The extended break over Christmas and New Year usually provides some personal time out for reflection, which may include thinking about making changes to your lifestyle or career. Red Tiger Talent sees a significant uplift in activity in the new year as people follow through on their resolutions to find a fresh career challenge.  The process of considering a change in job role is analogous to that common new year push to get healthy and join a gym: easy to start but you may not see it through. We have put together some key areas to think about, so you can stay on track.

Explore your motivations

It is worth reflecting on what you don’t like (and what you like) about your current role.  Is it team or individual morale? Long working hours?  Remuneration?  Lack of a suitable challenge? Undefined career path? Or perhaps poor line management? Think about what would be your ideal role and what sort of company would you like to work for.

Speak to a careers coach

At Red Tiger Talent we are invested in your future and we care about your career.  We are owner directors who are in it for the long term and will always put reputation before reward. This means that we invest significant amounts of time in talking to you, regardless of whether have a role for you immediately, in order to build a two-way trusted (and confidential) careers advisory service with candidates.  We are ideally placed to give you our view on other businesses, the state of the market, and even challenge some of your current thinking.

Do your research

Whether you are a graduate or experienced hire, there are usually a number of opportunities available to you.  It is certainly worth researching companies and roles, what is the culture like, how good is their retention, what the specifics of the role would be and how they develop their staff.  Whilst tools such as Glassdoor are a useful guide, it is worth making sure you triangulate these generally negative views with other opinions.  Red Tiger Talent encourage candidates to speak to existing or past employees of your target companies and can facilitate such conversations if required.

Have a trail session

Whilst ‘try before you buy’ in a gym environment is commonplace it is not usually possible to have a trial at a future employer. In some companies you may be able to have a day job shadowing, or at least to spend half a day in the workplace to talk to the hiring manager or potential colleagues. If not, then the interview stages can be used as a partial ‘try before you buy’ process where you may be able to handle specific queries you may have.  The interview allows you to build a rapport with your potential hiring manager, and other colleagues, and ask any relevant questions about the role or future opportunities.  In good interviews it should seem like for at least some of the time the employer is trying to sell the role to you.

Time well spent

After going through the above process, it will provide you with an objective evaluation of what it would mean for you in the event of changing role.  Even if at the end of the process you decide to remain with your current employer, then it has still been worthwhile to get a good perspective of where your career is at.  Any niggles within your role you unearth can always be used or discussed in future development reviews.

If you would like some impartial, no obligations, career advice then please get in touch. You never know it could be the beginning of a new stage in your career, and a positive start to 2019.

Contact us on info@redtigerconsulting.co.uk