Simon Gray's Blog, page 10

Talking careers and employability at the EMC Skills Summit

On Tuesday 9 June 2015 I had the privilege to speak at the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce (EMC) Skills Summit in Nottingham.

The purpose of the event was to bring together educators, business people and professional bodies to share best practice on employability, careers advice and skills development.

I presented workshops covering how to find success in the job market, the power of work experience and employer engagement strategies.

A copy of the slides can be found here, along with a mor...

All the world’s a stage and it’s time to stand out!

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players” –William Shakespeare, As You Like It.

Early this morningsaw two of the greatest boxers the world has ever known compete for the biggest purse in boxing history.

Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather and Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao locked horns in battle on the world boxing stage at the MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas.

Like many I’m sure – I was up in the small hours to witness history in the making, real-time.

Watching their fight I started thinki...

Super CVs, cover letters and getting in front of decision makers…

It was back into the studio this week to film the next section of the Career Codex employability course. With the job market environment, jobseeker psychology and planning now in the editing stage, it was the turn of Super CVs, cover letters and how to get the attention of and then get a meeting or an interview with decision makers.

The CV is often the first thing people think about when they decide to enter the job market and yes, a good CV is important and essential.

What tends to happen th...

Talking British culture, employability and business at NTU

I had the privilege to guest lecture at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) last week on British culture.

Not the easiest of topics to fill two hours of time, but that is until you start to look into things in a bit more detail and to question what we do, what we say and how we conduct ourselves in everyday life.

I’ve always thought of culture to best be defined as –the way we do things around here. That could be in a business, a city or as I was to talk about, a country.

In the class were stud...

The power of career advice in the community

On the 7 April 2015, I was invited to talk to young people at Aspley Community Centre in Nottingham.

It was at the invitation of Marcellus Baz, a highly inspirational individual who through the Nottingham School of Boxing and Switch Updedicates his time to help, guide and motivate young people to get on the right track in life and then stay on it.

He does this not for financial reward, but because from his own experience he understands the challenges facing young people today and the many tem...

Judging at the ICAEW BASE competition 2015

As a Chartered Accountant and a proud member of the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales), I’m always happy to support the ICAEW BASE competition.

ICAEW BASE is an annual event, giving students in school or college (aged 16-19)the opportunity to experience life as a Chartered Accountant, providing analysis and advice to a fictitious company through the BASE game.

BASE stands for Business – Accountancy – Skills – Education.

In today’s competitive job market, gaining v...

A dream job in less than 8 weeks…!

Very often the first question people ask me is, “what do you think of my CV?”or “how long is it likely to take me to find a job at my level?”

The first question about the CV is not the best question to beasking for a number of reasons and the second question depends on the individual’s actions in the job market – actions aredetermined by thoughts, which have their foundations firmly in beliefs.

The only question really to be asking is ‘what’s everyone else doing and what does this tell me abo...

Social media for job search with AAT

Last week I was invited by AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) to present to their Nottinghamshire branch on how to use social media for job search and business development.

Through Career Codex I train jobseekers at all levels on how to use social media effectively and it has also been hugely important in building my own businesses.

In front ofa packed room I explained how social media has given individuals and business owners a huge opportunity to stand out from the competition if u...

Blogging for Guardian Careers

There are two primary ways to get ahead in the job market and stand out from the crowd.

1) Believe different things to other jobseekers, think different thoughts and take massive proactive action that others are unable or not prepared to take.

2) Get much better at doing what everyone else is doing, so that you’re the one that gets noticed.

Career Codex focuses on both of these with our four stage approach to finding career and job market success.

Environment – understand how the job market r...

Talking careers and business at Love Business East Midlands 2015

I’m absolutely thrilled to be be presenting at Love Business East Midlands 2015 (LBEM 2015) on one of my favourite topics – standing out from the crowd to get ahead in careersand business.

The modern world we live in is a hugely competitive one – with increasing competition for our attention as employers, consumers or business people, innovative thinking is essential to stand out from the competition.

My journey over the last 15 years has taught me that the 3 most important things for success...