This paper is about how the wider society in which a young person lives, is educated and works affects their career options, decisions and subsequent development. It considers how young people make decisions and what influences those decisions. It then describes the context of the wider society, drawing on sociology. In drawing conclusion this essay suggests that one cannot separate the individual and society in careers management and coaching.

All managers will interview candidates for jobs with their firm. Each interview, as the single selection instrument, must be designed to give evidence against all decision criteria. Interview alone is unable to be that good. Indeed, no single selection instrument is that good. We recommend the use of a number of ‘tools’ to support the interview. Read about those tools here.

The article notes that before promotion, the engineer was an ordinary employee. He or she achieved great things through their own efforts. Now their success comes from causing others to perform. They're still an engineer. But they've added a whole new part to their identity. Now they're a manager of engineers. They're a boss, a leader of men and women. It's the same whatever the discipline.

There’s been a plethora of articles in the management press and in management-oriented social media recently declaring that mental health is a big issue in firms. Here we temper this alarmism and give a practical three point plan comprising knowledge, awareness and sensing and intervention.

• How people think about pay and reward.
• The link (if any) between motivation and pay.
• Setting out a pay and reward policy, structure and system for a firm.
• How to evaluate jobs and set relative pay.
• The benefit of benefits and the idea of total reward.

• Introduction to management - interventions, outcomes and the use of a feedback model to drive action.
• How firms come about and the role of entrepreneur, leader, manager, contractor and employee.
• Understanding contracts and the nature of the various contracts available to the manager.
• Introducing the psychological contract and the way social action changes contractual relations.