Posts in CAREER
Video: Luck Versus Skill
Video: Luck Versus Skill

There are two basic factors in understanding the result of decisions: luck and skill. We like to think that when we make good decisions, it's because of skill, and bad decisions are because of bad luck! But really, you can make a good decision, but get unlucky and have a bad result, and equally, you could make a bad decision and get lucky with a good result. It's important to distinguish between these two factors because otherwise, it could negatively affect your confidence in decision making.

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CAREERRonan KennedyDecision-Making, Personal Development
Video: Underlining Your Impact On Brand Awareness
Video: Underlining Your Impact On Brand Awareness

Increase in brand awareness (e.g. social listening, website visits, in-person visits, market share). In a previous video, I spoke about how to emphasise your impact on increasing online sentiment through reviews, subscribers and likes. And in this video I’ll discuss underlining your impact on brand awareness if you’re in a business that sells products.

This is all about highlighting the marketing or promotional opportunities that you develop for the business or the relationships that you are able to leverage.

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CAREERRonan KennedyJob, Career, Employees, Communication
Video: Emphasising The Increase In Liking
Video: Emphasising The Increase In Liking

How do you emphasize your contribution to increasing positive customer sentiment (e.g. online reviews)? And why is it important to do so?

If I asked whether you’d be more inclined to work with or buy something from a company or a brand that you liked, you’d probably say ‘of course I would’. According to Dr. Robert Cialdini, who is a professor of psychology and marketing, and author of a book called ‘Influence’, “liking” is one of the 6 key factors of persuasion.

With that in mind, if we can increase “liking” or the online reputation of a brand, that has a value because it’s going to influence customers/clients to engage in our services and it might lead to an increase in sales. So how do you calculate it?


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CAREERRonan KennedyCareer, job, Communication
Video: Outlining How Much Time You Work
Video: Outlining How Much Time You Work

How do you convey the value of your work and how your efforts are having a positive impact on your company/organisation?

Here are a couple of useful ways to understand what you have achieved and what you have contributed. They should primarily be used for acknowledging your own efforts, but could also be used for having respectful and professional conversations with your manager.

They should not be used in a moment of conflict or as any form of threat. That would be counterproductive - at least in my opinion.

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CAREERRonan KennedyCareer, career goals, Jobs, Communication, value
Video: Should You Do An MBA?
Video: Should You Do An MBA?

Should you do an MBA? Well that depends on what you’re hoping to get out of it. In this video, I’ll discuss 5 of the main reasons people decide to undertake such a big commitment and some points on how to figure out if it’s the right next step for you.

The ultimate question is: will this help you achieve your end goal? (a new job, more knowledge etc.?)

Here is the Article I mention in the video:

4 Things That Set Successful CEOs Apart: https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-sets-successful-ceos-apart#:~:text=to%20high%20performance.-,The%20Findings,proactively%2C%20and%20they%20deliver%20reliably.

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CAREERRonan KennedyMBA, career success, career goals
Video: Reminding Them Of Your Valuable Knowledge
Video: Reminding Them Of Your Valuable Knowledge

Are you a subject matter expert that shares your expertise on an area outside of your role? Do you teach new skills to people on your team? Do you save your company money by providing in-house training? If so, do you ever consider how much that’s worth to your company? A simple way to express its value is to figure out how much it would cost to outsource it to another company.

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CAREERRonan KennedyCareer, Work, Job, Communication, Commitment
Video: How to Write a Professional Profile
Video: How to Write a Professional Profile

“You need to sell yourself more“ is a phrase you’ve probably heard one hundred times or more. But the chances are that you don’t like the idea of selling yourself at all. Something about it seems awful, or disingenuous. But, never the less, we need to be able to do it - especially if we’re competing against others who are selling themselves really well. In this video, I discuss some points you can use to sell yourself well in interviews. The idea is that you don’t sell yourself as more than you are, but not less than you are, just exactly as you are, and honestly. That way, you’ll have no trouble backing up what you’ve said and it will give you more confidence when describing your career.

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CAREER, BUSINESSRonan Kennedyprofessional summary, profile, rebranding, personal brand, Personal Pitch, Video
How to protect yourself from being managed out
How to protect yourself from being managed out

‘Being managed out’ means that your boss or company is trying to make your working life so difficult that you decide to leave. This is done in companies and countries where it’s not legally possible to simply let someone go for underperformance or because you don’t get along well with them.

There are usually two main issues for this:

  1. Low performance and not meeting targets

  2. Poor relationships and/or bad communication skills

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CAREERRonan Kennedymanaged out, performance, Career, protect, relationships, relationship management
Rationale for Competency-Based Psychometric Tests
Rationale for Competency-Based Psychometric Tests

Competency-based psychometric tests are tricky. They are typically used in the civil service and apparently have no correct answers. However, of course, some answers are more correct than other answers. This has been decided by both researchers and professionals working in the field.

But for candidates, it's not very helpful to know that there are no correct answers. So what can we do? Below I have noted a selection of criteria or values, that I believe, should be adhered to in order to optimise your opportunities impressing the examiners. This is by no means perfect but at least it gives you a structured thought process and a systematic way to answer the questions.

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CAREER, BUSINESSRonan Kennedypsychometric test, rationale, competency, interviews
Asking for advice
Asking for advice

Below is a script for asking an acquaintance for help/advice regarding new opportunities - hopefully you find it helpful. Obviously, you’ll need to tailor it to your situation by changing the words in CAPITALS first. You might even put your own style on it, but it’s a start.

"Hi ,

{YOUR NAME} here - I haven't seen/spoke to you since XYZ. I hope you're well...

To cut straight to the chase, I was wondering if I could ask you a massive favour. I'm looking for a new job a the moment after leaving the world of ABC behind me, and it's all a bit scary. So I was wondering if you have any advice for me on how to change jobs or find new opportunities? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Basically, I'm looking for roles in {AREA, AREA and AREA}, or learning and development - that sort of thing. And I've completed a {COURSE TITLE} course recently.

I totally understand if you're swamped at work at the moment, but if you knew anyone who you think I should talk to or any roles coming up, I'd really appreciate if you could let me know. Of course, I'd look forward to returning the favour if/when the time comes!"

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CAREERRonan Kennedyscript, advice, asking for advice, communication
Following up on rejections
Following up on rejections

Thank you for taking the time to review my application for this role. I know these decisions are often tricky and the most likely reason I didn't get an interview is that there were other candidates who were more suitable, which I completely understand.


Also, I really appreciate you following up to let me know I haven't been successful, even though I'm sure you're busy - so thanks for that.

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CAREERRonan Kennedyscript, career change, career goals, Career, following up, rejection