Posts tagged ‘experience’

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Selling Yourself on Paper

When it comes to selling yourself on paper, you will find that newspaper editors are tough customers. After all, they put information on paper every day. There are no bonus points for correct spelling, punctuation or grammar. Those are givens. A single error can consign your résumé to the circular file. Edit your work, proofread the final copy and then double-check everything. Twice. Have someone else go over it. Make sure the editor is NOT the first person to see the finished product.

Understand the purpose of a résumé. It is not intended to get you a job. It is meant to tell the prospective employer enough about you so that they’ll look at your work samples or call you in for an interview. Use the interview, tests, tryouts and other activities to land the job. In a business where word economy is valued, one-page résumés are twice as effective as two-page résumés. Even editors with 20 years and several papers behind them limit their résumés to one page. You’re certainly free to go over that, but it’s not very smart — especially when your experience, in comparison to the editor’s — is modest.

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Posted in Talent and Career

Negotiate The Best Deal for Yourself Going into a Job

If you want to negotiate the best deal for yourself going into a job, do as I say, not as I do.

When the Free Press asked me whether I wanted a job, I immediately yelled, “Yes!”

Not very cool, I know.

And I quickly slammed any door I had for negotiating. Fortunately, I was treated pretty well anyway. Now, I tell people (even people I make offers to) not to accept instantly.

A little about the dynamics of hiring: Between the time when a company offers you a job and you accept, you have leverage.

Inside the company, a bunch of people have met and decided that you are the person, out of a handful of candidates, whom they want to hire. The person who makes the call is expected to get your acceptance. They do not want to reconvene, go to the next candidate or re-ignite their search.

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The Job of Your Dreams

Think about all of your college experience, including classes and extracurricular activities. What did you do in your class that helps to qualify you for the job of your dreams?

Consider first your classes. Many lucky students undertake activities in classes that are every bit as valid for providing experience as paid jobs. Such activities include:

  • Class projects
  • Research papers and projects
  • Group projects
  • Hands-on assignments and “real-world” experiences
  • Laboratory experience
  • Presentations
  • Study-abroad programs
  • Simulations

Look, for example, at your school’s special programs and relevant, hands-on projects you’ve done in classes. Stetson University, where we teach, has an unusual program in the finance department in which students invest actual money in a stock portfolio. Such a program provides an excellent way to make the most of your college experience in your cover letter, as in this example:

Currently, I am involved in a unique program at Stetson that sets me apart from other recent graduates who apply to your firm. For the past year, I have been part of the Roland George Investment Program, the only undergraduate program in the Southeastern United States that allows students to invest real money in the stock and bond markets. The Roland George Program has allowed me to gain practical experience in portfolio management and has enhanced my communication and teamwork skills. I have also fine-tuned my research techniques to make the best stock and bond selections.

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Posted in Talent and Career

Focused on Your Qualifications for The Job

Job interviewing can be an unnerving experience, but if you know how to handle some of the stickiest situations encountered in interviewing, you can be that much more confident. Here are 10 of the stickiest.

1. The Bad Interviewer. Not every professional who conducts job interviews with candidates knows how to conduct an interview effectively. In fact some are downright lousy at it. A bad interviewer might be unfocused, disinterested, unprepared. He or she might dominate the interview by doing all the talking or might ask inappropriate and illegal questions.

    The unfocused, unprepared interviewer probably hasn’t read your resume and maybe can’t even find a copy. This hapless soul doesn’t even know what to ask you. Be sure to offer this disorganized interviewer a copy of your resume while asking, “May I take you through some highlights of my career?”

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    Posted in Talent and Career

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