Posts tagged ‘service’

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

    Reasons Your Job Search is Failing

    On paper, the prescription for unemployment is rather formulaic: send in résumé, go on interview, be your charming self, get hired.

    The frustrating reality isn’t nearly as simple.  Getting an interview alone is an exercise in persistence and patience.

    Here are 10 reasons for why you’re not landing that interview and what you can do to reverse the trend.

    Your résumé and cover letter are as articulate as Courtney Love’s Web blog. If your application materials contain typos, grammatical errors and irrelevant or inconsistent information, employers will take notice — in a bad way.  Once you’ve looked over your résumé and cover letter to the point of dementia, take this advice from Joyce Gioia of the Herman Group: have three people, for whom English is a first language, review your résumé and cover letter before you send it.

    Your cover letter is generic. Make it personal by tailoring it to the particular job and addressing it to a person, not “To Whom It May Concern.”  And include a sentence or two about how you are the right fit for that particular job.  If no contact is listed, take the initiative to find out who the hiring manager is by searching the company’s Web site or calling the reference desk.

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    Posted in Talent and Career

    How to Get a Promotion

    The last thing many workers have been thinking about in this dismal job market is how to ask for a promotion or a raise. The popular mind-set: “You’re lucky you still have a job.”

    But now it’s time to shake off those recessionary shackles and start thinking seriously about getting what you deserve at work, especially if your employer  is seeing an uptick in business and looking to hire new workers.

    “Companies are starting to worry about defections when the economy gets better,” said Laurence Stybel, executive in residence at Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University in Boston. “Once the drumbeat of hiring starts, that’s when you can go to the boss and say, ‘I haven’t had a raise or promotion in two years.’”

    Patrick Sweeney, the president and CEO of ODIN Technologies in Ashburn, Va., said his firm hired no new employees last year and had a few layoffs. But this year he plans to add up to 15 new positions.

    He also just promoted two employees.

    “Both guys were often the last ones at the office at night and among the first here in the morning,” Sweeney said. “More than a great work ethic, they jumped in wherever it was needed, from figuring out complex engineering problems to sweeping up our lab to calling clients on the weekend when they needed help.”

    Getting a promotion in this economy is not a lot different than getting one during an economic boom. You still have to show managers you’re willing to work hard and can produce results.

    “If you really want to turn yourself into a loser, think about a salary increase as a reward for past good services,” advised Stybel. “You’re trying to extract money from a cheap company, and companies don’t care about the past – they’re obsessed about the future.”

    Saving a company big bucks
    That focus on producing results is what got Hubert Rivera two promotions in 2009, one of the toughest economic years in recent U.S. history.

    Rivera became a vice president for InCharge, a Orlando, Fla.-based nonprofit credit counseling organization, in October after 10 years with the company. That came after a previous promotion in April.

    Despite having to cut costs because of the economy, the goal was to maintain service to the firm’s clients. So he took initiative.

    “I spoke to my boss back in May of 2009 about ways we could improve our efforts and help the company grow,” Rivera said. “We have been hit hard by the economy and saw reductions in calls and business.”

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    Posted in Talent and Career