Well, we can’t quite believe that we’re only a day away before the finale of our fantastic Back2businessship programme. Today was focused around preparation and gearing ourselves up for Thursday’s speed-dating session.
“Keep Playing Big”
Liz Nottingham, once again, brought the best out of us all with her practical sessions. She coached us into “getting into the left part of our brain”. We know our inner critic might be there but we will turn to, grow and trust our inner mentor. The handouts Liz gave us will be very handy for ongoing reference too.
Moving onto using effective communication…what to say and not what to say… this was incredibly useful and we were probably all guilty of the various examples raised. So, no more “just’ “actually” and coming across like we’re apologising!
Shine like a STAR!
Following on from Liz, Caroline Cookson from f1 Recruitment gave us a very useful précis on CV Essentials and Interview Planning including the incredibly helpful STAR response technique which we will all be able to draw on at tomorrow’s speed dating event and also in future interviews. We were then let loose to practice some competency based interview questions on each other!
“Going up”
Next to the stage was Amanda Fone who talked us through what makes a great elevator pitch and gave us a very useful checklist to help prepare and hone our pitches for tomorrow. Think headlines ladies!
Remember to:
– Identify your goal
– Explain what you do
– Communicate your USP
– Engage with a question
Amanda also gave us her top 10 tips when applying for online jobs which we will all be putting into practice from now on. Doing your homework really can pay off.
l to r Katherine Amos, Amanda Fone and Caroline Cookson from f1 Recruitment
Nailing LinkedIn – Be Generous!
The final session of the day came from one of last year’s returners and a Back2businessship success story, Clare Jones. Clare talked about the need to connect (500 is the magic number!) and be visible on LinkedIn and gave us some fantastic tips for supercharging our LinkedIn pages. Clare also taught us the importance of being generous on LinkedIn – like, comment and share if you want others to do the same for you!
So… are we prepared for the big day ahead? You bet. We’re Linked In supercharged, elevator pitch perfect … and ready to do it!
