Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Job-hunting tips from the February 17, 2003 issue of
QuintZine.
One of the greatest challenges in changing careers is trying to prove your can do a job that is different
from what you've done in the past. In her book,
Kick
Off Your Career, Kate Wendleton offers a wonderful little list entitled,
"How You as a Career Changer Can Prove Your Interest and Capability:"
Read the industry's trade journals.
Get to know people in that industry or field.
Join its organizations; attend the meetings.
Be persistent.
Show how your skills can be transferred.
Write proposals.
Be persistent.
Take relevant courses, part-time jobs, or do volunteer work related to the new industry or skill area.
Be persistent.
The Net-Temps article by Gordon Miller that we referenced in our Editor's Note about now being a good time
for a career change offers some tips for making it work:
Focus your research: Become an expert in your existing
industry or a targeted new one. Understand where the
industry is headed. Determine what factors will influence
its future. Most importantly, get clear on how you can
enhance the firm's value proposition going forward.
Engage the right contacts: Not just any contact, but
the people who can strategically assist you. It's not
just about networking for networking's sake.
Don't use traditional job search strategies: New times
demand new solutions. Sending a bunch of resumes may have
worked in the past. It's very ineffective in this market.
If you're thinking about changing your career, you're certainly not alone. According to Career Education Corp., half
of working American would consider changing their career, and nearly a quarter at any given time plan to make a career
change within the next 12 months. Further, reports Market Facts, Inc., a scant 3 percent of working adults say they
are satisfied with their current job. And a poll of 2,500 college students and recent graduates showed that 78 percent
said they planned to stay with their first employer no longer than three years. Don't be so desperate to change jobs or careers,
however, that you jump at a mediocre one in the hope that you'll be promoted. So warned Kate Wendleton and Dale Dauten in their
career column. "You take a job you think is mediocre and, odds are, you'll do a mediocre job. So what are the chances of
promotion?" Dauten and Wendleton wrote. "You'll end up looking outside the company, meaning you'll have to explain why you're in
such a lackluster job."
One of the greatest challenges in changing careers is trying to prove your can do a job that is different
from what you've done in the past. In her book,
