I used to be excited about becoming an adult. I still am, I think. But this excitement has now been coupled with an underlying fear. While I still have a few years to suss out exactly what it is that I want to do after I graduate, 2013 will be my second year of university, which means that I’ll have to start thinking about what I want to major in and the general field that I want to get into.The summer before starting university, I thought that I knew what I wanted to do in my career. I thought ...

I was recently at a rugby prizegiving for 10 year olds when all the kids in one team were told that they were amazing, gifted and special; that they could all be All Blacks one day. I mean, seriously, I am all for encouragement, but it’s simply not realistic. These boys are more likely to be our next generation of entrepreneurs, multi-media specialists or CEOs. It got me wondering - as parents today, are we all a bit clueless regarding the future careers of our children in this changing world? F...

In Part One of this blog post, I told the story of how I found my way into recruitment. The fact is, breaking into the field of recruitment can be difficult and there is definitely no right or wrong route.  What I am aiming to do with Part Two of this blog is to provide you with a little more insight into what skills are required to succeed in the industry that I am so passionate about, and to hopefully ensure success for those who have what it takes.Agency Recruitment – please note that it...

"How did you get into recruitment? What are the skills that I need to get there?”These are questions that I have been asked several times throughout my career.  To give you the honest answer, I fell into recruitment.  It was definitely not something I had considered, or had even known about, coming from a small South Island town (there aren’t many recruitment companies when the population is only 25,000)! Over this two-part blog series I hope to give you an insight into my recruitment ...

I’m often asked by high school and university students what they can do to ensure that they have the best chance of getting a suitable job and beginning their career quickly after studying.  Although there is more than just one solution, my first and foremost suggestion is always: GET A PART-TIME JOB!  The permanent job market is tight, especially for youths aged 15 to 24.  In the past 18 months we have seen youth unemployment in New Zealand surge to almost 20%.  With overwhe...

What is it about having a baby that makes us decide to also throw into the mix renovating the house, selling up, starting a new business, or in my case moving countries?   That was what I did at the beginning of 2011, when I moved from Australia to New Zealand with an 11-day-old-baby.  Admittedly the move was to Queenstown, which I regard as the most beautiful place in the world, so really I can’t complain.So I found myself in Queenstown with an 11-day-old and a two-and-half-year-...

When I was four years old, I wanted to be a professional tennis player and work part-time at Bakers Delight. At ten, I wanted to be a novelist who also just so happened to be an on-call astronaut for NASA. At thirteen, I wanted to work for Donald Trump and compete in The Amazing Race. This year, I’ll be turning eighteen. Although I now have an overarching goal to pursue a career in the film industry, the underlying truth is that I’m still very much ‘undecided’. There are still days when I wake u...

I was recently lucky enough to meet with Gayl Roden – 2011 CCINZ winner - Contact Centre Team Leader of the Year to chat about what makes a good CSR and why she thought contact centres were a good career move.When Gayl spoke about contact centres being the place of the future her points truly resonated with me. My life is busy and if I can get queries dealt with over the phone and online it certainly makes my life easier.  I think this is why we will see growth in the contact centre world o...

When I graduated from Uni in the late 90’s, I can’t say that working in a contact centre was ever a job I considered (or even knew existed!). But nowadays with the numbers graduating and the New Zealand job market tightening, gaining any form of permanent employment in a large organisation is a positive step to starting a successful career. The contact centre is a great entry point for grads with little work experience to learn a business from the ground up. They develop patience and empathy thr...