About Relaunch Your Career
Hi, I am Heather Goodwin, owner of Relaunch Your Career. I am an outplacement specialist, coach/mentor and long-time marketing director. I wrote this site after being made redundant for the third time in my career. Having already helped more than 100 clients improve their career prospects in a range of ways, I decided to make the most of my skills and experience in this area, and go into business helping others beat redundancy.
Relaunch Your Career came about when I realised there was no single source of help or information for people who just want to get through the experience of redundancy and back into work, and do so quickly. This site started as a resource for them.
So, you could say that Relaunch Your Career is my redundancy plan. If it works, I won’t be redundant anymore, and, hopefully, neither will you.
Why am I qualified to do this?
I have written people’s CVs with them for years – and my CVs really do work. I developed skills in interview coaching and job searching while managing an outplacement team for BT in 2004/5 – a team that placed a record number of people, against all expectations, into new jobs in an organisation that was zealously cutting headcount.
I’ve also been a coach/mentor for many years – what used to be called ‘life coaching’ before a certain Prime Minister’s wife’s advisor gave it rather a bad name! As soon as reputable, formal qualifications were available for coaches, I went back to school, and received my Postgraduate Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring Practice from Oxford Brookes University in 2008.
My notes on CVs and interviews have been posted (free) on a membership message board for the last four years, and have been thoroughly road-tested, with some fantastic feedback.
I don’t have an affiliation or loyalty to anyone except myself, so, although I’ve gone out of my way to make sure I’ve done my research, and I’m well-informed by employment agencies, Government agencies and unions, you won’t find this site overly influenced by any of them.
How can I afford to make this site free?
I believe people going through a tough time shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity for others to make money. I believe that people dealing with redundancy should be able to get good, solid advice when they need it, and for free. But I have a mortgage to pay, too!
So, I make money in several ways. First of all, you will see advertising on this site. I’d like to be able to run the site without advertising, but the income it brings is essential to cover the site costs.
Secondly, I coach and train. My coaching and training are onward developments of the concepts on this site, and include exercises and activities for groups and individuals to help them work through career choices, create their kit bags and find new jobs. It can be extremely cathartic to work through what you’re feeling about job loss, and very exciting to develop a strategy for getting into work again, with a group of others. Please contact me if you would like more details about coaching and training services via the contact section of this site.
Finally, I get a lot of feedback from people who’ve used my free resources to help them get work. I’m always delighted when this happens! If, when you’re at work again, you would like to send me your story, or make a donation to help me keep this site (and myself) going, please use the PayPal donation button below. I don’t mind if it’s only a fiver; or two pounds a month for a while or whatever – every little bit helps.
I hope you enjoy the site, and that it helps you. Please do get in touch and let me know what you think!
Heather Goodwin
September 2009