Episode #2 - What does 'Living Your Career' mean anyway?, Why it matters to me, and why it should matter to you too!

Join Roisin Duffy on todays episode of the Living Your Career Show and discover what it really means to live your career and why it matters.
#careerdevelopment #jobhunting #queenslandrecruiting #RoisinDuffy #LivingYourCareer

Here are some of the highlights of this episode:
[07:45] Here's what I learned about good leaders
[08:46] Select Wisely! Market the Product of You
[12:08] What is Your Super Power?
[15:04] What is Living Your Career, and Why is it Important to You Now?
[18:15] You Won't Believe What Most People are Fearful of in pursuing a new position..

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Living Your Career is for you, the job seeker, to guide and support you in your job hunting and career development activities.
Roisin will drop a new episode of the  Living Your Career show every Wednesday and Friday

You can connect with Roisin here:
https://www.facebook.com/Blueskycareers/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blueskyca...

Transcript

Roisin Duffy  1:13  

Welcome to the Living your Career Show Episode Two. I am Roisin Duffy, Director of Blue Sky Careers, a recruitment and career advisory agency. For those of you that are just tuning into this podcast for the first time, Living Your Career is for you, the job seeker, to guide and support you in your job hunting and career development activities. Over the coming weeks, we will have inspirational guests, lively discussions like we had on our premiere episode last Tuesday, we will discuss job seeking and employment topics that are relevant to you. And we will dispel some of the misperceptions that you may have when applying for jobs. 

We will show you some of our insider strategies and tools we use when we find jobs for people. Moreover, we will put you in the mindset of the people who hire and what they are looking for when they hire. 

For today, I'm going to cover the origins of Living Your Career and the philosophy behind it. Living Your Career has probably been bubbling along inside me secretly for years. And it has come from a long journey of living, and learning and loving what I do. To understand how it was conceived and evolved, given my age, and we need to travel back a bit in time. So I was born in West Cork in Ireland, I was raised as one of 11 children. My father was a farmer. And my mother was a teacher and very dedicated and hard working parents. And I would say absolutely, pillars of the local community. I never saw my father when I reflect back, he was a small farmer, didn't have many resources. I never saw him on those cold, bitter and damp winter nights,  complain about going out to three o'clock in the morning when the cows were calving or the horses were having foals. And I remember my mother, a very, very gifted student in her day, and a brilliant teacher, she worked in our local school. And you know, with pride and passion and purpose, she went to school every day to educate the children. 

I had one child myself and I often look back now as in my mature age, and I think how did she manage to get 11 of us together and out the door every morning and I imagine very much on the back of very little sleep at times. When I cast my mind back to my parents and their generation, what I realized is that their whole community and then themselves, they were really humbled and appreciative people. They were doing what they love; there wasn't another career that they could do. So their career was no burden, or no hardship for them.

My mother is 86 today, and when she listens to this podcast, she's probably going to have a little chuckle to herself to think that she's featuring at all because she often bemoans the fact to me, and this is why I mentioned it, that she's retired. She loved her teaching days. Teaching for her was part of her identity. It was her contribution to society. It was her connection to the community. I'm giving you this backdrop, because obviously I'm not mature years. But what characterized this period to me was the humility, the appreciation and the loyalty of my parents and others like them. And in their day; I acknowledged times were different then and permanent jobs were commonplace, contracts were hardly heard of, I suspect. 

But looking forward, I predict that COVID-19 may well see a return to the old values. I think employers will value these attributes greatly now, on applications coming through their door. I rarely see these personal attributes, or personal attributes at all, articulated that well in applications. And if I did, even if someone isn't ticking the knowledge, skill and experience box, I think I would want to meet those people, I would want to understand them. 

Liz Kearins said in our premiere episode on Tuesday, a tailored and personalized and passionate application, or actually, I think what she said was passion for her in an application, in the absence of actually having met somebody, when she read that application. She wanted to know that person had done their research, they had written a tailored application, and it was personalized. And for her, she said, even if they didn't have the industry experience, she would interview that person. And these are valuable lessons in the context of Living Your Career, for you to take away.

Continuing my journey. Fast forward a few years to London, and the big smog, I moved to London in my early 20s. And I would say I had a ton of energy and motivation, and more ambition than I even knew what to do. And I had the gift of the Irish gab, I think Robin, who I know, said to me recently that I think she kissed the Blarney Stone, maybe I did. And a friend landed me a job in a small recruitment firm. And I was there for a few years.

That in turn led to me working for global recruitment agency. And I was fortunate to transition from there to strategic HR in the dot com era. And as you can imagine, that was pretty full on. And later on, I learned various mergers and acquisitions for a global financial services company. And in fact, one that's very well known to all of you, and it's in the papers right now, that's ANZ. And this world was a far cry from my early life in West Cork, but it was exhilarating. And it was liberating. 

I discovered two things about myself. And I encourage you all to reflect on how you're evolving and how you're developing. And what really matters to you. The two things that I discovered about myself is that I could spot talent from 100 paces. And I knew the second was I knew how to develop that talent. These were my formative years, I worked with entrepreneurs, industry leaders, chairs and CEOs, people that had just boundless energy, and a real sense of their own aspiration, and their value, and where they're going, their destiny. And in my experience, if you love something, you do have boundless energy, and you will devote yourself to that. 

These were amazing leaders. They left an indelible mark on me and on others. And I remember their strength of character to I mean, there were days they would fight, but they never floundered. And they shaped me into the professional that I am today. They were living their careers to the fullest. And you know, we didn't even know it at the time, but we probably were to. It was, you know, the speed of lightning, and you either sink or you swim.

Today, most of us are still in touch. Many of us have set up our own companies. We haven't been inspired to follow our dreams and our passions. What did I learn from this experience when I coach people about their careers, or when I was thinking of developing the Living Your Career podcast? What I learned and what I took note of, were these: good leaders cultivate other good leaders, even great leaders. They are not fearful of somebody being smarter than them, or more ambitious than them, they actually seek it out. 

They give self-belief, they affirm you and they give you scope to grow. They give you scope to make mistakes. I'm always surprised when you have leaders who are fearful of mistakes because they think it's going to land them in trouble. But in reality, the only way any of us learn is from the mistakes we make. We may celebrate our successes. But we move quickly on from that. We do not forget the mistakes. And if we're smart enough, we do not repeat them. Finally coming back to leaders, they collaborate. They back you and they value.

So what does this mean for what is my London experience perhaps taught me about you know, Living Your Career? I would say select wisely the people you wish to work for, because they will sponsor you. They will grow you and they will develop you; even if you're stepping wildly as I was out of my comfort zone, if it didn't intuitively and instinctively feel right, then do it, back yourself. 

Select an employer and Liz alluded to this on Tuesday, select an employer that values you, and then you align with their values. I don't care if it's the public service, the not for profit, or the private sector. And don't be afraid, you know, don’t let industry experience, we had this conversation on Tuesday, you know. Don’t let industry experience stop you from testing those waters, you know, and after a short period in each of those, you will quickly set sense follow your gut instinct. If it's right for you, or if it's not. 

And if you're in a job, take a chance, if you're in a job, and it's not right for you. And you have that sense of dread. I don't want to go to work because I don't feel this is right for me, walk away if you can, your self-esteem will thank you for it. 

In my professional opinion, most people who are in bad situations that they can’t see a way out of and they don't see that there's going to be any predicted change. And I would say to you, it's better for your self esteem to walk away. And by the way, we've all made disastrous moves at some stage in our careers. 

I remember I worked for management consultants in my early years when I worked up I think was my first month in London, and I thought I was made, you know, they had flash offices, they were wonderful people. I answered their phones, I typed up their proposals I sent out I don't even know if those emails at the time, but it was busy. I've never worked in an office really that much in my life. And you know, these people were lovely, but I think they knew, and I knew very quickly, it wasn't going to work out. And as much as they liked me, they were probably very happy to say goodbye to me too.

11:52

Remember this one door closes and another door opens. The number of times that I've had to say to people, you didn't get this job. And that was for a reason. Because something better and more suitable will come along. And I can honestly tell you, Living Your Careers will teach you that Be brave in your choices and back yourself. Don't let fear rule your career choices. If you do, a crash landing is imminent, because all that will follow will be despair.

And that sense of failure, note through no choice of your own, that you didn't act or perhaps that you didn't act sooner. And so we moved to Australia, my home. I arrived in Australia in 2003, with my husband, Gavin, and my four and a half year old son Jake in tow. And what an amazing country and how lucky are we and I say this with all sincerity to live here doesn't mean to say I don't love my Irish. Oh, but I absolutely adore my time in Australia. Shortly after I arrived here in 2005. There was a mortgage to pay and a charge to educate. And so Blue Sky Careers was conceived with my business partner at that time. 

I can honestly say there's a good thing about setting up businesses when you've got a level of maturity, I think, because my focus and our focus from day one was quality over numbers. You know, if you meet people that are really smart, and really applied and really capable, you want to forge long standing relationships with them, you want to build trust, respect and loyalty with them. And we do that because we had career expertise. So we were not just interviewing people, taking them at face value and putting them into jobs. We were interviewing people, recognizing areas for development, coaching them on those areas of development, whether it was how they're presented at interview, whether it was how they had completed their job applications, their cover letters, their CVS, perhaps it was their approaches to their, their career, what they wanted to do and whether that was wise or not worth perhaps we should consider other options. 

Quality for us was quality after you know quality once was quality always, if we appointed a talented person once and they came back to us. Well, firstly, if we appointed them once we kept in touch with them. And if they came back to us subsequently two or three years later, they had evolved, they were more refined, they wanted more, we just stepped up and we stepped them onwards and upwards. And that is how our relationships evolved. In my experience, talented point of people, they never disappoint. 

If they really want something and they really value that opportunity. That desire, that motivation, that application will see them true. So the Aussie way, I arrived in Australia, and after you know, 18 years in London, and I really found it was home for home for me for status. I think a large portion of Queenslanders have an Irish background. And I don't know, I just really felt it didn't matter what the race, culture or creed, I just really felt right at home here, and so did my family. 

It probably really did help that I got married here in 1995. And I've taken a year out in Australia and fallen in love with the place, from a cultural perspective. Though, from a recruitment perspective, largely, and I found Aussie candidates were really laid back. You know, if I asked somebody, what makes you tick, they really struggled to answer that question. So I thought, well, you know, I think it's the Aussie way, you know, they don't want to show boat, they don't want to sort of sing their own praises. 

But really, I guess what I wanted to know is what they cared about, I knew what they could do, I could read that on their CV. So then I asked the question a different way. And I said, “What matters to you in the workplace? What are the things that really count, you know, what you care about in the workplace.” And this is something for everybody to really appreciate. 

Somebody like me wants to know the person that rests within the professional. Because no qualification, no title, role, or status, makes you the professional. The qualities that sit within you, that power you, that make you get up every day and work hard, that make you persist, that gives you the courage to take the exit, probably others wouldn't. 

For example, clarity of purpose and direction, when I see somebody who is really clear in their purpose, and really clear in their direction, that signifies leadership capability to me, and particularly when they relate it to themselves, and they can relate it to others. Care and consideration of others teamwork. You know, I placed somebody from the travel industry last week, actually, probably a couple of weeks ago, they start in a week or so.

16:53

What really stood out to me about this person, they've had eight years at their last company, the matter of time that they spent with their last company didn't matter that I was appointed them into a permanent job. So I could see they were stable. But what I discovered about them is that they were the absolute quintessential team member. So they worked across different travel sites for a very diverse global company. If somebody couldn't show up on the Friday, they already knew they would have run their manager and said to them, hey, listen, so and so isn't here on Friday, I'm going to come in and I'll cover for them. Is that okay? I mean, you know, this not only came through one reference, it came to through two references, and it came through their interview. And I was putting them into a membership Services Officer role as part of a team, where customer service and teamwork was everything. 

And so for me, you don't get any better reassurance. So remember who you are within, because we want to know what who you are within what you value, what you're passionate about what you care about. Because those are the things that are going to guide you. Those are the things that are going to inform your career. And those are the things that are going to invite and I guess helped me and every other employer and recruiter and yourself and anybody you ever meet in terms of jobs. Those are the qualities that we seek when we're looking to appoint you. 

Today, Living Your Career is the combination of years of advice, recruitment and career coaching. I've met so many people over the years, so many inspirational people. And you know, so many people that didn't even really know they were that talented, people that they were amazing. That's so understated. And somebody said to me, recently, Roisin, you have a great ability to read people better, perhaps, then they can read themselves. And maybe it's because I rejoice in the uniqueness of people. And everyone has been formed a different way. Every career has been shaped by a number of different influences and choices that you make. Your unique career story is derived from you. It can be shaped and told in many ways.

But what sits within you is what delivers that. So we help candidates. And I would say, this is what Living Your Career is all about. We help you to reveal your inner self. We help you to know where your strengths lie. And we help you to tell your unique stories of achievement to clients. We help candidates to present those skills that interview. It's amazing how many people are fearful of talking about what they're good at. And I never ever interview people and ask them about where their gaps lie. You know, if you haven't fixed you gaps, or don't want to fix your gaps. I'm much more interested in your skills. And that's what I want you to ply and grow. 

And I think for those people in recruitment world who interview people, don't focus on what they're not good at, focus on what they excel at, and what can be built and made even better. So we help candidates to live careers that are enjoyable, rewarding, and sustainable. And in today's world, COVID-19, you may have to make choices now that you would ordinarily not have to make, you might have to take short term jobs, you might have to step sideways, you might have to step backwards. 

You know, we're in a pragmatic time right now, where staying employed is as important as forging forward. But don't lose sight of your goals, I can't tell you how important it is to be active, to be aligned, to be connected, to keep your focus, and to keep moving. So the philosophy behind Living Your Career is to help you to identify what you're great at, and what you care about. 

To unlock that, to show you, where that's going to be capitalized, what careers you should have, what employers you might work with, what industries, would suit you, so that you can realize your potential to provide you with, I think the second thing and very important, even if you know what you like and what you care about, and what you want to do. A lot of people don't know how to make that happen to realize all of that. So we provide you with the strategies, the tools, and the techniques to grow and develop your career.

21:46

Importantly, we give you self belief, to actively pursue what matters to you, not anybody else. You know, I know people who had great careers, they had children, they want to step back, they want to work part time, and they want to change industries completely. You know, whatever it is that you want, it is only important because it matters to you.

And we help you to find what matters to you and make it happen. And the last thing that we do, and this is vitally important, whether you're in a job and untroubled by COVID-19, whether you're in a contract that might be coming to an end, whether you're out of work and desperate for that next opportunity. Be productive with your time, be mindful with your time, engage and connect with people, you have people that you know, talk to them, they have networks, they can pass on your details. 

Use LinkedIn, you know, you can contact and reach anybody that you want anywhere on LinkedIn. And I guarantee you whatever I know and you know, in our little small world, there are people who know a lot more than us. Reach out, ask for help, exactly as Liz Kearins said on Tuesday, the people don't people in Queensland for some reason, don't ask for help enough. And if you do, trust me, people and if you ask that question correctly, don't take advantage of people. Ask them, can you please help me? And this is my situation. And you know, I'm flexible. I need help. I need guidance. What can you do for me, people will reach out and help you. 

So folks, we're approaching the end of our show. And I want to leave you. Well, firstly, I want to give you a quote from Steve Jobs. I think he was, you know, a very interesting and ambitious and upstanding man in what he wanted in terms of his vision, his capability, his dedication, and his determination. And this is what he had to say. And I think it's true.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

So this is the end of our podcast today. I know it's pretty short and sweet. The Living Your Career show airs every Tuesday and Thursday, noon, Brisbane time.

 We have two amazing guests lined up for you next week. Tune in, hear what they have to say and make informed decisions for yourself, but keep learning and keep living. If you want to cover certain topics shout out. We're happy to hear and we'll incorporate them into what we're discussing. We're here to help you to live your career the way you want to. And Goodbye everyone. Have a great day. I'm Roisin Duffy and I'll speak to you again next Tuesday. All the best!