Feature Article: How to Conduct a Career-Planning Weekend Retreat
Special Feature: Career Planning for Millennials, Gen Y, Twenty-Somethings
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're balancing the jam-packed special Job Action Day issue of
QuintZine we produced earlier this month with a slim, compact issue on the important
subject of career planning -- a topic well suited so close to the end of the year.
With a number of upcoming holiday-related days off from work, it's a great time to schedule
a weekend career-planning retreat, as we describe in our article on that topic in this issue.
Publisher Dr. Randall Hansen targets Gen Y, the group probably most in need of career planning,
with an article on how millennials can go about planning their careers.
We've also just published a new tool, put together by regular contributor Liz
Sumner, a Values Checklist
to assist in career planning by helping users prioritize what they most value in their lives and work.
--Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com
Feature Articles: Career Planning Weekend
How to Conduct a Career-Planning Weekend Retreat
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
Your career. ... the work that you devote many of your waking hours to. Few things
in life are as important as being satisfied and fulfilled in this activity to which you devote so
much time. That's why it's worthwhile to periodically set aside as much as a three-day weekend
to plan your career or fine-tune your existing career plan.
Have Your Resume Ready in Case of Job Loss in the Current Economic Climate.
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.
Career Planning for Millennials, Gen Y, Twenty-Somethings
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Whether you are an older member of Generation Y who is hitting a wall in your
late 20s or a younger member who recently graduated from college unemployed or unsure
of your future, the common issue you may face is a strong need for career planning.
Do you know what you want -- really want -- to do with your life? Are you stuck in a job or
career that is not right for you -- or worse, a dead-end job? Are you worried your hopes
and dreams will not come true? Do you feel as though you should be further along in your
career than you really are?
If you answered yes to any of the above, you should consider some serious career planning.
Many folks seem to avoid spending time on career planning, perhaps because they are simply too
busy living their lives, but the more time you can put into planning your future, the more likely your
career vision will come your reality.
Career planning is about reviewing your current career and envisioning your career future. In terms
of your future career, career planning should look both at the short-term (the next 1-2 years) and
long-term (5+ years).
This blog about entry-level jobs each day looks at one employer and the jobs that
employer offers for recent college graduates.
The blog is a great career-planning tool for younger job-seekers because it provides
inside information about employers and jobs.
Founder Willy Franzen call the site "the insider's guide to unique and exciting entry-level job and career
opportunities for recent college graduates. Every day we profile a new employer and highlight [its] entry-level jobs."
Users can sign up to get the job information by e-mail or RSS feed, and can also be fans of the site on Facebook.
The site has archived every employer it has covered since its beginning in Nov. 2007. OneDayOneJob also covers
internships and offers job-search tips.
The site carries no cost to users except its Found Your Career online course, which costs $152.
The Field: Jobs for Sports --
a job site for sports, fitness, and recreation experts, where job-seekers can search for jobs and
internships, as well as post your resume. Includes expert advice on how to best position yourself
for a sports career or fitness career. No cost to job-seekers.
Jobirn: Insider Referral Network --
a unique job site that is a combination of job board, online interview system,
and employee referral system that connects job-seekers with employees inside the company where
you would like to work -- to help get a referral to ideal job. No cost to job-seekers.
JobShouts! --
a job search engine integrated with social media, helping to create connections and deliver
better matching results for job seekers, which delivers real-time job postings and automated
one click searching across multiple social networks simultaneously. No cost to job-seekers.
TwitterJobSearch.com --
a job search engine for Twitter, where job-seekers enter search keyword(s) and
receive immediate results of tweets for job openings. No cost to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
Find Your Career Future. Learn More About Yourself
Career Maze is designed to help every job seeker, at every level, make smarter
career choices. Individualized to reflect your unique personality and written in
"plain English," it is thorough and easy to complete.
Once completing the assessmemt, your 2-part report includes:
A specific, career-relevant discussion of your workplace personality
A list of job types compatible with your personality
Career Maze encourages you to think about tapping your full potential to find your future.
Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life
Having a winning personality has always helped in making friends or getting a date, but a recent
survey confirms it also opens doors in the job search. When presented with accounting or finance candidates
who possess similar qualifications, 31 percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed said applicants'
people skills would tip the balance over such attributes as software proficiency and advanced certifications.
This number is up significantly from five years ago when interpersonal skills were cited by only 1 percent
of respondents.
CFOs were asked, "If two candidates interviewing for an accounting or finance position had similar skills,
which one of the following additional qualifications would you find most valuable?" Other qualifications in the
survey included software/technology knowledge, industry-specific experience, certification or
advanced degree, multilingual skills, and international experience.
The survey was developed by Accountemps, a specialized staffing service for temporary accounting,
finance and bookkeeping professionals, and conducted by an independent research firm. It was based on
telephone interviews with more than 1,400 CFOs across the United States.
Find full results here.
Contradicting conventional wisdom that hiring decision-makers skim resumes in no more than about
20 seconds, a new survey by OfficeTeam found that executives spend more than six minutes, on average,
screening each resume received. (Perhaps the 20-second figure applies to screeners at lower levels
than the executive. By the time the stack gets to the executive level, the candidate field has
likely been winnowed down considerably, allowing the executive a luxurious six minutes per
resume.) Considering these documents are usually only one or two pages in length,
this finding suggests many are being examined with a fine-toothed comb.
Executives were asked, "Approximately how much time, in minutes, do you spend screening
each resume when reviewing job applicants for an advertised position?"
The average response was 6.4 minutes.
The survey was developed by OfficeTeam, a staffing service specializing in placing highly
skilled administrative professionals. It was conducted by an independent research firm
and includes responses from 150 senior executives at the nation's 1,000 largest
companies. Full results here.
A recent University of Washington study reveals something about job-seekers: it's better to flatter
than to brag. The study looked at job-seekers and the recruiters who interviewed them. People who
flattered the interviewer received higher ratings than those who expounded on their merits.
They received those ratings because interviewers believed they shared their beliefs and attitudes,
indicating a potentially good fit at the company.
Ingratiating yourself to employers through appropriate levels of flattery (nothing obvious
or obnoxious, of course) may help you more than your own impressive credentials.
-- Adapted from the Echo newsletter from Communispond
Quintessential Careers Press Announces Our Latest Book: The Quintessential Guide to
Job Search 2.0: Advancing Your Career Through Online Social Media.
The
Quintessential Guide to Job Search 2.0: Advancing Your Career Through Online Social Media,
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., provides six chapters to guide you
through the next revolution in online job search. Since job boards, vestiges of the first
revolution in online job search, should still be part of the job-seeker's toolkit, this
book helps you navigate those while also considering the future of job boards. The book
looks at building your personal brand, teaches you to make the most of social-media venues
in the job search, guides you in creating a digital presence, suggests you consider blogging,
and discusses ways to integrate multimedia elements into your job search.
Follow QuintCareers; Read the Latest Advice
Follow QuintCareers Latest Job Tips and Career News on Twitter
Also follow @KatCareerGal for regular career-related tweets.
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:
* How Job Search is Like Online Dating
* Executive Interview case Studies
* Background Checks
* Pre-employment Assessments
* Career Resolutions
* Turn Your Hobby Into a Business
* Entrepreneurship Quiz
* Warning Signs You Won't Like Your Next Employer
* Contrasting Good and Bad Job-Search Techniques
* New Grads: Roadmap to Work and Play
* Working Night Shifts/Odd Shifts
* Tips for Dealing with Office Politics
* De-Stressing Before an Interview
* More Cover-Letter Components
* Empty Nest Job-seekers
* 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...
