Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader I've been thinking about your job search journey lately. If you're a communications professional navigating today's bonkers job market, you're probably feeling a rollercoaster of emotions: hopeful one day, frustrated the next. Job hunting can be bloody hard, especially when you're doing it alone. That's why I created Get Hired!, the group coaching programme specifically for mid to senior comms and marketing professionals like you, who need more...
15 days ago • 2 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader Your annual review is coming up. Do you dare ask for a promotion? You're staring at an advert for a senior job vacancy, wondering if you've got what it takes. Stop wondering and start asking. Most communication professionals I coach are brilliant at advocating for others, but when it comes to advocating for themselves. Hmm, not so much. Until we start working together, obviously.I have always asked.After university, I was temping at my Dad's...
22 days ago • 2 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader What does burnout feel like? Ever had that feeling where your job in comms, once your happy place, now feels like wading through treacle with concrete boots on? What if it's not just a bad week? I was reading some research by burnout experts Maslach and Leiter who put it succinctly. Burnout is when "energy turns into exhaustion, involvement turns into cynicism, and efficacy turns into ineffectiveness." Here's how to spot if you're burning out: You...
29 days ago • 1 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader If you’ve ever sat in a meeting, looked around, and thought, “What the hell am I doing here?” – welcome to the club. You’re not broken, you’re human. After 30 years in comms (first in PR, then 23 years as a recruiter, and now as a coach), I’ve noticed something fascinating: The most brilliant communicators are TERRIBLE at recognising their own value. You craft perfect messages for your organisation but freeze when it comes to talking about your...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader Last week, I hosted another Job Search SOS Q&A session with Lucy Cairncross, MD of VMA GROUP. It was an opportunity for exhausted job seekers to ask the questions that are keeping them up at night. Lucy has been a recruiter for many years, experiencing major economic shifts - from the 2008 financial crisis, to the pandemic. She has developed a solid understanding of market resilience. If you didn't have the opportunity to join us, you can listen...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader “Can you just pretty this up?” “Can you just turn this into a newsletter?” “Can you just make this sound better?” Sound familiar? If you’re still being treated as the company’s Powerpoint Pixie instead of as a strategic partner, I need you to hear this: It’s NOT because your organisation doesn’t value communications. It’s because you haven’t positioned yourself as more than a tactical executor. After coaching hundreds of communications...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader Tell me about yourself 🤢It's a lazy, predictable interview question, but you know it's coming. So be prepared.This is the main thing:Don’t start at the beginning, start at the end. The interviewer doesn’t want to hear about your first paper round.Here’s the formula:➕ Your elevator pitch should start with where you are now.➕ Then discuss the main themes that run through your career. What problems do you solve and how do you solve them?➕ Follow this...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader If I could wave a magic wand and hand you your ‘dream’ job, what would it be?* It’s a tough question isn’t it!? You might be so caught up in your current situation that you haven’t given much thought to what lies ahead. How are you going to get there, if you don’t know where ‘there’ is? *By the way, I’m not keen on the phrase ‘dream job’ because perfection doesn’t exist. There will always have to be some compromises. I’m using it here as a...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader PIVOTS! Have you made one? I've made five during my career, some more successful than others. If you want to make a successful career pivot, you need to identify your transferable skills. "OK, but then what!?" I hear you scream. You need a strategy Connect the dots: What connects your current sector to your target sector? For example, if you want to move from consumer PR into working for a charity, it might be stakeholder management, campaign...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Vicki MarinkerCandid Career Coach 🎯 Hi Reader If you've been on the hunt for a new job recently, it might feel like you're trying to play poker wearing a blindfold, against robots. The game has changed and no one has bothered to explain the rules. It all used to be so straightforward. Now we’re dealing with AI gatekeepers, ghosting employers, even after multiple interviews, and companies asking for free work disguised as 'assessments.' Sound familiar? Faced with these challenges, most people...
3 months ago • 2 min read