Feature Article: Job-Seeker Advice: Eight Lessons I Learned in My Job Search
Roundup Feature: Job-Search Lessons Learned in a Year of Economic Meltdown
Special Feature: Career and Job-Search Planning Guide: From A to Z
Bonus Feature: 12 Steps to Changing Your Career in a Slow Economy
Recession Feature: Recession Job-Search Do's and Don'ts
A Quintet of Quick Questions: QuintZine's Q&A with a Career Expert
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've got a bunch of goodies packed in our Santa bag for this issue, including
two year-end articles about job-search lessons learned in the last 12 months.
We have an article from Barbara Poole about changing careers in a tough economy
and a compendium from Dr. Randall Hansen on career and job-search planning.
We send Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and every other kind of seasonal greetings to you,
our readers, as well as optimistic good wishes for a wonderful 2009.
--Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Job-Search Lessons
Job-Seeker Advice: Eight Lessons I Learned in My Job Search
by Troy Heerwagen
Reader Troy Heerwagen recently shared with us the eight critical lessons he learned in the process
of landing his most recent job. Find his lessons here.
And for more lessons ....
Job-Search Lessons Learned in a Year of Economic Meltdown
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
The end of the year is a good time to look back and assess what has worked for you and what
hasn't in the last year. That's especially true for reviewing successes and failures in the job search
-- and particularly relevant in a year of economic downturn. We put out a call for job-search lessons
learned during a year of economic crisis and heard from new college grads, career experts, strategists,
entrepreneurs, and bloggers. In our article you'll
discover what they -- or in some cases, their clients -- learned about job search in the last year.
Ad: Job-Winning Resume Writing Service
A bad economy and weak 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.
In any subject you took in school, you needed to learn key concepts to better understand the material
and perform well on quizzes and exams. The same principle holds true for career planning and job-hunting.
12 Steps to Changing Your Career in a Slow Economy
by Barbara Poole
OK, the economy has officially tanked, and you already know job security is about
as real as Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. You feel it's time to do
something else with your life, but you're not sure if this is the best time to change careers.
Well, guess what: there's no perfect time to make that perfect move, so don't wait for some
promising sign to spur you into action. If you want a new career, go for it. In our
full article you'll find 12 steps to
help make your career change a little easier.
Abby M. Locke of Premier Writing Solutions is an executive career-marketing strategist..
"I work directly with executive job-seekers who are in active job-search mode," related Abby Locke
in her Q&A interview with Quintessential Careers, "and in light of today's economic climate, the job market
is tougher than ever. I frequently hear stories of job-seekers conducting rigorous job-search efforts
and going for months without any progress."
Locke advises that "to achieve success despite challenging employment circumstances, job-seekers
have to move beyond traditional methods of connecting with employers. More than 85 percent
of companies and recruiters will Google candidates and even scour blogs
in search of thought leaders and forward-thinking job-seekers.
If you want to stand out in a shrinking, competitive job market,
you have to increase your online presence, maximize personal-branding concepts throughout
your job-search campaign (resume, elevator pitch, email signature, interviews), and get
from behind the computer to enhance your network and make direct contact with people."
Read more of Locke's advice, including her cautions against outdated job-search
methods, how the old rules of job search are changing, the personal-branding and
social-media concepts that are benefiting job-seekers, and the importance of a strategically written,
brand-focused resume, in
our full Q&A with her.
Job Search Shortcut provides links directly to more than 15,000 company
career center job-listing Web pages in 30 metropolitan areas nationwide. Jobs are
categorized both by city within each metro area as well as alphabetically -- and links send
job-seekers directly to the employer.
The site contains "no paid listings, no recruiter listings, no dead ads, no recruiters
mining for resumes, no duplicates, no Registrations, and no fees." Experts say
company job sites, also known as talent hubs, are the wave of the future, the successor
to job boards.
DataShaping.com -- a job board for
analytic professionals, with backgrounds in data mining, statistics, data analysis, SAS and statistical programming, quant, computer science,
artificial intelligence, biostatistics, web analytics, risk management, econometrics, decision science.
Post your resume, search job listings, register for monthly email job alerts. No cost to job-seekers.
Hire a Hero -- a non-profit initiative that
brings together former military job-seekers returning to the civilian workforce and military-friendly
employers by utilizing Web 2.0 networking features. Registered job-seekers can search job postings from hundreds of job
databases to find openings that match your skills. No cost to job-seekers.
JobsOnline -- a job-search engine
that gathers job postings from all over the Internet -— niche sites, newspapers, major job boards --
but with a twist. Unlike most other job-search engines, job-seekers must establish an account
and post your resume before you can see your search results. No cost to job-seekers.
Seniors4Hire -- a job site for job-seekers
50 and older seeking jobs and/or other ways of earning money. After registering at the site, you can
search job listings, post your resume, register for email job alerts, use a jobs-wanted tool, and find
useful resources for mature workers. 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:
Regular QuintCareers contributor Deborah Brown-Volkman, PCC, who is a noted credentialed
coach, career expert, and author of six top-selling career-coaching and business books, has announced
the introduction of her new "Reinvent Yourself" Members-Only Career Coaching Group.
The group is for smart, hard-working individuals who are tired of being a victim because their jobs are being
eliminated (or already have been). They want on-going support to create the next chapter in their lives;
also known as Act II. This is not a "get-a-new job" group, but instead a "get-a new-career" group.
"Our economy is in the worst shape since the depression," says Brown-Volkman. "Not only are
jobs going away, but so are entire industries. Technology jobs are being outsourced. Financial-services jobs
are dwindling or disappearing. If your job is about to go away, or already has, then there is nothing to
fear anymore."
Brown-Volkman continues, "If you want to use this time in your life to go in a different direction; after
a career that will make you happy, finally, while also paying the bills, then this is the group for you."
In these difficult economic times, it's helpful to know the 30 US cities (and their Metropolitan
Statistical Areas) with the lowest unemployment rates, according to the October 2008 numbers released
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
1. Bismarck, North Dakota. Unemployment rate 2.2
2. Logan, Utah. Unemployment rate 2.4
3. Fargo, North Dakota. Unemployment rate 2.5
4. Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Unemployment rate 2.5
5. Casper, Wyoming. Unemployment rate 2.6
6. Ames, Iowa. Unemployment rate 2.7
7. Morgantown, West Virginia. Unemployment rate 2.7
8. Grand Forks, North Dakota. Unemployment rate 2.8
9. Iowa City, Iowa. Unemployment rate 2.9
10. Lincoln, Nebraska. Unemployment rate 2.9
11. Rapid City, South Dakota. Unemployment rate 2.9
12. Provo-Orem, Utah. Unemployment rate 3.0
13. Idaho Falls, Idaho. Unemployment rate 3.1
14. Midland, Texas. Unemployment rate 3.1
15. Billings, Montana. Unemployment rate 3.2
16. Salt Lake City, Utah. Unemployment rate 3.2
17. Charleston, West Virginia. Unemployment rate 3.4
18. Charlottesville, Virginia. Unemployment rate 3.4
19. Cheyenne, Wyoming. Unemployment rate 3.4
20. Farmington, New Mexico. Unemployment rate 3.5
21. Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas-Missouri. Unemployment rate 3.5
22. Madison, Wisconsin. Unemployment rate 3.5
23. Omaha-Council Bluffs, Nebraska-Iowa. Unemployment rate 3.5
24. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Unemployment rate 3.5
25. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Unemployment rate 3.3
26. Sioux City, Iowa. Unemployment rate 3.5
27. Harrisonburg, Virginia. Unemployment rate 3.6
28. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah. Unemployment rate 3.6
29. Lafayette, Louisiana. Unemployment rate 3.37
30. Odessa, Texas. Unemployment rate 3.7
So many people are competing for the scarce few jobs available that each candidate needs to
use all the resources they can find. One resource, offered by Job Search Coach Rita Ashley, is
a white paper entitled "Open the Door to Your Next Job with the Power of LinkedIn,"
a no-cost
download. The whitepaper is targeted at those who want to
optimize LinkedIn as a job-search tool.
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.
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:
* Updated Assessment Review
* Integrating Assessment Results with Your Personal Brand
* Career Passion Worksheet
* 10 Deadly Sins of Job Search
* How Job Search is Like Online Dating
* Internet Job-hunting Annual Report
* Branded Online Presence
* The Confidence Factor
* Green Jobs
* 10 Deadly Sins of Job Interviewing
* Body Language in the Job Interview
* De-Stressing Before an Interview
* The Interview as Presentation
* Cover-Letter Components
* Storytelling in Cover Letters
* Finding Your First Real Job
* Empty Nest Job-seekers
* Getting in to Prep School/Boarding School
* Top Presentation Tips
* Quiz: What Kind of Co-Worker Are You?
* How to Stay Motivated at Work
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more...
