Feature Article: A Web-Ready Resume Can Be a Major Advantage in Your Job Search
Special Anniversary Feature: Resume Quizzes for Job-Seekers
Special Feature: Navigating the Muddled World of Internet Job-hunting: A Quintessential Careers Annual Report 2002
A Quintet of Quick Questions: QuintZine's Q&A with a Career Expert: Kirsten Dixson, principal of New Leaf Career Solutions
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
The Career Doctor: Answering Your Questions
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Notes from the Editor: About this Issue...
Now we are six...
Quintessential Careers turns six years old this month, and we're celebrating our anniversary
with special events and this jam-packed issue in which we introduce four new resume quizzes
and an annual report on job-hunting on the Internet. Our feature story on Web-ready
resumes also ties in with the Internet job-hunting theme.
As always, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our readers and visitors to Quintessential Careers.
Our success after 6 years would be impossible without you. Please read our full
thank-you message to you.
PUBLICATION SCHEDULE NOTE: QuintZine will not be published Nov. 25, the week of Thanksgiving
in the U.S. Our next issue will be Dec. 2.
A Web-Ready Resume Can Be a Major Advantage in Your Job Search
by Katharine Hansen and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Every job-seeker today needs a formatted "print" resume
for sending to employers as an e-mail attachment and
using for interviews, job fairs, and general networking,
as well as a text-based electronic resume to use for
submitting to online job sites and sending in the body
of e-mail messages. Another resume variation that every
job-seeker should consider for his or her toolbox is the
Web-ready or HTML resume.
What is a Web-ready resume? It's one created with a
programming language called Hypertext Markup Language
or HTML. A number of tools are available to help you
create a Web-ready resume without having to learn HTML.
This article will show you how to convert your resume
to one that is ready to be published on a Web page (You
will need your own Web page or access to Web space to
actually publish it on the Web; our full article gives
more information about obtaining Web space).
Instantly email your resume to 1000s of recruiters,
headhunters, and direct hiring companies! With the most
comprehensive and targeted network of recruiters on the
net, you can rest assured you have taken the steps
necessary to jump start your search. We are so sure
you will be happy that we guarantee our service!
To celebrate the Sixth Anniversary of Quintessential Careers,
we bring you not one, but FOUR Resume Quizzes. Three are
tailored for individual types of job-seekers, while the fourth
is a Resume Strategy Quiz. All are semi-interactive;
correct responses are e-mailed immediately to quiz-takers.
Resumes are a fundamental tool for every job-seeker,
yet we still see so many poorly written resumes. How
strong is your resume? Put it to the test! And while
you're at it, test your resume strategy skills as well! Go to our
Resume Quizzes for Job-Seekers.
Or, follow these links to each specific resume quiz:
QuintCareers, in partnership with JVIS.COM, brings you the
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS), the career and
education planning tool that has already helped over half a
million people like you.
Based on years of research, the JVIS accurately measures
your interests, showing how they relate to the worlds of study
and work, and mapping out your route to an interesting career.
Navigating the Muddled World of Internet Job-hunting: A Quintessential Careers Annual Report 2002
by Katharine Hansen
In 2001, we began the first of what we expect to be
annual explorations of the state of Internet job-hunting
with our article, Are
the Major Job Boards All They're Cracked Up to Be?
That study, based largely on anecdotal reports from readers
and a smattering of media reports, noted that while use
of the Internet for job-hunting continues to hold significant
promise, job-seekers are frustrated by many aspects of the
online job search.
This year, we look at a number of studies of Internet
job-hunting that have come out since our 2001 report.
These studies affirm many of the problems we explored
last year and in some respects paint a mighty grim picture
of the state of Internet job-hunting. The studies suggest,
on the other hand, that the promise of Internet job-hunting
is still there, but job-seekers are wise to know what they're
getting into. The advice we offered in our companion article
to last year's report, Maximize
Your Internet Job Search, still holds, and in this article, we expand on that advice
and adapt it to the new revelations that have emerged in
the last year about the muddled world of Internet job-hunting.
As a reader of QuintZine, you're probably also a fan
of this newsletter's parent site, Quintessential Careers.
Help celebrate Quint Careers' 6th anniversary by casting
a write-in vote for "Most "Job Seeker Friendly" General
Purpose Site" or "General Purpose Site with the Best
Information for Job Seekers" in the WEDDLE's User's Choice Awards.
"If a job on Monster.com gets thousands of applicants,
there is no way that the company or recruiter can reply
to every candidate," noted Kirsten Dixson in the Q&A we
did with her. "The Internet is a new tool with different rules.
You can increase your chance of success with online ads by:
1) having a stellar resume so you stand out;
2) ensuring that your resume contains the right keywords
for your target field so that it will be found in searches;
3) posting your resume to niche
sites for your field of
interest rather than the huge general boards;
4) submitting your resume multiple ways (via email and
fax or mail), if the option exists."
Read more of Dixson's thoughts on harnessing the power
of the Internet for job-hunting (while avoiding being
overly dependent on the 'Net), the value of career
portfolios, the dangers of jumping into a
job search without knowing what you want and why you
are qualified, and recommendations for "must-visit"
career Web sites in our complete
Q&A with Kirsten Dixson.
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Both our Annual Report on Internet
Job-hunting and our Q&A with expert
Kirsten Dixson in this issue emphasize
that one of the best uses of the Internet
for job-hunting is for researching jobs
and careers. Listed as a "must-visit"
site in Dixson's Q&A, America's Career InfoNet
is indeed fabulous resource.
The site offers information on general job market
trends for different education levels; wage and
occupational trends for your selected state and
occupation; the knowledge, skills, abilities, tasks
for selected occupations; state demographic and
economic information, as well as links to education,
cultural and recreation resources.
Other features include Employment Center, Relocation
Center, Financial Aid Center, Skills Center, Business
Center, Training & Education, Testing & Assessment, Labor
Market Info, Career Tools, and Newsroom.
Various careers are featured in the site's Career
Spotlight, and you can find out about
fastest growing occupations by education level.
The site's Career Tools include
an Employability Checkup, information about
occupational licensing requirements, Employer Locator,
Job Description Writer, Financial Aid Advisor, Career
Exploration, Career Resource Library, and Reading Room.
The Last Job Search Guide You'll Ever Need: How
to Find -- and Get -- The Job or Internship of
Your Dreams! (For College Students and Recent Grads Only)
has just been published by our friend Steve Rothberg, and
it's a gem.
The book contains must-read contributions from 149 of
North America's top employment experts, including the folks here at
Quintessential Careers. You can receive it risk-free for
the next 90 days through the
link to this Website.
Mike writes: "Is gray granite paper acceptable for a resume and
cover letter? As well, is it necessary to send the resume in
a large envelope so the resume doesn't need to be folded? I
have heard conflicting opinions on whether or not to print a
cover letter on personal letterhead. What is your professional
opinion on this?"
Anonymous writes: "I do not have a degree; however, I have
10 years experience in the electro/mechanical field. I attended
a technical school that is no longer in existence, and all the
classes I attended are directly comparable to all the technical
requirements for an associate's degree in electrical engineering
in any state college, but the school cannot be found in
accreditation records. I'm having to start school all
over again to get credits toward an associate's degree. How do I
get a prospective employer to interview me in the meantime
without a degree?"
Patrick writes: "Two months ago I was terminated from my job
for conflicts on a safety issue where I knew I was right about
it. Well, finding a new job has been both depressing and not
going well at all. It makes me wonder if my past employer is
giving me a bad reference and reputation to where the prospective
employers don't want to sit down with me for an interview. Is
there anything I can do about this?"
THE QUINTESSENTIAL CAREERS JOURNALING COURSE
A comprehensive online course that includes exercises designed to help you achieve career
and job fulfillment.
Learn more about
the Career Journaling Course.
CAREER KICKSTART COURSE -- NOW OFFERING COACHING OPTION!
A quick and comprehensive course that will teach you everything you need to know to launch a career and find a job
Learn more about
the Career Kickstart Cource.
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
The annual survey of Global 500 companies conducted by
iLogos Research, a division of Recruitsoft, reveals that
corporate Web site recruiting has reached levels of saturation
among the Global 500 companies, with more than 91 percent adoption
for 2002. Among key findings:
In 2002, 91 percent of the Global 500 use corporate
Web sites for recruiting.
Global 500 companies using corporate Web sites for
recruiting in 2002 represent 90 percent of companies
headquartered in Asia and the Pacific Rim, 92 percent
of European-based companies, and 95 percent of North
American-based companies.
As recruiting through the careers sections of company Web sites
is in the final phases of adoption, a second curve of innovation
has begun. New technology integrates the corporate careers
Web site with comprehensive back-end recruitment automation
systems, yielding superior results. iLogos Research
forecasts an acceleration of the use of integrated
solutions, reaching the early majority phase in 2002-2003.
Download the full report.
A recent survey of executives conducted by Accountemps,
indicates that 94 percent of respondents consider it valuable
to hire employees on a temporary basis as a means of evaluating
them for full-time positions. The survey was conducted by an
independent research firm and includes responses from 150
executives with the nation's 1,000 largest companies.
"Temporary assignments afford companies the opportunity to
evaluate whether a candidate is a match for a position
before extending a full-time offer," says Max Messmer,
chairman of Accountemps and author of Managing Your
Career For Dummies® (Hungry Minds, Inc.). Messmer
added, "For professionals looking to get a foot
in the door with a particular company, temporary
or contract work can be ideal as it allows them to
demonstrate their value to the organization. In the
process, they can determine their own level of interest
in the position."
A recent study conducted by DBM, a global human-resource
consulting firm, found that 34 percent of current retirees
plan to return to work for personal satisfaction, indicating
that "retirement age" doesn't necessarily translate into the
perceived ideals that were expected. DBM conducted the survey
of 139 individuals who attended the AARP conference and trade
show in San Diego during September. The average age of the
participants was 62. Approximately one in four
(28 percent) of the respondents plan to return to work for
financial reasons, while 34 percent indicated they would return
to work for personal satisfaction. More than half (54 percent)
of those surveyed said they didn't feel there was an age bias
in the workplace. However, participants stated that one of the
main challenges in working for a younger boss was the potential
lack of respect for their accumulated knowledge and experience.
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Quintessential Careers is affiliated with Liz Sumner, Life Coach.
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:
* 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
* 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
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We also can provide critiques and makeovers of
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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.
The annual survey of Global 500 companies conducted by
iLogos Research, a division of Recruitsoft, reveals that
corporate Web site recruiting has reached levels of saturation
among the Global 500 companies, with more than 91 percent adoption
for 2002. Among key findings:
