LET'S-BEGIN

Summer Special

Summer is here!!

Celebrate Summer with 50% offALL our online courses

Some courses as low as £10 for 6 months of unlimited access!!

Help us celebrate the arrival of summer (despite the weather) by taking advantage of our 50% off all courses summer deal.
You can now get our popular courses from as little as £10 for 6 months unlimited access.
If you are looking for a job, or simply want to improve your management skills, you can start now.


Please follow this link www.lets-begin.com and be sure to use our voucher code SUMMER50 at checkout to get your 50% discount.

 

#Recruitment Agents - 5 Rules to work with them to get the #job you want

Let's examine an important aspect to job hunting; the role played by recruitment agents or as some of the agents who handle senior jobs are called -"search firms". Many vacancies are handled by recruitment agents and so it is really important to know how to make the best possible use of them, what to expect of them and what they expect of you.

Rule 1:

What relationship does the agent have with the employer, for example?

Is this the first time the agent has worked for the employer, do they know much about them?
Is the agent working exclusively for this employer and will be the only agent putting forward candidates for the vacancy
In either case you will have to ask for information to help you in the application process

Rule 2:

Understand what success means for the agent; most agents receive a fee or commission from the employer when the successful candidate starts the job, but the fee can be contingent on the candidate remaining in the job for 3 or 6 months. Clearly all agents want you to prepare well enough for interviews to have a good chance of getting the job but some also want to know you will make a good enough start in your first 3 months to keep the job - our online course Work covers this topic . This second point is especially important for agents that have a long term relationship with an employer, where they need to be seen as a reliable provider of high quality candidates. Be ready with an up to date #CV to discuss your background.

Rule 3:

So how can agents help you? For a specific vacancy you should expect a written job role description summarising the main duties of the #job and the skills, knowledge and experience of the ideal candidate (which, like the ideal, job rarely exists so if you are not exactly matching the requirements don't be too deterred). Agents should be able to tell you about the "process" the employer will use to select the right candidate - we discuss the process in our online course #Get that Job. For example;

When does the employer plan to make a decision on hiring someone?
Will there be one interview or several and might you have to take a test of some sort?
Who will interview you, what are their names, their job titles and what will they ask you about?
Ask the agent for feedback about your strengths or weaknesses in relation to this vacancy so that can prepare for the interview and make sure you ask what the dress code is as well. Agents who do not have a specific vacancy for you now may have in the future so it makes sense to keep in touch with them by email and phone. The idea is that when they do have vacancies to fill you want to be the first to hear about them. Agents who specialize in types of jobs such as IT or government may be able to suggest extra training to make yourself more employable.

Rule 4:

Follow up contact with the agent during the job selection process should provide you with information about your progress. Expect delays and changes to the selection process, employers everyday business can affect their recruitment timetable, however, sometimes if you do not get feedback about a job at the expected time it is also possible that another candidate is ahead of you. So, with an open mind about why a delay has happened, try and get the feedback from the agent about the status of your application and always agree a specific date and time for your next follow up call and diarise it!

Rule 5

Online / internet based job agencies demand much more attention in follow up activities as they deal mainly via email and often in high numbers of vacancies. You should track each online application you make and have a diary system to record when you expect to hear about progress and chase it up on the due dates.

In summary, make recruitment agents your competitive edge, take advice from them and be very disciplined about tracking each job application and following up at an agreed time and date.

he LET'S-BEGIN TEAM

www.lets-begin.com

Forget the eggs, grab a new job for Easter!

Welcome to the latest LET'S-BEGIN competition to WIN six months unlimited access to our GET THAT EXECUTIVE JOB on-line course worth £40 for FREE. 

Simply register with us for free at http://www.lets-begin.com/free-registration.aspx and send a mail to contact@lets-begin.com with the following quoted in the subject line 'GTEJ 4/12'

This competition closes on Friday 27th April 2012

One winner will be selected at random from all entries that fill the above criteria.

Winners will be notified by mail on or after 27th April 2012.

 

GOOD LUCK

 

Note

This competition is NOT sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn in any way.

 

7 tips on how to manage your team through these difficult economic times

Far reaching changes can be very unsettling to sales teams, poor performers regard them as an excuse and others can have their motivation and focus distracted and potentially "drained away".

As sales leader then you have the task to correctly understand and analyse the impact of changes on your team, take decisions on how to respond to them and explain both the rationale and impact of changes to your team members!  Phew big job then, oh and keep revenues flowing as well.

It makes sense therefore to have some kind of systematic, or checklist type approach and that is what we will discuss now. 

1. First your own company may make organizational changes that alter the structure of the company, products and services, headcount and other areas.  Discuss with your manager how any of these changes affects your team and when you will need to implement any changes
2. Reporting and forecasting will increase as your company"s executives need more current and detailed information about the sales pipeline.  Explain to your sales team that this is a reasonable and necessary request in order that the company manages its costs and income more closely
3. New overall priorities may mean certain existing activities are delayed or cancelled; companies often focus on their core activities in a downturn.  You need to be ready for this which could involve some products being withdrawn from sale or the need for higher margins affecting bids and tenders.  Again a key demand on you is to reassure your team by explaining the company strategy
4. Expect approvals for budgets and hiring to take a lot longer or even get cancelled, be ready to achieve your objectives with fewer resources which may mean re-organising your own team and the way it deals with customers and / or resellers.  Even in such times attention should be given to competitive opportunities as a downturn usually affects everyone.  Unify your team in a plan to identify weaker competitors and target winning business from them, this will also provide a pro-active and positive aspect of a downturn
5. Headcount changes could mean any of the following: removal of contractors, acceleration of exits for serious non-performers and cancellation of any new hiring.  On a positive side if you do have the ability to hire the likelihood is that you can choose from much higher quality people who, under normal market conditions, would not be looking for a new job.
6. Cash becomes a very high focus area and you can expect your team –if not already engaged - to play a bigger role in making sure customers pay their invoices on time.  On the other side you may find certain suppliers, who are not regarded as essential, do not get paid by your company as quickly as before.  If you depend on certain suppliers you will need to make sure your finance department pay their invoices
7. Travel costs are likely to be restricted and therefore you should discuss with your team how to use telephone and video conference calls to maintain customer contact to compensate for fewer face to face meetings.

Get a clear understanding yourself, as the sales leader, of these impact areas and then explain to your sales team what is changing and why.  You need to maintain their focus on winning business and keep morale high.  If there are changes that you disagree with then these must be discussed with your own manager on the basis of "change what you can and accept what you can"t".
For a comprehensive discussion of all these points and 14 other sessions check out the online sales leadership course

 

LET’S-BEGIN Teamwork – 8 rules for success

 

LET’S-BEGIN Teamwork – 8 rules for success

What is teamwork, why is it important, how can you become a “good” team-worker or is just being nice to people?

Teamwork has a general meaning that is used to describe desirable behaviours and attitudes of people co-operating together in normal everyday work.  Team
work is also used to refer to a group of people who are put together to achieve a specific objective or task.   In either example there are some common guidelines that will help anyone at work become more effective at teamwork.

Teams can be composed of people who all work together in their normal daily work, perhaps for the same manager or they can come from completely separate departments into the team as a full time or part time temporary assignment.

So what should you expect when asked to join a team?

Rule 1: Objective - make sure you understand the overall objective of the team and the reason why you are being asked to join the team and your role in the team?  How will success be measured, what criteria will be used?  Teams must know what needs to be done and by what timescale then a plan can be created.

Rule 2: Co-operation – by working well together the members of the team combine their skills, knowledge and experience to produce a better result than working alone.  This means that respecting other team member and their points of view is important.  Find out about the other members of the team, why are they in the team, what is their specialist skill and personal role in the team?

Rule 3: Communication – team members can be located in the same place but it is equally likely the team are geographically remote from each other; they can be in different countries with different languages and cultures.  Accurate, brief and clear communications of the team’s activities is vital to success.  Accepting that miss-communication is likely to happen and checking that the entire team understands what is being discussed or written about is essential. 

Rule 4: Equality – teams will have members of varying seniority, however, each person irrespective of seniority is chosen to be in the team because they have a specific task to carry out and often have a specialist skill that makes them the best person to complete that task.  On that basis each team member should respect the others as “experts” in their own area of expertise. 

Rule 5: Team leadership – the team leader has a number of key responsibilities.  First, and most important, is to ensure that team’s objective is clearly defined, that each team member knows what they have to do and by when.  Working processes, communications and meetings must be clear as well as escalation criteria when something goes wrong.  Finally the leader must ensure a co-operative working atmosphere exists between all the members of the team.  Disputes and tensions will arise and the leader needs to solve these together with support from the team members.  The leader should also communicate successes and recognise team members for their contributions to embed a positive working atmosphere in the team.

Rule 6: Problem solving.  Problems will happen and under pressure to deliver results it is easy to blame others.  Effective teams do not do this, however, instead they expect problems and adopt a calm analytical approach to identifying the causes and agree how to solve them.  They always look forwards to a successful completion of the team’s objectives and are ready to adopt new working practices to avoid repetition of the same problems.

Rule 7: Assertion vs. aggression.  Assertive behaviour, which is healthy and natural, is accepting that each team member, has the right to have their view listened to and respected.  Good team behaviour, where there are differing views, is to listen carefully to others team member make sure you understand their view by repeating it back to them.  Then you can explain your own point of view.   Aggressive behaviour, which is unhealthy, happens when views are disregarded and people are personally criticised.  The team leader should oversee a healthy assertive team way of working and stop aggression damaging a successful end result.  Finally team members have to accept that whilst they can try and change someone else’s point of view in some cases they must accept this is not possible.

Rule 8: Change.   Change will be a significant factor affecting the team.  Events happen that cause the original team plan to need to be updated.  Problems can arise that cause the team members to have their tasks altered, even the overall team objective can get changed.  Successful teams accept change is a constant factor and are ready to adapt their plan and activities keeping achievement of the overall objective their point of focus.

By following these 8 rules anyone can become an effective member of a team working co-operatively together to achieve a successful end result.

 

LET'S-BEGIN, is a new and innovative provider of easy-access online training courses that specialise in helping you to get the job that you want - from application to job offer - and to make a success of your first 90-days in employment. Uniquely, LET’S-BEGIN includes podcasts and the ability to make, store and revisit your own notes, which turns online training into a reusable source of information and knowledge to empower success in the workplace. www.lets-begin.com

 

Looking for a new job? - Do you have a plan? If not, read on...

The need for a plan
You have make a job out of getting a job, in other words it’s not just a matter of applying for one job and waiting, or even applying for lots of jobs with the same approach. Getting the job you want is a full time project. It helps if you can plan out the key steps; here are 10 steps that should help you:

1 Research your target employer, and the job role the more you know bout them the better your chances of winning

2 If you are using a recruitment agent make them your competitive advantage. Explain you will prepare well for any interviews as this will raise their chance of earning commission by placing you into a job! Find out which companies they place a lot of people into, this could be an easier way into your next job. Ask them (or an employer’s human resources department) what is the process they will use to decide who gets the job. Who will be interviewing you, when, what should you prepare? What are the top 3 most important qualities that the interviewer will be looking for?

3 Each time you apply for a job you should find out what are the key job requirements and make sure you put 3 aspects of your experience that match the job at the top of the first page. What can you refer to in your education, interests, social life or sporting achievements that show you have the qualities that the role requires? Are you able to provide references from people who know you about your capabilities? Have you any specialist knowledge in areas the job requires, perhaps from holiday jobs or voluntary work. In our training course lets-begin get that job we handle this in a session called the “fitness test”.

4 Always put a covering email or letter with your CV; state clearly your interest in the job and one or two reasons why you are suitable for the job. Don’t just use the same generalised content every time as it is likely to be ignored!

5. Follow up by phone no more than 3 days after mailing the application, get through to the person handling the application and ask if it’s convenient for the person to speak - people can be busy - if it’s not convenient fix a time to call back. When you can speak to the person handling the applications, ask if your application arrived ok, stress your interest in the job and ask what the process will be and when interviews will be held?

6 At the right time, ask for an interview –it’s just a question –ask in a friendly positive voice stating its really important to you as your research about the organisation makes you really interested in the job. You have a right to ask and they have a right to say yes or no, but if you don’t ask you don’t get! As soon as you get an interview agreed find out who you will be interviewed by and what they will be looking for

7 Preparation: take time before the interview, think about all the possible questions you could get asked and the answers, this is covered in our course lets-begin get that job. Try out the question and answer session with a friend to see how it feels to answer tough questions. Think about, and note down, a few questions you can ask that demonstrate real interest in the job and the organisation.

8 Arrive early for the interview and have at least two copies of your CV, one for the interviewer (sometimes they haven’t been given a copy) and one for you. Check how long you have for the interview so that you don’t run out of time without covering the main points. When you are asked to describe yourself use your CV as a guide to make sure you don’t forget things. Ask the interviewer to confirm the top 3 requirements a successful applicant should have and explain why these are important, then try and match yourself to those requirements

9 Follow up and time management; use some kind of a calendar or diary to track your activities in the search for a job. After an interview, not more than 48 hours, send a thank you email to the interviewer and as well as thanking them for their time repeating your interest in the job and re-confirming tow or three reasons why you fit the job. In your diary record who you spoke to, what they said and when to call back or when to expect the next step. With several job applications going on at the same time it’s easy to forget calling someone back or providing a reference by a certain date.

10 Get active, the more applications you make, the more phone calls you make, the more recruitment agents you talk to, the more interviews you have and the more feedback you get - the more chance you have of getting the job you want.

Finally when you do start your new job make sure you have a plan for early success, try our course www.lets-begin.com/courses/work to help you.

Win our most popular 'GET THAT JOB' on-line course for FREE

Welcome to the latest LET'S-BEGIN competition to WIN six months unlimited access to our GET THAT JOB on-line course for FREE.

Simply send a mail to contact@lets-begin.com with the answers to the following three easy questions.

1) How many courses do LET'S-BEGIN offer?

2) What courses are included in the 'Executive Job Seekers' programme?

3) What is the full cost for six months access to our 'Get That Job' course?

The answers to these questions can be found by visiting our web site at www.let's-begin.com.

PLEASE ENSURE THAT THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL READS 'GTJ Competition 3/12'

Winners will be notified by mail on or after 31st March 2012.

 

Note

This competition is NOT sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn in any way.

 

 

Profiling the job role - 5 rules for success

When looking for a job, especially a management or professional job, preparation and research is important. There are 3 main areas to research: the organisation, the job role itself and interviewers. Focusing on the job role means that you can understand what the job role involves, the requirements and be able to match these to your own capabilities.

1. Try and get a job role description: what are the key objectives of this role and why, find out this and you will uncover a lot about the knowledge, skills and experience that you need to demonstrate strength in to be successful at the interviews. The search firm or recruitment agent should be able to help you build the picture of what is really important and why, then you can sell yourself in the interview process as the person to deliver what the job requires.
2. Find out what are the key experiences needed for the job and why, you should be able to see a connection between the jobs objectives and the experience that a successful candidate needs to have.
3. Why is there a vacancy, is it an existing job role someone has vacated? Or is it a new job roles meaning the employer decided to change their organisation by adding this new role, ask why? Also keep in mind often there is a senior sponsor for such new job roles, who is the executive pushing this ahead, ask if will you meet that person in the selection process.
4. With existing job roles it is helpful to ask what is happening or has happened to the current job holder. Did they get promoted or did they leave the organisation, and why? Additional useful information would be to ask what achievements and strengths the current job holder was responsible for, and of course what needs to be improved.
5. Whether you get a long list of objectives for the job role or a general job description, in either case it is good to define the most important 3 priorities for the job. You can refer to the priorities in your interviews to see if any of the interviewers add to them or clarify them for you.

By following these simple rules with a focus on full research and preparation you will persuade the search firms that they would be putting forward an impressive candidate to potential employers with a strong chance of success. More information about Get that Executive Job. 

Francis Lowe
Founder
www.lets-begin.com

10 Tips for online job applications

Online job applications present both opportunities and challenges. Opportunities come from being able to use online search, find and apply for many more jobs than would be possible using offline approaches. Challenges arise because, whilst face to face job search allows personal contact, online applications are completely dependent on application forms, CVs and covering emails. To get past the first step your written application has to be very effective and focused on the job role requirements.

Here are 10 tips for successful online job applications:

1. Decide what kind of a job role you want and limit your applications to concentrate your efforts and develop expertise in applying for those jobs.
2. Online searches for jobs can "discover" more vacancies of the type you are looking for by varying the words used in a query, for example as well as searching for "web content manager" try "web manager" as well.
3. Read the details of the job advert carefully, both the description of the main job content and the desired capabilities of the person required. Many agencies use key word matching software to compare whether words and phrases in your CV, application form and covering email match what they use in the job 'advert'. One way of ensuring that your cover letter contains the most used key words and phrases is to use any one of many pieces of free web based word tools.
4. Fire and forget does not work, applying for masses of jobs and hoping is not a good approach. Instead track each of your applications closely with follow up emails and phone calls. Note down when the next step in the process is due and follow up on time.
5. Do not be deterred by long lists of requirements, many of these can be "wish lists" describing the ideal candidate which, like the ideal job, does not exist. Try to identify the top 3 or 4 requirements and focus on matching yourself to those.
6. Covering email letters, that accompany an application, are the opportunity to highlight how you match the top 3 job requirements in a personalised and effective way
7. When following up an application with a recruitment agent have a list of questions ready to ask about the job. Some agents know more about the employing organisations than others: why is there a vacancy, what are the top 3 requirements for a successful candidate. Questions about the process: what steps are there in the process – how many interviews, starting when and when does the employer expect to make a decision, who will decide finally?
8. The time of day or day of the week when you make an application is not critical with the exception that avoiding Friday afternoon is desirable in case your application gets lost in the weekend email.
9. Be ready to receive a phone call from a recruitment agent once your online application is submitted, keeping in mind if you already have a job when and where to take those calls so as not to risk your current job.
10. When approaching employers directly look to see if they have a "jobs board" section on their web site. If you would like to work for a specific employer, even if you see not advertised vacancies, apply to them with your CV and a covering email letter stating why you would like to work for them and the kind of job role you are interested in.

By following these top 10 tips the chances of success with online job applications can be significantly increased. For a full online learning course on how to to get a job go to www.lets-begin.com

Francis Lowe
Founder
www.lets-begin.com

Course prices reduced

Here at LET'S-BEGIN we recognise that these are challenging economic times for everyone.  In response to these factors and to extend the reach of our training courses we have significantly reduced our prices.  With that in mind and the use of training courses you should be in good shape to start achieving your career aspirations; be that getting back into work, changing jobs or progressing up the ladder in an existing role.

If you have any questions regarding our product range please get in touch and one of our team will be happy to help.

For your chance to win a free training course from our portfolio simply reblog or retweet this post.  This offer is open until 1200 GMT 30 September 2011.

Francis Lowe
Technical Director
www.lets-begin.com