Public Sector Workers Getting Ready For Change

It seems as though everyone is holding their breath, waiting for the big announcement from the new chancellor as to the expected cuts to Public Service. The fear is that these cuts will be savage and that this may mean the eventual loss of hundreds of thousands of Public Sector roles.

So where does this leave the many people now contemplating for the first time the possibility of having to change careers. The Public Sector is characterised by specialist work, people who stay in their roles a long time and people who are, generally speaking, unused to undergoing significant business and career change.  Although it can initially feel like a lonely, daunting and scary prospect there are many things that people can do to start to help and prepare themselves for the future. Even if you feel your job is very specialised, with help, transferable skills and strengths can be identified, polished up and promoted. Additionally, weaker skills areas (and we all have them) can be given the right focus, training and attention. So what sorts of things should you start to think about now?

Get Informed – Get A Plan
One of the biggest ways of reducing those initial feelings of panic is to take control. Once you get confirmation that your role is to end it’s important to wrestle back control of your life and your career and you can. Firstly, get informed and make a plan. You can get informed by making sure you know exactly what you’re entitled to and don’t feel unduly pressured into making quick decisions. You can start planning what you’re going to do even before you get confirmation that redundancy will affect you. Start to think about what it is you want to do. Redundancy is after all an opportunity. Do you …..

• Want to get another job that’s similar?
• Want to do something totally different?
• Want to retire early?
• Want to start your own business?
• Want to do something creative?
• Want to take some time out?

Whatever you decide, write it down and start to think about what you would need to do to make it happen. Doing this also helps to clarify any further questions you have regarding any redundancy offer and helps to sharpen which aspects you’d like to negotiate. They will sometimes tell you that a redundancy package is ‘non negotiable’, in my experience everything is negotiable. Once you have a clearer idea of what you want ….ask for it. Also see our other post on ‘Life After redundancy’ which gives some extra hints and tips. Although this post is weighted towards the private sector the same principles apply.

Understand Your Strengths, Skills & experience
We often hear Public Sector workers say that they don’t have transferable skills and this is not true. The knack is in really understanding what your strengths are and this is where a Career Coach can be invaluable in helping you to unravel your thinking and raising confidence. For example, a Care Worker who say works with children will have many skills valuable to private sector nurseries or schools. Your previous job title does not limit your future.

Take some paper and draw 4 columns. In column 1 list everything you do well, if you can’t think of anything ask a colleague or a friend. Once complete choose you top 3. In column 2 now convert that strength into an ‘action orientated ’ word (if you haven’t already. For example, ‘began, organised, re-structured, conducted, consolidated, accelerated , enhanced’ and so on. We cover all of this and more on our bespoke CV and Interview courses. Doing this moves the emphasis away from your ‘job description’ which represents just your role at work to your strengths and skills as a person. In column three, start to list some of your best examples of where you have demonstrated this skill. In the last column, against each example write down what was the main thing you learned from this experience. You now have three areas that show what you can do well which can be included in your CV. Writing a good, concise CV takes understanding of yourself, skill and practice.

Market Yourself Effectively
When pulling together your CV there are many different formats. Whichever format you do choose you will need to cover off your main achievements. A very effective way to do this is by breaking your achievement into the following format:

• What was the situation or challenge?
• What did YOU do (actions and skills)?
• What was the outcome?

This format also works well when giving answers in interviews.

Stay Motivated & Stay Positive
There are many different ways to stay positive in the face of much change and uncertainty. Having a plan helps but auctioning that plan helps even more, so;

• Review your plan every day and do at least ONE thing on that plan. Either do the action that will have the biggest impact or the one thing you’ve been putting off. No ifs no buts just do it
• Work out the things that give you a buzz and make you feel good and make sure you plan in time to do those too, they can make all the difference
• Work out which things you can do for yourself and which things you need extra support on or training. If these can be completed before you leave your role, so much the better but if they can’t it just means greater focus needed to stay on track
• When you think you’ve done everything you can and you feel as though you’ve run out of ideas, ask yourself ‘what else could I do?’, use your network, family and friends to help generate ideas. However you should ultimately choose what’s best for you
• Get someone to act as your champion, that’s the role of a Life/Career Coach, the one person ALWAYS in your corner. Contact us to arrange a FREE initial coaching session.

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Good luck with your next steps and get in touch if you have any more questions!

Related articles:

• Public sector jobs outlook darkens (telegraph.co.uk)
• Cut pay but not jobs, says public sector (telegraph.co.uk)
• Public sector workers can hack it in private sector (telegraph.co.uk)