“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it”
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Unusually for me, this post is not about job search, interviews or other employment-related issues. It is about my experience of attending a live TEDx conference at Warwick University on 9^th March.

In my spare time, I enjoy listening to inspirational, educational TED talks and normally select the ones directly relevant to me and my interests – principally business and economics. For instance, a few days ago, I listened to a talk by Simon Sinek on how great leaders (both companies and individuals) can inspire action and innovation, where he discussed his concept of the ‘Golden Circle’. I find that these business-oriented talks are a perfect way to update my knowledge in the most time-effective manner. In a way, each talk is like a ‘mini MBA’ on a particular subject compressed in twenty minutes. I deeply admire the ingenuity, creativity and talent of many of the presenters I have listened to.

The conference I attended at Warwick covered areas I would not normally choose to listen to on TED.com. The main theme of the day was ‘Building Bridges’ and it included a number of talks on the scientific issues, such as the human genome and its link to various genetic and life-threatening diseases, such as cancer and MS. My main takeaway from the talk given by Gilean McVean was that humans are the least diverse of the species on Earth and there is only tiny variation in our genetic makeup whether we are from Europe, Africa or Asia.

There were also speakers talking about inefficiencies and delays in aid provision in war-stricken parts of the world, such as the former Yugoslavia and Africa. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that it takes on average 13 weeks for humanitarian aid to be delivered to those in need!

 In a totally different vein, a blind musician Derek Paravicini played several amazing pieces on the piano – a true musical genius who, despite his autism, taught himself to play and compose music and is now an internationally acclaimed pianist.  Have a look at his website and listen to some of his masterpieces: http://www.sonustech.com/paravicini/.

I was mesmerised too by the incredible photographs of Fabian Oefner who has managed to capture the sound waves coming from a speaker in an image so usual that when I saw it for the first time, I thought it was a photo of a volcanic eruption! You can see for yourself here: http://www.fabianoefner.com/64838/556897/projects/dancing-colors.

During the whole event, the only talk that was related to my original interests was the one by Jasper McMahon – a co-developer of a new economic model called ‘now-casting’. The model is designed to address the inefficiencies and propensity for error of ordinary forecasting models of GDP and other economic variables.

I have stepped of my comfort zone by listening to the talks I would not normally listen to and it was an unbelievable experience completely worth the time and effort. For me, this amazing conference was a proof that the world is still full of innovative, passionate and talented individuals with strong principles and incredible ideas – all that is required from us all is to listen to them and try to spread their word to improve and better ourselves and the world we live in.

Dasha Amrom

I have recently met a middle-aged woman who has been out for work for the last three years. She told me that before she had her two daughters, she had worked in a large international FMCG company and was responsible for marketing of one of the world’s famous brands. When she decided to try and get back into employment after her maternity leave, she received rejection after rejection and as a result, lost her confidence and inspiration to look for more jobs. She confided in me that at one of her interviews, a sympathetic hiring manager openly told her that it would be much harder for her to demonstrate her skills and abilities after such a long ‘break’, even though she had completely dedicated her time to caring for her children and hadn’t had a free moment to herself for a very long time.

This story has inspired me to write this post. I believe that being a mother teaches a woman a number of invaluable skills that can be easily transferred and add value in the world of work. We can call it ‘a competitive advantage’ of motherhood.

The first one of these transferable skills is efficiency. Being a mother forces a woman to learn to juggle a few tasks at the same time. Motherhood is a challenging, high-paced job and you don’t just stop because it is time for lunch or Friday 5pm has struck. There is an endless list of things that need to be completed with the baby being a demanding ‘manager’, continuously assessing your efforts and evaluating your progress. This ability to multi-task is invaluable in a workplace where you may, for instance, be required to prepare a presentation while answering client calls and contacting the technical team for assistance – all at the same time. And on top of this, you are subjected to tremendous time pressure to accomplish all of these tasks.

This brings me to the next crucial transferrable skill – effective time management. Being a mother, you normally don’t get a chance to read, relax, and listen to music in the privacy of your own company unless a baby is napping or is in bed for the night. So you learn to use these precious couple of hours to catch up on the latest news, answer long-neglected emails, return phone calls and maybe if lucky, do a spot of shopping online. You become a ‘master’ of time management, taking seconds to skim through interesting articles, book pages, long emails, listen to the news while preparing the next batch of pureed food for your constantly hungry baby. Let me tell you – the modern workplace ‘screams’ for employees who can plan and execute an important project in the matter of hours and while at it, do it to the highest standard of quality. And then keep taking on more tasks and assignments not to waste the remaining time. Mothers do appreciate the value of time and how best to use it!

The third transferable skill I would like to emphasise is the ability to regroup fast after numerous setbacks. Mothers face many frustrating rejections and challenges on an almost every day basis – the baby may refuse a bottle or his vegetables for lunch, or suddenly change his mind about the time of his nap. The woman needs to be able to adjust fast and find an alternative course of action to achieve the result. Thick-skinned employees who can pull themselves together after a failure or any kind of setback are respected and in high demand. Say, for instance, the client is not satisfied with the final report you have produced on the back of a long and difficult project. It is easy to get de-motivated and start blaming your colleagues who have also contributed to the report. Alternatively, you can just pull yourself together and spend some time re-writing and perfecting the parts of the report your client is not happy about. Being a mother teaches you to choose the latter path.

I believe that being a mother equips you with an arsenal of many highly-transferable skills that employers seek out in their candidates. It is a matter of believing in yourself, emphasising these abilities and the ways they can be of use in a workplace. For some, it may take years to develop and perfect these skills so take advantage of this other gift the motherhood has given you!

Dasha Amrom

‘A group or system of interconnected people or things’ – this is how the Oxford dictionary defines the word ‘network’. But how big should this group be? How should you go about building your web of connections?

I address these and other related questions in this article about job search-focussed networking and provide some tips on how to optimise your career progression through consistent and well thought-through networking efforts. Say, for instance, you have been looking for a job for quite a while and you have been doing it via submitting your CV on various job sites or through recruitment agents. But, unfortunately, to no avail. Or you got bored with your old job and would like a change. In these and many other cases, networking could be the key for you to succeed in attaining these goals.

I believe that the broader you spread your networking ‘net’, the more people you are likely to touch and be able to fall back on when the time of need comes. Some networking experts would disagree and claim that it is not the number of people you know but the quality that counts. Quality is also essential of course – you could, for instance, get to know only a few senior managers from your target company. But would they help you understand what is happening on the ground? Would they be able to share an unbiased opinion of what the working environment is like on say, the middle management level?

Perhaps,  but you are more likely to get a thorough understanding of the company if you aim to establish connections with people from all different levels of seniority including more junior employees across different departments. To accomplish this, you would first need to map out and understand the structure of the company in great detail.

So the first ‘S’ of efficient job-focussed networking is:

–         Structure. You should aim to research the company’s organisational structure and ideally, draw out a diagram representing the layers of management, departments and reporting lines. I recognise that it can be a challenging and, sometimes, seemingly impossible task, but there are many different ways to source this information. Search the news, press releases, company website, LinkedIn and you will gradually start filling the gaps and the missing links on your organisational map. Keep updating and refining it on a regular basis and you will soon end up with a good representation of the target company’s structure including the names of the people you might want to approach.

Similarly to any other worthy pursuits, you should strive to allocate a certain amount of time each day to your networking efforts. I would even go as far as to suggest that you should consistently aim to devote at least an hour per day to developing your network but it all depends on your personal ambitions and the speed with which you want to expand your connections. So now we have arrived at the second ‘S’ of efficient job-focussed networking:

–         Sustained effort. It is crucial to put in sustained regular effort into building your network. It is no use, for instance, to research five companies in one day and then give up until resuming the work a month later. You could aim to prepare a plan – possibly in Word or Excel – where you can input the newly acquired information making it easier to track your progress and expand the information at a later stage. You could add the contact details for a person, their industry of expertise, their position and brief details of your personal relationship with that person. You should try not to leave the document unupdated for more than a few days.

Although you should always aim for a bigger and broader network, you should also be careful not to spread your efforts too widely. You would want to include people who are relevant to your job search so, for instance, it wouldn’t make much sense to research a local supermarket unless you are aiming for a career in retailing. Once you have compiled your initial contact database and started getting to know people, make sure you approach them on an ‘informational’ basis, to learn more about them, their experiences and ask them for advice and guidance. Don’t take people for granted and make sure you keep a close watch on your phone conversations, emails and personal meetings to prevent producing the negative impression that you are just trying to get a job.

So here comes the final ‘S’:

–         Put all your networking efforts under close scrutiny to impress your contacts, to gain as much knowledge as possible about them and to avoid the ‘just to get a job’ attitude. Keep track and log all the key points and learnings from your conversations and change the direction immediately once you spot the warning signs. Trying to be sincerely interested in the other person, wanting to understand how their company operates, asking for their advice and being grateful for their time would help you build a rapport with you contact and make them more inclined to talk and help you in the future.

I would be interested to know your tips for successful job search-focused networking. Please feel free to share your examples and experiences.