Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips

Job-hunting tips from the September 2, 2002 issue of QuintZine.

If you are a teen girl or the family member or friend of one, you may be interested in a new book to which QuintZine editor Katharine Hansen contributed a chapter on interviewing. The book is GirlWise: How to be Confident, Capable, Cool and In Control, and in it, more than 100 contributors tell readers how to be the Ultimate Teen Girl -- confident, capable, comfortable, cool, crazy, and in control of their lives. The author's motto is: No more helpless females here! Read more about GirlWise.

Career experts advise having a 15-second "elevator speech" prepared at all times, reports Andrew Heller in Business Week. This self-promotional speech is so named because it should last about the amount of time it takes an elevator to travel up or down in a typical office building. The speech is how you might want to tout yourself if you, for example, suddenly found yourself in the elevator with, say, the CEO of your company. Of greater significance to job-seekers is the speech's use in networking and job-interview scenarios. If you're in a schmoozing situation with prospective network contacts, you want to have a memorable sound byte ready. A resume writer we know of, for example, tells people that she is "a ghostwriter who creates abbreviated biographies." The elevator speech can also be your answer to the dreaded interview query: "Tell me about yourself." A corporate trainer, reports Heller, "advises people to hit hard on the value of what they do, not just who they are."

More Americans are expressing unhappiness with their jobs, The Conference Board reported in a special survey released in August. The not-for-profit business group finds growing numbers of Americans are less satisfied with their jobs compared to seven years ago. Only about half of those surveyed say they are happy in their jobs, down from 59 percent in 1995. The decline in job satisfaction is found among workers of all ages and across all income brackets.

"The widespread feeling among many Americans that their jobs aren't providing the satisfaction they once did is likely to be a growing concern for management," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board's Consumer Research Center. "Workers are least satisfied with bonus plans, promotion policies, and educational training programs. Even a declining percentage of Americans say they enjoy working with their colleagues -- 58 percent compared to more than 64 percent in 1995."

Workers aged 35-44 are the least content. Less than 48 percent are satisfied, down from nearly 61 percent in 1995. Older workers, aged 55-64, also express a low level of satisfaction. Only about 48 percent say they are satisfied. Not surprisingly, satisfaction tends to increase as income increases. Households earning less than $15,000 are the least satisfied of all income groups. Those earning more than $50,000 are the most satisfied. But in all income areas, satisfaction levels have fallen since 1995.

Other key findings:

• The largest decline in overall job satisfaction -- from 60.9 percent in 1995 to 47.4 percent today -- occurred among households aged 35-44. People in this age bracket were once the happiest group in the American workforce.
• The New England region experienced the largest decline in satisfaction, with only 44 percent of households satisfied with their jobs, compared to 65.4 percent in 1995.
• Residents of the Rocky Mountain region are the most satisfied, despite a recent decline in the level of satisfaction from 62.7 percent to 57 percent.
• Respondents rated their commute to work as the best part of their job, with 58.7 percent satisfied. But, here too, there was a decline in satisfaction levels from 1995.

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