Careers Life at Zzoomm with our PQ of the Year; Agony Aunt Karen Young has more career advice; and our book review

Ask PQ’s agony aunt Karen Young when you need expert advice. Email your dilemma to graham@pqmagazine.com, and he will pass on the best ones to Karen

THE QUESTION Why is it important to think about my career pathway in the long-term – do you have any advice?

KAREN’S RESPONSE Career planning is something that often falls by the wayside in our everyday lives, but the value of a career plan isn’t to be underestimated. Having goals in place over the short and long term will give you direction and motivation, and help you see the value in some of the everyday tasks you do.

Try segmenting your career planning into different time frames. For instance, where do you want to be in six months? Where do you see yourself in a year? And what are your long-term projections for the next two to three years? Keep your career plans flexible enough to allow for change and opportunity, but specific enough to give yourself a good direction of where you’re going. Reflecting on your career ambitions might illuminate options that you hadn’t considered before, or make you realise changes you can make in the short term in order to set you on the path to long-term success.

Lastly, remain open-minded. The Covid-19 crisis may mean that we see surges in demand, industry shifts and emerging trends that have a sustained impact on not just finance jobs but the world at large. Maintain an awareness of areas in demand and consider how your skillset and experience could help you in the future. • Karen Young is a director at Hays. She is passionate about helping people to find the right job, and companies to find the right person Simon Cordell is a Build Supervisor at the broadband company, based in London. He is studying for the AAT Advanced Diploma and was recently named PQ of the Year at our annual awards

What time does your alarm go off? 4.30am. What is on your desk? Laptop and lots of notepaper How long is your commute to that desk? One hour. Do you have a favourite lunch? A bacon Sandwich What can you see when you sit at your desk? Our breakout area and coffee machine. Which websites are your favourites? Anything motorcycle related. How many hours a week do you spend in online meeting rooms? About 14. Are you spending more time working now than normal? Yes. How do you relax? Going for a ride on the bike. What is your favourite tipple? JD and coke. What’s your favourite TV show? Columbo. What is the best film you have watched recently? Hacksaw Ridge. Summer or winter? Summer. Pubs or clubs? Pubs. Do you have a hero? No. What is the first thing you are going to do when lockdown is fully over? Take a road trip. If you had a time machine where would you go? Back to the 1960s.

While many firms are being prescriptive about the return to work, accountancy firm BDO has told its staff that they can decide for themselves when they come into the office in a post-pandemic world. It said it will not be telling its employees how many days a week it expects to see them in the office. A staff survey found nearly 80% of employees preferred the idea of either working from home or a hybrid working model. BDO employs around 5,500 people in its 18 UK offices. It furloughed 700 staff in 2020 and after a bit of dithering paid back the taxpayer support it received (around £4.1 million).

The UK government is looking at a carbon tax on imports from polluting industries in a move to protect British farmers from overseas competition. To start with the tax would target heavy industries such as coal and steelmaking, but could naturally be extended to a major CO2 emitter – agriculture. There is concern that while Britain reduces pollution it will allow ‘dirty goods’ to be imported in larger and larger qualities. Former government minister Liam Fox believes the UK should take the lead on introducing a carbon border tax in the run up to the COP26 climate conference. The EU is looking at introducing a similar tax.

The UK is the most attractive destination in Europe for foreign investors and brought in more money than any country except France. The UK attracted 975 new projects in 2020, according to the EY attractiveness survey. The report said “the UK has demonstrated resilience and adaptability in attracting investment”. However, its former dominance of the FDI market has been replaced by a competitive three-way tussle with Germany and France. Researchers attributed Britain’s performance to the success of the vaccine roll-out and signs of an economic rebound.

You are a Champion: How to be the best you can be, by Marcus Rashford and Carl Anka (Macmillan, £9.99) Before he was a Manchester United and England footballer, and long before he started his inspiring campaign to end child food poverty in the UK, Marcus Rashford was just an average kid from Wythenshawe, South Manchester. With his new book, aimed at young people, he wants to show you how to achieve your dreams with an inspiring guide to life.

Marcus is the youngest of five siblings, but what you might not know is he doesn’t have a middle name. He also loves strawberry cream biscuits and Coco Pops!

We liked the fact that early on he stresses that you are only in competition with yourself – comparing yourself to other people gets you nowhere. We think a lot of adults would do well to remember that, too.

Marcus also talks about studying and learning, and says if you have a disappointing exam result try to figure out what went wrong but be kind to yourself when you are doing it.

Marcus asks if you ever get nervous? He did when he was forced to read out loud at school. The big thing he learned was not to become too fixated on mistakes. He noticed his fellow pupils made as many mistakes as him but just charged on regardless.

Finally, he reminds us that ‘nothing changes if nothing changes’, and like him we really love that saying. PQ rating: 5/5 If you have a young person in the house this would be a great book for them – if they read them!