Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Job-hunting tips from the April 1, 2002 issue of
QuintZine.
In this period of downsizing and recession,
it may behoove workers to be flexible and
willing to be reassigned, reported Stephanie Armour
recently in USA Today. Lack of flexibility may mean
getting laid off. "Employees are being thrust into new
jobs as companies reassign workers rather than lay them off,"
Armour writes. "The changes can be dramatic. Airline ticket
takers are taking security positions, factory workers are
handling desk jobs, and marketing employees are doing
customer service work."
Willingness to undergo cross
training and learn new skills can be key to job retention.
"The tactic is being used as employers respond to
fluctuating market demands by shuffling staffers
around. They're also seeking to retain skilled
employees rather than recruiting again when the
economy rebounds," Armour reports.
Sometimes downsized workers end up
interviewing for jobs for which they seem to be
overqualified. Writing in the Wall Street Journal,
Chris Taylor of Smart Money magazine, offers some
tips for getting a job you're overqualified for:
Hold back on your brilliance. Don't describe
stellar accomplishments that go beyond the
scope of the job you're interviewing for.
Launch a pre-emptive strike. Be the first one in
the interview to bring up the overqualification
issue. Assure the interviewer that you want to
work for the company and won't be in a big hurry
to move on.
Ease up on salary demands. Realize that you probably
won't earn the same salary as in your last job and
prepare to be flexible.
Want to know what the hot new job field is?
According to HR Daily News, trades are the new
hot jobs. "With technology jobs tarnished and more
careerists now searching for 'meaning,'" the Web site reports,
citing the Christian Science Monitor, "specialized, hands-on
work has gained new allure.
"After a decade in which 'the workplace' has almost
exclusively meant the office, the skilled trades have
quietly enjoyed a renaissance -- attracting renewed
public appreciation for their craftsmanship and quality,
as well as a new generation of workers eager for
the hands-on satisfaction of creating work that
is meant to last generations.
"The skilled trades actually began to make a comeback
in the 1970s with the growth of the historic-preservation
movement, the Monitor reports. But the trend accelerated
in recent years, as consumer and commercial tastes have
continued to swing back toward more historical and traditional
building styles.
"Today, craftsmen (and women) can be found making
everything from dry stone walls, to architectural
ironwork, to ornate terra-cotta figurines and cornices."
In this period of downsizing and recession,
it may behoove workers to be flexible and
willing to be reassigned, reported Stephanie Armour
recently in USA Today. Lack of flexibility may mean
getting laid off. "Employees are being thrust into new
jobs as companies reassign workers rather than lay them off,"
Armour writes. "The changes can be dramatic. Airline ticket
takers are taking security positions, factory workers are
handling desk jobs, and marketing employees are doing
customer service work."
