Josephine Harewood, local co-author of the book 101 Great Ways to Compete in Today’s Job Market, says young job seekers need to have a passion for their chosen field in order to compete in today’s global market. The 101 authors of the book come from all over the globe; Harewood’s contribution focuses on staying motivated in the job market. The book offers advice from international authors such as Tom Hopkins (an American sales trainer and author of 17 books on selling, salesmanship and success) and Brian Tracy (a motivational speaker and author who consulted for companies such as Ford, IBM, Federal Express and Hewlett Packard), among others. The book offers advice on topics such as fear and rejection, employee versus entrepreneur, as well as back-to-work as a working mom, among others.
So, what do young job seekers in T&T need to be globally competitive? Harewood, a business consultant and life coach who worked with Scotiabank and in the Bahamas, said: “First, you have to have a passion for whatever it is you want. You have to know. Sometimes a lot of our young people don’t know. They go to school and leave school and they just don’t know what they want to do. But you need to know, earlier, what you want to do. Things will change as you go along, but you have to have an idea as to what you want to do and have a passion for it. When you do it, you must feel good about it. You must also have a plan. How do I get there? And are there people who can help me get there?” Harewood was speaking on May 23 at the book’s launch at the National Library and Information System Authority (Nalis), at the corner of Abercromby and Hart streets, Port-of-Spain.
“I believe that we need that help,” said Harewood of the book. “It’s for all those people who are working and all those people who are not. If you are in a job, or need help to find one, and you stay motivated in the market, and you need to know where to look, or how to look... In that book, when David Riklan approached me about getting involved, I recognised that there were 101 ways for us to help people. And it is not about making money out of it; it is about helping someone else to move forward. “And we need that, especially for our young people these days. They need to know that: ‘Hey, there is a book that I can go to and could find out how to find a job, how to stay motivated, I can find things about networking, I can find things about branding, staying competitive.’ We don’t have that—so we really do need it,” she said.
Harewood, when asked if she felt job seekers were capable of competing in global markets, said that T&T has the knowledge and the talent. Asked what she felt impeded local talent from being globally competitive, Harewood said access to information. While many people, she said, knew the Internet, many were not certain as to how to brand and market themselves.
The book is on sale at RIK and priced at $162.50.