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in responding to more than 775 questions from job-seekers, students, and others.
See them here.
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THANK YOU readers and visitors for making the past decade a great one!
--Katharine Hansen, Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Career Storytelling
Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers
by Katharine Hansen
Note: This article is an excerpt from the forthcoming book, also titled Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers.
Once upon a time, a job-seeker underwent a frustrating series of interviews over a five-month period with no job offer. Then the
discouraged individual read a book that suggested composing personal stories. Doing so, the job-seeker found, provided him
with better interview preparation than any coaching he had ever experienced. Using stories he hadn't remembered before he read
the book, he said, made him more confident, convincing, and persuasive in his interviews. Stories enabled him to present himself in a personable
and powerful way to his interviewers. He again used stories during the next round of interviews. The story ends happily with his hiring
in an executive position that represented a major advance in his career. The job-seeker is a real person who posted a review on Amazon.com
of Annette Simmons' 2006 book, The Story Factor.
The forthcoming book, Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers,
from which this chapter is excerpted,
extends the ideas of Simmons and other current authors who tout the value of storytelling. It focuses on a narrow yet powerful
use of storytelling -- telling stories to advance your career, whether by moving up in your current organization or landing a job in a new organization.
The title comes from the most commonly asked question (which isn't even
a question but a request) in job interviews, "Tell me about yourself." Composing
stories to reveal your personal and professional self in response to that "question"
is just one way to use storytelling to propel your career.
Special Feature: Career Intensity
Career Intensity: Create Your Own Luck
by David V. Lorenzo
Editor's note: This article is an excerpt from Lorenzo's book,
Career Intensity: Business Strategy for WorkPlace Warriors
and Entrepreneurs, Ogman Press, 2006.
Have you ever wished for that one lucky break that would allow your dreams to become a reality, or reflected
upon someone's success and envied their luck? If so, you're not alone. It has almost become a cliché to say someone is lucky.
There is a degree of chance that is involved in everything in life. It seems that everyone is chasing luck but only a select
few ever catch it.
A survey conducted by the Consumer Federation of America and the financial services firm Primerica revealed that 40 percent
of Americans with incomes between $25,000 and $35,000 -- and nearly one-half of respondents with incomes of $15,000 to
$25,000 -- thought that winning the lottery would give them their retirement funds. Overall, 27 percent of respondents said that their
best chance to gain $500,000 in their lifetime was via a sweepstakes or lottery win. Even more astonishing is that this survey was
conducted in 1999, during the stock market boom of the dot-com era. Untold numbers of people were becoming rich overnight by investing
in the stock market or by starting up companies in their garages, yet a substantial portion of the American public still thought they
could rely on luck to make themselves successful.
To become successful, you must make a decision to pursue success. You can't leave it to chance. People who
have Career Intensity, as described in our chapter excerpt, make
personal choices that are in line with their passion, their goals, and their tolerance for risk. They break through limiting beliefs
and realize that they always have choices. Before you can move forward, you must give yourself the permission and the willingness
to do whatever it takes to achieve your goals. Then, when you create the conditions in your career that will help you capitalize
on opportunities as they arise, you will be in the position to reap the rewards of your journey.
Ultimately, it is your career, and you must take charge of it. Create value,
capitalize on opportunity, and always let the world know how great you truly are!
It may be unfair to quote the last lines of a book in a book review, but these last two
sentences in David Lorenzo's Career Intensity: Business Strategy for WorkPlace
Warriors and Entrepreneurs describe exactly what his book is all about -- instructions
for how to take back control of your career and then move it forward in the direction you
desire. It’s about finding your career passion, building your personal brand, and generating
buzz to advance your career.
If you live for Friday afternoons and dread Sunday evenings, if you are stuck in a job that does not really fulfill you, if you are seeking
something more for yourself and your career, then this is the book that will show you how to get your career on track and achieve
happiness and success.
This is also the book for those of us who may not be in a job that we love, but we're comfortable and so it's
easy to maintain the status quo and not pursue other career opportunities. But that feeling is based on what
Lorenzo calls the Three Lies of Career Limitations: security that the company will always provide you a place to work;
that no other employer could match the salary and benefits of your current job; and that the company deserves your loyalty.
Intergenerational adviser climbs success ladder and establishes charitable foundation at an early age
by Simon Malian as told to Katharine Hansen
Not many 21-year-olds have established charitable foundations,
but Simon Malian of Sydney, Australia, founded the
Malian Foundation,
which, he says, "has allowed me to make a beneficial contribution to the operation
of charitable causes worldwide."
Malian explains that the foundation "provides products and services catering to the needs of charitable
causes worldwide via its two programs, the Empowering Communities
Program and the Consulting Services Program, both of which are offered without charge."
"Over a number of years," Malian notes, "we successfully established partner offices around the world and have helped a significant number
of our clients provide better assistance to their constituents. The foundation's work led the World Association for
Non-Government Organisations, the leading independent body for non-profit organizations, to award the foundation senior membership
status, which is a highly esteemed designation designed to recognize non-profit organizations having a significant and positive impact
on the international community."
Malian's "day job" is as the Westpac Group chief information officer's intergenerational adviser, his appointment to which
Malian considers as the "luckiest break" in his young career. "The role has allowed me to meet a vast variety of corporate
executives and learn from them. I believe in the saying that luck is preparation meeting opportunity," he says.
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succeed in their career goals.
How vain are we to award ourselves the Quintessential Site of this Issue award?
Well, just vain enough to tell you about the many new features we've added to Quint Careers
to celebrate our 10th anniversary:
Pat writes: "I heard you and your wife speak the other day, and while I wanted to stay around and ask this question,
I just didn't have the time to do so.
Can you explain again the importance or relevance of storytelling as it relates to me as a job-seeker?"
Allison writes: "My professors keep telling me I need to get at least one internship before I graduate, and I am thinking
of trying to get one for next summer. I was planning on waiting to look for internships until spring break, but one of my
friends told me that I should start looking sooner. Also, what are the best sources for internships?"
Sarah writes: "I have always wanted to work for a certain company, but they are currently not hiring. How do I get my name to their
HR person so they may consider me for a position later?
Muhannad writes: "I was wondering if there are websites or organizations that allow networking online. This came
to me from all the student or teenage networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. I was wondering if there is such a thing
on a more professional level where by job-seekers and employers have to opportunity to network and connect."
IntelliGrad.com
-- focuses on helping students and graduates understand the dynamics of life post college graduation. The
site aggregates the best relevant resources and news on the web for new graduates (into one of three
categories: career and financial, media and culture, recent graduate experiences). No cost to job-seekers.
JobsInStockholm --
an employment site for English-speaking professionals seeking job opportunities
in Stockholm (and other parts of Sweden), where job-seekers can browse job listings
by industry, with links directly to the employer sites. Part of the JobsinHubs.com family
of sites. No cost to job-seekers.
Michigan Talent Bank --
where job-seekers looking for a job (or internships) in Michigan can search job postings
(by keywords and city), as well as post your resume. Includes links to
career information and Michigan job fairs. From the Michigan Department of Labor and
Economic Growth. No cost to job-seekers.
womenworking.com --
a career and networking site designed where working women who juggle a career and
personal life find strategies for success, including advice on navigating work/life, leadership, and advancement;
improving your business skills; and more. 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
The next wave in job-search preparation will likely be books, coaches, and Web articles that teach job-seekers
how to sail through employers' prescreenings. Why? Because these prescreenings are becoming more and more prevalent.
For the last three years, Rocket-Hire has surveyed Electronic Recruiting Exchange readers who use Web-based
screening and assessment products as part of their hiring process. The information gathered from this research tracks important trends
in the use of screening and assessment tools. The report highlights the major findings of the fourth annual survey:
Some hiring tools, like qualifications screening, skills testing/certification and personality tests, are becoming standard features of a strategic
hiring process. The use of some methods (e.g., online interviewing) is rare.
Few companies formally assess their prescreening tools or use metrics of any kind as a decision-making aid. Those who do tend to be aware
of the effectiveness of their hiring systems and perceive greater value in them. Professionals report a lack of understanding, weak budgets, or a general
lack of support for online tools as their primary obstacles to adoption or greater use of modern prescreening and assessment technology.
Valid, Web-based approaches to recruiting, screening, and placing job candidates are fast becoming the norm at leading edge,
people-focused organizations.
The Gallup organization reported in a press release that 52 percent of U.S. employees say that they are not engaged at
work or that they are essentially checked out. Lower productivity from these workers costs the U.S. economy an estimated $370 billion
annually, according to a recent press release from Gallup. Findings in a similar Gallup poll conducted in 2005 indicated that employees
who have positive relationships with their supervisor and are happy with their work conditions perform better on the job. Almost half of
employees who said they were passionate about their work and strongly connected to the company reported that a great deal
of their happiness is related to work. Read the full article.
In related news, Bob Gately of Employer's Advantage reports that of managers' perceived top 10 motivators for their employees,
the top five motivators are equivalent to money:
Money Items
1 - Salary
2 - Bonuses
3 - Vacation
4 - Retirement
5 - Other Benefits & Perks Communication Items
6 - Interesting work
7 - Involved in decisions
8 - Feedback
9 - Training
10 - Respect
However, when employees are asked to rank their top 10 motivators, the list is:
Communication Items
1 - Interesting work
2 - Involved in decisions
3 - Feedback
4 - Training
5 - Respect Money Items
6 - Salary
7 - Bonuses
8 - Vacation
9 - Retirement
10 - Other Benefits & Perks
Note that the employees rank items that are equivalent to money as their bottom five motivators. The managers'
top five motivators are the employees' bottom five motivators. The managers' top five motivators are more related to the need
of the managers to avoid personal contact with employees than the needs or desires of the employees.
Managers pick the top five motivators because these are the things that managers can "give" their employees without ever
having to ask what the employees want or need, i.e., no involvement on a personal level is needed and all decisions can be made behind
closed doors -- while avoiding personal contact even to the detriment of the organization.
From the Jobs and Moms Newsletter, from Work & Family Connection's e-course, "Making Telecommuting Successful:
A Guide for Employees" come these 10 Tips for Telecommuting Success:
Ask for a volunteer "office buddy" to email you office news
Request weekly feedback on how the arrangement is working
Make calls, send memos, and don't let people forget you
Keep in touch to "keep in the know" through maintaining your relationships
Send out emails and updates of your projects
Be flexible with your schedule and the office schedule
Establish "office hours" and ask colleagues to contact you during those hours
Keep a watch on the perception of your in-office co-workers
Know their schedules so you can find them when needed
Take credit where credit is due -- for yourself, your office co-workers, and your boss
Source: Work & Family Connections.
This site offers myriad resources around work and family balance
issues, current research, and workplace issues and how they affect families.
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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 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
* 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!
