Take Back Control Of Your Life

Hi everyone

It’s important not to live your life by others, live it by what you believe is right for you.

Plenty of people will try to tell you what job you should be doing and how you should live your life. From now on, you must take control.

Redundancy can make you feel out of control and the way to get it back is for you to take ownership of the situation. Establish your needs and wants right now and in the future. Make a plan on paper about how you are going to get these needs me. Then, you need to start taking action. Write down each day and week, exactly what your goals are. At the end of that day or week, tick off what you have achieved or carry it forward to the next day or week until you have accomplished it. You should have 5 lists:

1. Emotional needs – Upset, angry, depressed and want to feel better. Solution, see a counsellor or talk to family and friends.
2. Personal needs – Raise your self-confidence. Solution, join a support group, try new things, buy new clothes.
3. Professional needs – Need up-to-date skills for jobs. Solution, take a course to update skills, get work experience.
4. Financial needs – No income. Solution, get benefits sorted and set a budget for shopping.
5. Practical needs – To make job searches as quick and easy as possible. Solution, turn a room into an office for job hunting and visit http://www.beatredundancyblues.com and http://www.beatredundancyblues.co.uk to get access to Job Sites, Recruitment Sites and Courses Sites from within the one site.

Remember, these are your needs, nobody else’s. If you ask other people what they think you need and want, you are not in control and it defeats the purpose, that is to put you ‘back in the driving seat of your life.’

After you have ticked off each achievement, you still need to acknowledge these successes in your diary. If you do this as positive reinforcement, your subconscious will realise the progress you are making and it will be more motivated to take conscious action.

Until next time

Stay positive

Sandra Bellamy

I Have Been Chosen To Meet Her Majesty The Queen

Hi everyone

I am very happy and excited to have been chosen to meet Her Majesty the Queen, at St James’s Palace, on Monday 15th of July.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, on Facebook or on my other blog http://www.quirkybooks.wordpress.com, you may already know this and a few of you I have mentioned it to in my comments. For the rest of my lovely blog followers, the last update I gave you, was that I had been invited to St James’s Palace in the presence of HM the Queen. I have since had a letter to say I have been chosen to meet HM the Queen.

I have been sent a map of the inside of the Palace and have been told I am group 10, in the Queen Anne Room, to meet the Queen.

There is a red dotted line to indicate which route HM the Queen will take.

There are instructions of what I should say and do when I meet HM the Queen.

I am going there, to celebrate CSV (Community Service Volunteers) 50th anniversary. I do voluntary work as a Health Buddy for CSV and got nominated by my Manager to go.

If someone had told me a few years ago, that in the future I would be meeting HM the Queen at St James’s Palace, I would have laughed and said they had a vivid imagination, or yes, in my dreams. But I did something very important in my life, I changed my attitude and my belief in myself.

When I was made redundant for the second time in my life, in 2009, this was the starting point of that change. I knew from then on, that I was born 100% to write and to help others who have been made redundant to get back into work. It was the start of my creative journey. However, needing money and taking on a succession of temporary jobs, that I wasn’t happy in, took it’s toll, and although I still had these goals in mind, I didn’t do much about them at that time.

By the end of 2009, I got a job as an Assistant Manager of a shop and a couple of months later I was promoted to Shop Manager. The drawback was, most weeks I would be working 60 hours a week instead of my contracted 40.

In October 2010, I got headhunted to work as a Sales Person for more money doing less hours and so I took it. After almost a year of working there, I decided to take a year out from work, to develop myself, my skills, my knowledge and expertise to grow as a person and to finally fulfil my destiny of writing and helping others to get back into work. During that time, I gained all of those and so much more.

Although I am working again in a retail sales job during the day, I have chosen to be in a job as a Sales Person not as a Manager, so my hours are stable and kept to a minimum. The pay is not great but I can focus on building two businesses around my two goals during the evenings and my time off. I now know what action to take to make progress with those two goals. I still have time to do courses and to develop myself as a person. I am continuing on the path to fulfil my dreams and you can do it too. I am living proof that dreams can come true. Never, ever, give up on your own dreams. Believe they are achievable and that anything is possible.

Be blessed with what you have,
fight for what you want,
believe in yourself,
helps others along the way,
take action,
change when you are able to
and never look back.

Keep looking forward because your future is in your hands.
Treat yourself kindly,
look after those who are important in your life,
allow yourself ups and downs,
you are only human.
Above all, love yourself, live life to the max and do what makes you happy over and over again.

Until next time, keep writing and keep smiling.

Write soon
Sandra

 

beatredundancyblues.co.uk Coming Soon

Hi Everyone

I am mega busy at the moment creating my beatredundancyblues.co.uk website, it will be very similar to beatredundancyblues.com with all of your favourite information pages but with a blog added for much more interaction with you. This way you can let me know what you like and what you don’t and what other help and support you need in your quest to find employment.

Watch this space for the official launch of beatredundancyblues.co.uk

My web host who hosts beatredundancyblues.com has decided to stop people from using RVSiteBuilder  to build any new website by removing it from their system. As my site is built using this, I now have to get access to my site admin panel through a link. I was informed that eventually the RVSiteBuilder will be dis-continued completely. beatredundancyblues.co.uk was due to be launched at the end of this year but in light of this new challenge, I am creating it now and transferring it’s valuable information over to beatredundancyblues.co.uk. I have to do this manually and re-format it before adding it to the new WordPress.Org site for beatredundancyblues.co.uk

For those of you who are not familiar with beatredundancyblues.com and what is is about, here is an except from it:

This website is designed to give you easy access to a wealth of knowledge, experience and skills needed to survive redundancy and get back into work. No longer do you have to trawl through website after website trying to find the information you want, you can get it all here at the click of a button. Make your job search easier by getting instant access to these sites at the click of a button. Find an area that interests you and get right to it. Click for instant access to Job Sites Click for instant access to Recruitment Sites Click for instant access to Courses Sites

This website is essential for anyone who is: Redundant Unemployed Changing Career Job Hunting Lacking In Direction Wanting Motivation Needing Help Looking For Support

I have to say that using WordPress.org compared to the .com version has been far more challenging than I thought it would be. What experience have you had with the .org version compared to the .com? Have you got any advice or hints and tips on how to get the best out of using the .org version?

On thursday this week, I am going to an awards ceremony by the police to be awarded a Good Citizens Award. I feel honoured and humbled to be getting the award and thought I would let you know.

Write soon

Sandra

Related articles

• What Does Success Mean To You? (quirkybooks.wordpress.com)

 

Launch of beatredundancyblues.com

Hi Everyonebeatredundancyblues.com is finally here The launch of beatredundancyblues.com has been greatly anticipated for some time and I am proud to announce that as of now, on Tuesday 26th of March 2013, beatredundancyblues.com is finally launched. beatredundancyblues.com is a content rich site. It is a free resource of information, help and support for anyone who is: Redundant or about to be made redundant Job seeking Currently unemployed Wanting to change careers Lacking inspiration Needing motivation beatredundancyblues.com includes: A free report – 10 Mistakes to Avoid whilst Applying For Work Access to job sites from within the one site Access to recruitment sites from within the one site Access to courses from within the one site Health and wellbeing Interview advice Motivation Inspiration Interview advice Time management Self-employment beatredundancyblues.com is designed and built with you in mind, to help motivate and rejuvenate you back into work. Please take time to browse the site and let me know what you think?

In the meantime, stay positive, Sandra Bellamy.

C is for Confidence A-Z of Redundancy

Hi Everyone

It’s important whilst redundant, that when applying for jobs and going for interviews, you come across as a confident person.

Confident in:

• Yourself
• Your character
• Your previous job roles
• Your skills
• Your experience
• Your abilities

In interviews, you need to ensure you are displaying open and positive body language:

• No crossed arms
• No fists made
• No stern looks
• No leering

You should:

• Smile – Creates warmth and approachability
• Have arms by your side or on your lap with palms facing upwards – Shows openness and friendliness
• Try to relax as much as possible – Will put the interviewer at ease

When you try to relax, pay close attention to your facial muscles, are they stiff and tight or at ease? What are your shoulders doing, are they hunched over or upright? You need to be constantly thinking about being calm and a good way to feel calm is to picture a time when you felt relaxed, maybe talking to a friend, then think of how your body felt at that moment and try to replicate it. This is hard but with practice can feel more natural and help you to get the job. If you are calm, this should make your interviewer feel calm and therefore you will appeal to them.

Remember when you speak, you are talking to a potential boss, so don’t feel so relaxed that you start talking to your  prospective employer like he is your mate in the pub as this would not be well accepted and you are not likely to get the job.

In interviews:

• Maintain eye-contact but without staring – This can take several practices before getting it right

You have to be confident that your character (personality) will fit the job. For example, if you are a quiet person and don’t like being in crowds, then working in a pub would most likely not suit your personality. If you are a bubbly and chatty person and that’s what the job requires, you need to be confident enough to show this at your interview.

You need to be confident when talking about your previous job roles. Talk up your achievements and don’t mention negatives. If the interviewer asks you questions like – “What was your biggest obstacle in your last role and how did you overcome it?” Then you need to be honest from the employer’s perspective but change the negatives into a positive. For example, if you had a customer who was unhappy with the shoes they had bought but it was more about the comfort of the shoes rather than a manufacturing fault and company policy was not to refund just on a comfort issue as you can’t resell the shoes and the company loses money. You could say that in order to maintain good relations, you decided to exchange the shoes as a gesture of good will. You need to always add a positive outcome – The customer was happy and became a weekly regular.

Whenever you talk about your skills, experience and abilities. You need to talk about them in a positive manner with the interviewer and give examples of when you have used them in your past job roles to good effect and created a positive impact on the businesses you were working for. Then go on to say how you could use those in your new role for which you are being interviewed.

Always remember, if you are confident that you can do the job, then the prospective employer will be confident that you are suitable to work for them.

Stay positive

Sandra

Course you can

Hi Everyone

It makes me feel sad when I hear people say they have applied for many different jobs and they have not even had a reply!

Why?  I ask myself.

Speaking from an ex-recruiters’ perspective, it can be for a number of reasons.

1. A poorly written CV
2. No cover letter or a poorly written one
3. Lack of experience
4. Lack of skills
5. Lack of knowledge

The thing is, you can do something about all of these and if you keep getting the same answer, for example, no answer at all, then it’s time to change what you are doing because it obviously isn’t working.

There are a number of people and places that can help you to write a good CV and cover letter and that is something I can help you with as part of my new redundancy services.

With regards to lack of experience, skills or knowledge, that is something that you need to learn for yourself and what better way to do it, than by going on a course.

This is particularly true if you are attempting a change of career and you are competing in a market with plenty of people who do have those credentials.

By going on a course, you will be able to decide if your new career, is one that you are passionate about and if it’s the right ‘fit’ for you.

A course will also:

• Raise your self-confidence
• Raise your self-esteem
• Give you an idea of what the job may entail
• Make you feel you are doing something worthwhile
• Give you direction
• Give you a sense of purpose
• Enhance your communication skills
• Show you have something ‘current’ to offer a new employer
• Make you feel better
• Give you a sense of fulfilment
• Give you a greater sense of achievement
• Make you realise, you can do it

So search your local college or university prospectus to find out more about various courses.  Many hold open evenings so that you can talk through your options.

Search the web for long-distance courses or other local courses.

Ask at the job centre, what local places hold free courses if you are on JSA.  There are often places that you can go to, to get a free or heavily subsidised course but you need to ask about these.  I have found a fair few in my local area.

Speak to your family, friends and contacts.  They may have gone on a course you didn’t realise they had been on and word of mouth is a good way of hearing about it.

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Stay positive

Sandra

Related articles

• Writing a Good Cover Letter (answers.com)
• How Important are Cover Letters? (verigentllc.wordpress.com)
• Resume Tip: Cover Letters Matter (rackspace.com)