Feature Article: Developing a Strategic Vision for Your Career Plan
Special Feature: Career Research Checklist
Quintessential Reading: QuintZine's Review of Career Books --
Get Smart! About Modern Career Development
The Career Doctor: Answering Your Questions
Latest Additions: What's New on Quintessential Careers
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Notes from the Editor: About this Issue...
If you're anything like me, you still
think of September and the start of
the school year as just as much a
time of new beginnings as is January.
My thoughts turn to school, college
football, and even the new TV season!
It's also a perfect time to think
about some serious career planning.
This issue offers some tools to help
you in the quest.
The issue goes out on Labor Day in
the US. We salute American workers,
and indeed, workers everywhere. We also
pause in remembrance of those killed
by terrorists nearly a year ago.
Developing a Strategic Vision for Your Career Plan
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
How many times will you change careers in your
lifetime? If you're like most people, you'll change
careers at least several times over the course of your
life. How successful you'll be in making transitions
among careers can at least be partially attributed to
the amount of career planning and preparation you've done.
Every job-seeker needs to take the time to step way from
the
day-to-day grind of work and spend quality time
reflecting on his or her career and developing some plans for
the future. Whether you love your current job and employer
or feel frustrated and confined by your job, career planning
can help. Think of career planning as building bridges from
your current job/career to your next job/career; without
the bridge, you may easily stumble or lose your way, but
with the bridge, there is safety and direction.
The full article provides you with some basic guidelines for both
short-term and long-term career planning.
Read the full article.
Ad: Earn Your Project Management Certificate Online
Separate yourself from the crowd in 1 month with a
Project Management Certificate Online from the #1 Ranked
school in the north by US News & World Report: Villanova
University. Increase your hire-ability while learning
the secrets of successful project management online!
Or enroll in the largest accredited online multimedia
MBA program in the nation via the University Alliance.
No Classroom attendance required! Study anytime, anywhere, 24/7.
Are you trying to find some direction for your career?
Perhaps a change in careers? Perhaps your first career?
It's critical, at this stage, to conduct research into
various careers that interest you. The more research you do,
the more likely a career path will become evident to you.
What are the best methods for researching careers?
A comprehensive online course that includes
exercises designed to help you achieve career
and job fulfillment.
Learn to market yourself the Career Journal way. With specialized tracks
designed for people in different stages of career
development, this course can help any job-seeker,
from the unsure student to the experienced job-seeker.
By keeping and using a structured career-development
journal based on solid career-marketing principles,
you will experience new insights and growth --
into yourself and your career.
Casto's first several chapters provide the tools for the career
decision-making process that forms the framework of the book. In
discussing the oft-cited fact that people usually have multiple
careers -- not just jobs -- throughout their lifetimes, she offers an
apt observation: "My own concept of career is like a wardrobe, where
you 'try on' different outfits throughout your lifetime, and continue
to check the mirror to see if it still fits and matches your current
style and taste." Casto then discusses trends in 21st century work.
An article she wrote for Quintessential Careers,
What Will 21st
Century Career Success Look Like? provides a good taste
of Casto's 21st century work chapter. She devotes a chapter to
entrepreneurship and one on "Career Killers," such as the wrong
attitude and negative work behaviors.
We are pleased to announce these additions
to the Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters product line:
E-mailable Electronic Resume Makeover Package:
If you want to be on the cutting edge of what employers
want and already have an existing resume that needs
sprucing up or revamping, order our Electronic Resume
Makeover Package.
For a truly complete package, add a text-based cover letter:
Order our Electronic Resume Makeover and Cover Letter Package.
AdJobsInc.com --
a site where advertising professionals -- and aspiring advertising professionals -- can
search for jobs (by job, location, keywords), post your resume, and research employers. Job types include full-time,
freelance and temping, as well as internships. Free to job-seekers.
EUREKA --
a great tool for students -- and your families -- to learn more about yourself, as well
as career exploration, career information, skills and career assessments, and a search system
for locating colleges, universities, and trade schools that best match your needs. Take a spin on
the site's True Colors assessment test. Membership required to use most of the resources.
JobProfiles.org -- find advice from real
people who have submitted profiles of their jobs and career. You'll find information about the
rewards they get from their jobs, the stressful parts of their jobs, challenges for the future, and
advice for entering the field. Free to job-seekers.
working in
-- for job-seekers, this site helps you to find jobs with Australia and New Zealand's leading companies.
Job-seekers can browse for jobs by occupation and post your resume. Also includes critical information about
moving, living, and working in Australia or New Zealand. Free to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
A Quintessential Back-to-School Special!
A must-have book for high-school and college students,
Write Your Way to a Higher GPA is now available for just $9
-- including shipping anywhere in the U.S.
The book, which normally retails for $11.95,
makes a great gift for any student returning to
or starting high school or college this fall.
Better grades constitute the mission of
Write Your Way to a Higher GPA. Specific
improvements in student writing skills can raise
grades in every class. Take advantage of the 25 writing
techniques and avoid the 29 writing flaws -- and you'll
be well on your way to making your teachers/professors
sit up and take notice!
Ken writes: "I need your help to prepare for my next
career, and I know marketing is the key, and the right
direction is the answer. Would you help me in this project?"
Agnes writes: "I need to know how to write a perfect
thank-you letter after a 5-minute phone interview for
the job of flight attendant. I really wish to receive
the airline's call within two weeks to arrange for the
face-to-face interview, so I need to write a thank-you letter."
Victoria writes: "I am writing for some advice on making
a career change. I have been working as an administrative
assistant/secretary for the last 5-6 years. It was never
something I wanted to do. I did it only to get my foot
in the door at various companies. I am very bored, not
challenged at all, and I know that I don't do as well
at it as I should only because I hate it so much.
I have taken a job personality test to give me a better
idea at what I would be good at and enjoy, but I don't
know how to get myself there. I don't know where to get
started and completely change careers in a totally
different field. Not to mention getting the courage
to take such a large step.
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
If you are a teen girl or the family member or friend of one,
you may be interested in a new book to which QuintZine
editor Katharine Hansen contributed a chapter on interviewing.
The book is GirlWise: How to be Confident, Capable, Cool and In Control,
and in it, more than 100 contributors tell readers how to be
the Ultimate Teen Girl -- confident, capable, comfortable,
cool, crazy, and in control of their lives. The author's motto is:
No more helpless females here!
Read more about GirlWise.
Career experts advise having a 15-second "elevator
speech" prepared at all times, reports Andrew Heller in Business
Week. This self-promotional speech is so named because
it should last about the amount of time it takes an elevator
to travel up or down in a typical office building. The speech
is how you might want to tout yourself if you, for example,
suddenly found yourself in the elevator with, say, the CEO
of your company. Of greater significance to job-seekers is
the speech's use in networking and job-interview scenarios.
If you're in a schmoozing situation with prospective network
contacts, you want to have a memorable sound byte ready.
A resume writer we know of, for example, tells people
that she is "a ghostwriter who creates abbreviated biographies."
The elevator speech can also be your answer to the dreaded
interview query: "Tell me about yourself." A corporate trainer,
reports Heller, "advises people to hit hard on the value of
what they do, not just who they are."
More Americans are expressing unhappiness with
their jobs, The Conference Board reported in a special survey
released in August. The not-for-profit business group finds
growing numbers of Americans are less satisfied with their
jobs compared to seven years ago. Only about half of those
surveyed say they are happy in their jobs, down from 59
percent in 1995. The decline in job satisfaction is found
among workers of all ages and across all income brackets.
"The widespread feeling among many Americans that their
jobs aren't providing the satisfaction they once did is
likely to be a growing concern for management," said Lynn
Franco, director of The Conference Board's Consumer Research
Center. "Workers are least satisfied with bonus plans,
promotion policies, and educational training programs.
Even a declining percentage of Americans say they enjoy
working with their colleagues -- 58 percent compared to
more than 64 percent in 1995."
Workers aged 35-44 are the least content. Less than 48
percent are satisfied, down from nearly 61 percent in 1995.
Older workers, aged 55-64, also express a low level of
satisfaction. Only about 48 percent say they are satisfied. Not
surprisingly, satisfaction tends to increase as income
increases. Households earning less than $15,000 are the
least satisfied of all income groups. Those earning more
than $50,000 are the most satisfied. But in all income areas,
satisfaction levels have fallen since 1995.
Other key findings:
The largest decline in overall job satisfaction --
from 60.9 percent in 1995 to 47.4 percent today --
occurred among households aged 35-44. People in
this age bracket were once the happiest group
in the American workforce.
The New England region experienced the largest
decline in satisfaction, with only 44 percent of
households satisfied with their jobs, compared to
65.4 percent in 1995.
Residents of the Rocky Mountain region are the
most satisfied, despite a recent decline in the
level of satisfaction from 62.7 percent to 57 percent.
Respondents rated their commute to work as the best
part of their job, with 58.7 percent satisfied.
But, here too, there was a decline in satisfaction
levels from 1995.
We'd Love You to Link to Quintessential Careers!
If your school, organization, business or other
entity has a Web site, 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.
QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming
issues of QuintZine:
* Cover letters to recruiters
* How to create and publish a Web-ready resume
* Crafting a successful e-mail resume
* The interview as sales call
* Getting the raise you deserve
* 10 things I wish I'd known before starting college
* 10 things I wish I'd known before starting my first job
* Letters of recommendation
* 10 ways to develop job leads
* Why, how, when to use a career coach -- and whom to choose
* Employer research: step by step
* Learn about careers through job-shadowing
* Balancing career and family
* 10 job-search reality checks
* Is job flexibility right for you?
* First days on the job: Strategies to get ahead
* Dealing with a bad boss
* Making your case for telecommuting
* A day in the life of a recruiter
* Don't wait by the phone: Following up on all job leads
* Dining etiquette
* Career journaling
* The relationship between personality and career choice
* What employers are really looking for
* How to resign from your job gracefully
* New series: 10 mistakes to avoid in: resumes, cover letters, interviews, salary
negotiation, career change, networking, job-search
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more!
Don't ever want to miss another issue of QuintZine? Get a free subscription to
the email version of QuintZine by completing our
subscription form.
Quintessential Careers Advertisements
30 MINUTES OF FREE LIFE COACHING
Quintessential Careers is now affiliated with With Liz Sumner, Life Coach.
A coach is someone with the skills, methods, and
experience to help you clarify and achieve your
life goals, including career goals.
Coaching works best in an ongoing relationship
but even one free 30-minute sample call can be
of value. Here's what people who've tried it have to say:
"You did a great job of making me feel at ease and helping me come up with positive and realistic goals."
"I have new ideas and am now more focused on what to do with my job hunt."
"I couldn't figure out why I didn't just do it. Now I have a clearer understanding of what's holding
me back and I can address that issue directly."
RESUMES * JOB SEARCH CORRESPONDENCE FROM TRUSTED EXPERTS * COVER LETTERS
We create resumes, cover letters, curriculum vitae, thank-you and
follow-up letters, and list-formatted documents,
such as salary histories and reference lists.
We also can provide critiques and makeovers of
your resume or cover letter. Credit cards accepted.
Quintessential Careers also offers writing services
for those who have been asked to give a speech and
need assistance in researching and writing their
remarks.
Need a speaker for your career-oriented conference or
event at your college or organization? The Quintessential
Careers Speakers Bureau can help! Our quintessential experts
can provide presentations/workshops on a variety of
career-related topics.
