Career ceilings can hit anyone

The glass ceiling is often used as a metaphor to describe the barriers that women face to success within the workplace, but this is a phenomenon that can affect both men and women. Career ceilings can in fact affect anyone, so that they find themselves in a position within their career when they feel they can go no further.

This might be due to any number of reasons – class and social background, age, disability, weight, appearance or simply being in a role that presents no options for career progression. Most of us possess a strong, in-built drive for success, and when we find ourselves in this position it can be immensely frustrating. Here are a few pointers that can help you combat the issue, should you find yourself in this position.
 

Regularly evaluate your prospects and position

The first step towards solving a problem of this kind is knowing that it exists in the first place. Many of us, once stuck in a rut, can simply sleepwalk our way through the day without making any effort to evaluate our position. If we do this for too long, the problem can become insurmountable, so the first thing you need to do is to ensure you recognise that you are being prevented from moving up the ladder if this is the case, then take steps to improve your situation.

Keep tabs on your performance – are you doing well? If you have been in a role for some time and produced consistently good work, you should eventually be in line for promotion, or at least for a review and most probably a pay increase. You should also keep an eye on what is happening to your colleagues. Are they in the same position or are they often being promoted at your expense? If the latter is the case, and you feel you are being overlooked, then you should consider the reasons for this. If you feel you are being discriminated against, this is unlawful and you could have grounds to protest.
 

Be vocal

If you don’t ask, you don’t get, and very often the reason you are not rewarded for your efforts is simply because you have not made it clear that you expect more. Others may be more vocal and employers will often put these people first in line for promotion of salary increases, as they are more likely to put up a fuss. This being the case, you should make sure that your employer is clear about your expectations, and if you are not offered regular reviews or opportunities for promotion, actively approach your line manager and bring the issue up. You may find that they respect you all the more for it.
 

Be prepared to create change

If you have done all you can within your current circumstances, then be prepared to think about alternatives. You may be better off looking for a new role elsewhere, where your talents will be more valued, or you may even find it is possible to set up your own business or to work on a freelance basis. Whatever the case, don’t stick with your current situation if it just hasn’t been working for you, but actively seek to make a change.

To find out more about how to get past these kind of barriers within the workplace, get in touch with one of our recruitment consultants at Morgan Hunt.

Think again..

LinkedIn is not only a useful tool for job seekers in recruitment terms, but it has also become a necessity for business and professional users, yet as a social media channel it’s easy to fall into some bad habits.

LinkedIn is a professional forum for the working world and some content that you might post on your Facebook page is not appropriate. You can be conversational, but keep the conversation focused on the professional.

LinkedIn is often the first port of call for anyone thinking of hiring you. Your profile needs to make a good impression and it should not be taken lightly. Unfortunately, there are many pitfalls that you can succumb to when putting a profile together or posting content and a small thing can make a lot of difference – here are some tips on what not to do.

Remember that it’s not a dating site
Profile pictures are important and you should pick one which makes you look professional and well-presented. However, posting pictures of yourself in swimwear, with a bunch of friends on a night out or on your skiing holiday is not appropriate for LinkedIn. Your picture is the first thing anyone looking at your profile sees and, if yours looks unprofessional, prospective employers will immediately switch off and click away.

This is not to say you can’t show a bit of personality in your profile picture, and you should by all means use one which shows you in your best light, but it must demonstrate that you are a competent, confident professional, rather than someone with a great tan who likes to drink blue lagoons.

Know your audience
Technically, LinkedIn is a social media site, but please note the use of the word technically. The platform is unique in that it uses the format, functionality and structure of a social media portal but targets a very different audience.

When people spend time on Facebook or Pinterest, they are looking to be entertained, amused or inspired. When people spend time on LinkedIn, they are in a completely different mode and are more often than not looking for something that can help them enhance their own career or achieve a specific goal.

This means that unusual content or anything that is not strictly to the point and providing necessary information is a useless (and annoying) distraction. What you may think are inspiring quotes or amusing asides on your profile page are very likely to turn off anyone who has taken the time to check you out, so you should make sure that everything you post is relevant and provides useful and insightful information about you and your expertise.

Keep it neutral
The above can make you look unprofessional, but if you really want to risk alienating prospective employers, the best way to do this is to clearly demonstrate your political or religious opinions. LinkedIn, as an extension of the work environment, is no place for politics or religion, and although discrimination on either ground is not allowed officially, if someone doesn’t agree with beliefs that you hold strongly they are that much less likely to hire you.

You can fall foul of this most easily in the ‘causes you care about’ and ‘organisations you support’ sections. Marking yourself down as a member of the Suffolk Society for Bird Conservation is probably fine, but anything relating to the Brighton & Hove Trotskyist Collective, Young Donald Trump Supporters of Reading or anything to do with God is not recommended.

For any more tips on how to make the best of your LinkedIn profile, contact Morgan Hunt’s recruitment specialists.

The art of job hunting is reading between the lines of a job description

Employers often don’t know what they’re looking for until they find it. On this basis a candidate potentially has quite a wide berth, and in-precise boundaries in which to be creative, to put forward their case, for every job they see that is relevant.

If tech companies had relied on research the smart phone would probably not have been invented since few consumers would have asked for it. And this is much the same in job search. Offering employers more options than they had originally asked for gives more choice and opens up a wider range of possibilities.

It’s often rather like looking for a new home – you give the estate agent a brief but end up going for something completely different. So, part of the art of job hunting is in developing your own understanding as to what might win you the role, provided you have the essential qualifications to do the job.

Here are a few tips on how to do this:
 

Think about the role in the abstract

Don’t just read the list of responsibilities outlined in the job description itself, but think about the importance of the role in the wider context of the company as a whole. What is its purpose? Is there a broader objective other than the day to day fulfilment of your duties? Why does the overall department in which you would be working exist at all?

These are all considerations you should make when applying for a job. It’s also worth bearing in mind that most companies expect employees to be proactive in establishing their role’s boundaries and carving their ‘niche’ within the organisation once hired, so if you can make a start on this from the outset it will put you in an excellent position.
 

Consider the size of the company

How big the company is and what stage it’s at in terms of growth or expansion can make a huge difference to the requirements of a role.

If the company is well established, large and heavily regulated, your role may be quite restricted and subject to the influence of other departments such as procurement, finance or HR.

If it’s a startup or a small outfit you may find that your duties are extensive and quite varied. Both have their pros and cons. In the first scenario you will probably find it easier to slip into the job and may not have to take full responsibility for many things but there could be less room for promotion or possibilities to expand your skills.

In the second scenario, you may find that many things are required of you which are outside your comfort zone and you will have to learn fast, but it may be easier to make an impact within the company and to get promoted fast.
 

Consider the industry as a whole

Think about the industry within which you would be working and where it is heading. Is it an industry that’s in decline or experiencing rapid growth? What skills does the sector demand as a whole? Is it one which tends to have high staff turnover and allows you to change jobs quickly or not?

All these things play a part and you need to consider how you would fit in within this wider context. For example, the music industry traditionally provided for a fairly creative, unrestrictive working environment, but has suffered a long period of decline and consolidation and is now a far more corporate environment which values financial experience.
 

Think about the company’s ‘character’

Companies within the same sector often have very different corporate cultures. Some are more conservative, some very innovative, some very laid back, some value creative thinking in non-creative contexts. You should heavily consider this when you apply for a particular job, as it can make an enormous difference in terms of what is expected of you, even during an interview. For example, both Google and IBM are large players within the tech/computing industry, but have very different corporate cultures – ignore this at your peril!
 

Get in touch

To find out more about how to approach job applications and interviews, get in touch with our recruitment experts at Morgan Hunt.