Makeover makes the difference
Feedback on The Times Career Competition

In February 2005 The Times, with Jo Ouston & Co, decided to offer readers of its Career supplement an extra boost in the form of a 'career makeover' competition. Originally, the idea was to choose just one winner but the entries were so impressive in scale and quality that the judges - Parminder Bahra, editor Public Agenda / Career, Carol Lewis, deputy editor Career, and Jo Ouston - decided to extend the awards. The Winner received the original 'grand prix' of a complete career makeover, while a number of runners-up were offered a programme of career workshops - all provided by Jo Ouston & Co.

The outright winner was 32-year old Dr Tim Davies from Grimsby in Lincolnshire. Davies says he decided to enter "because I'm intrigued by new ideas, and this would certainly be something new for me. I had taken two years out from my first career as an engineer to help with the restructuring of our family business (ceramic tile retailing). That assignment was nearing its end, but during it I had learned a lot more about business in general and discovered that I needed to understand even more about myself and the direction my career should take."

Qualifications Dilemma
As his competition entry letter said, "I always thought I knew what I wanted from a career, however lately I'm not so sure." The career makeover described in The Times sounded as though it might lead to an answer.

With a full hand of engineering qualifications - Bachelors and Masters degrees in Civil Engineering and a PhD in Structural Engineering, plus two years towards an MBA in Engineering Management, Dr Tim Davies seemed ideally equipped to rise through the ranks of engineers to a senior management position in the engineering industry.

The dilemma Davies discovered (and the word 'dilemma' seems to crop up frequently when smart people talk about their careers) was that between his personal objectives and inclinations and the style and structure of the engineering industry there was a mismatch. He was motivated by creative challenge, the buzz of pressure and risk, the have-a-go, make-it-happen atmosphere of fast-changing business situations. Engineering he had found too tightly structured and too pre-ordained in its approach to offer the opportunities he needed.

"My problem," Tim Davies says, "Is that because my documented, 'officially approved' qualifications are so visible they seem to blind employers to my underlying strengths - creativity, drive, energy, intellectual flexibility. If a 'career makeover' could help to switch the balance, I wanted to have a go."

Remarkably, Shiriin Baraksai, one of the runners-up, also comes from an engineering background and also sees the career makeover process as an opportunity to re-focus on her long-term needs.

Barakzai graduated in 1994 with a Civil Engineering degree and was quickly snapped up by a major UK contractor. After valuable experience in Britain as a site engineer, and in middle management and planning, she was offered assignments in Ghana for 3 months then, for 2 years, in Southern Africa. During those years Shiriin Barakzai realised that although her employers would be generous in offering opportunity, the prospect facing her at the end of the assignment wasn't going to satisfy her need to match her career to her personal aims and values.

But her dilemma (that word again) was that her track record suited her perfectly for a track she didn't want to go down, while she had no way of proving she could perform on the other, more appealing tracks - and, she admits, no real knowledge of what those tracks might be. The career makeover seemed a promising light in a pretty opaque scene.