#TheWeekInCareers - Episode 43

Welcome to?#TheWeekinCareers! If you are a first-time reader (and congratulations if so, you are now part of a 2600+ strong community!), this newsletter is my attempt at summarising some of the key?#Careers-related news from across the?#Careersphere?each week, along with some of the talking points I feel are worthy of further debate amongst the?#Careers?community! So, without further ado, on to the news!

Does Careers have a marketing problem????

Die-hard #TheWeekInCareers readers, who've been with the newsletter since its inception (Ed: Note to self, some sort of pin badge, wristband or t-shirt is needed for this level of dedication!) will remember that I covered this topic in a previous issue many months ago and may be wondering what, if any, new information I might be able to add to what feels by this point like a well-worn question and answer. 'Yes, careers work clearly has a marketing problem', you might say, as illustrated by our relatively low profile in the public consciousness and the myriad misconceptions that politicians, the media and individuals outside the sector have about the work that we do...and you might well be right.

So this item is going to take things in a slightly different direction, exploring some examples of where career development is currently being marketed or promoted in a much more engaging and effective way (whether explicitly, or by stealth!) and what we can learn from this as we continue to grapple with the challenge of selling the sector and the work of careers professionals to those who either misunderstand or undervalue what we do.

?? Part of the inspiration for this piece came from one of the most passionate advocates for better marketing of careers work that I know, Jake Richings , who posted on LinkedIn this past week about whether more work needs to be done with high-profile influencers when it comes to encouraging young people to engage with career-related conversations:

The video in question that Jake Richings referenced in his post above features YouTube stalwarts The Sidemen nominally 'working on a farm for 24 hours', although in reality it is partly a vehicle for them to engage in some of the usual activity you'll find in one of their videos, namely inflicting a bit of gentle mockery and occasional physical harm on each other. That said, the comments make for really interesting reading, with a number of viewers commenting on the role of the farmer who features in the video and the work involved in this profession, or just a general interest in more of these types of episodes being created:

"The farmer guy was honestly a great host. Super sharp and witty. Huge respect for the job they do"

"Sidemen doing normal jobs is definitely the way forward. Not all content has to cost thousands, this was quite wholesome to watch"

Although I'm not for one minute suggesting that the video above provides a comprehensive insight into what careers in farming involve, it also has a staggering 6.3m views to date and has clearly prompted at least some of the individuals who have watched it to consider what might be involved in farming work, providing the sort of coverage that the NFU, National Careers Service and many other organisations could only dream of for their career/job profiles. As a number of careers professionals have noted in the comment thread on Jake Richings 's post, this sort of content can be a great, low-stakes entry point into talking about careers with young people and is potentially something we as a profession need to consider leveraging more (e.g. Starting a careers education session with selected clips from the video above and asking students to consider which aspects are a realistic portrayal of careers in farming and what might be missing).

?? Sticking with examples of careers crashing into the mainstream consciousness, one famous figure who certainly doesn't have a marketing problem is, of course, Barbie - in the midst of a truly jaw-dropping marketing blitz to promote the recently released Barbie film, we have also seen other organisations riding the wave of Barbie-mania to get across their own messages, sometimes with a career development slant, as this recent example from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows:

It's another excellent example of a low-stakes entry point into starting career-related conversations, not just in the sense of helping to contextualise LMI in a fun and interesting way (e.g. Did you know there were so many architects in Australia?) but also in surfacing some of the complex issues that might relate to famous figures like Barbie herself (e.g. Is Barbie a helpful female role model or not when it comes to career inspiration?) The Study Work Grow team are clearly seeing the value of using famous faces to prompt engagement with their careers resources, as Rob Sattler ????♂? 's recent Toy Story-inspired post illustrates...??

?? Many careers professionals are already tweaking the way they discuss what they do with clients and the world outside the #Careersphere, experimenting with YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and other forms of media to present careers work in a more dynamic and relevant way for young people and other stakeholders. Some brilliant examples of this include Jessica Pieri RCDP 's 'Week in the Life' reels capturing her work for The Careers People , Chris Targett RCDP and George Gallagher 's short and simple YouTube explainer videos for CXK , Antony Adams 's holistic approach to careers talks to encourage life design thinking and not buying in to unrealistic 'life coaching' on social media, and of course Tik Tok careers pioneers like Jake Richings , Gina Visram and Kaz Scattergood experimenting with different types of content to share key career development messages. This progressive approach to engaging with different mediums in order to raise the profile of careers work can also lead to additional opportunities, as we can see with Jessica Pieri RCDP 's recent appearances in UCAS' Streetview video series on YouTube:

?? Regular readers of the newsletter may also remember that we previously spotlighted an excellent CPD opportunity for global careers professionals (albeit targeted at a Canadian CDP audience) that is currently being offered by CERIC , in partnership with Keka DasGupta ; namely, a Media Relations Training Programme for Careers Professionals!

Empowering CDPs to feel more confident speaking about our work and the social, economic and individual impact it has makes a world of sense to me, and ties in with much of what Caroline Green (RCDP, MCDI, Assoc. CIPD) has been advocating for, in terms of careers professionals becoming part of the solution in regard to addressing misconceptions about our profession, by approaching media outlets and publications outside of the careers sector in order to offer their expertise (as Caroline Green (RCDP, MCDI, Assoc. CIPD) , CDI President Carolyn Parry and a number of other UK careers colleagues did last year during the A Level/BTEC results season). The Career Development Institute are already looking at this approach too and it will be interesting to see if more CDPs start to appear on our screens and via our local radio stations over the next few years during key points like GCSE/A Level/T Level/BTEC Results Day as an outcome of increased work in this space.

If you are interested in hearing more about this topic, don't miss next week's season finale of #WeAreCareers, when MeetSabiha . and I will be speaking with Farrah Morgan - The Grad Coach ?? and Jamie Pywell about how the careers sector might be able to solve its marketing woes - don't miss it! ??

What are your views on this issue? Is there a clear path when it comes to marketing careers work more effectively or are we always likely to struggle with communicating fully what we do as careers professionals, given the complexity of the work? Answers, as always, on a #TheWeekInCareers postcard! ?? (or, you know, in the comments thread at the bottom of the newsletter...)

AGCAS Phoenix in Review: Sustainability Special!???

This week saw the latest issue of the AGCAS Phoenix journal released into the wild and boy, is it topical, with a focus on the role university careers services and careers professionals are playing in preparing students and graduates for sustainable careers! With this in mind,?#TheWeekInCareers?has picked out three tasty morsels from the latest edition of AGCAS Phoenix for your reading pleasure (along with a link to the full journal below) – well worth taking a peek if, like me, you are still wrapping your head around the topic of sustainable careers and what this means for us as careers professionals, in practice...

?? Hands-On Sustainability: A real-world learning approach?– Up first, a really helpful practical case study of a sustainability-related careers challenge from Danny Mirza FRSA, MSc, MA, MBA and Demi King of the University of Northampton , who tell us about the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) Challenge that they helped facilitate as a model for experiential learning and skill development connected to sustainability. The challenge involved students working with a local fruit company, Blue Skies, to devise solutions for combatting food waste by creating new products/services derived from the waste generated by the company's primary product line, giving them the opportunity to develop a range of employability skills that aren't always discussed/surfaced in business challenges, such as Interdisciplinary Knowledge (students had to get to grips with the scientific/technical aspects of dealing with food waste, as well as the economic and social considerations), Sustainability Advocacy (the ability to understand and communicate the benefits of sustainable practices to a wider audience) and a CSR Mindset (a key aspect of many company strategies). The challenge sounded as though it was hugely beneficial to both the employer and the students involved and looks to be a helpful model to ape for any careers professionals who are considering running something similar in partnership with an academic department/course team in the future!

?? Delivering a Sustainability-Focused Careers Service?–?Up next,?from an individual sustainability challenge to a whole-service approach, as Paul Blackmore , Dawn Lees and Helen Hicks explain how they have embedded sustainability as a core pillar of their career development work at the University of Exeter . Like many of the other contributors in this issue of Phoenix, the team at UoE talk about the UN Sustainable Development Goals/Global Goals and how these are mapped to the broader careers and employability portfolio (and related course modules) at the university to ensure that sustainability is a central part of the careers offer, an approach that led to recognition recently in the form of the Sustainability Impact Award 2023 at this year's AGCAS Annual Conference. The main thrust of the Phoenix piece looks at one aspect of how the UoE careers team endeavour to practice what they preach when it comes to sustainability; namely, the Green Consultants programme, an extra-curricular opportunity that gives students a chance to train as a Sustainability Consultant, undertake a group project on-campus via the university's Sustainability Team to deliver change in a particular area of the institution, and then complete a week-long internship with an external organisation to further apply their learning and gain industry experience. What's most impressive about the programme for me is not just the employment outcomes stated (it is suggested that over 90% of students who completed the programme secured graduate-level employment) but the fact that this offer has been influenced by the values-driven career aspirations of the individuals the university serves - no surprise it has become such a popular initiative amongst students!

?? The Personal is Political: A calling to sustainable career development??– Last but certainly not least, my final pick takes a more critical look at the place of sustainability within career development work and how the politics of this discourse interacts with other concepts within the careers world; in the article, Dr Gill Frigerio from 英国华威大学 and Miriam Dimsits of Aarhus University start by establishing what we mean by 'sustainable career development' (e.g. supporting us to thrive in the here and now while not damaging the prospects of future generations - apologies for the very rudimentary summary!) and go on to explore the different ways in which careers need to be sustainable, encompassing not just working towards a cause or 'calling' (such as the challenges posed by the UNSDGs) but also the importance of individual autonomy, humanity and access to 'decent work'. What I particularly enjoyed about this piece is that Dr Gill Frigerio and Miriam Dimsits encourage careers professionals to take an open-minded, critical approach when discussing the role of sustainability in career development with clients; as they rightly note, the labour market changes rapidly and the definition of what makes a sustainable job role/career pathway will likely change with it, so supporting students and graduates to consider how their careers may contribute to causes like sustainability over the course of their lifetimes will be key. A very good read!

Cracking work as always by the AGCAS Phoenix editorial board (and all of the contributors to the latest issue!) - give yourselves a big #CareersCheers ?? Lucy Begley , Rish Baruah , Suzie Bullock , Sarah Outamast- Brown , Wendy Browne (FHEA) , Holly Delafield , Sophie Hall , Emma Hill , Claire Merriman , Kaz Scattergood and Sara Tsompanidi ! ??

You can read the full issue of the latest AGCAS Phoenix via the link below! ??

An Ode to BazBall: A CDP's Perspective???

Having exhausted my recent supply of guest blogs and #MyWeekInCareers pieces (Ed: ...and a huge thank you to those in the careers community who have submitted pieces for the newsletter previously!), I was extremely grateful to one half of the #LUNAT partnership, Marc Steward , for providing me with the inspiration for the third item in this week's newsletter, which is all about BazBall, the current ethos, approach and raison d'etre of the England men's cricket team. I'll come to Marc Steward 's role in all this shortly and (hopefully) get to the point regarding how a strategy for 5-day test cricket relates to career development, so please don't scroll away just yet, dear reader...

For those of you unfamiliar with BazBall (Ed: ...and let's face it, this could be many of our readers!), it is essentially an approach to playing professional test cricket that has been implemented within the England men's cricket team by current Head Coach (and former New Zealand cricket international) Brendan 'Baz' McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, which generally involves an extremely aggressive/positive approach to the game, built around quick scoring, inventive bowling/fielding (in order to take wickets in different ways) and decision-making focused on games ending in a result (e.g. a win, rather than a draw). Now, it's worth noting at this point that even the eponymous 'Baz' himself doesn't necessarily endorse the brand of BazBall in the same way that English media outlets have (“I don’t really like that silly term,” McCullum said in a radio interview last year. “I don’t have any idea what ‘Bazball’ is") but nonetheless, we are going to continue using the term for the purpose of this piece, so it helps to have a little context as I prepare to mention BazBall for the millionth time this paragraph. The article below provides a useful entry point for the as-yet-uninitiated ??

At this point, you may well be wondering where I'm going with all this but never fear, the point is here! You see, since the BazBall approach has started to yield results for the England Men's cricket team (prior to this summer's Ashes, the team had won 11 of their past 13 test matches under McCullum and Stokes, having only won 1 of their previous 17 prior to the change in leadership), the philosophy of BazBall has started to be interrogated, analysed and co-opted by myriad commentators for a number of seemingly unrelated topics, from religion ('How England's cricket revolution points us back to God') to economics ('Economic ‘Bazball’ will have replaced UK’s safety-first approach to inflation and growth by 2025'). It was only a matter of time before career development professionals got in on the act and lo and behold, exactly this happened last week, as Marc Steward reflected on the careers-related lessons we can all learn from the BazBall philosophy, via his and Ben Robertson 's excellent #LUNAT (Leeds Untied, Not A Typo) podcast:

Expanding on Marc Steward 's excellent 3-minute monologue on the subject, I offer you my take on what careers professionals can learn from the School of BazBall...

?? Process > Outcome - A key component of BazBall that arguably makes it more of a sporting philosophy than a specific strategy/tactic is the focus on process > outcome, in the sense that what matters more is how players are playing the game of cricket, rather than necessarily what happens in every match because of this approach. This is not to say to any extent that McCullum and Stokes are not bothered about winning (both are extremely competitive, by all accounts) but rather that they believe the philosophy they are trying to instil with players should naturally result in greater success on the field over time, as players will be doing more of the 'right things' on average (such as batting, bowling and fielding positively, with the intention to win, rather than 'not lose').

For me, this is absolutely relevant to career development work, as so often governments and other stakeholders attempt to distil careers and employability outcomes down to overly simplistic metrics like Graduate Outcomes or NEET figures, which can lead to short-termist thinking (e.g. 'What's the quickest way to improve these figures?') rather than long-term planning (e.g. 'How can we ensure that all the individuals that we work with are equipped with the skills they need to make effective career decisions, regardless of their intended destinations?'). I'm naturally biased and of course, data and metrics will always play a role in the work we do as careers professionals, but IMO if we invest more in the process of career development (e.g. helping individuals develop key career management skills like curiosity, self-reflection, information literacy, networking etc.) rather than focusing on the perceived outcomes, I think the results often take care of themselves (as we've seen so far in the BazBall era...)

?? Redefining 'Success' - Part of the impact of BazBall that has been jarring for many cricketing traditionalists and pundits has been Ben Stokes' seemingly relaxed demeanour when it comes to the prospect of winning or losing test matches, with an emphasis on positively influencing the game rather than fearing a loss, as he outlines in this interview in the Daily Mail:

"If all you’re ever thinking about is ‘how do we win this game?’ throughout the whole five days then you are doing something right. It just breeds the mentality into people of ‘everything I need to do must influence this game in a positive way. The mind-set of ‘as long as we don’t lose’ is something I just don’t want this England team to have."

For me, this speaks directly to how we ought to approach our career development - we aren't simply looking to 'stay in the game' (e.g. be employed) but rather, to try new things and consider what we could be doing to positively influence our career, whether that is by trying out a new tool/technique at work, learning a new skill or getting involved in a project that really excites us. Sometimes, this approach may mean we come up against naysayers (e.g. 'What are you doing that for?') but much like BazBall has seen in the positive response of England players to its philosophy towards playing the game of cricket, it could actually lead to us being much more engaged in our own career development, rather than feeling as though conversations about career and the future are something to avoid.

?? Confidence Matters - One of the most impressive aspects of the BazBall approach has been the impact it has seemingly had on the performance of some of the players within the England men's cricket team who were previously struggling or facing questions regarding their output. Players like Jack Leach, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley have seemingly all received a shot of confidence (and arguably, a subsequent performance boost) from the consistency of approach and moral support that Stokes and McCullum have shown them and a number of other players have also waxed lyrical about the positive impact that the principles instilled by the Head Coach and Captain have had on the atmosphere in the team (e.g. 'No fear of failure', 'No negative chat' and 'Praise - even for the little things'):

From a career development perspective, I feel this shows us the importance of acknowledging that:

a) Confidence matters within our careers and often has a direct impact on how well we perform (or feel we are able to perform), regardless of whether we are working in an employed role or on our own projects.

b) We are not solely responsible for our own confidence levels - Often, simple things that we can do for others, or others can do for us, such as a kind word about a piece of work a colleague has shared, a like/share/comment on a LinkedIn post or a display of private/public gratitude, can have a huge impact on the confidence of the individual involved and subsequently, our motivation for doing more of this type of stuff in the future. Self-confidence might ultimately come from within but when it comes to our careers, as in life, it pays to reflect on who our cheerleaders are and what environments we might want to base ourselves in so that we can maximise our confidence!

Do you have a different perspective on the relative merits of BazBall or simply feel there are better sporting stories out there that careers professional could learn from? Let us know, either via a pointed comment in response to this newsletter or by dropping me a DM to discuss! ??

The Best of the Rest: My Hot Picks from the wider?#Careersphere???

How to produce less waste as a CDP?– First up this week, we have a video from Chris Targett RCDP that dovetails well with our earlier item on sustainability in careers work; it's almost like we plan these things! In the video, Chris Targett RCDP gets us thinking about how we can demonstrate the value of environmental sustainability within our own careers practice, via a series of props including card sorts, mini-whiteboards/playing cards and whiteboard pen refills! It's excellent to see a career development organisation like CXK contemplating how it can be more sustainable and a really good example for clients who might ask what organisations outside of the 'Green' industries can do to be more sustainable.

Sprints v Seasons: The future for early careers hiring??– Up next, a brilliant piece from Rebecca Fielding on early-career recruitment cycles, a topic that isn't always that well understood; in her blog, Rebecca Fielding explores the relative merits and drawbacks of the seasonal/annual recruitment approach for students/graduates (typically starting in Autumn for many larger employers and involving a lengthy recruitment process that runs over a significant period of the academic year) and why adjusting to a 'sprint' approach (short, targeted recruitment campaigns that run for around 4-6 weeks) could be a beneficial move for both companies and applicants. There are some hugely useful insights in the blog and the mini-recruitment campaign/sprint trend is well worth keeping an eye on!

'Pracademics' win new respect?–?It's not often you see Sheffield make an appearance in The Washington Post, so I could hardly not share this article in this week's news section, could I?! Sheffield-bias aside, the article is really timely, exploring as it does the role of so-called 'pracademics' (academic lecturers at universities who are still working in the industry they lecture about) and the benefit that having these staff teaching at universities can bring, for both students and other academic staff. Having worked with a number of 'pracademics' during my time in HE, I can testify not just to the value that these professionals bring to a degree course (from industry contacts to a keen understanding of what works in a particular sector and emerging trends students should look out for) but unsurprisingly, they are also often massive supporters of career development work and careers professionals!

Can interdisciplinary learning save education??– Staying with higher education for now, this interesting article from Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology at the University of Warwick, is a nice companion piece to the recent thought-pieces on the future of universities that have accompanied the government's 'rip-off degrees' campaign; in the article, Steve breaks down the historical differences between elements of the higher education academy (originally, Masters were more about using transferable knowledge and skills to challenge established ways of thinking, while PhDs were there to establish expertise and credibility in a particular subject area) and proposes a new approach for all academic disciplines, that connects with the work of interdisciplinary learning organisations like LIS: The London Interdisciplinary School , incorporating elements like human observation, statistical reasoning and multimedia management within all courses, to help students expand the horizons of their subject discipline.

The role of emotion in career education: Webinar?– We end this week's newsletter with news of an upcoming webinar from the myfuture organisation, presented by Michael Healy , which explores the role of emotion in career education; the webinar, which is free to sign up for via the link above, is based on the insights paper 'How emotions influence motivation and behaviour in career development learning', and looks at how different emotions might impact the careers and employability learning of students in myriad ways, as well as how careers education programmes and services can recognise and respond to these emotions in practice. The webinar will take place on Wednesday 16th August from 04:00-05:00 BST, and is well worth a look if you can stomach the early start!

I'm always keen to hear what people think of this weekly newsletter format (e.g. Is it helpful? Does it add value to what is already out there on LinkedIn? What might make it better/more digestible?) so please do drop me a DM if you have any thoughts!

See you all in the?#Careersphere?next week for?Episode 44! ??