer, hit the ground running and get noticed for the right reasons.

How do we find you?

There’s a website that hopefully explains everything in full. For private sessions you should set aside a half-day and all we then require is a date in the diary and somewhere mutually suitable to meet.  We charge by the hour for as long or as little as it takes. 

Can I pay in advance right here and now?

But of course…

It’s that time of year again. Expect a foggy start, but the mists will clear….once you’re Work Savvy The thrust of Sir Anthony Seldon’s article in yesterday’s Times was aimed at students’ lack of preparation for University, with the finger of blame pointed at the schools,… “whose curriculum focus on academic ambition has been at the expense of education breadth. With more than half of all school leavers heading for University this autumn the result is that many will be unsure why they are actually going, what to expect and how to manage once they’re there. The statistics relating to mental health problems and drop-out rates should come as no surprise”. But let’s look at the positives, for wherever a student is heading after leaving school there will be gaps that are easily filled, and this can take a matter of hours if you apply yourself in the right way. The following is a re-post from this time last year but no less relevant for that: From Oct 4th 2018 If only there was such a thing as an A* in being Work Savvy. The press and social media are warming to their task in alerting the world to the fact that our students are failing to learn a whole host of things that would genuinely be useful in later life. The gap between academia and the world of work has grown to the point where we must have somebody to whom we can point the finger of blame. Blame is commonly placed on a traditional teaching curriculum whose focus is on passing exams, and not on passing-out with qualifications equipped for survival in the real world. The point is also made that it’s not a school’s job to teach students all those things that should be taught at home. So blame is also directed towards parents who in theory should have the time and the inclination to impart wisdom and common sense at any available opportunity, to do with any subject that is deemed relevant. There’s no reason to blame either. It’s perfectly reasonable for most schools to believe that their main brief is to allocate precious resources to pass exams, for they are on a hiding to nothing if they pay no heed to a monitored performance benchmark. If there’s any time or money left to promote extra-curricular matters they almost certainly do what they can. As for the parents, even the most dedicated might realise that all too often children are more inclined to listen to/absorb information from anybody else but their own. The maxim that “You teach my child to drive and I’ll teach yours” might chime with both parents and would-be drivers alike. Let’s put the blame somewhere though. There has always been a gap between what is taught and what’s needed, but this gap has widened in recent years. Sociological, environmental and technological influences are all forces that have altered the dynamics by which employers hire their staff, and perhaps it’s not fair that they hold all the cards since they can have their workforce ‘on trial’ as interns/trainees while they make up their minds whether to take them on full-time. They can take their pick from screened applicants, and those who still fall short of exacting standards to do with hard/soft skills will find themselves back in the mix. However, there’s little point in blaming the employers because nobody is press-ganged into working for them and they (more importantly) make no secret of what they’re looking to find in applicants. The methods used to do so might make the whole process of job application a thoroughly dispiriting experience but that’s a topic for another day. So, if we don’t yet have the right answers we should set about altering the questions. Keep the exams, but make them different. There’s no need to alter the benchmark by which schools are judged. Schools should continue to have a focus on the passing of exams but these exams could perhaps be on more-relevant topics and be asking different questions. What’s relevant? Quite apart from learning how to survive in the world of work (workplace protocol) the basic principles of peripheral subjects such as personal finance, politics, law and a whole host of miscellaneous subjects could become mainstream. Such a thing as a ‘Work Savvy’ qualification would get you off to a fine start in life beyond school. After all, the real world is still ‘school’ but with (perhaps) better food, fewer rules and shorter holidays. The chances are you’ll still be wearing some kind of ‘uniform’, and there’s still a ‘curriculum’ but it’s now referred to something called a learning-curve. But at least you might get paid while you’re gaining all that experience.