(Getting Taken Seriously at Work) Kai is 21. He’s an example, not a real person, but you may well know him. He left college with a Level 3 and took a job in a busy café at a garden centre. A year later, his manager asked him to run the Saturday shift. Saturday means eight [Read more…]
You finished the thing. It went well, and it was a lot harder than it looked from the outside, which is exactly the problem: nobody outside knows that. Part of you would like to mention that. A louder part would rather spontaneously combust. So, you say nothing and hope somebody noticed. They probably did not [Read more…]
What Really Happens to Your Application. Let’s start by getting rid of something. You’ve almost certainly seen the claim that 75% of CVs are rejected by a machine before a human ever sees them. It’s on careers blogs, LinkedIn posts and half the CV-writing services online. There’s no credible source for it. Trace it [Read more…]
STAYING CONNECTED WHEN HALF THE OFFICE IS ON HOLIDAY Summer does something strange to working life. Inboxes go quiet. Decisions get parked until “after the holidays”. Half the people you’d normally chase are out of office, and there’s a collective easing-off that can feel like the whole world has gone to the seaside. It’s [Read more…]
Five Connections Worth Knowing About. You might remember Derby College as the place where you studied for A-levels, picked up a trade, or figured out what came next. But alongside all that teaching and learning, there’s another side to the College that often flies under the radar – a steady, behind-the-scenes role supporting businesses [Read more…]
Why Showing Up Consistently Beats Showing Off. Ask any manager what they actually value most in their team and the answer is almost never “the most exciting person in the room.” It’s usually the one who does what they say they’ll do, when they said they’d do it. Reliability is the quiet career skill [Read more…]
Think negotiation only happens when there’s a salary on the table? Last month, we looked at the art of asking for what you’re worth in a pay conversation. But consider this: you’re already negotiating – every single day – and you probably don’t even realise it. That conversation where you convinced your manager to push [Read more…]
In previous bulletins, we’ve looked at how to deliver difficult feedback without damaging relationships and how to handle criticism when it comes your way. But for many people, the bigger problem is something different altogether: not getting any meaningful feedback at all. If your annual review is the only time anyone tells you how you’re [Read more…]
How to Disagree at Work (Without Making Enemies) Nobody enjoys conflict. But there’s an important difference between conflict and disagreement – and learning to handle the second one well could be one of the most valuable skills you develop. Whether you’re in a team meeting, a project group, a study seminar, or a one-to-one with [Read more…]
Think about the last time you struggled with something at work. Did you ask for help, or did you spend hours trying to figure it out alone? Most of us default to the second option. We’ve been taught – sometimes explicitly, often implicitly – that asking for help signals incompetence. Capable people, we believe, work [Read more…]