Hunting down great career ideas...

This is a question that we get asked regularly by people who attend career workshops. Sometimes, work can seem a little too serious and stressful – and as work takes up our prime time, 8 hours of high energy time 5 days a week – isn’t the secret to a high quality life to find enjoyment in what we do?

As we explored last time, you work really hard to present yourself well in your organisation, and to make a great contribution – but then the work you produce lets you down. And it’s the same with corporate email…

Many people flounder in their career – not because they’re not talented but because they drift along and hope that the right thing turns up. In fact, in our experience most people are completely opportunistic in the way that they drive their career. They do very little, if anything, to create and shape opportunities, or to develop their career proactively.

People often come unstuck because they look and talk the part, but what they produce on paper is not very high quality – it’s quickly written, has errors, and is unclear instead of being concise, focused, exact and precise.

Christmas affords many people the opportunity to wind down from work. There is a whole swathe of parties to attend, drinks to be drunk, turkey to be eaten and fun to be had. But whilst you are having a great time, please spare a thought for your career. Remember a career is for life, and shouldn’t be ignored at Christmas!