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The work place can be a great place for social interaction. If you have ever been self-employed or worked from home, you may well know how much you can miss the social interaction compared to when you work with other people in an office, factory or on site environment.

Having good social interaction with your work colleagues can make a massive difference to your job satisfaction and can help you excel in your career.

If you find that you are working with people that you do not have much in common with and find it hard to socialise with them then you may become withdrawn and not look forward to going to work

Many companies will realise the importance of team building and will organise events that you can take part in to allow you to get to know your work colleagues better. But if your company doesn’t offer this then why not try and arrange your own team building met up between yourselves.

If you are in a job position and want to improve your job role and satisfaction at work you may look at how you can improve your performance. When in a job role it is easy to become complacent and start to do the minimum to get by in your job. Over time this may start to show and will not only look bad to your employer but can take away a lot of the satisfaction you have in a job role.

When analysing your performance look at items such as your time management, organisation skills and quality of your work. See what part of your job takes you the longest and why and see what you could do to improve that. If you find that you are struggling in a particular area then you could ask your employer if it would be possibly for you to receive more training either internally or by going on a course.

It can be a nightmare trying to find the right candidate for a position you have within your company. Some companies advertise the position themselves and carry out the whole recruitment process where as others chose to go through a recruitment agency.

There are many advantages to using a recruitment agency below are a few examples:

Knowledge of the market: any good recruitment consultant will know the market in terms of the types of candidates available, where to find them, what salary they will expect, career expectations and the hiring issues a candidate may have. With this knowledge they should be able to find you the right candidate or a number of candidates quite quickly.

Knowing how to contact candidates – Some candidates can be hard to reach. It may be that they are not currently actively looking for a job but that if the right recruitment consultant can put a proposition forward to them in an attractive way they may be interested. Recruitment agencies tend to be able to do this better than an employer trying to do it directly.

Some people may see this as a bit of an odd question, but many of us ask ourselves this from time to time. The answer is yes in a way, we should do some revision before an interview.

Companies like employees who show an interest in their business and have a bit of background knowledge. Most businesses have a website or social media pages that you can read through to find out a bit more about them. It may have information on how the business was started, their working ethos and the current team. Reading through a “meet the team” page can also help calm nervous on the interview day and you may already be able to recognise a few faces.

You will probably not be tested on your knowledge of the company but if asked, then it is handy to know some background information that you can share in the interview.

Many people are under the illusion that an interview is solely for the employers benefit and that they simply have to answer what they are being asked without being allowed to ask any questions back. This is not the correct way to carry out an interview as although, predominantly the interview is mostly for the benefit of the employer it is also the perfect opportunity to ask questions which you want to know the answer too. Bombarding a potential employer with questions is never a good idea, but at the end of the interview, if you are unsure of any aspects of the job role i.e. working hours, salary, training etc then it that would be a good time to ask.

Making sure you ask questions in the right way is a must and most interviewers will give you an opportunity to do this at the end of the meeting.

If you are looking to enter in to a new career then you may have to undergo additional training or even obtain a new qualification. There are many reasons that people want to move careers, it may be that you are looking for a job with more opportunities to progress, higher salaries, more rewarding or that you have to move for personal reasons. Whatever the reason is for moving, it is worth spending a bit of time researching what is going to be required in order for you to be at the level you need to be at to get a job.

It may be that you have all the relevant qualification but you need experience. If this is the case you may have to do some voluntary work to gain this experience. Or you may be willing to go in at a lower level and train on the job.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the education system and the effect that this is having on our teachers. The government have failed to meet the deadline for the recruitment of teachers for the fourth year coming and this is causing concern for many in the education industry.

Many schools are relying on teachers with no more than an A-level to teach their students on a daily basis and this is a worry for many parents and students.

Out of the teachers that are coming through the recruitment system, one in four will quit within their first year. This is an alarming statistic and shows that something needs to be done and quick.

After talking to a number of teachers, they have confirmed that the main reason for leaving the profession is due to high stress levels and lack of support. Many are expected to work well over their contracted hours with very little in return and they feel that they do not have the adequate time or staff members to deal with the students in their care.

The job of a book keeper is similar to that of an accountant. You would usually hire a book keeper to keep your records and accounts up to date throughout the year. They will often be responsible for inputting invoices and expenditures on an accounting system or on spreadsheets and may do tax and VAT returns for you. An accountant is usually more responsible for the year on year running of a business such as analysing incomings and outgoings, advising the client when and what they need to pay to HMRC and making any adjustment entries. Although the two roles are different many tasks may cross over in to the responsibility of a book keeper and accountant depending on the set up of the company.

To become a book keeper you do not need any qualifications but most employers look for a recognised book keeping qualification such as AAT.

Teaching is a very rewarding job. The pay can be quite good and the satisfaction you can get from the job does often attract new applicants. But the stress that comes with a job can also cause many teachers to quit within their first year or put some teachers off before they have even qualified.

Recent studies show that schools are struggling for teachers that cover the science subjects and that this is having a knock on effect on some pupils.

From research by the NSLN more than 1,200 science teachers surveyed, 61% had considered quitting the profession. Often this was due to too much paperwork and unrealistic expectations placed on them. Government studies show that over fifth thousand teachers left the profession last year and they are expecting the same number of pupils to enter the education system meaning there will be a shortfall in the ratios, which is a very alarming statistic.

Whilst being employed, you may have the opportunity to undertake on the job training. This can help you learn how to improve in your current role, teach you new skills to take on additional responsibilities or help you manage other members of staff. Management courses are very popular and many employers send their employees on these types of course if they have given them a role than requires them to take responsibility for other members of staff.

Usually you will not have to pay for on the job training as it will either be in house or your employer will cover the cost. Any training is always a good idea and will improve your productivity in a current job but can also look great on a CV should there come a time when you wish to leave.

If you feel you would benefit from going on a course, then you could speak to your employer and see if they would be willing to send you on one.