Charlotte Young

In my experience over the last 5-6 months, HYPERPERSONALISATION has been integral to starting meaningful conversations and building long-term relationships. I think that those days of mass-messaging options/features are long gone and outdated. Passive candidates, especially in an uncertain market, need something truly special to entice them to move on from a secure position. Find info on their profile about their strengths, after-hours interests, and because I'm in the tech/software development field, I like to find a candidate on GitHub to also see the repos and personal projects they work on. These are all great conversation starters (and not everyone does this!) so you will definitely stand out more than other headhunters 😀

Technology is a great thing to help everyone improve their performance, time management and results - so make sure you use the best software for your targets/goals! Whether it is Trello for personal time management/task completion, the right software to actually carry out your responsibilities and consulting etc. Make sure you get the best training possible around how to get the most out of software to make your work more efficient, save you time and improve consulting quality. If you don't feel like a bit of software is making your work better/saving you time/helping your development, the chances are you may not be using it right or can request a new feature to be added. If in doubt, ask for more training too!

Mentorship significantly accelerates self-development across various fields. To benefit from mentorship, assess your strengths, weaknesses, and 2-3 areas for improvement that align with goals over the next 12 weeks - addressing everything simultaneously is impractical (and most likely impossible to address all at once with efficiency and longevity). Being a mentee or mentor offers valuable learning opportunities. Both roles are mutually beneficial. Identify successful individuals in your desired field, grasp their insights, and learn from diverse perspectives, irrespective of experience levels. In rapidly changing fields like tech, a mentor learning from recent university graduates with cutting-edge knowledge expands expertise.

What about we take it even 1 step before all these points? Consulting in the right way starts from the very 1st contact (before you even get to speaking with the client). I think gone are the days where an email or LinkedIn InMail grab the attention of a Decision Maker getting 30+ per day. Let's be creative! Use video, voicenotes and hyperpersonalisation to make you stand out from the crowd using ChatGPT to formulate their text-based BD reachouts. The internet is an amazing resource - with just some time spent researching a company/industry, you may be able to impress and identify the root cause or problem on your own without even needing to ask. This means you may be able to offer relevant data on the first call, as opposed to gather it