Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Job-hunting tips from the May 9, 2005 issue of
QuintZine.
Amid the mounting competition over summer internships, the traditional summer job has
tumbled further down the prestige scale," writes Erin White in The Wall Street Journal's
CareerJournal.com. "Waitressing or retail couldn't possibly help them climb the
corporate ladder, they figure."
White continues: "But sometimes a traditional summer job -- think retail, waitressing, lifeguarding,
house-painting and the like -- proves a lot more substantial than the endless hours of mind-numbing
clerical work that pass for an internship at some companies. If the choice is between an internship
offering meaningless work and an unglamorous but more-substantial summer job, then the latter could
be the better choice, some career experts say.
A survey of 120 major American corporations affiliated with Business Roundtable, employing
nearly 8 million people, concludes that in today's workplace, writing is a "threshold skill" for hiring
and promotion among salaried (i.e., professional) employees. Survey results indicate that writing
is a ticket to professional opportunity, while poorly written job applications are a figurative
kiss of death. Estimates based on the survey returns reveal that employers spend billions
annually correcting writing deficiencies.
In a recent survey, business careers proved to be the top choice among high-school students,
with more than 9 percent planning a career in business. Many of those future business people would like to
work for themselves, as teens also expressed a strong interest in self-employment.
Amid the mounting competition over summer internships, the traditional summer job has
tumbled further down the prestige scale," writes Erin White in The Wall Street Journal's
CareerJournal.com. "Waitressing or retail couldn't possibly help them climb the
corporate ladder, they figure."
