Careers Life at Sharon Aplin Bookkeeping; Agony Aunt Karen Young offers some more careers advice; and our book review

Ask PQ’s agony aunt Karen Young when you need expert advice. Email your dilemma to graham@pqmagazine.com, and he will pass on the best ones to Karen

THE QUESTION I’m looking for a new job but haven’t had much luck so far. I keep hearing that LinkedIn is important when looking for new opportunities, but how true is this? And what are your tips for how I can make my account stand out?

KAREN’S RESPONSE You may think that LinkedIn is just another social media site, but that is far from the truth. LinkedIn is used for professional and career purposes, a platform you can utilise to showcase your skills, expertise and qualifications. This is similar to the traditional CV; however, if you update your CV you most likely won’t have a constant stream of people viewing your latest career accomplishments. If you update your LinkedIn profile regularly and post relevant updates to your network it becomes a library of your accomplishments and can help you to stand out.

The key to using LinkedIn effectively is to make sure you’re ‘discoverable’ to employers. The more changes and additions you make, the more ‘active’ your profile appears to the system, which also increases your chances of being seen by potential employers. Your LinkedIn profile communicates who you are.

It can be useful to show your interests through posting articles that you have read, or even better written; this is an effective way to show employers your skills, as well as keeping your audience engaged. • Karen Young is a director at Hays. She is passionate about helping people to find the right job, and companies to find the right person Sharon Aplin is a certified bookkeeper who is now setting up her own business. She has a degree in English, a qualification in furniture making and design and recently won the ICB Student of the Year award

What time does your alarm go off? 6am. What is on your desk? Computer, mobile, pens and pads of paper and notes, a copy of Microsoft Office 365 for Dummies, and a half cup of luke-warm coffee. How long is your commute to that desk? My office was, until I passed the qualifying exam in September, the spare room, so no commuting at all. What’s your favourite lunch? Salad in summer, soup in winter. What can you see when you sit at your desk? A view across fields and farmyards to the Mendip Hills, and our garden. What are your favourite websites? I play ‘Words With Friends’ in French with a friend in France, but for the past 12 months I’ve probably spent most time on Rogo doing exams! How many hours a week do you spend in online meetings? I’ve only used online meetings intermittently until now but I’m hoping that will change as I take on clients. Are you spending more time working now than pre-pandemic? Previously I worked part-time, but setting up in business is pretty much full time. How do you relax? Walking our Border Collie, reading, cooking, gardening, woodworking and, once upon a time, travelling. What is your favourite tipple? Wine and real ale. What’s your favourite TV show? Black Earth Rising, Shetland, Saving Lives at Sea and The Repair Shop. Summer or Winter? Summer. Pubs or clubs? Pubs. Do you have a hero? My late friend Gill Owen and my husband – both rose from very humble backgrounds. What is the first thing you are going to do when Covid is over? My 94-year-old father and my sister live in the US, so I’ll need to meet up with them. If you had a time machine where would you go? Back to summer holidays in France in 2019, savouring the good times.

In brief

Pap WFH works for women

The move to working from home and greater flexibility offered by many companies during the pandemic has tempted more women into the jobs market, according to the Resolution Foundation. The think-tank found that around half-a-million women who were working part-time have switched to full-time since the pandemic struck. This means the female participation rate has risen by 0.4%, and means women now make up 48% of the workforce. This compares with 44% in 1992. The study, called ‘Begin Again?’, found that mothers with young children gained the most from the shift to hybrid working.

Pap Fancy a four-day week?

Atom Bank is moving all its employees to a four-day week with no reduction in pay. The smartphone-based bank is the biggest UK employer to move away from the traditional five-day week. In practical terms it means Atom’s 430 staff will move from a 37.5-hour week to a 34-hour week. Their core hours are 9.30am to 4.40pm Mondays to Thursdays. Those who move over to the new system will have to work an extra hour a day to get that final day off.

Pap Women CEOs on the rise

The number of female FTSE 100 chief executives has increased to 8%, up from 5% last year. A survey from executive research firm Heidrick & Struggles found that Ireland topped the international table with 14% of its top companies run by women. Kit Bingham, a partner at the firm, said: “New CEOs appointed over the past year in the UK differ significantly from the CEOs they replaced. They are more likely than their predecessors to be women, to be non-nationals, to have crossborder experience and to have advanced degrees.”

The PQ Book Club: books you should read

Business Trends in Practice: The 25+ trends that are redefining organizations, by Bernard Marr (Wiley £29.99) The author really does do what the book jacket promises – ‘an eye-opening discussion of the transformational forces disrupting our business and government organisations’.

Take the chapter on resilient and sustainable operations. Marr explains that during Covid19 organisations that were able to pivot to digital channels or accelerate their digital transformation were clearly better equipped to survive. But what if the next pandemic is a digital virus – one that takes down the internet? Marr says in that case firms with a physical infrastructure would be better equipped to survive, and those solely reliant on digital channels would face an existential threat. He believes resilience today includes balancing digital with other channels.

All the latest trends are looked at, from AI and the ‘datafication’ of our world, to how we learn and mass personalisation.

Marr stresses that how and what we teach must change: “education needs to be transformed over the next few years to make it more relevant to the fourth industrial revolution and to prepare students for life and work in the 21st century.”

He predicts that in the future employers will care less about traditional degrees and more about skills. PQ rating: 5/5 We really really liked this book. Marr makes everything so accessible and it’s hard to disagree with anything he says!