Reviews

What people are saying about Zena...
I wanted to reach out and thank you so much for presenting at our summit. We all loved your presentation! You were engaging, informative, and inspiring. We received a lot of positive feedback from our attendees about your talk. Thank you again for sharing your expertise with us. We hope to have you back again soon!
GOOGLE UK

Zena Everett

I just wanted to drop you a note to say thank you for delivering a great session. For me personally, it’s changed the way I am doing certain things – for each meeting every meeting now has a clear, defined purpose, a process and payoff. It’s helping keep the meetings more on track and ensuring everyone is clear on what they need to prep for before we begin. This means they are taking slightly less time!    

Henley Business School delegate

Just a quick note to say a big thank you for the Crazy Busy webinar.  The average rating was 4.75 out of 5.00 which is marvellous and we are all very pleased.  It might be that we ask you to do more of the same in due course if you would be happy to consider it.

Alex Freedman

People Development Manager, PKF Littlejohn LLP

Fabulously engaging and enlightening session , lots of buzz today at LBI as we aim to get the very best out our talented team on behalf of our residents .

Thank you Zena

Linzi Roberts Egan

Chief Executive, London Borough of Islington

Yesterday we had the absolutely fabulous Zena Everett come and do a “Crazy Busy” workshop for the University of Greenwich Woman’s Network. Zena was smart, engaging, well researched and informed and really got to the heart of the challenges we all face. The chat and the feedback was full of “YES. THAT!” responses. But perhaps the biggest testament is the plan, suggested by the brilliant Sara R that we keep the work going with some Women’s Network follow ups so that we embed what we discussed a super practical way, from the ground up as well as the top down. I know that members have gone back to their teams with new ideas, new approaches and new resolve to work better, not busier.

Thanks Zena TOTALLY recommend you to others! 

Greenwich Business School

Thank you for a wonderful presentation today.  The team was very engaged and contributed a lot of great information in the chat and the breakout sessions.  The content was very relevant, and your presentation and facilitation skills are excellent.  I’m certain there will be some “a-ha!” moments that come out of our debrief. 

Head Legal Operations

Takeda

What a fabulous speaker Zena is!  Really engaging, lots and lots of hints and tips – it was a really good session.

Louise Clipson

Stakeholder and Alumni Manager, The Open University Business and Law Schools

Many thanks for a brilliant ,well presented address. I enjoyed it very much and the feedback is exceptional.

Anne Marie Sanderson

Clinical Manager, GS Medical Devices Limited, Ireland

I have partnered with Zena for the last two years in two ways: (1) By being on the coaching panel at GIC (2) Designing and delivering a number of workshops for the UK and Americas regions. As a coach, Zena is highly regarded. She is insightful, practical but focused on leadership/strategic career goals. Zena doesn’t miss a trick, she will focus on everything your say, unpick it all, challenge you, and then, as a true coach gets you to the right, impactful, life changing answers. I highly recommend Zena. Zena also delivered a number of workshops to staff on career strategies, productivity, showing up as a leader and others. The feedback was great from staff and she was able to engage an international audience.

Dimple Mistry

Head, Human Resources Europe, GIC Private Ltd

It was fantastic to work with Zena to develop a hybrid working plan for my team of 50. Zena expertly guided my management team and I through all the noise around new ways of working. After our session with Zena we were able to design a structure for the working week that includes the perfect blend of intentional time for deep work and time for whole team collaboration that everyone is happy with.

Emma Moore

Director of Careers and Employability, University of Liverpool

Zena was an excellent ‘guest speaker’ – please can we have more webinars with her?

Best lunch time session yet.

Financial Services, London

Zena’s thoughtful presentation to senior risk and finance industry leaders about how they can build trust by ‘consciously coupling’ with the teams they lead prompted much useful debate. It provided helpful pointers about how to create the psychological safety and flexibility that colleagues will want as they return to the ‘new office normal’ as the pandemic recedes.

Simon Hills, Director, Prudential Policy, UK Finance

Thank you for such a great session this morning! looking forward to using the tips in practice and sharing with my wider team! Have a great weekend.

MR on LinkedIn

HSBC

Hi Zena, hope you’re well! I’ve just attended your workshop with the HSBC Grads, and I just wanted to say I really enjoyed it. I found the content really helpful, and I’ve made some notes on how to stay focused at work. I’d love to connect and I hope you have a nice weekend!

Kind regards

HM on LinkedIn

I had great feedback on the session come through – 3 people even messaged me during the session itself to say that they found you credible, personable, and that it was a good use of their time.

Learning and Development Head

GIC, New York

Thank you very much for organising this. I thought it was excellent.

Some really simple ideas – even if they are reinforcement of ideas / aspects we knew before – that are really useful in these extended WFH scenario we are all in and likely to continue for 1 – 3 months more or even longer.     

UK Finance, Risk Management Professional

Hi Zena, I attended the Cranfield University webinar this afternoon and just wanted to thank you for an excellent presentation. I have read your Crazy Busy book and found that really useful and it was great to have the opportunity to hear you speak this afternoon. So many useful tips. Thank you!     

Finance Director, via Linked In after presentation at Cranfield School of Management

Thanks so much for a really useful and inspiring session yesterday.  I know the team get a huge amount from these and we have already circulated emails around our preferred communication and revised meetings.  I personally found a lot that was super useful for me and that I am going to try and implement going forward.      

Director, Tate

Hi Zena,  You may remember me. You coached me a few years back when I was in the process of leaving PlayStation after 20 years. You opened my corporately institutionalised eyes and challenged me to think wider and bigger. What did I really want to do?  

I decided to train as a cognitive coach (Rational Emotive Behavioural Coaching) and now run a cognitive training and coaching company called Mind Fitness. We go into organisations of all kinds, from small charities to corporates. We work in schools, with funding from Children in Need and also in the performing arts in drama schools and with Equity. I have just co-written a book called Unlock You, published by Pearson.

Had you not removed the shutters from my eyes, I honestly don’t think I would be doing this today. So thank you for your inspiration! Your guidance was absolutely pivotal.  Would you send me your address please? I’d really like to send you a copy of the book.   

Thank you again Zena. I hope that things are going well for you and that our paths cross again in the future. 

Best wishes, Andy

Andy Baker

Thank you!  A most inspiring and enjoyable session.   Thank you so much for your invaluable input.  I’ve already directed a few close friends to my newly impressive linked in profile.  I feel very motivated to go forth and conquer! I will most definitely keep in touch and update you on progress.
JG

Chief Operations Officer

Zena Everett has more knowledge, experience and, indeed, insight as to how recruiters work and corporates hire than anyone I know.
Ann Swain

Chief Executive, Association of Professional Staffing Companies

You are career magic – I have been offered both positions and I am totally stuck as to which to take!
Hannah

I liked your approach, you are direct and our conversations were thought-provoking. I didn’t need an arm round my shoulder or an ear, I needed solid career advice and I feel you provided that. I can be quite sceptical with regards the industry you are in, I have always strived to succeed on my own, but I have to say you added serious value to my search and ultimately it was your idea that got me across the line.
Mark T

Sales Lead, Tech Start-Up

I just wanted to drop you a short note to update you and also to thank you, career definitely still in ascendancy. I have been successful in securing an MD role of a £140M turnover company that is part of a £2.2bn t/o group.The reason for thanks is that they wanted a turn round specialist and you may remember that that is how you articulated my skill set. It is initially for 6 months but that will then lead on to other opportunities I’m sure. Many thanks and kind regards.
JT

I worked with Zena when I was looking for a new senior role. She quickly uncovered what was important to me in my next role, taking into consideration my motivations, abilities and interests. With that understanding, she worked with me to sharpen my CV and social media profile, marketing me in a very focused way, which resulted in more and higher quality opportunities presenting themselves. She was able to provide access to her network of head-hunters which increased my visibility in the market. As a result of Zena’s help and encouragement, I was offered a number of great roles within a couple of months. I am very happy to recommend Zena as an executive career coach.
Steven Woods

Senior Director, Price Waterhouse Coopers.

This is a highly competitive job market and organisations expect senior candidates to have first class career management skills. For instance – evidence of sensible decision making, a focused career plan, an achievement-orientated CV and well-mastered interview techniques. It pays to invest in an impartial, expert perspective to cultivate these and that’s why we recommend Zena.
David Goldstone

Osprey Clarke, Executive Search Consultants

I relocated to London after a long career with SFR, France’s second largest telco. I was looking for another senior marketing position and needed support to understand the UK market. I was recommended to Zena by one of my headhunter contacts. Zena supported me every step of the way, from rewriting my CV right through to the negotiation of my new contract.
Pierre Pfister

General Manager of EMEA Strategic Services, Nexidia

I have known Zena for many years, firstly as a seasoned and professional recruitment expert, and more recently through her career development work. Zena has attended our Career Coach Masterclass and contributed to my book ‘The Interview Expert’, and I would wholeheartedly recommend her as an executive careers specialist.
John Lees

Author of How To Get A Job You’ll Love

Zena is one of the most professional, driven people that I know. She is an expert in her industry, a font of knowledge in all things recruitment!. Zena was instrumental in changing my career into one that has taken me to the USA and into great opportunities. She took the time to understand my motivators, my abilities and identified the best opportunity for me. I would highly recommend her.
Joanna Ransley

Zena is excellent to work with. She is personable, credible and pragmatic in her approach. Zena gets to the heart of issues quickly and works in partnership to help resolve them. I readily recommend Zena as a career coach.
Amy Kubrycht

Thank you so much for our sessions – you have really helped me to clarify my thinking about where I want to go next; have made it easier for me to express what I want to do and have left me with some food for thought that will help me take forward a number of strands of the work I’m developing.
Dr Joanne Wade

I selected Zena to provide outplacement/career change support after 21 years working for the same employer.  The particular reason I chose Zena was because I wanted someone who would tailor their service to meet my personal needs and preferences.  I did not want the formulaic approach taken by many of the larger providers of outplacement support, and it was important to me that I worked with someone I could respect as well as empathise with.  I have no doubt that I made the right decision in appointing Zena.  She delivered everything she said she would, and more!  She was happy to adopt a mentoring style, which was what I wanted, but was able to slip easily into a coaching mode as and when appropriate.  Conversations with her were easy, as she has a great ability to build empathy and trust, but she has the knack of homing in on the ‘killer question’ that needs to be asked but which might be quite uncomfortable to consider and answer.  Whilst appearing to take a fluid approach to our agenda, she instilled an early discipline to get ‘the domestics’ of job-hunting done, ensuring that my CV and Linked-In profile were ‘fit-for-purpose’ and posted on appropriate sites.  She also ensured that they were regularly reviewed and updated as we went through the outplacement process.  Whilst business-like, meetings with Zena were never rushed or curtailed, and she was unstinting in networking on my behalf.  I had unlimited access to her by e-mail or ‘phone between meetings and at all times I was made to feel that she was there for me as wise counsel, personal tutor and a professional peer.  Her associates who carried out psychometric tests and personal presentation coaching were equally professional, engaged and engaging.  The fact that I had not found my next job by the end of the process is no reflection on Zena’s ability.  On the contrary, it was working with her that finally revealed something that I had long suppressed in terms of what type of work really motivates and excites me, and she has given me the courage and confidence to take my career in an entirely new and unexpected direction.

Sue Harrison

formerly Director of Business Strategy, House of Commons

Thank you for your wonderful talk at Workfest. You made me laugh and you made me think!
Tazeen Ahmad

Reporter, Writer, Journalist

I decided that I wanted to look for new challenges in my career, and move back to live in London, from Belgium where I was EMEA Director Demand Planning for Goodyear Dunlop. Zena was recommended to me as a person who could provide some support to make the decision a successful step in my career. Understand my strength and sell them, best leverage my network. Zena did just that, kept me focused on finding exactly what I wanted in the short and longer term. She also gave me good advice on how to work with headhunters. I am now Global Process Director at GSK so am pleased to say her process worked.
Stefano Ragni

I am a Senior Architect and Urban Designer, originally from Serbia, but I did my MSc at the LSE and I am a Chartered Member of the RIBA. I have worked on many different projects both in the UK and internationally and advised national, regional and local authorities on spatial and socioeconomic development of their cities and regions. It’s been so helpful to be trained on how to define my core strengths and experience and then articulate these at interview. I think we all know what we can do do and the skills we offer, but it can be hard to get this message across when we are selling ourselves, rather than a client project. Zena has really helped me to step back and see myself objectively so that I can tailor my message appropriately. Zena really cares about her work and I recommend her wholeheartedly.
Gorana Shepherd

AA Dipl Msc (LSE) ARB RIBA

I’m a headhunter working on global C-suite positions. It’s imperative that potential candidates have researched extensively, can differentiate themselves, have clear career goals and can close powerfully. I recommend that anyone with rusty interview skills set up a session and be ‘Zenafied’ so that they can compete at this level.
Jane Davenport

Consilior Talent Partners, London

When I finished my doctorate I had a number of different career options to consider. It was really helpful to spend time with Zena and to have an impartial advisor to use as a sounding board. She helped me focus on what I wanted to achieve and gave me great feedback on how to approach interviews.
Dr Emily Pringle

Head of Learning Practice and Research at Tate

I wanted to say a huge thank you for both your direct support at what was quite a hectic time in terms of career decision making and for all the support you have given me these last few years. You really have been instrumental in shaping my thinking and approach to career matters. I was talking to (my wife) about the first time you and I worked together when I left (firm’s name). I have had a fantastic journey in terms of work in the 6 years hence. I have landed roles that I simply would not have thought possible to land and have pretty much trebled my salary. I owe you one!
D

Director, Financial Services

I also want to thank you for guiding me to this point and helping me to stop panicking! Your extremely positive reaction and enthusiasm to my fledgling idea of management consulting gave me the impetus to take it further and I’m delighted I did. When we first met up, I was completely without ideas as to what to do. The prospect of getting another corporate job filled me with dread. Your encouragement to keep calm, be creative and don’t rule anything out was just the advise I needed.
Andrew B

It was lovely to meet you last week and I just want to say thank-you so much for the Personal Branding workshop. It was incredibly useful and Zena was fabulous – such a wealth of knowledge and expertise presented in a warm, straightforward and engaging way. It was great to explore this stuff with such a creative and interesting group of participants and I was so impressed with the way that Zena immediately grasped the particulars of everyone’s individual situation and requirements and tailored responses and advice accordingly. I left on Thursday feeling inspired and with a much clearer sense of how to proceed and what needs to be done next. I’m really delighted to have had this opportunity so huge thanks again!
Best Regards, Jo

Zena came highly recommended to me as someone who is an expert in her field, and someone who could offer a more bespoke outplacement service than some of the larger providers which was why I chose her. From the outset Zena was very personable, professional and very knowledgeable about the recruitment market. She was very flexible, and responsive and worked with me efficently and effectively to secure my next role. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Zena.
Giles Fairmann

Financial Services

My afternoon of coaching with Zena was invaluable in helping me understand my key strengths, focus on my career goals, and crucially translating these into clear and concise answers that I used to impress the Bloomberg panel.
JS

Thank you so much for all your help. It was a huge deal – you took me from… ..a very low and not confident level following a horrific accident and intense, difficult rehab, where I was also fair game for knocks from recruitment consultants; ..to a more confident, focused and positive place and raring to get back into the work place.

Zena Everett has worked with Mumsnet now on a number of occasions and we would not hesitate in working with her again. Her approach is professional, warm and enthusiastic and the feedback from those who attend her courses is always exemplary. If you are looking for a course to build your confidence, you would be hard pushed to do better.
Patrick Keogh

Mumsnet

I also loved a session we had with career coach Zena Everett. I seriously filled up about six A4 pages of notes during her talk, she pretty much gave us all a free coaching session and helped us think about what we want to do. Then she told us like it is when it comes to the recruitment process and what companies are looking for in applications and interviews, and told us how to network online to land a dream job and better business connections. If you have any career concerns I definitely recommend booking a session with Zena! It will sort you right out!
Sarah

First of all I want to thank you for your energising session at Workfest. Your clarity and passion made your session the best of the day. You have given me a lighting bolt into positive action.
Victoria

Reading my notes from the fabulous @ZenaEverett1 #workfest session and making a plan #crossroads
@redpensbluepens

@ZenaEverett1 @MumsnetTowers great day #workfest inspired by Zena and Jo Malone. Delegates a great motivated women seeking a new path
Anna Wilson

This class is full of valuable insights. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to take control of their search. Zena has a great reputation amongst the executive search industry and I would take her advice as gospel.
Jeff Grout

Listed in '100 Best Business Speakers in Britain', Author of Recruiting Excellence and Kickstart Your Career

I wanted to drop you a note to say thank you for the session that you delivered on Personal Branding at Mumsnet Workfest yesterday. I wrote copious notes and had so many ‘light bulb’ moments that I’ve completely re-thought my job (or rather ‘opportunity’) searching strategy. I have spent the morning re-vamping my CV and Linked In page and made a list of all the contacts that I could go and speak to. You delivered your talk with such warmth and humour, it was a highlight of the day for me.
S

Communications Director, London

Being an actor (or out-of-work actor!) and a mother has occupied me for the best part of 20 years, and although I’ve had a scattergun approach to scratching some kind of income, I have been completely alienated from the jobs’ market. I am aware, however, that this has changed beyond recognition, particularly with the advent of the online world and the more recent, creeping importance of social media and online networking. Without this workshop, I would have been completely unprepared for the focused approach that is essential for a career in the world of now and beyond.
I feel very privileged to have had the chance to take part in a service provided by such a high-quality professional as Zena Everett, something that I know will prove to be so valuable. She debunked myths, challenged preconceptions, presented new ideas and her solid, down-to-earth and yet warm and generous approach enabled me to have the confidence to explore new challenges. More valuable than anything, her expertise and objective view also allowed her to suggest new avenues to pursue, and I left the course with a whole new set of areas to explore. Thank you!

Samantha Ritchie

Actress; Script Developer, Editor, Copy Editor, Ghost Writer, Proofreader, Script and Manuscript Typist

Having attended the personal branding workshop in November 2013, I quickly employed the new techniques I had leaned for effective LinkedIn profile management. However, I was a little sceptical that I was maybe to0 niche for these techniques to work for me. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Just 2 short months later, I was contacted via LinkedIn and invited to apply for a very specialist position with a well known organisation in my industry. My application was successful and not only did I achieve a promotion from officer to manager grade, but I also doubled my salary. I couldn’t recommend Zena’s personal branding workshop enough. It’s been the key factor in helping me achieve my immediate career goals.

Caroline Hamilton

Zena debunks myths, challenges preconceptions, presents new ideas and her solid, down-to-earth and yet warm and generous approach gives me the confidence to explore new challenges.
Samantha Ritchie

Actress (The Followed, The Sun Always Shines, Waiting)

Your confidence mantra of parking your insecurity the door and flipping it around is genius and I’m going to use it with every negative aspect that creeps in and tries to self-defeat!! Altruism rather than egotism. Brilliant
Claudia Elmhirst

Actress (Doctors, EastEnders, Midsomer Murders)

I have deepest gratitude to Zena for reminding me of what I am capable of and giving me the gift of believing in myself.
Lauren Dowse, in an email to Equity

You were deep in conversation when I left last night so I just wanted to write to say thank you for the session last night at the Brighthelm Centre, it was really enjoyable and very helpful. Some of the concepts I’d come across before in a CBT context, but hadn’t applied them to a work situation and it was extremely useful to rethink along those lines and consider the practical exercises you introduced us to.
Kate

Zena ran a fantastic workshop that encouraged us to rethink our thinking about our careers and to take action. It was delivered with humour, skill and just the right amount of challenge.
Karen MacMillan

FreshAir