Grads
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Both sides of the fence: real life interview tips from an experienced student
Today’s advice comes from someone who’s sat in both chairs—that of the interviewee and the interviewer. After being selected from a pool of internship candidates, Helga was then assigned to travel the state and search for new employees, quickly throwing her into the role of an interviewer herself—even though she’d not yet finished college. Based on her summer experiences, here’s what she has to say…..
Friday, November 04, 2005
Crucial conversations
Whether it’s an intimate conversation at home or high stakes discussion at work, everyone eventually needs a bit of advice on handling heated conversations. And that’s what I came across this week in my search for conflict management material, a nifty little web site on
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.
You can, of course, purchase the book through this site. But they also offer free material, stuff to launch your self assessment boat as you explore your (conversational) Style Under Stress or fill in a second questionaire designed to help determine how well your family, team, and organization handle crucial confrontations.
In summary, let me close with one of the following maxims. Or rather you can close with the phrase of your own choosing (hey, it’s Friday afternoon when one cannot expect profundity or maybe even lucidity):
—a stitch in time saves nine
—to be forewarned is to be forearmed
—bad choice makers end up as wrong road takers (a rather homey aphorism I just made up upon exiting today’s blog).
Happy weekend!
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Employer comment on choosing a major….
With input too lengthy for the comment section, a local employer emailed me directly with her perspective on choosing a major. Read on for her sage advice….
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Can career counselors wave magic wands?
Envision the following scenario:
Person X wakes up full of hope. While brushing their teeth, an internal dialogue goes something like this….“ah, today’s my appointment with that career counselor. Finally. It took me three weeks to get in. But by the end of the day I’ll know (choose one) a) what I should major in
b) which career I should choose c) where there’s a decent job opening.” That kind of internal monolgue would bring a smile to anyone’s face, right?
As much as I would like to, however, I cannot do any of the above. I would love to know which major/career is perfect for every person and have a pocket full of job openings waiting to be filled. But I don’t. And sometimes people leave without the 100% clarity on the next step they were wishing for.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Cover letters: sample introductory paragraphs
Yesterday’s blog on cover letter guidelines—helpful in a general sense, right? But you may still be puzzling over ways to jump into that first paragraph. How do you start when you don’t know what to say?
To answer that question, I’ve included a number of alternative first paragraphs excerpted from
Cover Letter Magic, hopefully enough to get you started.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Cover letter tips
Though most of my appointments of late have been freshmen and sophomores seeking a suitable major, walk in traffic has been more concerned with the job search. And what stumps most people is the process of writing a cover letter.
Most cover letters follow a 3-4 paragraph format, but there are ways to make sure those brief paragraphs flow with fascinating text.
Cover Letter Magic, one of my favorites on the topic, lists the following Top 5 Cover Letter Writing Tips especially for new grads:
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
‘60’s flashback
What to do after graduation. A topic I’ve covered a few times in the past. But today’s New York Times nails what I’ve observed in my office as well, grads seeking a Fanciful Detour before the real career begins.
The author profiles a few grads working at what looks like non-traditional post-grad jobs, everything from driving a bus across country to leading tour groups to applying to the Peace Corps. The kind of thing people in the 60’s did under the rubric of expanding our life experience.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Tips on working a job fair—to the max
The first time I walked through an in-progress job fair was the spring before I started my job as a career counselor. The event was held right here on campus and I was employed, so there was no reason for my fright & flight response. What was I afraid of? A room full of strangers? Not knowing what to say? Looking foolish? Probably. Anyway, I just about ran out of the room…in a professional sort of way, of course.
I later found out that I’m not the only participant with the jitters. Which is why I’m recommending this great web site—collegegrad.com—to help stave off some of the anxiety these events can produce. It took a bit of exploring but I finally found their golden resources on what to do while at the job fair.
And here’s one more tip I commonly pass along. As you enter the room, look for the lone and lonely booth. The one where the recruiter is standing all by him/herself and looking longingly at the other booths with long lines. That’s the place to start. Break the conversational ice with someone who’ll be genuinely glad you stopped by. Make their day and build your confidence at the same time.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Keeping the “same-old same-old” interesting
Yes, another blogging break last week while I struggled to keep my head above water. A very busy week. Nuts might be too strong a word but somewhere between Nuts and Very Busy would work.
And it was a week characterized by doing a lot of the same thing. Hour after hour. So it dawned on me this morning that other people might find themselves in the same boat, asking that age old question: how am I going to keep this interesting?
Friday, September 09, 2005
How to talk to anyone: ice breaker tip #1
Seems like a good topic for a weekend when social opportunities usually pile up. Though I love meeting new people, I occasionally find myself freezing before an event. It’s usually the room full of strangers that does it.
So, I collect tips on how to break the ice.
Here’s one from How To Talk To Anyone which I plan to use myself.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Reader’s Question: how to handle a dismissal
A reader wrote in with the following question:
After working as a bank teller for 7 years, I was fired - so I was told -
because several customers complained about the quality of my service. There
were no complaints about my technical competence, and I never missed a
single day due to sickness. My question is, how do I work around this during
my job search? I worked there too long to leave my last employer off my
resume, but I can’t think of a way to minimize the impact when asked why I
was fired. Customer service issues seem to be an employability kiss of
death.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Real life lessons—job loss
So many real life lessons lately that it’s hard to sort out what to share. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve made most of these mistakes myself so there’s no judgement. Just hurt sometimes with your hurt. But I can’t share the joy without also sharing the sadness, right?
Friday, August 26, 2005
Informational Interviews at your fingertips
How do you find out—before you get there—what your dream job is really like?
I’ve met with a number of people who never did check things out ahead to time and, low and behold, 15 years later and they hate (should be a capital H there) what they’re doing. Worse yet, might be making a lot of money doing it, thus exacerbating the stuck feeling. A few lawyers I met with years ago always come to mind.
Anyway, one low risk way to get the facts is to do informational interviews, i.e. line up what amounts to advice time with a professional and get them to basically tell their story.
Sound too daunting? Well, jump to http://www.roadtripnation.com and click on Interviews for real life tips from people in a variety of fields.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Cover Letter Hints
Since I’ve been hitting the whole job search thing rather broadly of late, I thought it was about time to add a few specifics.
One area which typically stumps searchers is the dreaded cover letter. I’ve seen everything from two paged tomes to very brief—but dry—form letters.
The best lies somewhere in between…if you drop the dry, that is… in a shorter, one page targeted letter. Easy to read. Interesting enough to hook people into reading your resume, which is the real purpose of the letter in the first place. Think interesting version of a direct mail piece—one which lures you on to the second page.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Think you can’t get there from here?
Cross roads. Life choices. Which way to go…
I did a late-night in the dorms last year where I talked about my own career story. What struck me was how often I’d made decisions in the dark. You know, that place where you don’t know which way to go but your back’s up against the wall and you have to choose something.
I’ve been in that spot many times. But over the weekend I thought of yet one more incident. Again, I didn’t know what I was doing but somehow ended up in an entirely different spot—the place I was designed for—because of the changed direction.
Here’s the story…
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