Feature Article: The Career Doctor's Cures and Remedies to Quintessentially
Perplexing Career and Job-Hunting Ailments: Part III
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
The Career Doctor: Answering Your Questions
What's New at Quintessential Careers: Latest Additions
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Notes from the Editor: About this Issue...
This issue might seem smaller than usual, but with the Career Doctor's
third annual installment of his Cures and Remedies to Quintessentially Perplexing
Career and Job-Hunting Ailments, it's as though you are getting 10 articles in one.
The Doc writes a new compendium each year to mark his anniversary
as Career Doctor, and this year, it's his fifth! He's also marking the
100th appearance of the print version of Career Doctor in
its flagship newspaper, the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Congratulations, Doc!
And if you're looking for a job, the Doc suggests you check out our
job-search
portal.
--Katharine Hansen, Credentialed Career Master, Certified Electronic Career Coach,
and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Career Doctor Cures
The Career Doctor’s Cures & Remedies to Quintessentially Perplexing Career and Job-Hunting Ailments: Part III
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Note: In April 2004, Dr. Hansen celebrates his fifth anniversary of writing The Career Doctor
column. In that time he has written more than 125 columns, helping more than 500 job-seekers
with their college, career, and job-search problems. This article, the third in a series, addresses answers
to common college, career, and job questions.
I have now been writing my career advice column, Ask the Career Doctor, for five years, and in that
time I have received thousands of emails from all types of students, job-seekers, and career counselors
-- from teens struggling with part-time work or choosing a college to older workers fighting age discrimination
-- and everything and everyone in between! From all of these email questions seeking advice, I offer you my
annual list of 10 of the most common career, college, and job-hunting ailments I get asked about -- and
my cures and remedies.
I hope you'll find the answer to your problem or question in these 10 career ailments,
but if not, please feel free to send me an email to the
Career Doctor and
then continue reading my column while you await a response. You might also look
at some of the other 20 questions I have addressed in
Part I
and Part II
in this series.
Finally, as you read these questions and answers,
please remember that while I offer the best advice to your
questions, you should always seek multiple opinions
to your job-hunting and career problemsŠ so take
my advice to heart, take two aspirins, and begin
your job-search anew in the morning!
Olga writes: "How much money do I ask for in my first job? I am applying for a job in the printing business in
computer graphics or desktop publishing. I have a professional certificate education."
Mary writes: "When I go on a job interview, the interviewer asks specific questions, and after I answer all these
questions, the interviewer may ask if I have any questions. What should be the questions that
I ask so that I know if this is the job for me, especially if I am changing jobs?"
Annabel writes: "I'm interested in a career in event planning. However,
I'm not totally sure what it's about -- besides planning
meetings and such -- and what to study in college and how to break into the field. Can you help me with this?"
Nancy writes: "Do you have any suggestions on how to explain/validate long periods of professional work gaps
in a resume? I am a stay-at-home mother, and need some convincing and creative ways to describe this recent
position on my resume. I would appreciate any input."
We've recently launched the Quint Careers Weblog (Blog).
It consists of career and job-search news, trends,
and scoops for job-seekers, compiled by the staff
of Quintessential Careers.
The blog is a great way to stay posted on the most
recent events occurring in the career and employment fields.
Ad: Does Your Organization Have Open Positions to Fill?
Find Qualified Candidates Today!
The Quintessential Careers Job-Hunting Portal is a great place for organizations that have job
openings to post those openings and review job-seeker resumes.
Our national resume database contains more than 500,000 active resumes of candidates seeking employment.
Numerous job-posting packages are available.
If your organization is looking to hire, use the power behind our
portal! Learn more today!
Latest Additions: New Sites Added to QuintCareers
CampusDirt.com --
designed to help students and your parents find first-hand information on
more than 600 college campuses across the U.S. Discover what life on a
college campus is like -- behind-the-scenes information. Free registration
required to use best features of site.
HeadhuntersDirectory.com --
a great source for job-seekers searching for geographic-specific headhunters, recruiters,
employment agencies, and staffing companies in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Browse
agencies by country and then state/region. Free to job-seekers.
JobintheSun.com --
a job site for job-seekers searching for jobs in the Caribbean region (including
Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Barbados, Antigua, and more). Job-seekers can search job listings
(by keyword, industry, location, level, and posting date). Also includes other resources
related to living and working in the Caribbean. Registration required for some resources.
Free to job-seekers.
Meetingjobs.com Jobboard --
for job-seekers in the meetings and special events industry. Job-seekers can
search jobs, post your resume, and subscribe to a jobs by email program --
but only after registration. Also includes
links to various types of career resources. Free to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
Ad: Electronic Versions of Documents Included Free
Electronic versions now included with all resume and cover
letter products at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters at
no extra cost!
An electronic version of your resume for sending via e-mail and posting to Internet job boards
is an absolute must these days because 80 percent of resumes are now placed directly into keyword-searchable databases.
Read more here.
That's why electronic versions are now included at NO EXTRA COST with all our resume and cover letter
products!
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Now's the time for working parents and other employees to make a pitch to the boss for
a part-time schedule or a compressed workweek. WorkOptions.com, a Web resource for negotiating
a flexible work arrangement, suggests proposing a three-month trial period for such an arrangement,
so if you sell your boss on the idea in May, the trial period can extend through the summer.
A 32-hour workweek (part-time) or 40 hours in fewer than five days
(compressed workweek) can mean Fridays off in the summer,
allowing working parents more fun-filled days with their children, while allowing other employees
more time for personal activities.
A successful trial period of the modified work schedule during the summer sets the stage
for requesting an extension, should the individual employee want a longer-term flexible arrangement.
The WorkOptions.com Web site offers free planning tools -- which The Wall Street Journal labeled
"excellent homework for wannabes" -- for redesigning one's job to fit a shorter workweek.
Readers can download the
free worksheets. (Worksheets for telecommuting and job sharing are also available.)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the following as the 10 occupations with the
largest job growth 2002-2012:
1. Registered nurses
2. Postsecondary teachers
3. Retail salespersons
4. Customer service representatives
5. Food preparation and serving workers
6. Cashiers, except gaming
7. Janitors and cleaners,
except maids and housekeepers
8. General and operations managers
9. Waiters and waitresses
10. Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants
Industries with the fastest wage and salary growth 2002-2012:
1. Software publishers
2. Management, scientific and technical
consulting services
3. Community care facilities for the elderly
4. Computer systems design and related services
5. Employment services
6. Individual, family, community and
vocational rehab services
7. Ambulatory health care services
8. Water, sewage, and other systems
9. Internet services, data processing
and other information services
10. Child day-care services
Looking for a sector with bountiful job openings? Consider
the federal government. Currently, some 17,900 open positions are listed on the
Office of Personnel Management Web site. The agencies
with the most openings are:
No. 10: Didn't it feel great to be interviewing; primed for a job offer and being active
on your own behalf? Continue this process until it feels comfortable for you. Follow leads.
Keep in touch with your support network. KEEP PRACTICING!
You are now leaving the exploratory stage to one of more positive decision-making. Please, please,
remember to send thank-you notes to everyone who has helped you.
Ad: Increase Your Marketability with More Education
Increase Your Marketability by Obtaining Additional
Education, Training, Certifications
The number people enrolling in online education programs to advance their knowledge and their career
is increasing enormously.
Should you be one of them?
Programs range from business to management to computer
information systems and students can choose from accelerated
courses and full or part-time programs.
Find programs from all the best schools in the country
-- to best fit your personal, educational, and career needs.
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:
* Dining etiquette
* Career Focus Quiz
* Overcoming a Lack of Qualifications/Credentials
* Fighting the Overqualified Label
* Surviving and Moving Beyond Low-Wage Jobs
* Pre-Employment Testing
* 10 Things for High-School Students to Remember
* First in a Series Tracking College Plans of a High School Student
* Importance of Junior Year of High School
* How to Make a Temp Job Permanent
* Temping Your Way to Career Change
* Mastering Second (and Subsequent) Interviews
* Interview Damage Control
* 10 Interview Mistakes
* Exude Confidence in Interviews
* Job Satisfaction Quiz
* Job-search Time-Management Skills
* Reinvent Your Career at Midlife
* Working Beyond Retirement
* Workaholic Quiz
* Building Your Brand
* Pros and Cons of Nontraditional Careers
* Nontraditional Career Paths for Men and Women
* Make Your College Application Shine
* Changing Landscape of College Admissions
* College Admissions Annual Report/Panel Discussion
* Internet Jobhunting Annual Report
* Top 5 Networking Strategies
* 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 Announces Career Coaching
We now offer two types of career-coaching services!
Are you...
feeling stuck in an unsatisfying job?
facing a major change in career or job status?
searching for your ideal career or job?
seeking help in developing a job-search plan?
looking for a solution to job-search obstacles?
desiring to bounce ideas off of a career expert?
trying to discover the keys to career success?
Let Dr. Randall S. Hansen, The Career Doctor, help you work through all your college, career, and job-search concerns,
issues, and problems. He has helped hundreds of teens, college students, and experienced job-seekers identify obstacles, develop
action plans, and achieve success -- and he can help you!
And for an economical online-only career-coaching alternative,
visit The Career Clinic.
Quintessential Careers Advertisements
Quintessential CVs is Your North American Headquarters for CVs
We produce professional quality career marketing correspondence -- Curriculum Vitae (CVs), cover letters,
resumes, and more -- for job-seekers in all industries at all levels from all over the world. Quintessential CVs
is your premier North American source for:
Curriculum Vita (CVs) for Academic jobs: College/university teaching and administrative positions.
CVs for Scientific jobs: Research and all types of science-oriented jobs.
CVs for Medical jobs: Physicians, nurses, and more.
CVs for International jobs: Whether you seek a position in your own country or any other country around the world,
we can prepare an English-language CV for you that conforms to the CV traditions of your target country or countries.
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.
