Career Advisory postgraduate studies – after the eleventh meeting
ATS, smartphonization, chatbots, employer branding, upskilling – these are just a few of the emerging trends that may be an opportunity, but also a threat to HR departments, recruiters or Career Consultants operating on the market. They must stay up-to-date to manage challenges properly. The topic of the last weekend of the postgraduate studies was “Trends on the job market and taking care of your own development.”
Taking care of your own development as a Career Consultant
The first day of the 11th weekend was conducted by Sandra Bichl. The day started with the presentation of a group project. Each group could choose one of the two topics:
- Development of a Career Consultant
- Applying Career Advisory know-how within the organization
After the presentations, Sandra reviewed the competencies of a career consultant and discussed in detail the areas that a Career Consultant should constantly develop:
1) Knowledge and tools in the field of Career Advisory
(Career Concepts and Career Motives, a catalog of questions, a set of exercises)
2) Coaching competencies
(active listening, asking open questions)
3) Expert knowledge from the selected field
(industry, function, geography, demographic segment, etc.)
4) Ability to build and maintain relationships
(especially with people different from us / follow-up!)
5) Good knowledge of IT tools
(text editor, GIMP / Canva.com, Google Drive, Skype / Zoom, etc.)
6) Knowledge of customer positioning tools
(LinkedIn, Google, Xing, Twitter, etc.)
7) Being detail-oriented
(materials have to pass a “quality check” / strict assessment)
Job market trends and Career Advisory
During the next part of the day, Sandra presented trends on the job market along an employee’s life cycle in the light of Career Advisory. She listed the following trends, taking into account their opportunities and threats – on the market, for organization, and Career Consultants:
- Employer Branding
- Chatbots
- Smartphonization
- ATS
In addition, she also discussed difficulties of selling services in Poland and their possible solutions; how confidence affects the price list, and the difference between women and men in terms of confidence and its consequences.
Managing the client relationship
The second day of the 11th weekend was led by Anna Zadrożna, who focused on building services inside and outside the organization – of course, after the aforementioned team work presentations.
Services within the organization or B2B have been divided into areas such as:
- Career paths
- Internal and external recruitment
- Organizational culture
- Other coaching related services
- Employer branding
- Building self-awareness among employees and managers regarding their team
During the lecture, the groups developed a catalog of services that each career consultant could offer on the B2C market. Then, these services were further categorized by career consultants’ preferences in terms of Career Motives. Everyone had a chance to consider how the service fits their own “natural predispositions” and career preferences.
In the next part of the classes, Anna analyzed the services on the B2C market at Career Angels, where she raised issues such as:
- source of (potential) customers
- segmentation
- range of services
- tips, risks and interesting facts for each of the presented services:
• Documents: CV / CV ATS / Business Cases
• Texts: cover mails, translations
• LinkedIn, incl. optimization for the algorithm
• Channel: networking
• Channel: companies
• Channel: PE / VC
• Channel: headhunters
• Channel: job ads
• Preparation for job interviews
• Additional support / non-standard services or services that are rarely provided
Reflections after the eleventh weekend
“I really liked that during this weekend we received a lot of practical knowledge.”
“I am glad that we had an opportunity to learn about running your own business from the inside.”
“The classes were extremely substantive; some of them focused specifically on the tools we can use, which was very useful.”
“The amount of information I got thanks to this weekend made my head spin! I enjoy learning so many new things.”
“I understood how responsible the Career Consultant profession is, as well as the significance of self-confidence, since we can influence the careers and self-confidence of others.”
“The exercises helped me identify my weaknesses, enabling me to plan activities that will help me develop myself.”
PS. Read more about the weekends:
Are you interested in this field and don’t want to wait for the next edition? Follow information about our courses – including in-house – on this page:
https://careerangels.eu/pl/zostan-c certified-konsultantem-kariery/
