Article posted by on Oct 25, 2020
It's that time of year when the clocks change and we all know the routine; we kid ourselves that the extra hour that weekend is a benefit, knowing full well it doesn’t offset the months of dark mornings and evenings ahead. We expect the articles arguing for/against BST to rage online and in the papers which always comes down to a two-way fight between Scottish farmers needing to work and children walking to school in the dark.
As a bi-annual event though it can remind us of other things as well – the fire brigade campaigns tell us this a good time to check the batteries in our smoke alarms and in our house we do those 6 monthly-jobs like check that funny little filter in the washing machine and bleed the radiators. If we had a tortoise, he’d be heading for his hibernation box.
A friend of mine takes this one step further; he’s always used the clocks changing – forwards or backwards - as a reminder to “check-in” on his CV and career. Sometimes, it's barely more than a glance over his CV, maybe adding in a recently completed course or project and taking off those achievements which just don’t seem so relevant anymore. Other times, it's been a more concerted job search.
Back in the day, he would check out the roles in the Evening Standard or Guardian jobs section for a couple of weeks to get a read on the market – not just the salaries and companies recruiting, but also to see the trends in his sector for new skills and different concepts. Nowadays, he’ll take the time to check the settings on the job alerts he’s signed up for on relevant websites and seek out new ones. He’ll review and update his LinkedIn profile and settings.
He’s not in our sector so I’ve never been a position to help directly. If he were, he’d notice this October that our website looks very different to when he would have last checked back in March with a more intuitive job search and a full dashboard where he could sign up to job alerts, apply for jobs and keep a check on where he was at with them.
So, has this bi-annual check-in worked for him? I don’t know that he’s ever changed jobs exactly as the clocks changed, but what he has said is that he’s always ready. So, when he’s been headhunted, he’s had an “oven-ready” CV detailing his most up-to-date experience - not something that stops at his previous job. He’s kept his training up-to-date both with technology and the latest thinking in his sector and he reckons it’s helped at appraisal times as he can be more proactive about his goals for the next 6 months.
He’s done pretty well in his field so it sure hasn’t done him any harm. In these uncertain times, there are probably more people brushing-up CVs “just in case” right now anyway - if they aren’t already actively job hunting.
But maybe there is something in this clock-changing career check-in that we can all benefit from in the future, whatever the world looks like then. If you are in the real estate and construction sector in some way, then our website is a good place to start and our consultants can help if you are interested in making a more definite move.
Even if you don’t decide to give yourself a career MOT right now - do at least check the batteries in your smoke alarm!
Job hunting can be full of uncertainty. But with us, you can be sure that we’ll do everything we can to get you to your ideal job. Send your CV to us to get started or search for the latest job vacancies and we’ll get the ball rolling.
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