Feature Article: Maximizing Online Social Networking
Special Feature: How to Build Your Own Personal Advisory Board
Bonus Feature: Networking: Career Fitness vs. Physical Fitness
Extra Feature: Take a Giant Leap Toward Your Career and Change Your World View
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...
It's not too late in the new year to resolve to build your network of contacts to increase
your job-search and career prospects. An article by Sherry Edwards compares
networking efforts to a fitness program. Laura and Janet Greenwald suggest
building a personal advisory board. And our feature article tells how to get more
out of online social and business networking
--Katharine Hansen, Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Maximizing Online Networking
Maximizing Online Social Networking
by Katharine Hansen
I recently gave my Stetson University students an online networking
activity as an option for their final project. The assignment was to
develop an online network of 250 contacts through a networking site.
I chose the number 250 because it's a figure commonly cited by
networking experts as an effective number of contacts to have in
one's professional network.
My students, however, encountered many frustrations in trying to
build an online network of 250, with the most successful student
constructing a network of only 29 contacts over a month and a half.
My students' difficulties illustrate the argument that online
social/business networking is a concept with great potential, but
many kinks need to be worked out. As recruiting expert John Sullivan
recently wrote about online social networks, "All boots and no cattle
here. They will not prosper until they get faster and easier to use."
How would you like to have your own board of advisors? A group of people you can go to for advice every time you
come across an area you're a bit shaky on. Sound good?
It's simple really. When you want something or need something -- advice, brainstorming, a personal contact --
whatever it is, all you have to do is find someone who can give it to you and ask for
it. Asking for what you want is not only simple, it moves mountains.
And when you combine it with a few extra steps, before you know it,
you'll have an advisory board of your very own.
When networking is recommended as a way of maintaining career fitness, I hear many excuses for
why it is not possible, or at the very least, very difficult. Goal-setting times provide a good opportunity to take
a long hard look at what is really in the way for most people when it comes to making a change in their personal and
professional lives. Perhaps examining common responses will make it easier for many people to identify the excuses
they are using, kick away the barriers, and make a new plan for career success.
One observation I have made over the past 10 years is that the words "commitment" and "planning" seem to be foreign
to many people. In an age of instant gratification, it seems evident that some things just don't happen immediately, yet
there are scores of people who want things to be different, right now, without exerting any effort to make a change.
Ad: Start Your Job-Search Right with a New Resume!
Quintessential Resumes & Cover Letters is now providing solutions
with unmatched quality in the areas of career planning, professional resume writing, and interviewing, having
successfully helped tens of thousands of clients, from executives through individuals beginning a career,
succeed in their career goals.
Ad: Take a Giant Leap Toward Your Career and Change Your World View
Add a business minor to your resume in a study-abroad semester in Italy.
So, you say you want to learn creativity with passion, gain the building blocks for a career in a multi-national corporation,
and broaden your worldview -- all in roughly four years? While the requirements of most college majors in the fine arts, the
liberal arts and sciences, and education limit the number of elective hours available to students, students can now meet
specific career-development needs through Stetson University's Renaissance International Business Minor, offered through
the School of Business Administration.
Since Nov. 2, 2000, Scott Ginsberg has spent every single day studying approachability in a unique way: by
wearing a nametag 24-7-365 to make people friendlier.
Much of Ginsburg's site focuses on selling his services as a speaker, but the great value in the
site to job-seekers and would-be networkers is his collection of more than 60 articles in such topic areas as
your nametag is your best friend, how to become unforgettable, combating
communication barriers, how to maximize your personal/professional approachability, how to
become a networking superhero, awesome hospitality into authentic relationships,
creativity, and personal expertise and the like.
Ginsburg also offers a blog, Hello, My Name Is Blog
and an Approachability Quotient quiz.
Ashley writes: "I have read a lot about the potential of networking for people who are looking for a new job.
One of my goals for this year is to expand my network because I want to consider finding a new job later in the year, but I really
have no idea how to do it. I mean, I think I understand the concept of networking, but I just don't know who to do it with, or how to
find them. Can you help?"
Yuanjie writes: "I am now writing my resume and cover letter based on your online advice. I am a student
and will get my PhD degree in mechanical engineering soon.
My resume is slightly more than one page. Do I have to compress it into one page?"
Mark writes: "I have been with a company for six years in which time the owner has made frequent changes to
the direction of the company. I have had four job/titles and assignments during this time. I would like to leave this company,
but I am concerned that a potential employer will negatively look upon the frequent changes in job assignments/title. My title has
always included the word 'manager' of such-and-such program, but my assignments were very different.
I have wrestled with how to best portray this 'busy' work history with this company on my resume. Can you offer any advice?
As a side note, I was with another company for over 20 years prior to taking a job with this company. In those 20 years, I held three positions."
Ivy writes: "I just resigned from my job. I had been there five years. I'm having a difficult time with my boss. He is extremely
angry that I leaving. I gave two week's notice and told him I'd stay and clean up the work
I needed to. We are a small three-person group with no handbook.
I have a week and three days left of vacation time. He is refusing to give me
the money. He said due to me resigning I lose the benefits.
We disagreed and things weren't good. I read your article
on strategies for Resigning with Class. Is there a state law
that says he must pay me that time? Can you lead me in the
right direction to find out that answer?"
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Interviewed by HR.com, professional speaker, trainer and co-author of Great Connections: Fireproof Your Career and
Make Your Connections Count, Lynne Waymon, offers this
tips for learning a person's name in a networking situation:
"First of all, say the name back. If you say, 'Hi. I'm Rich.' Then, I
would say, 'Hi, Rich.' Only about 25 percent of all the people that I have
studied do that. Ideally, you should hear someone's name three times.
The third time should be when I introduce you to somebody else at that
event. That should always be the goal, to hang onto a name long enough
to introduce that person to one other person. That is your job as a
great networker and a good host or hostess."
According to CareerBuilder, these fields will flourish in 2006:
Retail salesperson
Registered nurse
Postsecondary teachers
Customer-service reps
Janitors and cleaners
Servers, wait staff
And what were the most unusual jobs of the year just past? Career Builder lists them in alphabetical order:
A - Actor for haunted house
B - Bingo announcer
C - Clown for rodeos
D - Drawbridge tender
E - Eye glass buffer
F - Fingerprint analyzer
G - Glass sculptor
H - Hot rod builder
I - Interpreter for government agency
J - Jelly doughnut filler
K - Karate instructor
L - Lifeguard at nude beach
M - Military role player (played Iraqi citizen for military sensitivity training)
N - Note taker for college students
O - Ocean scuba guide
P - Phone psychic
Q - Quiz writer for competitions
R - Rescue squad for pets
S - Stand-in bridesmaid (for weddings where the bride didn't know enough people)
T - Telemarketer for a cemetery
U - Urinalysis observer
V - Voice-over specialist for movies
W - Window washer for skyscrapers
X - X-mas tree decorator
Y - Youth boot camp instructor for juvenile offenders
Z - Zoo artificial inseminator
It's that time of the year again. Time to plan for Job Shadow Day 2006!
On Thursday, Feb. 2, 2006 -- Groundhog Day-- countless working
professionals will see their "student shadows" as part of the 9th Annual
Job Shadow Day. Job Shadow Day kicks off year-round job shadowing
activities around the U.S. and even the world! In fact, many local
Junior Achievement offices offer job shadowing programs throughout the year.
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:
* The Value of Mock/Rehearsed/Videotaped Interviews
* Closing the Sale and Overcoming Objections in the Job Interview
* A Writing-to-Learn Approach to Interview Preparation
* Roundup of Recent Grade Job-hunting Experiences
* College Grad Hiring from the Recruiter's Perspective
* 6-Figure Jobs
* Deploying Intuition to Find Your Ideal Career
* GLBT Job-search Issues
* The Demand for Good Writing Skills
* Annual College Admissions Panel
* Alternatives to College
* Storytelling that Propels Careers
* Annual Career Doctor Compendium
* 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
* MBA Career Portfolios
* Pre-Hire Background/Credit Checks
* Noncompete Clauses
* Financial Aid/Scholarship Timetable
* Build Confidence and Avoid Insecurity in Job Interviews
* Empty Nest Job-seekers
* Are You Sabotaging Your Job-Search/Career?
* Lifelong Networking
* Networking for the Shy
* Working Night Shifts/Odd Hours
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more... including Quintessential Careers' 10th Anniversary!
Interviewed by HR.com, professional speaker, trainer and co-author of Great Connections: Fireproof Your Career and
Make Your Connections Count, Lynne Waymon, offers this
tips for learning a person's name in a networking situation:
"First of all, say the name back. If you say, 'Hi. I'm Rich.' Then, I
would say, 'Hi, Rich.' Only about 25 percent of all the people that I have
studied do that. Ideally, you should hear someone's name three times.
The third time should be when I introduce you to somebody else at that
event. That should always be the goal, to hang onto a name long enough
to introduce that person to one other person. That is your job as a
great networker and a good host or hostess."
