A NEW WAY OF
WITH OPPORTUNITIES #OPENTOWORK
It was the cards in the Newsagents window, advertising everything from piano lessons to Pekinese puppies that gave me the idea for Shopwindow, a feature of the Excelerate Resources website where individuals could post their own profiles, emphasising what they could offer, rather than wait for specific jobs to apply for. They could feature a particular aspect of their experience that may be of interest on a contract or project basis, whilst not interfering with their search for full time work. This reflected a change in the employment market. Those in mid-career, coming off the corporate ladder for the first time, found it increasingly difficult to secure their footing, with a series of quick moves ensuing. Their experience, energy and potential squandered in the pursuit of another 'secure' full time role, ignoring the opportunity to take their skills to market. The Shop Window is intended to attract employers who need those skills but who hadn’t created a fulltime hole they needed to fill.
When I described this to Jonathan Smith, the creator of the Talk Business network, it connected with his view that the independent businesses, charities and major employers that he had been effective in drawing together across the Midlands, needed their own job board. The conversation quickly moved on, and it not only became a place where post-pandemic, individuals might find work, but for freelancers and small businesses to promote their services, and for local businesses to put up opportunities they needed resource to help with that fell outside the standard nine-to-five employment briefs. There was discussion of the new feature that
