Feature Article: The Career Doctor's Cures and Remedies to Quintessentially Perplexing Career and
Job-Hunting Ailments: Part IV
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...
This issue marks the sixth anniversary of Dr. Hansen
writing his Career Doctor column... including the last
three years in print in the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
To celebrate, the Career Doctor offers his fourth annual installment of his Cures and
Remedies to Quintessentially Perplexing Career and Job-Hunting Ailments, which is
like getting 10 articles in one.
Congratulations, Doc!
If you're looking for a job, the Doc suggests you check out our job portal.
--Katharine Hansen, Credentialed Career Master, Certified Electronic Career Coach,
and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: 10 Career Questions
The Career Doctor's Cures & Remedies to Quintessentially
Perplexing Career and Job-Hunting Ailments: Part IV
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Note: In April 2005, Dr. Hansen amazingly celebrates his sixth anniversary of writing
The Career Doctor column. In that time he has written more than 150 columns, helping more
than 600 job-seekers with their college, career, and job-search problems. This article, the fourth
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 six 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 30 questions I have
addressed in Part I, Part II, and Part III 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 problems so take
my advice to heart, take two aspirins, and begin
your job-search anew in the morning!
Take the Time to Read Our Career Blog!
Get the latest career, college, and job-search news you need!
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.
If you're exploring careers and would like to know exactly what people do in various
occupations, you can visit CareerOverview excellent no cost career information and job descriptions
for aspiring professionals and students who are making live-altering decisions about future career paths.
CareerOverview.com is a non-commercial Web site dedicated to providing aspiring career professionals
and students with relevant, reliable and up-to-date career and job information and helping them to
make better, more informed career choices.
Main occupations are listed below, and each main heading offers many subheadings:
Brandon writes: "I am preparing to graduate in May from a top 20 MBA university. My current employer has supported me
and paid $50,000 of the total tuition for this program. After I graduate, I feel these new credentials will make
me worth more, and I would like to ask for a raise. Is it likely they will give me a raise even though
they covered my tuition expenses or not? If yes, are there any
negotiation tactics that will help me receive the raise I feel I deserve."
Anonymous writes: "How can you tell if you are slowly being sabotaged out of a position? One quick fact:
My phone skills were given as one of the reasons, which is just crazy. If anything, I have been told by my peers and
bosses that that is one of my strengths. Needless to say I was shocked. There are many other
things that almost seem out of Watergate that I won't go into. I just want to know if there
could have been a way I could have seen this coming?"
Sharon writes: "I am 30 years old, and I am not working in my chosen profession of journalism. I am
currently working as a paralegal. I still have hopes of becoming a reporter, but I know that is unlikely
as more time passes. I married young, and never established the career that I wanted. I am now
divorced with two young sons, and I would like to make a fresh start.
"I received my degree in journalism in 1993, and I am wondering if it is of any use to me
now. I am afraid that I will never be fulfilled if I don't have the career that I want. Do you have any suggestions?"
Reena writes: "I got my PhD degree in microbiology a year ago. Since I am an international scholar, I had to wait for my immigration
papers to get processed for my permanent resident status (that I got through marriage to an American citizen) for
a year. I was not legally allowed to work (earn any money) for a year. Now that I have got my
permanent resident status I have started sending out job applications, and I keep getting asked what
work I did for a year since I got my PhD. I did do some volunteer work off and on during my year off and I also
did a lot of traveling. Do I need to explain my year off in the applications that I send out? How do I
explain it? I am just afraid that potential employers will not understand this explanation since none of them
had to go through this themselves (some of them are really rude when
they demand an explanation)."
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
According to a very useful (no cost) job-hunting publication
from the U.S. Labor Department, here are the most effective methods
for finding jobs.
66 percent applied directly to employer, for a 47.7 percent effectiveness rate.*
50.8 percent asked friends about jobs where they work for a 22.1 percent effectiveness rate.
41.8 percent asked friends about jobs elsewhere with an 11.9 percent effectiveness rate.
28.4 asked relatives about jobs where they work for a 19.3 percent effectiveness rate.
27.3 percent asked relatives about jobs elsewhere for a 7.4 percent effectiveness rate.
45.9 percent answered local newspaper ads for a 23.9 percent effectiveness rate.
21.0 percent approached a private employment agency with a 24.2 percent effectiveness rate.
12.5 percent got help from a school placement office with a success rate of 21.4 percent effectiveness rate.
15.3 percent entered jobs through taking a Civil Service test for a 12.5 effectiveness rate.
10.4 percent asked a teacher or professor for a 12.1 percent effectiveness rate.
1.6 percent placed ad in local newspaper for a 12.9 percent effectiveness rate.
6.0 percent went to a union hiring hall for a 22.2 percent effectiveness rate.
* Effectiveness rate is a percentage obtained by dividing the number
of job-seekers who actually found work using the
method, by the total number of job-seekers who
tried to use that method, whether successfully or not.
Denise Nichols is writing a book about women who are in the process of changing or have changed careers in
mid-life. If you would be interested in sharing your story with her, you may contact her by email or phone at
denise.nichols@comcast.net, 615-478-0391.
According to the Herman Trend Alert, employers are beginning to feel the tight labor market.
Their ongoing research with a wide range of employers throughout the United States and
in a number of other countries confirms that finding, recruiting, and hiring qualified people
is becoming more challenging.
The number of job openings is increasing -- at all levels. Recruiters are more aggressive now, seeking qualified
people to work as executives, managers, technicians, production workers, salespeople, drivers, mechanics,
and many other jobs. One FORTUNE 500 company has 7,000 openings; another needs 8,000 over the next six months.
Retained search firms have difficulty finding qualified senior executives.
Electronic job boards report a significant increase in the volume of resumes. Aside from Monster's campaign
to gather more resumes with a $50,000 prize incentive, the flow has grown considerably. Activity in the employment
market is much stronger than it was just a couple of months ago. That change is important for trend-watchers
who forecast future conditions. The Herman Trend Alert confirms its forecast that
this year will see unprecedented employee turnover and serious shortages of skilled workers.
This phenomenon is not limited to the United States. The same challenges are being experienced around the
world. Contacts in other countries report that employers in their regions have trouble filling positions requiring
skills and leadership ability as well.
From "Herman Trend Alert," by Roger Herman and Joyce
Gioia, Strategic Business Futurists, copyright 2005.
(800) 227-3566 or The Herman Group.
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:
* Job Burnout Quiz
* Job Burnout Remedies
* The Value of Internships Abroad and Study Abroad
* Top 10 Fears of Job-seekers
* For Job-hunting Success, Develop a Detailed Job-Search Plan
* How to Build a Personal Advisory Board
* Keep Your Career Dreams Alive
* College-Prep Summer Camps
* 10 Teen Summer-Job Tips
* MBA Career Portfolios
* Trends/Tips in Career Portfolios
* Pre-Hire Background/Credit Checks
* Noncompete Clauses
* Entrepreneurs
* Get a Job in Sales/Pharmaceutical Sales
* Critical Elements of the Job Search
* Managing Job Stress
* Telecommuting Ranks High
* Sticky Job Interview Situations
* Situational Interviews
* 10 Resume Tips
* Why Hire a Resume Writer?
* Is Your Resume Lost in the Internet Void?
* Career Activist Quiz
* Practice Career Management to Avoid Career Crisis
* The Changing Landscape of College Admissions
* Offbeat Ways to Pay for College
* Financial Aid/Scholarship Timetable
* Build Confidence and Avoid Insecurity in Job Interviews
* Empty Nest Job-seekers
* Baby Boomers Beware
* Are You Sabotaging Your Job-Search/Career?
* Quiz: Marketing Yourself
* Marketing Yourself with internal/External Promotions
* Lifelong Networking
* Networking for the Shy
* Converting a Seasonal Job to a Permanent Position
* Working Night Shifts/Odd Hours
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Career, College, and Job-Search 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.
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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,
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And for an economical online-only career-coaching alternative,
visit The Career Clinic.
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According to a very useful (no cost) job-hunting publication
from the U.S. Labor Department, here are the most effective methods
for finding jobs.
