Counselling Tools

CLIENT POSITIONING

Throughout the application process, you should consider yourself as product, which needs to be marketed.

The first phase in the marketing process is the right positioning. It is the process of deciding, how you want to be perceived by your market. In order to decide on the right market positioning, we need to collect all the relevant information. During this process of collecting information, we always ask for reasons to get the most relevant and in-depth insights.

• The first source of information is your previous career path and the main achievements as described in curriculum vitae.
• The second source is centered on a strengths and weaknesses analysis. Our objective in this phase is to achieve self-awareness. Self-awareness here means a realistic assessment of one’s own abilities like: In what I excel, where I have limits, where I have reserves. The ability of self-awareness leads to making full use of your own real potential. Once we have identified strengths and weaknesses, we focus our attention on the client’s strengths. Our approach is based on the fact that strengths come from innate talents. These are things people do well on their own and love to do them. Those talents are permanent and unique; therefore, everyone should work on the development of their own strengths. We offer you a Hogan personal questionnaire or StrengthsFinder to get to a clear and concise overview of your strengths. The next phase is looking for connections between strengths and career achievements. With this we identify, which of your strengths you currently use or we identify other strengths.
• The third source of information is salary analysis. Considering your previous salary, your current salary expectations and our market knowledge, we help you to set your future salary expectation at the right level – not too high, not too low.

The next phase in building the right positioning is defining target customer. In our area it means defining the target companies and desired positions. Apart from previously identifying strengths, weaknesses, achievements and financial evaluation, we also consider at this phase our long-term market knowledge and your individual preferences like financial expectations and mobility. This all results in the assessment of the feasibility of a desired position.

Analysis of all the data leads to the formulation of key actionable items in order to improve our client’s positioning on the market. Those actionable items are then in turn implemented in all selling tools, which influence our client’s positioning – written marketing materials, self-marketing tools, Reverse Headhunting and Job Search.

WRITTEN MARKETING MATERIALS

Nowadays there are plenty of applications that will create a fancy CV for you in a few seconds, but the content is then still up to you.

According to our wide and varied consulting expertise we will optimize your marketing materials including your CV, LinkedIn profile, cover letter and a cover e-mail to help you stand out from the crowd of applicants.

SELF-MARKETING TOOLS

INTERVIEW

The key to a successful interview, one that leads to an offer of employment is a good plan and excellent preparation.

We provide training in behavioural based interview techniques (Competency Based Interview) and conduct interview role-playing. Preparation on tricky questions and also for the easy ones and how to avoid faux-pas answers where necessary. The longer you have been out of the market, the more important the preparation is.

Or how we like to say – how many times have you been to an interview so many times you’ve been human.

In addition, when you are invited to a real interview, we are ready to prepare you for specific interviews depending on the type of industry or style it will be held, whether it is a personal interview or role plays in an assessment centre.

ELEVATOR PITCH

You can experience many situations, in which you have only a few moments to present your profile in the most attractive way. Our consultants will assist you in choosing key information about yourself in order to build the most impactful statement that can be easily delivered and understood in the shortest period of time and to present yourself as a clear solution to a potential employer’s business need.

NETWORKING

The art of networking – building and developing working relationships, is not natural to most of us. To build up your network is relevant to your job-search and also for further career development.

Consistently built-up networks can help you, in terms of job searching, to get information about new openings, recommendations or insights about the market you are not familiar with, insider feedback on your presentation and interview and many others.

Networking can be performed in face-to-face meetings, on phone calls and virtually.

Face-to-face meetings and phone calls are types of networking events, where you can leverage a high impact of elevator pitch.

In terms of virtual networking, it is necessary to have at least 500 connections to ensure the visibility to head-hunters or internal recruiters.

We will show you how networking will work for you, help you to build-up your network fast and improve relationships.

REVERSE HEADHUNTING

More than 60% of job openings is a hidden job market – positions are not advertised. There are many reasons for this – a company doesn´t have the budget to advertise, a company uses only internal resources, prefers getting candidates from internal referral, uses external executive search agency to fill the job and agreed on exclusivity or the company is expecting an organizational change and the new job position has not been published yet, etc.  But this market is only hidden to those who choose not to seek out opportunity.

So how does Lifework approach hidden job market?

We use the Reverse Headhunting in searching for hidden positions.
In the case of Reverse Headhunting our outplacement consultant according to mutually predetermined target companies and target positions prepares the target list of potential employers for our client. We on behalf of our client approach those defined target companies with the client’s profile, find out information about potential openings and encourage potential employers to organize an interview with the client. According to our experience with the methodology of Reverse Headhunting we shorten client placement time by half. Profiles of approached decision makers varies depending on type and level of the position – from HR manager up to supervisory board.
We will also provide your profile to the most impactful head-hunters in your area of your interest. At the same time, we will make you familiar with a head-hunter’s way of working. Once we find open positions, we arrange an interview for you.

JOB SEARCH

In line with your target position, the open job market also offers numerous opportunities.

Based on your desired positioning and the career goals you have developed, together with your consultant you will design a target-oriented job application and decide on the appropriate communication channels.

In case of need, you can discuss along with your consultant which job offers should be followed up. Occasionally, there is also a suitable position.

However, your most important job application today is your presence on social media, on LinkedIn. Here, the chances of being visible and contacted are considerably higher.