Friday, June 5, 2020

Why Effective Hiring Strategies Include Effective Firing Strategies - Spark Hire

Why Effective Hiring Strategies Include Effective Firing Strategies - Spark Hire While creating compelling recruiting techniques, businesses think about cost, assets and the advantages of using different assets. HR divisions spend innumerable hours developing comprehensive onboarding projects to prepare and grow new workers productively and expediently. The objective: fascination, maintenance and inspiration. However barely any organizations consider their firing, or end, methodologies in this procedure. In any case, viable and aware terminating methodologies play an significant job in the recruiting procedure. Compelling employing rehearses â€" and the subsequent commitment take a very long time to create and consummate but only seconds to fix if the organization doesn't likewise participate in viable terminating rehearses. To be an employer of decision incorporates treating representatives deferentially during the whole employment cycle, particularly end. By definition, being a business of decision signifies ability from great distances abroad rushes to a firm â€" everyone needs to work for a specific organization. Organizations viewed as a business of choice are situated to effectively charm and recruit the best ability â€" the very ability fundamental for promoting and accomplishing business destinations, making esteem and affecting the base line.Therefore, to make sure about the best ability, managers of decision create powerful employing rehearses. In any case, what takes a very long time to create and execute can be fixed promptly with mismanaged termination rehearses. Organizations need the changing workers the ones leaving to carry only sentiments of altruism. Without altruism, businesses of decision become bosses to avoid. In this way, successful recruiting methodologies incorporate viable terminating techniques. As per Lee Hecht Harrison's Separation and Severance Benchmark Practices Study, most organizations have reviewed their detachment rehearses in the previous year. As it were, organizations perceive two critical components: (1) they despite everything need high performing ability and (2) eventually, when the economy rebounds, they will require MORE of it. Extensive end techniques include the way toward leading the genuine termination professionally and truly, by offering severance and profession change administrations. Together, these components involve conscious treatment. Conscious treatment fortifies: 1. Organization marking and commercial center respectability 2. Effective progress into new jobs 3. Altruism and future business associations with ex-representatives 4. Proceeding with elite of current workers When creating aware terminating procedures, think about the whole procedure: 1. Correspondence When creating compelling terminating procedures, center around open correspondence instead of closed door rehearses. Already, organizations would direct the terminations covertly, unobtrusively and walk out the fired worker as fast as could be expected under the circumstances. Nobody needs to be dealt with like a pariah. Permit sufficient opportunity to talk with the individual and address concerns. At that point permit the individual to chat with different representatives, assemble their possessions and bid farewell. The individual needs to lament as does his/her collaborators. The stun is increasingly agonizing if the person's desk is abruptly unfilled and individuals begin making answers as opposed to getting them. 2. Profession Transition Services Utilize progress administrations or outplacement firms to effectively re-convey ability. It isn't just a sound business practice, however a long haul, best-practice procedure. The fired worker may become a future colleague, income generator or referral. 3. Trustworthiness Talk with the gathering or remaining representatives in regards to the end. Individuals start worrying about when and how they will be terminated. Permit workers to pose inquiries and answer questions honestly. To keep up manager of decision status, the whole work life cycle should be considered and treated deferentially. From talking, recruiting, and onboarding to end, severance and vocation changes, workers cautiously see how organizations handle the process. Promoting commitment and guaranteeing a high performing ability pipeline commands the firing strategies be as powerful as the employing methodologies. Do you have an aware terminating methodology remembered for your recruiting procedure? Make certain to let us know in the remarks. Picture: Courtesy of Flickr by striatic About the Author: Stacey Hawley possesses Credo, a lifelong guiding, workforce progress, initiative turn of events and remuneration exhortation firm for organizations and organizations. Before propelling Credo, Stacey was a board-level counsel (Fortune 500 firms, pre-IPO, private, startup and not-for-benefits) for the biggest HR worldwide counseling firm (Towers Watson) in their chief official pay practice. She writes normally for workingmom.com, is a blogger and essayist for Working Mother Magazine, composes for different outlets, for example, LearnVest, BusinessInsider and The Glass Hammer, and has various article references. She moved on from Cornell University with a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations and got her MBA from the University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Avoid the Resume Black Hole With These Tips - TheJobNetwork

Maintain a strategic distance from the Resume Black Hole With These Tips - TheJobNetwork Tired of applying and failing to hear back? Utilize these resume tips to guarantee your application makes it past the electronic watchmen. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-promotion 1467144145037-0'); }); If you've at any point searched for a vocation, you're likely acquainted with the infamous resume dark opening. It resembles the following: You secure the ideal position on the web, present your resume, and afterward pause, trusting against trusts that you'll get a get back to. Usually, nobody ever reaches you about your application and you're left considering what you could have done any other way to change the outcome.Sound natural? You're not alone.As a profession mentor I regularly get notification from work searchers who are baffled by the absence of reaction from bosses. What a significant number of them don't understand, in any case, is that as a rule, the employing director never got their activity application.Let me clarify. Before your request for employment is passed along to the recruiting director, it initially must be surveyed by one, if not two, beginning watchmen: an electronic screen known as a candidate following framework (ATS), and a lesser level HR coordinator.In both of these cases, the guardian has been told to examine the report for significant snippets of data and terms identified with the current job. In the event that the resume meets this measures, it will go through the screen and advance toward the following analyst, either an accomplished selection representative or recruiting chief who will have a superior comprehension of your work and capacities. In the event that your resume doesn't make it past these underlying guards, the employing supervisor is never made mindful of your application.Below are some resume tips to enable your application to keep away from the resume dark gap and endure these underlying surveys and to the highest point of the recruiting director's pile.Avoid the Headers and FootersDo n't embed your contact data into the genuine header part of the Word archive. This can get mixed by the candidate following framework and create turmoil for the scout. Rather, decline your top edge on the report to 0.5 inches and spot your name, contact data, and hyperlinks at the highest point of the page.The same goes for utilizing the footer area of the document.Stick to SimplicityWhile you might need to show your innovativeness to the recruiting supervisor, the resume isn't the spot to do as such. Truth be told, most ATS frameworks get effortlessly befuddled by a resume's additional fancy odds and ends, for example, logos, pictures, installed graphs, images, and concealing, and could without much of a stretch reject your application out of confusion.Stick to standard textual styles that are ATS-accommodating. This incorporates Calibri, Arial, Tahoma, and Cambria. Snap on the accompanying connect to see a full rundown of the best text styles for your resume.Use standard headers f or the various segments of your resume, for example, Professional Experience or Work History, Education and Professional Development, Technical Skills, thus forth.Lastly, transfer your resume as a Word report rather than a PDF to the business' vocation site. ATS frameworks despite everything experience difficulty handling PDFs and may miss significant data in your resume. Spare the PDF adaptation for when you're messaging your resume to a systems administration contact and need to guarantee the organizing remains intact.Proofread Your Resume CarefullyWhile you may get dinged by an enrollment specialist for incorrect spelling definately when you intended to state certainly, at any rate they'll have the option to make sense of what you're attempting to state. A product framework won't. Try not to let your application get hurled into the resume dark gap due to a basic typo.Proofread your resume. At that point edit it once more. At that point hand it over to your companion who studied E nglish and have them survey it. Senseless missteps can be effortlessly kept away from on the off chance that you avoid potential risk with these resume tips.Incorporate Relevant KeywordsEvery calling has its own arrangement of language, abbreviations, affirmations, and ranges of abilities that depict their work and industry. ATS frameworks are customized to search for these resume catchphrases to rank your application and decide whether you're a solid match for the role.In request to make it past these underlying surveys, it's fantastically essential to advance your resume with pertinent watchwords. Start by assessing the sets of expectations you're applying to and observe the terms that routinely spring up on these activity postings. In the event that you have these abilities, fuse these terms all through your resume in the Core Competencies and Work Experience areas. Make certain to incorporate a Technical Skills segment towards the base of your resume that rundowns the frameworks with which you are capable. You can likewise reorder various sets of expectations into JobScan.co to recognize the most oftentimes utilized resume catchphrases and perceive how your application measures up.Before you plunk down to work out your job and obligations from your past positions, investigate the example sets of expectations you've assembled that speak to your activity target. How would they characterize the position and its obligations? What explicit language do they use to express the center prerequisites for the job? On the off chance that you've accomplished that work previously or have those capabilities, depict it on your resume utilizing precisely the same wording.In expansion, make certain to incorporate the abbreviation just as the complete name of each activity title, affirmation, degree, or association that is related with your expert experience and capabilities. For example, you may put SSGB after your name at the highest point of your resume, however make cert ain to likewise illuminate Six Sigma Green Belt under your rundown of confirmations. The equivalent applies for regular industry terms; while your activity title might be Executive of MARCOM, it's critical to likewise incorporate the expression showcasing interchanges while depicting your role.Dont fall into the resume dark opening. You will be unable to control the enrollment specialist's activities, yet these resume tips will guarantee your employment form makes it past the ATS screen and onto a person for review.This article was initially distributed on TopResume.TopResume is a Talent Inc. organization, the individual marking goal for all vocation driven experts. Through our broad system of expert essayists, we offer vocation exhortation and break down and compose a larger number of resumes and LinkedIn profiles than some other assistance on the planet. Prepared to begin? Solicitation a free resume scrutinize today.

Friday, May 29, 2020

Interview tips Our advice to help you ace the interview

Interview tips Our advice to help you ace the interview by Michael Cheary Pre-interview nerves beginning to get the better of you? You’re not alone…In fact, over 60% of candidates we asked in a recent survey admitted to feeling the pressure before the big day. It’s understandable, particularly when interviewing for a job that you really feel will better your career and/or lifestyle. But what if we told you it didn’t have to be that way?To help you get over the awkwardness, here are six interview tips to help you nail it:  1. How to prepare for an interviewNever underestimate the importance of preparation.Not only is it one of the easiest ways to master the interview process, it’s also one that is often overlooked by applicants. It can be as simple as researching the company and finding out more about the marketplace, but that alone can be the difference between success and failure.Still struggling? Read our guide on how to prepare for an interview.2. What to wear to an interviewOk, so they said sophisticated smart-casual on the job description. Which is great. But aside from knowing what that means, you also don’t know if you own anything which even remotely does the job.Getting your outfit right is a potential minefield. Get it right, and you’ve instantly shown you can fit in with the team. But get it wrong, and you might have just blown your chances quicker than you can say ‘socks and sandal combo’.To help you decide on your #OOTD, we’ve spoken to some of the UK’s best fashion bloggers’ to get their advice on what to wear to an interview â€" and just as importantly, what not to.3. How to answer common interview questionsOnce you’ve done your research and decided on an outfit, it’s time to get to the good stuff.There are literally hundreds different questions that could come up during your interview, and answering them in the right way is a key part of increasing your chances of success.And although you can’t always prepare for every eventuality, you can prep yourself for some of the more common questions that could come up.So, for advice on how to answer everything from ‘what are your weaknesses’ and ‘where do you see yourself in five years’ time’, through to ‘what motivates you’ and ‘what are your hobbies and interests, read our guides to answering common interview questions and five interview questions you should stop being scared of.4. How to answer curveball questionsPreparing for common questions is one thing, but could you handle a curveball?A.K.A the-questions-deliberately-asked-to-trip-you-up, curveball questions are a great way for employers to gauge character and see how you work under pressure. Unfortunately, it’s exactly these kinds of questions that prove the source of interview nightmares for candidates unless they know what’s coming.Potential questions vary depending on employer (and/or their general meanness), ranging from ‘If you were an animal, what would you be’ to ‘how many basketballs could you fit on a busâ €™.For more specific info on how to get over the curveball curse, read our guide on how to answer curveball questions and other difficult interview questions answered.5. How to handle different types of interviewNot all interviews will take the standard question-and-answer format.For certain industries, telephone or group interviews may also make up part of the process. Without the proper tailoring in your pre-interview preparations, you’ll run the risk of passing up a golden opportunity to shine.To avoid any embarrassing mumbling on your mobile or something which seems like a bad scene from The Apprentice, we’ve got all your telephone interview tips and group interview tips covered.6. How to follow-up on an interviewNow you’ve got all of your preparations out of the way, it’s time to think about the follow-up.Firstly, make sure that you know exactly what you should be asking at the end of the interview. Knowing how to answer questions is one thing, but it’s demonstrating that you have some excellent ones of your own that really starts to show your initiative and passion for the opportunity.And all the hard work doesn’t stop when the interview ends. Following up after the interview and asking an interviewer for feedback should be a key part of your jobseeking process. So instead of spending your time wondering ‘why haven’t they called’, get out there and do something about it.The worst thing you can do at an interview?  OK, so out of all the classic interview nightmares, which are the ones that really worry jobseekers the most?We spoke to a group of university students to find out and see if recruiters actually agree  Still searching for your perfect position? View all available jobs nowFind a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your perso nal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. Interview Techniques Job interview tips

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Benefits of E-Coaching - VocationVillage

Benefits of E-Coaching - VocationVillage Email-based career coaching (e-coaching) is ideal for some clients. Benefits include: A writing-based approach for clients who prefer writing to speaking A complete record of the conversations Spontaneity as there is no scheduling to consider Convenience as geographic location and time zone dont need to be accommodated Affordability Great fit for brainstorming career options, career decision-making, reviewing personal marketing materials, planning and implementing a career change or a job search, getting support through challenging or politically tricky work situations, and improving work/life satisfaction and integrationAs an example, I e-coached a client about her career decisions. We never met face-to-face or talked via telephone. After some e-coaching, she happily accepted a new job, and she expressed enthusiasm for e-coaching. I, too, thought it was an excellent way to work for me and for this particular client, so I asked her to summarize why she chose e-coaching and what she l iked about it.Here is her reply, published with her permission:I love e-coaching for two big reasons. One is that I can go back through our email string and reread what weve discussed. Because of that I can remember what we talked about and also go back and see how I characterized certain things at those times. It can be really helpful to go back and reread not only what you wrote, but also what I wrote. The second is that I can do it on my own time. I can write when the mood strikes, or when Im having a crisis, and get it all down on paper. You always let me know when youll respond and you respond when you say you will so I know what to expect from our exchanges. Also, it feels like I get a lot from the time allotted. An hour seems to provide for a lot of give and take and plenty of feedback to reflect upon. I can see that it might not be for everyone, but I write a lot in my work, and so am good at getting thoughts onto paper. I think that helps make this a good approach for my s tyle. And I might add one more thingI tend to be a bit of a people-pleaser. In person I find sometimes I end up responding to cues I think Im getting from others. By email I suspect its easier for me to speak my mind and really know its coming from me. Julie McNalleyAnother client has confidentially retained my e-coaching services for over a year to build her business and navigate complex interpersonal situations with her corporate clients. She says,E-coaching is so convenient. I get immediate feedback while in the moment of completing the business task or communication. The comments are timely and always right on the mark!Want to explore if e-coaching is right for you? Please contact me.

Friday, May 22, 2020

FlexJobs Warns of Work at Home Scams

FlexJobs Warns of Work at Home Scams Embed from Getty Images National Consumer Protection Week   was March 6-12,  and FlexJobs has detailed three new online scams that specifically target job seekers interested in work-from-home jobs.  These job scams include the reshipping scam, the Post Office scam, and the online interview scam.  According to a FlexJobs survey with over 2,600 respondents, 17 percent of job seekers have reported being a victim of a job scam at least once, if not multiple times. 81 percent of respondents indicating they were either “very concerned” (33 percent) or “on guard” (48 percent) during their job search.  Only 5 percent of respondents said they have never seen a scam to their knowledge. “The best protection against job scams is to equip job seekers with information about the latest techniques scammers are using to trap their victims.  Many people believe that job scams are always very obvious and easy to avoid, but unfortunately there are an increasing number of sophisticated job scams,” said Sara Sutton Fell, founder and CEO of FlexJobs.  â€Since there are an estimated 60 to 70 scams for every one legitimate work-from-home job position, job seekers looking for telecommuting roles have to be vigilant in guarding against fraudulent opportunities.” Here are three new job scams, with  advice  on howto avoid them. Reshipping Job Scam: Job seekers receive packages usually containing devices such as laptops or iPhones at their home. They test the products, then ship them to an overseas location. The items, however, have been purchased with stolen credit cardsscammers use the job seeker to smuggle the goods out of the country. Victims can be sued for robbery or even mail fraud, since the postage labels for reshipping can also be fraudulent. Know the job titles scammers will use to advertise for the position. Reshipper has now become synonymous with job scams, so the listing could become “merchandising manager” or “package processing assistant.” Familiarize yourself with the duties of this scam. They might include receiving, processing, and mailing packages to a foreign address using pre-paid postage mailing labels that are provided by email. Post Office Job Scam: Scam artists are now targeting people looking for federal or post office jobs as their next victims. The scammers advertise in classified sections of local newspapers, or on sites like Craigslist, and offer, for a fee, to help job seekers find and apply for federal or post office jobs. They might even urge job seekers to buy study materials for the postal exams. They even offer a money back guarantee should the job seeker fail to pass the exam. Know where to apply. Scam artists would like you to believe that there are “hidden” postal and federal jobs that only they have access to, but all openings with the U.S. Postal Service can be found by visiting usps.com/careers or by clicking the careers link at the bottom of the usps.com home page. Apply via the USPS website, not via a third party. Don’t be fooled by an official-sounding name or title. The FTC reports some scammers using names like the “U.S. Agency for Career Advancement” or the “Postal Employment Service,” neither of which exist. Online Interview with a “Real” Company Job Scam: Scammers use the names of real companies to capitalize on the good company’s name and lure unsuspecting job seekers into their scam. Once they’re “hired,” they are either scammed by providing their private information (such as a Social Security number, bank account info, or both) or they unwittingly become part of a crime by transferring stolen money or goods into or out of the country or across state lines. The job seeker could then even be charged with a federal crime. Contact the company. Contact the company to ensure that the job is legitimate, but don’t use the number the recruiter provides. Do a fresh Google search to find the company’s website, and then verify that the company actually has a job opening for the position you’re applying for. Search for the job online. If the result comes up in other cities with the exact same job post, it is likely a scam. Other tips to avoid job scams and red flags to consider during the work-from-home job search process include: Interviewing via instant message: Recruitment through text message or instant message is not a common practice. Most hiring managers will reach out via email or phone, and follow up with either an in-person or phone interview. An IM interview is mostly a scam if it’s very short and the job seeker is offered the job before they’re asked any real questions. Also, scammers will press people to accept the job right away, without giving them a chance to think it through properly. Watching where your resume is posted online: If a resume is posted online, scammers can often determine not only that the person is job hunting, but also find personal contact information. If you’re going to post your resume online, only include an email address. Providing any payment to the company: There are no legitimate jobs that require job seekers to receive money, keep a portion, and forward the rest. Training, computer equipment, or programs necessary for the job should be detailed up front, so that job seekers are aware of any investments they need to make. Some scammers sell “work-from-home kits” that promise to teach people how to make money from home. Giving out personal banking info: If a job requires clicking a specific link or asks for detailed personal and financial information, it’s very likely they are trying to collect sensitive information for malicious use. There is never a good reason why a potential employer would need access to a candidate’s bank account. About FlexJobs FlexJobs is the leading online service for professionals seeking telecommuting, flexible schedule, part-time, and freelance jobs. With flexible job listings in over 50 career categories, and opportunities ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time, FlexJobs offers job seekers a safe, easy, and efficient way to find professional and legitimate flexible job listings. Having helped over one million people in their job searches, FlexJobs has appeared on CNN and Marketplace Money and in TIME, Forbes, Fortune, and hundreds of other trusted media outlets. FlexJobs Founder CEO Sara Sutton Fell has also launched two additional partner sites, Remote.co and 1 Million for Work Flexibility, to help provide education and awareness about the viability and benefits of remote working and work flexibility.

Monday, May 18, 2020

Six Alternative Careers For Teachers

Six Alternative Careers For Teachers When you graduated from university with that prestigious honours degree in Primary Education, all bright eyed and bushy tailed you felt incredibly excited and optimistic about your future career as a Teacher. You set out to inspire and to change lives and your mind was filled with ideas as to how to make your lessons so enjoyable and fun that your students loved learning. Flash forward three or four years down the line and perhaps you are feeling completely burnt out from your career as a Teacher. The cute little angels that you had always envisaged teaching are not angels at all, but stapler throwing, crayon stealing, hair pulling demons. Okay maybe thats a slight exaggeration but for whatever reason, the experience is not entirely as you expected and you are looking for a change. Here are some alternative careers for teachers to consider: Teach English Online Okay we know what youre thinking. I want a break from teaching but youre suggesting switching teaching with Teaching? Okay we totally get it but hear us out Teaching online from home can be a completely different ballgame to teaching English in a classroom environment. For starters you are teaching from the comfort of your own home and typically, your classes will just be conducted on a one-to-one basis. Imagine how delightful that could be! Instead of teaching fractions to a classroom filled with 30 hyperactive children, you can just practice spoken English with one quiet and studious individual.   It sounds too   good to be true, right? Teaching English online generally entails practicing spoken English with adults and children based in foreign countries (often the Far East) who want to improve their English abilities. Since many people in foreign countries want to improve their English in order to improve their career prospects amid a global economy there is plenty of demand for English Teachers. The pay is good and you can manage your own schedule meaning as many or as few classes as you like. Whats more is that all of this is done from your home so you dont have a long and arduous commute to work to contend with every day. Become a Corporate Trainer So you woke up one morning and decided that you would like to make a change from your career teaching children. Thats understandable and a degree in teaching opens the door to plenty of similar opportunities. Perhaps there are aspects of teaching that you thoroughly enjoyed, however you have had enough with the additional complications of dealing with children (controlling their behaviors, etc). Many people consider teaching adults as a whole different, more relaxed ballgame and becoming a corporate trainer is a great opportunity to enjoy this. Working as a corporate trainer may entail teaching specific courses related to a particular job, or it may simply be informing new employees at an organization about the companys processes and protocols. Become a Tutor Have you ever noticed how children act completely differently in different environments? When you have thirty children together all crammed into one room, things can be chaotic, however in a one-to-one situation, that usually loud and brash child can become quite polite and demonstrate a fascination with history. Tutoring could be a good alternative if you are stressed out from conventional teaching. You will really be able to see the progress in childrens work and their behavior will be much better in a quieter atmosphere. Create Informative Courses Creating courses about skills that you possess are a great way to make a passive income (aka income that can be earned while you are asleep). Websites such as Udemy feature courses that people can purchase in order to build on and improve on particular skills. For example, courses may cover how to build a successful blog, how to make money from cryptocurrency or in your case, practical teaching advice for new teachers. You could create courses on behavior management, lesson planning, and any number of different teaching topics. Create one or two courses to test the waters and if you start enjoying sales and success, you can add more courses to your repertoire. You only have to sell a small handful in order to make a profit, but there are many people who make a full time living from passive income in this manner. Consider Producing Teaching Materials or Writing Publishers of teaching textbooks and other resources and materials used in the classroom environment often prefer to hire people who have first hand teaching experience. If you taught English, then they gives you even more of a distinct advantage and you could find work in writing material for textbooks or scripts for examinations. You dont have to restrict your new potential writing career to academic writing   or academic paper writing services however: chances are, as a Teacher you have an incredibly good grasp of how written English should be, and how to create content that is engaging and sparks the readers imagination. Whether you are interested in writing childrens books or diversifying into a completely unrelated area, more than likely you already have the know-how. Museum or Tourism Work As a Teacher, you will have developed several transferable skills that will make you perfect for a museum environment, or even work in the tourism industry as a guide. For starters, you are accustomed to standing up in front of a group of people every day and delivering informative information in an interesting manner and at least when you are conducting a tour of a museum with a group of adults, rather than reading to a group of children, you will not be dealing with tantrums, fights, and pens being launched across the room at frequent intervals (we hope). Alternative Careers For Teachers Can Be Just As Rewarding Even if you are just looking for a shift from teaching on a temporary basis, it can be nice to experiment with something new so that you can go back to your career later feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. If youre looking for some alternative options to teaching in a classroom environment these are some suggestions that will hopefully give you some inspiration.

Friday, May 15, 2020

Debuts 2017 in moments

Debuts 2017 in moments 2017 has been a year chock-full of moments. Queen Beyoncé gave birth to twins, Jeremy Corbyn did the unthinkable and a South London roadman named Big Shaq emerged from nowhere to dominate the charts. It truly has been a whirlwind, and Debuts 2017 was no different. As another huge recruitment season draws to a close, the time has come for a little bit of reflection on our progress. Looking back now, its amazing to see how far weve come. Weve helped hundred of students secure career opportunities, welcomed new faces and said goodbye to old friends, and built Debut into the fabulous careers resource it is now. There were plenty of pivotal moments that made this possible, here are just a few of our faves: January: We closed £1.7 million in seed funding Kicking off the year with a bang, we secured a massive £1.7 million in seed funding to help turn Debut into the swiss-army careers supertool we knew it could be. Thats a total of £2.2 million raised in total, for anyone keeping score at home. With the new investment, we changed offices, grew our team and brought a whole load of dreamy new features to life in the app. All in all, a great start to the year, but this would only be the beginning March: International Womens Day A post shared by Debut (@debutcareers) on Nov 15, 2017 at 7:02am PST In March we celebrated International Womens Day with a sequel to our awesome Women In Tech event in 2016. This time representatives from EY, Fujitsu, Capgemini. FDM and Cisco came by to share insights on being a woman in their respective industries. The result was a night that was both insightful and empowering, with many of our amazing female Debutants leaving enriched afterwards. April: We launched our new website and Charlie is featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 April marked the launch of our fancy new website, making it faster, stronger and sleeker than ever before. It was the culmination of several months worth of work, so understandably our hearts did a little back-flip when we saw the finished product. As well as telling you all the amazing features on the app, its also a fitting home for the Insight blog and our brand new Guides. Check out our round-up of Debuts killer content from 2017 here. Meanwhile, a huge personal achievement for our CEO Charlie Taylor also happened in April, when he was recognised on Forbes prestigious 30 Under 30 list for technology. Only the minds behind the most cutting edge innovations made the list, and Charlie had some great company. Weve always thought Debut could change the world to see our CEO be recognised for his vision, alongside the hottest prospects in business, only confirmed that we are moving in the right direction. May: Breaking Barriers: Encouraging Diversity in Law In May, we had our first ever all-law careers event, specifically designed to encourage more BAME students to pursue and excel in this career path.  We were honoured to be joined by expert panellists Joseph Hutchinson and Faria Ali from Shearman and Sterling and Herbert Smith Freehills respectively. Together, they told our riveted audience why they should never accept a lack of diversity, the importance of self-care and how to stay focused in the face of adversity. September: Speed interviewing After a quiet summer vaycaying and getting ready for the brand new recruitment season, the madness started again in September with our bustling Speed Interviewing event. Madonna once talked about having four minutes to save the world our Debutants had just four minutes to impress an army of recruiters from  Vodafone, L’Oréal, O2, giffgaff, Siemens, Arcadia, Capgemini, Willis Towers Watson and Fidelity. Their reward was one-on-one time with nine of the best employers in the UK and a lucky 80 attendees were fast-tracked straight into the application process. October: Debut turns two A post shared by Debut (@debutcareers) on Oct 31, 2017 at 10:35am PDT In October, Debut had its second birthday, and we celebrated in grand fashion. It was another time be reflective and grateful for our journey to this point and we spoke to Charlie and our COO Michele to get a true scope of how far weve come. We also crunched some numbers and came up with a few interesting stats on Debuts two years of existence. Then we cut some cake and popped some bubbly, but yeah theres no article about that part. November: The Future Is Female, The Apprentice winner Tim Campbell comes to DebutLive  The Fight For Feedback goes to Westminster We closed out the year strong with a whole host of big moments happening just as recruitment season hotted up. At the start of the month, we got the good news that our white paper on the Fight For Feedback campaign was officially in the hands of Damian Hinds, the Secretary of State for Employment. Now, we eagerly await what the Department of Work and Pensions has to say about our advice to make feedback after a face-to-face interview mandatory for all employers. Then we had a another huge boon for the campaign as Tim Campbell, the winner of the first series of The Apprentice, made a star-studded appearance on DebutLive. Lord Sugars former mentee has made quite the name for himself in business since appearing on the show, and he had plenty of constructive things to say about interview feedback. Its an honour to have him support our Fight for Feedback movement! Finally, we rounded up 2017 in grand fashion by hosting our third women-only careers event. Debut Presents: The Future Is Female was attended by EY, BT and Shell as well as the best and brightest female Debutants around. It was a great evening of brave questions and passionate insights, which summed up our 2017 perfectly. 2017 has been a mad year all over, but Debuts 2017 was one especially wild ride. Defined by sweeping change and growth, its been a roller-coaster with plenty of highs and lows. But here we are at the end of it all, better and stronger, and it wouldnt be possible without our Debutants to inspire us to keep pushing the envelope. Thank you all for an amazing year, and lets hope 2018 brings you the graduate career youve been waiting for. Connect with Debut on  Facebook,  Twitter,  and  LinkedIn  for more careers insights.