This is a guest post from Bella Doswell, friend of the CWA.

The 1^st February 2024 marks the first anniversary of the global #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs campaign. 

Designed by Katherine Jennick RDCP and I in 2023, #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs was launched with the aim of uniting Career Development Practitioners (CDPs) to tell the world about who we are and what we do.  

At the time of starting this campaign in 2023, there were a number of issues being felt in the careers community (which still continue today).  

We were seeing a leading, globally influential UK university placing a job posting on LinkedIn for a careers adviser that had no requirement for applicants to hold any careers-related qualifications. We were hearing about careers services for young people and adults struggling to recruit and retain qualified careers practitioners and, in too many cases, diluting requirements for qualifications that guarantee the level of knowledge necessary to support clients with a wide variety of needs.  

CDPs also had the problem of being able to adequately describe our unique selling points of the positive impact we have on people’s career development, their communities and the economy in a way that was easily accessible and understood by allied colleagues (HR, recruiters) and more widely, the general public.  

We recognised there seemed to be three main issues: 

• a lack of understanding by the public about what we do
• a lack of confidence and common language by careers professionals to describe what we do
• the apparent acceptance by some leading employers in the UK that our careers and coaching qualifications are not a mandatory requirement to do our job.

We had to find a way to get our message out – that CDPs are #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs.

LinkedIn flashmob

Katherine and I met on January 18^th 2023, and I introduced the idea of using her hashtag as a tagline to perform an online LinkedIn flashmob. Together, we contacted CDPs up and down the land and asked them to create a post using the hashtag and we all released this together during the morning of the 1^st February.   

The campaign was hugely successful, backed by organisations like the Career Development Institute (CDI) in the UK and the Career Development Foundation (Canada). David Morgan, Chief Executive of the CDI, voiced his support for the campaign:

“It’s vital that people understand the value that CDPs add to the individuals they support. It’s not just talking about jobs, it’s helping individuals define career goals, identify their strengths and skill needs, help them navigate the sometimes-complex paths to gain those skills, and put them to good use in work. It’s also about building career management skills so young people and adults can continue to thrive throughout their career and is particularly important for those who face disadvantage of any form, and who benefit massively from this support.

The cumulative effect of the millions of individual interactions that careers professionals have each year also benefits the economy and society, ensuring we are developing the skills required for the future economy, building a productive workforce, and enabling individuals to make a positive contribution to their communities.”

The campaign received over 800,000 hits in less than 48 hours. Not only that, but CDPs from all over the world including Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore took part, and the hashtag #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs is still used today on social media posts, especially on LinkedIn.      

So what’s next?

Katherine and I are not here to create another amazing idea. We think CDPs have helped us to make this idea amazing already.  

We know that the best evidence of why we are all #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs doesn’t come from us – it comes from our clients. This year, we have asked CDPs to support this campaign by creating a post to tell the world one great quote/piece of feedback they’ve received from a client, that serves as a great reminder of the difference they make to people’s lives. It could be a screenshot, a video reading of the quote, writing the quote on a sign, or even printing it on a t-shirt, and will be accompanied by the tagline ‘This is why we are #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs’.

The public release date for the posts is the anniversary of the #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs campaign, 1st February, 2024, so please keep your eyes peeled on social media to follow the campaign and find out more about the diverse and numerous ways that CDPs make a difference to their clients’ lives. We also ask that where possible, everybody taking part likes, follows, reposts or comments on each other’s posts to gain traction. 

Kathrine and I would like to thank CDPs for helping with this campaign, and all that they do, everyday. Look out for us again on the eve of our anniversary on social media when we will have a special message for you all on LinkedIn! 

For further information, please contact Bella at bella@bdcms.co or Katherine at katherine@whatsyourstrength.co.uk

© Bella Doswell CCDP RDCP