Sue Multicam.wav 12/03/2013
I: Thank you very much for coming Sue for this initial career coaching session. My name is Gill and I’m a careers adviser and a career coach. We’ve got about half an hour today to have an initial discussion about career coaching and its possibilities for you and for me to understand a little bit about your current situation and we can decide whether it would be useful for you to have some coaching in the future and how we might go about that, OK?
R: Yes, good.
I: So, just first of all, I’d like to say a little bit about how career coaching works. It’s a process that’sa dialogue. It’s very much about exploring how things are for you from your point of view at the moment, so I’ll be asking you questions and perhaps commenting on a few things that you say that will help you to kind of see a way forward for yourself and decide what your next steps are going to be.
R: Oh lovely.
I: OK? I might make some notes whilst we’re talking, but everything that you say is confidential to the setting that we’re in right now and I’ll destroy these after we’ve spoken.
R: OK.
I: OK? Right, so I’d like to sort of start off really by just asking you if you could outline what’s led you to decide that you could benefit from some career coaching at this time?
R: OK. Well, for the last nine years I’ve been a self-employed childminder. I’ve had my own childminding business, which is worked around my four children, two of which have currently gone through the school process. Two are still in the school process, but the reason mainly that I find myself here now is that in October I had a back operation due to a slipped disc, which resulted in me – well, it resulted in me not really being able to work doing my daily job – my childminding. Obviously, there’s a lot of lifting and stooping and what have you in the job, so I’ve been advised really to look for something else to do and here is where I now find myself in a bit of a quandary really as to what I should do, because obviously for the last nine years I’ve been out of what I call ‘the outside working environment’, so I really don’t know where to start and look for what to do with the skills that I’ve got that I’ve obtained over the years.
I: OK.
R: So hopefully you can give me some guidance.
I: Right OK, so are you working at all at the moment?
R: I’m currently doing just sort of before and after school in that I, you know, work sort of an hour in the morning. The parents drop their children off to me first thing and then I pick them up from school in the afternoon, but I’m only doing that a few days a week, so ideally I’d like something perhaps three days a week if I could get something that worked around the school hours, but if the right – you know, if I got the right opportunity then I’d look to do something fulltime, but ideally, you know as I say, in an ideal world I’d like to be able to still take my children to school and pick them up, you know, in the evening, but I know that may be a little bit difficult to find that employment.
I: Yes, so the situation’s kind of...the situation you’re in is that your back operation has meant that you can’t be doing the childminding that you have been doing?
R: I can’t do the lifting side of it.
I: Right.
R: That’s the issue and obviously you’re putting car seats in the vehicle. In pushchairs there’s a lot of bending, stooping to put those up and lifting children into highchairs, changing nappies, there’s a lot of involvement in it.
I: Sure OK, so what’s it been like being a childminder?
R: Well, I’ve really enjoyed it, you know. I get a lot of satisfaction out of doing it. I’ve met some lovely people over the years and as I say, I’ve done it for nine years and these people who...it started as a work thing, but it’s become more of a social thing and we’ve all become very good friends as the years have gone on. It’s been ideal round my children because if they’re off ill or anything, I don’t have to have a day sick, unless it’s obviously something really contagious, so it’s worked really good in that respect. I’ve learned a lot of skills over the years. You know, I’ve got First Aid, Food Hygiene, a lot of shall we say, negotiating skills, because with parents I’ve learnt a lot about child protection. Accountancy; you know, I’ve run my own business, so I’ve been introduced into a lot of different variety of things over the years. I think it can be quite stressful as well, but yes, generally I’ve really enjoyed it and I will be sorry not to do it any longer, but you know, that’s the way it’s gone unfortunately.
I: So, do you have any kind of broad ideas about the sort of work environment that you might like to be in, in the future?
R: I’d quite like to do something round sort of office work. Mainly, before I did childminding, I had 11 years sort of experience in sort of Marketing and Business Management. I worked for a well known company called Land Rover. It was Rover group at the time and I took redundancy from that when BMW sold out from Rover group, so I have got a lot of years of experience as I say, in the marketing field in producing brochures, marketing material and I wouldn’t mind going back into that because I’ve done a little...I’ve done a bit of that with my childminding and we do learning journeys for the children, which is like a very elaborate scrapbook of their life from when they start with me to when they leave and I’ve done...you know, I quite enjoy doing things on the computer and what have you, doing like their own sort of scrapbook, so I quite would like to do something around that, but yes, I’m not sure that I’d want to go into a nursery or anything like that. I don’t think I can, unless I could do it on the business side if you like, so that’s something that I’m sort of looking at, at the moment.
I: So that’s interesting then, so you’ve talked about your previous experience and the skills that you have enjoyed from that that you’ve carried on using and the childminding, but then you mentioned sort of other childcare sector kind of opportunities.
R: Yes.
I: So, since you’re in this situation, tell me a little bit about what you’ve...of anything that you might have done already to sort of think about the future and what you might be doing?
R: Well, I’ve recently...I’ve had a go at doing my CV and I have looked on the various Websites. You know, I’ve done a bit of googling and what have you and I have visited the Job Centre. Mainly because of me being self-employed, I’ve had to sort of claim a benefit, so they’ve helped me. I’ve had to go to the Job Centre and have certain interviews shall we say and what it was with the National Careers Service, so they’ve given me a few pointers on how to do my CV, so I have had a go at doing that and I have had a go at writing covering letters to go with my CV, but generally I’m sort of looking in the paper and the local notice boards around various areas, so yes, I’m sort of toying with the idea of what to do, but it’s knowing really what field to go into. That’s the dilemma that I find myself at really.
I: OK, so you’ve been looking very broadly?
R: Yes.
I: But then you say knowing the fields that you want to go into?
R: Well, as I said earlier, ideally I’d like to have a job that worked around school hours, but there’s not...I can’t find many jobs that work round school hours that would give me I think, the fulfilment that I’m looking for. Generally, they tend to be like in cafes or in local supermarkets and what have you, but I want something a little bit more than that that uses the skills that I’ve got, you know, that I’ve acquired over the years, so I want something that I can really engage my brain at, but whether or not I can do it in the school hours? A lot of the jobs that I’ve seen are, you know, fulltime and having not done fulltime, you know, having somebody else to take the children to school and picking them up, I really want to do that on a gradual basis, but I think it might be a bit of... My youngest daughter, she’s only seven. I know a lot of mums do it as a norm, but because I’ve...you know, my children have been used to me being there, so to suddenly not being there at all I think would have an effect on them, so I think it has to be a gradual process.
I: Right.
R: So I think perhaps maybe I’m looking for something part-time going into something fulltime.
I: OK right, so we’re kind of mapping out aren’t we that there are lots of different sorts of things that are going on at the moment that in terms of looking for work, is it the right level of work in terms of will it give you the fulfilment that – that’s the word that you used, yes?
R: Yes.
I: And then there’s also how you managed this process of having worked in the home to working outside of the home?
R: Yes. You see one of the things that I’ve found with my eldest daughter – I’ve got two boys, two girls, but my eldest daughter is...like when you say to them, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” and they’re saying “I want to stay at home and be a mum,” so part of me is thinking, well it’s about time that I did something that I can get out of the house and be sort of a role model to my children into being a working mum so they realise that not all mums stay at home. Because of the environment that I’m in, a lot of my friends are also childminders, so my children are growing up thinking that all mums are childminders. They’re not, you know, career women and so I want them really to sort of set their sights a little bit higher than they currently are. Not that it’s wrong to be a stay at home mum or anything like that, but I’d just like them to have the opportunity to perhaps do something different.
I: So it sounds like that’s quite an important part of your motivation.
R: Yes, it is, yes.
I: Yes, in terms of an end goal.
R: Yes.
I: But I’m also sensing that there’s some anxiety about how you get from the current situation to a situation where that’s normal that mum goes out to work.
R: Yes.
I: OK, so what would...have you any thoughts about what it would be helpful to explore with me in this conversation?
R: Perhaps some assistance with how to go about applying for jobs?
I: OK, yes.
R: And certainly, if you could have a look at my CV that would help.
I: OK.
R: And perhaps maybe help me look at the skills I’ve got as to perhaps what sector I could go into. You know, whenever it comes up for the search mechanisms on these various job sites it says like, you know, ‘What are you looking for?’ and it’s like I’ve done management before, but I don’t know that I could go back into management and then my fear is that if people see my CV they can see that obviously I’ve got to that level, so suddenly to apply for something perhaps that is a lesser role like in admin work, or...you know, people are going to question, ‘Well why have you got to this level and then you’re suddenly going down several steps?’ sort of thing. I mean, OK that’s all you can put in I suppose in the covering letter to help do that, but it’s all things that I’m just a little bit unsure about at this moment in time and as I say, it’s nine years since I’ve done any sort of job hunting, so...and I’ve been spoilt being my own boss as well, so it’s getting back into how it all works really.
I: Right, OK and so there’s something there about how...it sounds like there’s something about how sort of you can put together these two separate aspects of your career to date, which is the time at Rover and the time childminding?
R: Yes.
I: And you’ve got both of those to work from and how do you present those and know what’s the best way?
R: Yes, because they are quite varied. I mean obviously, you know, you explain that it was a career break as such, but obviously to go from working, advertising vehicles to suddenly, you know, looking after under fives it’s quite...
I: ...It’s quite different.
R: It’s quite different, so there are a lot of different skills involved in that, so yes.
I: Perhaps another way of thinking about that is that it gives you a very broad range of experiences.
R: Yes, Oh yes.
I: Yes, that you’d take into the job market now.
R: Yes, hopefully.
I: OK, so you mentioned having seen vacancies that were not right in terms of the hours, but still interested you.
R: Yes.
I: Yes? Can you tell me a little bit more about those?
R: Well, I mean there is one particular in our local preschool, I’ve recently discovered that the supervisor has recently left and so there’s...so all the experience that I’ve had childminding, running my own business is the same as what you’d carry through to the nursery, or that it’s a different setting, but all the policies etc all could be very similar, so I’ve enquired about that, but it’s like the time start is like half past 8 and at half past 3 it finishes, so it’s just that extra half an hour for schooling, but you know, possibly we can work at it, but not to say that I’d get the job, but I’ve found that that’s an opening as well. I also found some other jobs at half past 9 until half past 2, which are ideal, but they’re too far away for the travelling aspect, you know, to allow to getting to school on time, so it’s a bit of a quandary as to what to do, yes.
I: So, I wonder whether I’m on the right track here. What I’m imagining from hearing you talk is a situation where you look at particular vacancies and you look at the job details and so forth and maybe you’re drawn to some because you think they sound interesting or suitable and very quickly your brain is going into, ‘How would I manage that then?’
R: Yes.
I: Yes? ‘How would I make that work for the family?’
R: Yes.
I: ‘What are the hours, where is it, how would I get there?’ and so forth.