Drive Your Career for Senior Managers
“I need to understand what I need to do to drive a successful career” – Ilker Kurt, Centrica
“I got the chance to go on Drive Your Career 2 years ago, as one of the courses that Centrica provide for their managers. It was a course that made a remarkable change to my thinking process, with tangible benefits.
One key moment was when we went through the exercise on establishing a career brand, to come up with a 2-minute summary of what I do best. I realised that the thing I enjoyed most was going into a situation where I had to build relationships with stakeholders from very different backgrounds and nationalities, bring them together, and motivate them behind a common goal, to create real change and improvement. It was an ‘Aha!’ moment where I thought – I’ve never articulated that clearly before. Every time I need to talk about myself this is the first thing I now think of, who I am, what I bring to the table.
There are many other things I still think of and take action on, like the importance of communicating good news. Management want to hear about progress and good things happening, not always the problems and difficulties. And the Career Tactics card pack from the workshop has found a permanent place in my briefcase. I pull it out whenever I have moments here and there as I travel around Europe.
In my early career, I worked for 6 different companies, with an average time in each company of under 2 years. Drive Your Career showed me how to drive my career internally, and in the 2 years since attending the workshop I have been promoted twice - from Market Risk Manager to Senior Market Risk Manager to my current position of Group Financial Risk Manager. I think that being able to articulate my brand and my achievements was a big part of getting appointed to my current role in the face of stiff competition."
Ilker Kurt
Group Financial Risk Manager, Centrica
One key moment was when we went through the exercise on establishing a career brand, to come up with a 2-minute summary of what I do best. I realised that the thing I enjoyed most was going into a situation where I had to build relationships with stakeholders from very different backgrounds and nationalities, bring them together, and motivate them behind a common goal, to create real change and improvement. It was an ‘Aha!’ moment where I thought – I’ve never articulated that clearly before. Every time I need to talk about myself this is the first thing I now think of, who I am, what I bring to the table.
There are many other things I still think of and take action on, like the importance of communicating good news. Management want to hear about progress and good things happening, not always the problems and difficulties. And the Career Tactics card pack from the workshop has found a permanent place in my briefcase. I pull it out whenever I have moments here and there as I travel around Europe.
In my early career, I worked for 6 different companies, with an average time in each company of under 2 years. Drive Your Career showed me how to drive my career internally, and in the 2 years since attending the workshop I have been promoted twice - from Market Risk Manager to Senior Market Risk Manager to my current position of Group Financial Risk Manager. I think that being able to articulate my brand and my achievements was a big part of getting appointed to my current role in the face of stiff competition."
Ilker Kurt
Group Financial Risk Manager, Centrica