Testimonials
Career Coaching | CV Workout | Interview Fitness Coaching |
Recruitment Training | Outplacement | HR Team Development |
Career Coaching
“Paul has been an inspiration, with his ability to challenge, focus and support, whilst building one’s confidence. Whilst he has a warm and personable demeanour, there is no stone left unturned, and no place left to hide….that is why the experience is so exhilarating and productive.”
J.B. L&D Director, Police Force
“The Career Gym was an excellent choice to point me in the right direction whilst reviewing the numerous options for the next step in my career. Paul has a great mix of communication and analytical skills allowing him to draw out your true values, skills and expectations. He is undoubtedly an expert in this specialist field and he has given me a tremendous insight into what lies ahead, which has assisted me in making such a complex decision.”
M.B. Superyacht Captain and Project Manager.
“Paul’s capabilities as a career coach were recommended to me as I embarked on moving my career out of the public sector and into the commercial sector. Through sharing his knowledge and experience, I was able to identify the ‘right kind’ of momentum required to achieve this goal. Throughout, I found his approach helpful and supportive, enabling me to ‘dig deep’ into my ‘self’ to identify my true capabilities. With my eyes opened, and with Paul’s continued support, I quickly made the necessary tweaks to my career transition approach. I can’t thank Paul enough for his insight, professionalism and honest approach”
J.S. Change Consultant, MOD
“I was looking for a career coach who would stretch my boundaries, be honest and provide me with a balanced sounding board to ensure I went back into the job market with realistic expectations. To say that Paul exceeded his remit in all of these areas in an understatement; I found that Paul pushed my thinking beyond where I was expecting to go and that he ensured I was in good shape for going forwards. I would unreservedly recommend him to anyone looking for an excellent career coach”
T.S. Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Education Sector
“Although I was content in my current role, I was keen to keep an open mind about other opportunities should they arise. Through Paul’s expertise he coached me through an important application and interview process. He was a reliable sounding board, challenged my thinking and offered sensible advice to guide me through some difficult decisions. Although offered the role I did not take it – which was the right decision, and this was largely due to Paul’s astute assessment of my needs and aspirations in line with this opportunity. It was comforting to know that I had such an objective, insightful and knowledgeable person on whom I could rely at such an important time.”
S.M. HR Director, FMCG
“Paul’s support has been invaluable. He listened very carefully to me and took time to understand what I was trying to do and why. He has always offered a very considered and constructive perspective but has challenged my thinking. I’ve enjoyed our meetings immensely, I come away feeling that I have worked hard (often without realizing it) and with renewed energy and confidence in the next step that I’m about to take. Paul has constructed our sessions around my specific situation and I am confident that he does this for all his clients. Paul is a fantastic person to have in your corner!”
B.S. Software Developer, IT Sector
“I had a Career Transition meeting with Paul to help me plan my next career adventure and evaluate the potential options. Paul is a fantastic Career Coach, and the meeting really helped to kick start my journey. It was enlightening and insightful. With his vast experience and knowledge of HR and the job market, his positive feedback about my CV and experience has given me renewed confidence to face the world with and really acted as a catalyst. Paul gives excellent service, amazing value for money and I cannot recommend him highly enough. Anyone considering a Career Coach should hire Paul – it will be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.”
C.B. Account Manager, HR Systems, NHS
“Paul has worked with us at Muller Dairy UK in the capacity as career coach for a number of our senior managers: he is insightful, trustworthy and has provided each of those he has coached with much personal challenge. In so doing, he has done much to enable each to reinvigorate their careers, and so become more effective in their roles at Muller. A great asset to the organisation.”
Mike Paxton, UK HR Director, Muller Dairies
“Paul provided me with excellent coaching and mentoring to support me through a challenging career decision. Concentrating on what I really wanted from a career and personal life, Paul focused on reaffirming my personal and professional values to help me align these with various career options. In distinguishing and evaluating my transferable skills, I was significantly better positioned to identify and successfully pursue the most appropriate role and establish a robust career strategy.”
D.H. VP Global Marketing Operations, Software Industry
Confidence Coaching
“I would recommend Paul Deeprose for professional coaching to any business professional. I spent six sessions with Paul, during which I can honestly say that for the first time in many years I know which direction I want my career in HR to take and how I am going to get there. Thank you Paul.”
S.S. Head of HR Ops, Financial Sector
“I worked with Paul whilst I was at EDF Energy. He provided coaching services for me on a couple of occasions. His professionalism, insights and understanding of people’s motivations were exceptional. He achieved great results with 2 very different clients – 1 individual and 1 group – at different stages of their careers and who presented with differing challenges. The learning and personal awareness his clients took away from their work with Paul has stayed with them and been sustained. I would recommend his work very highly.”
Susan Chew,Director of Organisational Development, EDF Energy
Career Crossroads Coaching
“Thank you so much for your words of wisdom, thought provoking questions and really helpful discussions at our meetings. You have given me a plan and structure to really set me on the right path.”
S.W. HR Consultant and Lecturer
“Paul is an outstanding professional, a true expert in his field! He showed an amazing ability to quickly understand my needs/challenges and worked closely with me to develop an action plan to get me on track with my objectives. His insight and ability to look beyond the obvious were impressive. It is a real pleasure to recommend Paul; if you are fortunate to work with him you won’t be disappointed professionally or personally.”
Rob McIntyre,Company Director, Consultancy
CV Workout
“I thought I had a good CV – how wrong I was! Paul’s gentle but honest review of my CV made me realise how many experiences I had missed out and how much more I could promote my achievements. He knows his stuff! Simple, effective and well thought through changes have given me confidence that I have one of the best CV’s around. This was time and money really well spent!”
D.F. HR Business Partner
“I found Paul’s feedback and critique extremely rigourous and thought provoking. It has really helped me to re-appraise my experience and to re-evaluate my achievements. With this fresh insight I can create a far more impactful CV that will help position me right at the top of my target market.”
H.E. Talent Development Director, Power Industry
“Thank you for supporting me with my CV – what a difference! Your insights and common sense approach just made the whole task so much easier. I now can’t wait to send the CV out to the market. Bring it on!”
S.L. Finance Manager, Telecoms
Interview Fitness Coaching
“My interview technique changed dramatically after our training sessions, and my confidence received a big boost as I was able to choose from a few roles in March, which was a big relief after a year out of employment.”
R.R. Business Partner, Systems Management.
“I need to thank you for the advice and guidance you gave me last year. While financially I couldn’t afford as many sessions with you as I knew I needed, the time I did spend talking with you certainly helped accelerate me on the path to rediscovering my confidence in my abilities. Every intereview I went to thereafter, I treated as a learning experience as much as a potential step back into HR, and I was able to be more self-aware, identifying and working harder on my weaknesses in interview. And eventually – success! So thank you very, very much.
J.S. HR Director, Service Industry
“Paul was invaluable in helping me to build my self confidence to make the next step in my HR career. Shortly after I started working with Paul I embarked on a lengthy selection process and his knowledge of the HR world and systematic approach to identifying my strengths and weaknesses was hugely helpful. He was always clear in his advice about the steps I needed to take and was skilled at being both supportive and challenging which is exactly what I needed to feel prepared and confident. His advice and support was critical to me securing my new role. I have no hesitation in recommending Paul”
K.W. HR Business Partner, Public Sector, moved to Private Sector
“When Paul and I started working together I was struggling to understand why, after 25 years of a successful career, I wasn’t getting called to interview. I could have simply blamed the recession, but I needed to take a long hard look at myself and re-invent myself where necessary. I envisaged this was going to be a difficult and torturous process…not so! Paul’s personable style and high levels of respect and integrity made the challenging feedback easy to take and accept. Paul’s extensive background in HR & Executive Recruiting meant that he could provide great insights and validations through the work we did together. After a few sessions over a period of 3 months, I can honestly say I have transformed myself, and the interviews are coming in! Thanks Paul, you’re an ACE in this game, and I will not hesitate to call on you, or recommend you, in the future!”
P.M. Global Head of Talent, Engineering
“Having not been for an interview for many years I needed to boost my confidence in answering questions about my career. Paul and I spent 2 hours in a mock interview – it’s amazing how much information he was able to draw out of me! Because Paul’s interview and feedback were so comprehensive, the actual interviews I attended seemed easy in comparison! His call to me on the morning of my interviews was a lovely, confidence boosting touch. I got my favoured job. I felt in very safe hands and highly recommend him.”
A.J. HR Director, Retail
“Thanks Paul, as I said last week, you have made such a marked difference to my confidence, now letting me approach the whole interview process knowing that I can answer those questions with relative ease. Your focus on simplicity was inspiring and just made such perfect sense! I will surely recommend you to as many people as I can. Thanks again.”
D.W. Head of HR, Manufacturing
“Paul was recommended to me as a very experienced career coach. On meeting Paul, I was very impressed by his friendly and professional approach. He has a natural ability to put people at ease. Paul was also able to quickly analyse the support and training that was necessary to assist me. During the interview coaching, I was challenged to discover and identify my key strengths and how to promote them. I feel confident that this training will help me with future career aspirations. I would strongly recommend Paul as a career coach, and wish him all the best for the future with The Career Gym.”
R.R. HR Manager, IT & Telecomms
Recruitment Training
“I first met Paul as a candidate when he was at Consult HR and was impressed by the robust interview process, followed by helpful and honest feedback. Several years later, whilst working as an interim manager at Macmillan Cancer Support I hired Paul to undertake the design of some interview training and coaching for middle and senior managers. Paul did an excellent job, taking every opportunity to add extra value as he worked with members of the HR team. Paul is a professional and a friendly person and we look forward to working with him again in the year ahead, when he will be facilitating some discussions around our HR Business Partner model.”
Jane Balinski, Interim Head of Development and Talent, Macmillan Cancer Support
“We needed to improve the skills of our Sales Managers in interview technique. Not only did Paul provide a training program which he delivered to a broader audience in the end, but he individually coached our senior managers in smart questioning technique, and increased their ability to assess and hire the best people for our business. Paul’s friendly and engaging style endeared him to everyone here and he has left a great legacy in a program that my team can now roll out when necessary.”
D.P. Learning Manager, FMCG
Group Outplacement
“I would just like to personally congratulate you on a very useful and innovative two days. I think we ALL would like to commend Paul Deeprose for his careful and detailed advice to us all. Without exception we took away sound advice delivered in a compassionate and friendly way.He has created in us all a positive attitude, giving us more tools at our disposal to be successful at interviews. I, for one, have learnt more about myself (and others) to enable me to deliver a more memorable CV and interview.”
P.K. Designer.
Development
“Paul is doing really creative and fun stuff with The Career Gym. He totally understands the world that both employees and businesses presently find themselves in and I would recommend him highly…. he will challenge your thinking and give you the intellectual workout you are needing…”
Ali Humphries. Head of HR Group Distribution , Nationwide Building Society
Recruitment
“Paul was always great to work with, understanding our business needs and presenting us with outstanding candidates. Paul is very knowledgeable about the recruitment market and is highly personable, building strong and lasting relationships with us and our candidates alike.”
Helen Williams, Principal Consultant, SHL People Solutions
“When Paul headhunted me into my current role, I found him to be extremely professional, thorough, supportive and very candidate focused. He knows his market extremely well and now as a career coach I have every confidence in his ability to really understand his clients, ascertain their needs and creatively assist in their development.”
Dominic Johnson. Employee Relations Director, Barclays Global Retail Bank
HR Team Development
“Paul has provided HR development and recruitment counsel to Diesel, improving our HR team operationally and strategically. I count on Paul’s experience and wisdom.”
Tim Pointer, HRD – Diesel UK
Assessment of HR Department
“Recently appointed as People Director, my first objective was to align the People function within the organisation. The previous structure consisted of three disparate teams. The requirement was to redesign the area, consult with staff and implement the change process. The process would result in a number of compulsory redundancies and to ensure that a robust and objective process was adopted, Paul Deeprose was engaged to carry out the interviewing of internal candidates for roles within the new structure at all levels.
“Paul’s expertise and insightful contribution was invaluable and enabled robust decision making. His contribution was supported by well documented summaries for each individual. The advantage of following this process was that the team recognised objectivity whilst I was able to ensure that the internal candidates compared well to external organisations using Paul’s overt knowledge of the marketplace.
“The entire process was extremely efficient and effective delivering the optimal outcome. The process was backed up by Paul delivering a couple of resourcing workshops for my Team which gained excellent feedback.
“There was considerable value-add in employing Paul in this capacity and I would not hesitate to do so again in the future.”
K.T. People Director, Telecoms