Alexandra Sim

There are a lot of career coaches out there. I am sure they are good. I am also sure that they have more training in career coaching than me, but that is not the point.
I started being a career coach and this blog because people asked me to.
I wrote a number of articles on the subject and I also helped a lot of persons in discovering their career path and finding their job. I am not technical and my speech does not contain heavy definitions and fancy terms.
I help people re-discover small forgotten details, but which can be crucial in getting the right job.
My coaching is a mixture of personal experience, practical examples, HR, sociology and psychology studies, Skills, sixth sense and as people say, an inborn talent.

Best cvs not best candidates are invited for an interview.
Best sellers not best candidates get the job.
As a career coach, I focus on work and career or issues around careers.
I make sure that YOU, the best candidate, go to war with the best weapons YOU can forge and the best strategies YOU can apply.
I do not choose YOUR career, as I do not do YOUR work. I just help YOU ask yourself the right questions so that YOU can choose the right career.
I do not rewrite cvs or supply letters of applications, as I am not looking for YOUR job, and I certainly do not replace YOU at the interview. I am here to teach YOU how to use YOUR weapons and when to apply them.
At the end of the day, my job is YOU and YOU are my soldier.
I declare an open war to all those who rewrite cvs and transform you into a robot that gives the perfect answers at the perfect questions.
YOU are unique and that makes you so precious… that is your first weapon and I am your second!

Assisted the HR Director to re-organize and implement HR operations including strategy insights and solutions, organisational development, resourcing, learning and talent development, performance and reward, employee relations, service delivery and information for all UK subsidiaries (MES Environmental, CNIM ECS, CNIM UK); occasionally assisted non-UK subsidiaries.

Key results
• Organised HR awareness workshops and created an “All Managers are HR Managers” strategy.
• Implemented a series of policies, procedures and guidelines to ensure departments remained in close communication with HR.
• Reduced absenteeism levels by 23%; a company average of 6.7 days/employee.
• Established a criteria / score-based procedure to appraise new potential hires.
• Evaluated training programmes and implemented solutions to increase productivity.
• Significantly reduced the costs of per day training by 35%; increased the number of training days by up to 300% per quarter.

Provided strategic human resource expertise and training on employment relations topics and analysed HR data, metrics, planning and administration. Assisted employees and leaders with the company’s employee relations policy.

Created and launched the HR Department and improved the company’s Organizational Behaviour, Culture, Values, Retention Ratio and Motivation levels.

Key results
• Increased the company’s effectiveness by 15% in 6 months within an industry with a lack of skilled professionals.
• Minimised turnover from 18% to 3% by improving the staff’s orientation, increasing professional development, providing employees counselling and mid-level management coaching.
• Led the upgrade of the company’s Intranet HR site which included and online recruitment database, pre-appraisal questionnaires and appraisal charts.
• Represented AXIGEN as an HR executive in mass-media and interviewed by several business publications.
• Published HR related articles such as: “Job Spam”, “Effective Career Plan”, “Moldavian Employment Market”.

Established partnerships with the technical Universities, trainees and VIE, and created benchmarks for the HR Departments. Conducted employment market analysis, spearheaded Corporate Social Responsibility efforts and assisted the HR Manager in resourcing/developing talent. Improved employee relations, and provided service and information to clients.

Key results
• Improved Bouygues Romania’s University Partnership program; conducted lectures and workshops.
• Introduced ‘The Bucharest University of Construction’ in the “Defi Bouygues” game.
• Researched and reviewed Corporate Social Responsibility policies and wrote a report to provide new recommendations to the senior management.

Monitored all company operations including sales and marketing, risk management, staff management and recruitment, cost and budget management, investment management, contact negotiations and infrastructure development.
Implemented a realistic and comprehensive long and short term business plans, find business gaps/needs and developed cost effective plans to close and address gaps.

Key results
• Developed and launched a simplified business structure.
• Implemented an in-house training, mentoring, and leadership program.