I’ve taken a couple of years off to care for a relative. Now I’m finding it impossible to get back into a project management role. Any advice? Returning to full-time employment after time away (for any reason) can be a difficult process. But there are steps you can take to make it easier. Firstly you need to make it clear on your résumé what you have been doing for the last few years. Honesty is the best policy. Hirers don’t like to see unexplained gaps and would prefer to see something rather than nothing. Leaving an empty period of [...]
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Camel blog
“December is a bad time for job hunting” has become a generally accepted theory in the recruiting world. But is this statement actually true? The common belief being that recruiters and potential employees are taking time away from work to be with their families for the holidays and to then plan ahead for the new year. Prompting candidates to wait until the New Year before applying for jobs. So Are There Any Positives to Looking for a New Job in December? Yes! The first advantage is that many job hunters may have gone to sleep over the [...]
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I’m thinking about sitting my PMI-ACP exam online with the proctored system but it’s completely new to me, how does it work, what do I need? Throughout the pandemic, project practitioners have continued their learning with virtual courses, self-study, and eLearning. With all those different and easily accessible ways of learning it’s highly likely you already have the equipment for taking an online proctored exam. You only need a camera, microphone, a quiet space, and a decent internet connection to schedule and take your exam. It can [...]
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Everyone in our organisation has been working at home for the last five months due to the pandemic and it’s looking likely that we will continue to do that until early 2021; my question is, I don’t think I can carry on with the Zoom calls all day and long hours – my work/life balance is non-existent! How can I better manage this? Let’s deal with the practicalities first. If you’re suffering from this, it’s highly likely that others within your business are too. It only takes one voice to make a change and you can be the one to [...]
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I am concerned that the project I am currently managing will be cancelled due to reprioritisation of my organization’s portfolio because of the pandemic, I think it will lead to my redundancy. What can I be doing to be proactive about the situation? You need to be calling on your network right now – both internally within your organization and externally to previous colleagues and contacts. When we’re in a situation like this we can feel helpless and not in control so we need to work to reverse this, by making plans and considering our [...]
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Training has always been an important part of working as a project professional. Training presents a prime opportunity to expand the knowledge base of all project professionals. If we follow the 70-20-10 rule we know that 10% of our development should come in the form of formal training. It can be easy for individuals or organisations to come up with reasons why we shouldn’t pursue formal training, such as cost or time taken away from the office to complete. But the advantages far outweigh the negatives: Improves job performance Improves [...]
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Gone are the days where the learning theories of Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK) dominated – that some of us learn better when there are lots of visuals to see, or we prefer to hear others talking or lecturing or have to immerse ourselves in an experience to touch or move. Models like these are considered to be too simplistic. Today there are many updated learning styles based on advances in neuroscience research which coincides with the many different ways we have available to us to learn. 2020 has been the year where there have been [...]
Leer más »On the 17th November John Thorpe will be delivering a webinar entitled: Project Management as a Career, in association with the British Computer Society BCS. This session is aimed at members of the BCS (and other interested individuals) who are currently progressing a technical career track, whilst wondering what career options they may have in the future. Many SME’s come to a fork in the road as their career progresses and project management may be an option that allows them to remain in their chosen domain whilst expanding their people and [...]
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After what seems like an eternity (4 months and 4 weeks) since the UK went into lockdown there appears to be a consensus that the UK recruitment market has finally started showing signs of life. Whilst the overall number of vacancies still decreased for temporary and permanent positions the pace of the decline has eased markedly (KPMG and REC report on jobs) “With the economy opening up through June and July, we would expect an improving trend in the coming months as firms recover from the worst of the crisis” – Neil Carberry, Chief [...]
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The latest monthly UK Report on Jobs from KPMG and REC** published today indicates that whilst the job market remains significantly impacted by the effects of Coronavirus; there has been a bounce back from the depths seen in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown during June. As can be seen in the figure below, activity levels across the UK recruitment sector for both Permanent and Temporary have been significantly hit for the last four months from their pre-COVID 19 levels. Whilst the general picture of the market is always interesting as [...]
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