Special Feature: Mastering the Art of Teams and Team-Building: 10 Tips for Top-Quality Teamwork
Bonus Feature: Are You a Team Player? A Quintessential Careers Quiz
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
The Career Doctor: Answering Your Questions
What's New on Quintessential Careers: Latest Additions
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Notes from the Editor: About this Issue...
Our 10-college fall anniversary tour is nearly finalized, with nine colleges scheduled. Is yours
one of them? Check out: The
Journey to 10 Colleges
Very special thanks to our partner, Life Coach Liz Sumner, for not only writing a great article
for this issue, but for assisting with circulation. Liz has a great idea for a no-cost forum she plans
to launch to help folks make their work more functional and fulfilling. You'll want to get in on this one. See below.
Publisher Randall Hansen offers an excellent article on teamwork and yet another addition
to our collection of interactive quizzes.
--Katharine Hansen, Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: How do you like your work?
by Liz Sumner, M.A. CPC
That question is intentionally ambiguous to see where you go with it. Did you answer with the degree to which you like it --
on a scale from "not much" to "really love it?" Did you go with a flip remark such as, "I like it over easy with a side of bacon
(the kind you bring home)?" Or did you begin to examine what it takes to enjoy what you do?
Let's assume that you are currently dissatisfied and looking for a change. How will you make sure that you don't end up
with the same thing all over again? You are responsible for your job satisfaction. Will you recreate the same dynamics
at the next place?
Work That Works -- Promote Fulfillment in Your Work Life
You're invited to join the Work That Works community -- a no-cost forum to promote fulfillment in your work life.
This weekly teleconference, facilitated by Liz Sumner, is here to support your healing or leaving an intolerable
work situation. Anyone can attend, every week or just drop in. If the time doesn't work you can listen
to the recorded calls at your convenience.
This is NOT a bitch session or a place for stories about your evil boss. The purpose is to give you the resources
and perspective to get yourself unstuck and to thrive in your work. It's especially designed for people in mid-life
who have followed a career path to a dead end and feel it's time for a change.
Everyone deserves a fulfilling work life. Work That Works will help you achieve it. To learn more and join the community,
visit WorkThatWorks.org.
Begins Wednesday, August 30th, 2006.
Special Feature: Tips for Top-Quality Teamwork
Mastering the Art of Teams and Team-Building: 10 Tips for Top-Quality Teamwork
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Working in teams is inevitable. For years now, organizational leaders have recognized the added value that comes from
having employees work in formal or informal teams, but over the last two decades even greater emphasis has been placed
on work teams. Several studies indicate that more than 80 percent of organizations employ multiple types of workplace teams.
Team-building and teamwork skills are essential in the workplace and highly desirable skills to possess when seeking a new job or
promotion. Teams working at their potential generate more productivity and better solutions than if all the individual members
had worked independently.
How can you be a better team member? How can you get your team to work more effectively as a team? How can you lead your team
to success?
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.
Are You a Team Player? A Quintessential Careers Quiz
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Performing in teams is a reality that just about all of us face, whether we work in large organizations or small, public or
private, for-profit or not. In fact, unless you run your own small business, you can expect to be a member of several
work teams. And working in teams means finding a way of dealing with all sorts of personalities and making the best
of the situation to help the team perform at the highest level.
Impact Factory says it has only one area of expertise -- people communicating with other people.
The site offers "Sound Snacks," snack-size insights on a range of work and personal issues, "Factory Gate,"
with lots of articles on communication, teamwork, and related topics -- plus lots of links and materials, some
of them fee-based and some requiring no-cost registration.
Joseph writes: "I enjoyed your article
about overqualified job applicants.
However, I do not agree with your assessment of the "out-of-work-desperate-for-any-job" applicant. Unfortunately, we all need money
to live. A person is better off employed beneath their level of ability than unemployed. Any employee will bolt for a better offer.
The risk is always present.
Being overqualified is in the eye of the beholder. I have had people tell me that I would be unchallenged in a particular position. It is very
flattering, but my bank does not give credit for flattery. I am cast as overqualified, and I need assistance. It has been almost one year
since I have had any employment. Also, I have gotten about four interviews. Yet I hear the complaint that good accounting help is
hard to find. This is maddening because this is what I want to do."
Rock writes: "I really liked your article
about considering graduate school.
I have made up my mind that this is definitely the right career choice for me. I have been working for a while in social services, but have not been
able to make the kind of money I need to have a secure future. I am thinking about going forward to get a PhD in English literature. I am
waffling because I really want to pick a solid program that will offer a competitive degree in the area of social services or education.
I don't want to go all the way to get my PhD in English only to not find a job because the jobs are too scarce. Do you have any
suggestions about good graduate degrees that will allow me to find a relatively lucrative job without having to relocate to some
obscure corner of the country or settle for something low paying that doesn't allow me to pay my high student loans off?"
Kathryn writes: "I recently went to a job fair seeking a position that was exactly what I have been looking for and matches
my background perfectly.... However, after a preliminary interview, I was told I would get a call the next day (No call, two business days
have passed.)
Afterwards I felt I did not do my best. Although my background is exactly what they were looking for, there was also an aptitude
test and a personality test, and I get anxious and start over-thinking every little thing.
That said, I have since learned this same company is holding another job fair this week for the same position. Do
I forget about it and cut my losses, or do I go back, only this time better prepared? I don't know that the same recruiter
will be present at this upcoming job fair."
Andrea writes: "I work in retail and hate it. I have been doing it for a few years now; I kind of fell into it at first, maybe even liked it at first,
but now I don't enjoy going to work, am sick of dealing with customers, and don't know how to escape this torture. I can't just quit my job,
and I don't really know what I would do anyway."
Go 4 Construction Jobs --
a global job site for the construction and engineering industry (including building, mechanical,
electrical, civil engineering and construction jobs). Job profiles can be viewed in any
of the 10 languages supported by the site, including: Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. No cost to job-seekers.
IT Jobs Online --
a job site for IT professionals seeking employment in the U.K. and
throughout Europe. Job-seekers can search by job listings
(by skills, county, job type, and keywords), register, and then apply
directly to each position. No cost to job-seekers.
jobsearch.ie --
an Irish job site (with some job listings outside Ireland),
where job-seekers can search job listings
(by category, location, employmwent type, keyword) or browse job listings by
category. Includes CV tips and other career-related advice. No cost to job-seekers.
MinorityJobs.net --
a job site for disadvantaged job-seekers, where you can search job listings
(by location, job function, and keywords) and post your resume.
Also has career advice, legal and civil rights news, along with numerous job/career
links. No cost to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
CareerJournal.com teamed up with polling company Harris Interactive to survey adults and find what qualities
are most common in the jobs of highly satisfied career-focused people.
The four attributes cited most were:
Good intellectual stimulation
Strong job security
High level of control and freedom in what to do
Extensive direct contact with customers/clients
These criteria in hand, they then identified careers using occupational data and employment projections from the
Department of Labor. Their eight "Best Careers" fit the bill in each category:
Hey new grads! Summer's almost over -- do you have a job yet? If not, you're probably not
alone. Nor are you alone if you're entering your college senior year unsure about what you
want to do. CareerDNA launched a service to assist graduating college students with their career planning.
According to a study it commissioned:
80 percent of graduating seniors do not have a job when they receive their diploma,
97 percent of those same seniors say they aren't confident that they have selected the right career path, and
65 percent did not use the resources of their college's career center, turning instead to professors (83 percent),
parents (75 percent) and friends (67 percent).
What sources are employers finding that applicants are coming from? Companies reported INCREASES
in these recruiting source for 2006:
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.
Need a career expert for a story or article you're working on? Searching for college,
career, and job news? Interested in learning more about Quintessential Careers?
Our Press Room
is your one-stop location for getting the information and resources you need.
QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming
issues of QuintZine:
* 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!
