Career Couch: out of work, but staying a strong candidate 

Julie Redfield, talent management expert at PA Consulting Group,  provides her views on how to minimise the impact of unemployment on your professional reputation. Julie emphasises the importance of retraining and networking to remain connected to your field.     

Julie notes the low costs to setting up a company — the Web site, the business license — so she recommends starting your own consulting firm. 

She is quoted as saying, “Use your network and get at least one or two small jobs that you can talk about on interviews and put on your resume.”

In an interview situation, when you are asked directly about prolonged unemployment, Julie advises honesty. She is quoted as saying: “it’s important to be straightforward and to explain what happened, whether it was a layoff or that your previous job wasn’t a good fit anymore… You want to put it in the best light possible while being honest; networks and industries are small, and if you fudge the truth, you will most likely be caught.”

To read the article in full, please click here.

To find out how PA can support you in achieving excellence in people and talent management, please, please click here or contact us now.