What You'll Find: Overcoming Job-Hunting Obstacles
Notes from the Editor
Feature Article: Fighting the Overqualified Label: 10 Tactics for a Successful Job-Search
Special Feature: Underqualified? Ten Tips to Inspire Employers to Take a Leap of Faith
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...
Virtually every job-seeker is labeled at one time or another as either overqualified
or underqualified for a job. Sometimes job-seekers are even branded with BOTH labels.
Our articles in this issue help you deal with these two obstacles to job-hunting.
And if you're looking for a job that matches your qualifications,
check out our job-search
portal.
Ever wondered if you're qualified to write for QuintZine or be the subject of one of
our Q&A interviews?
We've had many wonderful career experts who have written for us and served as expert interviewees.
I recently tried a little experiment. I plugged the names of several of our contributors and interviewees
into Google. In many cases, the pieces these experts had done for QuintZine came up in a higher search position
than the experts' own Web pages, often the first or second entry in the Google search results. So, writing for
QuintZine or serving as an interviewee provides excellent exposure.
Try the Google experiment yourself with our Q & A interviewees
and our article contributors.
--Katharine Hansen, Credentialed Career Master, Certified Electronic Career Coach,
and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Fighting the Overqualified Label
Fighting the Overqualified Label: 10 Tactics for a Successful Job-Search
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
There's a dirty little secret in job-hunting, and if you're a job-seeker with several years of experience
-- or worse, in middle management -- you may have been exposed to it without even being aware. What is it?
It's the label hiring managers put on mid-career job-seekers who appear to have one of three flaws:
too many years of experience, too much education, too highly paid in current or previous job. Yes,
it's the label many job-seekers fear: being overqualified. Overqualified is code for "will not fit the current
position" --
and be forewarned that it is a difficult label to overcome.
Frequently, you will not even be aware of being labeled as overqualified because you'll simply never hear back
from the prospective employer. And before we get too much farther along in this article, let me release some guilt
and confess my sins. Yes, when I was a hiring manager, I most certainly had a pile for applicants seen as
overqualified -- and those applicants' files were placed directly into the trash.
Read the complete article
to learn about how employers characterize different types of "overqualified" job-seekers, and the
two-pronged strategy you can use to fight the overqualified label.
Special Feature: Overcoming Underqualified Label
Underqualified? Ten Tips to Inspire Employers to Take a Leap of Faith
by Katharine Hansen
If you're anything like me, you've sometimes spotted an employment ad or job posting and
said to yourself, "I could do that job." Yet the job is totally out of your field, and you
have no actual experience in that area.
How do you portray yourself as qualified for a job for which you have no proven track record?
The underqualified or just plain unqualified label most often plagues new graduates with limited
experience, as well as career-
changers whose experience is outside the area they now wish to pursue.
For both groups, fighting the underqualified label is a tough proposition.
Let's face it -- all other things being equal, most employers would prefer to
hire candidates with the right qualifications and experience in the field
over candidates, no matter how enthusiastic, who lack qualifications. A
difficult battle, yes, but it's not impossible to beat the underqualified label.
As summer approaches, thoughts turn to having fun. Are you looking for fun employment
opportunities? This is the job site for you, where the philosophy is "Love your job.
Love your life."
Some of the fun jobs listed include: fishing guide, golf activity specialist,
adventure counselors, camp counselor, rock climbing staff, host/hostess
community/village operations, cook/chef, tennis activity specialist,
info tech/systems, marketing and sales theatre staff, water safety instructor,
lifeguard specialists, groundskeeper, athletic staff, retail sales associate,
cocktail server, aquatic specialist storekeeper, entrepreneur, soccer activity
specialist, food and beverage cashier, and sea kayak guide.
Job-seekers can post resumes, search for jobs, and send cover letters and resumes directly
to the companies. Membership required.
Douglas writes: "I don't think I've seen this issue in your column before. I've been in the same career -- banking --
for about 10 years now. I am looking for a new job but find that the response I get from many of the employers is either
none or that I am overqualified. I love what I do, so why should I change? What should I do?"
Shalynn writes: "I am in the eighth grade and I am wondering about college. I would like to be an engineer. I am wondering
if you know the preparations and courses I should take while I am in college."
Tasha writes: "I was fired in June of 2003, but I don't use my last
employer on my resume, so there's a huge gap
of employment. I don't know what to put on applications for reason for leaving (when really I was fired for a
misunderstanding) without opening a can of worms with an interviewer."
Mary Jo writes: "I've been offered a job and accepted the offer but can't seem to locate information about giving notice and negotiating
a smooth transition with my current employer."
Have you read 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.
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Many of today's job seekers have great resumes, ace interviews, provide stellar recommendations
and still don't get the coveted job offer. According to a recent poll with leading employers and recruiters,
conducted by The Career Exposure Network, the reason could lie in the right follow-up.
Eighty-two percent of employers and recruiters told The Career Exposure Network that a thank-you note is
a critical follow-up after the job interview. Hiring managers report that the thank-you note demonstrates
that the applicant is serious about the opportunity and indicates a level of professionalism -- a primary
characteristic that employers seek in job candidates.
"Your thank-you letter provides a tremendous opportunity to summarize the interview and tell me again how you can
contribute," commented one employer. "I always expect to see a note -- it shows courtesy and demonstrates that you
are interested." Eighty-one percent of employers and recruiters also told The Career Exposure Network that
email is their preferred method of receiving a follow-up. According to one recruiter, "I prefer email because it
arrives much faster than regular mail, and it can be
in the hands of decision-makers BEFORE a final selection
decision is made." The Career Exposure Network is a suite
of niche sites that includes CareerWomen.com, DiversitySearch.com
and MBACareers.com. For more about thank-you notes, see our
article, FAQs About Thank You Letters,
and our collection of free sample thank-you letters.
What you say and how you say it can make or break your image at the office, suggest
a new survey by OfficeTeam, a staffing service specializing in highly skilled administrative
professionals. Nearly half (49 percent) of workers polled said a person's communication
style has the greatest impact on his or her professional reputation.
How employees conduct themselves while the boss is away was
the second most popular answer, with 31 percent of the response.
The survey was conducted by an independent research firm
and includes responses from 567 men and women employed
full-time in professional environments.
Workers were asked, "Which one of the following has the greatest impact in shaping one's professional
reputation?" Their responses:
Communication style: 49 percent
How the person conducts himself or herself when the boss is out of the office: 31 percent
How often others consult with the person for advice and information: 15 percent
Personal grooming: 3 percent
Something else: 1 percent
Don't know/no answer: 1 percent
If you've been laid off, you may find help in these tips from Dave Murphy writing in
The San Francisco Chronicle:
Try to trim your expenses and make sure your health insurance is taken care of.
Take time to grieve if you need it.
Ask yourself why it happened. Maybe you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But look at the overall health of your industry and your type of job. Are we just in a blip,
or is your industry going downhill? Are your skills less valuable than they used to be? Are
jobs like yours being shipped overseas? Look at your attitude, too. Were you just
going through the motions because you didn't care anymore? Were you tired of your career
or your employer?
Consider what kind of job you want next. A good network won't help you much if people don't know
what you're looking for. Don't assume friends and former colleagues know exactly where your skills
and interests lie. Tell them -- concisely. Be as specific as you can, so the details stick in their
memory.
List your target companies. Blasting out hundreds of resumes is pretty useless. Focus on attractive
companies you're qualified for. Research those companies. Network with employees. Identify their needs and how
your talents can help.
Determine how you will stand out. Think about what you can do to make yourself a better worker, and person,
a year from now than you are today. A layoff is a crisis, certainly, but it is also an opportunity. You have more
time to learn now than when you're overwhelmed with work.
Fill your laid-off time productively. Study Spanish, do volunteer work, create a Web site, try being a consultant.
If you're out of work for a year -- and, sad to say, many people are -- and all you have to show for it is
12 months of sending resumes and going on interviews,
you won't impress anyone.
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.
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!
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming
issues of QuintZine:
* Dining etiquette
* Career Focus Quiz
* 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.
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Many of today's job seekers have great resumes, ace interviews, provide stellar recommendations
and still don't get the coveted job offer. According to a recent poll with leading employers and recruiters,
conducted by The Career Exposure Network, the reason could lie in the right follow-up.
