Resumes, Interviewing

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Resumes, Interviewing

In the following, you’ll learn the steps of searching for and making the most of your job, including:

• Resumes
• Cover Letters
• Interviews
• Follow-Through and Thank You Letters
• Making the Most of Your Work Experience
• Further Career References 

Writing a resume
The first item you'll need in a job search is a resume. This is a very important step, because if you don’t have a worthy resume, you won’t be able to get past the first stage. Here are some of the basic steps involved in this process and remember, it doesn’t matter if your friends think your resume looks cool. If your resume doesn't convince a prospective employer to grant you an interview, it isn't doing its job.

Step 1
The first step in creating your resume is making a list of your skills and achievements. This list should include:

• Your work background, including addresses, and names of former managers
• What schools you’ve attended, including addresses
• Your hobbies at those schools
• Other skills you have, particularly any computer skills
• A list of people you feel would be good references, meaning they would highly recommend you to your employer. This obviously can’t be your mom or your brother, so it should be either former bosses, teachers, or other adults you have worked or dealt with in the past, who know you well. Get at least two of them to write you a letter of recommendation in which they talk about how fabulous you are, and mention your outstanding skills as a student/worker/etc.

After you've compiled this list, you're half way there! It was probably easier than you thought too. Now comes the step where you turn this list of information into an impressive, professional document called a resume.

Step 2
Gather reference materials and sample resumes.

The writing style in resumes can sometimes be a little hard, so you'll need a thesaurus to find a variety of words to describe your job activities.

Taking the list you’ve already compiled, sit down with some books from the library or career center on how to write resumes. Try to use books that have clear examples in them, and are fairly current. Experts say that the ideal resume is easy to read, well-organized, professionally presented, concise, results-oriented, and tailored to the requirements of the job being applied for. Sloppiness, typos, poor grammar, and misspellings, and wordiness are the major resume killers. 

 If you can't take the time to carefully proof your own work, they assume you won't be any more conscientious on the job. To make sure that you don't fall prey to misspellings and poor grammar, always keep a dictionary and a good grammar guide handy. Show your resume to at least two other people for proofreading before you give it out, and don't depend on a computer's spell checking; you may have spelled the wrong word correctly.  

Ask yourself the following question about each word on your resume: Does it add to the clarity of my statement or enhance my marketability? If the answer is "no," then the word should be history. Your resume is just a summary, you'll supply the in- depth details during your interview.

Step 3
Using your manuals, transfer your information from your worksheet into the resume format of your choice. Just remember that you’re simply trying to show your skills and accomplishments through this document, so you want to find the most straightforward wording for your resume. 

Don’t go nuts with the thesaurus, but try to put some variety into your writing. Most resume guides will give you a feel for the way to do this.

Categories you should include on your resume include:

• Your straight-forward and concise work objective
• Your work experience
• Your skills
• The school you’re attending, and your activities and achievements there

Some extra tips for creating a resume:

• Make sure to keep your resume to one page, and as clear as possible.
• Don't use a bunch of different fonts and type sizes. Using two or three at the most can spice up your resume quite a bit, but any more than that can nauseate your reader. If you have a computer, it should be especially easy to create a nice simple layout.

Common Resume Blunders
While there is no one right resume, there are a lot of things that you can do that are definitely wrong. Interviewers and the people in Human Resource departments have all seen a million resumes. Over time, they develop some quick checks to help them screen resumes. Here are some of the big things that they always look for that you should be sure to avoid:

• Missing dates
• Vague language
• Typos
• Controversial hobbies/interests
• Misrepresentation/ inaccurate statements

Writing a Cover Letter

Consider this.  You walk into a bookstore, but instead of all the books divided being divided into genres, with the author’s names on it, and a book summary, all you see are titles.  How in the world would you be able to choose a book that interested you? Many employers come into a dilemma similar to this.  They have piles and piles of resumes.  How are they going to narrow the pile down into the select few.  This is where the cover letter comes in.

A cover letter tells a prospective employer who you are, what your story is, what you've accomplished, and why they should talk to you.  Cover Letters can be a great place to showcase your own personality and set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd. When done right, a cover letter can encourage a prospective employer to read on to your resume, and maybe even go on to the next step of picking up the phone to schedule an interview. While a cover letter alone can't get you a job, it can open doors for you. That's why it pays to learn the most effective strategies for writing cover letters. The cover letter should be a brief two to three paragraph cover for your resume. The basic structure should include:

The introduction - This is where you introduce yourself briefly and state your objective, or why you are writing. It should include a heading with your name and address (like the one at the top of your resume) and an opening paragraph stating how you found out about the job, and the position for which you’ll be applying 

The sales pitch - This is the most substantial part of the cover letter. It's the middle section, where you address your reader's needs and how you will fill them. Include a summary of why you feel you would be right for the position.  Also, if you have any special skills or experiences you have that are related to the position, be sure to state them.

The reason - This part lets the reader know that you are truly interested in his or her organization and are not just randomly writing as part of some mass mailing. You answer the question of “why them?”.

The request for further action - This section is often referred to as the closure, but that's a passive way of looking at it. Don't just think of it as the time to say "thank you and good-bye," but as the chance to request a next step, like an appointment or phone conversation. The request for action is where you further clarify your objective and clinch the deal. Always end with a final sentence thanking the person looking at your resume for their time

Some questions to answer before you start work on your cover letter

• What type of work would you like to do?
• What are your five greatest strengths/selling points that relate to your job objective?
• Which organizations offer the type of opportunity you are seeking?
• What do you know about your prospective employers?

Skills to consider listing

• Computer - software packages, hardware trouble-shooting, programming, familiarity with the Internet.
• Foreign Languages - specify whether you can write, read, speak, interpret, and/or translate. Also include your level of proficiency.
• Math and Science - statistical analysis, research methodology, laboratory procedures.
• Business - cost accounting, financial analysis, economic forecasting.
• Arts - film editing, camera operation, set design, sewing, graphic design.
• Administrative - typing, switchboard, dictation, stenography.

Tips for Effective Letters
The are thousands of ways to write a cover letter, and originality is always a positive, but consider these tips.

• Tailor your letters as much as possible to the target reader and the industry as a whole.
• Talk more about what you can do for your reader than what she can do for you.
• Convey focused career goals.
• Don't say anything negative.
• Always be honest, but not necessarily too modest.
• Use lists of bulleted points or sections delineated with bold type or underlined headings rather than long paragraphs.
• Don't ramble, use decisive language.
• Don't say anything that you don't back up with evidence.
• Talk about problems you've solved in the past for other employers or organizations.
• Consider cultural differences if you know the target reader; some cultures are more formal than others.
• Make your letter visually appealing.
• Get others' opinions of your letter before sending it out.
• Keep a notebook of all letters you send out with a log of follow-up efforts.

Interviewing
Finally! You finished the resume, you sent it out in nice matching white envelopes, and now you’ve got an interview.

For some people, this is a breeze, but for most it’s nerve racking. To start off here are a few tips to help you with your interview:

What to Bring to an Interview

• Several copies of your resume.
• Your portfolio, if applicable.
• Pens and pencils
• Notebook.
• References (name, address, and phone number.)
• Anything else that will help you feel more comfortable, including combs, mirrors, etc.

The armed interviewers
Watch out: many times interviewers are armed with tough questions.  Be prepared!

• Open ended questions- These questions expect more than a simple yes or no out of you.  It gives interviewers a sense of your knowledge in the area.
• "Prove it!" (Specific questions to show you really have those skills you've listed.)
• Silence. (Do you get rattled easily?)
• Plural Questions
• Compare/Contrast Questions

Remember: Don't get too comfortable.

Major Do's and Don'ts

Do

• Relax and act naturally.
• You should look professional, but still be able to breathe.
• Have a positive tone
• Prepare for the tough questions
• Research companies before you interview
• Ask intelligent questions. All that research you did will come in handy here, as you impress them with your interest in what they do, and your knowledge of how their company works.
• Focus on what you have to offer a prospective employer, not what you want
• Learn about your rights as an interviewee
• Follow up with a note or a phone call

Don't

• Attempt to use an informational interview to land a position
• Talk about money in the first interview
• Beg for a job!
• Lie on your resume

Remember! You are interviewing the company you hope to work for as much as they are interviewing you. You are trying to find the best place to work and learn, and they are trying to find the right employee. You should be examining your interviewers and the environment to see if you would feel comfortable working there.

How much should I know about my career field or industry as a whole?

How much research do I need to do on the company I am interviewing for?  Since the reason for researching the company is to become familiar with it and the industry it is in, you should research it until you have enough information to hold a conversation about it with someone.  You should know your short and long-term career goals and what in your background has contributed to these goals or prepared you for the position you're interviewing for.  Lastly, you should be familiar with some current trends or issues related to the field or industry which have been prominent in the news lately.

Talk to anyone and everyone who knows about your field, position, organization and current events of interest. It’s a good idea to take down all the information you learn through reading, talking, and researching on to a interviewing cheat sheet, that will help you organize your knowledge.  You can use these sheets to prepare for interviews and even bring them with you for quick reference before or in between interviews.

What if the interview comes up suddenly and I have only a day to do my research?

First off, you should try to schedule the interview at least a couple of days ahead so that you have ample time to do your homework, but for some reason you cannot, you much do the best you can.  A quick trip to the library, a scan of Internet resources, and a brief conversation with a few key people who know about the organization and/or industry can help you ace the interview.

Following-through

Step 1
Feel positive about yourself even if you don’t feel the interview went well. Each interview you go through is a learning experience, and it will get easier and easier the more practice you get. You won’t click with every possible employer, and they many not click with you, but you can still get a good idea of what type of work is out there, and learn how to give a better interview.

Step 2
Send a polite follow up letter thanking your interviewer for the opportunity to speak with them. This can leave a very good impression with that company, and they may think of you in the future, or even refer you.

Making the most of your work experience

When you get a job you should try to get the most out of your experience. Every company has something to offer you, but you have to know how to find it. Here are some of the most important things you can take with you when you leave a job.

Skills
Take any opportunity that you can get to learn a new skill, especially computer and communication skills.

Good skills to work on include:

• Researching
• Time management
• Specific software skills such as a command of Word or Excel
• Analysis
• Putting together a proposal, or meeting

Don’t be afraid to work hard. If someone you work with knows something that you’d like to learn, ask them to show you, or at the very least, observe them.

Networking
It is very important that you utilize your co-workers to help you solve problems or make your work better. Get to know the people you work with, because people almost always work better together than they do alone. Also, your co-workers might give you good leads on opportunities in your field, or might even refer you to someone else long after you’ve stopped working with them.

Confidence
Learn that you can accomplish any project you choose to finish. You’ll find that working makes you see just how much you can do, and how well you adapt. 

Try to learn from every project or bit of work that you do, and figure out how you can do it more effectively the next time. Always take pride in your work.

Finally, always keep in mind that resumes and interviewing are both part of a process that is there to weed out who is disciplined and motivated and who is not in the work world. Your goal should be to learn this process so that you can find a job somewhere where you can feel comfortable, respected, important, and most of all, happy. No matter what the outlook is, or what people might say to you during your job search, always aim high.