Career and Job-Hunting Blog: News, Trends, and More

Quintessential Careers:
Career and Job-Hunting Blog

Career and job-search news, trends, and scoops for job-seekers, compiled by the staff of Quintessential Careers.

Recent Blog Entries

November 7, 2011

The current and ongoing Jobs Recession, deeper and longer than expected, forces job-seekers to focus on job-hunting fundamentals on Job Action Day 2011.

Most experts had predicted that job growth would lag well behind economic growth after the Great Recession, but no one predicted the depth of the problem that we now face in this jobs recession.

We had hoped for a more upbeat Job Action Day months ago when we were planning it, but circumstances forced us to focus on some key fundamentals of job-hunting and job growth advocacy.

So, on this day when you are supposed to be focusing on your career, consider these issues:

First, whether you are currently employed or seeking employment, it's important to have the skills employers are seeking. There are numerous ways to gain these skills, including community colleges, apprenticeships, and volunteering.

Second, if this jobs recession has taught all of us anything, it's that we must depend on ourselves more than any employer. We have to make our career our primary focus -- from branding ourselves as indispensable to our current employer (and prospective future employers) or planting the seeds for starting our own business (or businesses). We must be selfish in our focus because no one else will be looking at for our best interests.

Third, at a time when there is a lot of talk -- and counter talk -- about job creation -- and very little actual job creation, it's time to speak up. It's time for us to tell politicians and businesses to stop wasting time with the talk and get down to actually hiring people again.

You'll find many ideas for all three of these ideas -- Skill Up, Start Up, Speak Up -- at Job Action Day 2011 -- with a multitude of articles and a plethora of bloggers all focused on the one goal of helping you focus on your career and move forward with it.

March 14, 2011

Celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the founding of this site, we honor 15 career experts with the title of Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds.

Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds badge

We've selected our favorite 15 career experts, folks we are honoring with the title of Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds, because of their career and job-hunting know-how -- and their passion for sharing that knowledge with job-seekers, career-changers, and the entire career community.

These folks are career visionaries, gurus, and experts -- people who truly want to help job-seekers understand and succeed in the job-search.

Collectively, our 15 Career Masterminds have expertise in job-hunting, resume-writing, career branding, social networking, salary negotiation, interviewing practices, and more. Some of these experts specialize in younger job-seekers, some in mid-career workers, others in executives and top management.

But we're not just bestowing an honor on these wonderful career experts -- we're also inviting them to make several contributions to Quintessential Careers over the coming months -- lending their unique voices and expertise to you, our readers.

Besides their selfless desire to help job-seekers more successfully find better jobs and new careers, these career gurus are also generous to their profession -- and we appreciate their all their efforts and support.

Find the entire list of our Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds -- including detailed bios -- here.

Read the media release about the Career Masterminds here.

March 5, 2011

U.S. employers add almost 200,000 jobs in February, spurring some experts to voice more optimism about the future.

This past Friday, the U.S. Labor Department released its monthly jobs report -- showing that 192,000 jobs were added to the economy in February, the biggest increase since last May, and slightly higher than predicted.

In another positive sign, the unemployment rate fell nearly two-year low at 8.9 percent in February -- down from 9 percent in January -- but the unemployment rate can be a bit deceiving.

While the February numbers are quite positive, it would take adding about 300,000 new jobs a month consistently to make a dent on the unemployment rate.

In terms of job growth, manufacturing, healthcare, professional and business services, and education all saw increased hiring.

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Other Quintessential Career/Job-Hunting Blogs

Quintessential Resume & Cover Letter Tips Blog, a blog from another part of the QuintCareers Network, with new resume and cover letter tips daily. A must-see for any active job-seeker.
The Career Doctor Blog, a blog from another part of the QuintCareers Network, where each day our own Career Doctor Randall Hansen answers one career, job, college, or workplace question.

And for our entire list of favorite career, employment, and job-search blogs, go here: Career-Related Blogs for Job-Seekers.

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Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.

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