Feature Article: Planning Your MBA? Lay the Groundwork Now for Your MBA Internship
Special Feature: Don't Sing the Holiday Blues: A Six-Step Guide to Successful Job-Hunting Between Thanksgiving and New Year's
Bonus Feature: Perks of Working in Higher Education
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
Latest Additions: What's New on Quintessential Careers
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Editor's Note: About this Issue...
We offer a mixed holiday goodie bag in this issue -- an article about
pursuing an internship while enrolled in an MBA program, a comprehensive
overview on the benefits of working in higher education, and a piece on
making the most of job-hunting during the holiday season.
As always, as Thanksgiving approaches in the US, we are thankful for you,
our readers and visitors.
--Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: MBA Internships
Planning Your MBA? Lay the Groundwork Now for Your MBA Internship
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Two of the most important decisions you'll make include deciding when and
where to earn your MBA degree. A third, almost as important decision, is
deciding on where you want to intern in the summer between your first and
second years of your MBA program. For many full-time MBA students, the
choice of an MBA internship is a critical step in achieving career and
job-search success.
Regardless of whether you entered your MBA program with years of work
experience or with a limited work history, studies show many employers use
MBA internships as a critical recruiting tool -- as a three-month trial in
which MBA candidates have a chance to participate on key project teams,
network with numerous executives, and make a name for themselves within the
organization.
In fact, several studies show that organizations that offer MBA internships
strongly prefer hiring their interns. In one study, not only did employers
say they hired more than half of their MBA interns -- but that they also
paid those they hired a higher salary than other new hires. In another study
of employers who offer MBA internships, almost three-quarters said they
first interview previous MBA interns for new positions before opening the
position to other candidates.
Finally, in a study of MBA candidates, almost 90 percent of interns were
offered full-time positions with their employers, further stating that the
internship helped them make key networking contacts as well as find a
mentor. Besides being groomed for a full-time position, some candidates are
offered extended internship opportunities as well as part-time positions
when they return to school for their final year.
Thus, right after choosing the best MBA program for your needs, you should
begin the process of finding the best MBA internship that fits your plans
for your future career -- including job function, industry, location, and
employer.
A weak economy and job market makes it even more essential to have a strong resume that
helps open doors to new job and career opportunities -- and prepares you in case of an
unexpected job loss.
QUINTESSENTIAL RESUMES AND COVER LETTERS provides 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.
Don't Sing the Holidays* Blues: A Six-Step Guide to Successful Job-Hunting Between Thanksgiving and New Year's
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
With apologies to the great lyricists, are you Dreaming of a Job for
Christmas? Is All You Want for Christmas is a Job? Job-Huntin' Around the
Christmas Tree? There's No Place Like a Job for the Holidays? Deck the Halls
with Job Offers?
The holidays. Those weeks stretching from about the third week in November
and spilling over into the new year. Love them or loathe them, they come
around every year, and often signal the end of many job-seekers' pursuits of
new jobs until the new year begins in January.
But don't let this holiday season slow your job-search one bit. While it
might seem counter-intuitive to job-hunt during a time when many people have
anything but work on their minds, it turns out that one of the great secrets
of job-hunting is that the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's is a
great opportunity to search for a new job. While you may not have that job
offer in hand before the holidays are over, if you follow the advice in this
article, you will be well on your way to landing a new job shortly into the
new year.
So, while many other job-seekers use the excuse of the holidays to take a
break from job-hunting, now is the time to step up your efforts and gain a
competitive advantage in your quest for a new job. Now is the time to
strengthen your network of contacts, uncover new job leads, and seek out job
interviews.
Many corporate entities may brag about retaining talented employees with
perks above and beyond the standard benefits package. One sector, however,
consistently offers outstanding perks to its employees yet rarely gets the
press - higher education.
Bob Freeman, director of human resources for Kirkwood Community College in
Cedar Rapids, IA, agrees, "After working in human resources in the business
world for 17 years prior to working in the world of academia for the last
two, I can state without hesitation that I have a renewed energy and passion
for my profession. I owe this to the employee-friendly environment a college
or university affords its employee base."
Colleges and universities can offer a full range of unique benefits by
leveraging their existing investments - usually targeted for the student
population - and translate those offerings to a positive employee
experience. For the most part, these perks are not the exception, but the
rule. The result is a productive workforce that easily balances work and
personal life.
My MBA Internship describes itself as a "one-stop source to the world of
MBA internship opportunities." The site brings MBA internship candidates and
employers together and provides comprehensive information on the best MBA
internship opportunities available.
The site lists MBA internships and offers a small set of resources.
Best Crew Jobs -- provides maritime job-seekers
with access to maritime employment crew opportunities (on ships, boats, yachts, tugboats, ferries, and
diving and fishing vessels) across the country. Job-seekers can browse job listings, read crew news.
No cost to job-seekers.
Eluta -- a job-search engine for Canada that
seeks out new job announcements with employers across Canada. Job-seekers can search job listings
(by keywords or location) or browse by locations or occupations. No cost to job-seekers.
iTraineeship.com -- where college students
and recent graduates can find international experiences -- international traineeships, internships, and
graduate business courses. Browse current listings by category. No cost to job-seekers.
NorthNevadaJobs.com -- where
job-seekers can find hundreds of job listings for Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Lake Tahoe,
and other northern Nevada (and some Californian) communities. Search job listings (by job title, location, type)
and post your resume. 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 Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life
Our Q Tips this issue are from experts who submitted advice for workers and job-seekers to help them take
proactive steps on Job Action Day 2008. Here's what they advised:
Almost 75 percent of survey respondents said reputation plays
an extremely important or a very important role when considering where to
work after graduating with an MBA, said a Hill & Knowlton report titled
"Corporate Reputation Watch," released early in 2008. The survey was
administered to 530 MBA candidates from top-tier programs throughout the
United States, Europe, and Asia.
Survey results indicate the quality of a company's management, its products
and services, and the employee talent within an organization are vital to
MBA grads. Eighty-three percent of participants said these factors were
extremely important or very important in driving corporate reputation. By
contrast, 70 percent of survey participants said a company's financial
performance and investment value was an extremely important or a very
important driver of corporate reputation.
The survey also shows that MBAs value corporate social responsibility.
Employers that produce alcohol, tobacco, or chemicals will probably face
difficulties in attracting top MBA talent, even if they are financially
successful, because their reputations are not green enough.
The survey examined not just what drives corporate reputation but also
what MBAs take into account when weighing a job prospect. Having strong
career opportunities took priority over any factor that goes into choosing a
job, with 95 percent of survey respondents saying it is extremely important
or very important. By comparison, 85 percent of participants said
compensation and benefits packages were extremely important or very
important when considering a job.
Although conducted before the current global financial crisis, a study
indicated that the top master's-degree employers planned to increase their
master's hiring by 22 percent in 2008. The study is the Top Entry Level
Employers survey by CollegeGrad.com. The Top Master's Employers list details
the master's hiring plans for100 employers nationwide.
View the entire article.
Debating about whether to pursue graduate study in business school or join
the Peace Corps? You can do both. The Peace Corps' Master's International
program combines graduate study with Peace Corps service
overseas. Five universities offer Master's International programs in
business.Typically, students complete one year of graduate school and then
serve 27 months in the Peace Corps.
Get more information.
Quintessential Careers Press Announces Our Latest Book: The Quintessential Guide to
Finding and Maximizing Internships.
The Quintessential Guide to Finding and Maximizing Internships,
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., provides eight chapters that
will help you decide what you need in your internship experience, tell you how to find one,
give you the tools to secure one, teach you how to make the most of your internship experience,
show you how to turn an internship into a job, and provide internship resources.
QuintCareers Network of Empowering Blogs
What are QuintCareers empowering blogs?
The Career Doctor Blog:
Especially for those who miss our former regular feature, Ask the Career Doctor, this blog each day features a question and answer from The
Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD.
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.
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QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming issues of QuintZine:
* Credit Reports and Job-Search
* 10 Critical Interviewing Tips
* 3 Generations of Workers: Y, X, Boomers
* College Financing
* The Academic Job Search
* Blogging Way to New Job or Holiday Job-Hunting
* Office Politics
* Maternity Leave
* Jobs on the Cutting Edge
* Job Search IQ Quiz
* Resume Bullet Points: Before and After
* GLBT Job-search Issues
* The Value of Internships Abroad and Study Abroad
* Top 10 Fears of Job-seekers
* For Job-hunting Success, Develop a Detailed Job-Search Plan
* 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
* 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...
