Career Focus: A Personal Job Search Guide - Softcover

Martucci Lamarre, Helene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0137489897 ISBN 13: 9780137489893

Publisher: Pearson College Div, 1997

Synopsis

This straightforward book challenges the reader to complete a successful job search. It focuses on self-assessment techniques, sound career development theory, and individual applications. KEY TOPICS: Covering a wide range of topics while presenting specific skills, this comprehensive guide prompts the reader to take an active role in the job search. It presents the latest job search technologies, including computer-generated resumes, electronically scannable resumes, Internet resume sites, electronic company research, and Internet job searches. It also discusses the uses of professional portfolios. The second edition of Career Focus: A Personal Job Search Guide has been revised to include new chapters on the Internet Job Search; Evaluating a Job Offer; and Designing Job Success. It includes expanded coverage of computer-generated resumes, Internet resume sites, and electronic sources of company research; networking; as well as interviewing techniques and professional portfolios. An essential resource for anyone who is currently searching for a job or considering beginning a job search.

About this title

About the Author:

Helen Martucci Lamarre has successfully assisted job seekers for more than 20 years.  As a senior professor, she has developed curricula and taught courses in career development and business communications to thousands of students who have attained an average placement rate of 97 percent.  She is a distinguished professor, recognized for her creativity and academic contributions. 

As a successful speaker, she has delivered numerous presentations to educational, civic, and private groups on career development and business communications topics.  She also advises and coaches private clients in their personal job searches.

As an author, she has completed five books covering personal marketings, job search techniques, and career portfolios published in both the United States and Canada.

She is a member of the Association for Business Communication and the Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Welcome to the Third Edition of Career Focus: A Personal Job Search Guide. In this book, you will be introduced to the world of personal assessment, personal marketing, and job search know-how. By using this comprehensive yet easy-to-follow guide, you will gain a better understanding of who you are and the skills you offer employers, how to launch you own personal marketing campaign, and how to develop the all-important tools necessary for a successful job search in this competitive and often complex world. In addition, you will understand what it takes to be successful after you get the job. You will learn about skills and traits that are essential for a successful career path in any company or field of endeavor.

Through using this personal marketing and job search guide, you will have a clearer focus on your own abilities, your career desires and your goals for the future. Through a winning combination of career development theory and individual application, you will be able to get your first professional position, begin a new career, change careers, or even re-enter the job market after an absence. Whatever your career circumstances, through self-reflection and personal dedication, you can be on your way to career satisfaction.

Who Should Use This Book?

Career Focus: A Personal Job Search Guide, 3rd Edition, is a useful source for everyone interested in employment. It is used as a textbook for college and professional career development courses. It is a valuable resource to individuals who are reassessing their careers and the effectiveness of their current job search strategies. It has been a welcome companion to recent college or technical school graduates who need career assistance as they make sense of the job market into which they are about to enter. Anyone who wishes to be successful in today’s competitive employment market needs to understand and apply the ideas and techniques found in this guide.

How to Use This Book

Use it actively. Don’t just read the words; think about them. React to ideas, challenge your current ways of thinking, and energize yourself while you spend time with this book. As you think about how to use this guide most effectively for your individual situation, you may want focus on particular areas such as résumé writing or researching companies or particular sections like the one on interviewing. Or, you may want to study the information and suggestions chapter by chapter to provide a comprehensive guide to personal marketing, successful job searching and career planning. No matter what the approach, you’ll benefit from the experience.

From the chapters on marketing tools to the suggestion on using the Internet in your job search to the information on developing paper-based and electronic professional portfolios, you will find this book a valuable tool that you can use today and for many tomorrows to come.

What Does This New Edition Have to Offer?

This exciting new edition keeps most of the basic information that has been used so successfully by many job seekers, but it is enhanced with a new approach, new information, and new features.

* New approach: A new focus for the third edition is self-marketing. Marketing yourself successfully is the focus all the information found in the first two sections: Introduction and Personal Assessment and Marketing Tools. Experience has told us that job seekers of today are the most successful when they understand basic marketing concepts and use dynamic marketing strategies and techniques for themselves.

A second enhanced focus for this edition is the organization of text, particularly the material on interviewing. For easy access to interview information, interviewing material is divided into three chapters: Before the Interview, During and After the Interview, and After the Offer. Each chapter is a comprehensive guide to the knowledge and techniques needed in each step of the interviewing process.

*New and Enhanced Information: Not only has the information in this book been updated with the most timely career advice and strategies, new and expanded topics to this edition include:

• Marketing strategies and techniques
• Types and styles of resumes including electronic, scannable resumes
• Paper-based and electronic professional portfolios
• Electronic company research
• Types of interviews including stress, group, and telephone
• Effectively handling behavioral-based interview questions
• Important questions for the interview candidate to ask
• Interviewing etiquette
• Negotiating salary and benefits
• Career success on the job including tips for new employees

*New Features: Several exciting new features are in this third edition.

MY Focus and Finding Your Focus

First, because self-marketing is such a central theme in this edition of the book and to a successful job search and career, marketing tips and other helpful information are highlighted with a special feature called "Marketing Yourself Focus," or MY Focus. MY Focus information is found in most chapters and relates to the practical application of the ideas and suggestions in that chapter.

In addition to the MY Focus feature, each chapter has unique chapter questions, called Finding Your Focus. These questions encourage the reader to not only recall key concepts from the chapter, but to reflect and apply these ideas on a personal level. Both MY Focus and Finding Your Focus help move the owner of this book from mere reader to active user of these critical concepts and job search strategies.

Layout and Design

The design of this new edition highlights important information and allows the reader to see key points and ideas in the chapters at a glance. Improved graphics and use of color also enhance the look of this new and improved guide.

Companion Web Page

A final and very important new feature of this third edition is the Companion Web Page. This interactive tool provides a new online dimension of interactivity and self-exploration. The Companion Web Page features chapter objectives and highlights, test questions, useful Internet links, and special worksheets, further support information for many chapters in the book.

Career Focus: A Personal Job Search Guide remains an essential guide for anyone who is currently searching for a job or is about to begin a job search. Its no-nonsense approach and easy-to-read style make it a must for the busy individual who needs sound job search advice in a resource that is quick and easy to use.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson College Div
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0137489897
• ISBN 13: 9780137489893
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 156