Contact Us | 01243 511333

Career advice for Senior Applicants

photo shows senior applicants smiling with a lady giving a thumbs up as they have followed the careers advice in this article and been successful in their job hunting as a result

The depth of inherent experiences to be accessed directly from Source of Success is something that as a leader of this enterprise I am very proud. I am not too proud however to except that I am now at a stage of my life where any changes in one’s career can be for some, catastrophic. Now don’t be alarmed by my use of such a word, I am only expressing what one individual said to me after being made laid off at ‘ZERO’ notice at my proud age of just 50.

The ceiling on the world caved in for this long standing successful professional. Can you see where I am going with this? No? Ok, let me be clear. Career advice; and I am speaking from experience here, is often geared towards the less mature members of our community and wider society. Now there’s nothing at all wrong with this, on the contrary; if you have perhaps left school with little in the way of recognised qualifications, or indeed have just gained that degree of choice, the next step is without doubt critical – I tell you we support this provision 100%. However what if you have been working for 30 years, still active, still driven and still believe that you are yet to fulfil your career ambitions? What about you, yes you!? Time for some empathy. You have been recently laid off and now not currently employed; you still have a mortgage and other important financial commitments, teenagers still at home adding to the domestic overheads and stress, having real emotional and mental difficulty adjusting to this unwanted new status, sleep disruption, increased sensitivity about so much… What to do?

Well in my empathetic example above there are a host of issues that need examination and understanding. One can clearly identify that from the initial action, there’s an almost unlimited chain reaction that permeates so many areas of one’s life. Two things come to mind immediately. Safe guard your fiscal commitments as soon as possible (bear in mind communication is key!), but this is another topic for another day, and the other is more pertinent to this article; addressing the cause. Let’s prepare and get you back to work ASAP!

• NETWORK: At this stage of your career, you should have established a sound network of peers and professional points of reference. If not, don’t waste any time by promoting yourself in the areas of expertise that you represent or wish to be associated with. Internet sites; www.linkedin.com www.xing.com www.plaxo.com get your profile uploaded on www.zoominfo.com

• Before you shoot off and register your CV on job boards and with agencies – research them carefully. More importantly take a good look at your career document, a real close look. An S.O.S Star Tip… Your seasoned CV should be looking forward and NOT backwards. At this stage of your career, it’s not what you have done that ‘really’ matters, it is what ‘value add’ you can and will be perceived to be bringing to the corporate table. Need more on this? Get in touch ASAP!

• I am not going to teach you to suck eggs here, but the presentation of your CV is vital; at this stage and this relates to the above point, it can read like War and Peace if you are not too careful – the design and the content presented needs to be punchy, clear and must immediately resonate with the decision making reader (no one else really matters), so find out as much about who this person is and make every effort to reflect his or her ‘must haves’ and or needs – this is critical and dare I say often overlooked by recruitment agencies and even Search Consultants with; and I am generalising, have a greater interest in the fee generated than whether you will be in the next role over the next 3 – 5 years.

• How you ‘fit in’ will play a large part in the mind of the hiring authority – you are likely to be hired in a position of some authority, so ADAPTATION is important. Research the company and access all areas, from culture, market share, internal people dynamics to turnover and bank this information. A good tool is to create a matrix on an A4 document sheet with headers of the areas of analysis required for maximum probing and use this as a prompt in any interview you have successfully achieved in attaining. Know your place in the pecking order and where possible try to gain information on who may report to you and who you will be reporting to. Two challenges here from the off – get it right and being able to convey your understanding of both and being able to morph with your audience appropriately can be the choice of your hired or frankly undesired!

• By now you will know that PERSONAL PRESENTATION is another critical tool in your career search bag. Remember you are a senior applicant; depending on what role you are seeking, please please look the part! From shoes to watch, from finger nails to body language – first impressions really do count. An S.O.S Star Tip… From the receptionist to your audience, always say “Hello/good morning/afternoon, how are you?” wait for the surprised look then cheerful reply, then introduce your good self. Apply this secret of disarming your audience then let S.O.S and those that matter know if it made a difference. We take no credit for the style you may choose to employ, but do try it and see what happens. Ensure good eye to eye contact throughout and be cheerful, bright and emit a can-do attitude. It will be sensed and will go a long way to determining a positive outcome.

• Finally, do not proceed in a haphazard fashion, you cannot afford to hit and miss now. Gather your researched enterprises, agencies, consultants, job boards, networking sites and work them like there’s no tomorrow. S.O.S Star Tip… Preview success and success will transpire. The depth of inherent experiences to be accessed directly from Source of Success is something that as a leader of this enterprise I am very proud. I am not too proud however to except that I am now at a stage of my life where any changes in one’s career can be for some, catastrophic. Now don’t be alarmed by my use of such a word, I am only expressing what one individual said to me after being made laid off at ‘ZERO’ notice at my proud age of just 50. The ceiling on the world caved in for this long standing successful professional. Can you see where I am going with this? No? Ok, let me be clear. Career advice; and I am speaking from experience here, is often geared towards the less mature members of our community and wider society. Now there’s nothing at all wrong with this, on the contrary; if you have perhaps left school with little in the way of recognised qualifications, or indeed have just gained that degree of choice, the next step is without doubt critical – I tell you we support this provision 100%. However what if you have been working for 30 years, still active, still driven and still believe that you are yet to fulfil your career ambitions? What about you, yes you!? Time for some empathy. You have been recently laid off and now not currently employed; you still have a mortgage and other important financial commitments, teenagers still at home adding to the domestic overheads and stress, having real emotional and mental difficulty adjusting to this unwanted new status, sleep disruption, increased sensitivity about so much… What to do? Well in my empathetic example above there are a host of issues that need examination and understanding. One can clearly identify that from the initial action, there’s an almost unlimited chain reaction that permeates so many areas of one’s life. Two things come to mind immediately. Safe guard your fiscal commitments as soon as possible (bear in mind communication is key!), but this is another topic for another day, and the other is more pertinent to this article; addressing the cause. Let’s prepare and get you back to work ASAP!

• NETWORK: At this stage of your career, you should have established a sound network of peers and professional points of reference. If not, don’t waste any time by promoting yourself in the areas of expertise that you represent or wish to be associated with. Internet sites; www.linkedin.com www.xing.com www.plaxo.com get your profile uploaded on www.zoominfo.com

• Before you shoot off and register your CV on job boards and with agencies – research them carefully. More importantly take a good look at your career document, a real close look. An S.O.S Star Tip… Your seasoned CV should be looking forward and NOT backwards. At this stage of your career, it’s not what you have done that ‘really’ matters, it is what ‘value add’ you can and will be perceived to be bringing to the corporate table. Need more on this? Get in touch ASAP!

• I am not going to teach you to suck eggs here, but the presentation of your CV is vital; at this stage and this relates to the above point, it can read like War and Peace if you are not too careful – the design and the content presented needs to be punchy, clear and must immediately resonate with the decision making reader (no one else really matters), so find out as much about who this person is and make every effort to reflect his or her ‘must haves’ and or needs – this is critical and dare I say often overlooked by recruitment agencies and even Search Consultants with; and I am generalising, have a greater interest in the fee generated than whether you will be in the next role over the next 3 – 5 years.

• How you ‘fit in’ will play a large part in the mind of the hiring authority – you are likely to be hired in a position of some authority, so ADAPTATION is important. Research the company and access all areas, from culture, market share, internal people dynamics to turnover and bank this information. A good tool is to create a matrix on an A4 document sheet with headers of the areas of analysis required for maximum probing and use this as a prompt in any interview you have successfully achieved in attaining. Know your place in the pecking order and where possible try to gain information on who may report to you and who you will be reporting to. Two challenges here from the off – get it right and being able to convey your understanding of both and being able to morph with your audience appropriately can be the choice of your hired or frankly undesired!

• By now you will know that PERSONAL PRESENTATION is another critical tool in your career search bag. Remember you are a senior applicant; depending on what role you are seeking, please please look the part! From shoes to watch, from finger nails to body language – first impressions really do count. An S.O.S Star Tip… From the receptionist to your audience, always say “Hello/good morning/afternoon, how are you?” wait for the surprised look then cheerful reply, then introduce your good self. Apply this secret of disarming your audience then let S.O.S and those that matter know if it made a difference. We take no credit for the style you may choose to employ, but do try it and see what happens. Ensure good eye to eye contact throughout and be cheerful, bright and emit a can-do attitude. It will be sensed and will go a long way to determining a positive outcome.

• Finally, do not proceed in a haphazard fashion, you cannot afford to hit and miss now. Gather your researched enterprises, agencies, consultants, job boards, networking sites and work them like there’s no tomorrow. S.O.S Star Tip… Preview success and success will transpire.


  Please share this article with your friends on Facebook - thank you.


Much of the advice on our website has been kindly provided by local companies and organisations for which we are very grateful - could you offer some advice to our visitors in return for some free coverage on our website? If so please get in touch here as we'd love to hear from you.

About The Author

This article was written by John G E Frye of SOURCE of SUCCESS


Author Profile

John G E Frye Dip LC (Inst. LC) AMAC, has been in and around front line business for a period allowing him to establish his credentials commercially primarily in the Talent Management, Recruitment and Sales sectors at Board level. It was during this period that he also sought to apply his natural Mentoring, motivational and inherent inspirational skills and to channel these qualities into a service for clients and colleagues alike.

In 2001 John authored the in demand ‘health-check’ publication Little Book of Self Empowerment, published by Janus Publishing – whereby he instils; what has been described as "beautifully formed droplets of wisdom" covering a comprehensive range of subjects from Depression to Family, to Pain and Anxiety.

John’s innate passion is to highlight and then nurture the hidden talents and strengths within others; to teach lessons of self-reflection and growth using his core life experiences, proven commercial knowledge, relaying inspiration, training and drive to succeed.

Follow John at twitter.com/self_mpower

Follow Source of Success at twitter.com/sourceofsuccess

Logo for SOURCE of SUCCESS John G E Frye

Author's Contact Details

John G E Frye
SOURCE of SUCCESS

Telephone: +44 (0)1903 537 587
email »
SOURCE of SUCCESS website »

AllChichesterJobs are very grateful to John G E Frye and SOURCE of SUCCESS for taking the time to provide this advice, please use the contact details above if you'd like to contact SOURCE of SUCCESS.

Careers Advice

We work with experts in and around our local area to provide useful information relating to careers advice - we hope you will find these articles to be helpful. You can view our news news archive here


This photo shows a number of human resource forms. Recruitment can be confusing but with the right advice it doesn't have to be.

The Recruitment Process - Food for Thought!

There are many things to consider before you start the process of recruiting staff. If you're about to recruit new staff in your business then Jan Dixon gives you some food for thought.

read more
photo shows man in a suit jumping in the air celebrating getting his new job

Dealing with Redundancy - Part 5 - Finding a New Job

Once your redundancy is dealt with and any retraining has been undertaken you will probably need to find a new job. This can seem daunting, particularly if you have not had to look for a new

read more
photo shows close of up a man's feet on a tightrope high above office buildings

Redundancy - Advice for Employers and Businesses

When we hear the word 'redundancy' it is natural to think of the impact that it will have on the person being made redundant with out regard for the difficulties inflicted upon the employer

read more
photo shows senior applicants smiling with a lady giving a thumbs up as they have followed the careers advice in this article and been successful in their job hunting as a result

Career advice for Senior Applicants

Career advice is often geared towards the less mature members of our community and wider society. Now there’s nothing at all wrong with this, on the contrary; if you have perhaps left

read more
photo shows a blue piggy bank wearning glasses - he is providing financial advice to people facing redundancy

Dealing with Redundancy - Part 2 - Financial Advice

Do you know the tax implications of receiving a redundancy package and how to avoid paying unnecessary tax? If you are going to find yourself struggling financially do you know how to lessen

read more
photo shows positive image of a surfer - surfing life's trials and tribulations such as redundancy

Dealing with Redundancy - Part 1 - Knowing Your Rights

Do you know what redundancy package you are likely to receive? Do you know what the government stipulated minimum package is? As well as detailing the legal and financial aspects we will

read more
photo shows different types of employees seeking advice by looking skyward

Time to Compromise? - Advice for Employees

Nicola Brown offers advice on employment law issues, concerned with the agreements made between an employer and and employee when accepting a position in a company.

read more
photo shows small plant overcoming advertisty and growing through a crack in hard ground

Dealing with Redundancy - Part 3 - Psychological Impact

Do you feel like you’ve lost your identity and can’t stop feeling negative? It is not only the practicalities of redundancy that need to be addressed. Redundancy can also have a massive

read more

10 Steps to Creating Career Opportunities

Working with Recruitment Companies effectively!

Chichester Employment & Business News

When attending interviews it's always good to be up to date with what's happening in the local business and employment sector - we hope you'll find these selected news articles interesting


Goodwood opens new sustainable restaurant

The Goodwood Estate are delighted to announce the opening of its new restaurant, Farmer, Butcher, Chef. The exciting new restaurant offers a unique new dining experience that celebrates the organic meat reared less than a mile away on Goodwood Home Farm.Goodwood has been farmed by the family for over three hundred years and is one of the only self-sustaining organic farms in Europe. These organic principles enable our farmer, Tim Hassell, to produce the best-tasting beef, pork and lamb, all of which are reared right here. Our butcher, John Hearn, is directly involved in designing dishes according to what cuts are available. An original approach, inspired by our executive chef, Darron Bunn, means that nothing is wasted.Marrying the expertise of our Farmer, our Butcher and our Chef, the restaurant offers lunch and dinner, seven days a week, as well as the chance to fill up on some tasty, light snacks from the bar. ..read more

Management Buyout for Local Employer Direct Life and Lifequote Team

Direct Life, which owns LifeQuote, is being purchased from Cardif Pinnacle Insurance Holdings Ltd, by its MD Rob Quayle and Sales and Marketing Director Neil McCarthy. The FCA has already approved the change in control, and ..read more

Tips for understanding the job application process

With so many job seekers applying for any one job in today's economic climate, it's good to have an understanding of what happens to your application once you've pressed the 'send' button. ..read more

Why Write A Covering Letter When Applying for Jobs?

Your covering letter may well be the first thing potential employers see. It provides additional information on your skills, knowledge and experience and gives you the opportunity to highlight why you're the right applicant for ..read more

Where are the best and worst cities to find jobs in the UK?

Despite the job market currently looking rather promising since the financial crisis, there are still cities across the country where it's much easier to find a job. ..read more


Careers in Hospitality at Goodwood

Plans to Cut Police Jobs in Sussex

Care workers triumph at awards

Local employer announces expansion plans creating new jobs in Chichester

Think pink: Chichester business raises funds for new cancer support centre

Expansion Plans in Place for Selsey Business

Subway Store to Open in Chichester Creating New Jobs for Locals

New jobs in Chichester at Rolls-Royce

Job cuts at Chichester Council in 2014

Jobseeking in Chichester

Job interviews: Get yoursef hired!

Probation staff in West Sussex plan strike action

Unemployment levels drop across the UK

Rolls-Royce create over 100 new jobs in Chichester

Jobs saved at troubled Chichester business

Little London Walk, East Street - Owner want to partially demolish site and lease it to a high-street chain but the existing traders want to stay

Chichester High School’s Headmistress steps down

HMV Chichester saved as Hilco strikes rescue deal for chain

20mph speed limit coming soon in Chichester

Up to 100 full time jobs could be created by proposed Barnfield Drive Development

New shoe store - tReds - opening in Chichester

Tax centre jobs under threat in Chichester and Bognor Regis

Second Costa gets planning permission in Chichester

Polish workers conned in false Sussex farming jobs scam

West Sussex County Council plans to tackle Chichester's A27 traffic nightmare

Part time Jobs in Chichester

Nursing jobs in Chichester

Chichester resident wins landmark environmental case

What not to do in your Chichester job interview

Top 4 questions asked at job interviews for Chichester job seekers

Interview Tips to help you get that perfect job in Chichester

The Recruitment Process to Fill your Chichester Job

Jobs in West Sussex

How can you find the right Chichester job for you?

What is different about looking for jobs today in Chichester compared to 10 years ago

Christmas Jobs in Chichester

Chichester Job Centre

Covering Letter hints and tips for when applying for jobs in Chichester

Looking for a second job in Chichester?

University of Chichester / Chichester College

Public Sector jobs in Chichester

Information on local newspapers covering Chichester

Recruitment in Chichester

Example CV for people applying for jobs in Chichester

CV Tips for landing that perfect job in Chichester

Recruitment advertising in Chichester for Direct Employers

photo shows dismayed candidate who hasnt had much luck in her career

Top 10 things not to do in a job interview

We've been asking local employers for tips on what to do in an interview – and, of course, what not to do! Here are our top 10 not to do in that all-important job interview.

read more
photo shows woman leaping whilst holding flowing coloured streamers out behind her - to give the impression of moving forwards through re training after being made redundant

Dealing with Redundancy - Part 4 - Retraining and Development

Have you thought about a new career or improving upon the skills you currently have? In this article we will offers tips and advice on increasing your 'employability' through courses and

read more
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that this information is not intended to be exhaustive or be a substitute for legal advice. The application of the law in this area will often depend upon the specific facts and you are advised to seek specific advice on any given scenario.