Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips

Job-hunting tips from the August 28, 2000 issue of QuintZine.

Want to succeed at your first job once you've landed it? Better sharpen your so-called "soft skills" according to a survey of employers reported by the BBC. These soft skills, which employers say are often lacking in entry-level hires, include:
- taking initiative
- communicating effectively
- making decisions
- solving problems
- building relationships

Nearly 80 percent of employers said employees with these "soft skills" would find it easier to move up the corporate ladder. They say real-world experience, say a year between high school and college or an internship during college can help build those skills. Read the full article.

Echoing a sentiment that we certainly agree with, resume writer JoAnn Nix recently gave the following advice in an interview on the Guru.com Web site: "A resume should be accomplishment-oriented, not responsibility-driven. The biggest mistake that I see in the resumes people send me is that they list responsibilities. That doesn't grab anybody's attention. People aren't interested in your responsibilities. They already know the general responsibilities of a position so they don't want to know what you do from day to day. They want to know that you're a mover and a shaker: How you contribute to the organization, how you show initiative, that you can be a key player. That's what they want to see.

"For example, if you're a sales and marketing manager, you could say: Joined organization to spearhead sales and marketing initiative for newly developed territory. Lead the aggressive turnaround of a poorly performing district and propelled sales from one to six million in 14 months. That's the type of accomplishment they want to see." Read the full interview with Nix.

One of the best sources of networking contacts for college students is the guest speakers that come to talk to your classes. These professionals are a vast untapped resource. One of our students who was interested in a career in pharmaceutical sales went up to a guest speaker from that industry after the presentation and introduced herself. She asked the pharmaceutical rep if she could send him her resume. He agreed, and she kept in touch with him throughout the next semester before she graduated. By the time she claimed her diploma, she had lined up a $40,000 a year job with the drug firm.

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