I visit plenty of opportunity providers already, but how do I know if I'm conducting those visits effectively, and how can I improve my techniques?

How effective are your interactions with opportunity providers?

Start with reviewing what you know - what makes your interactions with clients effective?

Most practitioners are very conscious of the importance of having a clearly structured and purposeful interaction when working with clients or customers - people seeking advice on careers aren't just looking for a cosy chat! That is why it makes sense to use some sort of framework or model when you are interviewing. This can help make sure all the relevant points are covered and explored, and that the conversation leads to some useful conclusion. The model doesn't need to be anything very complicated.

Some people like to think in terms of a three stage process with linked stages to provide a flexible framework to structure an interaction:

An effective interview will draw on a range of communication skills such as active listening, use of open questions, summarising, reflecting back, challenging and so on.

So how do I make sure my interactions with opportunity providers and employers are purposeful?

In many respects, meetings with opportunity providers and employers can be approached in a similar way to how you might think about interviewing your clients. It is still important to set and agenda, explore issues and identify goals, and conclude with some sort of agreed action.

Opportunity providers should not feel they are under interrogation, nor should the interaction all be one way.

When thinking about visiting employers or other opportunity providers, it might be helpful to think in terms of six stages:

If this sounds confusing, don't worry! This guide is intended to provide some pointers.

See also: Employer Visits - keeping it simple!

You might want to have a look at our employer visit quick-steps flowchart for a slightly different way of looking at the planning process.

To get the most out of employer/opportunity provider visits it might be helpful to carry out an audit of what you currently do and start to think about whether that is working for you.

If you want some help in going about this have a look at the next section: How can I evaluate my effectiveness in Opportunity Provider Visits and hopefully it will begin to make sense!

Next: How can I evaluate my effectiveness in Opportunity Provider Visits?

The next section introduces some tools and tips for evaluating your visit effectiveness, including links to explore and/or download some useful pro-formas for structuring an evaluation.