QuintZine: A Career and Job-Hunting Newsletter

QuintZine

A Career and Job-Hunting Newsletter

Volume 13, Issue 02 | ISSN: 1528-9443 | Second Quarter: June 2012

What You'll Find: Job-Seeker FAQs

Notes from the Editor
Main Feature: Frequently Asked Questions About Salary Negotiation: The Complete Job Offer and Salary Negotiation FAQ for Job-Seekers
Special Feature: Frequently Asked Questions About Interviews: Comprehensive Job Interviewing FAQ

Bonus Feature: 10 Ways Toastmasters Can Boost Your Career
Extra Feature: How to Craft a Killer Opening for Your Executive Resume: Part 2 -- Sample Killer Resume Opener
What's New on Quintessential Careers: Latest Additions to Our Site
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life

Editor's Note: About this Issue...

Welcome to our second of four QuintZines this year.

This issue, we're spotlighting our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) articles and adding two new ones.

The experts at Quintessential Careers have compiled answers to the most frequently asked career and job questions from job-seekers, a collection covering topics such as resumes, cover letters, networking, and more. Need answers to career, job-search, and job-hunting questions to advance your career? You'll find the answers here! We've organized in one place all our key job-seeker FAQs -- frequently asked questions -- with expert and empowering answers that include exclusive tools and advice from Quintessential Careers.

You can find links to all these FAQs for Job-Seekers, including:

Cover Letter FAQs and the Competitive Edge in the Job Market
FAQs About Thank You Letters for Job-Seekers
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Career Networking
Frequently Asked Questions About Interviews: Comprehensive Job Interviewing FAQ: NEW! See details below.
Frequently Asked Questions About Resumes: The Complete Resume FAQ
Frequently Asked Resume Questions: A FAQ for College Students and New Graduates
Frequently Asked Questions About Salary Negotiation: The Complete Job Offer and Salary Negotiation FAQ for Job-Seekers: NEW! See details below.
Posting Your Resume on Job Boards: The FAQs

FAQs coming soon:

Job-Hunting FAQ
Career-Changer FAQ
Career-Planning FAQ
New College Grad Job-Hunting FAQ
Teen Job-Seeker FAQ

We hope you get all your job-search questions answered by our FAQs!

As they say in the song, "see you in September," for our next issue.

In the meantime, please remember to check out job listings and post your resume on our job-search portal.

--Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master, Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at kathy(at)quintcareers.com

Feature Article: Frequently Asked Questions About Salary Negotiation: The Complete Job Offer and Salary Negotiation FAQ for Job-Seekers

by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.

This article seeks to answer the most common questions job-seekers face when job-hunting. In creating this salary negotiation FAQ, we have developed a list of 20 of the most frequently asked questions about salary and job-offer negotiation -- and provided expert answers to each.

Read the complete list of 20 questions and answers.

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Special Feature: Frequently Asked Questions About Interviews: Comprehensive Job Interviewing FAQ

by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

Have questions about job interviewing?

Chances are you can get them all answered in our comprehensive collection of job-seeker frequently asked questions (FAQ) about interviewing.

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Bonus Feature: 10 Ways Toastmasters Can Boost Your Career

by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

What could you accomplish if you could present your point of view more persuasively? Whether we are motivating workers, conveying information to constituents, collaborating with folks inside and outside our organizations, or trying to convince an employer to hire us, we can all benefit from better communication skills.

Toastmasters is an organization that enables members to improve communication skills in a safe, encouraging, supportive environment.

While participation in Toastmasters benefits members in many aspects of their lives, it is perhaps in their careers that they gain the biggest boost. As best-selling author Harvey Mackay has said, "I've never met anyone who didn't think Toastmasters was super valuable to their career. We gain self-esteem, self-confidence, and assertiveness, which makes us better salespeople, better managers, better leaders."

Our article offers 10 ways the club can propel your career.

Extra Feature: How to Craft a Killer Opening for Your Executive Resume: Part 2 -- Sample Killer Resume Opener

by Don Goodman

In Part 1, we showed you how to create a compelling resume opening with a strong value proposition. Now you have to provide support for that theme by showcasing the skills and experience that prove your point.

See how this showcasing works in our full article.

Both these articles are part of our special section in which expert resume writer and career coach Don Goodman shares his 15+ years of experience writing executive resumes and guiding executive job searches to show you how to secure your next position.

Latest Additions:
Some of the New Job and Career Sites Added to Quintessential Careers

Huntsy -- if you're one of those job-seekers who has trouble keeping organized and on-task, this site is for you! Besides helping you organize your job-search, this site will also help you find new contacts -- and better utilize current ones. No cost to job-seekers.

Inside Jobs -- a place designed to help simplify career exploration -- where people can explore what job and career opportunities exist and learn what paths can take them there. As the sites says, find "inspiration, information, and awesome shortcuts for your career exploration. No cost to job-seekers.

Jobbook -- a Canadian job site that matches job-seekers to job openings. Choose the job opportunities in which you are interested to pursue, and the site anonymously and privately matches you with jobs matched to your profile and selections. No cost to job-seekers.

Recmnd.Me -- a site where working professionals can actively recommend and rate each other, using job titles, keywords, locations, and more to aid in the rankings. You can then share your rankings and profiles with employers, others. No cost to job-seekers.

Many other great new additions to Quintessential Careers can be found in the latest additions section.

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Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life

A question we could have added to our interviewing FAQ is: What's next in job interviewing? Dr. John Sullivan addresses that question in an article that also discusses emerging practices in candidate screening and assessment. In "Leading-edge Candidate Screening, Interviewing, and Assessment Practices," Sullivan lists "speed-dating" approaches to interviewing, remote and pre-recorded interviews, Internet questionnaires used in conjunction with interviews, problem-solving interviews, tests as supplements to interviews, and much more. To get an idea of what techniques some employers are already using and that more organizations can be expected to deploy down the road.

See the full article.

Most job-search experts prescribe an approach that combines networking with targeting employers -- instead of seeking jobs via applying and posting resumes on job boards. While it appears few employers follow this effective approach, Dorothy Tannahill-Moran recently described on CareerRocketeer a job-seeker who got a job through this technique without ever completing one online application. He made a list of 300 companies he was interested in working for; narrowed the list down to 50; checked LinkedIn to see who he was connected to in those companies or could be introduced to by an existing connection; and devised ways to connect with those with whom he didn't already have a personal connection. Those contacts resulted in a number of interviews, and within 10 weeks, he had a job. As Moran notes: "It's people who hire people.

When you can connect with people in your job search and not just send your resume as thousands of people do, you will make yourself stand out. You will jump ahead of that pack and be the one most likely to earn an interview and then the job."

Read the article.

Remote interviews are becoming more and more common; they are a way for employers to save money by interviewing you long-distance instead of paying your expenses to travel to the interview. Laura Backes offers 5 Tips to a Great Skype Interview:
- Situate yourself in front of a simple but not boring background.
- Use natural sunlight or a table lamp, if possible.
- Wear what you'd wear for any job interview.
- Look into the computer's camera.
- Practice.
See more details in the full article.

See our entire collection of Q-Tips: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips.

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We'd Love You to Link to Quintessential Careers!

If your school, organization, business or other entity has a Website, we welcome you to link to Quintessential Careers. If you already have a link from your site, we want you to know we appreciate it. If you don't have a link to us, please send a request to your site's Webmaster to establish a link to Quintessential Careers. Thanks so much!

For more details (including sample HTML copy), see our Link to Us page.

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QuintZine... a no-cost career and job-hunting newsletter filled with timely and topical tips for springboarding careers.

QuintZine

A publication of Quintessential Careers
Publisher: Dr. Randall S. Hansen
Editor: Dr. Katharine Hansen
ISSN: 1528-9443

Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.

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