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Questions to consider:
• What happens when we make assumptions about others?
• Are microaggressions honest mistakes?
• How do I know if I have a diversity “problem”?
• How important is diversity awareness in the college classroom?
Avoid Making Assumptions
By now you should be aware of the many ways diversity can be both observable and less apparent. Based on surface clues, we may be able to approximate someone’s age, weight, and perhaps their geographical origin, but even with those observable characteristics, we cannot be sure about how individuals define themselves. If we rely too heavily on assumptions, we may be buying into stereotypes, or generalizations.
Stereotyping robs people of their individual identities. If we buy into stereotypes, we project a profile onto someone that probably is not true. Prejudging people without knowing them, better known as prejudice or bias, has consequences for both the person who is biased and the individual or group that is prejudged. In such a scenario, the intimacy of real human connections is lost. Individuals are objectified, meaning that they only serve as symbolic examples of who we assume they are instead of the complex, intersectional individuals we know each person to be.
Stereotyping may be our way of avoiding others’ complexities. When we stereotype, we do not have to remember distinguishing details about a person. We simply write their stories for ourselves and let those stories fulfill who we expect those individuals to be. For example, a hiring manager may project onto an Asian American the stereotype of being good at math, and hire her as a researcher over her Hispanic counterpart. Similarly, an elementary school teacher may recruit an Indian American sixth-grader to the spelling bee team because many Indian American students have won national tournaments in the recent past. A real estate developer may hire a gay man as an interior designer because he has seen so many gay men performing this job on television programs. A coach chooses a white male student to be a quarterback because traditionally, quarterbacks have been white men. In those scenarios, individuals of other backgrounds, with similar abilities, may have been overlooked because they do not fit the stereotype of who others suspect them to be.
Earlier in this chapter, equity and inclusion were discussed as going hand in hand with achieving civility and diversity. In the above scenarios, equity and inclusion are needed as guiding principles for those with decision-making power who are blocking opportunity for nontraditional groups. Equity might be achieved by giving a diverse group of people access to internships to demonstrate their skills. Inclusion might be achieved by assembling a hiring or recruiting committee that might have a better chance of seeing beyond stereotypical expectations.
APPLICATION
Often, our assumptions and their impacts are not life-changing, but they can be damaging to others and limiting to our own understanding. Consider the following scenarios, and answer the questions that follow.
Scenario 1:
During an in-class conversation about a new mission to explore Mars, two classmates offer opinions.
• Student A says, “We should focus on this planet before we focus on others.”
• Student B responds immediately with, “If we’re going to stop climate change, we’ll probably find the answer through science related to space travel.”
What assumption did student B make about student A’s point? What else, aside from climate change, could student A have been considering?
Scenario 2:
For an important group project, an instructor designates teams of six students and gives them time to set up their work schedule for the assignment. One group of students, most of whom don’t know each other well, agrees to meet two nights later. They initially propose to get together in the library, but at the last moment one member suggests an off-campus restaurant; several of the others agree right away and move on to other topics. The remaining two students look at each other uncomfortably. One interjects, suggesting they go back to the original idea of meeting in the library, but the others are already getting up to leave. It’s clear that two of the students are uncomfortable meeting at the restaurant.
What might be the reason that two of the students are not comfortable meeting over dinner? What assumptions did the others make?
Being civil and inclusive does not require a deep-seated knowledge of the backgrounds and perspectives of everyone you meet. That would be impossible. But avoiding assumptions and being considerate will build better relationships and provide a more effective learning experience. It takes openness and self-awareness and sometimes requires help or advice, but learning to be sensitive—practicing assumption avoidance—is like a muscle you can strengthen.
Be Mindful of Microaggressions
Whether we mean to or not, we sometimes offend people by not thinking about what we say and the manner in which we say it. One danger of limiting our social interactions to people who are from our own social group is in being insensitive to people who are not like us. The term microaggression refers to acts of insensitivity that reveal our inherent biases, cultural incompetency, and hostility toward someone outside of our community. Those biases can be toward race, gender, nationality, or any other diversity variable. The individual on the receiving end of a microaggression is reminded of the barriers to complete acceptance and understanding in the relationship. Let’s consider an example.
Ann is new to her office job. Her colleagues are friendly and helpful, and her first two months have been promising. She uncovered a significant oversight in a financial report, and, based on her attention to detail, was put on a team working with a large client. While waiting in line at the cafeteria one day, Ann’s new boss overhears her laughing and talking loudly with some colleagues. He then steps into the conversation, saying, “Ann, this isn’t a night at one of your clubs. Quiet down.” As people from the nearby tables look on, Ann is humiliated and angered.
What was Ann’s manager implying? What could he have meant by referring to “your clubs?” How would you feel if such a comment were openly directed at you? One reaction to this interaction might be to say, “So what? Why let other people determine how you feel? Ignore them.” While that is certainly reasonable, it may ignore the pain and invalidation of the experience. And even if you could simply ignore some of these comments, there is a compounding effect of being frequently, if not constantly, barraged by such experiences.
Consider the table below, which highlights common examples of microaggressions. In many cases, the person speaking these phrases may not mean to be offensive. In fact, in some cases the speaker might think they are being nice. However, appropriate terminology and other attitudes or acceptable descriptions change all the time. Before saying something, consider how a person could take the words differently than you meant them. As we discussed in Chapter 8, emotional intelligence and empathy can help understand another’s perspective.
Table 9.2 Have you made statements like these, perhaps without realizing the offense they might cause? Some of these could be intended as compliments, but they could have the unintended effect of diminishing or invalidating someone. (Credit: Modification of work by Derald Wing Sue1.)
Microaggressions
Category Microaggression Why It’s Offensive
Educational Status or Situation
“You’re an athlete; you don’t need to study.” Stereotypes athletes and ignores their hard work.
“You don’t get financial aid; you must be rich. ”Even an assumption of privilege can be invalidating.
“Did they have honors classes at your high school?” Implies that someone is less prepared or intelligent based on their geography.
Race, Ethnicity, National Origin“
You speak so well for someone like you.” Implies that people of a certain race/ethnicity can’t speak well.
“No, where are you really from?” Calling attention to someone’s national origin makes them feel separate.“
You must be good at _____.” Falsely connects identity to ability.
“My people had it so much worse than yours did.” Makes assumptions and diminishes suffering/difficulty.
“I’m not even going to try your name. It looks too difficult.” Dismisses a person’s culture and heritage.
“It’s so much easier for black people to get into college.” Assumes that merit is not the basis for achievement.
Gender and Gender Identity
“They’re so emotional.” Assumes a person cannot be emotional and rational.
“I guess you can’t meet tonight because you have to take care of your son?” Assumes a parent (of any gender) cannot participate.
“I don’t get all this pronoun stuff, so I’m just gonna call you what I call you.” Diminishes the importance of gender identity; indicates a lack of empathy.
“I can’t even tell you used to be a woman.” Conflates identity with appearance, and assumes a person needs someone else’s validation.
“You’re too good-looking to be so smart.” Connects outward appearance to ability.
Sexual Orientation
“I support you; just don’t throw it in my face.” Denies another person’s right to express their identity or point of view.
“You seem so rugged for a gay guy.” Stereotypes all gay people as being “not rugged,” and could likely offend the recipient.
“I might try being a lesbian.” May imply that sexual orientation is a choice.
“I can’t even keep track of all these new categories.” Bisexual, pansexual, asexual, and other sexual orientations are just as valid and deserving of respect as more binary orientations.
“You can’t just love whomever you want; pick one.”
Age
“Are you going to need help with the software?” May stereotype an older person as lacking experience with the latest technology.
“Young people have it so easy nowadays.” Makes a false comparison between age and experience.
“Okay, boomer.” Dismisses an older generation as out of touch.
Size
“I bet no one messes with you.” Projects a tendency to be aggressive onto a person of large stature.
“You are so cute and tiny.” Condescending to a person of small stature.
“I wish I was thin and perfect like you.” Equates a person’s size with character.
Ability
(To a person using a wheelchair) “I wish I could sit down wherever I went.” Falsely assumes a wheelchair is a luxury; minimizes disabilities.
“You don’t have to complete the whole test. Just do your best.” Assumes that a disability means limited intellectual potential.
“I’m blind without my glasses.” Equating diminished capacity with a true disability.
Everyone Has a Problem: Implicit Bias
One reason we fall prey to stereotypes is our own implicit bias. Jo Handelsman and Natasha Sakraney, who developed science and technology policy during the Obama administration, defined implicit bias.
According to Handelsman and Sakraney, “A lifetime of experience and cultural history shapes people and their judgments of others. Research demonstrates that most people hold unconscious, implicit assumptions that influence their judgments and perceptions of others. Implicit bias manifests in expectations or assumptions about physical or social characteristics dictated by stereotypes that are based on a person’s race, gender, age, or ethnicity. People who intend to be fair, and believe they are egalitarian, apply biases unintentionally. Some behaviors that result from implicit bias manifest in actions, and others are embodied in the absence of action; either can reduce the quality of the workforce and create an unfair and destructive environment.”2
The notion of bias being “implicit,” or unconsciously embedded in our thoughts and actions, is what makes this characteristic hard to recognize and evaluate. You may assume that you hold no racial bias, but messages from our upbringing, social groups, and media can feed us negative racial stereotypes no matter how carefully we select and consume information. Further, online environments have algorithms that reduce our exposure to diverse points of view. Psychologists generally agree that implicit bias affects the judgements we make about others.
Harvard University’s Project Implicit website offers an interactive implicit association test that measures individual preference for characteristics such as weight, skin color, and gender. During the test, participants are asked to match a series of words and images with positive or negative associations. Test results, researchers suggest, can indicate the extent to which there is implicit bias in favor of or against a certain group. Completing a test like this might reveal unconscious feelings you were previously aware you had.
The researchers who developed the test make clear that there are limitations to its validity and that for some, the results of the test can be unsettling. The test makers advise not taking the test if you feel unprepared to receive unexpected results.
APPLICATION
Take the Project Implicit test and write a brief passage about your results.
Do you think the results accurately reflect your attitude toward the group you tested on? Can you point to any actions or thoughts you have about the group you tested on that are or are not reflected in the test results? Will you change any behaviors or try to think differently about the group you tested on based on your results? Why or why not?
Cultural Competency in the College Classroom
We carry our attitudes about gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and other diversity categories with us wherever we go. The college classroom is no different than any other place. Both educators and students maintain their implicit bias and are sometimes made uncomfortable by interacting with people different than themselves. Take for example a female freshman who has attended a school for girls for six years before college. She might find being in the classroom with her new male classmates a culture shock and dismiss male students’ contributions to class discussions. Similarly, a homeschooled student may be surprised to find that no one on campus shares his religion. He may feel isolated in class until he finds other students of similar background and experience. Embedded in your classroom may be peers who are food insecure, undocumented, veterans, atheist, Muslim, or politically liberal or conservative. These identities may not be visible, but they still may separate and even marginalize these members of your community. If, in the context of classroom conversations, their perspectives are overlooked, they may also feel very isolated.
In each case, the students’ assumptions, previous experience with diversity of any kind, and implicit bias surface. How each student reacts to the new situation can differ. One reaction might be to self-segregate, that is, locate people they believe are similar to them based on how they look, the assumption being that those people will share the same academic skills, cultural interests, and personal values that make the student feel comfortable. The English instructor at the beginning of this chapter who assumed all of his students were the same demonstrated how this strategy could backfire.
You do not have to be enrolled in a course related to diversity, such as Asian American literature, to be concerned about diversity in the classroom. Diversity touches all aspects of our lives and can enter a curriculum or discussion at any time because each student and the instructor bring multiple identities and concerns into the classroom. Ignoring these concerns, which often reveal themselves as questions, makes for an unfulfilling educational experience.
In higher education, diversity includes not only the identities we have discussed such as race and gender, but also academic preparation and ability, learning differences, familiarity with technology, part-time status, language, and other factors students bring with them. Of course, the instructor, too, brings diversity into the classroom setting. They decide how to incorporate diverse perspectives into class discussions, maintain rules of civility, choose inclusive materials to study or reference, receive training on giving accommodations to students who need them, and acknowledge their own implicit bias. If they are culturally competent, both students and instructors are juggling many concerns.
How do you navigate diversity in the college classroom?
Academic Freedom Allows for Honest Conversations
Academic freedom applies to the permission instructors and students have to follow a line of intellectual inquiry without the fear of censorship or sanction. There are many heavily contested intellectual and cultural debates that, for some, are not resolved. A student who wants to argue against prevailing opinion has the right to do so based on academic freedom. Many point to a liberal bias on college campuses. Conservative points of view on immigration, education, and even science, are often not accepted on campus as readily as liberal viewpoints. An instructor or student who wants to posit a conservative idea, however, has the right to do so because of academic freedom.
Uncomfortable conversations about diversity are a part of the college classroom landscape. For example, a student might use statistical data to argue that disparities in degrees for men and women in chemistry reflect an advantage in analytical ability for men. While many would disagree with that theory, the student could pursue that topic in a discussion or paper as long as they use evidence and sound, logical reasoning.
“I’m just me.”
Remember the response to the “What are you?” question for people whose racial or gender identity was ambiguous? “I’m just me” also serves those who are undecided about diversity issues or those who do not fall into hard categories such as feminist, liberal, conservative, or religious. Ambiguity sometimes makes others feel uncomfortable. For example, if someone states she is a Catholic feminist unsure about abortion rights, another student may wonder how to compare her own strong pro-life position to her classmate’s uncertainty. It would be much easier to know exactly which side her classmate is on. Some people straddle the fence on big issues, and that is OK. You do not have to fit neatly into one school of thought. Answer your detractors with “I’m just me,” or tell them if you genuinely don’t know enough about an issue or are not ready to take a strong position.
Seek Resources and Projects That Contribute to Civility
A culturally responsive curriculum addresses cultural and ethnic differences of students. Even in classrooms full of minority students, the textbooks and topics may only reflect American cultural norms determined by the mainstream and tradition. Students may not relate to teaching that never makes reference to their socio-economic background, race, or their own way of thinking and expression. Educators widely believe that a culturally responsive curriculum, one that integrates relatable contexts for learning and reinforces cultural norms of the students receiving the information, makes a difference.
The K-12 classroom is different than the college classroom. Because of academic freedom, college instructors are not required to be culturally inclusive. (They are usually required to be respectful and civil, but there are different interpretations of those qualities.) Because American colleges are increasingly more sensitive to issues regarding diversity, faculty are compelled to be inclusive. Still, diversity is not always adequately addressed. In his TED “Talk Can Art Amend History?” the artist Titus Kaphar tells the story of the art history class that influenced him to become an artist and provides an example of this absence of diversity in the college classroom. Kaphar explains that his instructor led his class through important periods and artists throughout history, but failed to spend time on black artists, something that Kaphar was anxiously awaiting. The instructor stated that there was just not enough time to cover it. While the professor probably did not intend to be noninclusive, her choice resulted in just that. Kaphar let his disappointment fuel his passion and mission to amend the representation of black figures in historical paintings. His work brings to light the unnoticed black figures that are too often overlooked.
Any student can respond to a lack of diversity in a curriculum as Titus Kaphar did. Where you find diversity missing, when possible, fill in the gaps with research papers and projects that broaden your exposure to diverse perspectives. Take the time to research contributions in your field by underrepresented groups. Discover the diversity issues relevant to your major. Are women well-represented in your field? Is there equity when it comes to access to opportunities such as internships? Are veterans welcomed? Do the academic societies in your discipline have subgroups or boards focused on diversity and equity? (Most do.) Resources for expanding our understanding and inclusion of diversity issues are all around us.
Directly Confront Prejudice
To draw our attention to possible danger, the Department of Homeland Security has adopted the phrase, “If you see something, say something.” That credo can easily be adopted to confront stereotypes and bias: “If you hear something, say something.” Academic freedom protects students and instructors from reprisal for having unpopular opinions, but prejudice is never correct, nor should it be tolerated. Do not confuse hate speech, such as sexist language, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and acts that reflect those points of view, with academic freedom. Yes, the classroom is a place to discuss these attitudes, but it is not a place to direct those sentiments toward fellow students, educators, or society in general.
Most higher education institutions have mission statements and codes of conduct that warn students about engaging in such behavior. The consequences for violators are usually probation and possibly dismissal. Further policies such as affirmative action and Title IX are instituted to evaluate and maintain racial and gender equity.
APPLICATION
No one knows when a racist or sexist attack is coming. The Barnard Center for Research on Women has created a video suggesting ways to be an ally to people victimized by intolerant behavior.
Affirmative Action and Higher Education
Affirmative action is a policy that began during the John F. Kennedy administration to eliminate discrimination in employment. Since that time, it has expanded as a policy to protect from discrimination in a number of contexts, including higher education. Most notably in higher education, affirmative action has been used to create equity in access. Institutions have used affirmative action as a mandate of sorts in admission policies to create diverse student bodies. Colleges sometimes overlook traditional admissions criteria and use socioeconomic and historical disparities in education equity as criteria to admit underrepresented groups. Affirmative action is a federal requirement to be met by entities that contract with the federal government; most colleges are federal government contractors and must adhere to the policy by stating a timeline by which its affirmative action goals are met.
Many interpret “goals” as quotas, meaning that a certain number of students from underrepresented groups would be admitted, presumably to meet affirmative action requirements. Opposition to affirmative action in college admissions has been pursued in several well-known court cases.
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
This 1978 case resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow race to be used as one of the criteria in higher education admission policies as long as quotas were not established and race was not the only criterion for admission. The case stemmed from Alan Bakke, an applicant to the University of California at Davis Medical School, suing the university because he was not admitted but had higher test scores and grades than minority students who had been accepted. Lawyers for Bakke referenced the same equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment used to desegregate public schools in Brown v. Board of Education. The “reverse discrimination” denied him equal protection under the law.
Fisher v. University of Texas
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court decided another affirmative action case regarding Fisher v. University of Texas. Abigail Fisher also argued that she had been denied college admission based on race. The case ended in favor of the university. Justice Kennedy, in the majority opinion, wrote:
“A university is in large part defined by those intangible “qualities which are incapable of objective measurement but which make for greatness.” Considerable deference is owed to a university in defining those intangible characteristics, like student body diversity, that are central to its identity and educational mission.”
In each of the above landmark cases, affirmative action in college admission policies were upheld. However, cases of reverse discrimination in college admission policies continue to be pursued.
ANALYSIS QUESTION
Examine your college’s code of conduct. You may find it in your student handbook, as part of an office of community standards or engagement, or by simply searching your college site. How does the code of conduct protect academic freedom but guard against hate speech, prejudice, and intolerance?
Title IX and Higher Education
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” As with affirmative action, Title IX applies to institutions that receive federal funding, such as public and charter schools, for-profit schools, libraries, and museums in the United States and its territories.
According to the Office for Civil Rights, educational programs and activities receiving federal funds must operate in a nondiscriminatory manner. Title IX addresses recruitment, admissions, and counseling; financial assistance; athletics; sex-based harassment; treatment of pregnant and parenting students; discipline; single-sex education; and employment.
Before the enactment of Title IX, there were few if any protections provided for women college students. To give some perspective, consider this description of the circumstances:
“Young women were not admitted into many colleges and universities, athletic scholarships for women were rare, and math and science was a realm reserved for boys. Girls square danced instead of playing sports, studied home economics instead of training for 'male-oriented' (read: higher-paying) trades. Girls could become teachers and nurses, but not doctors or principals; women rarely were awarded tenure and even more rarely appointed college presidents. There was no such thing as sexual harassment because 'boys will be boys,' after all, and if a student got pregnant, her formal education ended. Graduate professional schools openly discriminated against women.”3
The protections of Title IX have been invoked in college athletics to ensure women’s athletic programs are sustained. In addition, schools must make efforts to prevent sexual harassment and violence. Gender discrimination under Title IX extends to the protection of transgender students so that they are treated as the gender they identify with.
ANALYSIS QUESTION
Based on the cases against affirmative action in higher education, are admissions policies that use race, along with other factors, as admissions criteria fair? What other options do you think would create equity in admissions?
Footnotes
1. Adapted from Sue, Derald Wing, Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation, Wiley & Sons, 2010
2. Handlesman, Jo and Sakraney, Natasha. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov...4-15_final.pdf.
3. WInslow, Barbara. “The Impact of Title IX.” Gilder-Lerhman Institute. https://faculty.uml.edu/sgallagher/T...derLehrman.pdf | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/09%3A_Understanding_Civility_and_Cultural_Competence/9.03%3A_Navigating_the_Diversity_Landscape.txt |
Questions to consider:
• Is it my fault that I have privilege?
• How long will diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts continue?
• What is to be gained by cultural competency?
Privilege Is Not Just for White People
Privilege is a right or exemption from liability or duty granted as a special benefit or advantage. Oppression is the result of the “use of institutional privilege and power, wherein one person or group benefits at the expense of another,”1 according to the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak Peck School of Social Work.
Just as everyone has implicit bias, everyone has a certain amount of privilege, too. For example, consider the privilege brought by being a certain height. If someone's height is close to the average height, they likely have a privilege of convenience when it comes to many day-to-day activities. A person of average height does not need assistance reaching items on high store shelves and does not need adjustments to their car to reach the brake pedal. There’s nothing wrong with having this privilege, but recognizing it, especially when considering others who do not share it, can be eye-opening and empowering.
Wealthy people have privilege of not having to struggle economically. The wealthy can build retirement savings, can afford to live in the safest of neighborhoods, and can afford to pay out of pocket for their children’s private education. People with a college education and advanced degrees are privileged because a college degree allows for a better choice of employment and earning potential. Their privilege doesn’t erase the hard work and sacrifice necessary to earn those degrees, but the degrees often lead to advantages. And, yes, white people are privileged over racial minorities. Remember Malcolm Gladwell’s explanation of how he was treated when people assumed he was white as opposed to how people treated him when they assumed he was black?
It is no one’s fault that they may have privilege in any given situation. In pursuit of civility, diversity, equity, and inclusion, the goal is to not exploit privilege but to share it. What does that mean? It means that when given an opportunity to hire a new employee or even pick someone for your study group, you make an effort to be inclusive and not dismiss someone who has not had the same academic advantages as you. Perhaps you could mentor a student who might otherwise feel isolated. Sharing your privilege could also mean recognizing when diversity is absent, speaking out on issues others feel intimidated about supporting, and making donations to causes you find worthy.
In pursuit of civility, diversity, equity, and inclusion, the goal is to not exploit privilege but to share it.
When you are culturally competent, you become aware of how your privilege may put others at a disadvantage. With some effort, you can level the playing field without making yourself vulnerable to falling behind.
APPLICATION
Think about a regular activity such as going to a class. In what ways are you privileged in that situation? How can you share your privilege with others?
“Eternal vigilance is the price of civility.”
The original statement reads, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” History sometimes credits that statement to Thomas Jefferson and sometimes to Wendell Holmes. Ironically, no one was paying enough attention to document it accurately. Still, the meaning is clear—if we relax our standards, we may lose everything.
Civility is like liberty; it requires constant attention. We have to adjust diversity awareness, policies, and laws to accommodate the ever-changing needs of society. Without the vigilance of civil rights workers, society could have lapsed back into the Jim Crow era. Without activists such as Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and Flo Kennedy remaining vigilant, women might not have made the gains they did in the 1970s. Constant attention is still needed because in the case of women’s earning power, they only make about 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. Constant vigilance requires passion and persistence. The activism chronologies of Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, students, labor, and other groups is full of stops and starts, twists and turns that represent adjustments to their movements based on the shifting needs of younger generations. As long as there are new generations of these groups, we will need to pursue diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Your Future and Cultural Competency
Where will you be in five years? Will you own your own business? Will you be a stay-at-home parent? Will you be making your way up the corporate ladder of your dream job? Will you be pursuing an advanced degree? Maybe you will have settled into an entry-level job with good benefits and be willing to stay there for a while. Wherever life leads you in the future, you will need to be culturally competent. Your competency will be a valuable skill not only because of the increasing diversity and awareness in America, but also because we live in a world with increasing global connections.
If you do not speak a second language, try to learn one. If you can travel, do so, even if it’s to another state or region of the United States. See how others live in order to understand their experience and yours. To quote Mark Twain, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” The more we expose ourselves to different cultures and experiences, the more understanding and tolerance we tend to have.
The United States is not perfect in its practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Still, compared to much of the world, Americans are privileged on a number of fronts. Not everyone can pursue their dreams as freely as Americans do. Our democratic elections and representative government give us a role in our future.
Understanding diversity and being culturally competent will make for a better future for everyone.
Footnotes
1. Golbach, Jeremy. “A Guide to Discussion Identity, Power, and Priveledge.” https://msw.usc.edu/mswusc-blog/dive...and-privilege/ | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/09%3A_Understanding_Civility_and_Cultural_Competence/9.04%3A_Inclusivity_and_Civility-_What_Role_Can_I_Play.txt |
Understanding diversity, especially in the context of our country’s history, is an important part of being an engaged citizen who can help us to adapt to a changing world. Diversity goes hand in hand with the concepts of equity and inclusion, which increase the chances of equal opportunity and representation. Sometimes creating inclusive communities upsets the social order with which people are familiar. Change can be difficult, and people are passionate. These passions can disrupt communities and communication with uncivil behavior, or people can “fight fair” and use strategies that allow for the smooth exchange of ideas.
Everyone has a personal identity made up of various aspects and experiences—intersectionality. Some elements of identity place people in a diversity category. Some categories are expansive and well understood; others are new and may face scrutiny. Policies and laws have been put in place to protect underrepresented citizens from discrimination. These standards are constantly being challenged to make sure that they allow for the shifting demographics of the United States and shifting values of its citizens.
Cultural competency, which includes our ability to adapt to diversity, is a valuable skill in our communities and workplaces. The more culturally competent we are, the more we can help safeguard diversity and make equitable and inclusive connections on a global scale.
9.06: Career Connection
Keisha went to a temp agency to sign up for part-time work. The person in charge there gave her several tests on office skills. She checked Keisha’s typing speed, her ability to handle phone calls, and her writing skills. Keisha also took a grammar test and a test about how to handle disputes in the office. The tester also had Keisha answer questions about whether it was OK to take home office supplies and other appropriate things to do and not to do.
The tester told Keisha that she scored very well on the evaluations, but she never called Keisha back for a job or even an interview. Keisha knows that she presented herself well, but wonders if she was not called back because she wears her hair in dreadlocks or because she has been told that her name sounds African American?
Reflection questions:
• Can this student say that she was discriminated against?
• What would you do to determine why you were not called back for a job?
• Should Keisha ask about how her name and appearance were received?
9.07: Rethinking
Revisit the questions you answered at the beginning of the chapter, and consider one option you learned in this chapter that might make you rethink how you answered each one. Has this chapter prompted you to consider changing any of your feelings or practices?
Rank the following questions on a scale of 1–4. 1 = “least like me” and 4 = “most like me.”
1. I'm aware of the different categories of diversity and the various populations I may encounter.
2. I think we sometimes go too far in trying to be sensitive to different groups.
3. I think nearly everybody in our society has equal opportunity.
4. It’s not my role to ensure equity and inclusiveness among my peers or colleagues.
9.08: Where do you go from here
This chapter touched on many elements of civility and diversity, and mentioned a wide array of groups, identities, and populations. But the chapter certainly did not explore every concept or reflect every group you may encounter. In a similar way, you can’t know everything about everyone, but you can build cultural competency and understanding to make people feel included and deepen your abilities and relationships.
Sometimes learning about one group or making one person feel comfortable can be as important as addressing a larger population. To that end, consider researching or discussing one of the following topics to increase your level of civility and understanding:
• Appropriate terminology and ways to address members of certain populations. For example, ways to properly describe people with certain disabilities, or discuss issues around racial or gender identity.
• Discussions or debates related to civility and intersectionality, such as whether “Latinx” should be used instead of “Latino/Latina,” or whether certain sports team mascots can be considered offensive.
• Major historical figures or events related to a certain group.
• Academic majors and research centers/groups related to aspects of diversity.
• Historical events at your college or in your city related to civil rights. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/09%3A_Understanding_Civility_and_Cultural_Competence/9.05%3A_Summary.txt |
Thumbnail: www.pexels.com/photo/silver-...-coins-128867/ (CC0 1.0; Pixabay).
10: Understanding Financial literacy
Student Survey
How financially literate are you? This survey will help you determine how the chapter concepts relate to you right now. As we are introduced to new concepts and practices, it can be informative to reflect on how your understanding changes over time. We’ll revisit these questions at the end of the chapter to see whether your feelings have changed. Take this quick survey to figure it out, ranking the statements on a scale of 1–4, 1 meaning “least like me” and 4 meaning “most like me.”
1. I actively and regularly plan and/or monitor my finances.
2. I understand the benefits and risks of credit.
3. I have a plan to repay my student loans.
4. I regularly take steps to protect my identity and assets.
You can also take the Chapter 10 survey anonymously online.
STUDENT PROFILE
“A big part of the college experience for many students is the art of the student loan process. This has been both a painful and challenging experience for me over the course of the first semester. The biggest struggle for me has been simply understanding what everything means and what I’m supposed to do. Another challenge has been determining how exactly I’m going to pay these loans back while also saving for rent, utilities, additional expenses, and a study abroad fund with a part-time job that I don’t even have yet.”
—Hanna Moyster
About This Chapter
In this chapter, you will learn to reach your personal life goals by implementing financial planning and strategies to protect yourself, manage your money today, and put yourself in a better position for tomorrow. How you act today impacts your tomorrow.
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
1. Align your personal and financial goals through smart financial planning.
2. Create a saving and spending plan and track your performance.
3. Plan for emergencies.
4. Identify best practices and risks associated with credit cards and other debt.
5. Determine the best opportunities for you to finance your college education.
6. Articulate specific ways to secure your identity and accounts.
What Would You Do?
Everything was working out for Elan. They got into the college they wanted to, and some friends were planning to attend as well. They felt like an adult, and were looking forward to new freedoms and opportunities. Elan’s parents let them get a credit card after high school graduation. Elan shared an apartment with their friends just off campus, and was able to get where they needed to go because they had a car. Elan had also saved over \$1,000 from gifts and a summer job. They needed a new laptop.
Elan planned to stay within set limits. They went to the store found a very knowledgeable salesperson, Jermain, who said he knew exactly what Elan needed. Jermain pointed out that the laptop in Elan’s budget would do schoolwork just fine, but it was not as powerful as the best top-of-the line unit with advanced gaming features. Plus, the better computer came with new headphones! Jermain suggested that Elan could later sell the computer to incoming students. (Most freshmen bought used computers if they did not have one when they came to school.) The high-powered computer was \$2,000, though, and Elan didn’t have that much money. Maybe they should use the credit card? Maybe their new part-time job would pay for it. But Jermain arranged for a small down payment and monthly payments of only \$100. That did not seem too bad to Elan. The future looked bright!
At least, that’s what Elan thought. They soon realized that working more hours meant fewer hours to study. Meanwhile, Elan’s rent and gas usage went up, and, as a young car owner, their insurance was through the roof. Only three months into the first semester, Elan missed a payment on the laptop and accrued a late fee. They put the next laptop payment on the credit card. Soon, Elan was alternating payments between the credit card, laptop, and car, building up interest and late charges. Now Elan was having trouble paying their rent and started getting calls from creditors. Everything had seemed so promising. Elan didn’t know where they had gone wrong.
Elan comes to you and shares the situation. They ask, “What could I have done differently?”
This chapter offers you insight into your finances so that you can make good decisions and avoid costly mistakes. We all face chances to spend money and try to get what we want. Many think only about now and not next month, next year, or ten years from now, but our behavior now has consequences later. Not everyone can own all the latest technology, drive their dream car, continually invest for their retirement, or live in the perfect home at this moment. But by understanding the different components of earning money, banking, credit, and budgeting, you can begin working toward your personal and financial goals. We’ll also discuss a related topic, safeguarding your accounts and personal information, which is critical to protecting everything you’ve worked for. By the end of this chapter, you will have good insights for Elan . . . and you! | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/10%3A_Understanding_Financial_literacy/10.00%3A_Prelude_to_Understanding_Financial_literacy.txt |
Questions to consider:
• What simple steps do I take to create a financial plan?
• How do I use financial planning in everyday life?
• How is the financial planning process implemented for every purchase?
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
Honestly, practicing money management isn’t that hard to figure out. In many ways it’s similar to playing a video game. The first time you play a game, you may feel awkward or have the lowest score. Playing for a while can make you OK at the game. But if you learn the rules of the game, figure out how to best use each tool in the game, read strategy guides from experts, and practice, you can get really good at it.
Money management is the same. It’s not enough to “figure it out as you go.” If you want to get good at managing your money, you must treat money like you treat your favorite game. You have to come at it with a well-researched plan. Research has shown that people with stronger finances are healthier1 and happier,2 have better marriages,3 and even have better cognitive functioning.4
WHAT STUDENTS SAY
1. What is your top immediate financial priority?
1. Minimizing debt
2. Get a better job
3. Pay for college
4. Move out on my own
5. Get a car
6. Increase my savings or money on hand
2. Which aspect of your finances concerns you the most?
1. The amount of debt I have or will have
2. Getting a job that will pay well enough
3. Being financially independent
4. Supporting my family
5. Planning/saving for the future
3. When considering how to pay for college, which of the following do you know least about?
1. Grants
2. Scholarships
3. Loans
4. Work-study programs
You can also take the anonymous What Students Say surveys to add your voice to this textbook. Your responses will be included in updates.
You can also take the anonymous What Students Say surveys to add your voice to this textbook. Your responses will be included in updates.
Students offered their views on these questions, and the results are displayed in the graphs below.
What is your top immediate financial priority?
Which aspect of your finances concerns you the most?
When considering how to pay for college, which of the following do you know least about?
Financial Planning Process
Personal goals and behaviors have a financial component or consequence. To make the most of your financial resources, you need to do some financial planning. The financial planning process consists of five distinct steps: goal setting, evaluating, planning, implementing, and monitoring. You can read in more depth about SMART goals in chapter 3.
Financial Planning in Five Steps
1. Develop Personal Goals
• What do I want my life to look like?
2. Identify and Evaluate Alternatives for Achieving Goals for My Situation
• What do my savings, debt, income, and expenses look like?
• What creative ways are available to get the life I want?
3. Write My Financial Plan
• What small steps can I take to start working toward my goals?
4. Implement the Plan
• Begin taking those steps, even if I can only do a few small things each week.
5. Monitor and Adjust the Plan
• Make sure I don’t get distracted by life. Keep taking those small steps each week. Make adjustments when needed.
How to Use Financial Planning in Everyday Life
The financial planning process isn’t only about creating one big financial plan. You can also use it to get a better deal when you buy a car or computer or rent an apartment. In fact, anytime you are thinking about spending a lot of money, you can use the financial planning process to pay less and get more.
To explore financial planning in depth, we’ll use the example of buying a car.
1. Develop Goals
First, what do you really need? If you’re looking for a car, you probably need transportation. Before you decide to buy a car, consider alternatives to buying a car. Could you take a bus, walk, or bike instead? Often one goal can impact another goal. Cars are typically not good financial investments. We have cars for convenience and necessity, to earn an income and to enjoy life. Financially, they are an expense. They lose value, or depreciate, rather than increasing in value, like savings. So buying a car may slow your savings or retirement plan goals. Cars continually use up cash for gas, repairs, taxes, parking, and so on. Keep this in mind throughout the planning process.
2. Identify and Evaluate Alternatives for Achieving Goals in Your Current Situation.
For this example, let’s assume that you have determined the best alternative is to buy a car. Do you need a new car? Will your current car last with some upkeep? Consider a used car over a new one. On average, a new car will lose one-fifth of its value during its first year.5 Buying a one-year-old car is like getting a practically new car for a 20 percent discount. So in many cases, the best deal may be to buy a five- or six-year-old car. Sites such as the Kelley Blue Book website (KBB.com) and Edmunds.com can show you depreciation tables for the cars you are considering. Perhaps someone in your family has a car they will sell you at a discount.
Do you know how much it will cost in total to own the car? It will help to check out the total cost of ownership tools (also on KBB.com and Edmunds.com) to estimate how much each car will cost you in maintenance, repairs, gas, and insurance. A cheap car that gets poor gas mileage and breaks down all the time will actually cost you more in the long run.
3. Write Down Your Financial Plan
Table 10.1 Examples of financial plans for a car and a computer.
Goal Item Details Budget Timeline
Transportation/Car
2014 Toyota Camry
Black, A/C, power windows, less than 60,000 miles
Car \$12,000 (max)
Down payment \$3,000
Insurance \$100/mo
Sales tax \$900
+ Licensing \$145
Cash needed \$4,145
Have \$3600 in savings for this.
Save \$50/week.
Purchase in approximately 11 weeks.
Computer
Used or refurbished laptop
Dell w/ Windows, minimum 13", 128G hard drive, HD Graphics
\$300
Use free Windows update from school.
Use free Wi-Fi at school.
Sell current laptop for \$100.
Buy refurbished from Dell site for \$289.
\$189 on credit card.
Pay off when statement comes.
4. Implement Your Plan
Once you’ve narrowed down which car you are looking for, do more online research with resources such as Kelley Blue Book to see what is for sale in your area. You can also begin contacting dealerships and asking them if they have the car you are looking for with the features you want. Ask the dealerships with the car you want to give you their best offer, then compare their price to your researched price. You may have to spend more time looking at other dealerships to compare offers, but one goal of online research is to save time and avoid driving from place to place if possible.
When you do go to buy the car, bring a copy of your written plan into the dealership and stick to it. If a dealership tries to switch you to a more expensive option, just say no, or you can leave to go to another dealership. Remember Elan in our opening scenario? He went shopping alone and caved to the pressure and persuasion of the salesperson. If you feel it is helpful, take a responsible friend or family member with you for support.
5. Monitor and Adjust the Plan to Changing Circumstances and New Life Goals
Life changes, and things wear out. Keep up the recommended maintenance on the car (or any other purchase). Keep saving money for your emergency fund, then for your next car. The worst time to buy a car is when your current car breaks down, because you are easier to take advantage of when you are desperate. When your car starts giving you trouble or your life circumstances start to change, you will be ready to shop smart again.
A good practice is to keep making car payments once the car loan is paid off. If you are paying \$300 per month for a car loan, when the loan is paid off, put \$300 per month into a savings account for a new car instead. Do it long enough and you can buy your next car using your own money!
Use the Financial Planning Process for Everything
The same process can be used to make every major purchase in your life. When you rent an apartment, begin with the same assessment of your current financial situation, what you need in an apartment, and what goals it will impact or fulfill. Then look for an apartment using a written plan to avoid being sold on a more expensive place than you want.
You can even use the process of assessing and planning for small things such as buying textbooks or weekly groceries. While saving a few bucks each week may seem like a small deal, you will gain practice using the financial planning process, so it will become automatic for when you make the big decisions in life. Stick to your plan.
Footnotes
1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...77953613002839
2. https://academic.oup.com/geronj/arti...8/5/626/578092
3. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...9.2012.00715.x and onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...715.x/abstract
4. science.sciencemag.org/conte...41/6149/976%20
5. Krome, Charles. “Car Depreciation.” 2018, Carfax. https://www.carfax.com/blog/car-depreciation | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/10%3A_Understanding_Financial_literacy/10.01%3A_Personal_Financial_Planning.txt |
Questions to consider:
• How is the flow of money best measured?
• How do I keep things balanced?
“Do not save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.”
—Warren Buffett6
What is the best way to get to the Mississippi River from here? Do you know? To answer the question, even with a map app, you would need to know where you are starting from and exactly where on the river you want to arrive before you can map the best route. Our financial lives need maps, too. You need to know where you are now and where you want to end up in order to map a course to meet the goal.
You map your financial path using a spending and savings plan, or budget, which tracks your income, savings, and spending. You check on your progress using a balance sheet that lists your assets, or what you own, and your liabilities, or what you owe. A balance sheet is like a snapshot, a moment in time, that we use to check our progress.
Budgets
The term budget is unpleasant to some people because it just looks like work. But who will care more about your money than you? We all want to know if we have enough money to pay our bills, travel, get an education, buy a car, etc. Technically, a budget is a specific financial plan for a specified time. Budgets have three elements: income, saving and investing, and expenses.
Income
Income most often comes from our jobs in the form of a paper or electronic paycheck. When listing your income for your monthly budget, you should use your net pay, also called your disposable income. It is the only money you can use to pay bills. If you currently have a job, look at the pay stub or statement. You will find gross pay, then some money deducted for a variety of taxes, leaving a smaller amount—your net pay. Sometimes you have the opportunity to have some other, optional deductions taken from your paycheck before you get your net pay. Examples of optional deductions include 401(k) or health insurance payments. You can change these amounts, but you should still use your net pay when considering your budget.
Some individuals receive disability income, social security income, investment income, alimony, child support, and other forms of payment on a regular basis. All of these go under income. During school, you may receive support from family that could be considered income. You may also receive scholarships, grants, or student loan money.
Saving and Investing
The first bill you should pay is to yourself. You owe yourself today and tomorrow. That means you should set aside a certain amount of money for savings and investments, before paying bills and making discretionary, or optional, purchases. Savings can be for an emergency fund or for short-term goals such as education, a wedding, travel, or a car. Investing, such as putting your money into stocks, bonds, or real estate, offers higher returns at a higher risk than money saved in a bank. Investments include retirement accounts that can be automatically funded with money deducted from your paycheck. Automatic payroll deductions are an effective way to save money before you can get your hands on it. Setting saving as a priority assures that you will work to make the payment to yourself as hard as you work to make your car or housing payment. The money you “pay” toward saving or investing will earn you back your money, plus some money earned on your money. Compare this to the cost of buying an item on credit and paying your money plus interest to a creditor. Paying yourself first is a habit that pays off!
Pay yourself first! Put something in savings from every paycheck or gift.
Expenses
Expenses are categorized in two ways. One method separates them into fixed expenses and variable expenses. Rent, insurance costs, and utilities (power, water) are fixed: they cost about the same every month and are predictable based on your arrangement with the provider. Variable expenses, on the other hand, change based on your priorities and available funds; they include groceries, restaurants, cell phone plans, gas, clothing, and so on. You have a good degree of control over your variable expenses. You can begin organizing your expenses by categorizing each one as either fixed or variable.
A second way to categorize expenses is to identify them as either needs or wants. Your needs come first: food, basic clothing, safe housing, medical care, and water. Your wants come afterward, if you can afford them while sticking to a savings plan. Wants may include meals at a restaurant, designer clothes, video games, other forms of entertainment, or a new car. After you identify an item as a need or want, you must exercise self-control to avoid caving to your desire for too many wants.
ACTIVITY
List the last ten purchases you made, and place each of them in the category you think is correct.
Table 10.2
Item Need Expense \$ Want Expense \$
Totals
How do your total “need” expenses compare to your total “want” expenses? Should either of them change?
Budgets are done in a chart or spreadsheet format and often look like the ones below. Pay attention to how the first budget differs from the second.
Table 10.3 This budget balances because all money is accounted for.
Income (use net monthly pay)
Paycheck \$2200
Other \$300
Total Income \$2500
Saving and Investing
Savings Account \$120
Investments \$240
Amount Left for Expenses \$2140
Expenses (Monthly)
Housing \$750
Car Payment/Insurance \$450
Groceries \$400
Restaurants/Food Delivery \$100
Internet \$60
Phone \$60
Medical Insurance and Copays \$120
Gas \$200
Total Expenses \$2140
Balance (Amount left for expenses minus total expenses) \$0
Table 10.4 Note that Restaurants, Phone, and Gas are more expensive in this budget, so the total expenses are more than the amount left for them.
Income (use net monthly pay)
Paycheck \$2200
Other \$300
Total Income \$2500
Saving and Investing
Savings Account \$120
Investments \$240
Amount Left for Expenses \$2140
Expenses (Monthly)
Housing \$750
Car Payment/Insurance \$450
Groceries \$400
Restaurants/Food Delivery \$225
Internet \$60
Phone \$75
Medical Insurance and Copays \$120
Gas \$250
Total Expenses \$2330
Balance (Amount left for expenses minus total expenses) -\$190
Balancing Your Budget
Would you take all your cash outside and throw it up in the air on a windy day? Probably not. We want to hold on to every cent and decide where we want it to go. Our budget allows us to find a place for each dollar. We should not regularly have money left over. If we do, we should consider increasing our saving and investing. We also should not have a negative balance, meaning we don’t have enough to pay our bills. If we are short of money, we can look at all three categories of our budget: income, savings, and expenses.
We could increase our income by taking a second job or working overtime, although this is rarely advisable alongside college coursework. The time commitment quickly becomes overwhelming. Another option is to cut savings, or there’s always the possibility of reducing expenses. Any of these options in combination can work.
Another, even less desirable option is to take on debt to make up the shortfall. This is usually only a short-term solution that makes future months and cash shortages worse as we pay off the debt. When we budget for each successive month, we can look at what we actually spent the month before and make adjustments.
Tracking the Big Picture
When you think about becoming more financially secure, you’re usually considering your net worth, or the total measure of your wealth. Earnings, savings, and investments build up your assets—that is, the valuable things you own. Borrowed money, or debt, increases your liabilities, or what you owe. If you subtract what you owe from what you own, the result is your net worth. Your goal is to own more than you owe.
When people first get out of college and have student debt, they often owe more than they own. But over time and with good financial strategies, they can reverse that situation. You can track information about your assets, liabilities, and net worth on a balance sheet or part of a personal financial statement. This information will be required to get a home loan or other types of loans. For your net worth to grow in a positive direction, you must increase your assets and decrease your liabilities over time.
Assets (Owned) – Liabilities (Owed) = Net Worth
ANALYSIS QUESTION
Can you identify areas in your life where you are losing money by paying fees on your checking account or interest on your loans? What actions could you take to stop giving away money and instead set yourself up to start earning money?
Table 10.5
Good Practices That Build Wealth Bad Practices That Dig a Debt Hole
Tracking all spending and saving Living paycheck to paycheck with no plan
Knowing the difference between needs and wants Spending money on wants instead of saving
Resisting impulse buying and emotional spending Using credit to buy more that you need and increasing what you owe
GET CONNECTED
You can write down your budget on paper or using a computer spreadsheet program such as Excel, or you can find popular budgeting apps that work for you.7 Some apps link to your accounts and offer other services such as tracking credit cards and your credit score. The key is to find an app that does what you need and use it.
Here are some examples:
Footnotes
1. Buffett, Warren. The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America. 1991. Cardozo Law Review.
2. http://www.techtimes.com/articles/80...t-and-more.htm | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/10%3A_Understanding_Financial_literacy/10.02%3A_Savings_Expenses_and_Budgeting.txt |
Questions to consider:
• How do I plan appropriately for a financial emergency?
• What do I need to keep in mind when it comes to the banking system?
Emergency Funds
“Time and unexpected events [affect us] all.”
—King Solomon
Plan on the unplanned happening to you. It happens to all of us: a car repair, a broken computer, an unplanned visit to the doctor, a friend or relative in desperate need, etc. How will you pay for it? A recent study found that over 60 percent of households could not pay cash for a \$400 unexpected expense.8 Could you?
What Is an Emergency Fund?
An emergency fund is a cash reserve that’s specifically set aside for unplanned expenses or financial emergencies9. Some common examples include car repairs, home repairs, medical bills, and a loss of income. In general, emergency savings can be used for large or small unplanned bills or payments that are not part of your routine monthly expenses and spending.
Why Do I Need an Emergency Fund?
Without savings, even a minor financial shock could set you back, and if it turns into debt, it can potentially have a lasting impact.
Research suggests that individuals who struggle to recover from a financial shock have less savings to help protect against a future emergency. They may rely on credit cards or loans, which can lead to debt that’s generally harder to pay off. They may also pull from other savings, such as retirement funds, to cover these costs.
How Much Money Should I Keep in My Emergency Fund?
There is no magic or “official” amount to keep in an emergency fund, but you can look at your own life to get an idea to start with. How much could you put into a bank account to have for emergencies? Some students and their parents will not have a problem paying for most emergencies, but many students are on their own. What can you save up over time? A common recommendation for graduates with full-time jobs is perhaps three to six months’ worth of expenses. This may not be practical for you. A large sampling of students in financial literacy classes recommend approximately \$1,000.
One thousand dollars can cover a lot of small to medium unexpected expenses, such as last-minute textbooks, computer repair or replacement, car repair, or a prescription or doctor’s visit. The emergency fund is best kept separate from other money for living expenses to protect it as emergency money. While you could keep cash, an emergency fund is often best kept in a bank, in order to avoid theft or loss and still have easy access by debit card or ATM. Pizza is not an emergency!
How Do I Create an Emergency Fund?
Emergency funds can be created quickly if you have the money, or over time if you need to save a little from each paycheck, loan, or gift. You can use a financial planning tool similar to the one in section 10.1. Follow these steps:
• Set an emergency fund goal.
• Identify an amount to keep on hand.
• Determine how to fund it, monthly or all at once.
• Decide where you will keep your fund (e.g., a savings account), and set specific dates to deposit money in it.
• Start now!
ANALYSIS QUESTION
How do you feel when you do not have enough money for something? Will you stop spending on some wants while you build up your emergency fund?
Safety and Success: Bank on It!
The banking system in the United States is one of the safest and most regulated banking systems in the world. A host of federal and state agencies regulate financial institutions to keep them from accidentally or purposefully losing customer money.
Banks, Credit Unions, and Online Banking
In the United States, financial institutions (FIs) are divided into multiple types of companies. The banking system is generally divided into banks and credit unions, which have similar offerings and are both regulated and insured by the federal government.
Choosing a Bank or Credit Union
When choosing a bank or credit union, it is important to understand what you are looking for and what benefits each company provides. Generally, large national banks offer the most advanced technology and a large network of branches. There are also smaller community banks that serve specific groups of people and may offer products to meet the specific needs of the community. For example, a community bank that serves Latino customers might make it easier to send money to family in South American countries, while a bank that focuses on small businesses will promote products specifically needed by business owners.
Credit unions differ from banks in that they don’t have a profit motive. Instead, they are not-for-profit organizations that are owned by the people who bank with them. Each member of a credit union gets one vote for the board of directors, which runs the credit union. This means that whether you have \$5 in your account or \$5 million, you get the same vote. Credit unions tend to offer better rates and lower fees, on average, than banks.
There is no single best answer for what bank or credit union you should choose. The most vital question to ask and answer about a financial institution is whether it meets both your current and your future needs. Use figure 10.3 to compare different options and determine the best one for you.
Many banks and credit unions do not publish the interest rates paid on deposit accounts or charged on loans. While some colleges have their own bank or credit union right on campus, you should consider visiting at least one other bank or one credit union to compare. You may also explore at least one online bank, which will publish interest rates on their website. Consider interest rates, access to automated teller machines (ATMs), online transfers, automatic paycheck deposits, branch locations if you will use one, and other services important to you. Since you will select a bank or credit union that is insured, do not feel pressure to use any specific institution.
Table 10.6
Comparison Chart for Choosing a Bank/Credit Union
Item Local Bank Credit Union Online Only Bank
Yes/No/Amount Yes/No/Amount Yes/No/Amount
Checking Accounts
• Monthly Fees
• Methods to Avoid Fees
Savings Accounts
• Interest Percentage
• Monthly Fees
• Methods to Avoid Fees
Loans
• Auto Loans
• Home Loans
• Credit Cards
Nearest Branch Location*
• Near Home?
• Near School or Work?
• Convenient ATMs?
Online Banking Services*
• Transfer Funds between Accounts
• Open New Accounts
• Pay Bills
• Fees
• Budgeting/Daily Transaction Access
Additional Services or Fees
* Branch locations are less important if you use online banking for most banking activity.
Banking Products and Services
Banks and credit unions offer a similar set of financial products or services, called account types. The difference between the account types lies primarily in how easy it is to put money into or take money out of an account. Regulations set maximum numbers of transactions (deposits or withdrawals) for each type of account at a bank or credit union.
How you use these accounts is less about the rules and more about how long you plan to keep the money in the account. The main reason to use a bank is to keep your money safe and available. Banks may offer other services that benefit you, such as certificates of deposit (which allow you to earn higher interest over a longer time), retirement accounts, and car and home loans.
Checking
Checking accounts allow you to deposit money and take money out anytime you want. There are no government limits on the number of transactions, although a bank or credit union might begin to charge you if you make too many transactions. Checking accounts often don’t pay any interest or pay an extremely low rate of interest. They are used to keep money safe and pay bills conveniently.
Checking accounts are ideal for depositing paychecks, cashing paper checks, buying everyday items, and paying your bills. The money you have in your checking account should be money you plan to spend by the end of the month. Any money you don’t plan to spend within a month should be transferred from your checking account to a savings account. Your savings account should be the first bill that you pay each month. You can still add extra at the end of the month!
Savings Accounts
Savings accounts allow you a specific number of transactions each month or each quarter. If you go over the maximum number of transactions, the bank won’t let you take any more money out or put any more money into the account until the next month. Savings accounts pay a small amount of interest on your money, but usually not enough to keep up with inflation or overcome banking fees (see below).
This actually causes your savings to go backwards. If you earn 2 percent on a savings account but inflation is 3 percent per year, you are losing 1 percent of purchasing power each year. For this reason, money in a savings account should be money you plan to spend within the next 12–48 months. The only exception to this is money you have saved for an emergency, called an emergency fund. Since you never know when an emergency (such as losing your job) is going to happen, you want the money to be available to you in a savings account.
Debit Cards
When you get a checking account, you’ll also get a debit card, or check card. This card allows you to access the money in your checking account (and savings account at an ATM) using a plastic card similar to a credit card. But it is not a credit card.
A debit card only uses money available in your account. Paying with a debit card is like paying with a paper check, but more immediate and convenient. You will have the option of selecting overdraft protection, which means the bank or credit union will allow you to buy stuff even if you don’t have enough money in your account; they’ll just charge you a fee, perhaps \$25, for each event. This can be compared to a high-interest loan. Depending on how many things you buy in a week, overdraft protection could add many fees to your statement and use up your cash so it will not be available for your planned expenses. Consider opting out of overdraft protection and carefully keeping track of your account balance. This way you can only spend the money that you have.
Be aware that by using your debit card at an ATM associated with a different bank, you can incur fees—sometimes from both banks!
Debit cards offer a lot of security benefits over carrying around cash, including the ability to cancel a lost or stolen debit card. While the legal protections on debit cards are not as great as the legal protections on credit cards, you can’t go into debt using a debit card. This inability to go into significant debt is a major advantage for those who struggle with debt.
Banking Fees
Banks and credit unions charge fees to operate. Many charge fees for a checking or savings account, overdrafts, and other services. You should seek to avoid fees for which you receive no extra services or when you can get similar services elsewhere for free. Two areas that are most subject to fees are services and “triggered” events. Triggered events are primarily caused by actions such as overdrawing your account (an overdraft). Overdraft fees are avoidable. The best way to avoid an overdraft fee is to continually monitor your bank balance and only spend money that you have.
Standard bank fees can often be avoided by taking one or more measures as specified by the bank, such as maintaining a minimum balance or using direct deposit. Avoid getting paid on a payroll or prepaid card unless you know all related costs or have a reason to want to be paid in that manner. Payroll cards often lead to ATM and banking fees, so federal law requires employers to offer you an alternative.10 Ask at your financial institution for assistance in setting up an account or accounts that are best for you.
Online and Mobile Banking
There are other important banking tools you should also consider. Online and mobile banking are among the most important activities in banking. You should list all the things you might want to do regularly with your bank accounts and make sure you can do them through the bank’s website and app. This might include making payments on loans, transferring money between your checking and savings accounts, paying bills through automated bill pay, and creating new savings accounts.
Learn the rules of your account, and keep track of how you use it. This can help you keep costs down and develop a positive banking relationship.
Earning Interest and Compound Interest
Interest refers to money paid for the privilege of borrowing money. When banks use our money for their investments, they pay us interest. (Remember, our bank accounts are insured, so you can’t lose your money even when the banks use it.) When you take out a loan using the bank’s money, you pay the bank interest.
Compound interest means that you earn interest on the money that you deposit, called the principal, first. After that, you earn money on your money plus all the interest that has been paid to your account. Your earnings are reinvested. Interest on interest! You are being paid on the basis of other people’s money—the interest that they paid you. Over time, this compound interest results in more and more money in your account. The same principle holds true for investing. Banks sometimes have investment services that pay higher interest but include risk to your money, which you typically access after completing your degree or certificate and obtaining full-time work. If you are employed full time and have access to investment, perhaps in a company-sponsored retirement account, see a brief section below on Investing and Buying Power.
Consider the example below, and notice that the amount of interest paid each year is larger than the year before. That is compound interest. The only money deposited by the account owner was the first \$2,000.
Table 10.7
Year Starting Deposit or Beginning Amount from End of Last Year Annual Interest Rate
Interest Paid over Period (1 year)
(Interest x Beginning Amount)
Total at End of Year / Beginning Amount for Next Year
1 \$2,000.00 6% \$120 \$2,120.00
2 \$2,120.00 6% \$127.20 \$2,247.20
3 \$2,247.20 6% \$134.83 \$2,382.03
4 \$2,382.03 6% \$142.92 \$2,524.95
In this example, at the end of four years, the account owner has put in \$2,000 and has added \$524.95 of other people’s money in earned interest! You can use online financial calculators to try scenarios for saving, buying a car or home, and even building a retirement account. One source is bankrate.com. Look under Calculators. Do not pursue marketing efforts on the sites suggested or used for examples in this chapter. Stick to the tools used.
ANALYSIS QUESTION
What happens to the amount of compound interest when you save for a longer time? When should you start saving?
Footnotes
1. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. “Report on the Economic Wellbeing of US Households, 2018” https://www.federalreserve.gov/publi...d-expenses.htm
2. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “An Essential Guide to Building an Emergency Fund.” https://www.consumerfinance.gov/star...ent=FY20_Jan_P
3. Dratch, Dana. “It pays to know these five things about payroll cards.” Credit Cards.com. https://www.creditcards.com/credit-c...loyer-1271.php | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/10%3A_Understanding_Financial_literacy/10.03%3A_Banking_and_Emergency_Funds.txt |
Questions to consider:
• What do I need to know about student loans?
• How dangerous is debt?
• What should I think about when getting and using a credit card?
Yes, taking on too much debt can (and does) have disastrous effects on people’s personal finances, but if used appropriately, debt can be a tool to help you build wealth. Debt is like fire. You can use it to keep yourself warm, cook food, and ward off animals—but if you don’t know how to control it, it’ll burn your house down.
The Danger of Debt
When you take out a loan, you take on an obligation to pay the money back, with interest, through a monthly payment. You will take this debt with you when you apply for auto loans or home loans, when you enter into a marriage, and so on. Effectively, you have committed your future income to the loan. While this can be a good idea with student loans, take on too many loans and your future self will be poor, no matter how much money you make. Worse, you’ll be transferring more and more of your money to the bank through interest payments.
Compounding Interest
While compounding works to make you money when you are earning interest on savings or investments, it works against you when you are paying the interest on loans. To avoid compounding interest on loans, make sure your payments are at least enough to cover the interest charged each month. The good news is that the interest you are charged will be listed each month on the loan account statements you are sent by the bank or credit union, and fully amortized loans will always cover the interest costs plus enough principal to pay off what you owe by the end of the loan term.
The two most common loans on which people get stuck paying compounding interest are credit cards and student loans. Paying the minimum payment each month on a credit card will just barely cover the interest charged that month, while anything you buy with the credit card will begin to accrue interest on the day you make the purchase. Since credit cards charge interest daily, you’ll begin paying interest on the interest immediately, starting the compound interest snowball working against you. When you get a credit card, always pay the credit card balance down to \$0 each month to avoid the compound interest trap.
Student loans are another way you can be caught in the compound interest trap. When you have an unsubsidized student loan or put your loans into deferment, the interest continues to rack up on the loans. Again, you’ll be charged interest on the interest, not just on the original loan amount, forcing you to pay compound interest on the loan.
Sacrificing Your Future Fun
When you graduate college, you are most likely to graduate with student loan debt and credit card debt.11 Many students use credit cards and student loans to allow them to pay for fun today, such as trips, clothing, and expensive meals.
Getting into debt while in college forces you to sacrifice your future fun. Say you take out \$100,000 in student loans instead of the \$50,000 you need, doubling your monthly payment. You are not just making an extra \$338 payment; you are also sacrificing anything else you can do with that money. You sacrifice that extra \$338 a month, every month, for the next twenty-five years. You can’t use it to go to the movies, pay down other debt, save for a home, take a vacation, or throw a party. When you sign those papers, you sacrifice all those opportunities every month for decades. As a result, when you take out a loan, you should make sure it’s a good loan.
How Much Good Debt to Take On
A drink of water is refreshing on a hot day and is required to stay alive. Too much water, however, and you will drown.
During college and for the first few years after graduation, most students should only have two loans: student loans and possibly a car loan. We’ve already discussed your student loans, which should be equal to or less than your first year’s expected salary after graduation.
When you get a car, you should keep your car payment to between 10 and 20 percent of your monthly take-home pay. This means if your paycheck is \$200 per week, your car payment should be no more than \$80–\$160 each month.
In total, you want your debt payments (plus rent if you are renting) to be no more than 44 percent of your take-home pay. If you are planning to build wealth, however, you want to cap it at 30 percent of take-home pay.
Signs You Have Too Much Debt
You can consider yourself in too much debt if you have any of the following situations:
• You cannot make your minimum credit card payments.
• Your money is gone before your next paycheck.
• Bill collectors are contacting you.
• You are unable to get a loan.
• Your paycheck is being garnished by creditor.
• You are considering a debt consolidation loan with extra fees added.
• Your items are repossessed.
• You do not know your debt or financial situation.
Getting and Using a Credit Card
One of the most controversial aspects of personal finance is the use of credit cards. While credit cards can be an incredibly useful tool, their high interest rates, combined with the how easily credit cards can bury you in debt, make them extremely dangerous if not managed correctly.
Reflect on Elan from the chapter introduction and how he felt. How would you (or did you) feel to hold a new credit card with a \$2,000 spending limit?
Benefits of a Credit Card
There are three main benefits of getting a credit card. The first is that credit cards offer a secure and convenient method of making purchases, similar to using a debit card. When you carry cash, you have the potential of having the money lost or stolen. A credit card or debit card, on the other hand, can be canceled and replaced at no cost to you.
Additionally, credit cards offer greater consumer protections than debit cards do. These consumer protections are written into law, and with credit cards you have a maximum liability of \$50. With a debit card, you are responsible for transfers made up until the point you report the card stolen. In order to have the same protections as with credit cards, you need to report the card lost or stolen within 48 hours. The longer you wait to report the loss of the card, or the longer it takes you to realize you lost your card, the more money you may be responsible for, up to an unlimited amount.12
The final benefit is that a credit card will allow you to build your credit score, which is helpful in many aspects of life. While most people associate a credit score with getting better rates on loans, credit scores are also important to getting a job, lowering car insurance rates, and finding an apartment.13
What Is a Good Credit Score?
Most credit scores have a 300–850 score range. The higher the score, the lower the risk to lenders. A “good” credit score is considered to be in the 670–739 score range.
Table 10.8
Credit Score Ranges Rating Description
< 580 Poor This credit score is well below the average score of US consumers and demonstrates to lenders that the borrower may be a risk.
580-669 Fair This credit score is below the average score of US consumers, though many lenders will approve loans with this score.
670-739 Good This credit score is near or slightly above the average of US consumers, and most lenders consider this a good score.
740-799 Very Good This credit score is above the average of US consumers and demonstrates to lenders that the borrower is very dependable.
800+ Exceptional This credit score is well above the average score of US consumers and clearly demonstrates to lenders that the borrower is an exceptionally low risk.
Components of a Credit Score and How to Improve Your Credit
Credit scores contain a total of five components. These components are credit payment history (35 percent), credit utilization (30 percent), length of credit history (15 percent), new credit (10 percent), and credit mix (10 percent). The main action you can take to improve your credit score is to stop charging and pay all bills on time. Even if you cannot pay the full amount of the credit card balance, which is the best practice, pay the minimum on time. Paying more is better for your debt load but does not improve your score. Carrying a balance on a credit card does not improve your score. Your score will go down if you pay bills late and owe more than 30 percent of your credit available. Your credit score is a reflection of your willingness and ability to do what you say you will do—pay your debts on time.
How to Use a Credit Card
All the benefits of credit cards are destroyed if you carry credit card debt. Credit cards should be used as a method of paying for things you can afford, meaning you should only use a credit card if the money is already sitting in your bank account and is budgeted for the item you are buying. If you use credit cards as a loan, you are losing the game.
Every month, you should pay your credit card off in full, meaning you will be bringing the loan amount down to \$0. If your statement says you charged \$432.56 that month, make sure you can pay off all \$432.56. If you do this, you won’t pay any interest on the credit card.
But what happens if you don’t pay it off in full? If you are even one cent short on the payment, meaning you pay \$432.55 instead, you must pay daily interest on the entire amount from the date you made the purchases. Your credit card company, of course, will be perfectly happy for you to make smaller payments—that’s how they make money. It is not uncommon for people to pay twice as much as the amount purchased and take years to pay off a credit card when they only pay the minimum payment each month.
What to Look for in Your Initial Credit Card
1. Find a Low-Rate Credit Card
Even though you plan to never pay interest, mistakes will happen, and you don’t want to be paying high interest while you fix a misstep. Start by narrowing the hundreds of card options to the few with the lowest APR (annual percentage rate).
2. Avoid Cards with Annual Fees or Minimum Usage Requirements
Your first credit card should ideally be one you can keep forever, but that’s expensive to do if they charge you an annual fee or have other requirements just for having the card. There are many options that won’t require you to spend a minimum amount each month and won’t charge you an annual fee.
3. Keep the Credit Limit Equal to Two Weeks’ Take-Home Pay
Even though you want to pay your credit card off in full, most people will max out their credit cards once or twice while they are building their good financial habits. If this happens to you, having a small credit limit makes that mistake a small mistake instead of a \$5,000 mistake.
4. Avoid Rewards Cards
Everyone loves to talk about rewards cards, but credit card companies wouldn’t offer rewards if they didn’t earn them a profit. Rewards systems with credit cards are designed by experts to get you to spend more money and pay more interest than you otherwise would. Until you build a strong habit of paying off your card in full each month, don’t step into their trap.
Footnotes
1. Debt.org. “Demographics of Debt.” https://www.debt.org/faqs/americans-.../demographics/
2. Federal Trade Commission. “Lost Or Stolen Credit, ATM, and Debit Cards.” 2012.
3. Purposeful Finance. “Four Surprising Ways Your Credit Score Will Affect Your Life.” https://www.purposefulfinance.org/ho...fect-your-life | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/10%3A_Understanding_Financial_literacy/10.04%3A_Credit_Cards_and_Other_Debt.txt |
Questions to consider:
• What choices should you consider when taking on student debt?
• How do you match debt to postgraduate income?
• What types of financial aid are available?
• How do you apply for financial aid?
• What are the best repayment strategies?
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
—Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth: Ben Franklin on Money and Success
As you progress through your college experience, the cost of college can add up rapidly. Worse, your anxiety about the cost of college may rise faster as you hear about the rising costs of college and horror stories regarding the “student loan crisis.” It is important to remember that you are in control of your choices and the cost of your college experience, and you do not have to be a sad statistic.
Education Choices
Education is vital to living. Education starts at the beginning of our life, and as we grow, we learn language, sharing, and to look both ways before crossing the street. We also generally pursue a secular or public education that often ends at high school graduation. After that, we have many choices, including getting a job and stopping our education, working at a trade or business started by our parents and bypassing additional schooling, earning a certificate from a community college or four-year college or university, earning a two-year or associate degree from one of the same schools, and completing a bachelor’s or advanced degree at a college or university. We can choose to attend a public or private school. We can live at home or on a campus.
Each of these choices impacts our debt, happiness, and earning power. The average income goes up with an increase in education, but that is not an absolute rule. The New York Federal Reserve Bank reported in 2017 that approximately 34 percent of college graduates worked in a job that did not require a college degree,14 and in 2013, CNN Money reported on a study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce showing that nearly 30 percent of Americans with two-year degrees are now earning more than graduates with bachelor’s degrees.15 Of course, many well-paying occupations do require a bachelor’s or master’s degree. You have started on a path that may be perfect for you, but you may also choose to make adjustments.
College success from a financial perspective means that you must:
• Know the total cost of the education
• Consider job market trends
• Work hard at school during the education
• Pursue ways to reduce costs
Most importantly: Buy only the amount of education that returns more than you invest.
According to US News & World Report, the average cost of college (including university) tuition and fees varies widely. In-state colleges average \$9,716 while out-of-state students pay \$21,629 for the same state college. Private colleges average \$35,676. The local community college averages approximately \$3,726. On-campus housing and meals, if available, can add approximately \$10,000 per year.16 See the table below, and create your own chart after you research.
Table 10.9
Sample College Costs
Type of School Annual Tuition without Housing Tuition If Living on Campus Total Cost at Planned Completion
Community College (2 yr.) \$3,726 Live at Home \$7,452
Public University, In State (4 yr.) \$9,716 Live at Home \$38,864
Public University, In State (4 yr.) \$19,716 \$78,864
Public University, Out of State (4 yr.) \$21,629 \$31,629 \$126,516
Private College (4 yr.) \$35,676 \$45,676 \$182,704
You may need to adjust your college plan as circumstances change for you and in the job market. You can modify plans based on funding opportunities available to you (see next sections) and your location. You may prefer a community-college-only education, or you may complete two years at a community college and then transfer to a university to complete a bachelor’s degree. Living at home for the first two years or all of your college education will save a lot of money if your circumstances allow. Be creative!
Key to Success: Matching Student Debt to Postgraduation Income
Students and parents often ask, “How much debt should I have?” The problem is that the correct answer depends on your personal situation. A big-firm attorney in a major city might make \$120,000 in their first year as a lawyer. Having \$100,00 or even \$200,000 in student debt in this situation may be reasonable. But a high school teacher making \$40,000 in their first year would never be able to pay off the debt.
The amount of debt you take on should be tied to the income you expect.
Research Your Starting Salary
Begin by researching your expected starting salary when you graduate. Most students expect to make significantly more than they will actually make.17 As a result, your salary expectations are likely much higher than reality. Ask professors at your college what is typical for a recent graduate in your field, or do informational interviews with human resource managers at local companies. Explore the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook. PayScale also has a handy tool for getting general information based on your personal experience and location. Search websites and talk to employees of companies that interest you for future employment to identify real starting salaries.
Undergraduate Degree: 1 x Annual Salary
For students working toward a bachelor’s or associate degree, both forms of undergraduate degrees, you should try to keep your student loans equal to or less than your expected first year’s salary. So if, based on research, you expect to make \$40,000 in your first year out of college, then \$33,000 in student loans would be a reasonable amount for you to pay out of a monthly budget with some sacrifice.
Advanced Degrees: 1–2 x Annual Salary
Once you’ve graduated with your bachelor’s degree, you may want to get an advanced degree such as a master’s degree, a law degree, a medical degree, or a doctorate. While these degrees can greatly increase your income, you still need to match your student debt to your expected income. Advanced degrees can often double your expected annual salary, meaning your total debt for all your degrees should be equal to or less than twice your expected first job income. A lower number for the debt portion of your education would be more manageable.
Your goal should be to pay for college using multiple methods so your student loan debt can be as small as possible, rather than just making low monthly payments on a large loan that will lead to a higher overall cost.
Types of Financial Aid: How to Pay for College
The true cost of college may be more than you expected, but you can make an effort to make the cost less than many might think. While the price tag for a school might say \$40,000, the net cost of college may be significantly less. The net price for a college is the true cost a family will pay when grants, scholarships, and education tax benefits are factored in. The net cost for the average family at a public in-state school is only \$3,980. And for a private school, free financial aid money reduces the cost to the average family from \$32,410 per year to just \$14,890.
If you haven’t visited your college’s financial aid office recently, it’s probably worth it to talk with them. You must seek out opportunities, complete paperwork, and learn and meet criteria, but it can save you thousands of dollars.
Table 10.10
Type of College Average Published Yearly Tuition and Fees
Public Two-Year College (in-district students) \$3,440
Public Four-Year College (in-state students) \$9,410
Public Two-Year College (out-of-state students) \$23,890
Private Four-Year College \$32,410
Grants and Scholarships
Grants and scholarships are free money you can use to pay for college. Unlike loans, you never have to pay back a grant or a scholarship. All you have to do is go to school. And you don’t have to be a straight-A student to get grants and scholarships. There is so much free money, in fact, that billions of dollars go unclaimed every year.18
While some grants and scholarships are based on a student’s academic record, many are given to average students based on their major, ethnic background, gender, religion, or other factors. There are likely dozens or hundreds of scholarships and grants available to you personally if you look for them.
Federal Grants
Federal Pell Grants are awarded to students based on financial need, although there is no income or wealth limit on the grant program. The Pell Grant can give you more than \$6,000 per year in free money toward tuition, fees, and living expenses.19 If you qualify for a Pell Grant based on your financial need, you will automatically get the money.
Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs) are additional free money available to students with financial need. Through the FSEOG program, you can receive up to an additional \$4,000 in free money. These grants are distributed through your school’s financial aid department on a first-come, first-served basis, so pay close attention to deadlines.
Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grants are designed to help students who plan to go into the teaching profession. You can receive up to \$4,000 per year through the TEACH Grant. To be eligible for a TEACH Grant, you must take specific classes and majors and must hold a qualifying teaching job for at least four years after graduation. If you do not fulfill these obligations, your TEACH Grant will be converted to a loan, which you will have to pay back with both interest and back interest.
There are numerous other grants available through individual states, employers, colleges, and private organizations.
State Grants
Most states also have grant programs for their residents, often based on financial need. Eleven states have even implemented free college tuition programs for residents who plan to continue to live in the state. Even some medical schools are beginning to be tuition free. Check your school’s financial aid office and your state’s department of education for details.
College/University Grants and Scholarships
Most colleges and universities have their own scholarships and grants. These are distributed through a wide variety of sources, including the school’s financial aid office, the school’s endowment fund, individual departments, and clubs on campus.
Private Organization Grants and Scholarships
A wide variety of grants and scholarships and are awarded by foundations, civic groups, companies, religious groups, professional organizations, and charities. Most are small awards under \$4,000, but multiple awards can add up to large amounts of money each year. Your financial aid office can help you find these opportunities.
Employer Grants and Scholarships
Many employers also offer free money to help employees go to school. A common work benefit is a tuition reimbursement program, where employers will pay students extra money to cover the cost of tuition once they’ve earned a passing grade in a college class. And some companies are going even further, offering to pay 100 percent of college costs for employees. Check to see whether your employer offers any kind of educational support.
Additional Federal Support
The federal government offers a handful of additional options for college students to find financial support.
Education Tax Credits
The IRS gives out free money to students and their parents through two tax credits, although you will have to choose between them. The American opportunity tax credit (AOTC) will refund up to \$2,500 of qualifying education expenses per eligible student, while the lifetime learning credit (LLC) refunds up to \$2,000 per year regardless of the number of qualifying students.
While the AOTC may be a better tax credit to choose for some, it can only be claimed for four years for each student, and it has other limitations. The LLC has fewer limitations, and there is no limit on the number of years you can claim it. Lifetime learners and nontraditional students may consider the LLC a better choice. Calculate the benefits for your situation.
The IRS warns taxpayers to be careful when claiming the credits. There are potential penalties for incorrectly claiming the credits, and you or your family should consult a tax professional or financial adviser when claiming these credits.
Federal Work-Study Program
The Federal Work-Study Program provides part-time jobs through colleges and universities to students who are enrolled in the school. The program offers students the opportunity to work in their field, for their school, or for a nonprofit or civic organization to help pay for the cost of college. If your school participates in the program, it will be offered through your school’s financial aid office.
Student Loans
Federal student loans are offered through the US Department of Education and are designed to give easy and inexpensive access to loans for school. You don’t have to make payments on the loans while you are in school, and the interest on the loans is tax deductible for most people. Direct Loans, also called Federal Stafford Loans, have a competitive fixed interest rate and don’t require a credit check or cosigner.
Direct Subsidized Loans
Direct Subsidized Loans are federal student loans on which the government pays the interest while you are in school. Direct Subsidized Loans are made based on financial need as calculated from the information you provide in your application. Qualifying students can get up to \$3,500 in subsidized loans in their first year, \$4,500 in their second year, and \$5,500 in later years of their college education.
Direct Unsubsidized Loans
Direct Unsubsidized Loans are federal loans on which you are charged interest while you are in school. If you don’t make interest payments while in school, the interest will be added to the loan amount each year and will result in a larger student loan balance when you graduate. The amount you can borrow each year depends on numerous factors, with a maximum of \$12,500 annually for undergraduates and \$20,500 annually for professional or graduate students.
There are also aggregate loan limits that apply to put a maximum cap on the total amount you can borrow for student loans.
Direct PLUS Loans
Direct PLUS Loans are additional loans a parent, grandparent, or graduate student can take out to help pay for additional costs of college. PLUS loans require a credit check and have higher interest rates, but the interest is still tax deductible. The maximum PLUS loan you can receive is the remaining cost of attending the school.
Parents and other family members should be careful when taking out PLUS loans on behalf of a child. Whoever is on the loan is responsible for the loan forever, and the loan generally cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy. The government can also take Social Security benefits should the loan not be repaid.
Private Loans
Private loans are also available for students who need them from banks, credit unions, private investors, and even predatory lenders. But with all the other resources for paying for college, a private loan is generally unnecessary and unwise. Private loans will require a credit check and potentially a cosigner, they will likely have higher interest rates, and the interest is not tax deductible. As a general rule, you should be wary of private student loans or avoid them altogether.
Repayment Strategies
Payments on student loans will begin shortly after you graduate. While many websites, financial “gurus,” and talking heads in the media will encourage you to pay off your student loans as quickly as possible, you should give careful consideration to your repayment options and how they may impact your financial plans. Quickly paying off your student loans or refinancing your student loans into a private loan may be the worst option available to you.
Payment Plans
The federal government has eight separate loan repayment programs, each with their own way of calculating the payment you owe. Five of the programs tie loan payments to your income, which can make it easier to afford your student loans when you are just starting off in your career. The programs are described briefly below, but you should seek the help of a licensed fiduciary financial adviser familiar with student loans when making decisions related to student loan payment plans.
The standard repayment plan sets a consistent monthly payment to pay off your loan within 10 years (or up to 30 years for consolidated loans). You can also choose a graduated repayment plan, which will begin with lower payments and then increase the payment every two years. The graduated plan is also designed to pay off your student loans in 10 years (or up to 30 years for consolidated loans). A third option is the extended repayment plan, which provides a fixed or graduated payment for up to 25 years. However, none of these programs are ideal for individuals planning to seek loan forgiveness options, which are discussed below.
Beyond the “normal” repayment options, the government offers five income-based repayment options: (1) the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) repayment plan, (2) the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) repayment plan, (3) the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan, (4) the Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) plan, and (5) the Income-Sensitive Repayment (ISR) plan. Each program has its method of calculating payments, along with specific requirements for eligibility and rules for staying eligible in the program. Many income-based repayment plans are also eligible for loan forgiveness after a set period of time, assuming you follow all the rules and remain eligible.
Loan Forgiveness Programs
Many income-based repayment options also have a loan forgiveness feature built into the repayment plan. If you make 100 percent of your payments on time and follow all the other plan rules, any remaining loan balance at the end of the plan repayment term (typically 20 to 30 years) will be forgiven. This means you will not have to pay the remainder on your student loans.
This loan forgiveness, however, comes with a catch: taxes. Any forgiven balance will be counted and taxed as income during that year. So if you have a \$100,000 loan forgiven, you could be looking at an additional \$20,000 tax bill that year (assuming you were in the 20 percent marginal tax rate).
Another option is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program for students who go on to work for a nonprofit or government organization. If eligible, you can have your loans forgiven after working for 10 years in a qualifying public service job and making 120 on-time payments on your loans. A major advantage of PSLF is that the loan forgiveness may not be taxed as income in the year the loan is forgiven.
Consider Professional Advice
The complexity of the payment and forgiveness programs makes it difficult for nonexperts to choose the best strategy to minimize costs. Additionally, the strict rules and potential tax implications create a minefield of potential financial problems. In 2017, the first year graduates were eligible for the PSLF program, 99 percent of applicants were denied due to misunderstanding the programs or having broken one of the many requirements for eligibility.20
Your Rights as a Loan Recipient
As a recipient of a federal student loan, you have the same rights and protections as you would for any other loan. This includes the right to know the terms and conditions for any loan before signing the paperwork. You also have the right to know information on your credit report and to dispute any loan or information on your credit file.
If you end up in collections, you also have several rights, even though you have missed loan payments. Debt collectors can only call you between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. They also cannot harass you, threaten you, or call you at work once you’ve told them to stop. The United States doesn’t have debtors’ prisons, so anyone threatening you with arrest or jail time is automatically breaking the law.
Federal student loans also come with many other rights, including the right to put your loan in deferment or forbearance (pushing pause on making payments) under qualifying circumstances. Deferment or forbearance can be granted if you lose your job, go back to school, or have an economic hardship. If you have a life event that makes it difficult to make your payments, immediately contact the student loan servicing company on your loan statements to see if you can pause your student loan payments.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has created a series of sample letters you can use to respond to a debt collector. You can also file a complaint with the CFPB if you believe your rights have been violated.
Applying for Financial Aid, FAFSA, and Everything Else
Take this first step—you will need to do it. The federal government offers a standard form called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which qualifies you for federal financial aid and also opens the door for nearly all other financial aid. Most grants and scholarships require you to fill out the FAFSA, and they base their decisions on the information in the application.
The FAFSA only requests financial aid for the specific year you file your application. This means you will need to file a FAFSA for each year you are in college. Since your financial needs will change over time, you may qualify for financial aid even if you did not qualify before.
You can apply for the FAFSA through your college’s financial aid office or at studentaid.gov if you don’t have access to a financial aid office. Once you file a FAFSA, any college can gain access to the information (with your approval), so you can shop around for financial aid offers from colleges.
Maintaining Financial Aid
To maintain your financial aid throughout your college, you need to make sure you meet the eligibility requirements for each year you are in school, not just the year of your initial application. The basic requirements include being a US citizen or eligible noncitizen, having a valid Social Security number, and registering for selective service if required. Undocumented residents may receive financial aid as well and should check with their school’s financial aid office.
You also must make satisfactory academic progress, including meeting a minimum grade-point average, taking and completing a minimum number of classes, and making progress toward graduation or a certificate. Your school will have a policy for satisfactory academic progress, which you can get from the financial aid office.
What to Do with Extra Financial Aid Money
One expensive mistake that students make with financial aid money is spending the money on noneducation expenses. Students often use financial aid, including student loans, to purchase clothing, take vacations, or dine out at restaurants. Nearly 3 percent spend student loan money on alcohol and drugs.21 While this seems like fun now, these noneducation expenses are major contributors to student loan debt, which will make it harder for you to afford a home, take vacations, or save for your retirement after you graduate.
When you have extra student loan money, consider saving it for future education expenses. Just like you will need an emergency fund all your adult life, you will want an emergency fund for college when expensive books or travel abroad programs present unexpected costs. If you make it through your college years with extra money in your savings, you can use the money to help pay down debt.
ANALYSIS QUESTION
A closer look: How much student loan debt do you currently have, and how much do you think you’ll have by the end of college? How could this debt impact your future?
Footnotes
1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/preston.../#55be172f40d8
2. https://www.communitycollegereview.c...r-year-schools
3. www.usnews.com/education/bes...-tuition-costs
4. Hess, Abigail. “College Grades expect to earn \$60,000.” 2019. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/coll...---few-do.html
5. https://www.usatoday.com/story/colle...year/37399897/
6. studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/g...olarships/pell
7. https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfri...n-forgiveness/
8. https://studentloanhero.com/featured...oves-students/ | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/10%3A_Understanding_Financial_literacy/10.05%3A_Education_Debt-_Paying_for_College.txt |
Questions to consider:
• How should you manage passwords and online security?
• What’s the best way to deal with identity theft?
• How can you get help and avoid scams?
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, and the FBI estimates that more than 10 million new victims are harmed each year.22 Among the problems contributing to this rapid increase in identity theft are the significant amount of data stored online and the poor security practices of both individuals and companies. In 2017, Equifax announced that their security had been breached and the data of every adult in the country was likely compromised.23
Passwords and Security
The first line of defense to prevent identity theft is to create strong passwords and take other security measures with your online accounts. An important factor in the strength of a password is the length of the password.24 This means a password of 12 characters or more is desirable. Consider using pass phrases, or short sentences, rather than passwords. You should vary your pass phrases for each site so a hacker that gets your password can only use it for a single site. Government agencies and security experts are recommending password management software such as LastPass to help with remembering all of these differing passwords.
Another important strategy is to implement two-factor authentication (TFA) on all your online accounts. TFA adds another method of identifying you in addition to your password. Many TFA systems use your cell phone and will text you a code to allow you to log in to your account. A criminal would then need both your password and access to your cell phone to log in. Check the settings on your email, bank website, and other accounts to see how to enable two-factor authentication.
Preventing and Dealing with Identity Theft
Setting strong passwords and enabling two-factor authentication will help keep criminals out of your online banking, email, and other important accounts. Many criminals use lower-tech methods of stealing your identity, however, including tricking or scaring you into giving out information or simply digging through your trash to find account statements.
Never Give Info to Someone Who Contacts You
Never provide a person with personal information unless you initiated the contact. If someone calls you asking for personal information, tell them you’ll call them back. Then ignore the phone number or website they give you, and instead look up the phone number for the organization on their official website. A legitimate company or government agency will never require you to stay on the line with them to solve the problem.
Shred Everything
You should also purchase an inexpensive cross-cut shredder and get in the habit of shredding all paperwork and mail before you throw it away. A good rule of thumb is that if the paper has your name on it, you should shred it before throwing it out.
Order Your Credit Report Annually
At least once per year, you should get your credit report from the credit reporting agencies through annualcreditreport.com, which is the only website approved by the Federal and State governments. The three major agencies -- Transunion, Equifax, and Experian -- all provide the legally mandated free report through this website. Learn how to read a credit report from one of these agencies.
Look for incorrect information or accounts you don’t recognize. If you see accounts you didn’t open on your credit report, file a report with the local police and the local FBI field office. You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and Internet Crime Complaint Center.
ANALYSIS QUESTION
Think about your account passwords and your habits related to your identity security. Identify mistakes you have made in the past with your security. What can you start doing today to protect yourself from identity theft or financial fraud?
ACTIVITY
Credit Report Review
Using the sample credit reports below, write an analysis of the person’s credit and how they are managing and using debt. Go through the factors that affect credit, and determine how this person is doing with each factor. What in the report is beneficial, and what is harmful? Carefully review each page for accuracy. Pay particular attention to the personal information, negative credit, and any notes about the person or their credit activity.
Creating Strong Alliances: Getting Help and Avoiding Scams
As a college student, you are a prime target for predatory practices designed to make the adviser or company rich at your expense.
As you’ve read through this chapter, it may have dawned on you that this personal finance stuff is a lot more complicated than it seems. There are people who have devoted their entire educations and careers to mastering single areas of personal finance, such as taxes, investing, and estate planning. When you feel it’s time to get professional help, there are many qualified professionals who can assist you. Not everyone who calls themselves a financial adviser is actually looking out for your best interest, however.
The terms financial adviser, financial planner, wealth manager, and many other impressive-sounding job titles are not regulated by the government. Anyone can put these job titles on their business cards. You need to be able to differentiate between a qualified professional and those who are untrained product salespeople, predatory financial businesses, or outright scams.
Predatory Practices Aimed at College Students
As a college student, you are a prime target for predatory practices designed to make the adviser or company rich at your expense.
Annuities and Life Insurance
Annuities and life insurance products are often aggressively sold to college students. They are generally inappropriate for college students and even most college graduates because they have high fees and lower returns than many other investment options, and the benefits are rarely needed by young people.25
Investment Schemes
Regulators identify specialized investments, such as promissory notes, real estate, oil and gas, and gold, as a major threat to investors. Investing systems, including stock picking and buying or selling strategies, are also a concern. Academic research has continually disproven these strategies.26
If someone is pitching you on their special system or secret strategy, be extremely skeptical. Legitimate investments are regulated by government agencies and are therefore never a secret.
Table 10.11
Scam or Scheme Characteristics or Promises Issues and Reasons to Avoid
“Cash Value” Life Insurance
Often sold as “7702 Plans”
Cash value life insurance and similar programs promise that a certain amount of the insurance premiums are set aside as a fund that can be used for expenditures such as college. If they are ever paid out, the consumer must pay taxes and may also pay fees up to 50 percent, losing much of the built-up value.
Investment Schemes These highly optimistic “sure thing” / “can’t miss” opportunities are specifically geared toward quick rewards or paying for college. They are often specialized investments such as real estate, gold, or oil. Sellers often rely on students’ lack of resources and experience to prevent them from thoroughly investigating the opportunity or properly evaluating the contract terms.
Advertising, Sales, or Data Entry Opportunities
“I make \$40 an hour working from home. . . .”
Offers of high pay for what seems like little work are likely too good to be true. “Car wrap” opportunities (driving around with ads on your car), data entry, and online sales opportunities are typical examples. The advertised salaries are often very difficult to achieve and come with significant conditions. Some “pay first” programs utilize fake checks to mislead students.
Financial Aid Services or Debt Consolidation These services offer to find advantageous financial aid packages for a fee.27 The offers usually do not return as beneficial a package as they promise, and most financial aid can be discovered without paying for it.
Phone Scams
“The IRS has detected tax fraud. . . .”
“This will be an attempt to avoid an initial appearance before a grand jury for a criminal offense. . . .”
Phone scammers use threatening, official-sounding messages to scare recipients. They often demand immediate return calls or request account or identifying information. These scams are not unique to college students. As official as they sound, these are scams. The perpetrators will use any account information you provide to invade your privacy or steal your money.
Too-Good-to-Be-True Credit Cards Credit cards with very low introductory interest rates, a promise of points, or other impressive-sounding benefits may be offered to students on college campuses, especially during events. Low rates can explode into high rates or incur fees after a brief period or a single late payment. This is not technically fraudulent, but be very careful when reading the terms.
Freebie or Social Media Survey Scams Many legitimate companies will offer free products or ask students to complete surveys, but high-risk offerings will ask for personal information or account information. Free products or compensation may not arrive, and even if they do, they may not offset the risk of giving up account information.
Fake Universities or Degree Programs (Diploma Mills) Offers may sound very legitimate and similar to real colleges. They often promise significant financial aid or degrees in just weeks or months.28 A certificate from a school with no accreditation or a poor reputation is a waste of time and money. Be certain that any college or certificate program is formally accredited; review the credentials of current faculty, and determine the job placement of alumni.
Sources of Good Information and Help
With all the high-cost, predatory, and scam financial advice out there, it is important to know where to turn for help.
Personal Finance Classes
One option is to look for a personal finance class, which will take the concepts found in this chapter and expand on them for an entire semester. Your college may have a financial literacy, personal finance, or money management class available.
Be wary of personal finance or investing classes offered through other sources, however, as many include hidden sales agendas and aggressive pitches to buy a company’s financial products. Never make an investment decision, buy a product, or sign a contract at a class, and always seek advice from others on any opportunity.
Websites and Government Resources
There are a ridiculous number of websites available to the public to help with your personal finances. When choosing a website for help, lean toward sites run by a legitimate government agencies or nonprofit organizations.
The first place you should look for help with finances is the official website of related government agencies. If you have a question about insurance, look to your state’s insurance commissioner website. If you are having problems with your apartment, contact your city’s housing authority.
Government agencies not only have the authoritative word on any legal matter, but are also generally unbiased. The downside to government websites is that they can be hard to understand, with legal wording taken directly from the law. Some government agencies are also prohibited from giving advice to the public, leaving it up to you to apply the information they provide.
There are also many nonprofit organizations that have been established to assist the public with finances. Nonprofit organizations may have information that is easier to understand, and they may also be able to offer personal advice.
Official Government Websites
• Personal Finance: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, consumerfinance.gov
• Taxes: Internal Revenue Service, irs.gov
• Retirement: Social Security Administration, ssa.gov
• Investing: Securities Exchange Commission, sec.gov
• Investing: North American Securities Administrators Association, nasaa.org (state and provincial investment regulators)
Nonprofit Organization Websites
• National Endowment for Financial Education, nefe.org
• National Foundation for Credit Counseling, nfcc.org
• Consumer Reports, consumerreports.org (national consumer advocacy organization)
• Purposeful Finance, purposefulfinance.org (a nonprofit organization run by this chapter’s author)
Your College’s Financial Aid Office
The financial aid or student aid office of your college may also be a good place to look for financial help, especially surrounding student loans. It is important to realize, however, that a conflict of interest exists between you and the financial aid adviser. Your college’s financial aid office is charged with helping you find the money to go to college, but it isn’t charged with making sure you don’t take on too much student debt. It is possible to get good advice on getting money to pay for college that is also bad advice for your future finances.
College financial aid counselors are also generally not trained in other areas of finance and should not be relied on for advice on investing, taxes, noncollege debt, or other financial matters. To get help with these areas, consult a qualified professional who can guide you with fewer conflicts of interest, such as the professionals listed below.
ANALYSIS QUESTION
Talk with your parents or other family members about their experience with finances, including financial advisers, taxes, legal issues, and investing. When could they have used professional advice in their past? Did they have bad experiences with getting advice that wasn’t best for them? How has a lack of good advisers harmed your family financially (even if just because they could have had more money)?
Footnotes
1. archives.fbi.gov/archives/ne...ventidt_102104
2. https://www.purposefulfinance.org/ho...ecurity-breach
3. Information Security Institute. “Password Security:Complexity Versus Length.” 2019. https://resources.infosecinstitute.c...ity-vs-length/
4. North American Securities Administrators Association. Top Investor Threats. ttp://www.nasaa.org/top-investor-threats /
5. Kadan, Maduriera, Wang and Zach. “Stock Picking, Industry Picking, and Market Timing in Sell-Side Research.” Singapore Management University. 2012.
6. Boswell, Brian. “Don’t Get Suckered By These College Savings Plans.” Forbes.com. 2019.
7. Creel, Wes. “How Cn I Tell if a Degree is Legitiamte or a Scam.” Abound/Finish College.
10.07: Summary
There are a lot of benefits to good financial management. Primarily, it generally allows you to do more of what you want with your life. When you have poor financial habits, too much of your money goes into other people’s pockets. But when you have good financial management habits, you can afford to do more because you have worked hard, separated needs from wants, saved and invested, and avoided credit card and debt pitfalls.
10.08: Career Connection
Search the articles at PurposefulFinance.org and find one you deem interesting.
Why do you find it interesting, and how can you apply it to your life? How does the article relate to the concepts in this chapter?
10.09: Rethinking
Revisit the questions you answered at the beginning of the chapter, and consider one concept or practice you learned in this chapter that might change your answer to one of them.
1. I actively and regularly plan and/or monitor my finances.
2. I understand the benefits and risks of credit.
3. I have a plan to repay my student loans.
4. I regularly take steps to protect my identity and assets.
10.10: Where do you go from here
Financial literacy is a topic that many college students struggle with, but good financial planning habits will benefit you long after your college days are behind you. What would you like to learn more about? Choose a topic from the list below, and create an annotated bibliography that would direct further research.
• Marrying personal finance goals with financial planning
• Creating a saving and spending plan
• Best practices concerning credit cards
• Financing a college education | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/10%3A_Understanding_Financial_literacy/10.06%3A_Defending_against_Attack-_Securing_Your_Identity_and_Accounts.txt |
Thumbnail: www.pexels.com/photo/woman-sleeping-on-a-wooden-table-3767371/
11: Engaging in a Healthy Lifestyle
Student Survey
How do you feel about health and wellness? These questions will help you determine how the chapter concepts relate to you right now. As we are introduced to new concepts and practices, it can be informative to reflect on how your understanding changes over time. We’ll revisit these questions at the end of the chapter to help you identify opportunities for improved health. Take this quick survey to figure it out, ranking questions on a scale of 1–4, 1 meaning “least like me” and 4 meaning “most like me.”
1. I eat enough fruits and vegetables every day.
2. I get enough sleep.
3. I have, for the most part, healthy relationships with friends and family.
4. I feel like I know how to manage stress.
You can also take the Chapter 11 survey anonymously online.
STUDENT PROFILE
"My freshman year of college, I started at a pretty big university. I had what some call “social anxiety” and even cried before getting out the car on my first day. That year was a struggle for me, and I constantly had to fight with myself to step out of my comfort zone in order to succeed. I knew that if I made positive changes to my life then I would easily succeed in school. I joined a group of students who were a support system for me during my first year of college. Together we studied together and even worked out together. It helped me be more involved on my campus and less worried. Being connected with other students has taught me a lot of ways to cope with common problems many students face.
"My first advice would be first and foremost, always make sure you are being kind to yourself. It’s not advisable to work 40 hours a week and also try to be a full time student. You need to set up a realistic home and school life so that way you are balanced with your assignments and other responsibilities. You need to give your body and your brain time to rest so you can absorb as much as you want to without restrictions. I found it useful to start working out to make sure that I’m dedicating the time I should be to myself and not working myself until exhaustion. Little things like exercise, yoga and meditation can do amazing things for your body as well as your mind. If you take care of your body, your body will take care of you."
–Felicia Santiago, Delgado Community College
About this Chapter
This chapter explores the many ways your health is impacted by your lifestyle choices. The goal of this material is to help you do the following:
• - Describe actions you can take to improve your physical health.
• - Identify ways to maintain and enhance your emotional health.
• - Understand mental health risks and warning signs.
• - Articulate reasons and ways to maintain healthy relationships.
• - Outline steps you can take to be more safety conscious.
Recent headlines were buzzing with news about a 17-year-old boy who lost his eyesight because of a poor diet. While the boy ate enough food and his weight was considered normal, when doctors investigated, they discovered he didn’t eat enough nutrient-rich food. A self-described picky eater, the teen’s daily diet consisted of sausage, deli ham, white bread, Pringles, and french fries. His food choices led to numerous nutritional deficiencies of several essential vitamins and minerals, causing nutritional optic neuropathy.1
Have you heard the saying “you are what you eat”? If so, likely a parent or someone who loves you said it while coaxing you to eat your vegetables. Are we really what we eat, and what does this phrase actually mean? While the example of the boy who lost his vision may be extreme, the food we eat does impact our physical and mental health. What’s at the end of our fork can keep us healthy or eventually make us sick. Every 27 days, our skin replaces itself and our body makes new cells from the food we eat.2 And according to Dr. Libby Weaver, every three months we completely rebuild and replace our blood supply. What you eat becomes you.
It’s not only what you eat that impacts your health but also how much you exercise, how effectively you deal with stress, how well you sleep, your work habits, and even your relationships—these things all have an impact on your well-being.
There are two primary reasons we become unhealthy. First, we do not deliver enough nutrients for our cells to operate properly, and second, our cells are bombarded with too many toxins. Keeping it simple, good health is proper nutrients in, toxins out. Toxins come from a host of sources—certain foods, the environment, stressful relationships, smoking, vaping, and alcohol and drug use. And if we don’t sleep and exercise enough, toxins can hang around long enough to cause us harm.
As a first-year college student you will make many choices without parental oversight, including the food you eat and the way you take care of your body and brain. Some choices put you on a path to health, and other choices can lead you down a path toward illness. There is a strong connection between success in college and your ability to stay healthy.
Health is more than a strong body that doesn’t get sick. Health also includes your overall sense of well-being (mental, emotional) and healthy relationships. Good health is about making positive choices in all of these areas, and avoiding destructive choices. It’s about learning to be smart, to set boundaries, to watch out for your safety, and to take care of the one body that will carry you through life.
While health and wellness are often interchanged, it is important to differentiate the two concepts.Health is a state of physical, mental, and social well-being, while wellness is a process through which people become aware of and make choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life.
Footnotes
1. Harrison, Warburton, Lux, and Atan. Blindness caused by a junk food diet. Annals of Intern Med. September 3, 2019.
2. https://www.webmd.com/beauty/cosmeti...verview-skin#1 | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/11%3A_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle/11.00%3A_Prelude_to_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle.txt |
Questions to consider:
• What is healthy eating?
• Why is it important to stay hydrated?
• How important is exercise to a healthy body?
• Are you getting enough sleep to be healthy?
• What are toxins, and how can they affect your health?
You have one body. Treat it well so as to maximize its ability to serve you throughout your life. Often physical health gets moved to the bottom of the priority list when we are busy. Taking care of your physical health doesn’t mean six-pack abs or training for a marathon. It means honoring your physical needs so your body can function properly, feeding your cells the nutrients that will keep your body working well your entire life, and minimizing exposure to toxins to reduce your risk of disease.
Healthy Eating
While it’s not the only thing that contributes to great health, what you eat makes a huge difference. We have 37 trillion cells in our body. The only way they function optimally is with good nutrition. As a college student, you will be surrounded by temptations to eat poorly or even to overeat. It’s now up to you to make wise choices in the face of these temptations. Your dining hall is likely full of many healthy foods and just as many unhealthy foods. You may grab food on the run while racing to class or order a pizza at midnight while studying for a test. Lobby vending machines or a stash of snacks in your room should not turn into a substitute for real meals. The downside of fast food and easy access treats is that many are loaded with sugar, salt, or both.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) updated their Healthy Plate Guidelines in 2011. MyPlate illustrates five different food groups considered the building blocks for a healthy diet—vegetables, fruits, protein, grains, and dairy.
It’s also important to know what is not a healthy plate. A healthy plate is low in refined carbohydrates (donuts, pastries, pasta, cookies), low in sugar, and low in saturated fat (although we need healthy fats like avocado and nuts). You can learn more at https://www.choosemyplate.gov/.
While the USDA’s MyPlate was revised to reflect some key findings at that time, nutritionists at Harvard felt it didn’t offer the most complete picture when it comes to basic nutrition guidelines. They created The Healthy Eating Plate, which is based on what they consider to be the best available science. Similar to MyPlate, half the plate is vegetables and fruit. Aim for eight servings of veggies or fruits a day, more veggies than fruits. It’s important to note that the Harvard version was created without the political pressure from food industry lobbyists (for example, the dairy industry). Note that grains are further defined as whole grains, protein is now healthy protein, and water is emphasized over dairy/milk. What other differences do you see?
This table provides more detail on how The Healthy Eating plate compares to USDA’s MyPlate.
Healthy eating also includes choosing organic fruits and vegetables when possible. By choosing organic, you help lower the amount of toxins your body encounters (since conventional fruits and vegetables are often sprayed with pesticides). Organic foods may not be readily available on your campus or in your local grocery store, so strive to choose the best options possible given availability and your budget. Many college and universities are adding organic food as a result of student demand. If healthy eating is something you are passionate about, consider organizing an effort to influence the dining options on your campus. When shopping on your own, the Dirty Dozen list provided by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a good guide of which produce is most important to eat organic, as these are the fruits and vegetables with the most pesticide residue. The EWG also compiles a Clean 15 list of the vegetables and fruits with the least amount of pesticides.
Whole Foods vs. Processed Foods
Choose whole foods. Whole foods are any foods that have not been processed, packaged, or altered in any way. Whole foods are an essential part of a healthy diet because they contain the vitamins and minerals our bodies need.
Examples of whole foods include the following:
• Vegetables: Carrots, broccoli, kale, avocados, cauliflower, spinach, peppers
• Fruits: Apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, melons, peaches
• Grains: Brown rice, oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, millet
• Beans: Black, pinto, kidney, black-eyed peas, chickpeas
Minimize non-whole foods. These are foods that have been processed, such as cookies, hot dogs, chips, pasta, deli meat, and ice cream. Even seemingly healthy foods like yogurt, granola, and protein bars are processed and should be checked for added sugar and other unhealthy ingredients.
The average American eats 62 percent of their daily calories from processed foods.3 In order for your body to be as healthy as possible, it’s extremely important to include lots of whole foods in your diet.
"When you eat junk food you think junk thoughts."
— Michael Bernard Beckwith
How to Read a Food Label
The U.S. government requires food manufacturers to put a label on every processed food product. This is so we, as consumers, know what we are putting into our bodies and can make good dietary choices. A quick review of the label will provide a lot of important information about what you are eating, yet most people don’t take the time to read the label. This is a big mistake.
Think of the front of the package as a marketing billboard. Don’t be fooled by the marketing. Every day millions of dollars are spent to persuade us to eat foods that are not healthy for us. Through visuals (like the strawberry on the bottle of dressing below) and words (like natural, healthy, or gluten free), the food industry wants us to make assumptions about the nature of a food product without looking at the facts. For example, many people eat protein bars thinking they are a healthy choice, but protein bars can have up to 30 grams of sugar! Understanding the nutrition information and ingredients will help you make healthier choices. When you take the time to read the labeled ingredients, you are no longer being marketed to—you are staring at the facts.
Look at the label on the back of what appears to be a healthy item: fruit salad or fruit cocktail. One of the first things to look for is the amount of sugar. 12 grams equals just under 2.5 teaspoons. The serving size indicated is 2/3 cups, so if you have double that amount, it’s the equivalent of spooning out 5 teaspoons of sugar. The lower the sugar the better.
It’s also important to avoid high amounts of sodium, to minimize saturated fats, and to avoid all trans fats. Trans fats are unhealthy substances made through the process of solidifying liquid oils to increase the shelf life of foods. Also called partially hydrogenated oil, trans fats are often found in margarine, microwave popcorn, crackers, cookies, and frozen pizza. Saturated fat usually comes from animal products like butter and meat fat. Saturated fat tends to raise the level of cholesterol in the blood, and while some is OK, moderation is best.
Dietary fiber is a good thing; the higher the number the better. Fiber has virtually no calories, but it holds water in your stomach, makes you feel full, and helps with digestion. Vitamins are very important. Aim to get to 100 percent of your recommended daily value through the food you eat throughout the day.
Next, look at the ingredient list that can be found at the bottom of the nutrition label. A long list of ingredients likely contains fillers and preservatives you should avoid. If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, you can generally assume it is not a healthy option. And it’s not only what you eat, it’s what you don’t eat. As a rule, the fewer the ingredients, the better.
This video on how to read a food label is a helpful overview on what else to look for.
You can also download the Fooducate app, which allows you to scan the bar code of any food item and quickly see a report card and suggestions for healthier alternatives.
ANALYSIS QUESTION
Take a few minutes to write down everything you ate in the last two days. Now review your list and estimate what percent of your food intake came from whole foods. How did your meals compare to The Healthy Plate? Where is there opportunity for healthier choices? How can these changes benefit you?
What You Drink
What is your go-to drink when you are thirsty? Soda? Juice? Coffee? How about water? Most of your blood and every cell in your body is composed of water. In fact, water makes up 60 to 80 percent of our entire body mass, so when we don’t consume enough water, all kinds of complications can occur. To function properly, all the cells and organs in our body need water. Proper hydration is key to overall health and well-being. By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. Dehydration is when your body does not have as much water and fluids as it needs. Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic discovered that mild dehydration (as little as losing 1 to 2 percent of body water) can impair cognitive performance.4 Water increases energy and relieves fatigue, promotes weight loss, flushes toxins, improves skin complexion, improves digestion, and is a natural headache remedy (your brain is 76 percent water). Headaches, migraines, and back pains are commonly caused by dehydration. Your body will also let you know it needs water by messaging through muscle cramps, achy joints, constipation, dry skin, and of course a dry mouth.
Aside from feeling thirsty, the easiest way to tell if you are dehydrated is to check your urine. If it is a dark shade of yellow, your urine is over-concentrated with waste. This happens because water helps flush out waste and when you’re hydrated there’s a higher ratio of water to waste, turning your urine a lighter color.
One of the best habits you can develop is to drink a large glass of water first thing in the morning. Your body becomes a little dehydrated as you sleep. Drinking water first thing in the morning allows your body to rehydrate, which helps with digestion and helps move the bowels for regularity in the morning. It also helps to eliminate the toxins your liver processed while you slept.
Check out this video for more benefits of drinking water.
Staying hydrated is important to keep your body healthy, energized, and running properly. As a general guideline, aim to drink eight glasses of water a day, although a more helpful guide is to drink half your body weight in ounces (for example, if you weigh 150 lb, try to drink 75 oz of water a day). One of the best ways to remind yourself to drink throughout the day is to buy a reusable bottle and bring it everywhere you go. There are two reasons to use a refillable water bottle instead of a plastic bottle:
1. Your own health. Most plastic water bottles have a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which is added to plastics to make them more durable and pliable. BPA is known to disrupt hormones and has been linked to sperm dysfunction.
2. The health of the planet. Do you know that every time you drink from a plastic water bottle and casually toss it in the trash, it can stay on the planet approximately 450 years?5 Even when you recycle, the complex nature of recycling doesn’t guarantee your plastic bottle will make it through the process. Americans purchase about 50 billion water bottles per year, averaging 13 bottles a month for each of us. By using a reusable water bottle, you can save an average of 156 plastic bottles annually.6
“But I don’t like the taste of water!” It may take time, but eventually you will. Add a little more each day, and eventually your body will feel so fantastic fully hydrated that you will have water cravings. In the meantime, you can visit the dining hall in the morning and add lemon, lime, berries, watermelon, cucumbers, or whatever taste you enjoy that will add a little healthy flavor to the water.
While water is undeniably the healthiest beverage you can drink, it is unrealistic to assume that is all you will drink. Be careful to minimize your soda intake, as most sodas are loaded with sugar or artificial sweeteners (which can be even worse than sugar). And unless you are squeezing your own fruit juice, you are also likely drinking a lot of sugar. Many fruit juices sold in supermarkets contain only a small percentage of real fruit juice, and have added sugar and other unhealthy sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup. A 12-oz glass of orange juice can contain up to 9 teaspoons of sugar, about the same as a 12-oz can of Coke! Hot or cold herbal teas are a wonderful addition to your diet.
Exercise
Many people exercise to maintain or lose weight, but weight loss is only one potential benefit of exercise. Regular exercise can improve the quality of your sleep, strengthen your bones, increase your energy levels, and reduce your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and even some forms of cancer.7 Regular exercise is key to living a long, healthy life.
There are three basic types of exercise—flexibility, strength training, and cardiovascular.
1. Flexibility is the range in motion of the joints in your body, or the ability for your muscles to move freely. Without adequate flexibility, daily activities can become difficult to do. Stretching increases your body’s flexibility, improves circulation, and sends more blood to your muscles. Just a few minutes a day of deep stretching can have a powerfully positive impact on your health. Yoga and Tai Chi are other wonderful ways to improve your flexibility.
2. Strength is the body’s ability to produce force. Strength training helps improve muscle strength and muscle mass, which will become increasingly important as you age. Increased muscle helps your body burn calories more efficiently. Strength training also helps maintain bone strength. In addition to lifting weights, other ways to build strength include push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, and yoga.
3. Cardiovascular is the body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently during exercise. As one’s ability to use oxygen improves, daily activities can be performed with less fatigue. Great cardiovascular modes of exercise include jogging, swimming, biking, and HIIT (high intensity interval training). HIIT is short bursts of intense activity followed by a rest period. With HIIT, you can squeeze a lot of benefit into a short period of time. Click here for an example of HITT workouts.
Research indicates that regular aerobic exercise can support memory and cognition. In these studies, aerobic exercise generally increases the number of new neurons created in the brain’s memory center and also reduces inflammation.8 Inflammation in the brain may contribute to the development of dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions. It might be good timing to take a jog before you sit down to study for a test!
It’s important to move throughout the day, and every day. Aim to exercise for 150 minutes a week. You don’t have to be the king or queen of CrossFit; it’s the daily movement that is most important. While it is best to integrate all three types of exercise, the best exercise is the one you will actually do. Find and commit to a form of exercise you will enjoy.
Toxins
We live in an increasingly toxic world. Since the Industrial Revolution, we have released thousands of man-made chemicals into the environment. These chemical toxins are in our food (pesticides, conventional fertilizers), in food packaging, in household products, and in our personal care products. Many of these chemicals have been linked to infertility, asthma, migraines, ADHD, and cancer.
The complicated thing about these chemicals is that their effects can take years or even decades to appear. The chemicals build up over time and they interact with each other, which can result in problems that are not considered by “single chemical” testing (which is the majority of the limited testing that is done).
Now the good news—there are simple things you can do right now to limit the amount of toxins in your environment. First, it is best to avoid any products with “artificial colors” or “fragrance.”
• Artificial colors: Synthetic dyes like Yellow 10, Blue 1, and Red 28 may contain carcinogens and neurotoxins and can be absorbed by your skin and go directly into your bloodstream.
• Fragrance: Have you ever walked down the cleaning and laundry soap aisle and been assaulted by so many fragrances you couldn’t get to the next aisle fast enough? Claiming trade secrets, companies don’t have to tell us what’s in “fragrance,” which can include highly toxic ingredients, hormone disruptors, and carcinogens. Fragranced products come in the form of soaps, cleaners, air fresheners, hand sanitizers, laundry detergents, and personal care products. Studies have repeatedly shown that the synthetic fragrances and other toxic chemicals included in these products are causing a range of health problems.9
There is a long and ever-growing list of common chemicals to avoid, but it’s hard to remember the names when you are shopping. That’s where a handy app like Healthy Living from the EWG comes in.
Simply scan the bar code of any products you use and learn about any potential health hazards.
"Many Americans are surprised to learn that the ingredients in their makeup, shampoo and body lotion are largely unregulated and, in some cases, harmful to their health. The fact is that companies can put potentially dangerous ingredients into the products they sell without ever having to prove they are safe.”
— Heather White, Environmental Working Group Executive Director
Your skin is your largest organ, and in seconds will absorb what you put on it. It’s important to be wary of conventional skin care products that could potentially leak toxins into your body. Think of your skin as one giant mouth. If you wouldn’t eat the ingredients in your products, think twice before applying them to your skin.
ANALYSIS QUESTION
Are your eating and sleeping habits currently affecting your ability to have a super-successful college experience? Describe the health and wellness changes a commitment to eating clean and sleeping well will bring about, and how you will benefit in the short and long term.
Footnotes
1. Dr. Joel Furhman https://www.mensjournal.com/features...here-20121107/
2. University of Virginia www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4207053/
3. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...l-last-planet/
4. https://www.earthday.org/2018/03/29/...lastics/#_ftn5
5. Harvard Medical School https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsl...se_as_medicine
6. Kelty, Journal of Applied Physiology
7. https://www.ewg.org/ | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/11%3A_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle/11.01%3A_Taking_Care_of_Your_Physical_Health.txt |
Questions to consider:
• How much sleep is enough?
• What are the impacts of sleep deprivation?
• Which strategies and support can enhance sleep?
How often do you wake up filled with energy, eager to embrace the day? How often do you wake up still tired, with heavy eyes that just don’t want to open? Your answer to these questions has a direct bearing on the quality of your decisions, your ability to use good judgement, the extent to which you can focus in the classroom, and ultimately your long-term health.
A great night’s sleep begins the minute you wake up. The choices you make throughout the day impact how quickly you fall asleep, whether you sleep soundly, and whether your body is able to successfully complete the cycle of critical functions that only happen while you sleep.
Sleep is the foundation of amazing health, yet almost 40 percent of adults struggle to get enough sleep.10 Lack of sleep affects mental and physical performance and can make you more irritable. The diminished energy that results from too little sleep often leads us to make poor decisions about most things, including food. Think about the last time you were really tired. Did you crave pizza, donuts, and fries—or a healthy salad? Studies have shown that people who sleep less are more likely to eat fewer vegetables and eat more fats and refined carbohydrates, like donuts.11
With sufficient sleep it is easier to learn, to remember what you learned, and to have the necessary energy to make the most of your college experience. Without sufficient sleep it is harder to learn, to remember what you learned, and to have the energy to make the most of your college experience. It’s that simple.
What Happens When We Sleep?
Sleep is a time when our bodies are quite busy repairing and detoxifying. While we sleep we fix damaged tissue, toxins are processed and eliminated, hormones essential for growth and appetite control are released and restocked, and energy is restored. Sleep is essential for a healthy immune system. How many colds do you catch a year? How often do you get the flu? If you are often sick, you do not have a healthy immune system, and sleep deprivation may be a key culprit.
A review of hundreds of sleep studies concluded that most adults need around eight hours of sleep to maintain good health. Some people may be able to function quite well on seven and others may need closer to nine, but as a general rule, most people need a solid eight hours of sleep each night. And when it comes to sleep, both quantity and quality are important.
When sleep is cut short, the body doesn’t have time to complete all the phases needed for the repair and detoxification.
A tiny lobe called the pineal gland helps us fall asleep. The pineal gland secretes melatonin to calm the brain. The pineal gland responds to darkness. If you are watching TV until the minute you go to bed and then sleep with the artificial light from smartphones and other devices, your brain is tricked into thinking it is still daylight; this makes it difficult for the pineal gland to do its job. In addition, if the TV shows you watch before bed are violent or action-packed, your body will release cortisol (the stress hormone). Anything that creates stress close to bedtime will make it more difficult to fall asleep. A bedtime practice of quiet activities like reading, journaling, listening to music, or meditation will make it much easier to fall asleep.
What Happens If You Don’t Get Enough Sleep?
Lack of sleep has a big impact on your overall state of health and well-being. Studies have linked poor sleep to a variety of health problems. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified sleep deprivation as a public health epidemic.
A lack of sleep can change the way your genes express themselves. One notable study involved a group of healthy adults limited to six hours of sleep for one week. Researchers then measured the change in gene activity compared to the prior week when these same people were getting a full eight hours of sleep a night. The lack of sleep caused the activity of 711 genes to become distorted. About half of the genes were switched off by a lack of sleep, and these genes were associated with the immune system. The other half of the genes experienced increased activity from a lack of sleep, and these were genes associated with the promotion of tumors, genes associated with long-term chronic inflammation, and stress genes.12
Some of the health risks of insufficient sleep include the following:
Increased risk of heart attack and stroke: In his book Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker, PhD, shares Japanese research showing that male workers who average six hours of sleep or less are 400 to 500 percent more likely to suffer one or more cardiac arrests than those getting more than six hours of sleep each night. Another study of women between the ages of 20 and 79 found that those who had mild sleep disturbance such as taking longer to fall asleep or waking up one or more times during the night were significantly more likely to have high blood pressure than those who fell asleep quickly and slept soundly.13
Impaired cognitive function: Even one night of sleeping less than six hours can impact your ability to think clearly the next day.
Increased risk of accidents: Sleep deprivation slows your reaction time, which increases your risk of accidents. You are three times more likely to be in a car crash if you are tired. According to the American Sleep Foundation, 40 percent of people admitted to falling asleep behind the wheel at least once. A Governor’s Highway Safety Association report estimates there are 6,400 fatal drowsy driving crashes each year. Fifty percent of these crashes involve drivers under the age of 25.14
Driving after 20 hours without sleep is the equivalent of driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent—the U.S. legal limit for drunk driving.
Weight gain/increased risk for obesity: Sleep helps balance your appetite by regulating hormones that play a role in helping you feel full after a meal. Also, cortisol is released during times of anxiety, and exhaustion causes your body to produce more cortisol. This can stimulate your appetite.
Increased risk of cancer: Tumors grow up to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions. Researchers believe this is because of disrupted melatonin production, as melatonin has both antioxidant and anticancer activity.
Increased emotional intensity: The part of the brain responsible for emotional reactions, your amygdala, can be 60 percent more reactive when you've slept poorly, resulting in increased emotional intensity.
For more information on the advantages and health risks of sleep watch this TED Talk by Matt Walker, PhD, Director of the Sleep Center at U California Berkeley.
Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Sleep
Now that you are more aware of the ways insufficient sleep harms your body, let’s review some of the things you can do to enhance your sleep.
Make sleep a priority.
It can be challenging in college, but try to get on a schedule where you sleep and wake at the same time every day to get your body accustomed to a routine. This will help your body get into a sleep rhythm and make it easier to fall asleep and get up in the morning.
Sleep in a cool, quiet, dark room.
Create a sleeping environment that is comfortable and conducive to sleep. If you can control the temperature in your room, keep it cool in the evening. Scientists believe a cool bedroom (around 65 degrees) may be best for sleep, since it mimics our body's natural temperature drop. Exposure to bright light suppresses our body’s ability to make melatonin, so keep the room as dark as possible. A 2010 study in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that individuals exposed to room light “during the usual hours of sleep suppressed melatonin by greater than 50%.”15 Even the tiniest bit of light in the room (like from a clock radio LCD screen) can disrupt your internal clock and your production of melatonin, which will interfere with your sleep. A sleep mask may help eliminate light, and earplugs can help reduce noise.
Avoid eating late or drinking alcohol or caffeine close to bedtime.
It is best to finish eating at least two hours before bedtime and avoid caffeine after lunch. While not everyone is affected in the same way, caffeine hangs around a long time in most bodies. Although alcohol will make you drowsy, the effect is short-lived and you will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back to sleep. Alcohol can also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep, where your body does most of the repair and healing. A 2013 Scientific Research study concluded that “energy drinks, other caffeinated beverages and alcoholic beverages are risk factors of poor sleep quality.” It’s important to finish eating hours before bedtime so your body is able to heal and detoxify and it is not spending the first few hours of sleep digesting a heavy meal.
Start to wind down an hour before bed.
There are great apps to help with relaxation, stress release, and falling asleep. Or you can simply practice 4-7-8 breathing to calm your nervous system—breathe in to the count of 4, hold your breath for a count of 7, and release your breath slowly to the count of 8.
Consider the Insight Timer app, or any of the free apps listed by the American Sleep Association.
Exercise for 30 minutes a day.
One of the biggest benefits of exercise is its effect on sleep. A study from Stanford University found that 16 weeks in a moderate-intensity exercise program allowed people to fall asleep about 15 minutes faster and sleep about 45 minutes longer. Walking, yoga, swimming, strength training, jumping rope—whatever it is, find an exercise you like and make sure to move your body every day.
Improve your diet.
Low fiber and high saturated fat and sugar intake is associated with lighter, less restorative sleep with more wake time during the night. Processed food full of chemicals will make your body work extra hard during the night to remove the toxins and leave less time for healing and repair.
Sleep affects how we look, feel, and function on a daily basis and is vital to our health and quality of life. When you get the sleep your body needs, you look more vibrant, you feel more vibrant, and you have the energy to live your best life.
Now, with a better understanding of the benefits of getting the recommended hours of nightly sleep and the health risks of not getting enough sleep, what changes can you make to improve the quality and quantity of your sleep?
What If I’m Doing All These Things and I Still Have Trouble Sleeping?
People that have trouble falling asleep also often have low magnesium levels (sources suggest that over half of the adults in the United States are magnesium deficient). You can ask your doctor to check your magnesium levels, but you can also focus on eating magnesium-rich foods to help. One of the best magnesium-rich snacks is pumpkin seeds. Other great sources are almonds, sesame seeds, and walnuts.
Difficulty sleeping may be a sign that you have a clinical sleep problem, such as insomnia or sleep apnea. If you are doing all the right things and still have trouble falling or staying asleep, talk to your doctor.
These are some resources for insomnia:
ANALYSIS QUESTION
Do you have a ritual to shut down your day and calm your mind? If yes, can you identify two ways to improve upon your current ritual? If no, what three things can you put in place to prepare your body and mind for a restorative night’s sleep?
Footnotes
1. https://news.gallup.com/poll/166553/...unt-sleep.aspx
2. Cleveland Clinic, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/l...ave-junk-food/
3. Archer, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23440187
4. Matthew Walker, PhD Why We Sleep
5. Governors Highway Safety Association
6. JCEM, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3047226/ | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/11%3A_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle/11.02%3A_Sleep.txt |
Questions to consider:
• What are some of the ways to tell if you are holding onto stress?
• How do mindfulness and gratitude encourage emotional health?
Identifying and Managing Stress
According to a 2018 report from the American College Health Association, in a 12-month period 42 percent of college students reported that they have felt so depressed it was difficult to function, and 63 percent reported feeling overwhelming anxiety.16 Your ability to manage stress, maintain loving relationships, and rise to the demands of school and work all impact your emotional health.
Stress is not always bad. In fact, some stress is helpful. Good stress is stress in amounts small enough to help you meet daily challenges. It’s also a warning system that produces the fight-or-flight response, which increases blood pressure and your heart rate so you can avoid a potentially life-threatening situation. Feeling stressed can be perfectly normal, especially during exam time. It can motivate you to focus on your work, but it can also become so overwhelming you can’t concentrate. It’s when stress is chronic (meaning you always feel stressed) that it starts to damage your body.
What Chronic Stress Does to Your Body
Do you find it difficult to concentrate or complete your work? Are you frequently sick? Do you have regular headaches? Are you more anxious, angry, or irritable than usual? Do you have trouble falling asleep or staying awake? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you may be holding on to too much stress.
Stress that hangs around for weeks or months affects your ability to concentrate, makes you more accident-prone, increases your risk for heart disease, can weaken your immune system, disrupts your sleep, and can cause fatigue, depression, and anxiety.17 To learn more about what stress does to your body, click here: apa.org/helpcenter/stress.
Some people refer to the time we are living in as the age of overload. It’s easy to get worn down by social media and the constant news cycle, and to be overwhelmed by too many choices. We live in a fast-paced, always-on world with a lot of pressures. The military created the VUCA acronym for the world we currently live in. VUCA stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, and as a result of living in this VUCA world, many of us are in a constant state of overdrive.
You will have stress. Stress is inevitable. It’s how you deal with it that can make all the difference. One of the most important things you can do is to keep perspective on your stressors. When feeling stressed, ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 100, how stressful a situation is this? Will I even remember this three years from now? When facing potential stressors, the way you view what you're experiencing can intensify your stress or minimize it.
There are many ways to manage stress. Take a look at some of the ideas in the stress toolkit below. Which ones have you tried? Which ones do you want to try? It’s helpful to have different tools for different situations—for example, a calming yoga pose in your dorm room and deep breathing in the classroom.
Mindfulness and Gratitude
Deep breathing, mindfulness, and a practice of gratitude are some of the most effective ways to manage stress and take care of your emotional health.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness means being present with your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Mindfulness is also without judgement—meaning there is no right or wrong way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.18
Anything that keeps you present in the moment and gives your prefrontal cortex (the reasoning and thinking part of your brain) a break is practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness can be a slow walk; looking intently at the grass, trees, flowers, or buildings; and being aware of what you are sensing and feeling. Mindfulness can be sitting quietly—even sitting still in a quiet place for as little as a few minutes can reduce heart rate and blood pressure.19
Developing a practice of mindfulness is easier than you may think:
• Slow down. From brushing your teeth, to washing your face, to shampooing your hair—can you take the speed out of getting ready in the morning? Focus on the activity, pay attention to what you are doing, stay present (this means don’t think about what happened last night or what’s in store for the day, just stay focused on the activity), and take your time.
• Focus on your breath. How fast are you breathing? Is your breath coming from your chest or your belly? Can you feel the air come through your nose on the inhale? Can you slow down the exhale? Can you feel your body relax when you slow the exhale?
• Connect to your environment. Walk for a few minutes, focused on the world around you—look at the leaves on the trees or the light at the corner, listen to the sounds around you, stay with your surroundings, and observe what you see and hear around you.
“We can’t change the world, at least not quickly, but we can change our brains. By practicing mindfulness all of us have the capacity to develop a deeper sense of calm.”
— Rick Hanson, author, Resilient
Deep Breathing
When people hear mindfulness they often think meditation. While meditation is one method of mindfulness, there are many others that may be simpler and easier for you to practice. Deep breathing helps lower stress and reduce anxiety, and it is simple yet very powerful. A daily mindful breathing practice has been shown to reduce test anxiety in college students.20 A 2-4-6-8 breathing pattern is a very useful tool that can be used to help bring a sense of calm and to help mild to moderate anxiety. It takes almost no time, requires no equipment, and can be done anywhere:
• - Start by quickly exhaling any air in your lungs (to the count of 2).
• - Breathing through your nose, inhale to the count of 4.
• - Hold your breath for a count of 6.
• - Slowly exhale through your mouth to the count of 8.
This is one round. Do not repeat the quick exhale again. Instead start round two with an inhale through your nose to the count of 4, hold for 6, and exhale to 8. Repeat for three more rounds to relax your body and mind.
With practice, 2-4-6-8 breathing will become a useful tool for times when you experience tension or stress.
Meditation
Dan Harris, a news reporter at ABC, fell into drug use and suffered a major panic attack on national television. Following this embarrassing period in his life, he learned to meditate and found that it made him calmer and more resilient. He’s now on a mission to make meditation approachable to everyone. Dan used to be a skeptic about meditation but now says that if he learned to meditate, anyone can learn to meditate! Dan reminds us that we ARE going to get lost, and our mind IS going to stray, and that’s ok. Simply notice when you’re lost and start over. Every time your mind strays and your start over, it is like a bicep curl for your brain. Start with 3 minutes and slowly work your way up to 15 or 20. To hear more about Dan’s journey, watch this video, and for a simple meditation to get started, you can try one of the videos on the meditation Youtube channel.
Some great meditation apps include Insight Timer, CALM, and Headspace.
Gratitude
Too often people think it is the external factors that bring us joy and happiness, when really it’s all related to internal work. According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, “Having an attitude of gratitude changes the molecular structure of the brain, and makes us healthier and happier. When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive and less resistant.”21
Numerous studies show that people who count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed. In a UC Berkeley study, researchers recruited 300 people who were experiencing emotional or mental health challenges and randomly divided them into three groups. All three groups received counseling services. The first group also wrote a letter of gratitude every week for three weeks. The second group wrote about their thoughts and feelings with negative experiences. The third group received only counseling. The people in the group who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health for up to 12 weeks after the writing exercise ended.
This would suggest that a healthy emotional self-care practice is to take note of good experiences or when you see something that makes you smile. Think about why the experience feels so good. According to Rick Hanson, author of Resilient, “Each day is strewn with little jewels. The idea is to see them and pick them up. When you notice something positive, stay with the feeling for 30 seconds. Feel the emotions in your whole body. Maybe your heart feels lighter or you’re smiling. The more you can deepen and lengthen positive experiences the longer those positivity neurons in your brain are firing—and the longer they fire the stronger the underlying neural networks become. Repeat that process a half dozen times a day and you’ll feel stronger, more stable and calmer within a few weeks.”
ACTIVITY
Take a look at some of the suggested tools for your stress toolkit. Which ones have you tried? Have they been effective in helping you manage stress? Ask two friends or family members about their favorite stress-management strategies. What has worked for you and others that is not on this list? Identify two new tools you would like to explore and articulate how you will determine if they work for you, and then you can confidently add them to your stress toolkit.
Footnotes
1. American College Health Association 2018 report https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/...ve_Summary.pdf
2. The University of Maryland Medical Center UMMC, https://www.umms.org/ummc
3. Moran, Joan; University of California at Los Angeles, http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/gratitude-249167
4. The Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/
5. Levitin, Time Special Edition 2018, The New Mindfulness
6. 2016 Study Journal of PLoS One, https://journals.plos.org/plosmedici...l.pmed.1000316 | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/11%3A_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle/11.03%3A_Taking_Care_of_Your_Emotional_Health.txt |
Question to consider:
• What is mental health?
• How can I take care of it?
The World Health Organization ranks mental health conditions as the leading cause of disability in the United States. One in four adults experience a diagnosable mental health disorder in any given year, yet more than half will not seek treatment. The primary reason people don’t seek the help they need is shame and fear of judgment from friends, family, and coworkers. It is important to remove any stigma associated with mental health and encourage those who need help to seek support.
WHAT STUDENTS SAY
1. In your opinion, which of the following is the most significant health issue facing college students?
1. stress and/or exhaustion
2. drinking and/or substance abuse
3. unhealthy eating
4. unhealthy relationships
5. safety
2. Which of the following best describes your experience or outlook regarding healthy eating while in college?
1. I'm generally able to eat healthy food most of the time.
2. I have difficulty eating healthy food because of lack of choices on campus.
3. I don't have enough money to eat healthy food.
4. I don't have enough time to focus on eating healthy food.
5. I need to learn more about healthy eating.
6. It's not something I'm very concerned about.
3. When you are facing an issue regarding your emotions, stress, mental health, or relationships, what do you typically do?
1. Wait for it to pass or work through it.
2. Talk to a health professional.
3. Talk to friends or family.
4. Talk to another trusted person such as a teacher, RA, or religious person.
5. Use a method such as meditation, exercise, or something similar.
You can also take the anonymous What Students Say surveys to add your voice to this textbook. Your responses will be included in updates.
Students offered their views on these questions, and the results are displayed in the graphs below.
In your opinion, which of the following is the most significant health issue facing college students?
Which of the following best describes your experience or outlook regarding healthy eating while in college?
When you are facing an issue regarding your emotions, stress, mental health, or relationships, what do you typically do?
What Is Mental Health?
Mental health is “the level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness. It is the state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment.”22
According to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), a mental illness is a condition that affects a person's thinking, feeling, or mood. The condition may affect a person’s ability to relate to others and function throughout the day.
A mental health condition isn’t the result of one event; it is most often the result of multiple overlapping causes. Environment, lifestyle, and genetic predisposition can all be factors in whether someone develops a mental health condition. Traumatic life events or stressful experiences may make some people more susceptible, and brain biochemistry may play a role as well. Mental health conditions show up in many ways. Anxiety, depression, and eating disorders are some of the most common.
Anxiety Disorders
We all experience the occasional feeling of anxiety, which is quite normal. New situations, meeting new people, driving in traffic, and public speaking are just a few of the common activities that can cause people to feel anxious. It is important to seek help when these feelings become overwhelming, cause fear, or keep us from doing everyday activities. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health concern in the United States, and while there are many types of anxiety disorders, they all have one thing in common: “persistent, excessive fear or worry in situations that are not threatening.”23 Physically, your heart may race, and you may experience shortness of breath, nausea, or intense fatigue. Talk with a mental health care professional if you experience a level of anxiety that keeps you from your regular daily activities.
Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are not uncommon among students. Stress or anxiety may create a desire for some students to overeat, while others may develop a concern about body shape or weight and significantly reduce their food intake.
Anorexia nervosa is a potentially fatal illness marked by self-starvation. People with anorexia usually have an irrational concern about body shape or weight and eat a very restricted diet. They may also feel the need to exercise all the time, even when they are sick or exhausted.
Binge eating is frequent consumption of large amounts of food in a short period of time. People who binge regularly (more than once a week) and feel a lack of control over their eating may have binge eating disorder (BED). It is important to seek treatment if you suspect there is an issue with binge eating. Treatment can address any underlying psychological issues that will help control urges to binge eat.
Bulimia involves cycles of excessive eating followed by eliminating food through vomiting or with laxatives. Eating disorders can lead to many complications, some of them very serious, like heart conditions and kidney failure. It is crucial for anyone with an eating disorder to stabilize their health, then continuing medical care and counseling to reach full recovery. Eating disorders can be treated successfully with medical care, psychotherapy, counseling, or coaching.
If you think you might have an eating disorder, visit a doctor or your campus health center. The National Eating Disorders Association also offers information, help, and support.
Depression
Most people feel sad at times. This is a normal reaction to loss or struggles we face. Being sad is not the same as having depression. When intense sadness lasts for several days or even weeks and you are no longer interested in activities you once enjoyed, it may be depression. Depression can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.
Depression does not have a single cause. It can follow a life crisis or physical illness, but it can also occur spontaneously. Several factors including trauma, a significant life change, brain injury, and drug and alcohol misuse may contribute to depression. Depression is a treatable medical condition. Talk with a mental health care professional if you experience an ongoing level of sadness that keeps you from your regular daily activities.
Suicidal Behavior
Suicide is when people direct violence at themselves with the intent to end their lives, and they die because of their actions.24
People who contemplate suicide often experience a deep feeling of hopelessness. They often don’t feel they can cope with challenging life events and are not able to see solutions to problems. In the moment, they are unable to see that the challenges are really only temporary. Most survivors of suicide attempts go on to live wonderful, full lives.
Depression is a key risk factor for suicide, along with substance abuse, chronic debilitating pain, mental health disorders, and a family history of suicide.
These are some of the warning signs to help you determine if a friend or loved one is at risk for suicide, especially if the behavior is new, has increased, or seems related to a painful event:
• talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves
• looking for a way to kill themselves, like searching online or buying a gun
• talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live
• talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
• talking about being a burden to others
• increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
• acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly
• sleeping too little or too much
• withdrawing or isolating themselves
• showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
• extreme mood swings25
Help is available all day, every day, for anyone who might be in crisis. By offering immediate counseling to everyone that may need it, crisis centers provide invaluable support at the most critical times. If you or someone you know has warning signs of suicide, get help as soon as possible. Family and friends are often the first to recognize any warning signs and can help take the first step in finding treatment.
If someone is telling you that they are going to kill themselves, do not leave them alone. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A Crisis Text Line is also available 24/7 by texting HOME to 741741, 85258, or 686868. There are also near-term plans to implement a 988 suicide hotline number that will work similarly to 911.
Additional Resources
Because entering college is such a big transition, it is important to know what health services are available on your campus. Some help may be beyond the scope of a college counseling program, and if this is the case, your college health center can refer you to off-campus resources to support you.
Regardless of where you attend college, OK2TALK and NAMI offer online, text, and phone support.
• OK2TALK is a community for young adults struggling with mental health problems. It offers a safe place to talk.
• Call the NAMI helpline at 800-950-6264, or txt NAMI to 741741.
Your brain requires a constant supply of energy to function. What you eat and are exposed to have a direct impact on its processes, your mood, and your ability to make good decisions. A majority of college students feel anxious, lonely, or depressed at some point during the year. We all have bad days, and sometimes bad days string into weeks. It’s OK to feel bad. What’s important is to acknowledge and work through your feelings, and find a friend or a counselor to talk to. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/11%3A_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle/11.04%3A_Taking_Care_of_Your_Mental_Health.txt |
Questions to consider:
• How does self-care benefit relationships?
• Why is community so important to healthy relationships?
• What is sexual health?
Relationships are key to happy and healthy lives. According to Dr. Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, people with the best health outcomes were people who “leaned into relationships, with family, with friends, with community.”
The quality of our relationships is important, however. What makes a relationship healthy? Relationships come in many forms: lovers, family, friends, coworkers, team members, and neighbors. Think of a relationship where you have mutual respect and trust, supporting each other in tough times, celebrating the good times, and communicating with ease and honesty. This is a healthy relationship. Do you have someone in mind? On the other hand, if communication is often tense or strained, confidences are broken, or you don’t feel listened to, appreciated, or valued, these are signs of an unhealthy relationship. Unhealthy relationships can have both immediate and longer-term health impacts. If you are unhappy in a relationship, try to improve the relationship, or end it. Do not stay in a relationship for the wrong reasons, such as fear of being alone or guilt.
If a partner tries to force you to do something sexually, harms you physically, or is verbally abusive, you are in an unhealthy relationship. Even if you believe the person loves you, it does not make up for the harm they are doing to you. End the relationship.
Take a moment to assess the health of your relationships. Who are the people who make you smile, who boost your confidence, who truly listen when you need to talk, and who want only the best for you? Investing in these relationships is likely to make you happier and healthier. Relationships are two-way streets. How committed are you to your relationships? How much effort do you put into nurturing your relationships?
Self-Care
Healthy relationships start with healthy individuals. Self-care is learning to take good care of yourself and to prioritize your own needs. Self-care involves any activity that nurtures and refuels you, such as taking a walk in the woods, going to a yoga class, attending a sporting event, reading a good book, or spending time with friends. When you are feeling calm and nourished, you are going to look forward to your day, and despite how busy it is, you will prioritize time with friends and family. If you don’t take care of and learn to love yourself, you will never be able to bring your best self to any relationship.
An important dynamic you bring to any relationship is how you feel about yourself. Self-esteem is about loving yourself and being happy for who you are. Building healthy self-esteem impacts how you see yourself, which can drastically improve your relationships. While low self-esteem won’t keep us from romantic love, it can act as a barrier to a healthy relationship. If you do not believe you are good enough, how can you expect your partner to think so?
When you feel secure in yourself, this allows you and your partner to feel more secure about the relationship. If you have insecurities, it may show in your relationship as jealousy, defensiveness, or tension that leads to unnecessary arguments. Healthy self-esteem goes hand in hand with self-confidence, and feeling confident about yourself will translate into a stronger and more satisfying relationship. If you are experiencing low self-esteem, you may give your partner too much credit or stay in a relationship that is not healthy for you. If you find yourself changing your personality for someone else, that is never a sign of a healthy relationship.
You can reverse negative self-talk and build your self-esteem. If you catch yourself thinking you are unlovable, unattractive, or not good enough, it’s important to start talking to yourself in a positive way and to celebrate all that is uniquely you.
Self-care includes self-forgiveness. We all make mistakes. A misstep isn’t the end of the world. Pick yourself up, put things in perspective, acknowledge any lessons to be learned, focus on all that makes you special, and move forward. Be kind to yourself.
The Importance of Community
The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica is home to some of the highest number of centenarians (people who are 100 years old or older) in the world. Costa Ricans in general report a high level of life satisfaction. Dan Buettner, author of the Blue Zones study of the longest living populations in the world, explains that Costa Rica “is a place where religion, family, and social interaction are the main values, unlike trying to get ahead, or financial security, or status. Their cities are set up so they’re bumping into each other all day long. They walk to the markets, where they have conversations with people.”26
In Costa Rica, multiple generations live together under the same roof or nearby where they can be involved in each other’s lives. Neighbors are like extended family, and people often stop in for a visit and go out of their way to help one another.
While this isn’t the way many of us live in the United States, the lessons from the Blue Zone study underscore the importance of community and the health benefits of connecting to and staying close to a community. What communities do you belong to? Is your dorm a community? A sports team? A club or people you volunteer with? When you start seeing the social circles you connect to as communities and prioritize your time to develop more closeness with those communities, you will experience many physical, mental, and emotional health benefits.
According to an analysis of research on college students (Joe Cuseo, The Most Potent, Research-Based Principles of College Success), college students who have a higher sense of belonging and are more involved in their college community are more successful. Additionally, college students who are involved in extracurricular, volunteer, and part-time work experiences outside the classroom (less than 20 hours per week) earn higher grades than students who do not get involved in any out-of-class activities at all.
APPLICATION
Make a list of the communities you belong to. Your list should include formal communities—for example, sports teams, fraternities or sororities, and membership in clubs and other organizations. Your list should also include informal communities—for example, your neighbors or the people you always see at your favorite exercise class.
Next to each community, write how being a member of this community benefits you and how your involvement benefits the community. Now, make a new list of your personal interests and passions. How well do these align with the communities you already belong to? Are there new communities that would be a good fit for you?
If you are struggling to identify communities you already belong to, think about your passions, causes you care about, and ways you love to spend your time. Find a group or club that aligns with your interests. If you can’t find one that already exists, start a new club!
Research has shown that friends provide a sense of meaning or purpose in our lives, and that having a healthy social life is important to staying physically healthy. In a meta-analysis of the research results from 148 studies of over 300,000 participants, researchers found that social relationships are important in improving our lifespan. Social support has been linked to lower blood pressure and better immune system functioning. The meta-analysis also showed that social support operates on a continuum: the greater the extent of the relationships, the lower the health risks.27
According to a 2018 report from the American College Health Association, in a 12-month period, 63 percent of college students have felt very lonely. If you are feeling lonely or having a hard time making friends, know that the majority of people around you have also felt this way. Joining a group or a club of people who share your interests and passions is one of the best ways to make great friends and stay connected.
Sexual Health
Affection, love, and sexual intimacy all play an important role in healthy relationships, and a responsible approach to intimacy is essential for sexual health. Whether you are already sexually active or become sexually active in the future, your choices can affect your safety as well as the health and safety of your sexual partners. It’s important to understand what you can do to protect yourself from sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Table 11.1 STI data, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment information courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/std
Common Sexually Transmitted Infections
Infection Symptoms Diagnosis and Treatment
Human papillomavirus (HPV)
• HPV can be passed even when an infected person has no signs or symptoms.
• Most people with HPV do not know they are infected.
• Symptoms can include genital warts, abnormal Pap test results, and cancer.
• There is no test for HPV.
• There is a vaccine to prevent it.
• There is no treatment for HPV, although there are treatments for the health problems it can cause.
• Routine Pap tests can identify problems.
Chlamydia
• Symptoms include a burning sensation when urinating and/or discharge from the penis or vagina; however, most people who have chlamydia have no symptoms.
• In women, it can cause damage to the reproductive system.
• Testing usually involves a urine sample or vaginal swab.
• It can be cured with the right treatment.
Genital herpes
• Genital herpes is caused by two types of viruses, herpes simplex type 1 and herpes simplex type 2.
• The virus can be released through sores or through the skin even when sores are not visible.
• Get examined by your doctor if you notice an unusual sore, a smelly discharge, or burning when urinating.
• It can be diagnosed through the symptoms, testing a sample from the sore(s), or a blood test.
• There is no cure for herpes; however, there are medicines that can prevent or shorten outbreaks.
Gonorrhea
• Symptoms can include a burning sensation when urinating, abnormal discharge from the penis or vagina, and bleeding between periods.
• Rectal infection symptoms include itching, burning, and bleeding.
• Get examined by your doctor if you or your sexual partner notice any of these symptoms.
• Testing is usually a urine sample and possibly a throat or rectum swab.
• It can be cured with the right treatment.
• Medication will stop the infection, but it will not undo any permanent damage caused by the disease.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• HIV damages the body's immune system cells.
• The most advanced stage of HIV infection is commonly referred to as AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
• It most often spreads through fluid exchange via unprotected sex or by sharing drug needles with an infected person.
• Women can pass HIV to their babies during pregnancy or childbirth.
• Medications such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can reduce risk when taken consistently and with other prevention measures.
• People can live with the disease for many years, especially if they are diagnosed and treated early.
• Early diagnosis is also important to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to others.
How You Can Protect Yourself against STIs
The surest way to protect yourself against STIs is to practice abstinence. This means not having any vaginal, anal, or oral sex. There are many things to consider before having sex, and it’s okay to say no if you are not ready. If you do decide to have sex, you and your partner should both get tested beforehand and make sure you always use a condom. It’s not safe to stop using condoms unless you’ve both been tested, know your status, have another form of birth control, and are in a mutually monogamous relationship. Mutual monogamy means that you and your partner both agree to only have sexual contact with each other. This can help protect against STIs as long as you’ve both been tested and know you’re STI-free. Visit this website to find a confidential STI testing location near you.
Before you have sex, talk with your partner about how you will prevent STIs and pregnancy. If you think you’re ready to have sex, you need to be ready to protect your body and your future. You should also talk to your partner ahead of time about what you will and will not do sexually. Your partner should always respect your right to say no to anything that doesn’t feel right. Sex should always be consensual and respectful.
It’s important to discuss treatment with your doctor and begin treatment as soon as possible if you find out you have an STI. If you are living with an STI, it’s important to tell your partner before you have sex. Although it may be uncomfortable to talk about your STI, open and honest conversation can help your partner make informed decisions to protect his or her health.
Footnotes
1. https://www.bluezones.com/2017/10/co...-places-earth/
2. Holt-Lunstad, PLoS Medicine, https://journals.plos.org/plosmedici...l.pmed.1000316 | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/11%3A_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle/11.05%3A_Maintaining_Healthy_Relationships.txt |
Questions to consider:
• What makes a person safety conscious?
• How can you improve your personal safety?
Safety Consciousness
To be safety conscious means you have an awareness of potential hazards and an alertness to danger. Simply, you are conscious of being safe. This includes being smart about your physical surroundings and careful with drug and alcohol use.
A drug is a chemical substance that can change how your body and mind work and how you feel. Some drugs are illegal (like cocaine or heroin), and while others may be legal, they can still harm your body and brain. Even prescription medicines can be abused when taken to get high or to a point of dependency.
Why do people abuse drugs? The answer varies for different people, but most want to feel good and escape any bad feelings they are experiencing. Or they want to improve in an area of their life—for example, to get better grades. This may lead them to start taking drugs for more energy, to stay awake longer, or to stay focused while studying. This short-term boost is not worth the health risks and the potential for addiction.
Alcohol
The statistics are sobering. Thirty-two percent of college students who drank alcohol reported doing something they later regretted, 27 percent forgot where they were or what they did, and 11 percent physically hurt themselves.28 Many people consume alcohol to relax, socialize, or celebrate, but there are serious health effects attributed to too much alcohol consumption.
You do not need to be an alcoholic for alcohol to interfere with your health and life, and the potential to become addicted to alcohol is a serious problem that can affect anyone.
Alcohol is classified as a drug and is a known depressant, making it the most widely used drug in the world. Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works. These disruptions can change your mood and behavior and make it harder to think clearly and move with coordination. This is why it is critical to never drive a vehicle if you have been drinking. Drinking can weaken your immune system and damage your heart, increasing your risk for stroke and high blood pressure. Heavy drinking also harms the liver and pancreas.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism offers the following guidelines:
• Moderate alcohol consumption: up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men
• Binge drinking: typically occurs after four drinks for women and five drinks for men in a two-hour period that brings blood alcohol concentration levels to 0.08 g/dL
• Heavy drinking: drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion on each of five or more days in the past 30 days
Alcohol is a part of the social scene on many college campuses. If you choose to drink, you can avoid the devastating consequences of alcohol addiction by drinking responsibly and in moderation. The quality of your schoolwork can suffer dramatically if you drink beyond moderation. Too much alcohol can result in missing classes, performing poorly on exams, and falling behind in assignments. Have you ever decided to drink instead of study even though you had a big test the next day? Have you missed a class because you were too hungover to get out of bed? Did you hand in a project or paper late or not at all due to a series of nights spent drinking? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are at risk of negatively impacting your success in college because of alcohol.
Tobacco and Vaping
Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are also drugs. Tobacco contains nicotine, which excites the parts of the brain that make you feel good. Nicotine gives you a mild rush of pleasure and energy but soon wears off, which makes you want more. The more frequently you smoke, the faster your body and brain get addicted.
Tobacco is not healthy. Cigarette smoke causes lung cancer and emphysema. If you live with someone who smokes, you are also susceptible to these diseases, even if you are a nonsmoker. This is called secondhand smoke. Smokers are more likely to suffer heart attacks. Chewing tobacco can lead to cancer of the mouth. If you currently smoke, there are medicines and various treatments, as well as hotlines, to help you quit.
Electronic cigarettes are marketed as a way to help people stop smoking. Unfortunately, while they do contain less nicotine, they have many health risks.
E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that people use to inhale an aerosol containing nicotine, flavors, and other chemicals. When you smoke an e-cigarette (also called vaping), the nicotine is absorbed from the lungs into the bloodstream, where it stimulates the adrenal glands to release the hormone epinephrine. Epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) stimulates the central nervous system and increases blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate. Like other addictive substances, nicotine activates the brain’s reward circuits and increases dopamine. This pleasure causes some people to use nicotine with increased frequency, despite risks to their health and well-being.
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has alerted the public to reports of serious lung illnesses and several deaths associated with vaping. While the manufacturers of e-cigarettes would like us to believe they are less harmful than cigarettes, nicotine is a highly addictive drug. It is best to stay away from it in any form. E-cigarettes are not an FDA-approved smoking cessation aid, and there is no conclusive scientific evidence on the effectiveness of e-cigarettes to help stop smoking.
Smoking e-cigarettes also exposes the lungs to chemicals. A study of some e-cigarette products found that the vapor contains known carcinogens and toxic chemicals, and the device itself can contain toxic metals.
If you are still in your teens or early adulthood, these years are critical for brain development. If you use nicotine in any form, or for that matter any substances, you are putting yourself at risk for long-lasting effects.
Marijuana
Marijuana comes from the cannabis plant. It can be rolled up and smoked like a cigarette, called a joint. It can also be smoked in a pipe, and edibles are becoming increasingly common. Marijuana can make you feel relaxed, silly, or for some people, nervous.
Marijuana makes it harder to pay attention and to remember things that just happened a few minutes ago. If you smoke before class, it is going to make it more challenging to learn. A recent study showed that if you begin regular marijuana use as a teen, you can lose an average of eight IQ points, and you do not get them back, even if you stop using.29
Using marijuana makes the heart beat fast and raises your risk of having a heart attack. Marijuana smoke can hurt your lungs. One of the biggest risks is drugged driving, which is driving when you are high. Marijuana makes it harder to pay attention on the road, and your reactions to traffic signs and sounds are slowed. It is dangerous to smoke and drive.
Prescription Pain Medicine
Pain medicines help relieve pain from surgery or injuries. Prescription pain medicines are legal and helpful to use when ordered by a doctor to treat a specific medical problem within a specific time frame. It is vitally important to take any prescriptions according to your doctor’s instructions, and to carefully read all risks and food/medicine counteractions.
Unfortunately, people sometimes take pills without a doctor’s prescription to get high, believing they are safer than street drugs. Make no mistake, prescription pain pill abuse can be just as dangerous as heroin or cocaine. Drug dealers sell these pills just like they sell heroin or cocaine. The abuse of oxycodone has become well documented—sometimes it goes by the brand names OxyContin or Percocet. Hydrocodone is also often abused and is best known under the brand name Vicodin.
Prescription pain pill abuse can lead to many problems. Pain medicine abuse can slow down or even stop your breathing. Signs of a pain medicine overdose are cold and sweaty skin, confusion, shaking, extreme sleepiness, and trouble breathing. More people overdose from pain medicines every year than from heroin and cocaine combined. If your doctor prescribes any pain relief pills for you, it is important to ask a lot of questions and understand why your doctor is prescribing them. If after consideration you decide to take pain-relief pills, stop taking them as soon as you possibly can. The longer you take them, the higher the possibility of getting addicted.
Cocaine and Heroin
Cocaine and heroin are both powders, often snorted up the nose, smoked, or mixed with water and injected with a needle. It is easy to become addicted to both drugs, and many people who seek treatment find it hard to stay off the drug. It is not uncommon to feel strong cravings for heroin or cocaine years after seeking treatment. People who inject the drug using a shared needle put themselves at further risk of contracting blood-borne viruses, such as hepatitis or HIV.
Cocaine can make people feel full of energy for a period of time, but it can also bring about feelings of restlessness and anger. Cocaine raises blood pressure and makes the heart beat faster, which could lead to a heart attack or stroke.
Heroin brings a rush of good feelings after it’s taken. The feeling then wears off, and users often feel a strong urge to take more. The reason so many people overdose on heroin is because they can’t tell how strong it is until they take it. Heroin can slow or stop your breathing. It can kill you. Signs of a heroin overdose are slow breathing; blue lips and fingernails; cold, clammy skin; and shaking.
There are medicines that can help people recover from addiction, but the best course is to not start. Avoid any temptation to try heroin or cocaine. Experimentation can be deadly.
Methamphetamine (Meth)
Meth is a white powder that is sometimes made into a pill or rock. Meth powder can be eaten or snorted up the nose. Like cocaine and heroin, it can also be mixed with liquid and injected into your body with a needle. Crystal meth is smoked in a small glass pipe.
Meth at first causes a rush of good feelings, but then users feel edgy, overly excited, angry, or afraid. Meth causes many problems. It can make your body temperature so hot that you pass out and could die. If you look at pictures of meth users, you will notice how quickly the drug ages them. Teeth become stained, break, and rot. As the teeth go bad the mouth looks sunken. Meth users burn a lot of energy and don’t eat well, which leads to weight loss and a sickly appearance. The skin turns dull, and sores and pimples that won’t heal are common. Meth use can quickly lead to addiction and cause cognitive or emotional problems that don’t go away or that come back again even after you quit using. For instance, some users feel, hear, or see things that aren’t there and think that people are out to get them.
This is a dangerous drug that should be avoided at all costs.
Other Drugs
There are many other drugs of abuse, including Ecstasy, K2 (or Spice), LSD, PCP, and roofies. It’s best to avoid all of them.
If your use of drugs or alcohol is interfering with your life and negatively impacting your health, school, relationships, or finances—it’s time to quit and find help.
The first semester is an especially critical and vulnerable time for most first-year students. It is often a time of heavy drinking and partying. The transition to college is often difficult, and while partying may feel like it is helping to ease the transition, the health risks are real: about one-third of first-year students fail to enroll for their second year.
If you are concerned about your drug or alcohol use, or you need help quitting, visit the student health center or talk with your college counselor. If you need additional resources, the following can help:
Personal Safety
For many students, their first year in college is also the first time they have lived away from home, or for commuting students, often the most time they have spent away from home. This new freedom can feel really exciting. College should be a time for fun, experimentation (in healthy ways), and growth. It’s important to be smart about your safety and conscious that you don’t put yourself in any high-risk situations. It’s also important to know what to do if any problems arise. Here are some ways to remain safe while enjoying your college experience:
1. If you are worried about a friend’s well-being, ask them if they are OK. If you see inappropriate behavior, let someone know. Get an RA or other authority involved if someone looks like they are in trouble or an activity looks like it is leading to trouble. In general, speak up if you notice something going on that concerns you.
2. Many colleges and universities have blue-light phones with direct access to campus security. If your campus has blue-light phones, take the time to find out where they are. If you are not familiar with the emergency system on your campus, visit your public safety department (or website) to understand how you can call for help in an emergency. Add campus security to your phone contacts.
3. A risk at bars and at college campus parties is the use of date-rape drugs to assist sexual assaults. Date-rape drugs often have no color, smell, or taste, so you can’t tell if you are being drugged. The drugs can make you weak and confused so you are unable to refuse sex or defend yourself.
It is easy for anyone to slip a date-rape drug in your drink. Never leave your drink unattended, and never accept a drink from someone you do not trust.
4. Always be aware of the people in your surrounding area. Notice anyone who looks out of place, and avoid dark and unpopulated areas. Make sure to charge your cell phone before you go out for the evening.
5. Going out with a group is the best way to make sure everyone gets home safely. In the event you find yourself alone at the end of the night, know ahead of time what escort services your school offers. Or use services like Uber and Lyft, and MAKE SURE you get in the car that matches the license plate on the app.
It’s also wise to install safety apps. These apps can automatically alert police and your emergency contacts in the event of an emergency. Always let your roommates and friends know your plans for the evening and when you expect to return.
GET CONNECTED
Luckily, there are tech opportunities to keep yourself safe. Three good apps for the job are:
Noonlight is an app that connects all your devices to trigger an alarm with a live, 24/7 staff in case of any emergency: heart attack, car wreck, assault, or any other event that requires emergency attention.
Kitestring is an app you alert when you are headed out to a potentially risky situation, like a first date or meeting someone for the first time. The app texts you to check in, and if you don’t respond, it alerts your emergency contacts to the situation.
Circle of 6 makes it easy for you to alert the six people in your circle any time you need help.
If You Are a Victim of a Crime
Most college students report feeling safe on campus. College administrators are fully committed to making your campus experience as safe as possible. If you are attacked, it is important to know what to do:
• If possible, get to a safe place. Move to a well-lit area to call for help.
• Call 911 or have someone call 911 for you.
• Follow the operator's instructions. 911 operators will instruct you until police or paramedics arrive.
• Contact a trusted friend or family member. You will want emotional support and also somewhere to go after all the official procedures are complete.
• Take time to heal. If you are a victim of crime or assault, it can be traumatic. The healing process will take time. Check with your campus mental health services about how they can help in your recovery.
If You Are a Victim of Sexual Assault or Rape
Sexual assault is any type of sexual activity you don’t agree to. This can include inappropriate touching, sexual intercourse, attempted rape, and rape. Most people are surprised to learn that 80 percent of rapes are committed by someone the victim knows.
Take the following steps if you or someone you know has been raped:
• Get medical care. Go to the nearest rape crisis center, hospital, or student health service center. Do not go to the bathroom, shower, brush your teeth, wash your hands, or change clothes before you go. It’s important to preserve any evidence.
• Ask the hospital or center to take a urine sample to test for date-rape drugs.
• Call the police from the hospital. Tell the police exactly what you remember. File a report.
• Arrange for follow-up counseling. A counselor can help you work through the many emotions you may feel following a sexual assault, which is important to the healing process. You can get help from the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE.
Under Title IX legislation, sexual harassment and sexual violence are forms of gender discrimination and are prohibited. This includes off-campus incidents or incidents that involve people who are not students. If you experience a hostile environment, sexual harassment, or sexual assault, schools have a responsibility to stop the discrimination, prevent its recurrence, and address its effects. Schools also have a responsibility to protect people who report sexual harassment or assault from retaliation from other students, school administrators, or faculty.
The Clery Act, a federal law that intersects with Title IX, requires colleges and universities to do the following for survivors of campus sexual assault:
• Notify survivors of counseling resources.
• Notify survivors of the option to report a case to the school and law enforcement.
• Provide requested accommodations, such as changing dorms or classes.
• Notify survivors of the final outcome of a disciplinary proceeding.
Footnotes
1. American College Health Association, 2018 https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/...ve_Summary.pdf
2. NIDA’s DrugFacts: Electronic Cigarettes (e-Cigarettes) | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/11%3A_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle/11.06%3A_Your_Safety.txt |
In this chapter you have been introduced to the wide range of factors that impact your health. Health is much more than keeping your physical body in good shape. Good health also includes your mental and emotional health, quality relationships, and prioritizing your personal safety.
The contributors to physical health include eating clean, non-processed food; staying hydrated; moving your body daily; and getting sufficient sleep. You now understand why it is necessary to prioritize sleep, and that quality sleep is also dependent on the way you eat and exercise. You have identified ways to improve what you eat and how you sleep. With these changes you should be able to fall asleep with ease, stay asleep all night, and wake up feeling energized. Your mind will be clear and sharp. and you’ll get more done in less time, massively increasing your productivity and your success in college.
You now understand that a certain level of stress is to be expected. Chronic stress, however, is damaging to the body, so it’s important to have a variety of tools to manage stress. Practicing mindfulness, deep breathing, and gratitude can have a powerful impact on your emotional, mental, and physical health.
At the beginning of this chapter, you were introduced to a simple way of thinking about your health—nutrients in, toxins out. This means eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and avoiding junk food, soda, and other sugary beverages. If you move often throughout the day, drink plenty of clean water, and prioritize your sleep, you will help your body detoxify. Reduce your exposure to toxins by paying attention to what you put in and on your body. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin or hair. A helpful way to remember to take care of your health is to follow the rule of eights: aim each day for eight hours of sleep, eight servings of fruits and vegetables, eight glasses of water, eight minutes of mindfulness, and eight meaningful connections, and incorporate any one of these eight ways to move—walking, aerobic exercise, strength training, yoga, Tai Chi, stretching, HIIT, or dancing.
11.08: Career Connection
Is putting in longer hours at work an effective strategy for meeting workplace demands? Read this article about managing your energy instead of your time.
11.09: Rethinking
Revisit the questions you answered at the beginning of the chapter, and consider one option you learned in this chapter that might make you rethink how you answered each one. Has this chapter prompted you to consider changing any of your habits?
Rank the following questions on a scale of 1–4. 1 = “least like me” and 4 = “most like me.”
1. I eat enough fruits and vegetables every day.
2. I get enough sleep.
3. I have, for the most part, healthy relationships with friends and family.
4. I feel like I know how to manage stress.
11.10: Where do you go from here
It’s easy to lose focus on your own health and wellness during the tumultuous first year in college. But the benefits of developing strategies to improve and maintain your emotional, physical, and mental health will only increase as you age. What would you like to learn more about? Choose a topic from the list below, and create an annotated bibliography that would direct further research.
• simple strategies to improve physical health
• daily opportunities to maintain and improve emotional well-being
• mental health risks and warning signs
• steps to take to be more safety conscious | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/11%3A_Engaging_in_a_Healthy_Lifestyle/11.07%3A_Summary.txt |
Thumbnail: pixabay.com/photos/doors-choices-choose-decision-1690423/
12: Planning for Your Future
Student Survey
How ready are you to plan your career? Take this quick survey to figure it out, ranking questions on a scale of 1–4, 1 meaning “least like me” and 4 meaning “most like me.”
1. I am feeling certain about my major (or my ability to choose a major soon).
2. I know what kinds of jobs I can get with my major.
3. I have a good idea of what I need to do in each year of college to achieve career success as I graduate.
4. I am aware of what resources are on campus to help me create a career plan.
You can also take the Chapter 12 survey anonymously online.
STUDENT PROFILE
“A lesson I have learned throughout my college career is that changing majors is okay. Fresh out of high school, I always wanted to be an FBI agent. I wanted to be in those forensic shows—like Criminal Minds—that we all see on TV. So I decided to go to college and major in criminal justice with an emphasis in forensic science. When I started to take criminal justice classes, I noticed that my passion and determination were focused on something else: helping others and changing people’s lives so they do not have to struggle as much as I did. I quickly decided to talk to a career counselor and let him know that I wanted to change majors. We discussed the long-term plans and where I would see myself in the future. I changed my major to a related one, sociology. And with that, I want to be a counselor, as I want to help others achieve their goals.”
—Carlos Espinosa
About This Chapter
In earlier chapters of this book (1, 3, 4), you learned more about setting the foundation for college and career success by gaining a deeper understanding of why you are attending college, how to set goals and priorities, and how to begin your academic and life planning. By the time you complete this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
• Learn what a career is and how it applies to you.
• Identify resources on campus that can help you explore careers and develop a plan.
• Increase your self-awareness relative to your career aspirations, and map productive steps forward.
12.01: Why Worry about a Career While I'm in College
Questions to Consider:
• What should I consider when choosing a career?
• How do I separate career myths from reality?
CAREER (noun)
Definition of career (Entry 1 of 2)
1: a profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling
a career in medicine
—often used before another noun
a career diplomat
2: a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life
Washington’s career as a soldier1
Throughout your life, you’ve probably heard about getting a “good job” after you graduate. Everyone might define that differently. Many people say a good job is one where you can make a lot of money, but is that true? And is that true for you?
Consider the definition of “career” above. Does it seem exciting? Are there parts that sound intimidating? How can you navigate both parts of the responsibility of having a career? Many people believe that just because they have had a job, they know how to have a career. Getting a job is a single transaction. Crafting a career takes more strategy and time.
What Is the Difference Between a Job and a Career?
A universal definition of a job is “work that you do in exchange for money.” It can also be a particular role or title. Going back to our definition of career above, a career is something for which we train, something that we intend to do permanently—which in actuality means long-term and over time, not necessarily for the rest of your life. It is a field or area in which we have achievement. It occurs progressively and usually consecutively. Here is how some current college students have defined “career”:
• “A career is long-term; you do it until you can’t anymore.”
• “Something you love . . . a dream job.”
• “What you plan and strive for while you work.”
• “When you are more invested in the activities of the job than just getting a paycheck.”2
Shira
When Shira was in college, she had a job at a local ice-cream stand. She made very good money in the summertime, so she could work less during the school year. She also learned a lot about customer service and working with her coworkers as a team. Shira eventually took on more responsibility as a supervisor, creating work schedules and interviewing prospective new employees. She really enjoyed this part of her job because she liked tasks involving helping people do well at work. Her boss, customers, and coworkers told her she was good at it. Unbeknownst to her at the time, this was the beginning of Shira’s career in human resources.
How did this happen? As she took classes in psychology and business, Shira saw her courses in organizational psychology and management as applicable to her work. She enjoyed learning about how people interact in the workplace. She learned about human resources, which is typically defined as the department of a business or organization that deals with the hiring, administration, and training of people. She wanted to learn even more, so she got an internship in the human resources department of a bank before she graduated and loved it.
After getting her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, Shira got her first career-oriented job, as a recruiting specialist at a health insurance company. After about two years of working diligently, Shira got promoted to a job as a human resource generalist, with responsibility for recruiting strategy and process; recruiting specialists now report to her. In addition to working full-time, Shira also is active in her local chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management and will begin studying to take the national certification exams offered through this organization, giving her a highly sought-after professional credential. Within 5 to 10 years, Shira hopes to become a human resources director.
Shira’s career path is a straightforward one. She learned a lot about herself early in her college career. She got some experience and studied academic subjects she was interested in. Shira was nervous and uncertain at times, but she remained positive and adjusted her course as needed. She worked hard and made plans to be sure she could get a “good job.”
WHAT STUDENTS SAY
1. What is your most significant concern about starting your career after college?
1. I didn’t choose the right major
2. I won’t have enough experience or knowledge to get a good job
3. I might have to compromise my interests or goals
4. Something about my career path, my past, or my decisions will impact my ability to be hired.
2. With what do you feel you need the most help in preparing for your career?
1. Choosing the best major/pathway
2. Gaining experience that will lead to success
3. Standing out from others with similar majors or experience
4. Writing a resume/profile and/or building a portfolio
You can also take the anonymous What Students Say surveys to add your voice to this textbook. Your responses will be included in updates.
Students offered their views on these questions, and the results are displayed in the graphs below.
What is your most significant concern about starting your career after college?
With what do you feel you need the most help in preparing for your career?
Career Myths and Realities
Because you are a student, many people will want to give you advice as you make your way through college. Older family members like to talk about how things were when they were in and graduated from college. Your parents might have very definite ideas about what you should major in and the best way to get a job (or perhaps they don’t know at all, and you wish they did). Your friends, particularly those already in college, might tell you what their experience is, but maybe yours will be very different. Then there are all kinds of things you hear about in the news as to whether there are jobs out there. The economy can be very confusing at times. The stock market is up, then down. Government statistics tell us that the unemployment rate is lower than ever before, but many people say it is still very difficult to get a job. Students have seen their parents or grandparents get laid off, then hear that there is a new company in town that will hire thousands of people. Any and all of these things can be true, and all at the same time. So what does that mean for college students looking to begin their careers?
MYTH #1: “Because I am getting a college degree, I will have no problem getting hired and making a lot of money.”
REALITY: As you learned in chapters 1 and 10, your chances of making more money over the course of your lifetime are greater when you have a college degree. However, employers expect more than just a diploma. They also expect that you did well in your studies and engaged in activities and experiences that demonstrate you can put learning into context in a work setting. Internships, practicums, service learning, community-based research, part-time or summer jobs, and more prove to employers that you are capable and eager to begin your career.
MYTH #2: “There is one perfect job for me” or “I will be happy if I find the right career.”
REALITY: Finding the right career is not like waving a magic wand or a ticket to living your best Instagram life all of the time. There are jobs and careers for which you might be well-suited based on a combination of features and attributes. The better you know yourself, the better you can make a good match. Additionally, those features and attributes change over time, and by learning good career planning skills, you can adapt easily.
MYTH #3: “I can’t get a good job with (fill in the name of a major).”
REALITY: There are some majors that traditionally result in jobs that earn more than others do. These are usually because the education for these occupations is often rigorous, and both training for and working in the occupation require a high level of skill and knowledge, even over time (engineering, computer science, accounting). However, anybody can get a “good” job with their major. The key is to understand what knowledge, skills, and abilities are required for the jobs you would like and to take action to make sure you have them. People who have a problem getting employment in their field after college may not have fully understood the requirements for being hired, they may have been unable to make the sacrifices necessary for that to happen, or they may have had unrealistic expectations.
MYTH #4: “I should base my major on ‘hot’ careers that will pay well.”
REALITY: Just because a major or career field is “hot” doesn’t mean that you will enjoy it or even be any good at it. Better to choose a career based on your interests, abilities, values, and personality. Additionally, which careers and fields are popular and well-paying can change quickly based on supply of candidates and economic situations. Thus, those who choose a hot field must be eager to learn new skills to keep up with the evolution of such a career.
MYTH #5: “It is too late to change my career.”
REALITY: It is almost never “too late” to make a career change. There are millions of people who have made career changes, some by going to college in their 30s, 40s, 50s, or even older. In many cases, the best time to make a change is when you are older, because you have more to offer employers, have gained different experiences, and have become more settled in your personal life. Many college students find they are well-positioned to make the most of their college studies when they are more mature.
MYTH #6: “No one will hire me because I am ‘just a student’; I won’t be able to compete with people with more experience.”
REALITY: Employers often like to hire recent graduates or people who are early in their careers because their learning is fresh, and they know how to learn new material and adapt quickly. Additionally, many employers believe that hiring new graduates allows them to train people the way that they would like. New graduates of all ages show persistence and flexibility by having earned a college degree and shown willingness to start something new.
MYTH #7: “I should be passionate about my work. If not, I am doing something wrong. “
REALITY: “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” and “Do what you love and the money will follow” are terrible advice. No one loves their work every minute of every day, and passion is a very high standard to meet. There are many things about which we might be passionate that would make for jobs that are completely unsuitable for us. What most people who are happy with their work have in common are that they can do it well; it has some impact on people, organizations, information, or things; and they find satisfaction in it. It is often through discovering this that passion for one’s work follows.
MYTH #8: “My career path should follow a neat, straight line.”
REALITY: For almost everyone, a career path is more like a winding road than a straight highway. Recall the story of Shira building a career off of her summer job, and know that Shira’s experience is one path of many. Not everyone has a clear idea of how to find a job that fulfills an interest and then how to move from that job to a career. It is not always so straightforward. For example, there is great value in choosing a major in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, or humanities, but sometimes these fields do not obviously transfer to a career. Yet with the right guidance, practice, and commitment, these majors provide many routes to a fulfilling career and life. Based on information, experiences, and skills you gather along the way, you will find that you need and want to adapt and adjust. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to get into a career.
MYTH #9: “There are not many jobs out there with good pay and benefits, so why bother looking?”
REALITY: The way in which we work has changed in the last twenty years. There are many more flexible work arrangements available. The “gig economy” refers to jobs that are independent of being an employee and are often time-limited. These positions give people multiple options for generating personal income and are good options for a “side hustle.” At the present time, the job market is also considered to be a “job seeker’s market,” meaning employers are having difficulty finding candidates for their openings. Every day, thousands of people get jobs that advance their status.
ACTIVITY
Consider the various events or conversations you’ve experienced in the past few years that have led you toward a career goal. Have any of the myths or their counterparts listed above impacted your choices? Are you called to reconsider any previous decisions? Why or why not? Are there additional preconceptions you might have that could potentially block you from moving forward with your ideal plans?
What Should I Be?
Have you ever heard statements like these?
• “You are so good at math . . . you should be an accountant.”
• “Your best grades have always been in art, but it isn’t really practical to become an artist.”
• “You like kids so much! You should be a teacher!”
Many people tend to first think of careers based on images they see in society or the media. Prestigious and high-visibility occupations are what many young people aspire to when they are young. How many of you first wanted to be a doctor, firefighter, entertainer, professional athlete, or teacher? As we grow up and get to know the world better, we are exposed to a greater universe of jobs. However, young people in middle and high school also tend to look at careers based on the subjects they are good at (or not good at) in school. These self-perceptions and interests can last long into adulthood. But education and the work world can be extremely different environments with different purposes and expectations. The realities of jobs and careers we choose are vastly more complex than the courses we like or don’t and whether we perform well in them in high school. Though we may have some images for “what we are” and “who we should be,” there are also many different options, and the choices can be overwhelming. How do we ensure that we make career decisions that are productive for us? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/12%3A_Planning_for_Your_Future/12.00%3A_Prelude_to_Planning_for_Your_Future.txt |
Questions to Consider:
• What steps should I take to learn about my best opportunities?
• What can I do to prepare for my career while in college?
• What experiences and resources can help me in my search?
The Career Planning Cycle helps us apply some concrete steps to figuring out where we might fit into the work world. If you follow the steps, you will learn about who you truly are, and can be, as a working professional. You will discover important knowledge about the work world. You will gain more information to help you make solid career decisions. You will get experience that will increase your qualifications. You will be more prepared to reach your professional goals. And the good news is that colleges and universities are set up nicely to help you utilize this process.
Learn About Yourself
To understand what type of work suits us and to be able to convey that to others to get hired, we must become experts in knowing who we are. Gaining self-knowledge is a lifelong process, and college is the perfect time to gain and adapt this fundamental information. Following are some of the types of information that we should have about ourselves:
• Interests: Things that we like and want to know more about. These often take the form of ideas, information, knowledge, and topics.
• Skills/Aptitudes: Things that we either do well or can do well. These can be natural or learned and are usually skills—things we can demonstrate in some way. Some of our skills are “hard” skills, which are specific to jobs and/or tasks. Others are “soft” skills, which are personality traits and/or interpersonal skills that accompany us from position to position.
• Values: Things that we believe in. Frequently, these are conditions and principles.
• Personality: Things that combine to make each of us distinctive. Often, this shows in the way we present ourselves to the world. Aspects of personality are customarily described as qualities, features, thoughts, and behaviors.
In addition to knowing the things we can and like to do, we must also know how well we do them. What are our strengths? When employers hire us, they hire us to do something, to contribute to their organization in some way. We get paid for what we know, what we can do, and how well or deeply we can demonstrate these things. Think of these as your Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). As working people, we can each think of ourselves as carrying a “tool kit.” In our tool kit are the KSAs that we bring to each job. As we gain experience, we learn how best to use our tools. We gain more tools and use some more often than others, but all the tools we gather during our career stay with us in some form.
ACTIVITY
Consider the top KSAs you currently have in your tool kit. Consider at least one in each category that you would like to develop while you’re in college.
Because you’re expected to spend your time in college focusing on what you learn in your classes, it might seem like a lot of extra work to also develop your career identity. Actually, the ideal time to learn about who you are as a worker and a professional is while you are so focused on learning and personal development, which lends itself to growth in all forms. College helps us acquire and develop our KSAs daily through our coursework and experiences. What might be some ways you can purposefully and consciously learn about yourself? How might you get more information about who you are? And how might you learn about what that means for your career? Awareness of the need to develop your career identity and your vocational worth is the first step. Next, undertaking a process that is mindful and systematic can help guide you through. This process will help you look at yourself and the work world in a different way. You will do some of this in this course. Then, during your studies, some of your professors and advisors may integrate career development into the curriculum, either formally or informally. Perhaps most significantly, the career center at your school is an essential place for you to visit. They have advisors, counselors, and coaches who are formally trained in facilitating the career development process.
Often, career assessment is of great assistance in increasing your self-knowledge. It is most often designed to help you gain insight more objectively. You may want to think of assessment as pulling information out of you and helping you put it together in a way that applies to your career. There are two main types of assessments: formal assessments and informal assessments.
Formal Assessments
Formal assessments are typically referred to as “career tests.” There are thousands available, and many are found randomly on the Internet. While many of these can be fun, “free” and easily available instruments are usually not credible. It is important to use assessments that are developed to be reliable and valid. Look to your career center for their recommendations; their staff has often spent a good deal of time selecting instruments that they believe work best for students.
Here are some commonly used and useful assessments that you may run across:
• Interest Assessments: Strong Interest Inventory, Self-Directed Search, Campbell Interest and Skill Survey, Harrington-O’Shea Career Decision-Making System
• Personality Measures: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsQuest), Big Five Inventory, Keirsey Temperament Sorter, TypeFocus, DiSC
• Career Planning Software: SIGI 3, FOCUS 2
GET CONNECTED
If you would like to do some formal assessment on your own, either in addition to what you can get on campus or if you don’t believe you have reliable access to career planning, this site developed by the U.S. Department of Labor has some career exploration materials that you may find helpful.
Informal Assessments
Often, asking questions and seeking answers can help get us information that we need. When we start working consciously on learning more about any subject, things that we never before considered may become apparent. Happily, this applies to self-knowledge as well. Some things that you can do outside of career testing to learn more about yourself can include:
Self-Reflection:
• Notice when you do something that you enjoy or that you did particularly well. What did that feel like? What about it made you feel positive? Is it something that you’d like to do again? What was the impact that you made through our actions?
• Most people are the “go to” person for something. What do you find that people come to you for? Are you good with advice? Do you tend to be a good listener, observing first and then speaking your mind? Do people appreciate your repair skills? Are you good with numbers? What role do you play in a group?
• If you like to write or record your thoughts, consider creating a career journal that you update regularly, whether it’s weekly or by semester. If writing your own thoughts is difficult, seek out guided activities that help prompt you to reflect.
• Many colleges have a career planning course that is designed to specifically lead you through the career decision-making process. Even if you are decided on your major, these courses can help you refine and plan best for your field.
Enlist Others:
• Ask people who know you to tell you what they think your strengths are. This information can come from friends, classmates, professors, advisors, family members, coaches, mentors, and others. What kinds of things have they observed you doing well? What personal qualities do you have that they value? You are not asking them to tell you what career you should be in; rather, you are looking to learn more about yourself.
• Find a mentor—such as a professor, an alumnus, an advisor, or a community leader—who shares a value with you and from whom you think you could learn new things. Perhaps they can share new ways of doing something or help you form attitudes and perceptions that you believe would be helpful.
• Get involved with one or more activities on campus that will let you use skills outside of the classroom. You will be able to learn more about how you work with a group and try new things that will add to your skill set.
• Attend activities on and off campus that will help you meet people (often alumni) who work in the professional world. Hearing their career stories will help you learn about where you might want to be. Are there qualities that you share with them that show you may be on a similar path to success? Can you envision yourself where they are?
• No one assessment can tell you exactly what career is right for you; the answers to your career questions are not in a test. The reality of career planning is that it is a discovery process that uses many methods over time to strengthen our career knowledge and belief in ourselves.
ACTIVITY
Choose one of the suggestions from the list, above, and follow through on it. Keep a log or journal of your experience with the activity and note how this might help you think about your future after college.
Explore Jobs and Careers
Many students seem to believe that the most important decision they will make in college is to choose their major. While this is an important decision, even more important is to determine the type of knowledge you would like to have, understand what you value, and learn how you can apply this in the workplace after you graduate. For example, if you know you like to help people, this is a value. If you also know that you’re interested in math and/or finances, you might study to be an accountant. To combine both of these, you would gain as much knowledge as you can about financial systems and personal financial habits so that you can provide greater support and better help to your clients.
The four factors of self-knowledge (interests, skills/aptitudes, values, and personality), which manifest in your KSAs, are also the factors on which employers evaluate your suitability for their positions. They consider what you can bring to their organization that is at once in line with their organization’s standards and something they need but don’t have in their existing workforce.
Along with this, each job has KSAs that define it. You may think about finding a job/career as looking like the figure below.
The importance of finding the right fit cannot be overstated. Many people don’t realize that the KSAs of the person and the requirements of the job have to match in order to get hired in a given field. What is even more important, though, is that when a particular job fits your four factors of self-knowledge and maximizes your KSAs, you are most likely to be satisfied with your work! The “fit” works to help you not only get the job, but also enjoy the job.
So if you work to learn about yourself, what do you need to know about jobs, and how do you go about learning it? In our diagram, if you need to have self-knowledge to determine the YOU factors, then to determine the JOB factors, you need to have workplace knowledge. This involves understanding what employers in the workplace and specific jobs require. Aspects of workplace knowledge include:
• Labor Market Information: Economic conditions, including supply and demand of jobs; types of industries in a geographic area or market; regional sociopolitical conditions and/or geographic attributes.
• Industry Details: Industry characteristics; trends and opportunities for both industry and employers; standards and expectations.
• Work Roles: Characteristics and duties of specific jobs and work roles; knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the work; training and education required; certifications or licenses; compensation; promotion and career path; hiring process.
This “research” may sound a little dry and uninteresting at first, but consider it as a look into your future. If you are excited about what you are learning and what your career prospects are, learning about the places where you may put all of your hard work into practice should also be very exciting! Most professionals spend many hours not only performing their work but also physically being located at work. For something that is such a large part of your life, it will help you to know what you are getting into as you get closer to realizing your goals.
How Do We Gain Workplace Knowledge?
• Understand that there is a wide range of occupations and industries that fit together so that we can see how all jobs contribute to the workplace. With the use of formal career assessments, it will be easy to see where you fit in using the map below.
• Learn the “textbook” definitions of what is involved in the jobs you are considering. In Chapter 4, you used the Occupational Outlook Handbook to learn more about the requirements for occupations. Its sister site, will help show you more specific job titles.
• Read online information that is relevant to the professions you are interested in. Good sources for this include professional associations. Just “googling” information is risky. Look for professional and credible information. The Occupational Outlook Handbook has links to many of these sources. Your career center can also guide you.
• Whether you are just choosing your major or are already in a major and want to know what options it offers in terms of future work, look for this specific information. Your department may have this information; your campus career center definitely will. One very good site is What Can I Do With This Major?
• Join professional clubs on campus. Many of these organizations have guest speakers who come to meetings and talk about what their jobs are like. Often, they also sponsor field trips to different companies and organizations.
• As mentioned earlier, attend campus networking events and programs such as job fairs and recruiting information sessions so that you can talk to people who actually do the work and get their insights.
Something to keep in mind as you make choices about your major and career is that the training is not the job. What you learn in your college courses is often foundational information; it provides basic knowledge that you need for more complex concepts and tasks. For example, a second-year student who is premed has the interests and qualities that may make her a good physician, but she is struggling to pass basic chemistry. She starts to think that medical school is no longer an appropriate goal because she doesn’t enjoy chemistry. Does it make sense to abandon a suitable career path because of one 15-week course? In some ways, yes. In the case of medical school, the education is so long and intensive that if the student can’t persevere through one introductory course, she may not have the determination to complete the training. On the other hand, if you are truly dedicated to your path, don’t let one difficult course deter you.
The example above describes Shantelle. They weren’t quite sure which major to choose, and they were feeling pressure because the window for making their decision was closing. They considered their values and strengths—they love helping people and have always wanted to pursue work in medical training. As described above, Shantelle struggled in general chemistry this semester and found that they actually didn’t enjoy it at all. They’ve heard nightmare stories about organic chemistry being even harder. Simultaneously, Shantelle is taking Intro to Psychology, something they thought would be an easier course but that they enjoy even though it’s challenging. Much to their surprise, they found the scientific applications of theory in the various types of mental illness utterly fascinating. But given that their life dream was to be a physician, Shantelle was reluctant to give up on medicine because of one measly chemistry course. With the help of an advisor, Shantelle decided to postpone choosing a major for one more semester and take a course in clinical psychology. Since there are so many science courses required for premed studies, Shantelle also agreed to take another science course. Their advisor helped Shantelle realize that it was likely not a wise choice to make such an important decision based on one course experience.
Focus Your Path
When you know yourself and know what to expect from a workplace and a job, you have information to begin to make decisions. As we’ve discussed throughout this book, you’re not attending college solely to get a job. But this is likely one of your goals, and your time in school offers a tremendous opportunity to both prepare for your career (or careers) and make yourself more attractive to organizations where you want to work. Successfully learning the content of your classes and earning good grades are among the most important. Beyond these priorities, you’ll learn the most about yourself and your potential career path if you engage in activities that will help you make decisions. Simply sitting back and thinking about the decision doesn’t always help you take action.
Take Advantage of Every Resource You Can While in School
Your college has a wealth of departments, programs, and people dedicated to your success. The more you work to discover and engage with these groups, the more successfully you’ll establish networks of support and build skills and knowledge for your career.
Make plans to drop by your career services or a related office early in your time in school. There, you’ll learn about events you can attend, and you’ll get to know some of the people there who can help you. The department may offer the formal assessments discussed earlier in this chapter, including aptitude testing, which can help you discover some of your areas of strength and give you insight into some high-potential career destinations. Career services may also have skills/interest inventories. These can help you match your attributes and ambitions with potential careers and suggest additional resources to explore.
Your college is also likely to have a resource that goes far beyond the campus itself: the alumni association. College alumni often maintain a relationship with the school and with their fellow graduates. Just by attending the same college, you have something in common with them. You chose the same place, maybe for similar reasons, and you might be having similar experiences. Often, alumni are eager to help current students by offering their professional insights and making career connections. You can find out about alumni events on your campus website, at the career center, and in the alumni department. These events can be fun and beneficial to attend, especially those involving networking opportunities. Note that specific departments or campus organizations may have their own alumni groups, whether formal or informal. Try to find former students who majored in your field or who have a job similar to the one you’d like one day. Remember, members of alumni organizations make a choice to be involved; they want to be there. It’s very likely they’ll be interested in offering you some help, mentoring, or even introductions to the right people.
Alumni may often attend events at your college, such as visiting guest speakers, art show openings, homecoming, or sporting events. You can find and talk with them there (under the right circumstances) and enjoy the event at the same time.
Networking is such a critical part of professional life that nearly every city or region has organizations and events devoted to it. Meetups are occasions for people with shared interests, skills, and professions to gather together and talk about their experiences and insights. The events might involve a brief talk or demonstration, a discussion or question-and-answer period, and then plenty of time for mingling. You can likely find these events with a quick search. But before you go, carefully review the guidelines and limits on who can attend. Some meetups may not be open to students or others not formally employed in a field; they may also be held in bars or involve alcohol, preventing those under 21 from attending. Don’t be offended by these barriers—the meetup organizers have specific goals and members to consider—but if you find one you can attend, try it out.
You can also network with people right at your college. Many of your college faculty likely have (or had) other roles and positions. A computer science professor may have worked for a tech company before moving into academia. Accounting faculty, especially certified public accountants, might take on tax work every spring. Nursing faculty likely maintain a role with a hospital or other medical office. Learn from them what the job is like and how you can better prepare for it. And don’t forget to talk to adjunct instructors; they may have an entirely separate career on top of their teaching role that gives them access to a network of potential mentors and employers.
Finally, you’ll likely encounter graduate students or preprofessional students, some of whom may be in the workforce or have work experience. While they themselves are still working on their education, they may have insights, connections, and ideas regarding your career.
Try Things Out
In the first two steps of the Career Planning Cycle, you gather information. You may have some ideas about jobs and careers that you may like, but you also may wonder if you will really like them. How will you know? How can you be more certain? Take an interest or a skill, and try it out in an experience. By putting it to work for you in any one of a number of different environments, you can get practice and learn more about who you are and just how much you can do. It’s a great idea to try out a new skill or career field before you commit to it fully. You might find out that the field isn’t right for you, but you also may find that you are heading in the right direction and want to keep pursuing it. Experiences help you become more qualified for positions. One exciting aspect of college is that there is a huge variety of learning experiences and activities in which to get involved. The following are some ways that you can try things out and get experience.
Community Involvement, Volunteering, and Clubs
You’re in college to develop yourself as an individual. You’ll gain personally satisfying and enriching experience by becoming more involved with your college or general community. Organizations, clubs, and charities often rely on college students because of their motivation, knowledge, and increasing maturity. The work can increase your skills and abilities, providing valuable experience that will lead to positive results.
Participate in clubs and volunteer in areas that appeal to your interests and passions. It’s just as important that you enjoy them and make a difference as it is to increase career potential through networking and skill-building. But of course, it’s great to do both.
Once you join a club or related organization, take the time to learn about their leadership opportunities. Most campus clubs have some type of management structure—treasurer, vice president, president, and so on. You may “move up the ranks” naturally, or you may need to apply or even run for election. Some organizations, such as a campus newspaper, radio station, or dance team, have skill-based semiprofessional or roles such as advertising manager, sound engineer, or choreographer. These opportunities may not always be available to you as freshmen, but you can take on shorter-term roles to build your skills and make a bigger impact. Managing a fundraiser, planning an event, or temporarily taking on a role while someone else is busy are all ways to engage further.
Volunteering can be an important way to access a profession and get a sense for whether you will enjoy it or not, even before you do an internship. And in certain arenas, such as politics, it might be the only readily accessible approach, especially if you have no prior experience. In all of these cases, you can build important skills and increase your experience working with people in your chosen field. Spend time reflecting on and recording your experiences so that you’re better prepared to talk about them and utilize what you learned.
Internships and Related Experiences
Many employers value experience as much as they do education. Internships and similar fieldwork allow you to use what you’ve learned and, sometimes more importantly, see how things work “in the real world.” These experiences drive you to communicate with others in your field and help you understand the day-to-day challenges and opportunities of people working in similar areas. Even if the internship is not at a company or organization directly in your field of study, you’ll focus on gaining transferable skills that you can apply later on.
Speaking to career or academic counselors and planning your major will help you learn about internship requirements and recommendations. You’ll find out how, where, and when to apply, the level of commitment required, and any limitations or guidelines your college indicates. If you’re going to receive credit for your internship or fieldwork, it must be directly related to your field of study.
When you intern, you are usually treated like you work there full-time. It’s not just learning about the job; it’s doing the job, often similarly to an entry-level employee. The level of commitment may vary by the type of internship and may be negotiable based on your schedule. Be very clear about what’s required and what you can handle given your other commitments, because you want to leave a very good impression. (Internship managers are your top resource for employment references and letters of recommendation.)
Note that while internships and similar positions may seem to involve low-level work, you maintain your rights and should be treated properly. Getting coffee, organizing shelves, and copying papers are often part of the work. Your internship should be structured with duties, responsibilities, and goals for learning that are mutually agreed upon by both you and the internship site, as well as approved by an internship supervisor from your college or university. This will help ensure a positive and productive experience for both you and your internship sponsor.
Students who take internships generally report them to be worthwhile experiences. In a survey of students taken by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, approximately 75 percent of students responding to the survey said their professionalism/work ethic, teamwork/collaboration, and oral/written communication skills were “very” to “extremely” improved by their internship/coop experience, and 66 percent said the same of their critical thinking/problem-solving skills.3
ACTIVITY
Go to Internships.com and enter a specific keyword and location in the fields on the homepage, such as “airline” and “Bend, OR.” How many opportunities came back? How many piqued your interest?
Now, try to choose a broader, less specific keyword. For example, instead of “airline,” try “aviation” on the second search. If the first keyword was “physical therapy,” you might try “health care” for a broader search in the same field. Did you receive more opportunities the second time? Do you see ones that aren’t exactly in your field but that still seem interesting?
On sites like these, you can play with the options and filters to find a wide array of internship possibilities in related fields. In the example above, a future physical therapist who took an internship in another area of health care would certainly still learn a lot.
There are many and varied types of experiential learning opportunities that can help you learn more about different career opportunities. These are fully discussed in chapter 4. The table below provides a brief overview.
Table 12.1
Internship and Experiential Learning Terminology
Internship A period of work experience in a professional organization, in which participants (interns) are exposed to and perform some of the tasks of actual employees. Internships are usually a relatively high commitment, and may be paid and/or result in college credit.
Externship/Job Shadowing Usually a briefer and lower-commitment experience than internships, in which participants are observing work activities and perhaps undertaking small projects. Unpaid and not credit-bearing.
Fieldwork A period or trip to conduct research or participate in the “natural environment” of a discipline or profession. Fieldwork may involve visiting a work site, such as a hospital or nursing home, or being a part of a team gathering data or information.
Apprenticeship A defined period of on-the-job training in which the student is formally doing the job and learning specific skills. Unlike most internships, apprenticeships are usually formal requirements to attain a license or gain employment in skilled trades, and they are growing in use in health care, IT, transportation, and logistics.
Undergraduate Research Even as an undergrad, you may find opportunities to partake in actual research in your field of study. Colleges often have strict guidelines on types and levels of participation, and you will likely need to apply. The benefits include firsthand knowledge of a core academic activity and exposure to more people in your field.
Related Employment It may be possible to get a regular, low-level paying job directly in your field of study or in a related place of work. While it’s not essential, simply being around the profession will better inform and prepare you.
Clinicals, Student Teaching, and Related Experiences Health care, education, and other fields often have specific requirements for clinicals (learning experience in health care facilities) or student teaching. These are often components of the major and required for both graduation and licensure.
Service Learning Students learn educational standards through tackling real-life problems in their community. Involvement could be hands-on, such as working in a homeless shelter. Students could also tackle broad issues in an indirect manner, such as by solving a local environmental problem.
Productive Downtime
Throughout this book, we’ve discussed all the work required for a successful and productive college experience. And in this chapter, we’ve outlined a wide range of extracurricular activities that are likely necessary to achieve your career goals. But as we’ve also made clear, balance and rest are critical for success and well-being. Everyone needs time off.
So, when you have a school break, relax. Spend time with the people who motivate and help you—family and friends—or take a trip if that’s possible. If you work during school and school breaks, the decrease in your school responsibilities should help recharge your batteries.
Another way you might spend your time off from school is to find an employment and/or experiential opportunity, especially during a longer time off. Winter break may afford a weeklong volunteer opportunity or a brief externship. Summer break is particularly helpful for formal internships and other experiences.
If you do seek a summer internship or related activity, be aware that they can be very competitive. With many college students off for the summer, they may be targeting the same opportunities as you are. Work with your academic or career advisors to start the process early and put yourself in the best position to get an internship. Consider all of the application components, including essays, portfolio items, and letters of recommendation; all of these may take time to generate. If possible, pursue multiple opportunities to increase your chances. Just be clear on the application policies, and be sure to inform them if you take another position.
Summer jobs, whether related to your field or not, may also be hard to come by without prior planning. If you go away to school and need a job at home over the summer, be sure to connect with the potential employer early. Get them the application, resume, and any certifications or recommendations with plenty of time for them to process and contact you for clarification or follow-up. Employers who regularly employ college students will likely be comfortable working via email or by phone, but ask if an in-person interview is necessary, and see if you can schedule it during a spring break or as soon as you get back from school. Even if you don’t go away to school, plan and connect early. You wouldn’t want all the other students to come home and take your opportunity when you’ve been there all along.
While you're not focused on your schoolwork, or even after you graduate, you can keep learning. Beyond the different types of degrees and certificates discussed in the Academic Pathways chapter, you'll be more prepared and more attractive to a potential employer if you demonstrate a continued thirst and effort to gain knowledge and "remain current." Find the leaders in your field and read their articles or books (your future employers may be familiar with them). Or consider more formal summer courses, short-courses, or online learning opportunities. Each profession has its own resources. For example, in the software and computing field, Thinkful offers courses and mentoring for students and professionals.
Transferable Skills
Whether or not your internship or other experiences are directly connected to your career, you should focus as much as possible on building and improving transferable skills. These are abilities and knowledge that are useful across an array of industries, job types, and roles. They can be transferred—hence the name—from where you learned them to another career or area of study.
Examples of transferable skills include communication, personnel management/leadership, teamwork, computation/quantitative literacy, information technology, research/analysis, foreign language, and so on. If you search for lists of transferable skills, you’ll see that some sites only include compilations of a few very broad areas, such as communication, while others provide longer and more specific lists, such as breaking down communication into writing, verbal, and listening skills. Employers believe that transferable skills are critical to the success of their recent college graduate new hires. The top four career competencies that employers want are critical thinking/problem solving, teamwork/collaboration, professionalism/work ethic, and oral/written communication.4 If you remember the statistics noted above, students said that all four of these skills were significantly improved through their internship experiences.
These are considered skills because they are not simply traits or personality elements; they are abilities and intelligences you can develop and improve. Even if you’re a great writer before starting an internship, you may need to learn how to write in a more professional manner—becoming more succinct, learning the executive summary, conforming to templates, and so on. Once you establish that skill, you can not only mention it on a resume or interview, but also discuss the process by which you improved, demonstrating your adaptability and eagerness to learn.
Not everyone can land an internship or perform fieldwork. Perhaps you need to work nearly full-time while in school. If so, focus on developing transferable skills in that environment. Take on new challenges in areas where you don’t have experience. For example, if you work in retail, ask your manager if you can help with inventory or bookkeeping (building quantitative literacy skills). If you’re a waiter, help the catering manager plan a party or order food (building organizational skills). Remember, extending yourself in this way is not simply a means to enhance your resume. By taking on these new challenges, you’ll see a side of the business you hadn’t before and learn things that you can apply in other situations.
Whether or not it’s required as a part of your internship or other experience, be sure to reflect on your time there—what you did, what you learned, where you excelled, where you didn’t excel. Maintaining a journal of some sort will enable you to share your experiences and employ your transferable skills in your college courses and other activities. Jot down some anecdotes, events, and tasks you performed. Any materials or documents you produced can go into your portfolio, and the record of your experience will serve you well while searching for a job. Consider that it is customary to be asked during a job interview to share a personal strength and a weakness. Sharing a strength is often more expected and, thus, easier to plan for. While it may seem reasonable to say that your weakness is that you’re always late, it’s better to provide a weakness within the context of work experience. For example, if you have had a part-time job where one of your colleagues was always slacking off and putting the load on others, you may have felt frustrated and even expressed your anger. Rather than view this as a negative, consider the positive benefit and craft this into a solid answer to the likely interview question. For example, “I have found that I’m rather impatient with colleagues who take shortcuts to a solution and don’t really apply themselves. My weakness is impatience. However, rather than call it out in a negative way, I share my observation as constructive feedback and let it go. My colleague can take it or leave it, but I’m not carrying it with me.” If you wrote about this experience around the time that it occurred, it will be easier to shape into a thoughtful response later. Continuing to work on your transferable skills will allow you to improve them and make a better impression on faculty, advisors, and potential employers.
What to Do to Get Ready
Being prepared to find a job means putting evidence of your KSAs together in a way that employers will understand. It is one thing to say you can do something; it is another to show that you can. The following are things that you will want to compile as a part of your college career.
Resumes and Profiles: The College Version
You may already have a resume or a similar profile (such as LinkedIn), or you may be thinking about developing one. Usually, these resources are not required for early college studies, but you may need them for internships, work-study, or other opportunities. When it comes to an online profile, something that is a public resource, be very considerate and intentional when developing it.
Resume
A resume is a summary of your education, experience, and other accomplishments. It is not simply a list of what you’ve done; it’s a showcase that presents the best you have to offer for a specific role. While most resumes have a relatively similar look and feel, there are some variations in the approach. Especially when developing your first résumé or applying in a new area, you should seek help from resources such as career counselors and others with knowledge of the field. Websites can be very helpful, but be sure to run your résume by others to make sure it fits the format and contains no mistakes.
A resume is a one-page summary (two, if you are a more experienced person) that generally includes the following information:
• Name and contact information
• Objective and/or summary
• Education—all degrees and relevant certifications or licenses
• While in college, you may list coursework closely related to the job to which you’re applying.
• Work or work-related experience—usually in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent and working backward. (Some resumes are organized by subject/skills rather than chronologically.5)
• Career-related/academic awards or similar accomplishments
• Specific work-related skills
While you’re in college, especially if you went into college directly after high school, you may not have formal degrees or significant work experience to share. That’s okay. Tailor the résumé to the position for which you’re applying, and include high school academic, extracurricular, and community-based experience . These show your ability to make a positive contribution and are a good indicator of your work ethic. Later on in this chapter, we’ll discuss internships and other programs through which you can gain experience, all of which can be listed on your resume. Again, professionals and counselors can help you with this.
If you have significant experience outside of college, you should include it if it’s relatively recent, relates to the position, and/or includes transferable skills (discussed above) that can be used in the role for which you’re applying. Military service or similar experience should nearly always be included. If you had a long career with one company quite some time ago, you can summarize that in one resume entry, indicating the total years worked and the final role achieved. These are judgment calls, and again you can seek guidance from experts.
Digital Profiles
An online profile is a nearly standard component of professional job seeking and networking. LinkedIn is a networking website used by people from nearly every profession. It combines elements of résumés and portfolios with social media. Users can view, connect, communicate, post events and articles, comment, and recommend others. Employers can recruit, post jobs, and process applications. Alternatives include Jobcase, AngelList, Hired, and Nexxt. These varying sites work in similar ways, with some unique features or practices.
Some professions or industries have specific LinkedIn groups or subnetworks. Other professions or industries may have their own networking sites, to be used instead of or in addition to LinkedIn. Industry, for example, is a networking site specifically for culinary and hospitality workers.
As a college student, it might be a great idea to have a LinkedIn or related profile. It can help you make connections in a prospective field, and provide access to publications and posts on topics that interest you. Before you join and develop a public professional profile, however, keep the following in mind:
• Be professional. Write up your profile information, any summary, and job/education experience separately, check for spelling and other errors, and have someone review before posting. Be sure to be completely honest and accurate.
• Your profile isn’t a contest. As a college student, you may only have two or three items to include on your profile. That’s okay. Overly long LinkedIn profiles—like overly long resumes—aren’t effective anyway, and a college student’s can be brief.
• Add relevant experience and information as you attain it. Post internships, summer jobs, awards, or work-study experiences as you attain them. Don’t list every club or organization you’re in if it doesn’t pertain to the professional field, but include some, especially if you become head of a club or hold a competitive position, such as president or member of a performance group or sports team.
• Don’t “overconnect.” As you meet and work with people relevant to your career, it is appropriate to connect with them through LinkedIn by adding a personal note on the invite message. But don’t send connection invites to people with whom you have no relationship, or to too many people overall. Even alumni from your own school might be reluctant to connect with you unless you know them relatively well.
• Professional networking is not the same as social media. While LinkedIn has a very strong social media component, users are often annoyed by too much nonprofessional sharing (such as vacation/child pictures); aggressive commenting or arguing via comments is also frowned upon. As a student, you probably shouldn’t be commenting or posting too much at all. Use LinkedIn as a place to observe and learn. And in terms of your profile itself, keep it professional, not personal.
• LinkedIn is not a replacement for a real resume.
There’s no need to rush to build and post an online professional profile—certainly not in your freshman year. But when the time is right, it can be a useful resource for you and future employers.
Social Media and Online Activity Never Go Away
While thinking about LinkedIn and other networks, it’s a good time to remember that future employers, educational institutions, internship coordinators, and anyone else who may hire or develop a relationship with you can see most of what you’ve posted or done online. Companies are well within their rights to dig through your social media pages, and those of your friends or groups you’re part of, to learn about you. Tasteless posts, inappropriate memes, harassment, pictures or videos of high-risk behavior, and even aggressive and mean comments are all problematic. They may convince a potential employer that you’re not right for their organization. Be careful of who and what you retweet, like, and share. It’s all traceable, and it can all have consequences.
For other activities on social media, such as strong political views, activism, or opinions on controversial topics, you should use your judgment. Most strong organizations will not be dissuaded from working with you because you’re passionate about something within the realm of civility, but any posts or descriptions that seem insensitive to groups of people can be taken as a reason not to hire you. While you have freedom of speech with regard to the government, that freedom does not extend to private companies’ decisions on whether to hire you. Even public institutions, such as universities and government agencies, can reject you for unlawful activity (including threats or harassment) revealed online; they can also reject you if you frequently post opinions that conflict with the expectations of both your employer and the people/organizations they serve.
With those cautions in mind, it’s important to remember that anything on your social media or professional network profiles related to federally protected aspects of your identity—race, national origin, color, disability, veteran status, parental/pregnancy status, religion, gender, age, or genetic information (including family medical history)—cannot be held against you in hiring decisions.
Building Your Portfolio
Future employers or educational institutions may want to see the work you’ve done during school. Also, you may need to recall projects or papers you wrote to remember details about your studies. Your portfolio can be one of your most important resources.
Portfolio components vary according to field. Business students should save projects, simulations, case studies, and any mock companies or competitions they worked on. Occupational therapy students may have patient thank-you letters, summaries of volunteer activity, and completed patient paperwork (identities removed). Education majors will likely have lesson plans, student teaching materials, sample projects they created, and papers or research related to their specialization.
Other items to include a portfolio:
• Evidence of any workshops or special classes you attended. Include a certificate, registration letter, or something else indicating you attended/completed it.
• Evidence of volunteer work, including a write-up of your experience and how it impacted you.
• Related experience and work products from your time prior to college.
• Materials associated with career-related talks, performances, debates, or competitions that you delivered or took part in.
• Products, projects, or experiences developed in internships, fieldwork, clinicals, or other experiences (see below).
• Evidence of “universal” workplace skills such as computer abilities or communication, or specialized abilities such as computation/number crunching.
A portfolio is neither a scrapbook nor an Instagram story. No need to fill it with pictures of your college experience unless those pictures directly relate to your career. If you’re studying theology and ran a religious camp, include a picture. If you’re studying theology and worked in a food store, leave it out.
Certain disciplines, such as graphic design, music, computer science, and other technologies, may have more specific portfolio requirements and desired styles. You’ll likely learn about that in the course of your studies, but be sure to proactively inquire about these needs or seek examples. Early in your college career, you should be most focused on gathering components for your portfolio, not formalizing it for display or sharing.
Preparing to Network
Throughout this chapter, we have discussed how important relationships are to your career development. It can sometimes be a little intimidating to meet new people in the professional environment. But with preparation and understanding, these encounters can be not only helpful, but also rewarding. Here are some ideas to consider when meeting new people who can be helpful to your career:
• Be yourself. You’re your own best asset. If you’re comfortable with who you are and where you come from, others will be, too.
• Remember, you’re in college and they know it. Don’t try to impress everyone with what you know; alumni or faculty know more. Instead, talk about what you’re learning—your favorite class, the project you’re most proud of, or even the ones by which you’ve been most challenged.
• Be polite, not too casual. If your goal is to become a professional, look and sound the part.
• Listen.
• Think of some questions ahead of time. Don’t aim for difficult questions or anything too personal, but asking people how they got into their career, with whom they studied in college, what their job is like, and similar questions will both start conversations and provide you with meaningful insight.
• Don’t stress. Remember, if alumni, even highly successful ones, are speaking to you, it’s usually because they want to. An encounter over finger food or a brief meetup in the Rad Tech department office isn’t going to make or break your job prospects.
• If appropriate and timely, ask if you can keep in touch. Be prepared with a polished email address and phone number. For example, if your current address is “[email protected],” consider creating a second account that’s more professional.
• Say thank you. No need to go on and on, but thank them for any advice they give or simply for taking the time to talk with you
While you’re in college, don’t try to impress everyone with what you know. Instead, talk about what you’re learning.
Making Your Case through the Words of Others: Letters of Recommendation
Whether you go on to graduate school or directly into the workforce (or both at the same time), decision makers will want to learn more about you. Your grades, interviews, test scores, and other performance data will tell them a lot. But sometimes they’ll want to hear from others.
Letters of recommendation are often a standard component of convincing people you’re the right person to join their organization. Some positions or institutions require a certain quantity of letters and may have specific guidance on who should write them. Other companies will accept them as additional evidence that you’re a great candidate. Either way, gathering such letters or having a few people whom you can ask for them will put you in a better position. Note that internships, especially competitive ones, may also require letters of recommendation.
Whom to ask for a letter? They’re usually written by instructors, department chairs, club advisors, managers, coaches, and others with whom you’ve had a good relationship. Maybe it’s someone who taught two or three of your courses, or someone you helped in a volunteer or work-study capacity.
Just by taking the time to write the letter, a faculty member is sending a message: “The person about whom I’m writing impressed me.” So the first step is to make a good impression on the person you’re asking to write a letter. You may do this in many ways. Getting a good grade in the class is important, but a faculty member may be more impressed by your perseverance, improvement over time, or creativity in meeting challenges.
How to ask? Be straightforward and direct. The appeal is best made in person, but be prepared for the person you’re asking to ask for some time to make the decision. People who get frequent requests may have a policy or even a form to fill out. They may ask you to provide more information about yourself so that they can write an original letter. If they do so, be thorough but prompt—you don’t want to keep them waiting. And if you have a deadline, tell them.
When to ask? If you encounter a faculty member early in your college career who you think would be the best person to write a letter for you, ask them what they think toward the end of your course or soon after. They may feel it’s too early or not specific enough to simply hand you a general letter at that time. If so, ask if you can come back when you are applying to internships, jobs, or grad schools.
If you wait until you’re applying or you’re about to graduate, you may have a more specific subject or reason for a letter. Be sure to tell the writer where you’re applying and what type of career you’re going into, so they can tailor the recommendation to that area.
Thank-you notes. They wrote you a letter, so you should write them one in return. A brief and personal thank-you note is appropriate and necessary.
Steps to Success
“Things change—circumstances change. Learn to adapt. Adjust your efforts and yourself to what is presented to you so you can respond accordingly. Never see change as a threat—do not get intimidated by it. Change can be an opportunity to learn, to grow, to evolve, and to become a better person.”
―Rodolfo Costa6
Preparing for Change and Being Open to Opportunities
Earlier in this text, we discussed managing change, adapting to the unexpected, and handling setbacks. These are critical skills that, while difficult during the process, ultimately build a better—and more employable—you. While you can’t prepare for every obstacle or surprise, you can be certain that you’ll encounter them.
You may go through all of college, and even high school, with one job in mind. You may apply early to a specific program, successfully complete all the requirements, and set yourself on a certain career path. And then something may change.
As described above, changes in your interests or goals are a natural part of developing your career; they’re nothing to be ashamed of. Most college students change majors several times. Even once they graduate, many people find themselves enjoying careers they didn’t envision. Ask the people around you, and many will share stories about how they took a meandering or circuitous path to their profession. Some people end up in jobs or companies that they didn’t know existed when they started school.
What’s most important is that you build on your successes and failures, consider all your experiences, and pursue your purpose and overarching personal goals. For example, if you want to become a police officer but cannot complete all of the degree requirements on time, taking a job as a security officer or even an unrelated job in the meantime might lead to a great deal of satisfaction and set you on a different path. If, after that, you still want to pursue law enforcement, you can build it into your plan—managing your priorities, gaining the required experience and credentials, and applying for jobs closer to your chosen career.
This early in your college experience, you shouldn’t be too worried about how to conduct job interviews or explain employment gaps or changing directions. However, you may need or want to explain the thinking behind your future plans to academic advisors, internship managers, your peers, and your family. You should feel free to do so openly, but you’ll probably be better prepared if you revisit some of the ideas discussed earlier in this chapter. Consider how a shift in your plans, whether slight or significant, reflects who you are now and who you hope to be in the future. Knowing yourself as an emerging and new professional by discovering and developing your interests, skills, values, personality, and strengths is something that everyone should do on an ongoing basis throughout their lives. Explore job opportunities or career paths available to people in your new major or discipline area. Think about whether you need to handle any financial impacts, such as paying for additional education or delaying employment.
Employers, for their part, are often unfazed by changes or even mistakes. Remember, when they ask about your greatest weakness or failure, they want to hear something genuine. Just like the alumni you meet or the faculty you’re asking for recommendations, interviewers may be more impressed by how and what you’ve learned rather than how you followed a preplanned path. Remember, most jobs are a continuous thread of situations to think through, information to analyze, and problems to solve. Your ability to solve your own problems, and reflect and discuss them later, will show that you’re ready to do the same for an employer. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/12%3A_Planning_for_Your_Future/12.02%3A_Your_Map_to_Success-_The_Career_Planning_Cycle.txt |
Hopefully you’ve noticed that we’ve ended each chapter of this book with a subsection called “Where Do You Go from Here?” In many of those cases, the story or reflection was aimed at giving you some ideas about how you could apply the topics and skills from that chapter to college and your career. Now we’re at the last chapter, and the question is even more personal and a little different: Where can you go? Where do you want to go? And, perhaps more importantly, why?
The provided ideas and methods regarding choosing your career are proven winners. Learning about yourself, whether through simple reflection or formal analysis, is important to find your place. But consider the importance and reality of change and your openness to it. Regardless of your major, you will embark on a job and a career that will change many times over the course of your life. You’ll likely change responsibilities, roles, companies, and even industries. Even if you join a company one week after graduation and stay with it until you retire, the job and the company won’t remain the same. The world moves far too quickly for that, which is a good thing. All of those changes are opportunities to improve yourself and get closer to the “why” of your work: your purpose.
Your purpose is the answer to all types of questions that people may ask you. “Do you like your job?” “How did you get into that?” “Is it worth it?” But more importantly, your purpose is the answer to all types of questions that you should ask yourself. If you keep asking yourself those questions and give yourself time to answer, you’ll have the best understanding of not only what you want to do, but why.
You may find out that no single job or career is going to fulfill your purpose. If your foremost goal—your ideal—is being a good parent, your job might simply be the financial means to help accomplish that. If you want to eradicate poverty, you may do that through a job plus volunteer work plus a management position at a foundation.
Don’t think, however, that you can’t fulfill your purpose within your career. It may take a few tries and restarts, but you can make a widespread impact in a number of ways. Furthermore, if you’re having trouble entering a career-oriented purpose through the “front door,” your skills and abilities might get you in through the side door. For example, if your purpose is to help eradicate racial and socioeconomic differences in America, you can work toward that in dozens of ways. At first it may seem that being a social worker, political activist, civil rights lawyer, or educator is the primary entryway—the front door. But what if none of these work out for you? What if you don’t fit any of these molds, but you’re the best salesperson most people have ever met? Every sales job you’ve taken, you’ve blown past your goal and earned top awards and bonuses. You’ve come so far that giving up your career would be financially devastating. So how can you use your skills and experience toward your purpose? Well, you could volunteer to use your sales skills to raise money or convince lawmakers to change things. Or you could get a job where you’re selling products or services that help people in the exact situations you are trying to improve. You could sell low-cost telecommunication systems to towns and school systems so that residents have better access to the Internet, helping them learn and stay connected. You could sell building safety systems to keep people secure. You could sell educational technology, financial services, or even low-cost solar paneling to improve the lives and independence of people in impoverished areas. Your work would be similar to what you’ve done your whole life, but you would feel personally fulfilled and connected to a purpose.
In psychology, advertising, education, and other disciplines, researchers and professionals use a concept called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. In essence, it’s a progression that starts with satisfying our most basic, physical needs (food, shelter) and moves through our more social and societal needs (cooperation, belonging) to our highest needs—feeling fulfilled and complete. (This brief description oversimplifies a rather detailed theory.)
Given this base introduction, consider how Maslow’s theory applies to your future. At the bottom, your most basic needs are fulfilled by a job. It pays the bills, keeps you secure, and puts food on your table. At the next level is your career. Your career is more consistent; you invest more in it and probably are more heavily rewarded. In your career, you’ll likely build up relationships over time, both professional and personal, creating a sense of community and belonging. Some people will come to associate you with your career, and you may feel partly defined by it. But it likely won’t fulfill you all on its own.
At the highest level, the level that allows you to become more fulfilled and complete, is your purpose. That’s the piece you strive for, the piece that helps you navigate your path. It’s what you may see yourself still moving toward in a later part of your life. It’s what you most want or even need to accomplish.
Just as you’ll likely have more than one job and even more than one career, you will have more than one purpose. You will even have them at the same time. You can be 100 percent driven to be the best possible therapist and 100 percent driven to be the best possible older sibling, all while being 100 percent driven to continually deepen your knowledge of yoga. Your time and your focus will be split between them, but they will still each fulfill you. As you get older and gain experiences, both positive and negative, your priorities may change. But you’ll be successful as long as you adhere to the principles we’ve discussed and the qualities, values, and abilities you’ve identified in yourself. College offers you the opportunity to keep asking yourself the best, most challenging questions, all while you have many people dedicated to helping you find the answers. Those answers may surprise you, but the important thing is to keep asking and keep learning. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/12%3A_Planning_for_Your_Future/12.03%3A_Where_Can_You_Go_from_Here.txt |
Thumbnail: pixabay.com/photos/books-pages-story-stories-notes-1245690/
13: Appendices
Turning Information into Knowledge
Questions to consider:
• What is the difference between information and knowledge?
• What is information literacy?
• What are the steps to a good research study?
What Is the Difference between Information and Knowledge?
Life is a series of problems needing solutions. We need to find information that matters and then discover why it matters. Curiosity, then, is a response to an environment of exploration, manifesting in wanting to know “why” or “how.” How do you make sense of the world? How does information translate to knowledge? Connecting ideas, thinking critically, acting responsibly, and communicating effectively are all essential to lifelong learning and active engagement in today’s world. You need to become proficient, ethical users and producers of information in a globally connected world. It is important to be able to reason, manage resources, work productively with others, acquire and evaluate information effectively, organize information, interpret and communicate the information, and work with an ever-evolving variety of technologies. In other words, you need to become information-savvy consumers and producers. You need to be able to adapt to, understand, evaluate, and make use of technology so you can be citizens that shape our society, rather than being its pawns. What you learn is often what you will want to communicate to others.
What Is Information Literacy?
Human beings are passionate, curious, and always seeking to connect with each other and make sense of things. Learning is more effective when new information is meaningful and linked to some personal experience or prior knowledge. Learning is about both context and content. It is necessary to learn how to assess, evaluate, and connect in order to make information become knowledge. Information literacy skills are the hallmark of the ability to do research. What is important is for you to learn how to find information that “matters” and then figure out why it might matter.
Information literacy is a link between the life experiences of you as a student, the academic world of scholarship, and the postcollege real world of application of learning. An information-literate person has the ability to ask questions and knows the difference between ignorance and understanding. (When do I need information?) Information literacy builds a lifelong ability to determine where information is kept (Where is the best place to find this?) and in what forms knowledge is stored (Which knowledge products will likely have what I need?).
Information literacy relies on the use of a critical mind to discern credible from not credible, valid from not valid. It is actually the core of the first-year experience. It lasts, while the specifics of particular courses fade over time. After all, the nature of research, the core of higher education, is a learning process: “How do I learn about something?” Communication skills are essential to your ability to both learn and share what you’ve learned.
What Are the Steps to a Good Research Study?
Research is a part of life. In fact, you conduct research daily. You look things up whenever you want a hotel or a good restaurant in a new city, or a recipe for cookies you’d like to make for a party. Sometimes you use Google for answers, and other times you ask people to help you answer your question. At times you might need to visit specific websites to find good information on the kind of used car you should buy or tickets to a sporting event or concert you hope to attend. All of this is part of research at its most basic level—asking a question and then answering it. Research can be defined as an activity that produces new knowledge. However, it is not timeless. Questions change, and so do answers. New questions bring new light to bear on any topic or issue. For example, consider the way we have controlled the use of pesticides. Over time, we moved from acceptance to shock and now horror at some of the side effects. It is new information on pesticides that has influenced our change in thinking. And the reason we know this information is that someone did the research and then communicated it to our community through newscasts, newspapers, online sites, and so forth.
We often accept ideas as fact. For instance, how do we come to believe such things as “Three out of four dentists recommend . . . ” or “McDonald’s french fries are preferred three to one over . . .”? Or that heroin is addictive, or that putting infants in car seats prevents fatal injuries, or that drinking while pregnant can be harmful? It is important to know that these statements are the result of questions that led to serious research. Understanding the methods used to do research will help us understand how we come to know what we know. In cases such as these, someone was interested in knowing the answer to a particular question, planned a research study, and then published the findings. When people do this kind of research, their purpose is not only to find an answer but also to communicate what they found to the rest of us. They are communicating new knowledge.
Research is exploration and the search for possible answers to questions. Most students think research is about finding answers, but it is more about the questions we ask that lead us to the answers. Good research starts with good questions. Researchers ask themselves a question, create a possible answer in the form of a hypothesis, and then begin a process of gathering information with a methodology. If we understand how important questions are to doing research, we are then better able to determine the credibility and validity of the information sources we use. When evaluating sources, we can ask: Why should I believe this author? What does she know that makes her someone I should pay attention to? And when deciding on credibility, we can ask: What did the author do to convince me his answer is the correct one? Did the evidence really match the question the author was asking? Thus, information literacy is the ability to evaluate sources on the basis of what questions were asked, determine if those are the best questions to ask, assess whether the answers offered really answer the questions, and decide if the author is prepared to answer those questions well. Remember the literacies that Howard Rheingold suggested in the “Communicating” chapter. Using these as guides leads us to mindfully explore the vast array of information available to us. And when we do so, we won’t find ourselves taking information at face value and passing it on as though it were valid, like some of the “fake news” that is prevalent today.
So let’s start the process of doing research. The activity below will help you begin the process. After this, you will be introduced to the simple steps you need to take to do the research and then communicate your findings appropriately.
ACTIVITY
Pick a topic you might like to research or have already been assigned to research for a class. Then take a close look at the list of knowledge products below, and rank them in order of which ones you would most likely use for a research paper. After ranking them, explain why you put them in that order.
• Books: histories, pictures, topic overviews
• Journals: research studies, expert opinions, analyses, lists of other information sources
• Magazines: basic and recent information, pictures, reviews
• Newspapers: very recent information, place-specific information, reviews
• Films, videos, television, music: pictures, speeches, sound
• Internet sources: current or historical information from a variety of sources or individuals, data or commentary compiled by individuals or specific organizations or companies, graphics, sound, music, animation, video, pictures
• Conversations, interviews: opinions, direct experiences, personal viewpoints, attitudes, histories
• Government publications: reports, studies, statistics, laws, regulations
• Documents: reports, laws, statistics, facts
• Diaries: personal stories, histories, opinions, reflections
These can also categorized by types of knowledge products. For your research, you have to choose wisely among these, too. There are scholarly knowledge products, which are mostly written for scholars in a particular field. The author is identified, and credentials are available. Sources are documented, and technical language is often used. Secondly, some knowledge products might be considered professional. These are written for professionals in a field, the author is most often identified, sources are not always documented, and the language may or may not be technical. Finally, there are popular knowledge products, which communicate a broad range of information. The author is often not identified, sources are often not documented, and language is not technical. Because they are commercial products packaged for wide sales, they often use color and have numerous ads.
When you are faced with a research assignment, it is important for you to be able to create successful search strategies. You need to find sources for specific purposes and audiences and be able to critically evaluate these sources. When doing research, you also have to incorporate the information you find for specific purposes, acknowledge the sources, and provide citations. To make this easier to understand, think of scholarly writing as a simple story told with a particular set of conventions (rules). What are these conventions? They are: a research question, a hypothesis, a methodology, a review of the literature, an interpretation of your work, and an analysis of the significance of what you’ve found.
Research Question
First of all, you need a topic. This is often the most difficult part of the whole process. So begin by thinking of something that is really interesting to you. Let’s take music for an example. You need to ask some questions about music to start the process. Some examples of questions are:
• What does music mean?
• What is the function of music?
• What is the value of music?
• What is the significance of music?
• How is music made?
• What causes music to happen?
The easiest way to come up with questions regarding whatever topic you choose is to start with basic questioning words: who, what, why, when, where, how, might, could, can, should, will, must, did, and so forth. You can ask better questions, and this will help you narrow down your hypothesis. For instance, why does music change over time? Who will play this music? How did this music come about? Why should we listen to this music?
ACTIVITY
Pick a topic and try to describe it:
1. Name your topic: I am studying __________
2. Suggest a question: Because I want to find out who/how/why/whether/when/what _______________
3. State a rationale for the question: In order to understand who/what/where/how/why/whether___________
Going through this exercise every time you are tasked with writing a research paper will help you clarify what you want to accomplish and why.
Hypothesis
Scholars use information to answer one or more questions inspired by a topic of interest. Usually, a scholarly question identifies a problem and a solution. Such questions are usually written in the form of a hypothesis, which is a statement about the relationship between two things that identifies both a problem and an answer or solution. An example of a hypothesis would be: Different genres of music have an effect on the mood of the people listening to them. The questions asked to get to this hypothesis might be: Does music have an effect on mood? Do people listen to music to make them feel better? What kind of music is used as a way to energize the listener? Is there one type of music that is better than others for calming someone down?
Your hypothesis must reflect what is known about a research topic in such a way that your research project will add new knowledge and insight to what is already known. In order to arrive at a hypothesis that achieves this goal, you must learn as much as possible about your topic so you can narrow down your hypotheses to what you don’t know. Then your research project will produce new knowledge. Your hypothesis is about what you don’t know. However, you might find that you can’t prove your hypothesis. You might find evidence that contradicts it, and you will have to reflect on why your hypothesis might have been wrong.
ACTIVITY
Find two newspaper articles to analyze. Read through them and answer the following:
1. What questions are being answered in the articles?
2. What questions do you think need to be answered?
3. What was the hypothesis that the writer of these articles was working from?
It is important to be able to find the hypothesis that a writer has constructed to tell you a story. You have to make sure you understand what they are trying to “prove” and what questions they asked in order to do so.
Methodology
Education is about discovery. This means that you need to learn how to question, evaluate, and determine the worth, credibility, and relevance of what you, as a student, find. Thus, when doing research, you need that hypothesis to begin the rest of your research.
The next step is to come up with key words or concepts that describe your topic. Start by preparing an outline for yourself. List the key words (for instance, on the topic of music, some key words might be music, instruments, genres, musicians, and so on). Then create a list of narrower terms, which are more specific things that you want to know about your topic, such as time frames, geography, population, and age groups. Finally, you can list broader terms that are the larger subjects that include your key words. For music these could be cultural expression, jazz, hip-hop, singers, and so forth. Your methodology will be a compilation of the sources you decide to review. It is an orderly approach to problem solving and gathering useful data, using such sources and strategies as interviews, public documents, surveys, experiments, the Internet, and many more.
The kind of methodology you decide to use depends on the type of research you will be conducting. You could do exploratory research, which basically answers the question “Does something exist?” This “something” could be an event, a thing, or an idea, such as a concert or music designed for relaxation. Or perhaps you want to do descriptive research, which is the kind of study that defines something by describing its characteristics, behaviors, or actions. For instance, you could describe a genre of music, how it was created, and what instruments are usually used to compose this type of music. A third type of research you may want to do is called prediction research, which involves identifying relationships that make it possible for us to speculate about one thing by knowing about something else. Music has taken many turns over time, and you might want to suggest that the next phase of music might all be electronically produced. And finally, you could choose to do explanatory research. This type of research examines cause-and-effect relationships. For example, there is music created to tell a particular story in a specific manner. This might be true of rap music. To study this, you would use explanatory research to describe this phenomenon.
Review of the Literature
One other piece of the research puzzle is a review of the literature. The literature in a particular field is its discourse, which is actually a conversation over time about a topic. When you do your literature review, you are inserting yourself in the middle of such a conversation and getting information only from that particular time and perspective. For instance, if you want to study the effects of music on children, you will find a wide variety of sources that will give you information about the topic. You will discover that many people have been interested in the issue and have done studies trying to find out the answer. These studies have been done over many years, and the perspectives involved have changed accordingly. The discourse continues over time, and you can insert information into the conversation by conducting your own research.
Thus, a review of the literature finds, evaluates, and integrates past research. It is a critical synthesis of research literature that:
• shows how previous studies relate to one another.
• shows similarities and differences between studies.
• discriminates between relevant and irrelevant information.
• indicates weaknesses in previous work.
The purpose of the literature review is to synthesize many specific events and details into a comprehensive whole. Synthesis results from weaving together many smaller generalizations and interpretations into a coherent main theme. You will find that a literature review is always required of an assigned research paper for a course. The purpose is to enable you to critically analyze a segment of an already published body of knowledge. A comprehensive literature review encompasses the following elements:
• Start the introduction by describing the problem or issue you are addressing, then focus on your research hypotheses or questions.
• Explicitly state the significance of the topic in the introduction.
• Present the review as an essay, not an annotated list.
• Emphasize the findings of previous research you have found.
• Point out the trends and themes in the literature.
• Point out the gaps in the literature.
• Express opinions about the quality and importance of the research you have found.
• Use the review to suggest that there is a need for more study.
Avoiding Plagiarism
You certainly have heard about plagiarism and how important it is not to let yourself participate in it. It is so easy to read through many other people’s work and grab a sentence here and there to put into your own paper. As you’re struggling to come up with ideas, you may also find yourself borrowing from others. Neither of these is a good idea.
Plagiarism often starts with the note-taking stage of the research process. Thus, when taking notes, be sure to distinguish between paraphrases and direct quotations. When you are copying an exact quotation, be extremely precise. Note all the information you will need for the citation. It is a good idea to make a system for yourself, perhaps color coding, when doing your research. Make direct quotations one color and your own paraphrasing of ideas another color. Both quotations and paraphrases need to be cited with sources, both within the paper and at the end.
Learning how to use the ideas of others to add weight to your own ideas involves effort and a commitment to academic honesty. It is not always clear exactly how or when to use sources, and sometimes you might need advice or guidance. Since your professors are most familiar with the expectations of their disciplines, they are the best people to ask. Your college likely offers support in the writing lab or online. If you need more guidance, the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) has a section on safe practices for researching and drafting, where you can find excellent advice on identifying plagiarism and preventing yourself from plagiarizing.
While the process of writing authentically and avoiding plagiarism must be focused from the start, you can avoid a world of trouble by double-checking your near-final work with a source identification site or plagiarism detector. Doing so can help you avoid any unintentional reuse of others’ work and may simply identify a source you forgot to cite. Chegg Writing allows you to upload or paste in your paper for a detailed source evaluation. Note that this is only a check step; you must follow best practices to ensure that you don’t plagiarize.
Validity and Credibility
Before you move on to interpreting your data and addressing the significance of what you found, you need to understand the concepts of validity and credibility. There are many ways you can check the validity of a piece of information. Can you find contradictory or confirmatory data? Can you find evidence that disputes what you are reading? If so, use this information. It is always useful to mention opposing ideas. Ultimately, doing so might strengthen your own ideas. Is the topic within the expertise of the person offering the information? Was the method chosen to convey this information the best method to use? The credibility of the author is another important aspect of checking your sources. In other words, evaluate the authors. Are they experts on the topic? Do they have credentials to write on this particular topic? Has this author written anything else on this topic?
Evidence is the way we show that we are using the experiences, values, research, and perspectives of others. To be information literate is to apply the concepts of subjective and objective evidence to our selection, use, and evaluation of information. When we read a website or view a television program, can we recognize that a particular set of values and perspectives is being used? Are we able to identify when evidence is being used? Can we determine that the evidence being used shows a relevant connection between values, perspectives, and conclusions? Are enough different values and perspectives being presented that the conclusions can be considered objective? It is important to learn how to determine the validity and credibility of sources.
The Internet presents its own challenges when it comes to discovering valid and credible information. When looking at a website, you should be able to answer the following questions: Who is responsible for the site (i.e., who is the author)? What can you find out about the responsible party? Where does the site’s information come from (e.g., opinions, facts, documents, quotes, excerpts)? What are the key concepts, issues, and “facts” on the site? And finally, can the key elements of the site be verified by another site or source? In other words, if you want to find some information online, you shouldn’t just Google the topic and then depend on the first website that pops up.
For certain topics and types of information, you may need to dig deeper. Take into account the funding behind a website. Look up the author, and see if they have written anything else and if there are any obvious biases present in that writing. As an example, if you find a website about vaccinations and autism, and this website was put up by a parent group that opposes vaccinations, you have found information that has biases built in from the start. The point of view presented is most likely one-sided, and thus you need to look for more balanced sources to learn if there is in fact some relationship between childhood vaccinations and the onset of autism. This is just an example; you can find sources ranging from reasonably trustworthy to totally untrustworthy on any topic.
Interpretation
Interpretation is the task of drawing inferences from the facts that you collect in your research. It is a search for the broader meaning of your research findings. This is where you try to make sense of what you discovered. In this part of your research, you should discuss the most important knowledge you gained about your topic from your sources. Here is where you go back to your hypothesis and research questions to discuss your findings and whether or not your hypothesis is correct.
Significance
Remember that earlier it was stated, “Life is a series of problems needing solutions.” Consequently, an increased amount of inquiry leads to progress as we continue to expand our knowledge base on a variety of topics. Whatever you find in your research study has significance, as it adds to our knowledge in a particular area. In this section of your writing, it is important to describe the process by which you located your information and then provide advice to other researchers on how to effectively and efficiently find information on this topic. This allows for the continuation of inquiry and the development of more data and knowledge. This is where you communicate to others the new knowledge you discover in your research.
I Did the Research—How Do I Present It?
Questions to consider:
• How do I communicate my research findings?
• What are the elements of a good oral presentation?
• How do I successfully prepare a visual presentation?
Oral Presentations
When giving an oral presentation, you should pay special attention to voice, body, and attitude. If you take the following tips into consideration, you should do a fine job of conveying your ideas to an audience.
Voice
Voice is more than the sum of the noises you make as you speak. Pay attention to inflection, which is the change in pitch or loudness of your voice. You can deliberately use inflection to make a point, to get people’s attention, or to make it very obvious that what you are saying right now is important. You can also change the volume of your voice. Speak too softly, and people will think you are shy or unwilling to share your ideas; speak too loudly, and people will think you are shouting at them. Control your volume to fit the audience.
Some people have a tendency to rush through their presentations. This means they speed up their speech, and the audience has a difficult time following along. Take care to control the speed at which you give a presentation so that everyone can listen comfortably. Also, to add to the comfort of the listeners, it is always nice to use a conversational tone in a presentation.
Body
This includes such components as stance, gesture, and eye contact—in other words, overall body language. How do you stand when you are giving a presentation? Do you move around and fidget? Do you look down at the ground or stare at your note cards? Are you chewing gum or sticking your hands in and out of your pockets nervously? Obviously, you don’t want to do any of these things. Make eye contact as often as possible. Stand in a comfortable manner, but don’t fidget. Use gestures sparingly to make certain points.
Attitude
Attitude is everything. Your enthusiasm for your presentation will prime the audience. If you are bored by your own words, the audience will be yawning. If you are jazzed by what you have to offer, they will sit up in their seats and listen intently. Also, be interested in your audience. Let them know that you are excited to share your ideas with them because they are worth your effort.
Visual Presentations
You might also think about using technology to make your presentation. Perhaps you will do a slide presentation in addition to orally communicating your ideas to your class or another group. Keep in mind that the best presentations are those with minimal words or pictures on the screen, just enough to illustrate the information conveyed in your oral presentation. Do a search on lecture slides or presentation slides to find myriad suggestions on how to create them effectively. You may also create videos to communicate what you found in your research. Today, there are many different ways to take the information you found and create something memorable with which to share your knowledge.
When you are making a presentation that includes a visual component, pay attention to three elements: design, method, and function.
Design
The design includes such elements as size, shape, color, scale, and contrast. You have a vast array of options for designing a background or structuring the visual part of your presentation, whether online or offline.
Method
The method is how you visually present your ideas. Will it be better to show your ideas by drawing a picture, including a photograph, using clip art, or showing a video? Or will it be more powerful to depict your ideas through a range of colors or shapes? These decisions you make will alter the impact of your presentation. Will you present your ideas literally, as with a photograph, or in the abstract, as in some artistic rendition of an idea? For instance, if you decide to introduce your ideas symbolically, a picture of a pond surrounded by tall trees may be the best way to present the concept of a calm person.
Function
The function is the purpose of the visual part of your presentation. Are you telling a story? Communicating a message? Creating movement for the audience to follow? Summarizing an idea? Motivating people to agree with an idea? Supporting and confirming what you are telling your audience? Knowing the function of the visual element of your presentation will make your decisions about design and method more meaningful and successful. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/13%3A_Appendices/13.00%3A_Conducting_and_Presenting_Research.txt |
No list of this nature can be all-inclusive, so read online summaries and ask around before you devote time and effort to resources related to thinking. Even a bad book can teach valuable lessons (such as how to be more selective), but you also don’t want to waste your limited time.
• Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques by Michael Michalko. A former U.S. Army officer discusses idea generation and the creative thinking process to jumpstart ideas.
• A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech. Here, von Oech offers scenario-based discussion starters to prompt alternative thinking to solve problems.
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Nobel Prize winner Kahneman explores intuition and emotional decision-making.
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Working on the ironic concept that less is the new more, McKeown outlines how to embrace a stripped-down, back-to-basics approach to business, customer service, thinking, and life in general, in direct contrast to the typical bigger is better mentality.
• Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell, a writer for the New Yorker magazine, presents the science of thinking on the fly—how some people are better than others at sifting through all the available information and only accessing what matters most in making important decisions. It may appear that these “gut reactions” are instantaneous, but Gladwell argues that a great deal of thinking goes into these seemingly snap decisions.
• Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. A well-respected educator and proponent of critical thinking, Paul is one of the founders of the Foundation for Critical Thinking (FCT), and this book presents his ideas about clear thinking in all aspects of business, education, and personal relationships.
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. A wildly popular mesh of economic theory (in layman’s terms) and pop psychology, Freakonomics takes a look at topics not found in most economics lessons, including drug dealing and sumo wrestling.
• The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel J. Levitin. Based on the concept that organizing your mind (ideas, workspace, life) is half the battle, Levitin proposes techniques to improve critical thinking through an ordered approach.
13.02: Activities and Artifacts From the Book
This appendix provides reproductions of tables, forms, and related materials from throughout the book. You can print them or copy them for completion and inclusion in your records or to turn in and use in class.
Chapter 1 Welcome to College
Table C1
The Five Whys: Your Turn
Why are you in college? I am in college to . . .
Why do you . . . I . . .
Why do you . . . I . . .
Why do you . . . I . . .
Why do you . . . I . . .
Chapter 2 Knowing Yourself as a Learner
Table C2
Parts of the learning process Growth characteristic What will you do to adopt a growth mindset?
Challenges Embraces challenges
Obstacles Persists despite setbacks
Effort Sees effort as a path to success
Criticism Learns from criticism
Success of Others Finds learning and inspiration in the success of others
Table C3
Does it …? Yes No What you can do to turn the assignment into something that is better suited to you as a learner?
Does it allow you to make decisions about your own learning? In essence, you are doing this right now. You are making decisions on how you can make your assignment more effective for you.
Does it allow you to make mistakes without adversely affecting your grade? Hints: Are there ways for you to practice? Can you create a series of drafts for the assignment and get feedback?
Is it centered on solving a problem? Hint: Can you turn the assignment into something that solves a problem? An example would be making a presentation that actually educated others rather than just covered what you may have learned.
Is it related to your chosen occupation in any way? Hint: Can you turn the assignment into something you might actually do as a part of your profession or make it about your profession? Examples might be creating an informative poster for the workplace or writing a paper on new trends in your profession.
Does it allow you to manage the time you work on it? More than likely the answer here will be “yes,” but you can plan how you will do it. For more information on this, see the chapter on time management.
Does it allow interaction with your instructor as a learning partner? Hint: Talking to your instructor about the ideas you have for making this assignment more personalized accomplishes this exact thing.
Chapter 3 Managing Your Time and Priorities
Table C4
Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never
I like to be given strict deadlines for each task. It helps me stay organized and on track.
I would rather be 15 minutes early than 1 minute late.
I like to improvise instead of planning everything out ahead of time.
I prefer to be able to manage when and how I do each task.
I have a difficult time estimating how long a task will take.
I have more motivation when there is an upcoming deadline. It helps me focus.
I have difficulty keeping priorities in the most beneficial order.
Chapter 4 Planning Your Academic Pathways
Note
Take a moment to practice setting long- and short-term goals. Your short-term goal should help you progress toward your long-term goal. Include a plan for when and how you will know if you’re on track or if you need to adjust your goals to match new priorities.
Table C5
My Long-Term Goal:
My Short-Term Goal:
My Plan for Checking My Progress:
Chapter 8 Communicating
Table C6
Form of Communication Rules for This Form
Face-to-face
Phone
Printed letters
Email
Texting
Instant messaging/group chat
Social media
Table C7
Challenges Opportunities Communication Methods and Tools
Group project for an on campus (traditional) course.
Group project for an online-only course.
Planning an event with your extended family.
Planning an event with your friends/peers.
Table C8
Describing a sporting event you watched. Describing an argument you got into on social media. Describing a night out with friends.
An eight-year-old
A 20-year-old woman
A middle-aged man
An elderly person
Table C9
Face-to-Face Email Letter Phone Facebook Instagram Snapchat
Parent
Peer
Sibling
Boss
Doctor
Professor
Waitress
Office assistant
Significant other | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_College_Success_(OpenStax)/13%3A_Appendices/13.01%3A_Recommended_Readings.txt |
The Student Experience
Kristen Mruk
When thinking about college, what comes to mind? Perhaps stereotypical images or misconceptions of college life, a friend or sibling’s story, or scenes from popular movies?
“The Student Experience” by Kristen Mruk
In popular culture, some movies depict college life as a party atmosphere in which students binge drink and waste their parents’ money to have a good time without consequence. Films including National Lampoon’s Animal House and Van Wilder as well as Accepted, to name a few, portray the student experience as a blatant disregard for education coupled with excessive drunken buffoonery. However, my party experience illustrates a side to college that is not generally in the limelight.
During my first weeks in college, I felt disconnected from the campus and feared that I would not make friends or find my niche. I was commuting from my family’s home and wanted to do more on campus than just go to and from class. I was enrolled in a First-Year Experience (FYE) course that was intended to provide a framework for a successful undergraduate career and beyond. In the class, we learned about student support services on campus (tutoring, personal wellness, academic advisement, etc.) as well as personal success skills (time and financial management, values exploration, etc.).
Being a new student, and a commuter, I was overwhelmed by the amount of new information, new territory, campus culture, and unfamiliar processes. I asked my FYE instructor after class one day if there was something I could do to feel more connected to campus. She opened my eyes to a side of college that I was missing—this was my invitation to the party.
My FYE instructor promptly led me to her office, introduced me to the staff, and explained the variety of involvement opportunities available through her office. I was amazed that there was so much to do on campus! Because of that meeting, I decided to apply for a job in the Student Union working at the information desk. This position was a catalyst for all of the additional parties I would be invited to throughout my time as an undergraduate student. With so many possibilities, I had to be diligent in prioritizing my time and energy.
What My Friends Think I Do
Friends knew me to be much like the girl in the meme above. I was juggling extracurricular activities and two jobs all while maintaining a full course load. I had to be proactive and diligent to coordinate activities and assignments and make sure I had the time to do it all. Finding a system was a trial and error process, but ultimately I found a method that worked for me. I was an undergraduate student when apps didn’t exist and Facebook was just becoming popular, so my organizational system included a planner, a pen, and a lot of highlighters. Whatever that organizational system looks like for you does not matter as long as you use it.
There are a variety of organizational methods and tools you can use to stay on track with all aspects of your life as a student. Some of those are featured in the State University of New York (SUNY) blog: http://blog.suny.edu/tag/apps
What My Parents Think I Do
It may be difficult to discuss your studies and educational experience with a parent or someone that has a significant interest in your academic achievement. This was the case for me; I was the first kid in my house to enroll in college, and my parents were under the impression that grades would be sent home like they were in high school. During the New Student Orientation program, my Mom learned about FERPA (Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and what that meant for my grades. “FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level.” In essence, parents cannot access grades or other restricted academic information unless you provide it to them (http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html?src=ft).
I was fortunate enough to have my parents’ financial support toward tuition, so they felt entitled to reviewing my grades at the end of each semester. I did not want to give them direct access to my grade report by filing a FERPA waiver, so after much deliberation, I agreed to share my grades once released at the semester’s end. If their standards were not met, there would have to be a conversation about repercussions.
In the fall of my sophomore year I took my first online course—Introduction to Computers and Statistics. All of the lectures and assignments were available online at anytime and exams were administered in a computer lab on campus. I thought having the ability to view lectures on my own time would be more conducive to my schedule as I was becoming more involved on campus. For the first few weeks of classes I watched the lectures regularly and did the assignments on time. Slowly but surely I found myself prioritizing my time differently, ultimately putting my online class on the back burner, because (I told myself) the work could be done anytime! By the end of the semester I realized that I was going to fail the class. No amount of extra credit, crying, or pleading could save my grade; I had earned an F.
Seeing a failing grade on my transcript taught me two valuable lessons. First, I discovered that I needed the routine and accountability of an in-person class to ensure my participation in the material. Second, I was responsible for the grades I received. I probably could have come up with a million excuses for why I didn’t watch the lectures or do the assignments, but the reality was I just didn’t do it. I did not seek my professor’s help during their office hours when I started to fall behind, I did not go to the tutoring center on campus to get extra help, and I did not reach out to my classmates to form study groups.
Although the F that I received will never disappear from my transcript, it is an important reminder of the gruesome conversation I had with my parents and the feeling of failure in the pit of my stomach. Needless to say, that was the only online course I took during my collegiate career, but it was absolutely worth the lessons learned.
What My Professors Hope I Do
Professors do care about how you are doing in their class; they genuinely want you to succeed, but they will give you the grade you earn. There are people and resources on campus for you to utilize so you can earn the grade you want.
Your professors are one of those resources, and are perhaps the most important. Go see them during office hours, ask them questions about the material and get extra help if you need it. The caveat here is that you cannot wait until the last week of the semester to visit your professors to get help. Tears and pleading will not help you at the eleventh hour.
Another resource to utilize can be found in the campus learning center. I frequented my campus’ writing center for assistance with papers and research projects. Initially, I was scared to be critiqued, thinking my work would be perceived as inadequate. The first time I took a paper there, I recall standing outside the door for about ten minutes thinking of an excuse not to go in. Thankfully I saw a classmate walk in and I followed suit. The experience was less dramatic than I imagined it to be; no one ripped my paper to shreds and told me that I would never graduate. Instead I sat with an upper-class student who coached me through some pointers and suggestions for improvement. Thanks to that first visit, I received an A- on the paper!
What I Would Like to Do
I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I started college, but that changed three times by the time I graduated. Initially I started as an International Business major but ended up receiving a degree in Communication and continued on to graduate school. My greatest advice to you is to embrace feelings of uncertainty (if you have them) with regard to your academic, career, or life goals. Stop into the Career Services office on your campus to identify what it is that you really want to do when you graduate or to confirm your affinity to a career path. Make an appointment to see a counselor if you need to vent or get a new perspective. Do an internship in your field; this can give you a first-hand impression of what your life might look like in that role.
When I chose International Business, I did not do so as an informed student. I enjoyed and excelled in my business courses in high school and I had hopes of traveling the world, so International Business seemed to fit the bill. Little did I know, the major required a lot of accounting and economics which, as it turned out, were not my forte. Thinking this is what I wanted, I wasted time pursuing a major I didn’t enjoy and academic courses I struggled through.
So I took a different approach. I began speaking to the professionals around me that had jobs that appealed to me: Student Unions/Activities, Leadership, Orientation, Alumni, etc. I found out I could have a similar career, and I would enjoy the required studies along the way. Making that discovery provided direction and purpose in my major and extracurricular activities. I felt like everything was falling into place.
What I Actually Do
I would like to pause for a moment and ask you to consider why you are in college? Why did you choose your institution? Have you declared a major yet? Why or why not? What are your plans post-graduation? By frequently reflecting in this way, you can assess whether or not your behaviors, affiliations, and activities align with your goals.
What you actually do with your student experience is completely up to you. You are the only person who can dictate your collegiate fate. Remind yourself of the reasons why you are in college and make sure your time is spent on achieving your goals. There are resources and people on your campus available to help you. You have the control—use it wisely. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/01%3A_Your_Solid_Foundation/1.01%3A_The_Student_Experience.txt |
Dr. Kristine Duffy
Life in college will be like no other time in your life—I can guarantee you that! This is your time to explore who you are, who you want to become, and how you wish to play a part in this world. Don’t squander this unique time in your life. I hope to share some thoughts that might help you avoid regrets when reflecting on your college years.
I want to be clear—there are many paths through college and we know that no one path is right for all. You may be starting at a community college, taking courses part-time, starting college again after an unsuccessful start, or returning to education after many years away, but no matter who you are or what path you’ve chosen, make the most of it.
I took the fairly traditional path. I graduated from high school and went directly to college (which was three hours away from home). Because I wasn’t really sure what else I should do, I chose to be a business major by default. My parents thought it was a good route to take and would lead me to a good job (mainly to ensure I made some money and didn’t live with them forever).
There are three things I learned quickly in college:
1. I had lived a very nice life, but in a very homogeneous environment.
2. There were people different from me.
3. Although I was a decent student, I had a ways to go to be a good student!
Learning to appreciate what you have is just as important as earning As on exams and papers. I share this because part of college is preparing for life, not just a job. Ask yourself some questions:
• What’s important to me and why?
• What do you know about other people’s lives, beliefs, and passions?
• Are you confident in your abilities to study, listen and learn, take notes, and be a learner?
What’s Important to Me and Why?
Is it only to make money to buy things? If so, do you truly believe that money makes everything better? Don’t be fooled by that. Yes, money certainly makes life more comfortable, but it absolutely doesn’t buy happiness. I had friends in college that came from a significant amount of money and they would have traded it all to have a family they can depend upon and love in their homes. Consider this very carefully as you dream of the life ahead of you.
What Do You Know about Other People’s Lives, Beliefs, and Passions?
You are not the center of the world. You should be confident and proud of who you are, but be humble and be open to others’ experiences and worldviews. Take classes that stretch you, maybe even make you uncomfortable. In the end these types of classes will test your assumptions, beliefs, and make you a more well-rounded and interesting person. The roommate or classmate that is different from you can teach you about yourself. Be open to this.
Are You Confident in Your Abilities to Study, Listen and Learn, Take Notes, and Be a Learner?
Remember, if college were easy, everyone would do it! You have full control and responsibility for your learning. Yes, your professors have the responsibility of teaching well and helping you learn. But they cannot and should not do the work for you. Part of college is learning to learn: learning to study, listen better, take notes, and most importantly asking for help when you need it.
In my own research I have learned that students are confronted with a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, students in high school are warned that college will be hard—the professors won’t care if you do the work or not, and you need to do it on your own. However in reality, college professors and support professionals do care and will tell you to come and see them if you need help.
So what is a student to do? You may feel bad in class if you just aren’t getting it and are embarrassed to ask for help. Stop that thought in its tracks! Colleges offer many opportunities for help and in almost all cases, for free! Professors offer office hours specifically to address students’ questions and tutoring is available to help you do better, not to punish you for not getting it. Remember you are paying a substantial amount of money for your tuition; find out what resources you have and take advantage of them. Be a mature learner, take advantage of everything your college offers, and hold your head high for doing so. There is no shame in asking for help. I always compare it to a job. When you start out on any job there is usually some type of training to teach you how to do that job. College is no different. We are teaching you how to be a student—you’ve been practicing since Kindergarten, and doesn’t end when you get to college.
Finally, here are some words of advice based on some of my regrets when I reflect on my college experience:
1. I didn’t study abroad during my four years of college.
2. I didn’t do any type of internship.
3. I didn’t get involved with many clubs or organizations.
4. I didn’t get involved with any type of research opportunities until graduate school.
Study Abroad
Whether it is a short-term experience (some are as short as three weeks) or a semester to a year—do it! This goes back to my point about understanding people different than you. The United States is a great nation, but we are not the only nation and our world is filled with amazing stories to share. One of my favorite quotes by Neale Walsch is: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” (2010). You will not miss much being gone from your college for a short period of time, and you will return from your adventure a changed person. How do I know this if I didn’t study abroad myself? I know many who have and the end result is the same for all—no regrets, life changing moments, and better appreciation for the world we live in.
Internships
Going to college in the 80s was different than today. The job market was relatively strong and the push for an internship or co-op was not as strong. But if I had gotten some hands on experience and discovered my likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses, I would had more direction for my career when I graduated. In addition, there is nothing more frustrating for a college graduate than to go on job interviews only to be told that you can’t be hired because you have no real experience. So talk to your professors, academic advisors, counselors, and mentors about getting some internship experience while in school or during the summer. There are many companies that welcome interns, and you may find the direction you are seeking.
Clubs and Organizations
For years employers have been surveyed by colleges to ask them what type of skills they are seeking in college graduates. Although having discipline specific skills are important (in other words, the courses you take in your major), employers are very consistent in seeking out employees with what they call “soft skills,” such as writing well, public speaking, getting along with others, and having leadership abilities. You’ll develop these skills in your courses, but you can really hone and apply them by joining a club or organization on campus, where you will have opportunities to work with others, lead efforts, and have something to show for it—a campaign you ran, funds you raised, or an event you organized. Colleges offer many types of clubs to attract students in areas of interest. For example, if you are a business major, you could join the business club. More than likely the activities the club offers will allow you to meet business leaders, go on field trips to learn more about the business world, and meet people who have similar interests as yourself. I was a college athlete so my time was limited, and while I support athletics in college as an opportunity to continue your passion and to grow and learn, try to make time to join a special interest group. Take a leadership role in a group, and later, when you go on that job interview, talk about your leadership experience. The employer will be impressed and it may determine whether or not you get the job.
Research
Finally, develop your research skills. You may think that research is most important in the sciences and medicine. But research occurs in all fields of study, and much of what you do in college is research in some form. If you are a music major you may need to research how other musicians developed their talent, the history of genres, or new ways music is applied in our world. Problem solving through effective research and knowing how to test your ideas and hypotheses will make you a very valuable employee and citizen of your community. If your professor offers a chance to work on a special research project—sign up.
Question everything, and don’t take the answers at face value. Question how people come to their conclusions, develop your own set of research questions, and be willing to dig to find the answers. This is not only important as a student but as an employee as well. Strive to be an engaged citizen in our world and don’t believe what everyone tells you. An adult needs to make informed decisions to buy products, pay taxes, and vote for government leaders. Don’t be complacent and put your life in the hands of others without fully researching the pros and cons—draw your own conclusions.
In conclusion, come to the classroom with an open mind and a willingness to exercise your right to take full advantage of all a college offers. Done correctly, college will be challenging and frustrating, and will test every part of you. Life will be the same way so use this time to practice, practice, practice.
Reference
Walsch, N. D. (2010). Neale Donald Walsch’s little book of life: A user’s manual. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/01%3A_Your_Solid_Foundation/1.02%3A_Practice%2C_Practice%2C_Practice.txt |
Why So Many Questions?
Fatima Rodriguez Johnson
I chose to attend a small liberal arts college. The campus was predominately white and was nestled in a wealthy suburb among beautiful trees and landscaped lawns. My stepfather and I pulled into the parking lot and followed the path to my residence hall. The looks we received from most of the families made me feel like everyone knew we didn’t belong. But, he and I greeted all we encountered, smiling and saying, “Hello.” Once I was unpacked and settled into my residence hall, he gave me a hug and said, “Good luck.” I wasn’t sure if he meant good luck with classes or good luck with meeting new friends, but I heard a weight in his voice. He was worried. Had he and my mother prepared me for what was ahead?
With excitement, I greeted my roommate who I had already met through the summer Higher Educational Opportunity Program (HEOP). She and I were very happy to see each other. After decorating and organizing our room, we set out to meet new people. We went to every room introducing ourselves. We were pretty sure no one would forget us; it would be hard to miss the only Black and Latina girls whose room was next to the pay phone (yes, in my day each floor shared one pay phone).
Everyone on our floor was nice and we often hung out in each other’s rooms. And like some of you, we answered some of those annoying questions:
• Why does your perm make your hair straight when ours makes our hair curly?
• How did your hair grow so long (whenever we had weave braids)?
• Why don’t you wash your hair everyday (the most intriguing question of all)?
We were also asked questions that made us angry:
• Did you grow up with your father?
• Aren’t you scared to take public transportation?
• Have you ever seen anyone get shot (because we both lived in the inner city)?
It was those questions that, depending on the day and what kind of mood we were in, made a fellow student either walk away with a better understanding of who we were as Black and Latina women or made a fellow student walk away red and confused. I guess that’s why my stepfather said, “Good luck.” He knew that I was living in a community where I would stand out—where I would have to explain who I was. Some days I was really good at answering those questions and some days I was not. I learned the questions were not the problem; it was not asking that was troubling.
My roommate and I put forth a lot of effort to fit in with the community—we spent time hanging out with our peers, we ate together almost every evening in the dining hall, and we participated in student organizations. We were invited to join the German Club, and were the only students of color there. In doing all these things we made ourselves approachable. Our peers became comfortable around us and trusted us.
Although my peers and I all had similar college stresses (tests, papers, projects, etc.) my roommate and I also had become a student resource for diversity. Not because we wanted to, but because we had too. There were very few students of color on campus, and I think students really wanted to learn about people different from themselves. It was a responsibility that we had accepted. The director of HEOP would often remind us that for many students, college was the first opportunity they had to ask these types of questions. He said we would learn to discern when people were really interested in learning about our differences or insulting us. If someone was interested in insulting us, there was no need to respond at all.
Although I transferred to another college at the end of my sophomore year, during those two years I learned a great deal about having honest conversations. Taking part in honest conversations challenged my notions of the world and how I viewed people from all walks of life (race, class, sexual orientation, ability, etc.). Those late nights studying or walks to the student center were when many of us listened to each other’s stories.
My advice is to take time to examine your attitudes and perceptions of people different from yourself, put yourself in situations that will challenge your assumptions, and lastly, when you make a mistake do not get discouraged. Keep trying. It’s easy to stay where we are comfortable. College is such a wonderful experience. Take it all in, and I am sure you will enjoy it! | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/01%3A_Your_Solid_Foundation/1.03%3A_Why_So_Many_Questions%3F.txt |
These Are the Best Years of Your Life
Sara Vacin
These are the best years of your life. I hope you’ve been told this a ridiculous amount of times and that you are finding this to be true! College provides an amazing opportunity to expand your mind, meet unique people you can deeply connect with, and discover new aspects of yourself. Being aware of this energy and taking full advantage of these opportunities can be life changing.
You learn a lot about yourself when living on your own for the first time or studying topics that are completely taboo at your home’s kitchen table. When I transferred to a four-year institution, I found the strength to come out. Realizing I was gay led me to question where I belonged in the religion I was raised in and an enlightening journey ensued of exploring Buddhism, Native American beliefs, and even New Age mysticism. This process of questioning what I believed helped me to create a spiritual foundation that makes sense to me. I kept the best of what I was raised in and upgraded the rest!
I also discovered that the college I attended had amazing tools to help me be as healthy as possible. I used the free gym and knew the counseling center was there if anything became too tough. I also chose incredible electives (including Mountaineering and Modern Dance) that stretched my physical capabilities. Additionally, I made deep connections with my professors, many of whom remain friends. These smart, caring people validated my journey and were my safety net as I grew out of my old, comfortable self.
Another incredible lesson learned was the importance of balance. I couldn’t party every night and neglect my schoolwork without consequences. I figured out the hard way that I really did need sleep and I couldn’t nourish my body on coffee and pizza alone. In a moment of brilliance, I also figured out that if I used time with my friends as a reward for finishing my work, I would study and complete assignments more efficiently. Fun can be a great motivator—try this; it works!
In college, the emphasis is often on the mind. Do yourself a favor and remember to also nourish your spirit and take care of your body. Leave college brighter, healthier, and with a new understanding of yourself. Try that yoga or nutrition class. Join that new club. Trade in that soda for water. Jump into that drum circle or improvisation group. Who knows what you will discover—it just may be greatness!
1.05: With a Little Help from My Friends
With a Little Help from My Friends
Paulo Fernandes
We often hear about the importance of relationships: a necessary aspect of integration in society. Unfortunately, we rarely follow that advice. Perhaps we live an excessively busy life or we already have a close group of friends and do not feel compelled to meet new people. I have come to learn through my time in college that neglecting to cultivate new relationships is detrimental to living a happy and successful life. I would like to offer this piece of advice: no matter how difficult it seems at first, always try to make new friends. College is not always easy. However, having friends makes it much easier. Friends are a vital part of your life that can expose you to new subjects, cultures, and experiences while giving you the opportunity to do the same for them.
At my college, there was a small space that the students called “the bat cave.” It was by no means a first-class lounge, but it was a place where friends could help others better understand their course material. We gave it this peculiar nickname because it was our place to get together and conquer villains one after another. These were not your everyday super villains, however. Sometimes they were complicated homework assignments and other times they were difficult exams. No matter the challenge, someone was always willing to help. I went to the bat cave several times and every visit I learned something new. Professors and teaching assistants could not relate to us like our friends could. That made a difference, because nothing was better than being taught by a friend.
Friends are not only an essential support for your time in school, but also can be integral in helping realize post-college aspirations. During a visit to New York City, I visited the offices of the company Spotify. After touring their facilities I had the opportunity to talk to some of the employees. One man I talked with was a senior employee who worked at Microsoft prior to joining Spotify’s team. Our conversation stuck in my head because he gave a very striking piece of advice: make friends. It never truly occurred to me that the friends you make in college could impact your future in the workforce. They could be partners in potential business ventures or help you land your dream job. In any case, having strong connections with friends can undoubtedly make a major difference in your career.
The best part of making new friends, however, is trading life experiences, skills, and interests with them. For a year and a half before my final semester of college, I studied abroad in the United States. My family was concerned because typically, students search for first jobs prior to graduation. I, on the other hand, had no trepidations about going because I knew that I would have countless, exciting learning experiences. I can say today, without a doubt, that my trip was a great decision. I met incredible people, and through knowing them, I grew and changed. I also know that I was a positive feature in the lives of my new friends. The greatest thing that I learned was that meeting different people with different backgrounds, histories, perspectives, or even different musical tastes, inevitably changes you and lets you see the world in an entirely different way. You no longer see the world as simply a big, blue sphere with freezing winters or sizzling summers (although that certainly seems to be the case up North!), but as a place in which people like you live, learn, and love.
Going to college may seem hard, but it does not need to be. I have learned that the way I perceive my life as a student completely relies upon my relationships with my friends. They are not only the people that I like to spend time with, but also are essential in my growth and development as a human being. The pages in this book include insights from others just like you and me. They want to help you get through the common struggles of college with confidence and perseverance. Consider them your most recent new friends. I truly hope that this inspires you in your quest for a great future. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/01%3A_Your_Solid_Foundation/1.04%3A_These_Are_the_Best_Years_of_Your_Life.txt |
Can You Listen to Yourself?
Yuki Sasao
It is almost impossible to find time away from information sources like TV, phone, advertisements, or even your friends and family in this modern society. Can you put yourself in a place that has no information at all—you alone, just yourself? If not, you should try—finding this quiet mental space will let you to practice listening to yourself. It is a wonderful way to find out who you truly are. Our society has become so loud that it is very difficult to listen to your own voice and extremely easy to lose it.
I am an international student from a very small town in Japan, and I am the first one among my family members to study abroad. When I told people that I decided to come to the United States to study, every single one of them was shocked and gave me their advice. Some said Americans are very bossy and tend to look down on people. Some said I would not be able to find any jobs there.
It does not matter who you are and what type of circumstances you are in. You will get some comments and advice no matter what you do.
Was the advice people gave me accurate? I’m sorry, but mostly, no. People I met in the United States were nice, and the advice I received really depended on whether or not the person looked down on others. Am I struggling with finding a job? No. My major in accounting provides me more opportunities than I can take. Looking back on the comments from my friends and family, I am very grateful that I was able to see what I truly wanted and stick with my decision.
The reason I could tune out those negative voices was not because I am lucky or intelligent. It is because I listened to myself—my own voice. However, this doesn’t mean that I didn’t listen to others. I considered what people said to me and I understood them. I just didn’t agree with them, which was the most difficult part. In the process of building my own decisions, many pieces of advice actually helped me and I made some changes based on the advice from others combined with my own thoughts.
Why was I able to stick to my decision so tight and live the life I wanted? It’s because I talked to myself and asked myself millions of questions.
“What do I want in my future?”
“Do I really need it or just want it?”
“Am I where I wanted to be? Yes? No? Why?”
“Where am I going?”
“What am I doing?”
“What would happen if I do this?”
“Why am I doing it?”
It is difficult, frustrating, and time-consuming to find your raw voice in this very noisy society, but in doing so you will get through life with minimal regret and confidence in who you are and what you are doing. Pull yourself away from the massive amount of information, talk to some people, understand them (never ignore them), and then talk with yourself. This is your life, and you cannot run away from yourself forever. You’d better learn how to listen to yourself and be able to stick with your own thoughts even after accepting what other say. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/02%3A_You_are_the_President_and_CEO_of_You/2.01%3A_Can_You_Listen_to_Yourself%3F.txt |
Failure Is Not an Option
Nathan Wallace
In the movie Apollo 13, Ed Harris portrays NASA flight director Gene Kranz as he successfully guides the crew of a damaged spacecraft to safety. In a famous scene during which Kranz and his staff are attempting to overcome some extremely daunting challenges, Harris shouts, “Failure is not an option!” This singular statement perfectly articulated the determination of Kranz to bring the Apollo astronauts back to Earth.
This “failure is not an option” credo was perfect for the life and death situation that NASA was facing. Failure meant that the astronauts on Apollo 13 would never come home, and that outcome was unacceptable. Attending college, on the other hand, shouldn’t be a life or death experience, though it sometimes might feel like one. Failure, though never the intended outcome, can and sometimes does happen. Sometimes failure manifests itself in election results for a student government post, in a test score, or even in a final grade.
Throughout my life I have had many failures. In high school I drove my parents and teachers crazy because of my lack of academic achievement. I even managed to get an F- in Spanish on my report card. When I told my mom that it was a typo she responded, “So you didn’t get an F?” “No,” I said, “I definitely earned the F, but there’s no such thing as an F-.” To this day I’m not so sure that my reply was accurate. I might have earned that minus after all.
My failures in high school led to only one acceptance from of all the colleges I applied to attend. Furthermore, I was not accepted to the school’s main campus, but to their branch campus. During my first semester there my effort wasn’t much better than in high school, but since my parents were now paying for my education I did enough work to avoid academic probation. It wasn’t until my second semester that I found my niche as a Religious Studies major and started getting good grades, moved to the main campus, and eventually graduated with honors.
Since graduating from college, my career path has taken me into higher education as a Student Affairs administrator. This career has exposed me to many great theories regarding student success, and many of them gave me insight into my own college experience. But it was Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck who appeared to be thinking of me when she wrote the following about fixed mindsets in the introduction to her book titled Mindset: The New Psychology of Success:
Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—the fixed mindset—creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character—well, then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn’t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics. (Dweck, 2006)
This statement was a revelation to me. I finally understood my problem throughout high school and even in college. I earned good grades because I liked Religious Studies but never really challenged myself inside or outside of the classroom. My problem was that I had a fixed mindset about academic success. I believed that a person is either smart or they’re not, and nothing could be done to significantly change that. I also believed that I was one of the fortunate ones to be “gifted” with an abundance of intelligence.
One might think that having confidence in your intelligence is a whole lot better than thinking that you’re stupid, but the result was the same. My fixed mindset was holding me back because it led to a paralyzing fear of failure. Since as far back as I could remember, my family, friends, and teachers were always telling me how smart I was, and I believed them. But that belief was a double-edged sword. High school and college offered many occasions when self-confidence in my inherent intelligence could be threatened. If I fail on this test or in this course it means that I’m not the smart person I thought I was. If I fail, my family and friends will find out that they were wrong about me.
However, there was a way to avoid all of the risks of academic rigor. I could just not try. If I don’t try I’ll get bad marks on my report card, but those won’t be true indicators of my intelligence. By not putting forth any effort, my intelligence would never be disproven. I would always be able to say to myself and others that, “I could do the work and be a straight A student, but I’m just not interested.” Looking back on this time in my life, it is clear to me that this wasn’t a conscious decision to save face. It was fear, not logic, which was guiding my behavior.
After reading Mindset I have made a conscious effort to identify and thwart any remaining fixed mindset thoughts that I continue to hold. Dweck’s book acts as a manual for rooting out fixed mindset thoughts, because she explains that the idea of fixed mindsets is only half of her mindset theory. There is another kind of mindset, and she calls it growth mindset. Dweck writes that, “This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts” (Dweck, 2006). Dweck goes on to explain that we can choose to have a growth mindset about any type of ability, whether it’s math, art, athletics, or any other skill that one wishes to cultivate.
I put this theory to the test not long after reading the book. A few years ago I attended a meeting only to find out that it wasn’t any ordinary meeting. During this meeting we would be brainstorming solutions to a specific problem. This was going to be a true brainstorming session, led by a facilitator trained in the science of soliciting uninhibited ideas from an audience. As soon as I heard the word brainstorming I froze. I have always hated brainstorming. I’m the type of person that likes to think things through two or three times before expressing an opinion. My fear of failing at this task in front of my coworkers paralyzed my mind. I couldn’t think.
That’s when it hit me. This was fixed mindset thinking. My belief in my brainstorming inadequacies was preventing me from even trying. So I flipped this thinking on its head and decided the best way to improve my brainstorming abilities was to clear my mind and start firing out ideas. I gave it a shot, and though the ideas didn’t come out at the prolific rate of some of my colleagues, I had never before had such a positive outcome and experience while brainstorming. Through this experience I found that I really could choose to have a growth mindset, and that this choice produces a greater chance of success. With a greater chance of success comes a smaller chance of failure.
Nevertheless, when it comes to academic success and success in all phases of life, failure is always an option. Though it can be painful, failure can lead to great learning and progress when a specific failure is analyzed through the lens of a growth mindset. By focusing more on effort than on outcomes anyone can learn and grow, regardless of their skill level. Therefore, to make the most of their time in college, students must seek out challenges that will stretch their abilities. These challenges can take many forms and they can occur in a variety of settings, both inside and outside of the classroom. When seeking out challenges there is always the possibility of agonizing defeat, but out of that defeat can be the seeds of great success in the future.
Reference
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/02%3A_You_are_the_President_and_CEO_of_You/2.02%3A_Failure_Is_Not_an_Option.txt |
Thinking Critically and Creatively
Dr. Andrew Robert Baker
Critical and creative thinking skills are perhaps the most fundamental skills involved in making judgments and solving problems. They are some of the most important skills I have ever developed. I use them everyday and continue to work to improve them both.
The ability to think critically about a matter—to analyze a question, situation, or problem down to its most basic parts—is what helps us evaluate the accuracy and truthfulness of statements, claims, and information we read and hear. It is the sharp knife that, when honed, separates fact from fiction, honesty from lies, and the accurate from the misleading. We all use this skill to one degree or another almost every day. For example, we use critical thinking every day as we consider the latest consumer products and why one particular product is the best among its peers. Is it a quality product because a celebrity endorses it? Because a lot of other people may have used it? Because it is made by one company versus another? Or perhaps because it is made in one country or another? These are questions representative of critical thinking.
The academic setting demands more of us in terms of critical thinking than everyday life. It demands that we evaluate information and analyze a myriad of issues. It is the environment where our critical thinking skills can be the difference between success and failure. In this environment we must consider information in an analytical, critical manner. We must ask questions—What is the source of this information? Is this source an expert one and what makes it so? Are there multiple perspectives to consider on an issue? Do multiple sources agree or disagree on an issue? Does quality research substantiate information or opinion? Do I have any personal biases that may affect my consideration of this information? It is only through purposeful, frequent, intentional questioning such as this that we can sharpen our critical thinking skills and improve as students, learners, and researchers. Developing my critical thinking skills over a twenty year period as a student in higher education enabled me to complete a quantitative dissertation, including analyzing research and completing statistical analysis, and earning my Ph.D. in 2014.
While critical thinking analyzes information and roots out the true nature and facets of problems, it is creative thinking that drives progress forward when it comes to solving these problems. Exceptional creative thinkers are people that invent new solutions to existing problems that do not rely on past or current solutions. They are the ones who invent solution C when everyone else is still arguing between A and B. Creative thinking skills involve using strategies to clear the mind so that our thoughts and ideas can transcend the current limitations of a problem and allow us to see beyond barriers that prevent new solutions from being found.
Brainstorming is the simplest example of intentional creative thinking that most people have tried at least once. With the quick generation of many ideas at once we can block-out our brain’s natural tendency to limit our solution-generating abilities so we can access and combine many possible solutions/thoughts and invent new ones. It is sort of like sprinting through a race’s finish line only to find there is new track on the other side and we can keep going, if we choose. As with critical thinking, higher education both demands creative thinking from us and is the perfect place to practice and develop the skill. Everything from word problems in a math class, to opinion or persuasive speeches and papers, call upon our creative thinking skills to generate new solutions and perspectives in response to our professor’s demands. Creative thinking skills ask questions such as—What if? Why not? What else is out there? Can I combine perspectives/solutions? What is something no one else has brought-up? What is being forgotten/ignored? What about ______? It is the opening of doors and options that follows problem-identification.
Consider an assignment that required you to compare two different authors on the topic of education and select and defend one as better. Now add to this scenario that your professor clearly prefers one author over the other. While critical thinking can get you as far as identifying the similarities and differences between these authors and evaluating their merits, it is creative thinking that you must use if you wish to challenge your professor’s opinion and invent new perspectives on the authors that have not previously been considered.
So, what can we do to develop our critical and creative thinking skills? Although many students may dislike it, group work is an excellent way to develop our thinking skills. Many times I have heard from students their disdain for working in groups based on scheduling, varied levels of commitment to the group or project, and personality conflicts too, of course. True—it’s not always easy, but that is why it is so effective. When we work collaboratively on a project or problem we bring many brains to bear on a subject. These different brains will naturally develop varied ways of solving or explaining problems and examining information. To the observant individual we see that this places us in a constant state of back and forth critical/creative thinking modes.
For example, in group work we are simultaneously analyzing information and generating solutions on our own, while challenging other’s analyses/ideas and responding to challenges to our own analyses/ideas. This is part of why students tend to avoid group work—it challenges us as thinkers and forces us to analyze others while defending ourselves, which is not something we are used to or comfortable with as most of our educational experiences involve solo work. Your professors know this—that’s why we assign it—to help you grow as students, learners, and thinkers! | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/02%3A_You_are_the_President_and_CEO_of_You/2.03%3A_Thinking_Critically_and_Creatively.txt |
Time Is on Your Side
Christopher L. Hockey
There I was, having just eaten dinner and realizing that I had less than twenty-four hours to go before my capstone paper was due for my History of Africa class. This paper was the only grade for the class and all I had done was some research. I still had thirty pages that needed to be written! How was I going to get this paper done?
I came to the realization that I was going to have to skip some classes and work through the night. I kept my roommate up with the click clack of the keyboard and worked through the night with breaks only to replenish the caffeine in my system. Morning came and I still had work to do.
I contacted my other professors letting them know that something came up and I wouldn’t be in class. Thankfully, I was in good standing in my other classes and could afford to miss one class. I snuck in a twenty minute nap and kept working. I finally finished about thirty minutes before the deadline. Exhausted and not terribly proud of myself, I trudged my way to class to drop off the paper and committed to never working like this again. After all, there was a small likelihood that I would get a decent grade; I was hoping for just a C to keep my GPA respectable. I went back to my room and slept for a long time. Imagine my amazement when I received my grade for the paper (and ultimately the class) and there was an A- staring me back in the face! How could this be possible?
My experience illustrates a very important lesson. Best practices do not always yield the best results. Logic would tell us that to manage a thirty-page paper would require the student to spread out all the tasks over the semester and do a little bit of work over a long period of time as opposed to a lot of work over a short period of time. The problem is that time management is a personal thing. Everyone works differently and excels under different circumstances.
The important thing to remember about time management is that there is not one method. Everyone must find what works best for her or him. There are some strategies that have been used for years and others that are new. While there are multiple perspectives on how best to set personal and professional goals, there are three general themes that influence the development of personal time management plans: identifying priorities, managing time, and managing energy.
The concept of time management is actually personal management. Where you are going or what you are trying to accomplish is more important than how fast you get there. Personal management demands organizing and executing around priorities. One thing to watch out for on your college journey is something called time famine. Time famine is the feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it. This happens often to college students and without warning. This was certainly the case with my paper. I certainly felt overwhelmed with thirty pages to write and not a lot of time available to write it in. However, there’s one really helpful aspect of time—you always know how much you have in a day. You know that in any given day, you have twenty-four hours to accomplish everything you need to do for that day. With that knowledge in hand it becomes an easy task to make smart choices when planning both the schedule for the day, as well as the energy needed to complete the tasks.
The objective of successful time management is to increase and optimize controllable time. Once you have a schedule made, don’t change it unless something of some serious urgency comes up. However, while managing time is challenging enough, there’s another concept out there about the management of your energy. Think of energy as money and time as what you’d like to buy. If you’re too tired (or energy broke) to be productive, it’s hard to accomplish (buy) everything on your schedule. Luckily, at the age of twenty-two, I had lots of energy and stamina to pull an all-nighter and finish the paper. If I tried to do that today at thirty-five, I would be asleep on my keyboard after a few hours. In order to always have enough of time currency, it’s important that you are physically energized, emotionally connected, and mentally focused on your purpose.
While an understanding of these general principles is essential for the development of sound time and energy management strategies, it is also important to focus on practical strategies that can be implemented to improve the college experience. The first recommendation is to know who you are and how you work. In this step, you need to examine all aspects of your current time management skills. Take a look at personal practices such as where you work, how you organize information and course materials, how current and future assignments and projects are prioritized, how commitments are balanced, and lastly, how you prevent burnout. Once you have taken stock in your current practices, you’ll have a better idea of what you need to do to improve.
Even today, I try to space out large projects and assignments and find that I am not as focused or motivated. I struggle to complete the task and when I do, it never feels like I did it well. However, when I revert back to that practice of waiting until the last minute, I am focused, energized, and motivated and the results have been very positive. In my own doctoral program, I have begun assignments a little too close to the deadlines but they ultimately get completed and I continue to be amazed at the high marks I get back. What does that tell me? It tells me I thrive in high-pressure situations where I have to focus intensely on one thing and stay focused for a long period of time. Is that method for everyone? Certainly not, but it works for some and it may or may not work for you. You must examine your own work habits and practices and look back at times that you have done well and times you have done poorly and identify habits that led to those results.
The next strategy is to create a personal time management method to help prioritize projects and activities. Try to identify and eliminate activities that may detract from effectively balancing your roles and responsibilities. In any given day, what are the most important things that need to be completed? What can be eliminated from your schedule that provides you the time you need to be successful? I like to think of this as the “five-year-old plan.” My five-year-old loves to play in the morning as her Mom and I are getting ready for work. The problem is that we need her to get ready for school, too. We put a plan in place that allows her to play in the morning, only after she is completely ready for school. You need time to play, have fun, and socialize, but it should not come at the expense of higher priority tasks.
The next recommendation is to focus on the process of energy management. Create goals focused on physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional renewal. These goals can include, but are not limited to: getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night, taking small breaks during work sessions, eating healthy, exercising regularly, drinking lots of water, having a positive attitude, and practicing positive self-talk. Anytime I know I have a big work task or school task to complete, I am in the mindset of energy conversation—my energy. I make sure to get a good night sleep, eat my Wheaties, and think good vibes. These habits allow me to complete projects in a way that works for me.
Lastly, set up a reward system. One of the great things about creating prioritized lists of things that need to be done is the sense of accomplishment when you cross that item off the list. Once you’ve identified your major goals and tasks, identify a reward for each of these goals that provides an even greater sense of accomplishment. The reward should be personal and should encourage you to continue your good habits. What are the things you love to do? Write them down next to the major tasks and learn to practice delayed gratification by only doing those things once you’ve crossed the item off.
In conclusion, practical and tangible strategies for time and energy management can be the key to success for any undertaking. While each concept related to time and energy management is unique and provides a starting point for you to begin to develop strong personal management skills, these methods and ideas are not one-size-fits-all, and you need to explore the strategies and discover which components of each best fit your lifestyle and circumstances. Through this exercise, you can develop a personal management plan that is best suited to your needs and goals. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/02%3A_You_are_the_President_and_CEO_of_You/2.04%3A_Time_Is_on_Your_Side.txt |
What Do You Enjoy Studying?
Dr. Patricia Munsch
There is a tremendous amount of stress placed on college students regarding their choice of major. Everyday, I meet with students regarding their concern about choosing right major; the path that will lead to a fantastic, high-paying position in a growth industry. There is a hope that one decision, your college major, will have a huge impact on the rest of your life.
Students shy away from subject areas they enjoy due to fear that such coursework will not lead to a job. I am disappointed in this approach. As a counselor I always ask—what do you enjoy studying? Based on this answer it is generally easy to choose a major or a family of majors. I recognize the incredible pressure to secure employment after graduation, but forcing yourself to choose a major that you may not have any actual interest in because a book or website mentioned the area of growth may not lead to the happiness you predict.
Working in a college setting I have the opportunity to work with students through all walks of life, and I do believe based on my experience, that choosing a major because it is listed as a growth area alone is not a good idea. Use your time in college to explore all areas of interest and utilize your campus resources to help you make connections between your joy in a subject matter and the potential career paths. Realize that for most people, in most careers, the undergraduate major does not lead to a linear career path.
As an undergraduate student I majored in Political Science, an area that I had an interest in, but I added minors in Sociology and Women’s Studies as my educational pursuits broadened. Today, as a counselor, I look back on my coursework with happy memories of exploring new ideas, critically analyzing my own assumptions, and developing an appreciation of social and behavioral sciences. So to impart my wisdom in regards to a student’s college major, I will always ask, what do you enjoy studying?
Once you have determined what you enjoy studying, the real work begins. Students need to seek out academic advisement. Academic advisement means many different things; it can include course selection, course completion for graduation, mapping coursework to graduation, developing opportunities within your major and mentorship.
As a student I utilized a faculty member in my department for semester course selection, and I also went to the department chairperson to organize two different internships to explore different career paths. In addition, I sought mentorship from club advisors as I questioned my career path and future goals. In my mind I had a team of people providing me support and guidance, and as a result I had a great college experience and an easy transition from school to work.
I recommend to all students that I meet with to create their own team. As a counselor I can certainly be a part of their team, but I should not be the only resource. Connect with faculty in your department or in your favorite subject. Seek out internships as you think about the transition from college to workplace. Find mentors through faculty, club advisors, or college staff. We all want to see you succeed and are happy to be a part of your journey.
As a counselor I am always shocked when students do not understand what courses they need to take, what grade point average they need to maintain, and what requirements they must fulfill in order to reach their goal—graduation! Understand that as a college student it is your responsibility to read your college catalog and meet all of the requirements for graduation from your college. I always suggest that students, starting in their first semester, outline or map out all of the courses they need to take in order to graduate. Of course you may change your mind along the way, but by setting out your plan to graduation you are forcing yourself to learn what is required of you.
I do this exercise in my classes and it is by far the most frustrating for students. They want to live in the now and they don’t want to worry about next semester or next year. However, for many students that I see, the consequence of this decision is a second semester senior year filled with courses that the student avoided during all the previous semesters. If you purposefully outline each semester and the coursework for each you can balance your schedule, understand your curriculum, and feel confident that you will reach your goal. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/02%3A_You_are_the_President_and_CEO_of_You/2.05%3A_What_Do_You_Enjoy_Studying%3F.txt |
Fighting for My Future Now
Amie Bernstein
Instead of completing high school, I elected to obtain my GED due to an anxiety disorder that kept me from being successful in the traditional school setting. At sixteen years old, I thought I had it figured out. I was going to go to college before my high school class graduated, and I would be ahead of the curve. But I learned quickly that college coursework is tremendously different from high school. College requires a level of self-discipline that I had not yet developed. More importantly, college requires a substantial amount of courage and confidence that I was sorely lacking.
In the spring of 2005, I attempted to take my first two college classes. I withdrew from both within the first month. I made excuses as to why I could not complete the semester. I told people that it was the professor’s fault for making the information too difficult or teaching the material too quickly. I told other people that the readings were too easy and I was wasting my time. The truth was that I was afraid to try. I was afraid that if I tried, the result would be failure.
After eight consecutive semesters, I had completed only five classes successfully, accrued seventeen withdrawals, and got three failing grades. In those four years, I was placed on academic probation five times because I neglected to withdraw from classes and just received a failing grade instead. I made the decision to find an entry-level job in an office so I could grow with a company to be successful instead of getting an education. Through a little bit of searching, I found what I was looking for. At the time, it seemed like the perfect place to be, and I was excited to start.
I was working at an HVAC company in the office part-time as a general office assistant. My duties included answering phones and taking messages. There wasn’t a great amount of room for growth, however it had a better salary than any of the previous jobs I had at fast food restaurants and retail stores. I worked at the company for nearly two years before I asked for a raise. It took a month of contemplation, and the owner finally agreed to give me a raise. I waited for my next paycheck, excited to see the increase in pay even though I knew it wasn’t going to be very big.
The raise meant that I had accomplished something, but when I received my next paycheck, the pay rate wasn’t changed and it felt like I had accomplished nothing at all. When I questioned the owner about it, he said he forgot and he would change it for the next pay period. This same routine went on for two months until I made a big decision. The moment I received my paycheck, three months from when I originally asked for a raise, I walked out of the office and drove directly to the registrar on my local community college. I registered for classes again, but this time I promised myself it would be different; I was fighting for my future now.
I then started taking classes again in the fall of 2011 going part-time. I attended every class and studied as much as I could. I took every opportunity for extra credit assignments. I didn’t stop to doubt myself. I just kept my thoughts focused on finishing the assignments—one at a time. Before I knew it, I had successfully completed the semester. I continued to take classes and try my best—taking every challenge head-on.
A year later, in the fall of 2012, I received a letter in the mail inviting me to join the honor society. Up until this point in my life I had let my anxiety disorder rule my life. This was proof that I was finally on the right track. I reluctantly joined and decided to continue to further push myself outside my comfort zone to challenge my anxiety.
Not only did I start going to meetings, but I participated in every event that the honor society had to offer. That included bake sales, volunteering for nonprofit organizations, and volunteering for the college itself. The opportunities came at me from every angle.
I then started to be recognized by the college. In addition to being recognized for my good grades, I was also recognized for my involvement with campus activities through the honor society. I received both a Distinguished Student Award from my college and a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. I joined everything I could after that, including two more honor societies, one for English and the other for Psychology. I enrolled in a non-credit bearing leadership class on campus so I could have even more experience that would help me with my future goals. I even went on to run for a regional officer position in my honor society and won. I was able to travel to California, Florida, and Missouri, all because of campus involvement in the honor society.
I still have anxiety, but now I am able to cope with it without letting it dictate my every move. I have confidence. I always thought that because I wasn’t that cookie cutter all-American student, my opportunities would be limited, but getting involved on campus opened so many doors for me. I learned so much about what it was to be a leader. I learned what it meant to be part of a team and the value in building relationships. I learned what it meant to be engaged both inside and outside of the classroom.
I developed a deeper sense of who I am through my campus involvement. Sometimes I think about what would have happened if I never had taken that step and joined the honor society or never attended any meetings. Honestly, I probably would have been okay. I would have been steadily gliding through my education. I would have shown up to class, taken notes, then gone home and studied. I would have probably then gone on and found a decent job with a regular amount of satisfaction. But who wants an okay, decent, or regular life? I don’t; I need more. I want to love what I do and enjoy every moment I can.
Maybe the honor society isn’t something that you are interested in and that’s okay. Do something different and learn about all of the opportunities that your campus offers and pick one to try out. Make your life more than run of the mill—and start now. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/03%3A_The_Future_You/3.01%3A_Fighting_for_My_Future_Now.txt |
Something Was Different
Jacqueline Tiermini
I have earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree and I have nearly twenty years of teaching experience. Would you ever guess that I contemplated not going to college at all? I originally thought about going to Beauty School and becoming a Cosmetologist. It was to me, honestly the easy way out since I was sick of all the drama after high school. The thought of college seemed overwhelming. Why did I really need to have a college degree when all I ever wanted was to get married and be a stay-at-home mom? My friends weren’t going to college either, so I often wondered if going would complicate our friendship.
I decided to go anyway, and it did separate us a bit. While I was writing a ten-page paper for my summer class in Genetics and Heredity, my friends were swimming in my pool. They also had the chance to buy new cars and new clothes and to go on vacations. I just went to school, driving my used Nissan Sentra, without much more than gas money and a few extra bucks. Again, why was I doing this? It would have been easier to just do what my friends were doing.
Little by little, semesters went by and I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Education. I started substitute teaching immediately and within six months I was offered a full-time job. Just like that, I had more money and all kinds of new opportunities and I could now consider a new car or going on vacation just like my friends. At that point, I decided to continue my education and get my master’s degree. Yes, it was a lot of hard work again, and yes, my friends wondered why I wanted to go back again, but I knew then that this was the best choice for me. The challenge wasn’t knowing where I wanted my career to go, but rather overcoming the pull to settle into a lifestyle or career because it was easy, not because it was what I wanted.
By the time I graduated with my master’s degree I realized that something was different. For all the years that I felt behind or unable to keep up with what my friends had, I was suddenly leaps and bounds ahead of them career-wise. I now had two degrees, a full-time teaching job, and a plan to keep my career moving forward. I was able to do all of the things that they had done all those years and more. None of them had careers, just jobs. None of them had long-term plans. None of them were as satisfied with their choices any longer and a few of them even mentioned that they were jealous of my opportunity to attend college.
Don’t be fooled. Being a college student is a lot of work and, like me, most students have questioned what they are doing and why they are doing it. However, the rewards certainly outweigh all of the obstacles. I used to hear, “Attending college will make you a well-rounded person” or “It sets you apart from those that do not attend,” yet it never felt true at the time. Eventually though, you will come to a point where you realize those quotes are true and you will be on your way to earning that degree! | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/03%3A_The_Future_You/3.02%3A_Something_Was_Different.txt |
Transferable
Vicki L. Brown
I was supposed to be a teacher. Growing up, I had a classroom in the basement. I had a chalkboard, chalk, desks, textbooks, homework assignments, pens, pencils, paper—you name it, I had it! My brother and sister called me “Miss Brown.” All I ever wanted to be was an elementary school teacher—until I went to college.
As an elementary education major in college, I participated in a variety of classes—classes on literacy, math and science, philosophies of teaching, child development theory, principles of education, foundations of classroom behavior, and a whole list of others. We learned how to write a lesson plan, manage a classroom, how to set up a classroom, and much, much more.
In addition to my studies, I got involved in campus life. I joined the swimming and diving team, participated in campus activities, and joined clubs. I served as a captain of the swimming and diving team, became an Orientation Leader and a Resident Assistant, and completely immersed myself in the college experience. It was through these co-curricular activities that I was introduced to the world of higher education and a potentially new career choice for myself.
Through my academic and co-curricular activities, I gained valuable knowledge from all those I came in contact with—my peers, professors, Residence Hall Directors, and many college administrators. They encouraged me to explore what it was that I really wanted to do with my life. The more I got involved in my college experience, the more I learned about myself: what I’m good at, what I’m not good at, what I wanted to, and what I didn’t want to do.
As I started to sort through my options, I continued my studies, receiving both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in elementary education. While attending graduate school, I also worked as a Graduate Residence Hall Director. It was during that time when I finally made the decision to pursue a career in higher education administration/student affairs administration and leave my plans of being an elementary school teacher behind.
The decision wasn’t as difficult as one might think. When some listen to my story, I often hear “you’ve wasted all that time and money…” But, the truth is I gained valuable, lifelong skills from the people I met, the classes I took, the jobs I’ve had, and the activities I involved myself in. Each and every skill you acquire is transferable. This is perhaps the best lesson I’ve ever learned in college.
The countless lesson plans I had to write for my education classes and student teaching have helped me prepare practice plans as the head coach for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving team. The skills I learned while planning programs and activities for my residents as a Resident Assistant, Hall Director, and Area Coordinator have helped me plan campus events as the Director of Student Activities in the Center for Student Leadership & Involvement. The classroom management techniques I learned in college have helped me to manage my office, staff, team, committees, etc. The communication and development theories I’ve learned have taught me how to have meaningful conversations with others and how best to meet their needs.
Each and every skill you learn throughout your academic, personal, and professional career are valuable and transferable. Do not let your college degree define who you are but rather, let the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired define who you are. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/03%3A_The_Future_You/3.03%3A_Transferable.txt |
It’s Like Online Dating
Jackie Vetrano
Searching for a job, especially your first job, is a lot like online dating. It begins as a time commitment, gets nerve-wracking towards the middle, but ends in success and happiness if you follow the right process.
Like many single people with access to current technology, I ventured into the world of online dating. I went for coffee with potential mates who were instant no ways, some who left me scratching my head, and a few who I found a connection with.
But hang on. We are here to talk about professional development, not my love life.
Being on the job hunt is not easy. Many spend hours preparing résumés, looking at open positions, and thinking about what career path to travel. Occasionally, it is overwhelming and intimidating, but when taken one step at a time, it can be a manageable and an exciting process.
Your Dating Profile—The Résumé
The first step of online dating is the most important: create your dating profile. Your profile is where you put your best foot forward and show off all of your attractive qualities through visuals and text. Online daters find their most flattering photos and then season the “about me” section of their profile with captivating and descriptive words to better display who they are and why other online daters should give them a shot.
Résumés follow this same logic. Your résumé should be clean, polished, and present you in your best light for future employers. Like dating profiles, they are detailed and should paint a picture for other prospective dates (or future employers) supporting why you deserve a chance at their love—an interview.
The unspoken rules of online dating profiles are very similar to the rules for writing a résumé. Whether you like it or not, your online dating profile and résumé both serve as a first impression. Profiles and résumés that are short, filled with spelling errors, or vague are usually passed over. Unless you are a supermodel and all you need is an enticing photo, your written description is very important to display who you are.
Your résumé should capture who you are, your skill set, education, past experiences, and anything else that is relevant to the job you hope to obtain. Knowing your audience is a key factor in crafting the perfect résumé. Logically, if my online dating profile presented studious and quiet personality traits, I would likely start receiving messages from potential mates who are looking for someone who is seeking those traits. By taking a similar approach while writing a résumé, you can easily determine the tone, language, and highlighted skills and experiences you should feature. The tone of your résumé is dictated by the nature of the position you hope to obtain in the future. For example, hospitality jobs or positions that require you to interact with many people on a daily basis should be warm and welcoming while analytical jobs, such as accounting or research positions, should reflect an astute attention to detail. Your choice in language follows similar logic—use appropriate terms for the position you are seeking.
Unlike online dating profiles, your résumé should include your important contact information, including email address, telephone number, and mailing address. Some advise refraining from listing a mailing address, as this could create a bias due to some organizations that are looking for a new employee who is already in the area. Unfortunately, this bias cannot be foreseen, which means you should use your best judgment when listing your contact information. If you include this contact information on your dating profile, you may have some very interesting text messages in the morning.
Finding Love—The Job Hunt
Simply crafting an online dating profile doesn’t necessarily mean you will find your one true love, and the same applies to your career. Once your résumé is crafted, it is equally as important to search the job market to find what you think would be a good fit based on your skills and preferences.
An important part of online dating is setting the appropriate search filters. Sites allow users to search by gender, location, age, religious beliefs, or social practices. All these are small pieces that affect the overall compatibility between two people, with some factors being more important than others. By carefully choosing which filters are most important, you’re sure to have better luck finding a perfect match that will make you happy and excited.
As you begin the job hunt, it is important to determine your filters when it comes to a career or first job. Some of these filters, like dating, may hold more weight to you than others. Many job search sites allow users to find job listings as defined by these filters, and they can include: location, type of organization, starting salary, potential for promotion, job responsibilities, etc.
Always establish filters. You may say, “I don’t care what I find, as long as I find something.” All of us have a preference in our love lives as well as our careers, and being honest with yourself about these filters will increase the likelihood for happiness in the end. These filters also allow you to more quickly read through job postings, because you will be focusing on positions with the qualities that you already determined are the most important to you.
When you are searching for a posted position using an online service, enter your filters and try a variety of search phrases to find as many postings as possible. Even changing “school counselor” to “guidance counselor” or only “counseling” may produce a different set of job postings, depending on the website.
It is also important to remember, like online dating sites, not every job posting will be on every employment site. Experiment with different search techniques and websites, and seek the advice of others for the best resource for recent postings. It’s easy to save these filters and search results on most job search websites, allowing you to check back on a constant basis without resetting your filters. Most sites also allow you to create a free account, providing you a way to receive email alerts any time a new job is posted and fits in with your filters.
After the filters are set, it is time to start the exciting and nerve-wracking part: scrolling through profiles.
Scrolling through Profiles—The Job Postings
You will find attractive potentials with no description provided, others who exclusively take selfies, and a whole list of people who simply are not right for you based on their description. But then, it happens. You find someone who may be a match, and your heart starts to flutter.
Reading through a job description is equally as exciting. A good job posting provides a robust description of responsibilities, minimum qualifications, and desired qualifications for candidates. Knowing your own skill set, you can determine if you’re a match or not. By having honest filters set before searching, it’s likely that you are.
Sometimes, online dating simply doesn’t work. Many will then turn to speed dating to meet new people in the area. This method allows for daters to quickly determine whether or not there’s any chemistry, without spending time searching through online profiles. Similarly, job fairs provide this quick face-to-face advantage. If you’re attending a job fair, be sure dress appropriately and have copies of your résumé or business cards on hand. Through job fairs, you’ll be building your first impression right away, and may even be offered an interview on the spot.
Sending a Message—The Cover Letter
After searching through dozens of profiles, online daters generally find a handful of people they can picture themselves with. There’s only one way to find out more about the person, and that’s by sending the first message.
My personal rule for online dating is to always send a thoughtful first message to those I want to meet. It’s easy enough to send a short, impersonal “hey,” but it’s important to make a good impression. It’s obvious that the message I send, combined with my well-written profile, is going to continue to form a first impression of me. First impressions are very important in dating, job-hunting, and life overall.
The challenging part of the first message I send through online dating sites is determining what to say. I’ve never met these people before, but I do have access to their dating profiles filled with their hobbies, hometowns, and more. This is a perfect starting point for my message, especially if we both root for the same football team or if the other person likes to run as much as I do.
Your cover letter serves as an introduction to your future employer and should compliment your résumé to create a shining first impression. It is incredibly challenging to sit in front of a blank screen trying to find a good starting point, which means you should look at the job posting and organization’s website for ideas about what to include.
Generally, these job postings provide a set of hard skills (such as proficiency with certain technology) and soft skills (such as public speaking, teamwork, or working in a flexible environment) required and desired for the posted position. This information provides you a list of what should be explained in your cover letter. Demonstrating your hard skills is a simple enough task by using examples or stating certifications, but describing your soft skills may require a little more thought. These soft skills can be exhibited by discussing specific examples of past experiences in previous jobs you’ve held, volunteer work, or work you’ve done in college classes.
After you have crafted your cover letter, you should send it to a few people you trust for their opinion and overall proofreading along with the job posting for their reference. It’s obvious that your cover letter should be free of spelling and grammar errors, but these trustworthy individuals will also be able to provide helpful insight about the examples you’ve used to display your soft skills.
The Hard Part—Waiting
You just sent your first message to the love of your life, but now what? You wait. You will undoubtedly feel anxious, especially if you sit refreshing your inbox for hours at a time, but if you made a good first impression and they like you as much as you like them, you will hear back.
While you wait, take the time to do a little research. Search for the organization online and view what information they provide. You will be storing up some good facts about your future partner, which is something you can bring up when you’re on your first date. This research will also allow you to understand the company better. The organization displays their values, work ethic, and personality through online and print resources, which allows you to see if their values match with yours.
Unlike online dating, it is helpful to follow up with an organization you’ve applied to. Generally, the Human Resources department of an organization is the best place to start if you are unsure whom to call. This phone call is another piece of your first impression, which means you should be prepared to talk. Have any materials that you need ready, and be sure you are in a quiet place.
The First Date—The Job Interview
After what may feel like forever, you hear back from the love of your life. Congratulations! In the online dating world, you may chat about common interests (because you wrote a stunning first message), but in the world of work, you’ll be asked to visit the organization for an interview.
I have been on many first dates, and whether it’s in a coffee shop or over dinner, the first face-to-face meeting is tremendously important. If someone I am meeting for the first time looks like they just came from the gym or rolled out of bed, my impression instantly changes. This same theory can be directly applied to your first date with your future employer. You have worked hard on your cover letter and résumé, and you should not taint the sparkling first impression you have created with the wrong choice in dress.
What you wear to a job interview may change based on the position you have applied for, but there are a set of basic rules that everyone should follow. Similar to meeting someone on a first date for coffee, you want to be comfortable. Some interviews may take place with multiple people in an organization, meaning you will be walking to different locations, sitting down, and potentially sweating from a broken air conditioning unit. Consider these factors when choosing your outfit for your interview, and if you’re concerned about being underdressed, remember to always dress a bit nicer than how you’d dress for the job itself.
There is nothing worse than sitting alone at a coffee shop waiting for a mystery date to show up. It’s uncomfortable and affects my overall first impression of whom I’m about to meet. Avoid making your mystery employer annoyed and waiting for you by leaving at least ten minutes earlier than you need to, just in case you get stuck in traffic. Arrive at least ten minutes early. The interview will start out much better if you are early rather than nervous and running late. Arriving early also gives you the time to have some coffee and review materials you may need for the interview. Coming on time to an interview or a first date shows you respect the time of the person you plan to meet.
On a first date, it is all about communication. Sometimes, there may be silences that cannot be filled or the person I have just met discloses their entire life story to me in less than an hour. If we cannot achieve a proper balance, there will not be a second date. Communicating effectively in a job interview is equally as important, especially if you want a job offer!
All of the rules of dating apply to how you should behave in a job interview. The interviewer will ask you questions, which means that you should look at them and focus on what is being asked. Your phone should be on silent (not even on vibrate), and hidden, to show that you are fully attentive and engaged in the conversation you are having. Much like having a conversation on a date, the answers to your questions should be clear and concise and stay on topic. The stories I tell on my first dates are more personal than what would be disclosed in a job interview, but the mindset is the same. You are building the impression that the organization has of you, so put your best foot forward through the comments you make.
To make that great impression, it is really important to heavily prepare and practice, even before you have an interview scheduled. By brainstorming answers to typical interview questions in a typed document or out loud, later during the interview you will easily remember the examples of your past experiences that demonstrate why you are best for the job. You can continue to update this list as you move through different jobs, finding better examples to each question to accurately describe your hard and soft skills.
This interview is as much a date for your future employer as it is for you. Come prepared with questions that you have about the company, the position, and anything else you are curious about. This is an opportunity for you to show off the research you’ve done on the organization and establish a better understanding of company culture, values, and work ethic. Without knowing these basics of the company or organization, what you thought was a match might only end in a tense breakup.
After your interview is over, you continue to have an opportunity to build on the positive impression that you’ve worked hard to form. Sending a follow up thank you note to each person you interviewed with will show your respect for the time the organization spent with you. These notes can be written and sent by mail or emailed, but either way should have a personal touch, commenting on a topic that was discussed in the interview. While sending a thank you note after a first date may sound a little strange, you might not get asked to a second interview without one!
It’s Official—The Job Offer
In the online dating world, it takes a few dates to determine if two people are a match. In the corporate world, you may have a one or two interviews to build a relationship. If your impression was positive and the organization believes you’re a match for the open position, you’ll be offered a job.
With a job offer also comes the salary for the position. It is important to know what a reasonable salary is for the position and location, which can be answered with a bit of research. One good place to look is the Bureau of Labor Statistics website: http://stats.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm. At this point, it is not uncommon to discuss your salary with your future employer, but be sure to do so in a polite way.
Online dating sites provide the means for millions of people to meet future partners, and the number of people who use online dating is so large that there are sure to be disappointments along the way. I have met people who I thought were compatible with me, but they did not feel the same, and vice versa. This happens frequently while searching for a job, which can be discouraging, but should not hinder you from continuing to search! There are a great number of opportunities, and sometimes all it takes is adjusting your filters or revising your résumé and cover letter. The cliché “there’s plenty of fish in the sea” may be true, but there is definitely a way for each person to start their career off right. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/03%3A_The_Future_You/3.04%3A_It%E2%80%99s_Like_Online_Dating.txt |
Learn What You Don’t Want
Jamie Edwards
For a long time, my plan had always been to be a kindergarten teacher. But when I began my undergraduate degree I fell into that ever-growing pool of college students who changed their major three times before graduation. I was swayed by family members, my peers, and the economy, but I eventually realized that I was investing my education in the wrong areas for the wrong reasons. It shouldn’t just be about salaries and job security. I needed to find that personal attachment.
At eighteen, it’s hard to see your entire life spread out before you. College may feel like a free-for-all at times, but the reality is that it’s one of the most defining times of our lives. It should never be squandered. I started to imagine my life beyond college—what I found important and the type of lifestyle I wanted in the end. I started thinking about the classes that I was actually interested in—the ones that I looked forward to each week and arrived early to just so I could get a seat up front.
A turning point for me was when I took the advice of a campus mentor and enrolled in a career exploration course. I learned more about myself in that class than I had in my entire three years at college prior to taking it. It showed me that my passion was something I had always thought about but never thought about as a career. In high school, I could sit in the Guidance Office for hours on end. I enjoyed listening to others—hearing and helping people work through their struggles.
I had seen firsthand how detrimental the absence of career classes can be to someone’s future. Through this realization and my participation in my career exploration class, I saw a viable future in the Higher Education Administration field. As I dove deeper, I was opened to an incredible amount of unique and diverse opportunities to work with students. My main approach was to get a taste anything to do with student services: I shadowed a career counselor in a career services office, attended graduate school fairs and informational sessions, discussed the Higher Education Administration Program with several staff at my college, and most importantly, I talked with my internship coordinator (my mentor). From there, I completed an internship in my prospective field, which gave me a wealth of insight and skills that directly related to my future career goals.
From where I sit now—my former personal and professional struggles in tow—I offer up some pieces of advice that were crucial to getting me where I am today. Whether you’re an undecided major who is looking for guidance or a student with a clearly defined career path, I suggest the following:
1. Find a mentor—For me, everything began there. Without my mentor, I wouldn’t have done any of the other items I’m about to suggest. Finding the right mentor is crucial. Look for someone who can complement your personality (typically someone who’s the opposite of you). My advice would be to look beyond your direct supervisor for mentorship. It’s important to create an open forum with your mentor, because there may be a conflict of interest as you discuss work issues and other job opportunities. Potential mentors to consider are an instructor on campus, your academic advisor, a professional currently working in your prospective field, someone you admire in your community, or anyone in your network of friends or family that you feel comfortable discussing your future goals with.
2. Enroll in a Career Exploration/Planning course, or something similar—Even if you do not see the effects of this course immediately (such as dramatically changing your major), you will notice the impact down the road. Making educated career choices and learning job readiness skills will always pay off in the end. Through my career exploration class, I learned how to relate my personality and values to potential career fields. These self-assessments changed my entire thought process, and I see that influence daily. Beyond changing the way you think, the knowledge you gain about effective job search strategies is invaluable. Learning how to write purposeful résumés and cover letters, finding the right approach to the interview process, and recognizing your strengths and weaknesses are just a few of the benefits you can gain from these type of courses.
3. Complete a Job Shadow and/or Informational Interview—No amount of online research is going to give you the same experience as seeing a job at the front line. In a job shadow or an informational interview, you’re able to explore options with no commitment and see how your in-class experience can carry over to a real world setting. Additionally, you’re expanding your professional network by having that personal involvement. You never know how the connections you make might benefit you in the future. My only regret about job shadowing in college is that I didn’t do it sooner.
4. Do an Internship—A main source of frustration for recent grads is the inability to secure an entry-level position without experience. “How do I get a job to gain experience when I can’t get a job without experience?” This is how: do an internship or two! Most colleges even have a course where you can obtain credit for doing it! Not only will you earn credits towards graduation, but you’ll gain the necessary experience to put on your résumé and discuss in future interviews. Having completed four internships throughout my college career, I can’t say they were all great. However, I don’t regret a single one. The first one showed me the type of field I didn’t want to work in. The second confirmed that I was heading in the right direction with my career. My third and fourth internships introduced me to completely different areas of higher education which broadened my knowledge and narrowed my search simultaneously.
My takeaway is that sometimes you have to learn what you don’t want in order to find out what you do want. The more informed you are about career options through real life conversations and experiences, the better prepared you will be for your future and the more confident you will be in your career decisions. Always explore your options because even if you learn you hate it, at least you’re one step close to finding what you love. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Foundations_of_Academic_Success_-_Words_of_Wisdom_(Priester)/03%3A_The_Future_You/3.05%3A_Learn_What_You_Don%E2%80%99t_Want.txt |
Learning Objectives
1. Understand exactly what you need to do to secure a full-time job, if you are a senior who either had or did not have a summer internship prior to graduation.
2. Determine a potential career path if you are a senior with a liberal arts degree, or any type of degree, and you haven’t a clue as to what you want to do when you graduate.
Your ability to enjoy your senior year in college can be directly correlated to whether or not you have a full-time job waiting for you when you graduate. You will have four possible scenarios in your senior year:
• Scenario 1. You had a summer internship, and you received a full-time offer.
• Scenario 2. You had a summer internship, and you have not received a full-time offer.
• Scenario 3. You did not have a summer internship, and you need a full-time job.
• Scenario 4. You did not have a summer internship, and you do not need a full-time job.
Let’s explore each scenario to consider what your next steps should be.
Scenario 1: You Had a Summer Internship, and You Received a Full-Time Offer
If you had a summer internship and have received a full-time offer, you are in a great position. Hopefully, you enjoyed your summer internship and you will accept the offer you’ve received. If you will choose not to accept that offer, you’ll be in a great position to explore other options. But don’t waste time, as you’ll have a deadline to accept the first offer extended to you.
Next Steps
If you decide to accept your summer offer, your next steps will be to ensure that you complete all of your new hire paper work and that you have all the details necessary to begin working full time. In addition, you should continue to learn more about the company, the industry, the function, and the department in which you will work. Focus on increasing your network. Find other classmates at your school who might be involved in the same function and department as yours, and perhaps some who are joining the same industry. Join a LinkedIn Group that focuses on your industry and your function and start a discussion. Conduct a Google Alert on your job, your industry, and your company so you are more knowledgeable about them.
Ask about entry-level training if it is offered. If it is, perhaps you can prepare ahead of time for what you will be taught. Some companies not only administer entry-level training but also grade your performance and then share your grades with your manager. You will make the best impression possible if you are ranked at the very top of your class after training.
If you choose not to accept this offer, quickly launch into a search for a full-time job. Your summer internship should have let you know exactly what you liked and did not like about the company you worked with. Use that information to move your job search forward and find the company and industry you are most interested in.
Table \(1\) "On-Campus Recruiting Calendar: Seniors and Advanced Degree Students" outlines the recruiting calendar for seniors and advanced-degree students in this position. Also make sure to consult career services or a trusted advisor, taking into account all potential next steps. Table \(1\): On-Campus Recruiting Calendar: Seniors and Advanced Degree Students
School Calendar On-Campus Recruiting for Full-Time Opportunities: Seniors Only
Aug. School begins Seniors receive or do not receive a full-time offer from summer employers
Sept. Semester in full swing Seniors without offers participate in full-time marketing events
Oct. Midterms Seniors without offers participate in full-time interviewing
Nov. Preparation for end of semester; finals next month Seniors must accept or decline full-time offers
Dec. Semester ends; winter break begins
Jan. Winter break, classes begin mid- to late Jan. Interviewing for full-time positions begins
Feb. Semester in full swing Interviewing for full-time positions are in full swing
Mar. Midterms Some interviewing takes place
Apr. Semester winding down; finals next month New hire paper work sent to future employees
May Classes end; some internships begin New hire paper work due
June Summer internships begin and are soon in full swing
July Summer internships in full swing, ending early Aug. Full-time job begins
Note: Calendar includes general time frames. Consult with your career services office and employers regarding specific dates/months.
Scenario 2: You Had a Summer Internship, and You Have Not Received a Full-Time Offer
You’ve strengthened your résumé with a solid internship, but unfortunately, that internship did not convert to a full-time job. This is not necessarily a reflection of your internship performance. Many companies can’t predict hiring needs so far in advance that they can offer a job to a student who isn’t graduating until months or even a year into the future. It’s not the end of the world; you can still achieve your goal of receiving a full-time offer.
Next Steps
The most important thing to know at this point is why you did not receive an offer. Ask for feedback, and ask that it be specific. Recruiters and hiring managers rarely give you interview feedback because our society is litigious, but your past employer should give you very specific feedback. Perhaps you need to ramp up a particular skill. Perhaps you need to be more well read on a particular topic. Troubleshooting to address any feedback you receive will help in the long run.
Check with your career services office. Ensure you know exactly which companies are coming on campus during the year. Research those companies and attend their marketing events. Talk to everyone you can about opportunities and be focused on exactly what you want to do.
Conduct an off-campus job search. Conducting both an on-campus and off-campus job search ensures that you consider all of the companies in the employable universe. Remember, of course, to focus sharply on your target.
When you interview for a full-time position, the interviewer may ask about your prior summer and why you did not get an offer. While answering, always speak very positively about the experience and emphasize your contributions. Given that, you need to be honest about why you did not get an offer yet at the same time not harm your candidacy. Perhaps it was not the best fit because the company focuses on a market or product outside your areas of interest. For example, perhaps you were a research intern assigned to analyze the technology industry, but you now want to focus on health care. Perhaps your internship was in the right industry but you’d rather do something else within that interest. For example, you were a talent scout, and you now want to be more involved in the technology side of moviemaking. Think of something that enhances your candidacy with the organizations you are targeting now, especially if that something is not relevant to your summer employer.
If you get stuck on this issue, speak to career services or a professional career coach. This could be a tricky situation and you want to avoid losing an opportunity because you didn’t have a well-thought-out response.
Scenario 3: You Did Not Have a Summer Internship, and You Need a Full-Time Job
You didn’t have a summer internship, but did you do any of the following?
• Did you have a job of any kind during the summer (painting houses, lawn care, working in a retail store, etc.)? Did you volunteer or do any unpaid work? If so, how did you help your employer or organization achieve their objectives? Were you recognized for special achievements, or did you reach any milestones?
• Did you take an interesting class (that pertains to your major?) or did you work on learning another language?
• Did you do an independent project for a professor?
Represent what you did do on your résumé, listing results-oriented achievements.
Next Steps
Determine what you want to do when you graduate. If you do not know, work with career services to identify potential careers.
If you are a liberal arts major, your area of concentration may not translate to a specific job (e.g., philosophy to philosopher), so you may not be sure about your next career step.
A liberal arts education offers much to employers, including communication, research, critical thinking skills, teamwork and leadership skills, flexibility, a global focus, and many, many other skills and strengths. All of these skills can be applied to industries such as advertising, education, health care, manufacturing, media and entertainment, even areas associated with the business majors (financial services, accounting, consulting, and so forth).
If you’ve studied English, history, religion, philosophy, or psychology, you have honed your critical thinking skills (for example, comparative literature), you have been innovative in your learning (for example, art history, East meets West), and your writing skills are advanced because many of these courses require extensive research reports.
If you’ve studied the arts, you could be innovative, have strong presentation skills, be flexible in your thinking, and have an eye for design and graphics.
If you’ve studied languages, political science, or international relations, your focus is global and you can appreciate the juxtaposition and convergence of the profit and nonprofit sectors.
Economics and technical sciences test your analytical and quantitative skills, in addition to teamwork because many of the courses require group projects.
Although they are not considered “majors,” extracurricular activities enhance many of the just-noted skills—creativity, communication and presentation, working with different people and cultures, and teamwork—along with a competitive winning spirit and drive, organization, and dedication.
Table \(2\) "Translating Your College Major to Potential Jobs" may help identify exactly what you want to do. Table \(2\): Translating Your College Major to Potential Jobs
Major Your Strategy Your Ability and Your Focus
English, history, religion, philosophy, psychology Promote the soft skills and critical thinking that are the hallmark of liberal arts Research, communication skills, context, critical thinking
Dance, art, music, theater Demonstrate your creativity and the value of creativity in the workplace Innovation, flexibility, importance of design
Languages, political science, international relations Emphasize the value of global studies and cultural awareness Globalization, convergence of profit and nonprofit
Economics and the technical sciences Do not take for granted that recruiters know your value, so highlight your analytical skills and market knowledge Quantitative and analytical skills, business-specific projects and classes
Extracurricular activities Position competitive sports, student government, and special interest clubs as opportunities to develop teamwork, leadership, and a multidimensional background Teamwork, organizational skills, leadership, ancillary skills (fund-raising, budgeting, event planning)
Scenario 4: You Did Not Have a Summer Internship, and You Do Not Need a Full-Time Job
You might have many reasons for not having a summer internship and not needing a full-time job. Perhaps you are graduating college and you plan to go directly into graduate school. You may not need a full-time job; however, it would be worthwhile for an aspiring law student to have a summer internship in a law firm that specializes in an area of law you find especially interesting. Perhaps you want to know what it’s like to be a litigator, and eventually a judge, so working in the court system would be a tremendous learning opportunity for you, and a tremendous networking opportunity as well.
No matter what your plans are after school, internships can always help expose you to different opportunities. You may be surprised to discover an interest you didn’t think you had. They are certainly invaluable tools for networking. At the very least, you can earn some money, which is always helpful!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• When you are graduating, you likely will have four different scenarios: you received a full-time offer from your summer employer, you did not receive an offer, you didn’t have a summer internship, and lastly, you didn’t have a summer internship and you are not looking for a full-time offer. No matter which is your situation, you can take follow-up steps to strengthen your position.
• Business and technical majors may have a clearer idea of what career they want by virtue of having selected a major that translates into specific careers. Liberal arts majors may not have as clear an idea, but there are ways to leverage the strength of a liberal arts education.
Exercises
1. If you know exactly what industry you will enter, what “next steps” should you take to better position yourself?
2. If you have a liberal arts education, pair up with another liberal arts major and brainstorm about what industries and jobs could use your strengths. Business majors should do the same.
3. If you are a junior and you received a full-time offer from your summer employer, ensure you know what your next steps are.
4. If you are looking for a summer internship, identify the top ten companies in which you are most interested and use the six-step job search process outlined in the remainder of this book to obtain an offer from your dream employer. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/01%3A_Your_Life_Dictates_Your_Job_Search_Not_the_Reverse/1.01%3A_Students-_Graduating_from_School.txt |
Learning Objectives
1. Understand that internships are extremely helpful in your career because they support what you think you want to do, give you ideas of what you might like to do, or identify exactly what you do not want to do.
2. Understand the timing of the on-campus internship season and maximize your efforts to find a job.
Reasons to Pursue an Internship
Internships are some of the most important experiences you can have while you are in college because they either confirm the career you want or confirm the careers you know you do not want! Students can pursue internships at every stage of their college career. However, the majority of firms focus on juniors or graduate students because they are the feeder pool to a firm’s full-time hires. In some large firms in specific industries such as banking and management consulting, 80–90 percent of the summer class receive a full-time offer. The most important internship is the one you secure for the summer of your junior year or between years of graduate school because that internship will most likely result in the extension of a full-time offer. Internships are available for freshmen and sophomores but may require a bit more work to secure because companies are more prone to hiring juniors. Smaller firms or organizations still focus on juniors, but sophomores and freshman have a chance to impress as well.
Timing Considerations
The most common internship is a summer internship, which lasts approximately ten weeks and begins in mid- to late May or very early June and ends in early to mid-August. The ten-week period usually begins with an orientation, and then you will be hard at work pursuing your deliverables. You may or may not have some training sprinkled throughout the ten weeks, but at the very least you should have several opportunities to network throughout the summer.
It is worth noting that some internship opportunities extend past the summer, and others are exclusively labeled fall, winter, or spring internships. Whatever the season, the experience you will garner from such opportunities can be extremely helpful to your full-time job search and will go a long way toward strengthening your résumé and value proposition to your future employer.
Table \(1\) outlines the recruiting calendar for internships. It may be helpful to use this and sync the dates and months with your school calendar and potential employers so you know exactly what to do at every turn. Table \(1\): On-Campus Recruiting Calendar: Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshmen as well as First-Year MBA Students
School Calendar On-Campus Recruiting Schedule
Aug. School begins Companies begin screening résumés for summer internships.
Sept. Semester in full swing Companies begin marketing opportunities on campus and continue to screen résumés.
Oct. Midterms Companies begin on-campus interviewing and some summer offers are extended.
Nov. Preparation for end of semester; finals next month Some summer offers must be accepted or declined. Summer intern candidates send résumés and apply for positions.
Dec. Semester ends; winter break begins Summer candidates continue to apply for summer opportunities; some are contacted for interviews.
Jan. Winter break, classes begin mid- to late Jan. Summer candidates are contacted for on-campus interviews. Interviews begin. Some offers are extended.
Feb. Semester in full swing Some offer deadlines are extended. Interviews continue. Some have deadline acceptance dates.
Mar. Midterms Interviews trail off. Most summer opportunities have been accepted or declined.
Apr. Semester winding down; finals next month Summer new hire paper work sent to future interns.
May Classes end; some internships begin Some summer internships begin.
June Summer internships begin and are soon in full swing Remaining summer internships begin and are soon in full swing.
July Summer internships in full swing, ending early Aug. Summer internships in full swing, ending in early Aug.
Note: Certain industries have more aggressive recruiting timelines than others. For example, investment banking, sales and trading, and consulting are typically the first industries to conduct on-campus interviewing in both the fall (September and October) and the spring (January and February). All other industries typically recruit later in the academic year: technology, marketing, communications, teaching, and so forth. It’s best to check with career services, and with your classmates one or two years ahead of you, regarding this schedule, so you are best prepared. Note also that this chart represents only those companies that come to your campus to recruit. A vast number of opportunities are available, but not every opportunity will be listed with your career services office. Searches in the field of health care, teaching, and communications, to name a few, have to be managed off campus, where you are responsible for networking with decision makers, sending your marketing materials (your résumé, cover letter, and so forth), and obtaining interviews. This is challenging, but using the six-step job search process outlined in this book will help keep you on track.
Internship Performance
It’s wise to understand your performance measures during your internship. You might be evaluated on certain skills such as teamwork, communication, specific knowledge, and so on. Larger companies are more likely to have a formal performance review process. They sometimes share the performance metrics with you at the beginning of the summer, so there are no surprises. Some larger corporations also have other interns rate your performance because teamwork is so important. The more you know about your performance measurement, the more likely you are to succeed.
Internship Compensation
The best-case scenario would be to have a paid internship in your chosen field, so you can build upon the skills necessary to position yourself for a full-time job offer. However, in some industries, such as the arts, advertising, media and entertainment, public relations (PR), nonprofit, and government, unpaid internships or those that pay only a stipend are standard. In down economies, even industries that formerly offered predominately paid internships offer unpaid internships. Unpaid internships require that you receive credit for the internship. Research the credit aspect in advance. Each school produces a form or letter on school letterhead that confirms the school’s approval in advance of you receiving credit for an internship. Some organizations do not check for proper credit authorization, but many do, so it’s best to sort out credit requirements before you start your search.
Paid internships can vary from minimum wage up to a summer salary commensurate with a full-time salary. Some companies pay according to your year in school, for example, some pay \$10 per hour for a freshman, \$12 per hour for a sophomore, \$15 for a junior. The range is wide and varies by industry, size of company, role or functional area of intern, and geography, as illustrated in Table \(2\).
Table \(2\): Internship Salary Differentiators
Differentiating Factor How Salaries Differ
Industry
Private sector often pays more than public sector or nonprofit
Banking, consulting, and technology often pay more than advertising, retail, or entertainment
Size of company Big companies are more likely to have structured programs with higher pay (That said, sometimes small companies offer higher pay to stay competitive.)
Role or functional area of intern Technical jobs (e.g., IT, engineering, graphic design) often pay more than other roles
Geography Major metros often pay more than smaller geographies
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The larger the company, the more structured the internship program may be.
• Summer Internships last approximately ten weeks, roughly from late May or early June until early August.
• Other seasonal internships exist, but by far, the summer internship is the most popular. All should be explored, however.
Exercises
1. Look up three or four summer internship job descriptions in your area of interest that recruit on campus at your school and determine if you would like to apply. Learn what you need to do to apply via on-campus recruiting. Be especially mindful of deadlines.
2. Identify two or three summer internship job descriptions, in your area of interest, from companies that do not recruit at your school. Learn what you need to do to apply. Be especially mindful of deadlines. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/01%3A_Your_Life_Dictates_Your_Job_Search_Not_the_Reverse/1.02%3A_Students-_Pursuing_an_Internship.txt |
Learning Objectives
1. Understand how gaps in employment history affect your hiring potential.
2. Develop strategies for how to talk about gaps in a truthful and positive way.
3. Learn how to overcome other potential obstacles relating to employment gaps.
Employment Gaps Raise Questions about Your Qualifications
Many perfectly good reasons can explain a gap in your work history:
• unemployment, especially in a down market, where job searches take longer
• family leave
• medical leave
• personal leave (e.g., to travel or try something new)
An employment gap raises questions about whether your skills are current, whether your industry expertise or functional knowledge is outdated, and if your network is still intact. When employers hire experienced people, it is often to use their skills right away, to take advantage of their up-to-date knowledge, and to get access to their network. If your skills, expertise, and network are questionable, and an employment gap weakens these three areas, then your value to the employer is weakened. Even if a prospective employer does not view you negatively because of a gap, all things being equal, the employer prefers a candidate with continuous work history to the one with a gap.
Because most of the downside of any gap is related to the job candidate being stale or having out-of-date skills, the length of the gap is very important. A gap of several months is much more easily overcome than that of several years. Multiple gaps also might give employers the impression that your career lacks forward progress and momentum.
The reason for the gap is also important. If you attribute the gap to being unable to find a job, the employer may question how desirable you are to its competitors. If the gap is for family leave, the employer may wonder if you are fully committed. If medical reasons kept you from working, the employer can legally only verify you are able to do the job in question, but this doesn’t mean the employer won’t wonder silently if you will be at your best. Finally, if your gap is due to personal pursuits, the employer may wonder if you are truly back for good or just biding time until your next adventure.
Take Control of the Message behind Your Gap
The more an employer wonders what’s behind your employment gap, the more negatively they might view your circumstances. You must be specific and deliberate in how you message the reasons behind your gap.
Be empowered about your choice to leave. When you talk about why you took time off, don’t sound sheepish. Don’t denigrate your experience. If it was a layoff, employers aren’t expecting you to be happy about being laid off, but you should, at the very least, stay composed and matter-of-fact. Simply state there was a layoff. Then move the conversation onto the present in a positive manner. Reiterate your interest in the current opportunity, rather than showing regret, anger, or any other lingering connection with your previous employer.
If your leave was medically related, you do not need to give details. Simply state you had a medical issue that needed to be taken care of, but, thankfully, you are well now! A future employer welcomes hearing that type of message.
Give detailed examples of what you accomplished and learned. If your gap is due to a layoff, don’t talk about your job search activity as the sole focus of your time. Talk about how you are keeping your skills and network current. Talk about what you’ve read recently as a signal that you are keeping abreast of the industry. Stress the positive in all that you have been doing.
Translate your time off into experience your prospective employer will appreciate. If you took a family leave, don’t focus on your parenting skills unless you are interviewing for a relevant position with children. Focus on how you coordinated playgroups, which shows organization, management, and attention to detail. Mention your fund-raising for school programs, which shows sales skills. If you took a leave to pursue a personal interest, make a case for how that experience contributes to your next role, for example, extensive travel might translate to international awareness and cross-cultural savvy.
Whatever the reason behind your gap, position it in a positive, optimistic, forward-thinking way. Perhaps the gap gave you the perfect opportunity to redirect your career to exactly what you are now most interested in. Use the reasons for your gap to make the case for why you are a strong candidate.
If you are having a tough time explaining a gap of any kind, find a resource, such as your school’s career services office, mentor, or coach to help you craft a meaningful, impactful message.
Convince Yourself First to Help Convince Prospective Employers
Are you 100 percent convinced that you are ready to return to the workforce after your time away? If you are looking for a return job to be a place where you can learn on someone else’s payroll, then you are not making the most compelling case for why a prospective employer should hire you. Get ready to work before you return to work.
Make sure your skills, expertise, and network are up to date. Use Excel to maintain your household budget so you can keep that skill up to date. Read trade journals dedicated to your industry and functional area. Join professional associations in your industry and functional area. You may want to volunteer so that you update your skills, expertise, and network in a working environment. These suggestions are useful to everybody in the job search, but for a candidate with a gap in employment, maintenance of your skills, expertise, and network is even more critical.
Make sure you have the financial cushion to sustain a longer search. It may take a while to rebuild your skills, expertise, and network and to convince prospective employers this has occurred. You may want to take temporary or project work even in an area unrelated to your target field to ensure you can support your financial obligations during your search.
Do you show the confidence that results from being 100 percent convinced you are ready to return to the workforce after your time away? If you doubt your own skills, it will be difficult to convince others. Make sure that you work on your story, examples, and reasons for why you are the best candidate for your target job.
If you are just settling back into your field after time away, your personal support network might have fallen away. You might not have a daily routine in place that keeps you motivated and active. Make sure you rebuild your environment to support your job search. Professional associations, networking groups, alumni chapters, mentors, or coaches may help with your confidence and emotional support.
If you have unresolved personal issues or extreme anxiety, frustration, or other emotional constraints, then you might consider enlisting a therapist or counselor to help you deal with these issues. Remember that it is not just the tactical issues of your job search that need care and attention. Make sure you tend to your emotional needs.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• You have reasonable explanations for taking time off from your career, including a layoff, medical leave, family leave, or personal leave.
• Your skills, expertise, or network might become out of date in your absence, or prospective employers might assume that has happened.
• You need to make a strong case for why you took time off, how you benefited, and how the employer will benefit.
• You also need to make sure you have skills, expertise, a network, financial cushion, confidence, and a support structure to make a successful return to the workforce.
• You might consider seeing a therapist or counselor if you have unresolved emotional issues pertaining to your leave.
Exercises
1. If you are returning from the workforce, write your story about why you took time off. Then edit your story by half and again by half, until you have the three top points of your time away. This is your compelling and concise message.
2. Review your time off month by month or year by year and itemize specific accomplishments. Use a job description for a job you are targeting and make a case for how your accomplishments during the gap translate to the target job. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/01%3A_Your_Life_Dictates_Your_Job_Search_Not_the_Reverse/1.03%3A_Returning_to_Workforce.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand how career change is different from a traditional job search.
2. Get strategies for how to modify your job search to account for a career change.
Transitioning from School to Work Is the First Career Change
In a way, we are all career changers because the transition from school to work is a career change. You have a different role (from student to whatever your new job is). You are in a different environment (unless your new employer is an institute of higher education). You might even be in a different geography because many people go to school in a different place from where they settle.
Sometimes the career change is more pronounced, such as an executive who decides after decades of experience that she wants to try something new. Martha Stewart’s early jobs were in financial services, not hospitality. You may have built up your expertise and accomplishments in an area very different from where you want to be working.
Changing Careers Is Different from Changing Jobs
When you change jobs, you do essentially the same role in the same industry. If you are a hotel concierge for a Hilton property and then move to a Sheraton hotel, this is a job change. If you are a hotel concierge for Hilton and become an office manager for an architecture firm, this is a career change—you are doing a different role in a different industry.
In the subsequent chapters on job search, you need to execute the same six steps as other job seekers. In the areas of marketing yourself and talking about yourself in networking and interviewing situations, however, you won’t be able to rely on your past track record for examples or evidence of how you are suitable for the job. This doesn’t mean you should simply ask prospective employers to take a leap of faith and trust that you will learn. Instead, you should do enough preparation that you fit in with the new area you are targeting.
Changing Careers Successfully Means You Look Like You Aren’t Changing Careers
Essentially, you want to make yourself equal to someone already doing the job, so you don’t want to appear like a career changer, but rather already a career insider. While you might not have a specific employment situation to point to, you can develop the skills and expertise of an insider by volunteering or consulting in that new job area.
A student might point to her work as a tutor when she interviews with schools for teaching positions. An aspiring marketer might highlight his role in the advertising campaign for his school’s homecoming event. A more experienced executive who doesn’t have the campus opportunities of clubs and extracurricular activities can look at community organizations for opportunities to volunteer.
As you go along the six-step job search process, pay close attention to Step 3, Conduct In-Depth Research. If you can showcase your understanding of your new target area by your exhaustive research and grasp of trends, challenges, and competitor information, then you will be valuable to prospective employers.
Changing Careers Requires Additional Search Skills Compared to Changing Jobs
Career changers have more convincing to do and need additional search skills. This means that the career changer’s job search will be different:
It will likely take longer. You have to establish a track record in your new area. You have to find people who will listen to your story. Students should start their job search long before graduation. They can use the years in school to build a track record in areas where they might want to work after graduation. In the six-step job search process, step 5 includes strategies for maintaining long-term motivation, which also would be particularly helpful when changing careers.
It may be more expensive. A longer search means that you have no money coming in from your new job. If you have another job while you are looking, that might be fine, but if you are unemployed you have to factor in enough cash to last throughout the longer search.
It might require additional education or training. Depending on the new job requirements, you might need a specific degree or certification you don’t already have. Experienced professionals might consider taking advantage of tuition benefits at their current employer to learn new skills while still at their old career. Students should look at specific courses they can take before graduation to enhance their marketability.
You have to hustle more. Because you don’t have the track record in other workplaces, your résumé won’t demonstrate a track record. If all prospective employers know about you is your résumé, you likely will not be seen. Therefore, you must network and get in front of people to have a chance to tell your story. In the six-step job search process, step 4 focuses on networking and interviewing, which will help with the hustling, as well as crafting a compelling story about your career change.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Changing careers is different from finding a new job in the same area, but we have all done it at least once, when we moved from school to the workplace.
• Changing careers requires you to convince prospective employers that you can do the job even though you don’t have a track record at another workplace.
• Making a compelling case is easier when you are already doing the job (e.g., as a volunteer or consultant) and have the skills, expertise, and network in your new area.
• Having additional search resources and skills will help you successfully execute a career change. You need more time, more money, more (or different) credentials, and more hustle.
Exercises
1. If you are a student, take out your transcript and résumé to date and think about what types of jobs your history suggests. If you are not sure, get a group of students to do this exercise together or ask a trusted mentor to join you. If the answers you get are not areas of interest, list related courses you can take or experiences you can get before you graduate.
2. If you are an experienced professional considering a career change, map your existing résumé to a job description in the area you are targeting. What is missing? Make a list of action items with a timetable for how you can fill in the gaps.
3. If you have assumed that you need specific job experience or a specific degree, call a professional association for your area of interest and ask about typical member profiles. Check your assumptions before adding items to your to-do list, especially additional schooling. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/01%3A_Your_Life_Dictates_Your_Job_Search_Not_the_Reverse/1.04%3A_Changing_Careers.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand what is different when you are looking for a job based in a location other than where you are.
2. Get strategies for how to successfully complete a long-distance search.
Conducting a Job Search from a Different Location Presents Unique Challenges
You might be attending school in a location that is different from where you want to live after graduation. You might have personal reasons for wanting to relocate now. You might want to experience working in a different country. A number of positive explanations might exist for why you need to conduct a long-distance job search. This doesn’t make it any less challenging:
Your network and support system may be smaller. Your contacts are more likely to be where you live. In the case of a long-distance search, you won’t have as big or strong a network in your target geography.
You have additional planning and scheduling constraints due to travel. You need to travel to your target geography several times during your search. Phone interviews and networking meetings are fine to start, but you absolutely have to meet people in person during your search. Planning and accommodating travel into your schedule are concerns you must address if you are a job seeker who is relocating.
Your long-distance search can be expensive. Some employers will pay for interview travel, but even then, only at the later stages of an interview. For networking or exploratory interviews, you need to foot the bill. In addition, some but not all employers pay for relocation. National conferences or career fairs in your target geography give you a chance to meet and possibly interview with prospective employers. You need to budget and plan for the fees and travel accompanying these resources.
If you are relocating internationally, you have the added complexity of different time zones, different currencies, different employment laws, and different job search protocols. Imagine a search for someone in Asia wanting to work in the United States or vice versa—even the simplest phone call needs to be planned due to the time difference. When you research salaries or even company or industry revenues, you will be dealing with a different currency. You also have to check how you will be classified when working abroad—sometimes you can be paid in your home currency. You need to research what visa or other authorization you need to work in a different country. Finally, your job search tactics need to take into account cultural norms abroad.
For those students who wish to return to their home country, perhaps you have friends and family who can help to make connections. You will want to use your time wisely when you travel back home during breaks and holidays, and arrange interviews and meetings far in advance. International students who want to stay in the United States after graduation are presented an entirely new set of issues. Obtaining permanent authorization to work in the United States can be complex because the government has caps on work permits that are often reached by the vast number of international students who want to stay in the United States. In addition, certain visas allow for one year of work in the United States (H1B), and extensions can come with those visas. Students should speak to the person in charge of international students or to career services for advice on these issues. You might also consult an employment lawyer who is well versed in visa requirements. A good job search strategy would include researching and then targeting companies that will hire international students who are not authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
Searching Long-Distance Requires Extra Time, Expense, and Activities
You still need to execute the six steps of the job search process, but with these additions:
Plan time and budget to visit your target geography several times over the course of your search. If you are a student, consider using your academic breaks in your target geography. If you are employed, set aside vacation time to make these trips. Budget for these additional travel expenses as you plan your job search.
Set specific dates for when you will be in the target geography. It is helpful if prospective employers know when you will be in the area. You might convince employers or at least networking targets to meet with you because you are rarely in the area.
Make sure you are clear about time zones. You want to correspond during normal business hours for your target. If you are in the United States and targeting Asia, this means you have late-evening search activities. When you are scheduling within a different time zone, be vigilant about expressing what time zone you are referring to when you propose or confirm times.
Research visa, work authorization, and other legal issues as soon as your target geography is identified. Paper work often takes longer to process than you expect, and you do not want to find out you have expended effort for an inaccessible location. Remember to consult with international student affairs, career services, or an employment lawyer well before you start your search.
Research cultural nuances and exactly how the job search is conducted in the geography you are targeting. This might be obvious for international searches, but there might also be nuances in different regions of the same country.
Account for extra time to be deliberate in your search. When you are in a different geography, you will not have the luxury to drop in at a networking event you heard about at the last minute. Conferences and career fairs have deadlines for registration. The immediate people around you will likely not be connected to your target geography. You will need to be proactive and find resources relating to your long-distance search.
Consider Moving before You Get a Long-Distance Job
Employers do not want to waste their time on candidates who then decide not to move. If you have a specific date for when your move will happen, this helps convince prospective employers how serious you are about moving. If you offer to pay for your interview travel, this also signals to employers that you are serious about their geography. (Employers don’t always pay for interview travel, anyway.)
Some job seekers might make their move contingent on getting a job in the area, and financially, this may make sense, but it presents the chicken-and-egg problem: employers want to know you will definitely move before they consider hiring you, but you want to know they will give you a job before you consider moving. People do get jobs before they have physically moved. However, if your job search has stalled, you might want to consider moving to your target geography because it is easier to look for a job in the same place you live.
Getting an address or phone number that reflects your future geography can signal to employers that you are already there. This helps you with employers who won’t consider out-of-area candidates. However, this may hurt your chances for relocation reimbursement if you need to move for the job and would otherwise have qualified had you not suggested you were already there.
Even hypothetically planning the move will help you personally, as it confirms whether you can indeed move. If you own a home, can you sell it in a timely way? Have you run the numbers on relocation costs and your new cost of living in the target geography? Are you emotionally prepared to uproot? It’s one thing to imagine that you would be open to relocating, but once you are in the thick of your job search, you want to be sure that you are spending time on geographies that are feasible options for you.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• A long-distance job search adds complexity to your time and budget for your job search.
• Plans for travel or even an advance move to your target geography are things you must consider.
• For international job searches, be careful of different time zones as you plan, and be prepared to accommodate for different employment laws and cultural norms.
• With proper planning and the willingness to accommodate the additional work of visiting and researching your target geography, a long-distance job search can be successful.
Exercises
1. Make a list of the geographies you are considering for your search. How serious are you about moving there? For the strong contenders, run the numbers on travel to and from the area. Plan a trip so you know where you would stay and how you would get there. Look at a local paper for the geography (or online at Craigslist if it’s available for the area) and check prices for housing, food, and so forth.
2. Find networking and support resources in your target geography. Bookmark the Chamber of Commerce sites or find local chapters of national industry or functional associations. Join a local chapter of a professional association so you can start building a network in that geography.
3. Research the visa and work authorization issues if you are considering international relocation. Make a list of resources you can consult for the legal information you need. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/01%3A_Your_Life_Dictates_Your_Job_Search_Not_the_Reverse/1.05%3A_Relocating.txt |
This book will give you the tools necessary to execute any kind of job search you need at any point in your life. A successful job search begins with understanding your current life situation. Knowing your goals and how each job can help you reach those goals is critical to your confidence and emotional level during a job search. Your current life situation and the reason for your job search represent the variables in your search. The six-step job search process that is covered in the subsequent chapters represents the constant, or the framework, from which you launch your search.
Whether you are a student interested in a summer internship or your first full-time job or an experienced professional returning from a leave or changing careers, this book gives you a job search methodology to get that next job.
There is much to consider when making a change of any kind in your life and career. Timing is important, such as campus recruiting deadlines or a specific moving date. Timing is a factor in another sense for individuals with gaps of employment on their résumé. Access to resources varies over time because you may be a student with great career services support or out of the professional workplace on a leave and feeling more isolated. Emotions vary because some job searches are more stressful than others: the regimented campus recruiting programs of banking and consulting firms; the career changer looking to fit in; the unemployed worker under a cash crunch.
Remember that your job search changes depending on your specific life situation. Knowing that your life influences your job search, adapt your strategy accordingly. Maximize your inherent advantages. Minimize any constraints.
Chapter Takeaways
• You can find yourself conducting a job search at multiple times in your college career. In your freshman, sophomore, and junior years, you will be searching for internships. The internship of your junior year can lead to a full-time job offer.
• While in college, you should know about and adhere to a recruiting schedule because it can facilitate getting internships and full-time jobs more easily.
• Liberal arts majors, by nature of a wide curriculum, may have a more difficult time deciding what career will be best for them. A liberal arts education affords many strengths that can be used in a job search, when positioned properly.
• Summer internships can be structured or unstructured. The most structured internships include an orientation and performance reviews, with multiple performance measurements.
• Gaps in your employment history can affect your hiring potential, but that risk is mitigated when you explain them strategically.
• Career changes are possible when you bridge the gap with skills you have developed in your current job with those same skills needed in your desired job.
• Long-distance job searches can be complex and you need to budget time and effort to execute them successfully. International job searches are even more complex because you need to take into account different time zones and different employment laws.
Chapter Review
1. Why do your life situation and needs dictate your job search and not the reverse?
2. What is the most important internship of your college career? Does it occur in your freshman, sophomore, or junior year?
3. What should you do if your summer internship in your junior year does not convert to a full-time job offer?
4. What should you do if you aren’t sure what you can do in terms of a career?
5. If you’ve left the workforce to care for a parent or family member, what is the best way to explain the gap in your employment history?
6. Why is becoming a career insider the best way to change careers?
7. How would you go about changing industries? For example, how could you move from the communications industry to the financial services industry?
8. How can you execute a long-distance job search successfully?
9. What are some key factors to keep in mind if you want to conduct an international search? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/01%3A_Your_Life_Dictates_Your_Job_Search_Not_the_Reverse/1.06%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercises.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Better understand how you can use the six steps.
2. Recognize the importance of flexibility in the process so you can adapt to job market conditions.
3. Lay the foundation for getting started on your job search.
The Six Steps Are Meant to Be Followed Sequentially
The six steps of the job search process are laid out in sequential order so you can follow them one at a time:
• You need to know what you want (step 1) in order to act on your job search.
• You want to have your marketing material in place (step 2) before you meet with any prospective employers.
• You want to research jobs, companies, and industries (step 3) to prepare for meeting prospective employers. This is detailed research into trends, challenges, culture, and other nuanced information. Some of this research will entail speaking to people in the areas you are targeting for your search, so you want to have your marketing ready to be shared.
• You network and interview (step 4) with prospective employers you discover from your research.
• You have to stay motivated and organized (step 5) as you juggle these meetings and absorb all the information you are learning. At this point, you may also see some problems with your search that need troubleshooting (also step 5).
• All these networking meetings and interviews culminate in a job offer that you negotiate (step 6) with your future employer.
Many job seekers are overwhelmed at the beginning of their job search. There seems to be so much to do—résumés, interviews, and social media. It is not surprising that many job seekers are afraid of networking!
A sequential job search process means that you don’t have to worry about what comes next. Focus on where you are for your search, and give yourself time on that step. Before you worry about résumés (or other items in step 2), let yourself explore possibilities, ideals, and desires (step 1). Before you get too anxious about interviewing (step 4), know that you will have the preparation of knowing yourself (step 1), positioning yourself effectively (step 2), and learning about the people and companies you will meet through in-depth research (step 3). There will be time for the job search to progress.
The Six Steps Also Overlap and Should Be Done Concurrently
However, as you move through your job search sequentially, this doesn’t mean that you never revisit what you’ve already done. For example, if you are at the stage where you are meeting people (step 4), you are collecting information from these meetings. You might learn that a particular skill or experience is even more important than you initially thought. You may decide to go back to your marketing (step 2) to highlight these items even more in your résumé or structure future cover letters in a different way to emphasize this new information. These marketing changes will happen while you are still interviewing. In the thick of your job search, you will be juggling the six steps concurrently.
You might be juggling different job search targets, each of which is at a different stage. For example, you are interested in sales positions in both the technology industry and the pharmaceutical industry. You start your search focusing on technology companies and you are now at the interview stage with several of them. You have traction in this target, so you add pharmaceutical companies to the mix. You want to research these more before approaching them for interviews, so you are at step 3 for pharmaceuticals, but at step 4 for technology.
While you want to follow the steps sequentially, recognize that there will be instances in your search that the steps are revisited and therefore taken out of sequence. This is a natural part of the search process as you interact with people and situations evolve. Be flexible. Know that you will be learning things along the way—information about jobs, companies, and industries that aren’t advertised—and gaining feedback about your skills and experience. You want to adapt your job search process to these new pieces of information.
Starting on the Six Steps Requires a Solid Foundation
The six-step job search process gives you tactics for how to get from where you are to your next job. It is based on the mechanics of how the job market plays out between employers and job candidates. This is important because job seekers often don’t know what to do to secure a job. They may know how to do the job—that is, they have the selling and communication skills and experience for the sales job itself—but getting the job, convincing someone to hire you, is different from doing the actual job. It is the difference between being a good driver and being able to pass the road test. You want to prepare for the road test (in this case, the job search process) in order to get a chance to drive.
But these tactics of the six-step job search process assume you have some fundamentals in place. Getting your driver’s license also assumes you have certain fundamentals—for example, knowledge of traffic laws and proper eyesight. Here are some key fundamentals you will need to launch your job search:
• Confidence (100 percent belief you will get a job and a positive attitude)
• Communication skills (written, verbal, presentation, and listening)
• Poise (dress, manners, and body language)
• Resources (time, space, office supplies, budget for clothes, transportation, etc.)
With these fundamentals in place, you can use the process to take you through the mechanics of your search.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The six steps of the job search are sequential because one step leads into the next.
• It is helpful to follow the sequence so you are not overwhelmed by doing everything at once and so you can build a progression.
• The six steps of the job search are concurrent because each step influences the others.
• It is helpful to allow the six steps to overlap so you can use the information and feedback from each step to strengthen and refine the others.
• The six-step process assumes you have some fundamental skills and resources in place, including confidence, communication skills, poise, and physical resources.
Exercises
1. Looking at the six-step job search approach, what step(s) do you feel most comfortable with? Least comfortable with? Each step will be detailed in subsequent chapters, but you may want to budget your time to focus on the ones where you are most uncertain.
2. Do you have some job targets in mind? An entire chapter describes how to specify your target even further (or to elicit targets if you can’t think of any). Make a list of your interests right now. Think about how the six-step job search process would apply if you were looking for a job in your areas of interest. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/02%3A_Overview_of_the_Six-Step_Job_Search_Process/2.01%3A_Why_You_Need_a_Process.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Define confidence in the context of the job search.
2. Learn different strategies to build confidence.
You Must Be Confident Your Job Search Will Be Successful
If you are waiting until you get a job as proof that you can get one, this prove it attitude will kill your search. You will appear negative and unattractive to employers. You will get derailed by the inevitable obstacles and drop out along your search. You may not even get started if you believe that your efforts will be futile.
Having confidence in your job search means two things:
1. You believe you will get a job. You know with 100 percent certainty there is a job somewhere out there for you.
2. You believe you will get a job you want. You have a positive attitude about working. You are excited at the prospect of doing the job you are targeting, in the industry you are targeting, and for the companies you are targeting.
You have to know you will be successful, and you have to want that success. If you have just one of these two things, this is not sufficient to project enough confidence in your job search. If you believe you will get a job, but don’t believe it will be something you want, you will appear anxious, frustrated, and full of dread. If you are excited about what you want to do, but don’t believe you will get a job doing it, you will appear as if you are not good enough for your prospective employers.
A confident job seeker is someone who is energized at the prospect of finding his or her dream job. A confident job seeker may not be an expert on résumés, interviews, or other job search tactics, but he or she has an innate knowledge that he or she will be able to figure those things out.
This is not arrogance. Prospective employers will shy away from arrogant job candidates who appear to be high-maintenance divas and poor team players. You don’t want to come across as someone who thinks you are better than your future boss or colleagues. Confidence is a healthy, positive attitude.
You Can Proactively Build Confidence into Your Job Search Strategy
Ideally, you have confidence before you start your job search. If confidence has been a struggle your whole life or if you feel overly depressed or anxious about your job search specifically, you should seek help from a guidance counselor, therapist, or other professional resource. You want to rule out any medical conditions, such as depression, as the root cause of your anxiety. If you have some nervousness, but not in a crippling way that keeps you from your job search, you can plan to proactively build and maintain your confidence throughout your job search by surrounding yourself with positive influences:
• Pair up with a job search buddy. Pick someone with a can-do attitude, and agree to support each other during your search. Maybe you can meet once a week or call each other right before a big event (e.g., job interview or career fair).
• Start a job search group. A larger group will have more energy than just one person. A group also has a range of personalities and perspectives that can contribute alternative points of view. A group will also have people at different stages of the search, enabling you all to see different outcomes unfolding.
• Enlist the support of a coach or mentor. A more experienced person can be a great sounding board for ideas and a champion for when you need a pick-me-up.
• Read about successful people. When you see other people’s achievements over adversity, you are able to see your own potential.
• Keep a journal that focuses on the positive. Write down things for which you are grateful. Write down past successes and wins. You will see that you have been successful in other areas, and this can give you the confidence that you can succeed in your job search as well.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Confident job seekers know they will get a job.
• Confident job seekers are excited at the prospect of working and getting jobs they want.
• You can build and maintain confidence by surrounding yourself with positive influences.
Exercises
1. Are you confident your job search will succeed? If not, why not? Which of the suggestions for building confidence will you try?
2. Make a list of people you know who have a positive attitude. Highlight people who might be a possible job search buddy, member of a job search group, coach, or mentor.
3. Make a list of past successes and wins. It might be helpful to organize by blocks of time in your life, such as elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and so forth. These don’t have to be specific awards. You should include all instances where you felt proud of your accomplishment.
4. Read a biography of a person you admire or a successful person in an industry in which you are interested. You might read a biography of Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach For America, if you are interested in education. You might read a biography of Warren Buffett if you are interested in investments. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/02%3A_Overview_of_the_Six-Step_Job_Search_Process/2.02%3A_Prerequisite_1-_Confidence.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Define the different types of communication skills needed for a successful job search.
2. Learn ways to enhance overall communication skills.
A Successful Job Search Is All About Successful Communication
A successful job search is a match between what an employer wants and what a candidate wants. That match is made based on what is communicated. While an interview is structured a specific way, at its core it is a communication between job seeker and employer. While networking has its standards and rules of etiquette, at its core it is about communicating via listening, speaking, writing, and so forth.
The six-step process will give you the tactics that are particular to interviewing, networking, and other job search–specific communications, but the successful job seeker needs to have solid overall communication skills in place in the following areas:
• Written
• Verbal
• Presentation
• Listening
Communication occurs at every stage of the job search.
Table \(1\): Communication Skills Needed for Each Step of the Job Search
Job Search Step Written Verbal Presentation Listening
1. Identify Your Target In the introspective work In articulating your interests To advice you are getting
2. Create A Powerful Marketing Campaign In the creation of your material In your networking pitch In the design of your material and sample portfolio To responses to your pitch and other marketing
3. Conduct In-Depth Research To keep track of your information To gather information To information shared
4. Network and Interview For scheduling, note-taking during meetings, and thank-yous Before, during, and after meetings and interviews During specialized interviews During meetings and interviews
5. Stay Motivated and Organized and Troubleshoot Your Search To keep track of your data During support group and mentor meetings To support and feedback
6. Negotiate and Close the Offer For offer letter revisions To advocate for what you want To close the deal with senior management To employers’ needs, wants, and constraints
Communication Skills Are a Proxy for Job Skills
You need communications skills for more than understanding and developing rapport with prospective employers. You will also need communication skills on the job, so the way you communicate in your search is a sign of the way you might communicate on the job.
Many employers also look at communication skills in general as a proxy for attention to detail. If you are sloppy with your job search communication—leaving rambling voice mails, sending e-mails with typos or grammatical mistakes—then you likely do this on the job. Why should employers assume you will be more careful after you get the job? If you don’t double-check your communication now, you probably won’t start once you are hired.
Finally, your communication skills underscore your logic and reasoning. If your interview responses are scattered or unrelated, that could be a sign your thought process isn’t logical or structured. If you can’t get to the point in regular conversation, maybe you bring this disorganized reasoning to your work.
Your Job Search Can Be Tailored to Showcase Your Communication Strengths and Support Your Weaknesses
Look at your history to see your current communication strengths and weaknesses, so you know where you need to focus as you prepare for a job search. If you know that you are better at written over verbal communication, you might choose e-mail over phone calls in situations that call for either approach (e.g., when you try to get a networking meeting). But you can’t avoid a method of communication entirely, so the verbally challenged should allot extra time to practice interviewing and perhaps take the time away from drafting cover letters, which play to their writing strength. For someone with more verbal than written strengths, they will structure their search differently—practicing different areas and budgeting more time in weak areas that may take longer to strengthen.
If you have already selected job targets, incorporate the communication requirements for your target as you plan your job search process. Some fields, such as education, law, sales, consulting, and public relations, heavily emphasize communication, so each and every correspondence has extra weight. Your job search communication becomes a proxy for your potential communication on the job.
The communication requirements may influence the structure of the process. For communication-focused fields, a presentation as part of the interview process may be required. For other fields that are not communication heavy, such as accounting or IT, you likely will not do a presentation (you may for senior roles, but not generally). Start brushing up on presentation skills now if your job search may specifically require this.
Improve Communication Skills with Deliberate Focus and Practice
Now you know the general ways communication skills enter the job search equation, as well as specific ways that different fields may use communication skills to evaluate potential job candidates. With the importance of communication skills in mind, you can deliberately focus and practice to improve your communication skills:
• Start the habit of editing all of your written communication, including e-mails, for correct spelling and grammar. Learn to use the spell check, dictionary, and other helpful functions in your word-processing and e-mail programs.
• Review proper business letter formats. We will review cover letters and thank-you letters later in this book, but general e-mails back and forth also need to be handled with proper care.
• Do an audit of your verbal communication style. Do you talk too fast? Do you enunciate? Are you able to get to the point concisely, or do you ramble? Do you stutter or sound nervous? Tape yourself or have a friend give you an objective critique of your verbal skills now, so you know what needs work.
• Practice delivering presentations. If you can take a class that has a presentation opportunity, that is a good option. You might also join a club or professional group where you have a chance to present.
• Practice active listening. In your daily conversations, become aware of how well you listen. Are you jumping to what you want to say? Could you paraphrase what the other person is saying?
• Practice listening in different scenarios. Do you listen well over the phone? Can you focus in a group and one on one? The job search involves many different situations, so your listening skills will be tested in many different ways.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Communication skills, including written, verbal, presentation, and listening skills, are required throughout the job search.
• All employers consider communication skills when they evaluate candidates.
• Some fields are communication focused, so the general communication during the job search serves as a proxy for your job skills.
• Some fields build different communication hurdles, such as presentations, directly into the job search process.
• You can improve your communication skills by focusing on them now and practicing good communication habits.
Exercises
1. What are your communication strengths and weaknesses? Force yourself to rank your verbal, written, presentation, and listening skills from one to four, in order of proficiency.
2. How will you modify your search to take advantage of your individual communication strengths? Do you have any job interests where communication skills play a particularly important role? Start saving writing samples and looking for opportunities to make presentations.
3. Go back to the list of activities to try in the previous section on improving your communication skills. Schedule in your calendar at least three, if not all, activities suggested.
4. What resources do you need to improve your problem communication areas? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/02%3A_Overview_of_the_Six-Step_Job_Search_Process/2.03%3A_Prerequisite_2-_Communication_Skills.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the importance of physical appearance and nonverbal communication in the job search.
2. Learn ways to enhance your poise.
Your Poise Communicates Volumes without You Saying a Word
The way you dress, carry yourself, and physically behave also communicate your job potential. Your nonverbal communication either supports the things you say and how you say them, or it undermines you. If you are an articulate, well-spoken person but dress in a sloppy manner, slouch, and fidget, then your actions belie your verbal communication. Therefore, poise goes hand in hand with communication as a fundamental prerequisite for your search.
Professional Dress Signals Your Professional Maturity
What you wear to different job search functions signals neatness, professionalism, and understanding of general business protocol. A business suit in a dark neutral color is the standard. Black, blue, brown, and gray are neutral colors. Some industries and specific companies within industries dress more casually, so it’s important to consult an experienced person in the specific industries and companies that interest you for the most relevant guidelines. For example, in media and fashion, your dress is a signal of how much you know and can fit into that field. A dark suit would be too bland and look out of place at a fashion-forward company.
For general functions, such as career fairs or professional mixers, stick to proper business attire. Even if there are a range of dress options in attendance, it’s best to be more formally dressed. In addition, most job seekers look more professional and put together with a business suit. You probably will carry yourself more professionally, have better posture, and be more alert in a business suit than in casual attire.
If you are attending an event or an interview where business casual is stipulated, this is still neater and more formal than casual attire. Khakis rather than jeans, dress slacks and a sport coat for men, and a sweater set for women are some examples of business casual.
Here is a checklist of things to remember about dressing professionally:
• Dark, neutral colors and a matching suit jacket and slacks or skirt are the standard.
• Shoes should be comfortable and polished. No open-toed styles or very high heels; even in dressy styles, shoes with open toes or very high heels look unprofessional.
• What you wear beneath the jacket will also be seen. For men, blue or white dress shirts are standard, though some other colors are acceptable. For women, stick to blouses with sleeves in case you take your jacket off (sleeveless is too casual). Women should also stay away from frilly camisoles—they can be seen under your jacket and still look like lingerie.
• Cover yourself. No body hair for men or cleavage for women should be visible. Women should make sure skirt lengths are not too short.
• Avoid overly printed ties, lots of jewelry, accessories, or too much makeup, all of which detract from a professional appearance.
• Have a professional briefcase or bag. A backpack or other casual bag diminishes the professional image.
• Fragrance is not recommended because some people are allergic.
• Keep hair neat and off your face so interviewers can see you.
• Don’t wait until you start your job search to make sure you have the appropriate clothes. It takes time to ensure the fit and length is right, and you may need tailoring or other services.
The Way You Carry Yourself Also Signals Professionalism
If you have a great suit but you slouch, that is an incomplete package. Good posture, steady eye contact, and a firm handshake are additional fundamentals to the job search process. Even if you think this is common sense, don’t assume that you will be 100 percent put together once your search starts. If you are not used to dressing professionally and interacting with people in a formal business context, then you may have a weak handshake or poor eye contact and not realize it. Before you get busy with interviews, see if you can attend a business event just as a practice run.
Here is a checklist of things to remember about carrying yourself professionally:
• Maintain good posture. You don’t want to be stiff, but you want to stand and sit straight, as it keeps you looking and feeling alert. Practice maintaining good posture over time (interviews can last thirty minutes or longer).
• Maintain steady eye contact, but not 100 percent of the time. It’s preferable to look away from time to time, as glaring or staring at someone makes them uncomfortable.
• Have a firm handshake. Don’t break the person’s hand, but don’t be hesitant or limp, either.
• Develop a habit of turning off and not checking your cell phone when you are talking to someone.
• Practice eating and speaking formally. There will be situations where you are networking or even interviewing over a meal. You don’t want a real interview to be the first time you experience formal dining and conversation.
Body Language and Nonverbal Communication Support or Undermine Your Words
You might look great, carry yourself well, and speak eloquently, but you also communicate with physical gestures and other nonverbal cues. Pay attention to how you use your body during conversations and meetings. You might find that you can’t sit still for long periods of time or that you use a lot of distracting hand gestures. You might be too still and miss opportunities to accentuate points with a nod of the head or finger movement.
Some recruiter pet peeves include the following:
• Looking over the recruiter’s shoulder. What are you staring at?
• Fidgeting constantly. How are you going to appear to clients if you can’t sit still?
• Gesticulating in an overly dramatic way. Don’t slam your hands down emphatically on the recruiter’s desk. It looks threatening, not forceful.
• Lack of common courtesy, for example, not covering your mouth when you yawn, cough, or sneeze. How could an employer put you in front of a client with that unmannerly behavior?
• Checking cell phones during meetings or interviews. Is this job less important to you than your cell phone calls?
Start practicing good manners now so these habits are ingrained behaviors before your job search.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Poise refers to professional dress, carriage, appropriate body language, and nonverbal communication skills. Poise is critical to the job search.
• Good poise complements and supports the other good job search fundamentals, while lack of poise detracts from them.
• Prepare and practice now to incorporate poise into your regular behavior.
Exercises
1. Review your interview clothes. Practice meeting with a friendly contact to check your handshake, eye contact, and posture. Practice interviewing with a friendly contact and ask him or her to watch for your nonverbal communication. What area of poise is your strongest and weakest in the job search?
2. What will you do now to work on problem areas? If your interview clothes need tailoring or additions, where can you shop or find a tailor? If your carriage or body language is lacking, do you have additional friendly contacts, even family, with whom you can practice getting through a conversation with upright posture, good eye contact, and appropriate gestures?
3. Check for resources in your school or community library, such as opportunities to practice or books specifically dedicated to professional image or style. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/02%3A_Overview_of_the_Six-Step_Job_Search_Process/2.04%3A_Prerequisite_3-_Poise.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand what things you need and can put in place now to support your job search.
2. Identify support systems for your job search.
Physical Resources and Supplies to Launch a Productive Job Search
In a way, the resources you need for your job search can be broken down into three categories:
1. Time
2. Space
3. Money
Time includes not just the time for the six steps of the process (and to work on the fundamentals discussed in this chapter) but also the time away from your current activities. As you add the job search to your calendar, what will you take away?
Space includes the place where you will be doing the work of your job search—computer, phone, desk, a quiet area to focus. Your space must be outfitted with the right equipment but also include fast Internet access, paper, pens, postage and mailing supplies, and other office essentials.
Money is required to outfit your space and for your supplies. In the discussion on professional dress, there may be items listed that you need to purchase. Your job search will require travel to interviews. Networking might entail paying a membership fee to a group or an event fee for a professional mixer. Part of your research strategy might involve taking people to lunch in exchange for information. Many areas of the job search will require a financial investment.
Ideas and Support Systems to Help You Find and Manage Your Time
Finding and managing your time will require trade-offs. A proactive job search takes ten to fifteen hours per week. You will need to take this time from other activities. Before your job search starts, take an inventory of everything that is taking up your time. Create a comprehensive calendar that includes the following:
• Major trips or vacations when you will physically be away
• Critical projects, papers due, or exam weeks when you will be busier than usual
• Regular daily, weekly, or monthly appointments, such as classes, club meetings, or gym workouts
• Job search events that you know about in advance (for many students, include specific deadlines set by your school, such as when you should submit your résumé to the employers coming to campus)
Create a comprehensive activity list that includes necessary but non-time-specific activities:
• Homework
• Laundry and housework
• Exercise and self-care
• Volunteer work
• Hobbies
• Ten to fifteen hours of job search activity, some of which must be done during normal business hours
Look at the unscheduled times and your list of activities. Block out where things might go. Be realistic about when you do your best work. If you have more energy in the morning, reserve that time for your job search activity. If you know you can’t concentrate by end of day, use that time for nonthinking activities, such as housework or exercise.
Well before you start your job search, start moving activities around and make arrangements for your replacement if you need to drop activities. You want to have a schedule in place that supports your job search, not crowds it out.
Ideas and Support Systems to Help You Set Up Your Work Space
Your job search is a project, so you need a comprehensive work space. Stocking up supplies in advance of your search enables you to stay focused and not get derailed by a surprise trip to the store. You also want to prepare in advance for services you may need, such as printing, copying, mailing, and faxing. Know the hours of the closest post office and office supply and service store. Know where you can send and receive faxes and where you can do special copying, binding, or printing.
Here is a checklist of ideas for a comprehensive work space:
• Build a surplus of office essentials, such as paper, pens, mail supplies, staples, and so forth.
• Have a pen and paper by all phones if you share your workspace with others. This way, your cohabitants can easily take messages for you.
• Audit your computer, phone, and Internet access to ensure that your equipment and communication lines are in order. If you have a slow Internet connection, research public access places, such as libraries, and list their availability.
• Create a professional voice mail message for all phones, including your cell phone.
• List post office, office supply, and service store addresses and hours.
• Figure out how to back up computer files, change printer ink, unblock paper jams, and any other minor but critical support services for your equipment. You do not want to be late for a meeting because you were printing a résumé at the last minute and it got stuck in the printer.
• Check for privacy. If your work space is part of your bedroom and you will be making video calls, invest in a folding screen or figure out how to position the webcam to keep your environment looking professional.
• Check for quiet. Your job search will involve a lot of phone calls, including interviews. Plan now for a space where you can be heard, hear well, and concentrate.
• Make it a space that energizes and inspires you. Add pictures, fresh flowers, and so forth.
If you have a very organized friend, enlist his or her help in setting up and decorating your space.
Ideas and Support Systems to Help Manage Your Money
Know your budget for your job search essentials in advance. You can price out the work space items listed previously and the professional dress requirements listed earlier. For job search events you already know about, budget for registration fees and transportation costs. If you want to work with a career coach, factor that into your budget.
Another financial consideration is the opportunity cost of the time spent on your search, as opposed to working. If you have to drop a part-time job to launch your search, there is the cost of lost wages. If you are a student and your job search extends past graduation, there is the cost of supporting yourself while you look. How will you pay for your living expenses? How long can you sustain yourself without a job?
Your financial situation affects the execution and timing of your job search, so you need to decide on these issues prior to your search. If you are relying on family or friends to help with your living expenses, have a candid conversation about both of your expectations before you start your search.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Your job search requires time, space, and money resources.
• You need to allocate these resources to your search and decide on the trade-offs necessary to spend your time, space, and money on your search, as opposed to other objectives.
• Line up your resources before your job search so that you create an environment that supports your job search.
EXERCISES
1. Do you have time, space, and money set aside for your job search? Review the sections with suggested activities and actually set up your schedule, audit your workspace, and create a budget.
2. In what areas are you underresourced or lacking? Do you need to talk to family members about financial support? Do you need to find the closest office supply and services store? Do you have an unrealistic amount of activities in your current schedule and need to make cuts?
3. What specific next steps will you take to line up your resources prior to your job search? Schedule a specific date and time for the conversation with family. Schedule a specific date and time to visit office supply stores. Pick activities to drop and make arrangements to delegate these or get out of any commitments. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/02%3A_Overview_of_the_Six-Step_Job_Search_Process/2.05%3A_Prerequisite_4-_Resources.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the current job market and how it impacts your overall job search.
2. Learn strategies to tailor your job search to this market.
Three Trends in the Twenty-First-Century Job Search
Today’s job search can be characterized by three emerging trends:
1. 24/7 activity
2. An entrepreneurial approach
3. A multigenerational workforce
24/7 Job Search
With mobile devices and broadband Internet access, it is very easy to connect to people at all times of the day and on weekends. While formal job search activity still centers on normal business hours, it is easier and therefore more acceptable for job search activity to take place at all hours. It can be the middle of the night, and therefore you can still do the following:
• Draft cover letters and other marketing material using your word-processing software.
• Research companies over the Internet.
• Connect with people via social media.
Other job candidates will be working hard on their search, so you might feel obligated to compete with this extra time, hence the 24/7 job search. Even if you want to set time boundaries, jobs are increasingly global, so there is a significant chance that you might have to network and interview with people in time zones across the world. Finally, with job insecurity high after the recent recession, it is less likely that you will quit your job outright to devote time to your search. Students don’t have the option to opt out of classes during their job search, so the job search activity is on top of everything else, extending your typical day.
Entrepreneurial Approach
With the tight labor market (more available job candidates than employers ready to hire), the competition is intense. The rise of social media gives job seekers the ability to brand themselves in a way formerly associated only with companies. Job seekers are marketing their job potential the way companies market goods and services. This requires job seekers to develop branding, marketing, and sales skills normally associated with entrepreneurs.
Many job seekers are turning to consulting and freelancing during a protracted job search, thus becoming entrepreneurs by default. Even recent graduates are starting businesses, piecing together several smaller projects rather than a single internship, and consulting or interning after graduating in lieu of full-time employment. Your ability to adopt an entrepreneurial approach to your job search will be necessary as your competition increasingly does the same.
Multigenerational Workforce
There are four generations currently in the workforce:
1. Generation Y, born between 1980 and 1995
2. Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980
3. Baby boomers, born between 1945 and 1964
4. Traditionalists, born before 1945
Each generation grew up with different work expectations, technology, and communication styles. There is a culture clash as four generations work closely together. Much has been made in the media of the generational clash. As a job seeker, you will likely interview with someone from a different generation who has specific preconceptions of you. You may not change your job search tactics in anticipation of a clash that may not arise, but you want to be sensitive to some of the anxiety in the market.
What the Emerging Trends Mean for Your Job Search
You can use the 24/7 job search trend to your advantage by using the connectivity as extra time and resources for your job search. If you are comfortable with online research and online social networks, these are helpful tools to add to your job search.
You can incorporate the entrepreneurial techniques of branding, marketing, and sales into the way you brand, market, and sell yourself, thus enhancing your job search skills. If you can get consulting or freelance work while you search, that is a bonus for your finances and your experience base.
The multigenerational workforce is ripe for conflict, but there are also additional opportunities to add value as a collaborative team player. Be aware that communication styles, work styles, and expectations are different among the generations. Make a concerted effort to build rapport when you are dealing with everyone, but especially people in different generations from yourself. Do not assume that they share your same preferences.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The current job market is characterized by 24/7 activity, increased entrepreneurship, and a multigenerational workforce.
• Savvy job seekers can incorporate these trends into their job search to increase their value over the competition.
Exercises
1. Do you hear about these trends for the areas that you are targeting for your job search?
2. How are you going to set boundaries for yourself so you don’t fall into the trap of looking for a job 24/7?
3. If the notion of acting entrepreneurially appeals to you, add books about branding, marketing, and sales to your job search reading list.
4. Write down assumptions you have about the different generations, including your generation. Actually seek out people in those generations and ask them to share their assumptions. Compare your results to increase your awareness and open the lines of communication. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/02%3A_Overview_of_the_Six-Step_Job_Search_Process/2.06%3A_State_of_the_Market-_Launching_Your_Job_Search_at_This_Time.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the importance of a structure to categorize the very broad job market.
2. Learn the importance of each of the three elements that define a specific job.
3. Start thinking about how these elements will play a role in your job search.
The Importance of the Three-Element Structure for Defining Job Targets
If you glance at a job board or classified ad section, you will see hundreds, if not thousands, of job possibilities. Even similar ads, such as job postings for accountants, can list very different descriptions for the job responsibilities, as well as qualifications to get the job. If you don’t have a structure to categorize this very broad job market, you will dilute your efforts wading through too many jobs that are of no interest to you or for which you are not qualified.
Instead, you need a structure that cuts across all of the jobs and is representative of how the employer thinks of the job (since the employer is the one advertising the job). This way, you know what job postings to research. For the searchable online job databases, you can filter specifically with the structure in mind. As you move through the six steps of the job search process, you can tailor each step to the target structure to ensure that you are always keeping the employer’s point of view at the heart of your search.
Three Elements of a Well-Defined Job Target
A well-defined job target includes three elements:
1. Industry
2. Function
3. Geography
Continuing the example of accounting from the first section, accounting is a function. It is what the person in the job is doing. However, this accountant can be working for a government agency, for a hospital, for an insurance company, for a toy manufacturer, or for a host of other types of companies and organizations. Therefore, accounting is not specific enough—we also need to know the industry (whether government, health care, insurance, etc.). Finally, because people might relocate for a job, we also need to know the geography of our job targets. Are you looking at a specific city only, surrounding suburbs, surrounding cities, multiple states, or even multiple countries?
Industry
The industry you target is the type of business in which you want to work. Industries include the following examples:
• Arts
• Education
• Energy
• Food
• Fashion
• Health care, pharmaceuticals, and biotech
• Hospitality and leisure
• Financial services
• Government
• Legal
• Luxury goods
• Management consulting
• Manufacturing
• Media and entertainment
• Nonprofit causes
• Retail
• Sports
• Technology
• Telecommunications
• Transportation, aerospace, and automotive
These are just some examples, and they are of very broad industry categories. You can specify even further into subcategories. You will want to subcategorize because if you pick too broad an industry, you will have the same dilution-of-efforts problem as if you haven’t specified an industry at all.
If you look at the arts, subcategories include the following examples:
• Type of art—visual, performing
• Type of organization—venues for exhibiting and performing, arts education, artist support, art supplies
• Sector—nonprofit (e.g., Lincoln Center, a venue for performing arts), private sector (e.g., Warner Music Group, a record label), government (e.g., National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency supporting artists and arts organizations)
It is not enough to say, “I want a job in the arts.” Do you mean visual arts, as in painting or sculpting? Do you mean you’d like to work in a venue, such as a museum or a theater? Do you want to work for educational programs that focus on the arts? Do you want to work in support of artists—at a foundation that gives grants for creative projects, or at an artists’ union? Do you want to be in and around artists, selling or manufacturing art supplies? Finally, you can be in the arts and work for a nonprofit, a private company, or a government agency. Each of these sectors is very different.
In a later section of this chapter, we will give ideas for how to explore different industries and the different subcategories of your industry choices to see what might be right for you. In Chapter 6 on research, we will talk about how to research industries for specific organizations and company names and other information that will help you find the jobs you want. You can see already how useful it can be to focus on being specific. Being specific in describing the jobs you want is necessary to find where those jobs are.
Let’s take another example from the list so you can get more ideas on how to break an industry down. If you look at energy, the following subcategories are included:
• Types of energy—oil, gas, coal, nuclear, alternative
• Types of organizations—exploration companies, utilities, research firms, regulatory agencies, equipment and support, capital raising
• Sector—nonprofit (the US Energy Association, a nonprofit professional association), private sector (e.g., Exxon Mobil, an oil and gas company), government (e.g., the Environmental Protection Agency)
If you are interested in energy, you could work for a private company that is involved in many types of energy and at many stages, from exploration to delivery. You could research energy-related issues for a nonprofit. You could be focused on regulations for a government agency. There are multiple, different possibilities for that single energy industry choice.
Finally, let’s look at sports as a possible interest. Perhaps you have been a longtime athlete or a diehard fan. Can you take a personal interest and make it into a career?
• Types of sports—a specific sport (e.g., football) or sports in general
• Types of organizations—sports team (e.g., New York Giants), sports league (e.g., NFL), sports venue (e.g., Madison Square Garden, Meadowlands), sports program (e.g., an after-school program dedicated to foster competitive skills among youth), sports product (e.g., Under Armour), sports retailer (e.g., FootLocker), sports business (e.g., agencies who represent athletes, marketing and advertising firms who help companies with sports-related campaigns)
• Sector—nonprofit (e.g., Turn 2 Foundation, which supports sports programs and is funded by Derek Jeter, a professional baseball player), private sector (e.g., Under Armour, FootLocker), government (local departments of parks and recreation)
If you are interested in sports, you might focus on a specific team or sport and look at different organizations involved with that team. Or you might focus on sports in general—perhaps take on the mission of expanding the spectator base, increasing participation among youth, or determining the impact of sports on culture.
Here is a list of possible subcategories for common industries:
Table \(1\): List of Industry with Examples of Subcategories for Each
Overall Industry Subcategories
Arts
• Visual or performing arts
• Venues
• Education
• Artist support and marketing
• Arts-related products
Education
• Early, elementary, middle school, secondary school, higher education, adult, corporate, and executive
• Independent, alternative and charter, public
• Regulation and advocacy
• Research
• Pedagogy
Energy
• Oil, gas, coal, nuclear, alternative
• Exploration
• Utilities
• Research
• Regulation and safety
• Equipment
• Capital raising
Food
• Catering
• Restaurants
• Corporate services
• Media and journalism
• Nutrition science
• Regulation and safety
• Human rights and food access
Fashion
• Retail
• Design
• Manufacturing
• Buying
• Media and journalism
Health care, pharmaceuticals, biotech
• Hospitals, clinics
• Pharmacies
• Medical equipment
• Research
• Regulation and safety
• Human rights, medical care access, patient advocacy, privacy
• Insurance
Hospitality and leisure
• Hotels, resorts, spas
• Leisure versus commercial
• Booking and sales
• Event planning
• Equipment and operations
Financial services
• Accounting and audit
• Commercial banking
• Private banking and asset management
• Investment banking
• Retail banking
• Insurance
• Regulation
• Consumer advocacy and protection
Government
• Federal, state, municipal
• Constituents represented (e.g., artists, children, elderly, small business)
• Industries represented (e.g., arts, education, health care, banking)
Legal
• Professional services, in-house
• Criminal, civil
• Family, immigration, litigation
• Research
• Operations and document processing
• Regulation
• Public defender
Luxury goods
• Retail
• Design
• Manufacturing
• Media and journalism
Management consulting
• Functional specialists: HR, economics, sales, general strategy, technology
• Industry specialists: financial services, pharmaceutical, nonprofits
Manufacturing
• Equipment
• Regulation and safety
• Union relations
• Capital financing
Media and entertainment
• Film, TV, publishing, digital
• Content production
• Distribution
• Marketing
• Advertising
• Research
• Regulation and monitoring
Nonprofit causes
• Mission based (e.g., ending poverty, eradicating polio)
• Constituent based (e.g., advocating for the homeless, protecting consumers)
• Programs
• Foundations
Retail
• Product based (e.g., clothing, office equipment)
• Customer based (e.g., children’s, women’s)
Sports
• Specific sport or sports in general
• Sports team
• Sports league
• Sports venue
• Sports-related education
• Sports products and equipment
• Sports retailers
• Sports agencies, marketing, or advertising
Technology
• Hardware
• Software
• Services
• Regulation
• Advocacy (e.g., privacy, net neutrality)
Telecommunications
• Engineering and design
• Manufacturing
• Utilities
• Regulation
• Advocacy
Transportation, aerospace, and automotive
• Motor, marine, rail, aerospace
• Leisure versus commercial use
• Engineering and design
• Manufacturing
• Logistics
• Regulation and safety
• Consumer protection and access
Function
The function of a job refers to your overall responsibility and what you are doing day to day. Examples of job functions follow:
• Management
• Sales
• Marketing and public relations
• Finance and accounting
• Human resources
• Operations
• Technology
In both of the industry examples for arts and energy, you could be doing many different things within any of the subcategories. If your industry choice leads you to an art museum as a possibility, you might do several things:
• Manage a program or exhibit (management).
• Handle membership or ticket sales (sales).
• Raise money (at a nonprofit, this is referred to as development).
• Create brochures and advertising (marketing).
• Analyze and report on the finances of the museum (finance and accounting).
• Act as the point person for employees on questions about pay, benefits, advancement, and other career-related issues (human resources).
• Organize the open and close, facilities, and maintenance or other daily operations (operations).
• Run the customer database (technology).
In a later section of this chapter, we will give ideas for how to explore different functional areas to see what might be right for you. In Chapter 6 on research, we will talk about how to research functions for information that will help you position yourself appropriately for these jobs. Function and industry build on each other. Knowing one but the not the other is incomplete.
Geography
Finally, even if you know what you are doing (function) and who you are doing it for (industry), you need to know where you’ll physically be. Geography is the third element of a well-defined target. How many potential art museums are located in your desired area? If your desired location has few or no art museums, then your search is unrealistic, and you have to expand your industry (to include other types of museums or other types of art-related organizations) or change your geography. If there are art museums in your desired location, but they are all small and do not need the fundraising skills you have, then you need to expand your function (do something else within the art museums) or change your geography. Geography gives you another critical point of focus for your job search.
Aside from physical location, some jobs have another type of geography consideration. You might be targeting a job whose customers, research subjects, or constituents are of a specific geography:
• Chicago-based (geography 1) curator (function) for an art museum (industry) specializing in East Asian Art (geography 2)
• New York City–based (geography 1) equity research analyst (function) specializing in transportation projects (industry) in sub-Saharan Africa (geography 2)
• Washington, DC–based (geography 1) lobbyist (function) specializing in raising awareness for energy alternatives (industry) in the Mississippi Delta (geography 2)
• Austin-based (geography 1) marketing manager (function) for a computer manufacturer (industry) is charged with opening up the China market (geography 2)
Your job interest may be related to a specific geography, and this definitely should factor in your search. You also must then factor in your physical location.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• You cannot consider every job available, so you need a structure to filter through the possibilities and narrow your job search targets.
• Three elements of a well-defined job search target are industry, function, and geography.
• Each element can be further specified and may need to be, depending on how broad it is.
Exercises
1. Can you see how industry, function, and geography characterize the jobs around you? Look at friends and family members who are working, and practice categorizing their jobs.
2. Do you have an idea for jobs that you want to do? How would you categorize jobs you are interested in by industry, function, and geography?
3. Take a specific industry of interest, such as arts, energy, or sports, in the previous examples. Write out all the different subsectors you can think of. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/03%3A_Step_1-_Identify_Your_Job_Search_Targets/3.01%3A_Three_Elements_of_a_Well-Defined_Target.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the importance of translating your job interests to the three-element structure.
2. Learn different ideas for finding specific industries, functions, and geographies of interest.
The Importance of the Three-Element Structure to Your Job Search
Having industry, function, and geography as filters for your job search is great because it translates to the employer’s perspective. The computer manufacturer in Austin is looking for a marketing manager. If your search targets technology manufacturing, Austin, and marketing, you will hear about that position.
But what if you haven’t narrowed down your search that specifically? You might just be getting started, and you know you want to live in Austin, but aren’t sure about anything else. The three elements are offered here to prevent you from picking up the local paper and blindly going through every ad. When we get to the research and networking chapters, you will also see how the three elements will enable you to find jobs that aren’t advertised. For example, by focusing on a specific industry, you can join a professional association with people from that industry and learn about companies and potential jobs via the association.
There are good reasons to try to move toward identifying your job search targets by industry + function + geography. This section gives some ideas and exercises for you to move toward more specific choices for your three elements.
Geography
You want to think about how narrow your geographic range is: neighborhood, city, surrounding suburbs, multiple cities, multiple states, multiple countries. You may decide to launch a job search in several geographies, for example, New York City and Boston. But each geographic target (New York City or Boston) is treated as a separate job search.
Here are some considerations for your geography choice:
• Do I want to live there?
• Can I afford to live there?
• Can I complete a job search there (maybe you don’t live there currently and need to look long distance)?
• Is the job market for my target industry and function big enough?
Here are some exercises and activities to help you make your choices:
• Visit the location. Some job seekers are quick to pick a big, well-known city without experiencing it first. Your job is but one aspect of your life. There are other considerations to your happiness—for example, social life, proximity to family, climate, population size, pace of life, activities, and entertainment. A great site for data on all aspects of cities in the United States is http://www.city-data.com.
• Run the numbers on the cost of living. A quick Internet search yields numerous cost-of-living calculators (from Salary.com, Bankrate, Money Magazine, and more). This is great for cursory research, but get into the details by looking at local papers for housing costs, local grocery circulars for food costs, and other local ads for products and services you will buy day-to-day.
• Make a plan, including a budget, for job search travel if needed. If your target geography is distant and expensive, you need to factor this into the feasibility of your search. The best long-distance job searches include several trips to the target geography for networking and interviews. You cannot count on your prospective employers to pay for any or all of your travel costs.
• Identify specific companies and organizations in your target geography that satisfy your industry and function requirements. A large metropolitan area, like New York City or Boston, will probably have a big enough market for most searches. But if your target industry is the federal government, then Washington, DC, trumps New York City or Boston. Your desired government agencies may not have any offices in New York City or Boston. Remember that some geographies are bigger than others and will therefore have more overall job targets. Some geographies are more specialized in the industries that are located there.
• Look at the state of the overall job market in your target geography. Some geographies have stronger or weaker economies. All things being equal, you may want to target areas showing strong job and population growth or that are magnets for growing industries.
Industry
Like geography, you may decide to target more than one industry, but each industry is treated as a separate job search. You also want to dig into each industry to see how you can get more specific on the subsectors of that industry.
One overall consideration is your sector of interest:
• Private sector
• Nonprofit
• Government or public sector
There are many examples of careers that include jobs across the sectors. Politicians currently in the government sector may have started their career as lawyers in the private sector or working for a nonprofit. Still, there are also people who very specifically want to target just one sector.
Private sector companies are also called for-profit because they exist to make a profit. The focus of private companies and the measure of their success are their financial results. While individual companies are different, the private sector has been characterized as fast-paced (companies are vying for market leadership), money oriented (the focus on financial results), and business focused (to improve those financial results).
Nonprofit organizations are also called not-for-profit because they don’t exist to make money but rather to serve a specific mission or cause. Again, while each organization is different, the nonprofit sector has been characterized as more slowly paced than the private sector (there are no market forces pressing a specific timetable), service oriented (the focus is on a mission or cause), and smaller in size (the largest nonprofits will not have as many employees or offices as the largest for-profits).
Government agencies can be at the municipal, state, or federal level. Government agencies and groups compose the public sector. Their size and reach is going to depend on the level of government on which the agency focuses and the size and needs of the population, or constituents, it serves. Government jobs have historically been more stable than either private sector or nonprofit jobs, so they often appeal to people looking for that stable environment, though slower advancement. Government jobs may also be appealing if you are interested in service and politics.
Here are some questions to help you decide on a target sector or sectors:
• Does any one sector stand out as a possible fit for your interests or personality?
• Are there people whose careers you admire? In what sector are they employed?
• Are there companies or organizations in which you are interested? Which sector do they represent?
• If you are not partial to any sector, how can your current industry interests translate to each sector?
To help you identify specific industry interests, you can do the following:
• Look at industry lists.
• Read general news or business media.
• Review what you do for fun or things you’ve done that have interested you.
You can look at the list in section one and see if any of the industries mentioned stand out for you. Government and regulatory agencies also issue industry classifications (e.g., the North American Industry Classification System), and these lists can also give you ideas.
If seeing the names of industries isn’t enough because you are not sure what they do, reading general news and business media is a great way to learn more about different industries. You don’t have to read issues cover to cover, but go to a well-stocked magazine store or business library and read the table of contents for several issues of the major general news and business magazines. Which stories attract you? This gives a clue to industries of interest. You can also do a lot of this research online.
Examples of general business magazines that could be helpful for your industry research include the following:
• BusinessWeek
• Fortune
• Fast Company
• Inc.
• Wired
Sometimes you have dream companies in mind because you use their product or service. Several magazines have various top lists (e.g., Largest Companies, Best Places to Work for Women, Most Innovative, Fastest Growing). Look at these lists, which are often broken out by industry, and see if you recognize and are interested in any of the companies.
What you do for fun is also a good indication of what you might like to do for your work. If you are interested in clothes and fashion trends, the fashion or retail industry is a possibility. If you like to travel, the hospitality and leisure industry (e.g., hotels, travel agencies) is a possibility.
To help you break down your overall industry into the subcategories, brainstorm all of the people and companies associated with that industry. Let’s say you are a fashionista:
• You read fashion magazines. Do you want to work at a magazine or other media that covers fashion?
• You follow celebrities for their latest look. Do you want be in celebrity styling?
• You buy your clothes. Do you want to be in retail or sales?
• You may even make your own clothes. Do you want to design or manufacture clothing?
• You care about the content and origins of your clothes. Do you want to work on environmental causes relating to fashion?
• You care about everyone having access to good clothes. Do you want to work for social causes?
Look at the providers of the things you buy and use. This will enable you to branch out of just fashion and actually itemize the specific subcategories.
Function
The function of a job refers to your overall responsibility and what you are doing day-to-day. As you peruse the general news and business stories that interest you, what problem are they solving?
• Is the company trying to expand its customers or sales?
• Is the company trying to be more efficient in certain aspects?
• Are you drawn to the financial information—sales, costs, profits?
• Are you concerned with people issues?
• Are you interested in how things work behind the scenes or how technology can help?
Your target function of interest solves a problem or fills a need. The problems covered in news and business stories can give you a window into the types of problems with which you may want to work.
You might also have a theme in your life of doing certain types of activities. Make a list of twenty-four experiences and achievements over your life that you are most proud of. Be specific—don’t just say “running,” but talk about a specific route or event. Now select your top twelve, then top six, and then top three. Look across your list, but particularly at your top three.
• What are you doing?
• Are you solving a problem?
• Are you taking care of people?
• Are you creating something?
• Are you using specific skills—computer oriented, design, math, foreign language?
• What is your environment?
• Are you in a difficult situation that you are turning around?
• Are you in a happy, stable place?
Your past accomplishments give a window into what you might want to focus on for your work. You will still need to translate this into actual job titles and descriptions. Look for people you know who are doing a job you might want to do—what are these jobs called? Look at job boards for these job titles and read the descriptions to compare with what you think you like about the job. Look at career information websites, such as Vault.com or Wetfeet.com, that describe different jobs.
A good example of using past experience to identify potential function targets is Vince P. Vince had two business-related degrees, including an MBA, and had held various positions in financial services, including finance and reporting, business development, and investor relations. When it came time to pick a function, Vince focused on manager jobs that he thought would reflect the diversity of his skills. The problem was that manager roles are notoriously not specific enough—what does it mean to say that you manage? Instead, Vince made a detailed list of his twenty-four achievements, and once he looked at the patterns in these he noticed an interest and talent in turning around crisis situations, raising money, and creating new operating procedures, including working with regulatory and compliance issues. He now positions himself, not just for management in general, but for managing crisis situations or new situations where processes need to be worked out. He has moved from a general manager to an operations and turnaround specialist.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• You need to translate the three-element structure to your interests.
• Geography targets can be as narrow as a specific neighborhood or as broad as multiple countries. You want to look not just at the job market but also at living conditions when selecting your geography targets.
• Industry targets can be uncovered by looking at industry lists, general news and business magazines, and your own interests. Look at all the different products and services of a particular industry to identify possible subcategories.
• Function targets can be uncovered by looking at problems to solve or needs to fill.
Exercises
1. What are your initial industry, function, and geography targets?
2. Are you comfortable with your choices? What information do you still need? Can you talk to people in those jobs? Can you shadow someone in that job? Can you read a biography of someone doing a function or working in an industry of interest to you? Remember that business magazines often profile people’s backgrounds.
3. Are you specific enough in your targets, or can you still break down any of the three elements into smaller, more specific categories? Does your interest have two geography components?
4. Review the different suggestions throughout the chapter for how to get more specific on your industry, function, and geography selections. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/03%3A_Step_1-_Identify_Your_Job_Search_Targets/3.02%3A_Strategies_to_Match_Your_Interests_to_the_Three_Elements.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the different ways a job impacts your personal values and life.
2. Learn strategies and exercises to prioritize the different personal impacts.
The Three Elements Paint an Incomplete Picture
Industry, function, and geography are helpful external criteria. When you look out into the market at the broad spectrum of jobs, having three elements to filter and narrow this down is critical. But you have other criteria important to you internally that are unrelated to a specific industry, function, or geography:
• Employer size (global Fortune 500 company, small business)
• Employer history (start-up, established, either OK)
• Employer name recognition (household brand name, start-up)
• Compensation (minimum salary of \$x, bonus, equity)
• Opportunity for advancement and growth (clear path of advancement, training)
• Lifestyle (reasonable and set hours, no travel)
• Flexibility (able to work from home, able to work compressed workweek)
• Job structure (lots of autonomy, lots of structure)
• Culture and colleagues (friendly, meritocratic)
Being clear about the three elements will help you research, but understanding your internal criteria will help you select your next job. From the preceding, you can see three broad categories to consider:
1. Employer characteristics
2. Compensation and advancement
3. Lifestyle and environment
Employer Characteristics
An employer might be big or small, new or established, well branded, or unknown. These are all considerations that may or may not matter to you. Each has its pros and cons:
Table \(2\): Advantages and Disadvantages for a Sampling of Employer Characteristics
Type of Employer Advantages Disadvantages
Big Company
• Chance to meet lots of people and grow a big network
• Likely more structured and defined role
• May be overwhelming
• Role may be very siloed and narrow
Small Company
• You may know all or most of your colleagues. Chance to develop a small, but deep, network
• You might have more variety in your tasks due to lack of staff
• Insular culture due to fewer perspectives
• Less room for growth as there are fewer levels to move up into or fewer other departments to move laterally
New Company
• Chance to be part of growing and establishing something
• Likely fast paced with lots of variety as there are no established structures in place
• No track record, so you may be getting into something that turns out different than expected
• Lack of structures means lots of volatility
Old Company
• Established structures and best practices identified
• Proven track record provides stability and security
• Might be less innovative or less receptive to change
• Colleagues might be closed to new staff, hard to establish credibility
Brand Name
• Great résumé builder, company’s brand casts a halo effect on your qualifications
• Glamour and prestige that accompanies working for a famous name
• People may have preconceived notions of the brand that cast a negative effect on you
• Fewer brands means a more narrow search
Unknown Brand
• There are more of these companies out there. Not everyone can work at the market leader
• Today’s unknown might be tomorrow’s market leader
• Not as valuable for marketing for your next job
• Harder to market yourself for conferences and professional association leadership positions
Of course, there are gradations between each of the preceding extremes. You need to decide which, if any, criteria matter to you and your priorities. For example, is a brand-name company more important to you than whether it’s big or small?
Compensation and Advancement
Compensation has many elements. Opportunity for advancement can be categorized with compensation because it is directly tied to compensation elements:
• Cash salary
• Sign-on bonus
• Other bonus (year-end, quarterly, performance)
• Profit sharing
• Equity and stock options
• Health benefits
• Insurance
• Retirement plans and pension
• Tuition reimbursement
• Travel and expense reimbursement
• Perks (professional association membership, discounts)
• Size and speed of salary increases and promotion opportunities
Some elements are more standard for certain jobs than others. Nonprofit and government jobs typically do not have any bonus components. You will want to find out what is customary in the sector, industry, and function you are considering, if a specific element of compensation is high on your list of priorities.
The range of offerings varies greatly from company to company and even within companies. One company in the same industry and for the same functional role may pay more or less and have a different compensation structure than another company in the same industry and function. Even within companies, there is variation because your compensation depends on the level of the job you are filling, as well as the skills and experience you are bringing to the job. Some roles have a lot of built-in variability. For example, sales roles may have a small defined portion (base salary or draw) and then have bonuses or commissions based on achieving certain goals (e.g., selling \$x amount).
Look at your needs and priorities. What are your financial obligations? If you have a lot of student loan or credit card debt, then lower-paying jobs may just be out of the question. If you have a spouse with health benefits that you can use, then maybe that part of the package doesn’t matter to you. If you are considering graduate school, then tuition reimbursement may be more attractive. Rank the compensation elements in the previous list, and know which are necessary versus nice to have versus of no interest. Compare your list with what is customary to your job targets to ensure that you are realistic in your job search.
Lifestyle and Environment
While compensation items can be quantified, the lifestyle and environment category includes the qualitative benefits of your job:
• Lifestyle
• Flexibility
• Job structure
• Culture and colleagues
Table \(3\): Areas to Explore When Considering Lifestyle and Environment Issues of Job Choices
Benefit Considerations
Lifestyle
• Is there work and life balance? Are the hours very long?
• Are the hours volatile, such that it’s hard to plan for activities after work?
• Is there a lot of travel? International travel? Long periods of time away?
• Do people take vacations and lunch breaks, or is it an all-work mentality?
Flexibility
• Can I work from home?
• Can I start and end my day when it suits me as long as I get the work done? Is this a 9–5 workplace?
• Can I work longer hours on fewer days?
• Can I take personal days as needed?
Job structure
• Is the role well defined, or will I have to make my own way?
• Is the day-to-day experience very volatile? Will I be doing a lot of crisis management, or is it predictable?
Culture and colleagues
• Do people collaborate and work together, or is it a competitive place?
• Do I like and respect my boss? Do I like and respect senior management?
• Do I like my coworkers? Will I make friends here?
• Will I have mentors and supporters here?
As with employer characteristics and compensation, itemize and prioritize what’s important to you. This way, you can look for jobs with these criteria, and you can assess job opportunities that come your way against the things that matter to you.
How to Make Trade-Offs
Take all of these criteria, including industry, function, geography, employer characteristics, compensation, and lifestyle and environment, and create a master list of the things that matter to you. Rank that list, and note any criteria that you absolutely must have in a job. You should have some, but not many, must-have criteria. You want some must-have criteria because these will anchor your job search and keep you from chasing opportunities that will not make sense in the long run. At the same time, no job will meet all of your desired criteria, so you want to remain flexible and open to trading off some criteria for others.
One possible exercise to work through is to force rank your criteria. Make a master list of the criteria, including the preceding suggestions as well as any other criteria you wish to add. Eliminate from the list criteria you don’t care about—for example, “Sure, a bonus would be nice to have, but I would still take a job that doesn’t provide one.” For the remaining criteria, select your top half and then select the top half from there. Keep reducing until you get to the criteria you absolutely must have in your next job and can delete no further.
A good example of using both external market criteria and internal personal criteria to make choices is Emily G., a recent undergraduate looking for her first full-time permanent position. She had interest in financial services and media, HR or office administration, and New York City. Her wish list still included a lot of job possibilities, and therefore the risk of a haphazard, diluted search. But Emily also highly prioritized a brand name company, which narrowed the field considerably. She also knew she did well in a more structured environment, so she looked for either established roles or at least a boss and colleagues with tendencies to coach and support. Otherwise, she was flexible, looking at new roles and old roles, staying open about all aspects of compensation, and otherwise not restricting herself except for brand name and structure.
Emily wants Hired for
New York City New York City
Media or financial services Media
HR or office administration HR
Brand name New division, but of a household name
Structure Start-up environment, but very strong and supportive manager
Emily met her personal criteria because she knew to look for them. The job she accepted was not initially an obvious match because the company itself is very new, but it is a subsidiary of a brand name. The role also has the potential of being unstructured because of the start-up nature of the subsidiary, but Emily ensured she had supportive structures in place (an experienced boss with a supportive coaching style) before accepting. Similarly, you need to know your personal criteria, and find or negotiate your next job to meet them.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Industry, function, and geography are not enough when selecting your next job.
• You also want to look at employer characteristics, compensation, and lifestyle and environment.
• Not all criteria will or should matter to you. You decide what matters and how much you prioritize the criteria or are willing to make trade-offs.
Exercises
1. Using the list of different personal criteria, what are your top three priorities? The force-ranking exercise will help if your top priorities aren’t immediately obvious.
2. Do your current industry, function, and geography targets meet the personal criteria you prioritize? If you see that the work and life balance is your top criterion, but your industry of choice is known for a very difficult lifestyle, do you plan to change industries or at least add additional industries for consideration? What characteristics will you look for in specific organizations to make sure you meet your work and life balance preference?
3. How will you reorient your search to more closely map industries and functions to your personal criteria? Remember the case study of Emily G., who was able to narrow down her target list to big companies in her target industry and function because she recognized that only these companies would have the possible support she prioritized. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/03%3A_Step_1-_Identify_Your_Job_Search_Targets/3.03%3A_Personal_Decision_Criteria_When_Considering_Possible_Job_Targets.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn why you need more than one target.
2. Learn how to expand your targets without diluting your focus or efforts.
Up to this point, we have been talking about one job search target that maps to a specific industry, function, and geography and recognizes the personal decision criteria that are meaningful to you. It is important to be specific in your job search, so you know how to position yourself, what to research, and how to network and interview effectively. However, a specific target does not mean just one target. You can and should have multiple targets, each one being very specific, as you proceed with your search.
Advantage of Multiple Targets
You need multiple targets to do the following:
• Ensure that the total market of positions you are going for is large enough to sustain your search
• Give you flexibility if the hiring in any one target is slow, declining, or volatile
• Allow you to have alternative options if your search in one target stalls
You want a large job market in your target. This doesn’t mean a large number of openings, but rather a large number of people working in that job. The Five O’Clock Club, a national career-coaching firm that has analyzed statistics on thousands of job seekers over twenty-five years, recommends two hundred active jobs as a sign that the market is large enough.See point 6 at www.fiveoclockclub.com/2011/02/how-to-debunk-the-no-ones-hiring-myth-the-five-oclock-club-offers-12- proven-methods-to-help-you-land-yes-a-job This does not mean two hundred job openings are posted and confirmed as needing to be filled. These are are two hundred jobs, where some of these jobs will be filled and others will be vacant. The idea is that with a total of two hundred jobs or more, there will always be enough vacancies to support a search.
Remember the art museum example in the first section? If your search target is fund-raising in art museums in Minneapolis, you want to see how many art museums there are and check whether they are big enough to need a fund-raiser at your level. You don’t need to identify two hundred art museums because some might need several fund-raisers (e.g., one for individual gifts, one for corporate gifts, one for grants, etc.). But you want to make sure there are two hundred positions. It is unlikely that any city will have two hundred art museum fund-raiser jobs, so this target is too narrow. You might keep Minneapolis and fund-raising constant but want to add art galleries, artist support agencies, and art schools to your target definition. Arts as an industry is too broad; art museum is too narrow. You want to be in-between. If the number of visual arts organizations still isn’t high enough to support a search, you might broaden to performing arts, or you might add a different area altogether, say education. Now you can target fund-raising jobs in art museums and education organizations. (Remember that education needs to be broken down, as the arts were. Are you targeting schools themselves, government agencies or nonprofits that work with schools, or after-school programs?)
Another advantage of multiple targets is that it helps with timing if any one target is on a downturn with hiring. If you are a student looking for a full-time job after graduation, different companies recruit on different calendars. Banking and consulting firms recruit at the beginning of the academic year, but most other industries recruit in the spring or close to graduation. You might decide to focus on banks or consulting firms when they are active but add additional companies of interest later on.
Finally, having multiple targets broadens your options, thereby keeping momentum in your search and giving you more leads to pursue. Let’s say that your ideal target function is fund-raising, but your experience and skills to date have been more in public relations. You might keep arts as a focus (specifying subcategories to narrow your search enough but not too much), and you might look at PR jobs, as well as fund-raising. This way, you can focus your research and networking on one industry, but you are not shut out if fund-raising is too much of a stretch right now.
Add Alternatives to One but Not All Three Elements
As you now know, a good way to expand your job targets is to change just one of the three elements. In one example, we expanded the industry target of the arts, keeping geography and function constant. In another example, we kept the industry target narrow and the geography constant, but we expanded the functions from fund-raising to fund-raising and PR to target within the industry and geography target.
You will know what works for you because you should expand based on your interests in different industries, functions, and geographies and how these possibilities match your personal decision criteria. The more elements you add, the more combinations you must pursue and the more diluted your search efforts may become. If we added education as an industry choice and added PR as a function choice, we now have four combinations:
1. Minneapolis + arts + PR
2. Minneapolis + education + PR
3. Minneapolis + arts + fund-raising
4. Minneapolis + education + fund-raising
This adds to the research you need to do, the networking meetings and interviews you need to attend, and the complexity of your marketing.
If you add another geography to the mix, say Chicago, now you have eight combinations:
1. Minneapolis + arts + PR
2. Minneapolis + education + PR
3. Minneapolis + arts + fund-raising
4. Minneapolis + education + fund-raising
5. Chicago + arts + PR
6. Chicago + education + PR
7. Chicago + arts + fund-raising
8. Chicago + education + fund-raising
At some point, the benefit of having more companies and organizations to target is lost by the complexity of having to cover too many disparate targets.
A special consideration before adding geographies or broadening your geography target is that there is a financial cost and physical time for travel that you must factor into your search efforts. It is far easier to contain your search to one geography and expand to multiple industries and functions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Yes, targets need to be specific as you define each one, but you do not need to have only one target overall.
• There are significant advantages to having multiple targets, including increasing the size of your overall job market, increasing your flexibility to react to slowdowns in any one job market, and increasing your options should one target prove elusive.
• It is best to change just one element—either industry or function or geography—but not all three, to prevent search efforts from getting too confusing and diluted.
• Expanding geography targets is more difficult than expanding industry or function because of the financial and time requirements for travel.
EXERCISE
1. How might you expand the target you currently have? Make a list of industry, function, and geography interests. Rank your top combinations. Are you changing too many elements and possibly diluting your search? Or are your targets still too narrow?
2. If you are having trouble deciding how to expand your search, look at industries and functions related to the one you have selected. Look at the core skills you are using in the function you want and think about what other roles within the same industry might use those skills. Look at the industry you’ve selected and see if there are organizations from the different sectors (private, nonprofit, government) that you can add. Or see if the companies you want collaborate with other companies—these partners might be added to your target list. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/03%3A_Step_1-_Identify_Your_Job_Search_Targets/3.04%3A_Importance_of_Multiple_Targets.txt |
Identifying your job search targets is step 1 of the six-step job search process because it informs all of the following steps:
• A specific target enables you to create marketing (step 2) that is appropriate to your prospective employers.
• In the research step, we will focus on finding the trends, challenges, and other nuances of your job targets. We also will focus on finding the structure and actual people of organizations that are active in your industry, function, and geography. By specifying your targets, you will know what to research in depth (step 3) and how to find this very specific information.
• You can define your networking and interviewing (step 4) around contacts relevant to your target.
• When you organize and troubleshoot your search (step 5), you can pace your search with what you know of a typical search in that target, and you can troubleshoot your results with what is expected for your target.
• When you negotiate your offer (step 6), you can build on the compensation structure and amounts that are customary for your target.
By looking at how to define your job target the way an employer defines jobs (the three elements of industry, function, and geography), you are grounding your search efforts in a practical, actionable way. Yet, we also reviewed other criteria that are meaningful to your job decisions personally (the decision criteria broadly categorized as employer characteristics, compensation and advancement, and lifestyle and environment). This way, you focus efforts not just on what the market wants but also on what you want.
Chapter Takeaways
• You cannot consider every job available, so you need a structure through which to filter the possibilities and narrow your job search targets.
• Three elements of a well-defined job search target are industry, function, and geography.
• Each element can be further specified and may need to be, depending on how broad it is.
• You need to translate the three-element structure to your interests.
• Geography targets can be as narrow as a specific neighborhood or as broad as multiple countries. You want to look not just at the job market but also at the living conditions when selecting your geography targets.
• Industry targets can be uncovered by looking at industry lists, general news and business magazines, and your own interests. Look at all the different products and services of a particular industry to identify possible subcategories.
• Function targets can be uncovered by looking at problems to solve or needs to fill.
• Industry, function, and geography are not enough when selecting your next job.
• You also want to look at employer characteristics, compensation and advancement, and lifestyle and environment.
• Not all criteria will or should matter to you. You decide what matters and how much you prioritize the criteria or are willing to make trade-offs.
• Yes, targets need to be specific as you define each one, but you do not need to have only one overall target.
• There are significant advantages to having multiple targets, including increasing the size of your overall job market, increasing your flexibility to react to slowdowns in any one job market, and increasing your options should one target prove elusive.
• It is best to change just one element of the industry-function-geography model to prevent search efforts from getting too confusing and diluted.
• Expanding geography targets is more difficult than expanding industry or function because of the financial and time requirements for travel.
Chapter Review
1. What are the three elements of a well-defined job search target?
2. Why is using the three elements to filter important to your job search?
3. Why are the three elements not enough to make decisions about your next job?
4. What are other criteria you need to consider as you search for a job that is right for you?
5. What does it mean to have multiple targets?
6. Why are multiple targets helpful?
7. How might you expand your targets without diluting your search efforts too much?
SuccessHawk: All about You
Log in to SuccessHawk and go to the right-hand menu bar. Under “My Account,” click on “Personal Profile.” Spend some time thinking about the information you are asked to provide here. This will help you determine what kinds of jobs and careers you should pursue.
SuccessHawk: Goal Setting
Clearly defined goals help focus your attention on your job search objectives, the actions you need to take to achieve your objectives, and the time you need to spend on your job search. To access the goal-setting tool, go to the right-hand menu bar and click on “Goal Setting” in the “Interactive Features” section. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/03%3A_Step_1-_Identify_Your_Job_Search_Targets/3.05%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercises.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Make certain that your header is professional and gives your prospective employers a positive first impression.
2. Learn the importance of clarity when writing an objective.
Header
Your résumé header should include four items:
1. Your full name
2. Your address
3. Your e-mail address
4. Your phone number
Your Full Name
Include your full name. If your first name is difficult to pronounce, you could include your nickname in quotation marks or parentheses (e.g., Xioang “Angie” Kim or Massimo “Mass” Rapini). Names are typically bolded and centered on the page, but aligning your name to the right or left is also appropriate.
Your Address
You can use your school address or your permanent home address, or both. Most recruiters prefer both because, at times, they may need to send information to both addresses at different times of the year. Clarity is always a very good thing.
Your E-mail Address
Have a professional e-mail address because employers frown upon unprofessional addresses such as [email protected] or [email protected]. It’s best to use your first name and your last name in a simple e-mail format.
Establish a professional e-mail address as soon as possible (e.g., [email protected] or [email protected]). It’s much more relevant than [email protected], especially if you graduated six months earlier. If you continue your job search after graduation, you might not be permitted to use your school e-mail address, nor should you once you have graduated. Given this, obtaining a professional e-mail address is a good networking opportunity to contact the individuals with whom you’ve been in touch regarding your job search. Inform those individuals and any relevant recruiters that you’ve updated your contact information.
Your Phone Number
Include only one phone number on your résumé and record a professional voice mail. Do not play music on your voice mail. and speak clearly and succinctly. It’s also recommended that you not answer your cell phone if you are in a loud area, especially when you do not recognize the number. Allow the call to go to voice mail, listen to it in a quiet place, and return the call as soon as possible. It very well could be a recruiter who would not be impressed by you shouting, “What? I can’t hear you!” A professional voice mail might sound like the following: “You’ve reached John Smith at 555.555.5555. Please leave a message and I will call you back as soon as possible.”
Include your name and repeat the phone number to help the recruiter know for certain that the proper person has been reached. Clarity is always helpful and appreciated. Lastly, be sure to check your voice mail on a regular basis, even if you are on vacation.
Objective
Recruiters appreciate clarity, and an objective can help a recruiter understand exactly what you offer or what business would best suit your background. Objectives can be very targeted and mention a specific position or can be a bit broader in describing a job function. Whatever objective you choose, it should state what you are looking for and what you have to contribute. It’s not only about you. It’s about what you can do for them. Here are some examples of effective objectives:
• An entry-level accounting position in audit, allowing me to use my analytical and detail orientation to ensure accuracy in all reports and reviews.
• A communications internship at a top media company that will allow me to use my knowledge and experience to produce and edit clear and effective communications.
• An entry-level position in the health-care industry, enabling me to use my business and communications skills to enhance a company’s bottom line.
• A full-time marketing position at a Fortune 500 company, enabling me to utilize my knowledge and experience to enhance marketing efforts firm-wide.
Your objective should not ramble past two lines because no recruiter appreciates reading a paragraph-sized objective.
Using the four preceding items, Figure \(2\) "Sample Résumé—Header and Objective" illustrates how our sample résumé looks thus far.
Figure \(2\): Sample Résumé—Header and Objective
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• A header is the first thing a recruiter sees on your résumé. This information should make a strong and professional impression of your candidacy.
• A professional voice mail recording is critical to being considered for a position.
• An objective should be clear and succinct, allowing the reader to understand what type of position you are looking for.
Exercises
1. Draft the header to your résumé, including all core components.
2. Create professional voice mails for your cell phone and your home phone if they will be used for your job search.
3. Create a professional e-mail address separate from your school e-mail address, unless you already have one. This is especially important when you enter your senior year.
4. Draft two objectives: one that references a specific job and another that references an entry-level position in a certain industry. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/04%3A_Step_2_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/4.02%3A_Header_and_Objective.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand that internships are extremely helpful in your career because they support what you think you want to do, give you ideas of what you might like to do, or identify exactly what you do not want to do.
2. Understand the timing of the on-campus internship season and maximize your efforts to find a job.
While you are in school, or up to one year after you graduate, your education section should appear before your experience section. Once you are a working professional, these two sections can and should be flipped.
Additional items in this section include the following:
• Expected graduation date: Listing the month or the season both work well here (e.g., Spring 2013 or May 2013).
• Relevant coursework: You may choose to list relevant coursework if it pertains to the position for which you are applying.
• Major and minor: You may choose to include both your major and your minor.
• GPA: You may include your overall GPA or you may decide to list the GPA of your major. It’s recommended that you not include your GPA if it is below 3.3. Certain industries are more concerned with GPA than others, including consulting, investment banking, and trading, which can require a 3.6 or 3.7 and above. It’s best to research each industry to better familiarize yourself with such requirements because this can vary by industry and by company.
• Extracurricular activities: Recruiters may be impressed to read that you were active in your college and that you belonged to targeted student clubs. If you held any leadership posts, that information should be included as well.
• Study abroad: If you have studied abroad, list that here. You should include the name of the university, the city and country, and the coursework.
Nontraditional college students (those who have significant work experience and then decide to obtain their degree) may want to list experience before education. Since this is unusual for a new graduate, you should consult with either career services or a career coach regarding this résumé order.
Here is an example of how to list your education information.
If you attended only one college, only that college should be listed in this section.
If you transferred from another college, you should list both schools in this section. The first school you list is the current school you attend, followed by the previous school. If and when you attend graduate school, law school, and so forth, your postgraduate school would then be listed first.
High schools, no matter how prestigious, should not be included in a résumé.
If you’ve received additional training and certifications, this information does not belong in your education section. Instead, it can be listed in skills and additional information, which will be reviewed in the section of this chapter titled “Skills, Additional Information, and References.”
Using the preceding information, Figure \(1\) "Sample Résumé—Header and Objective" illustrates what our résumé looks like thus far.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Your education section should clearly list your college(s) and include a number of important details, including GPA, majors and minors, and extracurricular activities.
• Your candidacy can be enhanced by including supporting coursework, so include that as well.
Exercises
1. Create your education section, using the details listed in this chapter.
2. Include all important aspects of this section: your expected year of graduation, GPA (if over 3.3), major and minor, relevant coursework, and extracurricular activities.
3. Pair up with someone in your class, review their information, and critique it to make the section better.
4. Have your classmate review your work by critiquing it so you can enhance your education section. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/04%3A_Step_2_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/4.03%3A_Education_Section.txt |
Learning Objectives
1. Understand that your work experience is perhaps the most important part of your résumé because it bridges the gap between being a college student and becoming a potential employee.
2. Include quantified, results-oriented information in your bullets to help engage your prospective employer.
This section is arguably the most important of your résumé because most recruiters look for past work experience as a predictor of future work experience. The most conventional method of listing your work experience is in opposite chronological order (as with your education section). List your most recent job experience first and include the following information:
• The name of the company
• The city and state and, when outside the United States, the country
• The years of employment (If you’ve had several jobs at one company, include the overall years of experience, and for separate jobs, note specific years of experience.)
• Three to seven bullet points describing your responsibilities and the results of your work, depending on the number of years of experience
It’s important to use bullet points because they clearly and succinctly list your responsibilities and achievements. Recruiters do not enjoy or appreciate reading long paragraphs because they want to quickly skim the information.
Action verbs are helpful in this section of your résumé. You may want to consider the following words.
• Accomplished
• Analyzed
• Assisted
• Calculated
• Circulated
• Clarified
• Collected
• Conducted
• Decreased
• Directed
• Distributed
• Documented
• Edited
• Eliminated
• Expanded
• Expedited
• Facilitated
• Generated
• Influenced
• Introduced
• Investigated
• Joined
• Led
• Located
• Maintained
• Managed
• Marketed
• Negotiated
• Organized
• Programmed
• Provided
• Resolved
• Responded
• Reviewed
• Showed
• Standardized
• Structured
• Supplied
• Supported
• Surveyed
• Taught
• Trained
• Updated
• Used
• Utilized
• Verified
• Won
• Worked
• Wrote
Bullets should be results oriented and used to help quantify as many things as possible. Earlier in this chapter, we referenced the following examples:
• Reducing errors by 35 percent
• Increasing profits by 25 percent
• Boosting repeat sales to 75 percent
Here is how these items can be put into bullets:
• Reduced errors by 35 percent by creating an Excel program that immediately highlights inconsistencies when raw data are entered into the system.
• Increased profits by 25 percent by gathering best practices and creating a training program for all new hires.
• Boosted repeat sales by 75 percent by delivering the very best customer service, as evidenced by numerous satisfaction letters and comments to senior management.
Work experience comes in many forms. The majority of your experience will be paid, but it’s fine to include unpaid work experience. Perhaps you had an unpaid internship working in the marketing department of a magazine. Absolutely include that in your work experience. Perhaps you volunteered to help a teacher organize their classroom, and perhaps you interacted with students and helped them be prepared for the lesson plan. Include that in your work experience. The bottom line here is that through every experience, either paid or unpaid, you learn something. If you are washing cars, you learn the value of a production line: someone washes, someone rinses, and someone receives the payment. It’s fine to list work experiences such as babysitting, where your bullet could read as follows:
• Managed three to four hours of after-school activities for three children ages seven to eleven, ensuring homework was completed accurately and efficiently.
You may work in a grocery store and include the following information in your bullet:
• Assisted dozens of customers daily with all aspects of the store’s retail offerings, including answering questions about the locations of items and checking out customers quickly and efficiently at the register.
Sample résumés are included the end of this chapter. Refer to them when drafting your résumé as some have quite a bit of related work experience, some have very little, and others have international exposure. Each sample will give you an idea of how to craft your résumé for your job search.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Your work experience section is one of the most important on your résumé because recruiters will review this in light of the opportunities they have available.
• No matter what the type of position, it’s important to quantify information and your accomplishments. The clearer your experience, the easier it will be for a recruiter to match you to a position.
• Bullet points are preferred when drafting your responsibilities and accomplishments. Recruiters can easily review bullet points versus reading long, drawn-out paragraphs.
• A results-oriented résumé is preferred. Include how you helped your employer succeed and grow.
Exercises
1. Review some of the résumés at the end of this chapter.
2. Record all of your work experiences, starting with your most recent.
3. Use three or four bullet points for each experience.
4. Try to tie as many of your responsibilities as possible to the company’s or organization’s bottom line.
5. When writing your bullet points, remember to be results oriented.
6. Draft a résumé using what you learned in this section, and pair up with someone in this class. Review and critique their information and have them do the same for you. This should strengthen your résumé overall. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/04%3A_Step_2_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/4.04%3A_Work_Experience.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Provide your skills and additional information to offer another dimension of your candidacy, one that can resonate with your résumé reader.
2. Communicate with your references in advance because references are a vital part of the job search process and can position you for success.
Skills and Additional Information
This section of your résumé should include, but not be limited to, the following information:
• Computer skills: Most employers expect Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but include additional software knowledge (e.g., Dreamweaver).
• Language skills: Include your honest level of fluency (e.g., Spanish, fluent, French, beginner).
• Community service: Include any volunteer work, such as park clean-ups, walk-a-thons for various causes, fundraising events of any kind. Be specific about your responsibilities and your results including: dollars raised, hours spent, leadership position, end-user experience (e.g. fund-raising efforts reached over \$20K, providing for five developmentally disabled students and their parents to travel to Florida to swim with the dolphins.)
• Interests: This information can help to build rapport with interviewers. It’s best to keep it simple and include things that are truly of interest to you such as reading, movies, and physical fitness (in general) or tennis, football, softball (specifically). It’s true that the “Interests” section is not a core piece of information, but the vast majority of interviewers enjoy reviewing this, and the rapport you build can be helpful!
You can include additional information:
• Licenses and certifications: Individuals can achieve literally hundreds of professional licenses in the areas of health care, finance, real estate, insurance, and so forth. For a complete list, Google professional licenses, and you will be able to identify if you should include any on your résumé. Examples include Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level I, Licensed Real Estate Agent, and so forth.
Important note: Never misrepresent any information on your résumé. If you have knowledge of another language, qualify your knowledge as fluent, intermediate, or beginner. If you don’t speak a language other than English, do not include a bullet point about language because you might not know the language capabilities of your interviewers.
Some résumé readers differ on this, but listing your interests can help develop rapport with your résumé reader and interviewer. No matter what the skill level of the interviewer, having a common interest can always begin a great conversation.
An example of information listed in this section could include the following.
References
One of the famous last lines of a résumé is “References furnished upon request.” This is not necessary because employers can simply ask for references when they want them. However, a proactive, impressive strategy would be to create a single-page document that includes the following information:
• Your header (so it’s a matched set with the résumé), including your name, address, and contact information
• Your reference’s name
• Your reference’s company and title
• Your reference’s relationship to you (e.g., manager, peer, vendor, and so forth)
• Your reference’s contact information, including their e-mail address and phone number
Do not widely distribute this information because it contains the contact information of your references, which you should treat as confidential. However, having the list prepared enables you to quickly share this information with prospective employers upon request.
Help your references help you by notifying them that they can expect a call and by highlighting the most important qualities you want them to mention.
An example of this document could include the following.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Skills and additional information add another dimension to any résumé. Recruiters should know your computer skills and any language skills you may have. This section of your résumé also presents a great opportunity to share information about any community service work you’ve done.
• Listing your interests often helps build rapport with recruiters and interviewers.
• Misrepresenting your accomplishments or abilities is unethical. Many otherwise-qualified candidates often find themselves in uncomfortable positions when they have misrepresented even the slightest item on their résumé.
• The names of your references do not belong on a résumé.
• It’s not necessary to include the line “References furnished upon request.”
• Having a reference document is very helpful when conducting a proactive and efficient job search.
Exercises
1. Draft this section of your résumé and include all the details mentioned in this chapter.
2. Qualify your computer and language skills as fluent, familiar, or having some knowledge. If you speak only one language, don’t include this information on your résumé.
3. Identify three or four individuals who can serve as your references, and get their permission to give their names and contact information to prospective employers.
4. Speak to your references in advance and let them know about your career goals and which companies you are targeting. You may also ask that they emphasize one particular skill over another (e.g., that you pay great attention to detail or have strong analytical skills).
5. When you are interviewing with a specific company, let your references know in advance that they may be contacted, and ask that they let you know if they are contacted.
6. Thank your references. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/04%3A_Step_2_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/4.05%3A_Skills%2C_Additional_Information%2C_and_References.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. A chronological résumé has the most-expected résumé format, and while it’s good to give a résumé reader what they expect, it’s also helpful to know about other types of résumé formats.
2. A functional résumé highlights skills versus specific work experiences.
3. A functional résumé can be used when you think employment gaps or the lack of employment can hurt your candidacy.
Functional Résumés
This chapter thus far has reviewed a résumé that follows a chronological format. Another format to consider is a functional résumé, which highlights the skills you’ve developed more than the individual jobs you’ve held.
Functional résumés can be different from what most recruiters will review, so it’s best to proceed with care. This includes consulting a career services office and consulting a professional résumé writer.
It’s important to note that throughout the many, many years that individuals have been drafting résumés, recruiters have expected to see a chronological résumé with certain sections: employment, education, and additional information. In most cases, it’s best to give recruiters what they expect: a chronological résumé.
With that understood, functional résumés can be used for college students and experienced candidates for the following reasons:
• Individuals may want to highlight their skills and achievements rather than the companies for which they worked.
• College students who do not have a strong work experience history can use a functional résumé to give them a chance to include other achievements, honors, and abilities in a very pronounced way.
• Experienced individuals can deemphasize gaps in employment because recruiters often notice gaps and then want those gaps explained.
• Experienced individuals can also deemphasize career mobility and emphasize skills and achievements.
Here are some categories you may want to consider when drafting a functional résumé:
• Communication skills
• Teamwork skills
• Leadership skills
• Honors and special achievements
• Athletic involvement and achievements
• Volunteer experiences
Figure 4.4 and Figure 4.5 are examples of how a functional résumé might look.
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Some people interchange the word résumé with curriculum vitae (CV), which is incorrect because they are different items. A CV is mostly used internationally, particularly for research-oriented positions. A CV is often longer and more detailed than a résumé. In some cases, CVs are six to eight pages long and include published material and conference information if the person presented information to colleagues. A CV may or may not include biographical information, including marital status and nationality (this is typically the case with international students studying in the United States).
With this said, a résumé is the appropriate document when seeking any nonacademic or nonclinical position in the United States. If you are interested in working overseas, use research to familiarize yourself with an employer’s expectation regarding résumés, CVs, and additional information.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Functional résumés are not what most recruiters expect, but they have certain advantages that can help your candidacy.
• Functional résumés highlight specific strengths rather than the name of the company for which you worked.
• CVs are very different from résumés because CVs, which often are used for research-oriented positions, can sometimes be six to eight pages in length.
Exercises
1. Think about how you would construct your résumé in a functional format versus a chronological format.
2. Decide which format works best for you: chronological or functional.
3. Review and critique this information with a classmate.
4.07: Documenting Problems- Gaps, Short Stints, and Merging Companies
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn to properly explain any time gaps in your résumé because recruiters have a trained eye and often notice gaps in employment and jobs of short duration.
2. Learn how to position companies that have merged with other companies.
Gaps
Recruiters carefully review résumés and will notice any gaps in either employment or education. While rare, any anomaly should be addressed. For example, perhaps a student was ill for half a semester and didn’t graduate in the expected year. Perhaps they had an opportunity to live in another country for a prolonged period of time. A résumé will state the timeline, but the cover letter can be used for more of an explanation. It’s best to consult a professional because this situation can be a bit of a minefield.
Short Stints
Recruiters appreciate longevity at a company. If you’ve worked two summers at the same company, that proves your worth to your employer because they rehired you. If you’ve jumped from one company to another in short periods of time, that can be considered a disadvantage.
Merging Companies
A list of the top one hundred companies today is vastly different from a list of the top one hundred companies from ten years ago. If you worked for a company that has now merged with another company and no longer has the same name, simply list the name of the new company and put the previous company’s name in parentheses. Here is an example:
Pfizer (premerger Warner-Lambert), New York, New York
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Recruiters review a résumé in seven to ten seconds, yet are trained to identify gaps of any kind.
• Recruiters appreciate candidates who have repeat work experiences at a certain employer, such as working at one company for two consecutive summers.
• Companies often merge with other companies, so note the new name first and put the company’s original name in parentheses.
Exercises
1. Review your résumé with a critical eye toward gaps of any kind: gaps in employment and gaps in your educational experience.
2. Consider how you would explain any existing gaps to a recruiter.
3. Practice your explanation with a classmate and have them critique your response.
4. Meet with someone at your career service office for a mock interview, and have them specifically ask about any gaps in your résumé.
5. Seek out someone in the profession in which you are most interested, and ask if they are willing to review your résumé to help you improve it. It’s very helpful to get an industry professional’s advice. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/04%3A_Step_2_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/4.06%3A_Other_R%C3%A9sum%C3%A9_Formats%2C_Including_Functional_R%C3%A9sum%C3%A9s.txt |
Creating a compelling marketing campaign is a vital step in your job search because it helps you market your skills and abilities to future employers before you meet them. It’s a critical link in the six-step job search process. Take great care in creating each of the four components:
1. A résumé
2. A cover letter
3. A pitch
4. An online profile
Your résumé is clearly the cornerstone of your marketing campaign because it sells your candidacy. It also serves as a one-page summary of your strengths, abilities, job responsibilities, educational background, and much more.
The more care you put into writing your résumé, the greater your chances of being noticed by the employer of your choice. The best strategies for writing a résumé are the following:
• Be clear, concise, completely accurate (in terms of grammar and content), and results-oriented.
• Quantify whatever accomplishments you can.
• Proofread your résumé with someone who knows what a résumé should look like and contain.
It’s also important to know that while a résumé is a critical piece of your job search, it alone will not get you an interview or a job. A résumé, at best, is subjective, and different individuals have different preferences regarding format, font, length, typeface, and content. Following the guidelines of this chapter can only help position you best for success.
The remaining elements of your marketing campaign will be covered in the following chapter; each element will continue to strengthen your marketing campaign and ultimately, your job search success. Creating your compelling marketing campaign will be more effective when you are more specific, targeted, and thoughtful:
• Your résumé will prove your success to your past employers, which then proves your worth to your future employers.
• Your cover letter makes the case for why you should be hired because it highlights the two or three critical skills necessary to succeed in the job in which you are most interested.
• Your pitch allows you to introduce yourself in a clear and concise way, highlighting the strengths that will enable you to succeed.
• Your online profile works behind the scenes so you will be noticed by recruiters who seek talent, and also provides a great way to stay connected with your network.
Step 3 is research, which will enable you to gather vast amounts of information about your industry, your function, your geography, and the companies you are targeting.
Chapter Takeaways
• A compelling marketing campaign is vital to your job search and is composed of four things: a résumé, a cover letter, a pitch, and an online profile.
• Your marketing campaign must have high-quality standards because it represents you when you are not there.
• Your résumé is the cornerstone of your marketing campaign, and it positions you for success.
• A well-written résumé can do seven specific things for you and your job search.
• A résumé should include the following sections: header, objective, education, experience, skills (computer and language, when appropriate), and additional information that may include community service, certifications, and interests.
• Bullets in your work experience section should outline your responsibilities and your accomplishments in a clear, results-oriented manner.
• Action verbs should be used to describe your responsibilities.
• Résumés can be presented in two formats: a chronological format and a functional format. Both have advantages and can be used by college students and more experienced candidates.
• A CV is very different from a résumé. CVs are used quite a bit internationally, often for research or clinical positions. CVs also can be six to eight pages in length and include biographical information such as marital status and country of origin.
• Recruiters are trained résumé screeners and actively look for gaps in employment, in addition to short periods of employment.
• Ask three or four individuals to act as references. Proactive candidates create a reference document that lists the names and contact information of people who will serve as positive references.
Chapter Takeaways
1. How can a résumé market you as a candidate?
2. What are the two most important things a résumé must be?
3. What are the main things a résumé can do for you?
4. What are the most important sections of a résumé?
5. Why would you use an objective on your résumé?
6. What should you record on your voice mail?
7. Why should you not pick up your cell phone if you are in a noisy place, especially if you don’t recognize the number?
8. Why are action verbs important?
9. Why is it important to quantify your accomplishments?
10. Why is it helpful to be results oriented?
11. Why is it important to include skills, certifications, and interests on your résumé?
12. What is the difference between a chronological and a functional résumé? What are the advantages of each type?
13. What is the difference between a résumé and a CV?
14. Why do recruiters care about short stints at employers and any gaps in employment?
15. What is the most productive way to present references to a prospective employer?
16. How can you keep your references up to date regarding your job search?
SuccessHawk: Résumés
For tips and ideas about creating your résumé, go to the menu bar at the right and click on Résumés in the advice and research section. (Note: There is a charge of \$9.95 for use of the Résumé Creator.) | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/04%3A_Step_2_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/4.08%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercises.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Conduct the preliminary work needed to write a cover letter that has purpose and gets noticed.
2. Learn the three basic sections of a cover letter.
Is it worth writing a cover letter knowing it might never be read? The short answer is yes. Some recruiters don’t read cover letters and go straight to the résumé, but other recruiters read and carefully weigh the information in cover letters. You don’t know which recruiter will receive your résumé and letter, so write the best cover letter you can. A well-written cover letter is an opportunity to present yourself well and influence a recruiter, so always take full advantage of that opportunity. A cover letter can also be viewed as your first conversation with a future employer, so be certain its quality is exceptional.
Your cover letter should be engaging, informative, and show your command of the written word. It should flow easily from a reader’s perspective, making the connection between the opportunity and your ability to succeed if given the chance. The tone should be compelling. You should be excited about the opportunity and you should be confident of your ability to succeed (even if you truly lack the confidence).
Cover Letter Preliminary Work
Preparation and practice are critical to every step of the job search process, and the cover letter is no different. Five actions can help make your cover letter compelling:
1. Make a list of your top ten strengths.
2. Make a list of your top five weaknesses (also known as areas you’d like to strengthen).
3. Decipher the job description to identify each separate skill and qualification.
4. Compare the two lists to see if they are in alignment. Also identify the gaps—does the job description list something that you haven’t done?
5. Highlight your top three skills that align with the job description as you will use them in your cover letter.
List Your Top Ten Strengths
Table 5.1 lists an example for your reference: Table \(1\) Chart of Top Strengths
Top Strengths Examples
1 Organized
• In my last internship, I was asked to manually organize paper work for the past year's real estate transactions, with little other direction.
• I was given two weeks to complete this, and all of the paper work was in approximately five boxes.
• I quickly reviewed the contents, which fit into four categories: (1) commercial, (2) private homes, (3) condos, and (4) incomplete transactions.
• I asked my manager to review this to make sure I was going in the right direction. He gave me the green light.
• I finished the project in one week, and I not only organized the files but also computerized the entire process.
• As a result, my manager quickly focused on completing 25% of the outstanding transactions, adding ~\$100K in the last half of the year!
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Notice that the example is very detailed:
• Time was referenced (in a few ways): This project was during your last internship, and you had two weeks to complete the task. The work was actually finished ahead of schedule—in one week versus two.
• The duties were defined: You had to organize the contents of boxes of paper work for the year’s real estate transactions.
• The action was emphasized: You took the initiative to organize the work into four categories and you checked with your manager to make sure you were going in the right direction.
• The accomplishment was highlighted: You completed the task in half the time, and you automated the process. Most of all, you enabled your employer to close 25 percent of the outstanding transactions, adding about \$100,000 in revenue to the bottom line.
(Whenever possible, identify the result(s) of your actions. Future employers will hire you because you have proved your worth to your past employers.)
Other strengths and skills could include (in alphabetical order):
• Analytical
• Detail oriented
• Client focused
• Conscientious
• Communicative
• Creative
• Hard worker
• Industry knowledge
• Technical
• Leader
• Loyal
• Optimistic
• Passionate
• Persistent
• Proactive
• Quick learner
• Team Player
• Tenacious
• Thoughtful
• Trustworthy
• Vigilant
List Your Top Five Weaknesses
Many job search candidates are uncomfortable talking about their weaknesses. This should not be the case. Knowing your weaknesses is just as important to your job search as knowing your strengths. Three very strong reasons exist to speak fluidly and confidently about your weaknesses:
1. Employers want to hire individuals who are self-aware, and you can be self-aware only if you know both your strengths and weaknesses. Being self-aware is the only way you can improve.
2. Employers know it takes a certain level of maturity to talk about your weaknesses. They want to ensure you have achieved that level of maturity before extending an offer.
3. Your weaknesses should in no way contain a hint of the skills necessary to excel at your target position. Your weaknesses should in no way contain a hint of the skills necessary to excel at any position.
Remember that everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses, including every CEO, every country’s president, every manager, and every one of your coworkers. You will be in good company when considering and discussing your weaknesses.
The trick, if there is a trick, to your weaknesses lies in your plan to strengthen them. Having a plan to strengthen a weakness is impressive, especially if you’ve already taken steps to do so.
Table 5.2 will help you identify five weaknesses, or areas you’d like to improve. Table \(2\) Chart of Weaknesses
Weaknesses Plan to Strengthen
1 Public speaking
• I have given many presentations, and on a scale of 1–10, I’m probably a 6. I do my best when I’m very prepared and when I rehearse.
• To improve, I’ve registered for a public speaking class next semester, and until then, I raise my hand more than usual.
• I also volunteer to present whenever I can because the more I practice, the better I get. Lastly, I’m reading a book about presenting, and it’s helped very much.
2
3
4
5
Notice that the weakness is specifically described with a plan for improvement:
• You are aware that public speaking is a weakness, yet you‘ve already given presentations, are not an abysmal failure in this area, and have already achieved some success.
• You quantified where you are on a scale of one to ten and consider yourself a six. You have shown that you know the topic well, but haven’t yet mastered it. You mention two important aspects to being a good presenter: (1) you do best when you are prepared and (2) rehearsal and practice help you as well.
• You already have a plan to strengthen this skill: (1) you will take a public speaking class, (2) you are raising your hand as much as possible in class (which is a form of public speaking), (3) you are volunteering to present whenever you can, and (4) you are reading a book about presenting and it’s already helped.
In addition, it’s important to note that a weakness should never be a core component of the job. For example, if you perceive your weakness to be public speaking, you wouldn’t apply for a position as a trainer. If you perceive your weakness to be analytical skills, you wouldn’t apply for a position as an accountant. A weakness can be a part of a job, for example, if you are applying for a position as an accountant, you would predominately do financial work and only sometimes present (e.g., share your findings with management), so using public speaking as a weakness in this case is fine.
Decipher the Job Description and Identify Each Skill and Qualification
Most job descriptions can be copied from the employer’s website. Copy the job description and do the following (if you only have a hard copy, it’s worthwhile to retype it as you’ll want to manipulate each requirement for the position):
• Put each skill and qualification on a separate line.
• Group like with like. If communication skills are listed as important, in addition to giving presentations to potential clients, list one after the other.
In the following sample, each component of the job description is considered and deciphered, in preparation for applying and eventually interviewing for the position.
Job Description Sample
Entry-Level Sales
The CML Company, a leading provider of recruiting and staffing services, is currently seeking motivated, career-oriented individuals to join our recruiting team.
Our recruiters work with our clients and inside sales team identifying, screening, interviewing, and presenting qualified candidates for contract and permanent positions.
CML promotes from within. Entry-level sales staff start as recruiters. Once they master that role and have a desire to become a member of our sales team, they can be considered for promotion.
Qualified Candidates for the Recruiter Position Will
• Develop recruiting strategies designed to identify qualified candidates through various recruiting tools.
• Evaluate candidates’ strengths compared with clients’ requirements by evaluating, screening, and interviewing the candidate.
• Negotiate wage rates and other terms and conditions of employment with candidates, and gain commitment from candidates for current and future job requirements.
• Complete necessary preemployment processes, including reference and background checks and drug tests.
• Work with account executives to identify top accounts, client skill sets, and key market segments, and to assess clients’ staffing requirements.
• Communicate effectively with others to create a productive team environment.
• Communicate with peers by sharing recruiting best practices and providing accurate, thorough documentation on contract employees in our applicant-tracking system or by using other documentation tools.
• Maintain relationships with industry contacts to provide customer service, gain industry knowledge, and get referrals and sales leads.
Qualified Candidates for the Recruiter Position Must
• Have a bachelor’s degree or related sales or recruiting experience
• Be available to work before and after typical office hours as work may demand
• Possess strong written and oral English communication skills
• Be familiar with Microsoft Word and MS Outlook (or similar e-mail applications)
• Have work experience in a service-oriented business
• Have a desire to learn and advance in a fast-paced sales environment, and be capable of regularly using good judgment and discretion to accomplish goals and work requirements
• Be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer
Requirements:
1. Bachelor’s degree
2. Able to work flexible, long hours
3. Strong written and verbal communication skills
4. Computer literate
5. Desire to learn in a fast-paced sales environment
6. Good judgment
7. Discretion
8. Currently authorized to work in the United States
Review the Job Description Sample
Consider the preceding sample. Study each component of the job description and how it relates to your skills so you can apply for and gain an interview for the position:
• Eight items are listed in the requirements section. Do your skills match all of these requirements, or the vast majority of them? It would be wise to compare this list to your list of strengths.
• An additional three requirements are not stated as obviously: (1) individuals must be motivated, (2) they must have the ability to master the work, and (3) they must have a desire to be a part of the sales team in order to be promoted. These requirements are found in the first section of the job description.
• Don’t count out the opportunity if you don’t fit every requirement. Do your best to think of something that is somewhat related. For example, if you have never worked in a fast-paced sales environment, focus on your desire to learn. Focus on the fact that you’ve observed fast-paced sales environments, and those situations appeal to you. At the very least, you could think of the fact that although you don’t have direct experience in that particular environment, you have always been very proactive in completing tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• If you are a strong match for the majority of the requirements, ensure you have specific, results-oriented examples to demonstrate these skills.
• You will not have a clear indication as to which skills are more important than others, so use your best judgment call. Treat each skill as if it’s the most important. For example, consider communication skills—have a specific, results-oriented example of your verbal skills and your written skills. At some point, however, you will want to select the three skills you think are most important, match them to your strongest skills, and then write your cover letter.
Consider Future Responsibilities of the Job
Note that it’s not necessary for you to know how to develop recruiting strategies. You can learn that on the job. However, a proactive candidate may research recruiting strategies and the identification of talented individuals.
Compare the Two Lists and Find the Alignment between Your Strengths and Weaknesses
You now have taken the following two steps:
1. Deciphered the job description into each individual skill and requirement needed
2. Listed your top ten strengths, with examples for each
Your next step is to check if the two lists are aligned:
• If there is alignment, you have a potential good match and you should apply for the job.
• If there isn’t alignment, it’s a clear indication that the job is not the right fit for you and it’s best to continue your search.
Highlight Your Top Three Strengths
The last step in this section is to select the top three skills needed in the job description, and decide which skills fall within your strengths and which you will highlight in the cover letter. These three skills, if positioned properly, will make the case for why you should be hired.
The Cover Letter Template
The cover letter template includes three main sections:
1. The introductory paragraph
2. The last paragraph, which reiterates your interest
3. The magic middle
The Introductory Paragraph
In the introductory paragraph, you introduce yourself to the hiring manager or recruiter. The paragraph should include five general items:
1. Why you are contacting them
2. How you heard about the position (If someone referred you, mention the name of your contact.)
3. Whether you are still in school and, if so, your major and minor
4. How your work experience pertains to your desired or targeted job
5. Why you are interested in the position
The Last Paragraph
In the last paragraph, you summarize and close, taking the following five steps:
1. Reiterate your interest.
2. State you would be a perfect match because your strengths match the key skills necessary to succeed at the job.
3. Inform them that you will contact them in a week.
4. Ask that they contact you should they have any questions or an interest in moving forward.
5. Thank them for their time and consideration.
The Magic Middle
The middle of the cover letter is magical because it makes the case for why you’d be an exceptional hire. Select three strengths necessary to excel and assign each strength to a bulleted section or brief paragraph. Boldly indicate your strengths and include your best examples of how you excel at each strength. See the following sample cover letter as an example of how to highlight your strengths.
Sample Cover Letters
Figure 5.2 and Figure 5.3 are sample cover letters. There are more sample cover letters at the end of this chapter, and some of them correspond to the sample résumés at the end of the previous chapter.
Creating a Portfolio: Show and Tell
If you have examples of your expertise in a particular discipline, consider creating a portfolio of that information to share with potential employers. For example, perhaps you are a communications major and have written several documents that showcase your talent in this area. Include five or six samples of your communications to help build the case for why you should be hired. Perhaps you are a graphic design candidate, and you created several visuals that were used by neighborhood businesses, or for a class project. Include those visuals in a portfolio to help prove your talent to a future employer.
How would you share this information with future employers? You can either attach your samples, along with your résumé and cover letter, in your e-mail to a future employer, or bring them with you when you have secured an interview. Either method is an acceptable way to impress a future employer. A portfolio that you can carry to an interview could simply be a neat and professional-looking folder that contains hard copies of your work. Or you can include a virtual portfolio of online work with a link an employer can use to view your samples. You can include this information in a cover letter and you can also include it in a résumé. Either way, having samples and presenting them can prove to future employers that you have the talent to succeed.
Format
Formatting is important and must be neat and professional. It’s recommended that you flush all text to the left, as various software programs can wreak havoc with indentations and tabs.
Greeting
Put extra effort into identifying the name of the hiring manager, so that your letter can be appropriately addressed to the specific person who will be reviewing résumés. Employers do not make this an easy step for you, and you have to do your research. Helpful exercises include researching the company website, reading news releases, and even calling the company to ask. Laziness will hurt your job search effort if this special effort is not made. If, after doing all the preceding, you still do not know the name of the person to whom you are sending your information, by all means, address it using Dear Hiring Manager or Dear Recruiter.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• A cover letter should not repeat a résumé.
• You need to specifically align your strengths with the job qualifications to create a compelling cover letter.
• A cover letter includes three things: the introductory paragraph, the closing paragraph, and the magic middle, where you highlight how your strengths align with the job.
• Simple is best when considering a cover letter format.
Exercises
1. What are your top ten strengths, and what examples will you use to prove those strengths?
2. Identify three to five weaknesses (or areas you’d like to strengthen). Create a plan to strengthen each of your weaknesses.
3. Find a job description that interests you and decipher it into each individual skill.
4. Find at least two to three job descriptions where you are a strong match.
5. What resources can you use, in addition to this textbook, to write your cover letter?
6. Draft your cover letter and pair up with a peer in your class and critique each other’s letters. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/05%3A_Step_2_(Cont'l)_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/5.01%3A_The_Cover_Letter.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn why an online profile can help your job search.
2. Be knowledgeable about all aspects of having an online presence.
Your online profile is the third component of a compelling marketing campaign. An online profile serves two functions:
1. It’s a marketing tool for the passive job search because the majority of recruiters use online profiles to find qualified candidates.
2. It’s a great networking tool because you can connect with friends, family, former coworkers, and current schoolmates and stay in touch with them easily regardless of where you or they live or work.
Digital Dirt
Various social networking sites allow you to post anything you would like in cyberspace. Twitter, Facebook, and Second Life are a few examples. Four hundred million individuals have a Facebook presence, which enables them to connect and reconnect with current and past friends. Facebook allows you to post pictures of yourself, your friends, your animals, your vacation, and anything else you would like to include. You can post your birthday, your relationship status, your taste in music, and your interests and hobbies. Most employers look to LinkedIn for professional information because LinkedIn is often described as the professional version of Facebook, but employers still will look at your Facebook profile. When three candidates seem equally suited for a position, researching the candidates on Facebook may provide information that becomes the deciding factor. A word to the wise: Ensure that information on your Facebook page can only help your job search. Foul language and inappropriate pictures of social parties and activities will hurt your ability to land the job you are seeking. Do not rely on privacy settings that you think filter individuals from viewing your information because those settings have often failed job search candidates. Facebook remains a wonderful tool for social networking, however, once something is in cyberspace, it’s virtually impossible to delete, so proceed with caution!
Overview of LinkedIn
More than 100 million people are on LinkedIn, the leading online network for professional profiles, and that number grows every day. LinkedIn is different from Facebook because it’s intended only for professional use and to focus on your career. To get started with initial online marketing efforts, LinkedIn is a great first step.
Visit LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com and follow the tutorial to learn aspects about the site and create an account. Use a thumbnail sketch of your résumé for your profile. Create a summary section, and bear in mind that this is a great place to include specific keywords on which recruiters and employers may search (e.g., specific technical skills, languages, brand-name companies, industry knowledge).
Who Can You Link To?
Think of ten to twenty people you’d like to connect to, such as peers from past jobs, friends and family, and peers at school. Go line by line through your résumé and think of all the people you know from each stage in your career. You can use the LinkedIn search function to search by school, organization name, or other keyword. As you populate your profile, LinkedIn makes recommendations for people you may know based on the names and keywords you enter. This gives you additional ideas for connections.
Send an invitation to the ten to twenty people you’d like to connect to. Write a personalized request to connect that reminds them how you know them, rather than using the generic templates that LinkedIn provides. With LinkedIn, all the people connected to a profile are visible to people who view that profile (you can shut off this feature, but it is helpful for networking, so most people do not). This means that for your connections, you can see their connections. This also means that the more people you are connected to, the more profiles you can view and the more your profile can be viewed. Increasing your connections improves your marketing reach.
On a regular basis, think of another ten to twenty individuals you can connect to and invite them. You can also upload some contact databases and e-mail accounts, such as Outlook, Yahoo!, and Gmail, into LinkedIn so that you can invite your entire existing network in one effort. Some open networkers will link to anyone who requests a link, or they will reach out to a variety of individuals they don’t know and ask to link to them. Either way is acceptable and whether you link only with people you know well or are willing to link with people you barely know or don’t know depends on your comfort level.
Having your résumé details in your LinkedIn profile and connecting to people is the bare minimum for an online profile. To have a profile that is a comprehensive marketing platform, you should consider the next sections, which detail additional options.
Include a Professional Picture or Head Shot
Professional photos are helpful as you start meeting more and more people because some people may remember your face more easily than your name or background.
Add a Summary to Your Thumbnail Sketch
Your LinkedIn profile is basically a thumbnail sketch of your résumé. It’s important for you to include a short, succinct summary of your background and where you are now in your career. You should also include each school you’ve attended, along with the years. Include each work experience you’ve been a part of, again, along with the years, in a professional and formal format. This will allow individuals to identify how they have known you in the past.
Include Recommendations
Include recommendations from two or three individuals who know your work. You must be connected to people to request they provide a recommendation. Recommendations help your marketing because they add a dimension to your profile that is not included in your résumé.
Join Groups
Join groups with which you share a common interest. Groups are formed from common associations, such as college alumni groups (be sure to join your school’s alumni group, even if you’ve yet to graduate), industry groups, and mutual goal groups, such as people interested in finding employment. Groups enable you to connect to more people, translating into even more people who will see your profile. You can join approximately fifty groups, and you can also elect to have your group memberships displayed or not displayed on your profile. Tailor your groups to reflect specific professional interests as another way to market yourself as being involved with that area.
Use Applications
Use LinkedIn applications such as reading lists and presentation or blog sharing. With a paper résumé, it is unwieldy to include a lot of attachments, such as a portfolio of your work. An online profile allows you to link to an online collection of your work and create a comprehensive view of everything you offer. You can share a list of what you are reading with the Amazon reading list application. Listing books related to your career targets shows that you are staying current about your target industries and functions and are committed to training and development. You can use the SlideShare application to post PowerPoint presentations you have created. Perhaps as part of a class assignment, you have done a group project that is relevant to prospective employers. If you have a blog and your blog showcases examples of your work, your LinkedIn profile can be set to update with samples of your work whenever you post to your blog. While this level of detail seems onerous for a paper résumé, when online it is easy to page through and access as much data as you’d like, so you can offer the reader (in this case, recruiters and employers) much more information.
Maintain Your Profile
Remember that it is important to maintain your online profile. Continually update your LinkedIn profile because as your career grows and changes, so should your LinkedIn profile. Link to new people you meet. Update your summary and experience. LinkedIn also has a status section for more frequent updates that are broadcast to your connections. In this way, you can market your activity on an ongoing basis.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Social networking sites have both benefits and disadvantages. Make sure anything you put in cyberspace only supports your job search efforts.
• Take special care to ensure your Facebook presence gives a positive impression to anyone who may view it.
• LinkedIn is an online network with over 100 million users worldwide and provides specific connections for career-related and professional networking.
• Recruiters and employers use LinkedIn to search for candidates, making it a key marketing tool for a passive job search.
• At a minimum, you should have your résumé details online and start connecting with people.
• For a comprehensive campaign, you should also include a professional photo, recommendations, group memberships and the resulting connections and applications, such as reading lists, presentations, or blogs, that demonstrate your expertise.
Exercises
1. Look up five or six individuals on http://www.linkedin.com who are employed in the industry you are most interested in joining. What have you learned from their profiles?
2. Create an account on LinkedIn (if you don’t already have one).
3. Connect with ten to twenty individuals.
4. Think of one or more additional features on LinkedIn you will add to your marketing campaign. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/05%3A_Step_2_(Cont'l)_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/5.02%3A_The_Online_Profile.txt |
Learning Objectives
1. Learn the key components of an effective pitch.
2. Follow a template to craft your individual pitch.
A networking pitch was originally termed an elevator pitch because in the time an elevator takes to go between floors (generally thirty to forty seconds), you should be able to articulate your value proposition (the skills you have and the position you are seeking). The elevator pitch is now also called the professional pitch, the networking pitch, or simply the pitch.
This thirty- to forty-second summary should be spoken, or delivered, in a confident and convincing manner, making a strong impression. If your pitch is too long and drawn out, it lacks conviction. When meeting networking contacts, recruiters, and hiring managers, this is your one chance to make a great impression and present yourself with clarity. No one wants to listen to a long, drawn-out speech. Make your pitch clear and concise, enabling the person who is listening to know exactly what type of job search candidate you are.
How do you craft an effective pitch? Three steps will ensure your success:
1. Write your pitch.
2. Edit your pitch until it sounds just right.
3. Practice delivering your pitch verbally, and further edit it as needed because we do not write the same way that we speak. Continue rehearsing and repeating your pitch to ensure that your delivery is natural, convincing, and authentic.
Any information you can share that distinguishes you from others is very helpful. Perhaps you have something unique in your background:
• You speak two or three languages.
• You lived abroad for a particular length of time.
• You achieved something significant athletically or musically.
• You volunteered in a meaningful way and perhaps raised extraordinary funds for various charities.
Distinguish yourself from others in whatever way you can to ensure you are remembered in a positive light.
You will deliver your pitch at different times and occasions, including the following:
• Career fairs present an opportunity to meet representatives from various firms. These individuals will meet many students or candidates, so it is important that you make sure your pitch is short and crisp. Also be certain to do your research on their company, as many candidates do not.
• Networking events enable you to first meet someone in a more relaxed setting.
• Interviews often begin with the interviewer asking for a summary of your background or asking that you take one or two minutes to let them know about you. Include high-level themes in your past (e.g., you’ve always been involved in health care at some point in your schooling and in your career). If themes are not apparent, talk about your achievements and the quality of your efforts.
Step 1: Write Your Pitch
Your pitch should answer the following five questions:
1. What is your educational background? Detail every college or university you attended, your major and minor, and your expected degree and graduation month and year (include your GPA if it is 3.3 or higher).
2. Do you have any pertinent experience in the field in which you are interested?
3. What are your critical skills and strengths? Highlight your top two or three skills.
4. What do you want to do? Be specific regarding industry, function, and geography (see Chapter 3).
5. Why would you be good at the position? Focus on presenting your top two or three skills, and the skills you have that are necessary to succeed at the job you are targeting.
Type the answers to the preceding five questions, filling one complete page (8½ × 11).
Step 2: Edit Your Pitch
Once your pitch is written, review and edit it accordingly. You should use words that come naturally to you because the more natural the delivery, the more impressive the pitch. Here are some steps you can consider while editing your pitch:
• After you edit the one-page answers to the pitch questions, ensuring that you’ve covered all the important items, cut it to half a page; this forces you to prioritize the essential elements.
• After you edit the half-page document, ensuring that you’ve covered all the important items, cut it in half again (it’s now one-quarter of the page); this forces you to be even more ruthless in prioritizing.
• After you edit the quarter-page document, ensuring you’ve covered all the important items, cut it in half again, leaving only four or five key bullets; this forces you to be concise and select just the most important items.
Step 3: Practice Delivering Your Pitch
Once you have the final pitch in writing, you’ll need to practice, then practice, then practice some more. Your pitch should be spoken in a confident and compelling manner.
• Deliver your speech out loud to ensure it flows smoothly and addresses your career highlights. Practice it until you have it memorized. Practice until you can repeat it when someone shakes you from your sleep at 3:30 in the morning and you maintain your passion when saying it.
Figure 5.4 through Figure 5.7 are four sample pitches.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• A networking pitch articulates your value proposition (i.e., the skills you have that match the position you are seeking).
• Your pitch should contain your education background, experience related to the field in which you are interested, your critical skills and expertise, what you want to do, and why you would be good at it.
• Writing your pitch and editing it will enable you to get the right content and tone.
• Practicing the delivery of your pitch will ensure your delivery is natural and confident.
Exercises
1. Type your pitch on a one-page document, and trim it until it’s just four or five bullets in length.
2. Pair up with a pitch buddy to practice with each other and critique and strengthen your pitch. Does your buddy understand your value and what you want to do? Does your buddy’s pitch give you any ideas on how to improve yours?
3. Practice your pitch until you can say it naturally, without any hesitation. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/05%3A_Step_2_(Cont'l)_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/5.03%3A_Your_Networking_Pitch.txt |
Creating a compelling marketing campaign is a vital step in your job search because it markets your skills and abilities to future employers, in most cases, before you meet them. The four components of this step are the following:
1. Creating a résumé
2. Writing a cover letter
3. Creating an online profile
4. Composing a pitch
Your marketing campaign will be more effective when you are more specific, targeted, and thoughtful of how to construct your marketing campaign elements:
• Your résumé will prove your success with your past employers, which then proves your worth to your future employers.
• Your cover letter makes the case for why you should be hired because it highlights the two or three critical skills necessary to succeed in the job you are seeking.
• Your online profile works behind the scenes to ensure you are seen by recruiters who seek talent. In addition, your profile provides a great way to stay connected with your network.
• Your pitch allows you to introduce yourself in a clear and concise way, highlighting the strengths you have that will enable you to succeed.
Remember that the better you market yourself, the more successful your job search will be. Apple’s marketing campaign leaves no doubt about the quality of what they offer. You should do the exact same!
The next step, step 3, is research, which will help you gather vast amounts of information about your industry, your function, your geography, and the companies you are targeting.
Chapter Takeaways
• Creating a compelling marketing campaign is vital to your job search and is composed of four things: a résumé, a cover letter, an online profile, and a pitch.
• Your marketing campaign must have high-quality standards because it represents you when you are not there.
• Even though some recruiters do not read cover letters, it is always worthwhile to write a compelling cover letter, just in case the recruiter who reviews your information values them.
• You should do five things before writing a cover letter: (1) assess your strengths, (2) assess your weaknesses, (3) decipher the job description, (4) compare your strengths, weaknesses, and the job description for alignment, and (5) select the top three skills you will include in your cover letter.
• The cover letter template includes three sections: (1) the introductory paragraph, (2) the last paragraph, which reiterates your interest, and (3) the magic middle (which highlights your top three skills).
• Your online profile serves two functions: (1) it’s a passive job search strategy because recruiters search online profiles, and (2) it’s a great networking tool because you can connect with friends, family, former coworkers, and current schoolmates and stay in touch with them easily regardless of where you or they live or work.
• A pitch should be short (less than one minute), concise, and include the following: (1) your educational background, (2) any pertinent experience in the field in which you are interested, (3) your critical skills and strengths, (4) what you want to do, and (5) why you would be good at it.
Chapter Review
1. Why is quality so important when crafting a marketing campaign?
2. Why is it important to assess your strengths and weaknesses when preparing to write a cover letter?
3. Why do you need a cover letter when some recruiters don’t read them?
4. How do you decipher a job description? How do you identify most important criteria needed for this position?
5. What are the three main parts of a cover letter?
6. What are the two main benefits to having an online profile?
7. What is the minimum to get started with an online profile? What are some useful additional features?
8. Why is a pitch important to your job search?
9. What components are included in your pitch?
10. Why should your pitch be short?
11. Why do you have to practice your pitch?
SuccessHawk: Cover Letters
To get started on preparing cover letters, thank-you notes, and references, go to the menu bar on the right and click on Letter Templates.
SuccessHawk: Networking Pitch
For assistance in writing your personal statement, go to the menu bar on the right, and click on Personal Statements. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/05%3A_Step_2_(Cont'l)_-_Create_a_Compelling_Marketing_Campaign/5.04%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercises.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the different types of information you need to know for your job search.
2. Understand what you are looking for and how this information can be applied to your search.
Information about the Job Helps You Understand What You Will Do Now and in the Future
Job
• Responsibilities
• Day-to-day activity
• Reporting structure
• Growth prospects
• Compensation and lifestyle backgrounds required
Information about the job tells you what you will do in the immediate term. Ideally, you have a clear understanding of what you are responsible for—in what areas you can make decisions and which people, resources, or budget you need to manage. You want to have a picture of what a typical day, week, and month look like, in terms of your activities and how you spend your time.
Having a clear sense of your responsibilities and day-to-day activities enables you to see if this aligns with what you want to be doing. This helps to confirm that your targets from step 1 are correct. Information about the job also helps refine your marketing from step 2. Your cover letter can highlight how your past experience matches what this job requires, now that you know more about it.
The reporting structure of the job is also important because your boss, or the person to whom you will be reporting, greatly impacts your immediate job satisfaction and your future career prospects. It is very different to report to a seasoned manager than to an inexperienced one. Great managers have to start somewhere, so an inexperienced manager isn’t always a bad thing, but all things being equal, having an experienced manager implies better development for you.
You also want to look at the reporting structure overall—that is, where your job fits within the rest of the organization. In a small organization, there are fewer levels, and you may be reporting into senior management or even the head of the organization. This means you are close to the decision making and you have a higher likelihood of participating in or having a deeper understanding of the strategy of the organization, given your proximity to the highest levels. In a big organization, there may be several layers before you get to the top, so you may only see a small portion of what is happening in the organization overall. Understanding the reporting structure helps you confirm that this job matches your decision criteria established in step 1.
Growth prospects, compensation, lifestyle, and the backgrounds required of people in the job can vary from job to job and among the same job across different organizations. Growth prospects, compensation, lifestyle, and the backgrounds required of people in the job impact your immediate work and your future prospects:
• Is the demand for this job growing or shrinking?
• If you are targeting a specific industry, is this job critical to this industry? For example, if you want to work in accounting for media organizations, all media organizations need accountants. But accounting is not critical to operating a media organization, so it can be done in-house or outsourced to external firms.
• What does this job typically pay? What are the components of the compensation?
• Is compensation growing or shrinking? How else is it changing?
• What is the lifestyle of people who do these jobs—long hours, volatile hours, lots of travel?
• What are the education backgrounds of people who hold these jobs? Do they all have similar degrees or certifications?
• What are the past experiences of people who hold these jobs? Do they all have internships in this field? Do they all have a certain number of years of experience, management or leadership experience, or other specific experience?
Understanding the preceding will help you confirm that you are targeting the right job. It will also help you position your marketing so that you talk about your background and interests in a way that aligns with the job.
Information about the Organization Helps You Understand if You Want a Job There and if You Can Contribute to That Company
Organization
• Financials
• Staff
• Locations and structure
• Culture
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Growth prospects
• Upcoming challenges
Even if you have confirmed you want a specific job, you have choices on where to do that job. You want to know the organization you select is right for you now and has staying power in case you want to establish your future career there.
• Is the organization healthy financially? Financials of an organization include revenues, operating costs, profitability, and reserves.
• How many people work there? Is this a small or big organization compared to its peers?
• How many offices does it have? Does it have a well-defined headquarters? Is it a small part of a much larger organization? Does it have international offices?
• What are the people like? Is it a team-oriented culture, or do people work very independently? Is it a competitive or nurturing culture? Are people very ambitious and driven or laid back?
• What is management like? Do bosses micromanage or allow a lot of autonomy? Is it a flexible or structured workplace?
• What are the values of the organization?
• Is the organization highly regarded? Is it known for innovation, progressive work policies, cutting-edge research, best in class?
• What are the organization’s strengths compared to its peers? Weaknesses?
• Is the organization growing or shrinking? How does this compare with its peers?
• What challenges is the organization facing either internally or within its industry?
Once you can answer the preceding questions, you can compare your findings to your decision criteria in step 1 to confirm that this is a target organization:
• Is this organization of the size that you want?
• Does it have offices in the geography you want? Is there an opportunity to work internationally if that is a priority for you?
• Do the culture, management, and mission fit your values?
• Is the brand name and history of the organization what you want?
• Are the challenges and opportunities facing the organization aligned with what you want to work on?
You can refine your marketing in step 2 to match what this organization requires:
• Highlight experience in similarly sized or structured organizations, or identify other experiences or skills that translate.
• Give examples of working with similar people, management, and environments.
• Show the specific skills and achievements that will enable you to contribute to the challenges and opportunities facing the organization.
The more you know about the organization, the more specifically you can show you belong there.
Information about the Industry Helps You Understand the Job and the Organization
Industry
• Top organizations
• Market characteristics
• Growth prospects
• Upcoming challenges
• Trends
An accountant for a media company has a different job than an accountant for a nonprofit or a school or a toy store. Some things will be the same (e.g., working with numbers, the overall accounting standards and regulations), but there will be nuances (e.g., types of transactions, types of reports to file). The industry impacts the job responsibilities, day-to-day activity, growth prospects, compensation and lifestyle, and the backgrounds of the people in those jobs.
The industry also impacts the organizations within it. Disney ABC is a stand-alone organization within media, and it has its own financials, staff, structure, culture, strengths, and challenges. However, the media business as a whole has a financial picture, a type of person it attracts, a culture, strengths, and challenges. What is happening with media overall impacts each individual organization, and therefore, to understand Disney ABC or any stand-alone media organization, you need a grasp of what is happening in the media industry:
• Who are the top players?
• Are there few, but very large top players? Are there many smaller players?
• Is the industry new or very established?
• Is the industry growing or shrinking?
• Is the industry experiencing many changes? Are new competitors or new technologies changing the way business is done? Are there more or fewer customers? What is happening to prices?
Understanding the industry will give you more organizations to target. It will enable you to better understand the individual organizations and the job. At a minimum, industry knowledge will help you confirm that the industry is healthy and solid for long-term career prospects. Furthermore, industry knowledge will help position you as someone who thinks more broadly than just his or her specific role and therefore can make higher-level contributions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Job seekers need to research information about specific jobs, specific organizations, and the overall industry.
• The information you gather enables you to confirm your targets from step 1 and tailor your marketing from step 2 to match the jobs, organizations, and industries you want.
Exercises
1. Review the questions that apply to each job, organization, or industry in your areas of interest. How much do you already know about your areas of interest?
2. Have you discovered areas of interest you were unaware of or did not consider, yet now want to research in depth? Where might you need to focus your research—understanding the job more, finding more organizations or deeper knowledge about individual organizations, or learning about the industry as a whole?
3. How will you incorporate research into your job search going forward? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/06%3A_Step_3_-_Conduct_In-Depth_Research/6.01%3A_What_Do_You_Research%3F.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand research resources for information about jobs, organizations, and industries.
2. Get specific research ideas for background, as well as ongoing, research.
Job-Specific Research Resources
The ideal is to know a job for its day-to-day activities and over time, so you have both an immediate and longer-term perspective. It is helpful to talk to someone experienced in the job, as he or she will have a broad perspective. We will cover researching information by speaking directly to people in the informational interview section later in this chapter. However, remember that every live interaction, even if the intent is information gathering, is a possible job interview. So you want to do some research before speaking to anyone to present yourself in the best light. Here are several resources to familiarize yourself with a job:
• Job boards such as Vault.com and Monster.com
• Trade or professional associations
• Biographies and business and news profile stories
• Social media and niche online sites
• University career services offices
Job boards publish job descriptions that are great sources for the responsibilities, activities, and requirements of jobs. You also may be able to get some compensation information there. Job boards often also publish career information. Some resources are free but others are paid, and most boards offer both. For example, Vault.com offers “Day in the Life” write-ups of different types of jobs. People in the actual jobs write these, and they write them in diary style from the time they start their day until the time they go home. Monster.com offers Career Snapshots where they list different types of jobs with the job’s definition and statistics on historical and future growth. The Occupational Outlook Handbook (www.bls.gov/oco) is published every two years by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and details more than 250 jobs, including descriptions of the job and the hiring outlook.
Trade or professional associations represent people in a specific job. Depending on the job, there can be many different associations. Accountants can join the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, and other accounting associations. You want to find one relevant to your target job. Associations will likely have member publications and statistics that can give insight into growth prospects, compensation statistics, and other trends in that job. Trade and professional news groups often cover who is coming and going and who has been promoted within their member companies. Often these news releases summarize people’s backgrounds en route to that job. To find trade or professional associations for your targets, look at the Encyclopedia of Associations, a reference set available at the library. You can also look for professional associations online at www.weddles.com/associations/index.cfm.
Biographies and business and news profile stories can give insight into day-to-day activities and the arc of a career. Stand-alone biographies are typically written for the most senior positions, but still might mention different functional areas. For example, One Day, All Children is the story of Wendy Kopp and the founding of Teach For America. In the strictest sense, it provides insight into starting a nonprofit. The book also mentions the different areas of the organization, which is helpful to anyone interested in nonprofit and education. There are also anthologies of biographies that might profile various business owners, marketers, or financiers. These show a range of careers. Finally, magazines and newspapers often profile people’s careers and backgrounds. Look at Fortune, BusinessWeek, Inc., and Fast Company for career profiles. Sometimes publications profile top lists, such as Crain’s 30 Under 30, where you can see a summary of profiles.
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) is a social media site aimed at professionals who want to share information about their work and education backgrounds. You can search using specific keywords, such as accountant or grant writer, to find profiles of people who have jobs you want. You can then look at their profiles to see their education, early jobs, how they describe their jobs, and other skills and information. LinkedIn also has groups, some of which are organized around specific types of jobs. You can read discussions and view profiles to get a better sense for that profession. In addition to LinkedIn, there are niche career sites, such as eFinancial Careers for finance or MediaBistro for media that post articles about job trends.
Finally, some university career services offices have a physical and online library of resources. These offices are open to students and often to alumni.
Organization-Specific Research Resources
The same resources you use for information about jobs are also useful for information about organizations. Job boards often have information about the organizations in their job postings and also in the career information sections. Another benefit of browsing job postings is that you may get ideas for organizations that are not household names. In addition to Vault.com and Monster.com, which have mainly private sector jobs, you want to look at USAJOBS (http://www.usajobs.gov/), the federal government’s official job site for information on public sector jobs. Idealist (http://idealist.org) is a good resource for nonprofit jobs.
Trade or professional associations usually have member directories, which are not just useful for finding people (at the networking stage in step 4) but also good for finding companies. A local chamber of commerce can help identify companies in a specific geography.
Business and news publications do profiles of organizations as well as people. These publications often produce top lists that also are useful organizational resources. Fortune magazine lists the largest companies in its Fortune 500 issue. It then segments the companies by geography and industry and profiles select companies. Fortune also tracks Most Admired Brands, Top Companies to Work For, and other categories. Fast Company lists the most innovative companies. Inc. lists the fastest-growing private companies. These lists are a great way to familiarize yourself with individual organization names and their relationship within their peer groups.
Organizations create groups or pages on social media sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow these groups or pages to get breaking news about your organizations of interest. By looking at profiles attached to these organizations, you can get a feel for the culture and environment.
For financial information on organizations, you have several options:
• Private companies are not obligated to disclose their financial information. Dun & Bradstreet’s Million Dollar Directory has information on larger private companies. You might also look at industry reports for mentions of specific private companies.
• Public companies are required to file financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). You can request these statements with the investor relations department of the company, or some may have their statements available online. Some companies collect this data for many organizations and make it available in a one-stop shop, such as http://www.annualreports.com or http://www.annualreportservice.com. In addition to just financial data, the 10-K financial statement is useful because a company is required to explain its business and to disclose challenges and trends in its business that may materially impact the numbers and data they are reporting. This section, often called risk factors, is a great summary of the critical issues for that company.
• Nonprofit companies have to file Form 990 with the IRS that lists operating costs, reserves, and salaries for top staff. Organizations that review charities, such as Guidestar (http://www2.guidestar.org), often have the 990 forms available.
Industry-Specific Research Resources
Again, some of the resources helpful to job and organization information also are helpful for industry information: job boards, trade and professional associations, business and news publications, and social media and online communities. In addition, you want to look at industry-specific associations and online communities.
Tracking Ongoing News
Even after you do overall research on a specific job, organization, or industry, you need to be able to track any current events or developments. You can consciously remember to search the Internet for news and media mentions of jobs, organizations, and industries of interest, or you can set up an automatic search via Google Alerts. With Google Alerts, you can select specific keywords, phrases, or names for Google to search on and send back to you (daily or weekly) with Internet mentions containing those keywords, phrases, or names. You want to use this sparingly and with very specific search terms because you may receive too many results. At the same time, this is a very useful tool to ensure that you capture the latest developments for jobs, organizations, or industries you are closely following.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Job-specific research resources include job boards, trade and professional associations, biographies and business and news publications, and social media and online communities.
• For organization research, you also want to look at financial statements available via investor relations of a specific company, the SEC, the IRS, or aggregators such as Dun & Bradstreet, annual report providers, or Guidestar.
• For industry research, in addition to the resources listed for job and organization information, you want to look at industry associations.
• For ongoing news, set a Google Alert for keywords and specific organization names.
EXERCISES
1. Do you have fast and reliable Internet access, and are you comfortable with Internet searches and social media?
2. Do you have access to a good business or reference library?
3. Do you know how to access your current learning institution’s or your alma mater’s career services office?
4. Pick a specific job, organization, or industry target that interests you. Imagine that you have an interview relating to your target in the next three days. Come up with a research report that would enable you to speak intelligently about your target.
5. Where do you need support in your research efforts? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/06%3A_Step_3_-_Conduct_In-Depth_Research/6.02%3A_How_Do_You_Find_the_Critical_Information%3F.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Review how research can be used to support all stages of your job search.
2. Understand how research can be used to access the hidden job market.
Research Is Useful at All Stages of Your Job Search
Table \(1\): How Research Can Help You at Each Step of the Job Search
Six Steps to Job Search Success Research can help you…
Step 1: Identify your targets. Confirm that your targets fit your decision criteria.
Step 2: Create a compelling marketing campaign. Tailor your marketing to fit your desired target’s requirements.
Step 4: Network. Establish your credibility as someone worth meeting.
Step 4: Interview. Position yourself as the best candidate for the job.
Step 5: Stay motivated, organized, and troubleshoot your search. Identify any gaps that may lead to search problems, or find additional targets as needed.
Step 6: Negotiate and close the offer. Determine customary compensation levels and structure so you know what to negotiate for.
In Section 1 of this chapter, we mentioned how the different items you research help you confirm and refine the work you did in steps 1 and 2. Research also helps to drive your job search forward into job-related networking and interviewing opportunities. The knowledge gained from the research lets people know you are committed to your search and career. When busy senior people decide who to grant networking meetings, this preparation is a key differentiator. When you get the meeting or job interview, the research enables you to give legitimate reasons for your interest in the job and to talk intelligently about how your skills and experience relate.
If your search has problems to troubleshoot in step 5, research will help you find additional characteristics to emphasize or to add more targets to your list. As you negotiate your offer in step 6, the research you did on what is customary for compensation levels and structure enables you to know what to negotiate for.
Research Lets You Access the Hidden Job Market
The hidden job market refers to jobs that are not posted publicly. This happens a lot more often than you may think. The Five O’Clock Club, a national outplacement and coaching firm, estimates that most jobs are filled outside job postings.See point 3 at www.fiveoclockclub.com/2011/02/unemployed-for-a-long-period-of-time Put yourself in the position of the hiring organization:
• They need to hire because they are busy.
• They are too busy to spend time hiring.
• They may want to post the job and do an exhaustive search.
• If someone walks through the door and fits exactly what they need, they can just take that person and solve their problem immediately without all the hassle of a job search.
• Furthermore, the person who knows about the need (the hiring manager) is not human resources (unless the need is in human resources, of course).
• There are always at least three steps before a job is posted: (1) the need is discovered, (2) HR is called in, and (3) the job is posted.
• Keep in mind that the job may not ever be posted, even if HR is called in. Maybe HR has a candidate already in mind, for example, someone who was interviewed for another position. If taking someone already known to the organization and already qualified means a faster hire, an open job may never be posted.
If you have researched your organizations and know either the hiring manager or HR, then you get a jump on everyone else who is waiting for the posting.
The Best Research Gets You to the Hiring Manager
Look back at the research suggested in Sections 1 and 2, and recall that it focuses on getting an inside understanding of jobs, organizations, and industries. You are trying to understand exactly how the job, organization, or industry works and how it is structured so that you can interact in and among people of that job, organization, or industry, ultimately landing in the exact department and in front of that hiring manager where you’d like to work.
For a specific job within a specific organization, you want an organizational chart that answers the following questions:
• What is the exact title of this job?
• What is the name of the department where this job resides?
• Who manages the people in this job?
• Who runs the department? What is the relationship among the people in the job, the direct manager, and the department head?
• Are there other departments that interact with this one?
• Are there other decision makers who will influence the hiring decision?
• How does the department report into senior management?
• Will senior management be involved in the hiring decision?
As you research the responsibilities, day-to-day activity, and reporting structure of a job and the locations and structure of an organization, you want to keep this organizational chart in mind and try to fill in as much as you can. Sometimes you will see specific names cited in a news article or as part of an online community. Mostly, however, you will have just overall department head names and the senior-most staff, and you will need to use networking to get the actual names of people beneath the senior staff. Even though you need networking to get the rest of the way, the research to date is crucial to get an overall outline and to establish your credibility as an insider who people are willing to help.
The Hidden Job Market Resides within the Individual Departments
Once you are networked into the target department, it is a question of staying in touch with the departments where the jobs you want reside. This way, when they need to hire, they think of you right away. They don’t need to worry about posting the job, as you are readily available to help them. Remember that the jobs reside in these individual departments, not in a general job board overall or even in a specific organization’s job board. You want to get as close to where the job originates as possible.
A good example of finding a job in the hidden job market by getting close to the job originator is Luisa B. Luisa had an interest in health-care finance, specifically working in the accounting area of hospitals. She joined a trade association that focused on health-care finance issues. She researched the market of hospitals in her area to determine all of the hospital names, the department names where they handled finance, and the names of the finance officers. She conducted informational interviews of these finance officers and kept in touch with news from the trade association. A few weeks after starting this process, one of her early interviewees called her back: there was a position opening up and they thought of her. She got the job.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Research is helpful in all stages of your search.
• Research can drive your search forward to networking meetings and interviews.
• Research into the hiring departments and managers can help you access jobs that aren’t posted—the hidden job market.
Exercises
1. Do you know decision makers who hire, even for jobs you don’t want? If you have a friendly relationship with people in a position to hire, ask them about the reporting structure within their own firm. Ask about decision making during the job search process. Practice with them filling out an organizational chart. Of course, this is just a sample for an organization and role you may not want, but it’s good practice.
2. For jobs you do want, do you have a basic understanding of how you might find your way to the decision makers?
3. What research resources will you use to get an organizational chart that reveals the decision makers for the jobs you want? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/06%3A_Step_3_-_Conduct_In-Depth_Research/6.03%3A_Why_Research_Is_the_Key_Differentiator_to_a_Successful_Job_Search.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the purpose, structure, and protocols of informational interviews.
2. Understand how to use informational interviews to move your job search forward.
Informational Interviews Are Two-Way Exchanges of Information
Most job seekers see informational interviews as a shortcut to research. Why not find someone who does the job, works at the organization, or works in the industry so they can give you a summary of the job, organization, or industry, instead of plowing through secondary data yourself? There are several reasons it is a bad idea to jump right to informational interviews without conducting your own research first:
• It’s harder to land good informational interviews without having done some research first. Potential interview targets are going to think it’s not worth their time if you are just there to take information from them, rather than having an interesting two-way exchange.
• Just because someone does the job or is part of an organization or industry doesn’t mean that they have an exhaustive command of the information for that job, organization, or industry. You will not get an objective, comprehensive view of your target just by talking to a few people.
• Unless your interview target is skilled at tailoring advice across a range of backgrounds, what they will share is based on their specific experience, skills, and personality. It may not be relevant to you or your situation.
• You get just the basic information because you do not know enough to ask probing questions or to confirm or refine information you gather beforehand. It is a wasted opportunity for you to get more nuanced information.
• You come across as knowing nothing about the job, organization, or industry. You wasted an opportunity to demonstrate your interest and knowledge, and therefore market yourself as a possible person to work in that job, organization, or industry.
The best informational interviews are two-way exchanges of information, more like a conversation than an interrogation. You are offering the information you have collected via your research and the interviewee is adding his or her thoughts and ideas. You come across not as the novice looking for a favor and more as a colleague brainstorming ideas. People are busy and don’t always take the time to read business news, attend trade association meetings, or do the in-depth research you will be doing. They will appreciate you bringing to them the latest news. By being well researched and prepared, you do not have to feel like you are imposing on someone when asking for an informational interview. You will be giving back as well, in terms of information on breaking news, trends, or innovations.
Sample Informational Interview Questions
You want to get to know your interviewee by asking questions such as the following:
• How did you get involved in this job, organization, or industry?
• What do you like most about it? What has been most rewarding?
• What is most challenging? Was there anything that surprised you?
• What is a typical day, week, or month?
• What skills are most critical to have, develop, and maintain to be successful?
• What personality types are most successful?
• What do you know now that you wished you knew when you started?
Interest in their specific background establishes rapport because it shows you care about them specifically. It also gives you a foundation for questions to ask later because you know more about their experience.
You want to get broader information about the industry, so you ask questions that reflect your research:
• According to my research, the top competitors are [name the competitors]. Am I missing anyone you think is significant? Is there a new player I should know about?
• According to my research, [name a trend, challenge, or innovation] is a major trend, challenge, or innovation. Is this affecting your job or organization? Is this overestimated in the media? Are there are other trends, challenges, or innovations I should be concerned about?
This is why research prior to the informational interview is so critical. You use your research findings as a springboard for conversation. You are not relying on the interviewee to think of everything and be the sole source of information. You are offering ideas, too. Informational interviews also enable you to dive deeper into what you previously researched.
Pick several research findings to test, and choose what to ask based on what level and type of experience your interviewee has. If your interviewee is very experienced and senior, you can ask broad strategy questions. If your interviewee is focused on a very specific area, say technology, focus on technology-related issues in the discussion.
You want to get career-related information, such as salary and environment, and a candid sense of your chances in this job, organization, or industry:
• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to make [name salary range] and experience [name lifestyle, travel, or work culture]. Is that accurate? Are there any nuances to this that are not publicized in general media?
• According to my research, the typical career trajectory is [name different titles you have seen for the job]. Is this accurate? Does this differ by company?
• How would you describe the culture of your organization? Does this vary greatly for companies in the industry?
• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to have [name skills and experiences]. Is my background of [summarize your skills and experience] competitive? If you knew of an opening for this type of job, would you consider me or refer me?
• What about my background is most relevant to this job? What would I need to do to improve my chances?
These questions enable you to get information on the touchy issues of compensation and lifestyle, as well as candid feedback on your hiring prospects. By offering ideas, you take the pressure off the interviewee to reveal sensitive information. Instead, you give them something to react to. People will also appreciate that you have done some salary research, as they might not have time to see what is happening in the market, and they will want to reciprocate by sharing something they know.
Asking about the competitiveness of your skills and experience is not the same as asking for a specific job. You should never ask for a job in an informational interview. It is disingenuous because you asked for a meeting to focus on gathering information, not to ask for a job.
In the previous example, you are asking for candid feedback about your job potential. You will not get candid feedback from recruiters or prospective employers during an actual job interview. Recruiters and prospective employers will be concerned about being too critical too soon, angering the candidate, and having the candidate bad-mouth the organization or even sue. Since you will not get explicit feedback during the interview process, try to get that feedback in an informational interview. Asking if your informational interviewee would consider hiring or referring you is much more direct than just asking if your background is good. The measure that matters is whether you are competitive for an open job. Asking for job potential is still, however, not as presumptuous as asking for a job outright.
For people from a specific organization, you want to fill in your organizational chart with answers to the following questions:
• What department are you in (i.e., the specific name if it’s not revealed in their introduction or on their business card)?
• Who oversees this department?
• How does it fit in with the rest of the organization?
• Is this structure typical, or are your competitors organized differently?
• I am doing research on [name another organization] and trying to find who runs the [name department you want]. Do you know anyone there whom I could ask?
If you are trying to fill out spaces in your organizational chart, you should ask these questions if your interviewee would likely know the answers. If your interviewee is very junior or works in a department with little other contact, he or she may not know, so don’t take it personally if they don’t share any information. You should also ask about other organizations because sometimes insiders do know their competitors. You also might get referrals to additional potential informational interviews.
Don’t Just Ask Questions; Test Hypotheses
Sample informational interview questions include the following:
• How did you get involved in this job, organization, or industry?
• What do you like most about it? What has been most rewarding?
• What is most challenging? Was there anything that surprised you?
• What is a typical day, week, or month?
• What skills are most critical to have, develop, and maintain to be successful?
• What personality types are most successful?
• What do you know now that you wished you knew when you started? (This is a great question to ask because it forces people to reflect on the arc of their career. It is unexpected, and people appreciate this question.)
• According to my research, the top competitors are [name the competitors]. Am I missing anyone you think is significant? Is there a new player I should know about?
• According to my research, [name a trend, challenge, or innovation] is a major trend, challenge, or innovation. Is this affecting your job or organization? Is this overestimated in the published research? Are there are other trends, challenges, or innovations I should be concerned about?
• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to make [name salary range] and experience [name lifestyle, travel, work culture]. Is that accurate? Are there any nuances to this that are not publicized in general media?
• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to have [name skills and experiences]. Is my background of [summarize your skills and experience] competitive? If you knew of an opening for this type of job, would you consider me or refer me? What about my background is most relevant to this job? What would I need to do to improve my chances?
• What department are you in (i.e., the specific name if it’s not revealed in their introduction or on their business card)?
• Who oversees this department?
• How does it fit in with the rest of the organization?
• Is this structure typical, or are your competitors organized differently?
• I am doing research on [name another organization] and trying to find who runs the [name department you want]. Do you know anyone there whom I could ask?
• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to make [name salary range] and experience [name lifestyle, travel, or work culture]. Is that accurate? Are there any nuances to this that are not publicized in general media?
• According to my research, the typical career trajectory is [name different titles you have seen for the job]. Is this accurate? Does this differ by company?
• How would you describe the culture of your organization? Does this vary greatly for companies in the industry?
• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to have [name skills and experiences]. Is my background of [summarize your skills and experience] competitive? If you knew of an opening for this type of job, would you consider me or refer me?
• What about my background is most relevant to this job? What would I need to do to improve my chances?
If you look at the structure of the preceding informational interview, many questions use the secondary research as a springboard for the question. You want to give information so it is less presumptuous to ask for information in return. You want to establish your knowledge so the interviewee sees you as an insider and is more open to sharing. You want to save the interviewee from having to do all the work of thinking of what to talk about. You want to confirm and refine your research to date. In this way, you are not just asking a series of questions, but you are testing hypotheses that you have formed from your secondary research and other informational interviews.
When you invite your interviewee to an informational interview, make sure they know that you have done some interesting research and would like to share and confirm the results with them. Many job seekers do not do this research, so you differentiate yourself immediately and assure the interviewee that it is worth their time to see you. You are more likely to land informational interviews if the interviewee knows that you have done some work in advance and have interesting insights and questions to share.
Be Polite: Common Rules of Etiquette Apply
Common rules of etiquette apply in the protocols of informational interviews. When asking for the interview, you can approach your interviewee by phone, mail, or e-mail. There is no one right answer, but each has advantages and disadvantages:
Table \(1\): Possible Ways to Ask for an Informational Interview and Advantages and Disadvantages of Each
Approach by Advantages Disadvantages
Phone
• Potential for immediate response
• For people who are difficult to reach, you cut through a lot of back and forth if you happen to reach them right away
• Disruptive to the interviewee
• You have very little time to introduce yourself and make your request
Mail
• Potential to stand out. Few people take the time to send mail anymore
• Slow to arrive
• Cannot confirm that the recipient receives or reads it
E-mail
• Fast but still gives you the opportunity to refine your draft
• Recipient can respond right away or wait until later
• Enables you to include hyperlinks for more information about you
• Cannot confirm that the recipient receives or reads it
E-mail has the most advantages and fewest disadvantages and should work for most job seekers. If you are more confident in your phone approach or mail campaign, then you may want to try that as well. You might also tailor your approach to the recipient. If you get referred to someone and they tell you to call them, then call them, even if you’d prefer to e-mail. You want to approach based on what is best for the interviewee.
The content of your approach, whether by phone, mail, or e-mail, should include who you are and why you are making contact. If someone refers you, mention that right away. Regarding who you are, make your introduction compelling but brief. Do not attach your résumé; this is not a job interview, so that is presumptuous. An elegant way to share your résumé is to put your online profile hyperlink in your e-mail signature. This way, the interviewee can easily get more information about you without having to search, but it is shared in one line rather than a paragraph or more of detail. This is a key advantage of an e-mail approach.
Common etiquette applies during and after the informational interview as well. Be on time, and do not take too much time. Ask for fifteen minutes, be mindful of the time, and offer to end the interview right at fifteen minutes. Only stay longer if invited. Send a thank-you note—e-mail is fastest, handwritten by mail is a classy addition, but definitely send at least an e-mail so you know it arrives promptly.
Use Informational Interviews to Get More Networking Meetings and Interviews
Informational interviews lead to additional meetings. If you have a good interview, don’t forget to ask the interviewee for referrals to other interviews: Based on my research, I am planning to talk to [name specific people or at least companies]. Is there anyone else who should be on my research list? Can I use your name when I contact them?
Ask for names directly. Your well-researched interview should have assured the interviewee that you will not waste other people’s time, so they will be more confident about sharing names. Always try to get the contact information so you make the contact directly, rather than asking the interviewee to do an introduction. Otherwise, the interviewee, while well intended, may forget or just get too busy. Also confirm if you can use their name when you approach the new contact, as they will be more receptive to someone who has been referred.
If the interviewee insists on contacting people first before referring them, try to get specific agreement on when you can follow up. A good approach is to say, “Thank you for offering to speak to [person the interviewee referred] on behalf of my research. Can I check in with you [pick a specific date within a week or ten days] to follow up?” This confirms your understanding of what they promised to do, gives them a deadline, and gives you a reason to check back in with them in seven to ten days.
Remember to use information you gain from earlier informational interviews in future interviews. It is not just the secondary research you should allude to. In fact, it can help you land additional interviews if you mention to future interviewees that you have already spoken with their competitors and are happy to share what you have learned. You will not share anything sensitive or confidential or reveal specific names of your sources. But you can talk about what you have learned in general and the types of people you have interviewed—for example, “I have been speaking with people in accounting at leading manufacturers, and they are concerned about the recent changes to accounting regulations.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Informational interviews confirm and refine existing research. They are not a shortcut or replacement for your own research.
• The best informational interviews are two-way exchanges of information where you share what you have learned but also get to know the interviewee, their background, and their ideas.
• Try to get candid feedback on your competitiveness as a candidate. It is easier to get this candid feedback during informational interviews than during real job interviews.
• Use your research as a springboard for the interview questions to assure the interviewee that you are an insider and to give them ideas of what to talk about.
• Be polite before, during, and after the interview. E-mail is ideal for requesting an interview and for the thank-you.
• Use your informational interviews to get referrals for additional meetings.
Exercises
1. Do you have some ideas for people you can interview now? Try to practice with family and friends before your first informational interview.
2. What are some questions you will use, based on your research to date?
3. If you are uncomfortable with informational interviews, what support and resources will you use to master this effective and important job search tool? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/06%3A_Step_3_-_Conduct_In-Depth_Research/6.04%3A_Information_Interview.txt |
Conducting in-depth research is critical to all stages of your job search. The information you learn about your desired jobs, organizations, and industries helps to confirm the targets you selected from step 1. The research helps you better position your marketing from step 2. It enables you to land and conduct strong informational interviews, which is an important part of networking and interviewing in step 4. Research gives you data to troubleshoot your search as needed in step 5. It also gives you data to negotiate in step 6. Research is overlooked by many job seekers, so it is a powerful way to differentiate yourself as a candidate with genuine interest, commitment, and knowledge.
Chapter Takeaways
• Job seekers need to research information about specific jobs, specific organizations, and the overall industry.
• The information you gather enables you to confirm your targets from step 1 and tailor your marketing from step 2 to match the jobs, organizations, and industries you want.
• Job-specific research resources include job boards, trade and professional associations, biographies and business and news publications, and social media and online communities.
• For organization research, you also want to look at financial statements available via investor relations of a specific company, the SEC, the IRS, or aggregators such as Dun & Bradstreet, Hoovers, or Guidestar.
• For industry research, in addition to the resources listed for job and organization information, you want to look at industry associations.
• For ongoing news, set a Google Alert for keywords and specific organization names.
• Research is helpful in all stages of your search.
• Research can drive your search forward to networking meetings and interviews.
• Research into the hiring departments and managers can help you access jobs that aren’t posted—the hidden job market.
• Informational interviews confirm and refine existing research. They are not a shortcut or replacement for your own research.
• The best informational interviews are two-way exchanges of information where you share what you have learned, but also get to know the interviewee, their background, and their ideas.
• Try to get candid feedback on your competitiveness as a candidate. It is easier to get this candid feedback during informational interviews than during real job interviews.
• Use your research as a springboard for the interview questions to assure the interviewee that you are an insider and to give them ideas of what to talk about.
• Be polite before, during, and after the interview. E-mail is ideal for requesting an interview and for the thank-you.
• Use your informational interviews to get referrals for additional meetings.
Chapter Review
1. Why is research important to the job search?
2. In what three areas do you want to focus your research?
3. What resources will you use to find information about jobs, organizations, and industries?
4. What is the hidden job market?
5. How can research help you access the hidden job market?
6. Why are informational interviews an important component of research and networking?
7. How do you structure informational interview questions for maximum effectiveness?
8. What are some sample informational interview questions?
9. How do you use informational interviews to get additional meetings?
SuccessHawk: Research Jobs
Learn about jobs that interest you with O*Net, the US Department of Labor’s authoritative source of information about occupations in the United States, including employment data and salaries in your region. To access O*Net, click on “Career Exploration” in the right-hand menu bar under “Advice and Research” and scroll down the page to “Research Jobs.”
SuccessHawk: Research Industries
Use the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Career Guide to Industries to explore industries that account for three out of four wage and salary jobs in the United States. This guide contains detailed information on forty-five diverse industries, including information about occupations in each industry, training and advancement, earnings, working conditions, and potential job prospects. To access the Career Guide to Industries, click on “Career Exploration” in the right-hand menu bar under “Advice and Research” and scroll down the page to “Research Industries.” | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/06%3A_Step_3_-_Conduct_In-Depth_Research/6.05%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercises.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the four stages of networking and why you need to follow the steps sequentially.
2. Learn why follow-up could be the most important component of all four stages of networking.
Networking consists of four stages, and the sequential order of the four stages is extremely important:
1. Research
2. The approach
3. The follow-up
4. The request
We all know individuals who call us only when they need something. They use only two of the four steps: they go from the approach right to the request. We know how we feel when this happens. When these people contact us, we no doubt say to ourselves, “I wonder what they want now.” To avoid this annoying behavior, you must follow the four steps sequentially. Let’s review each one in the order they should be used.
Research
Research enables you to identify key things and key people with whom you should be networking. In a job search, you should aim your research to answer the following questions:
• What details are available about the company of interest?
• What specific departments exist within the company?
• Who are the individuals who run those departments (the decision makers)?
• Does this company recruit on campus?
• Does HR lead the company’s recruiting efforts, or do the hiring managers find their own talent (for the most part)?
• What is the profitability of each department?
• What companies compete against the main company and against the specific departments (they might be different)?
• What are the top products and services produced?
• What are the goals of the company or the department?
• What recent challenges and trends are they are experiencing?
Once you identify these items, research everything about them through company websites, Google, LinkedIn, and the people in your network. The more information you gather, the more knowledgeable you will be about your job search, and the more likely you will impress those with whom you meet and network.
The Approach
Once you have identified the individuals with whom you would like to network or contact, think about how you would like to contact them. Great care should be taken with this step because first impressions matter. Things to consider include the following:
• Do you know anyone who can make a warm introduction? Cold contacts are clearly not as effective as an introduction from someone who knows both parties. If you are fortunate enough to have such a contact, approach them to make the connection. Never ask for a job. Instead, ask that they make an introduction. People you already know can make introductions:
• Friends and family
• Current or past employees of the company (this includes classmates who have interned at companies of interest)
• Peers at school
• Career services
• Other school contacts, including professors, administrators, and so on
• If you must make a cold contact, your research can be used to impress. In a cover letter, you may write intelligently and compellingly about how you can be instrumental in the company because you can do x, y, or z. Be specific about your knowledge of the company, the departments, and the company’s competitors. Know why another company is challenging them, or why they are clearly the industry leader with no close second. Refer to Chapter 5, part II of this textbook, for complete information on how to write a compelling cover letter.
Reconnect with Old Contacts
If you have great contacts, but you haven’t kept in touch with them, you can use different ways to reconnect, but take care to not offend. The first time you reconnect, it cannot be about your job search. You cannot ask for anything that first time, except how the other person is doing. The point of reconnecting is to reestablish the relationship. The other person is the focus and by listening to them and being interested, you actually help yourself because you will learn about what’s going on in the market and what people care about, and you can act on this later.
This is why maintaining your network is so critical when you don’t need anything. It takes the time pressure off you to accomplish anything. If, however, you have waited until you are in need to work on your network, then you must discipline yourself to make those early contacts about your network and not about yourself. One good exercise is to take three to five contacts per day and just say hello. This gets you in the habit of regularly reaching out to your network, so that when you actually have a question to ask or even a favor, the request isn’t the only time you have reached out.
When using LinkedIn, remind people how you know each other. Don’t use those template connection invitations. Compose a personal message about where you met, when you last spoke, or something else that shows genuine interest. Add an updated and professional-looking picture of yourself so that old connections who may have forgotten your name can recognize you visually.
The Follow-Up
A networking paradox is that you cannot get a job without networking, but the biggest networking pet peeve is when someone asks for a job. Remember that no one wants to be contacted only in times of need. That’s what gives networking a bad reputation.
Once you have made the contact, the very next step is to follow up and maintain the networking contact. Immediately after meeting someone, following either a marketing event of some kind, a networking meeting, or an interview, you should send that person an e-mail that mentions that you were happy to see or meet them, references something you discussed (to at the very least remind them of your conversation), and asks for nothing in return.
Recruiters and hiring managers appreciate e-mails that reiterate interest or share an item that may be of interest to them, but what isn’t appreciated is requiring that they get back regarding a date or detail of some kind. Avoid if it at all possible. The best way to build a solid network is to contact people when you don’t need anything. Even if you are a job seeker and are networking to jump-start your search, you don’t want your first contact (or even your second) to be a request for help. Instead, maintain (or restart) your network by reaching out to people regularly—without asking for anything.
If you plan to add someone to your network for the long term, you should follow up with that person several times a year. Asking for help or just talking about yourself doesn’t count. Follow up in a way that focuses on them and what you can do for them, not the other way around. Focus on giving away—not selling. Here are some creative ways to reach out:
• Say thank you: Thank them for their time in meeting with you, and for the information they shared. Add something you discussed to the thank-you note to support the fact that you were listening and comprehending. Set the stage for future networking contact.
• Give a results update: If someone gave you advice, let them know what you did with it. Perhaps someone made a connection that resulted in another connection. Keep them updated and thank them again for the connection.
• Spread holiday cheer: Send holiday cards, and include some information about yourself to keep people updated. Remember to note information you receive in return (e.g., changes of address, changes of employment). Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s Day, Easter, the Fourth of July, Passover, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving are great times to keep in touch, but you might even use the arrival of spring as a reason to reach out.
• Announce a life change: You might announce the end of the school year, entrance to an internship, entry to a graduate degree program, a promotion, or just an e-mail change. When you send out announcements, include news about other areas of your life. Always be upbeat. Job seekers can let their network know they are looking in specific industries, but shouldn’t immediately ask for help. For job seekers who have already announced they are looking, consider a follow-up contact letting people know where you are in your search.
• Offer an interesting article: Pick something about their industry and company, and it shows you are on top of news that matters to them. This works well for professional contacts, with whom you may not be on a familiar enough basis for a holiday card or personal announcement. An insightful article lets the contact know you are thinking of them and you understand what’s important in their industry.
• Introduce a new contact: When you introduce people to your network, not only do you expand the contacts of the person you introduce, but you also get an opportunity to catch up with your network. Like sending an interesting article, an interesting referral lets the contact know you are knowledgeable about their needs and willing to help.
• Simply say hello: Sometimes a person just pops into your head. Maybe they resemble someone on TV. Maybe you heard a joke they would enjoy. Follow your instinct and call or e-mail to say hello. It is always nice to know people are thinking of you.
• Offer congratulations: Did they make one of those business magazine top lists (e.g., Most Innovative, Most Admired, Best Places to Work)? If you hear good news about someone or their company, point it out.
• Make a recommendation: If you read a good book, try a good restaurant, and so forth, pass that on. (Make sure to keep it professional because your referrals are always a reflection on you.)
Use these nine methods, timed six to seven weeks apart, and you have almost a year of follow up. Now you have no excuse not to maintain your network.
Figure 7.2 and Figure 7.3 are examples of a follow-up note after a networking meeting.
The Request
Only when you have completed the first three steps should you make a request. The quality of your network depends on following this checklist. It is tempting to jump from step 2 (the approach) to step 4 (the request), but you do so at the risk of not building a quality network on which you can rely for your professional success.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Networking has four distinct stages. Effective networkers shouldn’t take shortcuts.
• Research, the first stage of networking, enables you to identify the key things and key people with whom you should be networking.
• Warm introductions are almost always more effective than cold calls.
• Reconnecting with old contacts is important, but take care when doing so.
• Follow-up is perhaps the most important part of networking because it helps the relationship to grow.
Exercises
1. Select a company of interest and begin to research key players at that company using the company website, http://www.linkedin.com, and your networking contacts.
2. Think about how to contact key decision makers at the companies in which you are most interested.
3. Follow up quickly and effectively after meeting new people. Think about how to continue the relationship, and focus on the giving aspect of the relationship. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/07%3A_Step_4_-_Network_Effectively/7.01%3A_The_Four_Stages_of_Networking.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand why a networking pitch must be worded in a precise way that will both introduce you and create a very strong impression of your value proposition.
2. Learn how to craft a highly effective networking pitch.
Earlier in this textbook (in chapter 5) the networking pitch was covered extensively. A shortened version is included here.
A networking pitch was originally termed an elevator pitch because in the time an elevator takes to go between floors (generally thirty to forty seconds), you should be able to articulate your value proposition (the skills you have and the position you are seeking). The elevator pitch is now also called the professional pitch, the networking pitch, or simply, the pitch.
An pitch is crucial to your job search: it’s a thirty second introduction and overview of what you are about, including your education, your work experience, and your unique value proposition. Typically, it’s also your first chance to impress. You can also use it in a variety of ways:
• Whenever you meet someone new in person or by phone
• At the very beginning of an interview, to give an overview of your background
• As an introduction during networking events (mostly business, but some personal as well)
This thirty- to forty-second summary should be spoken, or delivered, in a confident, convincing manner, making a strong impression. If your pitch is too long and drawn out, it lacks conviction. When meeting networking contacts, recruiters, and hiring managers, this is your one chance to make a great impression and present yourself with clarity. No one wants to listen to a long, drawn-out speech. A pitch should be clear and concise, enabling the person who is listening to know exactly what type of job search candidate you are.
How do you craft an effective pitch? Three steps will ensure your success:
1. Write your pitch.
2. Edit your pitch until it sounds just right.
3. Practice delivering your pitch verbally, and edit it further as needed because we don’t write the same way that we speak. Continue rehearsing and repeating your pitch to ensure that your delivery is natural, convincing, and authentic.
Write Your Pitch
Your pitch should answer the following five questions:
1. What is your educational background? Detail every college or university you attended, your major and minor, and your expected degree and graduation month and year (include your GPA if it’s 3.3 or higher).
2. Do you have any pertinent experience in the field in which you are interested?
3. What are your critical skills and strengths? Highlight your top two or three skills.
4. What do you want to do? Be specific regarding industry, function, and geography (see Chapter 3).
5. Why would you be good at the position? Focus on presenting your top two or three skills, and the skills you have that are necessary to succeed at the job you are targeting.
Edit Your Pitch
Once your pitch is in writing, review it and edit it accordingly. You should use words that come naturally to you because the more natural the delivery, the more impressive the pitch. Here are some steps you can consider while editing your pitch:
• After you edit the one-page answers to the pitch questions, ensuring that you have covered all the important items, cut it to half a page; this forces you to prioritize the essential elements.
• After you edit the half-page document, ensuring that you have covered all the important items, cut it in half again (it’s now one-quarter of the page); this forces you to be even more ruthless in prioritizing.
• After you edit the quarter-page document, ensuring you have covered all the important items, cut it in half again, leaving only four or five key bullets; this forces you to be concise and select just the most important items.
Practice Delivering Your Pitch
Once you have the final pitch in writing, you’ll need to practice, then practice, then practice some more. Your pitch should be spoken in a confident and compelling manner.
• Review your pitch to ensure it flows smoothly and addresses your career highlights, and then practice it until it’s memorized. Practice until you can repeat it when someone shakes you from your sleep at 3:30 in the morning and you can maintain your passion when saying it.
• Using an accurate stopwatch or timer and a tape recorder (or answering machine) to record yourself, repeat the preceding exercise. Start with two minutes, then cut it to one minute, then cut to it thirty seconds, and, finally, cut it to fifteen seconds.
The trick to a successful pitch is to practice it ten, twenty, thirty, even forty times. Practice until it rolls off the tip of your tongue. Practice until it has your exact tone and style. Practice until it’s such a natural thing to say that you don’t even have to think about it before and while you are saying it.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• A pitch was originally called an elevator pitch because you should have a quick, succinct way to introduce yourself should you meet someone in an elevator.
• A networking pitch is a helpful way to introduce yourself while emphasizing the quality of what you bring as a candidate.
Exercises
1. Create your pitch, using the exercise provided in this chapter.
2. Fine-tune your pitch by typing it and practicing it aloud, ensuring it has the proper tone.
3. Pair up with a buddy to practice your pitch. Critique your buddy’s pitch and listen to the critique of your pitch.
4. Once you have finalized your pitch, practice saying it ten, twenty, and even thirty times until it flows smoothly. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/07%3A_Step_4_-_Network_Effectively/7.02%3A_Your_Networking_Pitch.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand why it’s critical to build your network every day, whenever possible.
2. Learn how to focus your energies on building a network that will be effective throughout your college career and beyond.
3. Learn strategies for initiating great conversations at networking events, even if you are shy.
Build Your Network Every Day
Great networkers build their networks every day, while keeping in touch with those they have already met. Networking is work, but the rewards far outweigh the effort you will expend.
The most effective way to build a network is to have a genuine interest in every person you meet. Most individuals know when someone wants to know them for what they offer versus wanting to know them for what they can gain from the relationship. Don’t fall into that self-serving trap. Genuine interest in others is the impetus for building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships of give and take, with the emphasis on the give.
If you are just beginning to build your network, or if you want to expand the network you already have, consider the following exercise:
Quadrant I
High Willingness to Help
Low Relevance to Job Search
Quadrant II
High Willingness to Help
High Relevance to Job Search
Quadrant III
Low Willingness to Help
Low Relevance to Job Search
Quadrant IV
Low Willingness to Help
High Relevance to Job Search
Notice that the horizontal axis is relevance to job search. As you go from left to right, the relevance to your job search becomes stronger. Willingness to help is on the vertical axis; as you go higher, the willingness to help is greater.
Logically, you will want to expand your network with the people who represent the characteristics in quadrant II: high willingness to help and high relevance to your job search. These individuals include the following:
• Career services directors, career counselors, administrators
• Peers with whom you have good relationships and who could perhaps share information about their prior internships
• Professors who are impressed with your abilities and performance and who have ties to corporations of interest to you
• Alumni who want an increasing number of qualified candidates from their school to enter their company or industry
• Past employers who were very satisfied with your level of work, who have contacts at firms in which you are interested in, and so forth
• Your relative who works in a corporation, but not in your industry, who may be friends with those who do work in your industry
Logically, you will want to spend the least amount of time with people in quadrant III because they have no relevance to your job search and are not willing to help.
Quadrants I and IV remain, and very helpful networking contacts could be lurking in both of these populations.
Quadrant I: This is an excellent resource for networking contacts because these individuals are very willing to help, but perhaps their relevance to your job search isn’t obvious or apparent. You never know who people know, so it’s very much worth your while to get to know as many people as you can, no matter what the venue.
People in quadrant I include the following:
• A neighbor might be best friends with an administrative assistant at the company in which you are interested and that assistant could easily share your résumé with hiring managers.
• Someone with whom you are affiliated by attending a church, synagogue, or any other place of worship may have contacts in the industry in which you are interested, and can arrange for an informational interview.
• Your landscaper might have a brother who is a senior or top-level executive at the exact company in which you are interested.
• A diner owner could have a close friend who is a hospital administrator and can arrange an introduction into the health-care field.
• A teacher’s husband might be a vendor to the company in which you are interested.
• Your dog groomer might have a neighbor who is a junior-level manager at a firm of interest.
The endless possibilities in this quadrant shouldn’t be overlooked!
Quadrant IV’s population could also represent fruitful opportunities, but you will need to ask yourself, “at what cost?” If someone highly relevant to your job search has a low willingness to help, could you turn that person around? What would it take? Often, it’s best to funnel your energy and effort into the quadrants that will yield the best results: quadrants I and II.
Build Your Network Even If You Are Shy
If you are shy and the thought of networking wreaks havoc with your nervous system, certain strategies you can employ immediately will allow you to benefit from networking venues of all kinds.
Step 1: Observe the Networking Masters
We all know people who are natural networkers and who know how to work a room better than most. For those of you who are shy watch people who network effectively. Observe how they meet and greet a variety of people. Notice their body language, especially their smile, posture, handshake, and eye contact. You will naturally pick up pointers from these individuals.
Step 2: Pair Up with Someone Who Is a Good Networker
If you can pair up with a networking master, by all means do. If you have a friend who is extroverted, ask them to attend an event with you and pair up to meet as many people as you can. This can be a very valuable adventure that results in meeting quite a lot of new people.
Step 3: Ask Questions That Get Other People to Talk Easily
You can ask seven questions that will naturally elicit a great response from a person you want to get to know:
1. How did you get your start in this business?
2. What do you enjoy most about what you do?
3. What separates you from your competition?
4. What do you see as the coming trends in this business?
5. What is the strangest (or funniest) incident you have ever experienced in this business?
6. What three or four critical skills are necessary to succeed in this business?
7. What advice would you give to me knowing I want to get my start in this business?
(See http://www.burg.com for a list of exceptional networking questions, including some of the preceding.)
Step 4: Don’t Take Things Personally
When you take the plunge and begin networking and meeting individuals, try to develop a thick skin and don’t take things personally. Some individuals will not want to communicate with you, and that is fine. Move on to those who do. To a large degree, it’s a numbers game, so the more individuals you meet and follow up with correctly, the more will join your network.
Meet People at Different Venues
Your college environment is rich with potential networking contacts. Earlier in this chapter, it was noted that everyone knows, give or take, about 250 people, and the more people you meet who give you access to their network of 250, the more you will multiply the people with whom you are connected. Here are some ways for you to network effectively:
• Join school clubs: Some schools have over two hundred clubs—everything from business clubs to tennis clubs to Asian heritage clubs. Join at least three or four that spark your interest so you have variety in your friends and network. Club membership is a great way to get connected early on in your college career, meet people who have the same interests as you, and learn a tremendous amount. School clubs funnel information to their members about networking events, internships, and full-time opportunities.
• Establish a relationship with career services: Get involved with this group early on. People in career services have relationships with all the companies that come on campus to recruit. Check in with them in your freshman year and find out what opportunities exist and what the process is for applying.
• Get to know your professors: Professors are human beings, just like you. Ask them about their backgrounds and how they ended up teaching at your school. Ask what they like about it. You will be surprised at what you find out. Some professors will have worked in the business world and will have some good connections for you. You never know until you ask.
• Be curious about people and ask open-ended questions: When meeting someone new, ask them questions like “How did you pick this school?” and listen. A good listener is so hard to find. Open-ended questions often yield a story (sometimes a compelling story), and you learn quite a bit about a person. Ask about their family relationships. Be genuine because it is wonderful to find out about people, and you never know who they know or who their extended family knows.
• Meet as many different types of folks at school as possible: Your school presents opportunities to meet people from all walks of life. Try to meet the president of the university, various administrators, deans (the dean of students is a great contact because that person manages the school clubs), professors, teaching assistants, fellow students, cafeteria workers, the hot dog vendor on the corner, the stationary store owner and clerks, the workers at your favorite coffee shop, security, library staff, and so on. Get to know these folks by (a) being polite and pleasant, (b) being responsible, and (c) recognizing them and knowing them by name. Even if your new acquaintances don’t further your networking objectives, perhaps some will become friends and make your stay at school all the better!
• Keep in touch with your old high school friends: Your high school friends are likely at different schools, but it’s important to maintain contact. Your network will only grow this way, and you will enjoy continuing your friendships.
Networking is critical to your success throughout life. If you haven’t networked well before, it’s now a good time to start.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Effective networkers build their network every chance they get. This includes networking with individuals they meet daily, at business events, and at social events of all kinds.
• Proactively build your network during your job search. Rather than go to lunch alone, see such outings as networking possibilities. Participate in as many events as you can and meet as many individuals as you can.
• The most helpful individuals to meet are those who are highly relevant to your job search and very willing to help.
• Many strategies exist for meeting people, even if you are shy. Observe people who network well and learn from their behavior. Pair up with someone who is a natural networker and learn from their interactions. Do not take things personally.
• You can ask many simple networking questions that will elicit substantial information from networking contacts.
• On-campus contacts can be found in every corner of your college or university. Take advantage of school clubs, meet as many administrators as possible, and remember that professors are people, too, and often have had careers in business.
Exercises
1. Create your network of one hundred people, using the 2 × 2 matrix in this section. Type the names of the individuals and how you know them. Also include the last time you contacted each person to say hello.
2. Ensure you attend at least two to three networking events in the next month.
3. Follow up with all of the individuals you have met. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/07%3A_Step_4_-_Network_Effectively/7.03%3A_How_to_Build_Your_Network_On_a_Regular_Basis%2C_Even_If_You_Are_Shy-_Venues_for_Meeting_People.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand what networking strategies work best with senior people and recruiters.
2. Understand that networking works best when people are genuinely interested in people, versus getting to know others purely for personal gain.
Network with Executives
Your network should include people at all levels: your family and friends, past peers, and past managers. Follow these three suggestions to include senior people at all different levels into your network:
1. Participate in cross-functional task forces in any kind of work or educational situation. You will meet people at varying management levels and also get the chance to impress them and include them in your network.
2. Contact senior managers and thank them or compliment them on their presentation or speech at any other formal meeting. Mention something specific about what they said, especially if it helped you in some way (it increased your knowledge, made you think differently about something, gave you an idea to solve a problem, and so forth), so they know you listened and they know your comment is genuine. Continue to follow up with them in other ways (holidays, congratulate them should they get promoted, and so forth).
3. A mentor can give you perspective that is very objective and, in some cases, powerful. They can also make great introductions, so don’t hesitate to explore this with them.
Network with Recruiters
Many job seekers feel uneasy about keeping in touch with recruiters and feel like they are being a pest. However, recruiters appreciate candidates who stay in touch, as long as it’s in an unassuming way. For example, candidates should let recruiters know the latest news about them and their market, but shouldn’t include a request or a need with that news.
Industry professionals offer the following networking advice regarding how job seekers can stay in touch:
• Build the relationship before you need anything. Xavier Roux, a partner at Redseeds Consulting, an executive search firm for management consulting, advises, “Strong candidates cultivate good relationships with recruiters when they are not looking for a job so that they can get help when they are.”
• Don’t be afraid to follow up about a specific position that interests you. AndrewHendricksen , a managing partner with OP/HR Group, an executive search firm focusing on technology and new media advises, “If you are very qualified you should feel comfortable making one to two cold or follow-up calls no matter what stage you are in the process, but keep in mind too many will result in your being disqualified.…[Send] a follow-up action plan once you understand a hiring manager’s expectations. This works especially well for people in sales and marketing or any job that requires results. If you are considered a top prospect, sending a high-level yet well-thought-out 90-day action plan can put you above your competition.”
• Contact people via social media after you have done the research and are fully prepared. Jennifer Sobel, a recruitment manager at Disney ABC Television Group advises, “Many job seekers are desperately trying to use social networking tools to search for jobs, which is a great idea. However, they are using the tools all wrong. I must get ten to fifteen ‘LinkedIn’ requests per day from people searching for a job at my company. Their requests usually sound something like this: ‘Hi, I don’t know you but would love to work at your company. Are there any openings for me?’ I would urge each job seeker to only reach out when they have identified an open position that they meet the minimum qualifications for.…Not having your research done beforehand comes off as lazy and it doesn’t give a recruiter any reason to help you.”
• Remember that being helpful is a two-way exchange. Sarah Grayson, a founding partner of On-Ramps, an executive search for the social sector, advises, “It’s always impressive to me when candidates refer us other strong candidates and go out of their way to stay in touch.…It shows me that they know how to network and value relationships.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Many opportunities exist to meet senior people and include them in your network. When they speak to a large group, you can send them an e-mail thanking them if you learned something from what they said.
• Mentors are a key part of your network. You should have constant interaction with them throughout your college and work career.
Exercises
1. The next time you participate in a senior-level presentation of any kind, write the presenter an e-mail or a note thanking them for their speech or presentation. Mention something specific that you learned.
2. If you have a mentor, create a schedule (every five to seven weeks) to touch base with them, inform them of your job search, or see what is happening with their career. If you don’t have a mentor, think about who you would like to have as a mentor. Approach that person and simply ask if they could mentor you, and set up a time to talk with them. Remember that it’s the mentee’s responsibility to maintain the relationship. Such a relationship is one of give and take, and emphasizing the give makes the relationship stronger and more fruitful. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/07%3A_Step_4_-_Network_Effectively/7.04%3A_Networking_with_Executives_and_Recruiters.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn about the best social networking sites to use in your job search.
2. Understand what radical transparency means and how it can enhance or hurt your career prospects.
3. Learn about the multiple benefits of social networking sites, beyond the networking aspect.
Two main social networking sites should concern you during your job search:
1. LinkedIn
2. Facebook
Be Aware of Radical Transparency
Radical transparency was the phrase corporate firms used decades ago when they finally opened their books up to public scrutiny. Now, this phrase pertains to the radical transparency you experience by using social networking sites.
Facebook was started as a tool for college students, but companies started to enter this space in the 1990s. Companies, namely recruiters, started looking at Facebook pages and MySpace accounts when considering candidates for open positions. In fact, 40 percent or more of college admissions counselors reviewed Facebook pages before admitting candidates to their colleges and 40 percent of those who looked were not impressed by what they saw. Employers now review Facebook accounts before making hiring decisions.
A word of caution to all: Ensure your digital dirt is cleaned up. Your Facebook page should be professional and seek to impress anyone who reviews it, especially future employers.
Recruiters Use Social Networks
A high majority of recruiters use online social networks, such as LinkedIn, to find candidates, so job seekers absolutely need to take advantage of these tools. However, so many options are available and they are all so time consuming that job seekers risk being overwhelmed.
Make a Choice and Go Deep
Rather than spending a little time here and there on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Doostang, blogging, or building a personal website, decide what you want to accomplish and research your options to see what best suits your objectives. Devote the bulk of your time to the area that will most help you accomplish your objectives.
Place an Overall Time Limit on Online Search Activities
A thorough job search encompasses many different activities, including research, expanding your network, following up with your existing network, updating your contact database, troubleshooting your search, and more. Online networking is helpful for research, networking, and maintaining contact information, so it’s worth a substantive time commitment, but not all of your time.
Offline Networking Etiquette Still Applies
The most successful online networkers share much in common with successful offline networkers. You can do several things to match their success. Be respectful of people’s time. Write engaging (and grammatically correct) business communications. Ask intelligent questions. Focus on giving and helping others. Remember that online social media is one tool in the broad umbrella of networking, and common sense networking etiquette still applies.
Social Networking Isn’t Just about Networking
LinkedIn and Facebook are referred to as social networking, so most job seekers use them primarily or even exclusively as networking tools. However, social networks are valuable at every stage of the job search, not just networking.
Social Networks Help with Target Identification
Use the detailed profiles in LinkedIn to get a better understanding of different job functions and career paths. If you think you want to work in corporate philanthropy, find people who have these jobs and review their experience, skills, and projects. Use what you learn as a guide to what you might need in your career, or at least as good issues to research.
Research Companies and Industries
Again using the profile data, pay attention to how people talk about their work. Projects on which people are working hold invaluable clues to deciphering exactly what a company does, especially when it’s a small, privately held company with little published information about clients or projects. Group discussions are another way to get a sense for a company or industry. Find a company alumni group or industry niche and follow the discussions or ask questions.
Gather Salary Data
Use the Q&A function or specific group discussions on LinkedIn to collect data on salary, lifestyle, growth prospects, and other useful information for your own offer negotiation. Many geographies and industries are represented on online social networks, so you can specify exactly what you are looking for and likely find a close proxy.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are valuable networking tools.
• Radical transparency means that people can see anything you place in cyberspace. Transparency can present challenges if you have information or material that is unprofessional.
• Cleaning up your digital dirt is important when you are conducting a job search and building your career.
• Social networking sites are great networking tools, but they have many other uses as well. You can research different positions when trying to decide which would be best for you, you can get a sense for what companies are truly like directly from their employees, and you can find out salary information via the various online groups.
Exercises
1. If you don’t have an account on LinkedIn, create one. Use the instructions in Chapter 5, Section 5.2 of this textbook.
2. If you have an account on LinkedIn, but it’s not 100 percent complete, ensure that it is by adding a professional photo, getting recommendations from a variety of individuals, and joining groups.
3. Google yourself to clean up any digital dirt that exists in cyberspace.
4. Use LinkedIn to conduct research on a company or an industry.
5. Join various groups, such as alumni associations at your school, or industry groups of interest. Find out salary information about positions of interest. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/07%3A_Step_4_-_Network_Effectively/7.05%3A_Social_Networking.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Practice networking case studies to better understand how to build a sustainable network.
2. Appreciate the nuances that are involved when you build relationships during your career search.
Case studies are a great way to “practice” your networking skills, which is always a wise thing to do. They teach you how to network better in a variety of situations.
Case Study 1
Your mentor introduces you to her colleague who introduces you to a business lead (say Jane Smith), who consents to an informational interview. You send your mentor’s colleague a nice thank-you and schedule the interview. The interview is substantive, and you send Jane Smith a nice thank-you. Two weeks later you get a formal interview, which you schedule for later. Are you done for now?
Case Study 2
You get an informational interview with a managing director, Jeff Roberts, in the boutique firm that specializes in exactly what you want to do. He asks you to coordinate with his assistant to get on his calendar. You call her to schedule the meeting. After the interview, you send Jeff Roberts a nice thank-you. Have you completed the interview etiquette?
Case Study 3
You are late for a 1:30 interview at a company’s headquarters and by the time you get there, it’s about 1:25. You go to the security desk, but bypass the X-ray area, so they redirect you there. You get a bit huffy. You rush to the elevator and fail to keep it open for a woman who is trying to get in. When you finally make it upstairs, you are escorted to the office, and asked to wait for a moment or two. When the person with whom you are meeting finally arrives, you recognize each other: you didn’t save the elevator for her. What do you do?
Case Study 4
You are scheduled for a second interview on a Friday, at 5 p.m. You are invited to attend the company’s weekly happy hour and afterward meet with some of the team privately for one-on-one interviews. You wear an interview suit and discover everyone else is wearing jeans. At your first interview, they had all worn business casual. “Jeans are allowed on Friday,” someone calls out. Are you appropriately dressed? What if you get called in the next Friday—what do you wear?
Case Study 5
You are very interested in working for two companies, and fortunately, you are in final rounds with both. You receive the first offer, and feel strongly that you will accept—in fact, you know you will if you get the second offer. The deadline for the first offer is a week away. The second company calls to schedule a final round. What do you tell them?
Case Study 6
You are in a two-on-one interview. One person is a line business manager and is taking the lead in the interview; the other person is an HR representative and does not say much. How do you conduct yourself during the interview and how do you interact with each person?
Case Study 7
You are attending a school-sponsored networking event with your classmates and representatives from a top marketing firm. You strike up a conversation with a company person and realize that several of your classmates have gathered to either contribute to your discussion or ask their own questions of the company representative with whom you are speaking. You first finish with the conversation before turning to your classmates and acknowledging their presence. Is this good or bad networking behavior? Why?
Case Study 8
You have accepted an invitation to attend training with the office of career services because a representative from a top company will be giving an overview of their business. At the last minute, you need to cram for an exam. In addition, you also do not feel well, so you decide not to attend. Is this is good or bad networking behavior? Why?
Case Study: Things to Consider
Here are key points to consider for each of these case studies, which will help you build upon your networking skills.
Case Study 1
The topic is “Mentor Introductions and Follow-Up”:
• Always keep your mentor in the loop. They want to know you are taking their advice and reaping the fruits of your efforts. Your mentor is there to help you succeed.
• Maintain good relationships with everyone with whom you come into contact, and you will benefit in the long run. Sending thank-you notes shows good manners and an appreciative attitude, and it’s a good way to stay connected.
• Be aware of the matrix relationships all around you. When you land a position in a corporation, you can often have three or four different managers. Navigating these individuals with ease separates you from those who have difficulty doing so.
Case Study 2
The topic is “Informational Interview Follow-Up”:
• It’s always wise to thank everyone who has helped you to land interviews and coordinate schedules. This includes administrative staff.
• Administrative assistants often carry influence with their manager, so the extra step to extend thanks for their efforts is good manners and good career management.
Case Study 3
The topic is “Late for an Interview”:
• You only get one chance to make a first impression!
• You have to apologize, give a short explanation, and move on quickly.
• You next redirect your focus to the interview at hand and do your very best.
Case Study 4
The topic is “Business or Business Casual Dress”:
• When in doubt, always dress in business attire. You had no idea it was dress-down Friday, so it was wise for you to wear a suit.
• When you get called back the following Friday, you remember that jeans are allowed on Friday. Jeans are allowed, but that doesn’t mean everyone wears them. The more senior people may wear khakis, and if you wore jeans, you could be dressed inappropriately (i.e., more casually than the senior managers). Remember that you are not yet an employee; you are still a candidate, so dress more conservatively.
• When interviewing in different industries, keep in mind that different dress protocols apply, for example, nuances in media are dramatically different from financial services.
Case Study 5
The topic is “Multiple Offers”:
• The most impressive candidates communicate well and let recruiters and hiring managers know that they have options. It’s especially impressive when they communicate deadlines so appropriate actions can be taken.
• If you know you want a position with a company and you know you will accept its offer, take yourself out of the running for the second opportunity. It shows (a) confidence, (b) goodwill, and (c) your thoughtfulness in giving other candidates a chance to interview. The positive qualities and effects of this decision just go on and on!
• On the other hand, it’s always good to explore all options. Definitely let the second company know that you have received an offer from another company. Exploring this second company may help you decide which company you prefer. Perhaps they will expedite the interview process because they really want you, and then you can make a more informed decision.
Case Study 6
The topic is “Live Interviewing with Multiple Interviewers”:
• Acknowledge the business manager and the HR representative and treat both with utmost respect. When answering the business manager’s questions, direct your answer to both parties and maintain eye contact with both.
• Remember, at all stages of the interview and job search process, you are constantly marketing yourself and selling your abilities.
• You have no idea which person is the real decision maker.
• Ask each interviewer questions and tailor your questions to the interviewer.
• You may be in other situations when you are in a group, yet talking mostly to one person. Be polite and address and acknowledge all members in the group.
• Remember that the HR representative has the ability to direct you to another business, should your interview with this particular business not go as well as you would like.
Case Study 7
The topic is “Being Inclusive at a Networking Event”:
• Always include others in your conversation; this is both thoughtful and polite.
• Encourage others to ask questions. You can always learn from their questions and the responses they receive.
Case Study 8
The topic is “Office of Career Services Training Session”:
• If you have accepted an invitation to attend an event, barring a medical emergency, you should make every effort to attend. Your attendance is a reflection of your commitment.
• If you absolutely cannot attend, make sure you contact someone in career services and let them know why you cannot attend. Simply not showing up is in poor taste and disrespectful of other people’s efforts on your behalf.
• If you don’t show and there is a poor turnout, the company sponsoring the business overview may decide to do fewer events with the school or pull out altogether.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Case studies are an excellent way to learn about proper networking etiquette.
• If you are in a position where you are not sure what to do, consult someone with the relevant expertise, including someone in career services if at all possible.
• Good networking behavior can influence your success in the job search.
• If in doubt, always dress professionally for networking activities with firms, even if it’s well known that their dress code is casual.
EXERCISE
1. Pair up with a team of five classmates to create your own networking etiquette case studies, preferably using something that truly happened. Share your case studies in class to continue the learning. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/07%3A_Step_4_-_Network_Effectively/7.06%3A_Networking_Case_Studies.txt |
We know the importance of networking. For job searches and career advancement, networking enables you to hear about unadvertised jobs or plum projects that could propel your career forward. A strong network is also beneficial for day-to-day personal needs—finding a good doctor, checking on a contractor, discovering a good place for Mexican food.
How do you know your network is strong enough to support you professionally and personally? Every few months, you should test the strength of your network:
For example, if there is a position open at Pfizer and you think you would be a very strong fit for that position, is there someone in your network that you can contact that may lead you to someone within that company? It could be someone at Pfizer or at a company that recently merged with Pfizer. It could even be a competitor to Pfizer, as competitors often know and network with each other. Testing your network is a wise thing to do because you can then strengthen it proactively.
If you have fewer than twenty-five strong professional contacts you could reach out to now, your network is too small. If you have deep, quality connections with a small number, this is a good start, but you also need quantity in your network. Make it a priority to meet new professional contacts. If you have the quality and the quantity, but you don’t feel like you could reach out today, then you have an issue with maintaining your network. Make it a priority to follow up with people you already know. As a bonus test, ask yourself how many people you could contact for personal needs. Look at the quantity but also the variety in your personal network.
When was the last time you had lunch or a cup of coffee with a contact other than your day-to-day colleagues or closest friends? If it is has been more than a month or you cannot remember, this is a danger sign that your networking is too insular. You are not exposing yourself to diverse perspectives. Remember the preceding point about how important it is to maintain your network. Earmarking some lunch hours for your networking contacts is a great way to follow up with your network.
Mentors can be a tremendous help when you need to network. When you need some off-the-record advice or candid feedback, do you have people you can query who understand your role, your company, and your industry? If not, then you are not taking advantage of mentorship in your career. Mentors are more than senior people who can move you to the next level by sheer influence, although such a powerful type of mentor can have a place in your career. Mentors can also be your peers and often are colleagues who have an insight you don’t have and are willing to share it with you. Maybe they have been at the company longer and have a great sense of the politics; maybe they are superstrong presenters and can be your practice audience before you have a big meeting.
Networking isn’t something you can cram into last-minute efforts. A strong network is built over time and with deliberate attention to the quantity and quality of the contacts. Audit your network on a regular basis (set Outlook to remind your quarterly) so that you consciously tend to your network before you face a crisis situation.
No one likes a person who reaches out only when they need something. No one wants to be the person who needs something, but feels all alone. Build a strong network so that you can make requests without imposing. Build a strong network so you don’t have to go it alone.
Chapter Takeaways
• Networking is defined as establishing a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship of give and take, with an emphasis on the give.
• Networking is about quality and quantity.
• The power of networking is infinite because people who know, like, and trust you will open their networks to you.
• Networking has four stages: research, approach, follow-up, and request.
• Proactively reconnect with contacts, but your first reconnection should not include a request.
• Your networking pitch is crucial to your job search and should be written, edited, and practiced until it’s delivered in a confident and proactive manner.
• Networks must be built consistently, on a daily basis.
• Even if you are shy, you can use simple strategies to build a network.
• Many on-campus venues exist for meeting people and building your network, including student clubs, career services, professors, and so on.
• Definite strategies can be used to include senior people and recruiters in your network.
• Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn can be used in a variety of ways to increase your networking ability.
• Digital dirt can hurt your candidacy with recruiters and hiring managers alike. Present yourself professionally in person and online.
• Case studies can help to ensure business etiquette on your part and on the part of others.
Chapter Review
1. How do you define networking?
2. Why would a person open up their network to you?
3. What are the four stages of networking and why must they occur sequentially?
4. How do you reconnect with old contacts without seeming disingenuous?
5. How do you follow up with new and old networking contacts? Name three to four ways of doing so.
6. What are the key components of a networking pitch?
7. How do you construct a networking pitch?
8. How do you build your network on an ongoing basis?
9. How can you use a 2 × 2 matrix to build your network?
10. What questions can you ask during networking events to help get the conversation started?
11. What strategies exist for building a network, even if you are shy?
12. How can you build a network on campus and with whom?
13. How can you include senior people in your network? What about recruiters?
14. What social networking sites can help you network more effectively?
15. What is digital dirt and how can it hurt your job search strategies?
16. What are the differences among LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Doostang?
17. How can you create your own networking case studies to continue your learning? Reviewing case studies in effective networking behavior can be helpful in the overall process.
SuccessHawk: Network
Contact Manager
Contact Manager is the place to store information about your contacts, how you know them, their personal information, information about their organization, and a record of your interactions. Everything you need to know about each contact is conveniently located in one place.
Spend some time reviewing the kind of information you can save for each of your contacts. Note that SuccessHawk provides you sample icebreakers to get a conversation started and questions to ask to keep conversations going. You will find that these features adjust as your relationship with the contact develops.
To populate Contact Manager manually, click on Add New Contact in the Contacts section of My Workspace and fill out as much information as you can in the forms provided. Or you can upload basic contact information from Microsoft Outlook, Apple Address Book, Gmail, Hotmail, and others by clicking on Import Contacts in the Contacts section of My Workspace and following the appropriate directions.
You can view a complete list of your contacts by clicking on View Contacts. Note that you can organize your contacts by the company for which they work, organizations to which they belong, your last interaction with them, or by the status of your relationship:
• People you know
• Referred contacts
• Opportunities
• Interviews
To open an individual’s contact information page, simply click on the person’s name. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/07%3A_Step_4_-_Network_Effectively/7.07%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercises.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn success strategies to employ before, during, and after an interview.
2. Understand that creating routines can improve your chances of success.
3. Learn effective follow-up skills that are critical to the interview process.
An interview is framed by what happens before, during and after.
Before
What happens before an interview will help you succeed. This includes taking the following steps:
• Assess your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes, and your goals
• Prepare and practice: know where you are going and get your interview suit ready in advance
• Have a routine that you will follow the day of the interview
Assess
Before you even walk into the interview room, you need to assess a few things:
• Your strengths and weaknesses
• Your likes and dislikes
• Your goals
Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses
It’s vital that you know your strengths and weaknesses because you should compare them to the job description. Is there a match between what they are looking for and your skills and abilities? If some of a job’s most important skills and abilities appear in your weakness column, there is no match. If your top three or four strengths appear in the job description, there is an obvious match.
Know Your Likes and Dislikes
A huge difference exists between spending your entire workday interacting with people versus sitting in front of a computer screen analyzing data all day. Creating a spreadsheet (or a dashboard) that highlights sales figures and presenting that to your boss weekly is vastly different from standing in front of a group of twenty to thirty peers and managers and presenting that data.
You must know your likes and dislikes because a workday can be long, and you should at least like most of what you will be doing. Some people are motivated by the amount of money they will make in a job, however, and if that works for them, it’s sufficient. It’s also important, however, to like the type of work you will be doing. It makes for a miserable day, week, month, and year if you do not.
College internships are key because they expose you to work you might like, as well as work you definitely would not like. Having as many internships as possible is a goal every college student should have. It may be helpful to know that the vast majority of companies hire mostly juniors because they will graduate in one year and some companies would like to extend full-time offers to their summer class. But don’t let that dissuade you from seeking an internship if you are a freshman or sophomore. It may be more difficult to obtain an internship, but it’s definitely worth the effort if it gets you closer to what you do or do not want to do on a full-time basis.
Know Your Goals
While in college, it’s beneficial if your internships help you understand exactly what you want to do, and exactly what you need to do to get there. For example, if you are interested in marketing, you might have a sophomore internship at an advertising firm. You might end up doing mostly administrative work, but you get some exposure to the creative team. One of the team members allows you into a couple of meetings (with your manager’s permission), and you experience what their job is like. This is it for you! This is what you want to do.
Your next logical step is to discuss with your manager if the next summer is a possibility, especially if you could work with the creative team. You hope your manager is so impressed with your work, your attention to detail, and your passion that you receive the open slot next summer in the creative department. If you aren’t guaranteed a job the following summer, make it your goal to target more advertising agencies and garner a job in a creative group. The more directed you are, the more likely it is you will get the job you want.
Prepare
Preparation is key to succeeding in the interview process. The following steps will help you get a second round of interviews:
• Research the industry, the company, the competitors, and the interviewer (if possible).
• Practice answering interview questions.
• Have a full dress rehearsal three days before the interview.
• Know where you are going in advance, and get there thirty to forty-five minutes early.
• Have a routine the day of the interview.
Know the Industry, the Company, the Competitors, and the Interviewer
Completing the research step ensures that you have fully researched the company, the industry, and the competition. Knowing how to interview well within the industry and company will help you get a second interview. You also might be able to research the interviewer using Google or http://www.linkedin.com. Having relevant background information might give you helpful hints on how to position yourself.
Practice Answering Interview Questions
The section of this chapter titled “Different Types of Questions” has a detailed list of the top questions asked during an interview and strategies to succeed with each question. Pay close attention to that section to help you prepare for an actual interview. For now, before you practice actual questions, you can do four things:
1. Check with your career services department. Do they have an interview guide? Do they hold interview workshops? Will they conduct a mock interview with you? If so, take advantage of what is offered.
2. Google additional interview questions and look in the mirror as you practice answering these questions. Get an interview buddy to ask you these questions, as well as probing questions, to dig deeper into your answers.
3. Be confident when answering (even if you don’t feel confident), be positive, and don’t undersell yourself.
4. Focus on the results of each of your projects, tasks, and courses. A results-oriented candidate has a better chance getting the second interview and potentially the offer.
Have a Full Dress Rehearsal Three Days before the Interview
Being prepared reduces stress and improves performance. Here is a checklist of things to do and consider before your interview day.
• Make sure your interview suit is clean and fits perfectly. You should feel very comfortable in the clothes you wear for an interview. This helps build your confidence.
• Pay attention to colors and style. If you are interviewing at a company where the dress is casual, it is still best to dress in a professional, conservative manner. Men and women should consider conservative suit colors such as navy, beige, and black. White or beige shirts give a very professional appearance. If you are not sure, it might help to shop at a professional clothing store.
• Shine your shoes and be certain they are in excellent shape. Women should wear closed-toe shoes with moderate-height heels.
• Take care in all aspects of your appearance, including your hair and nails.
• Bring extra copies of your résumé.
• Write down well-researched questions before the day of the interview.
• Carry a professional-looking briefcase that has an inside portfolio containing paper and a pen.
• Keep a small bottle of water in your briefcase in case your mouth gets dry.
• Carry a cloth handkerchief in case your face perspires (for any reason). Some people sweat more than others and using a handkerchief is more professional (and sanitary) than using your hand. Avoid tissues because they can leave a residue that doesn’t make a very good impression. On a somewhat related note, if you happen to sneeze during an interview, sneeze into your sleeve versus into your hands. The interviewer will not want to shake your hand otherwise!
Know Where You Are Going
Getting lost on the way to an interview will only increase your stress, so know exactly where you are going, even if you must make a trial trip. Few things are worse than being late or arriving looking like you just did the one hundred-meter dash.
Establish a Routine to Follow the Day of the Interview
The most successful interviewees have a routine that includes the following:
1. Set two alarm clocks to make sure you wake up early enough to have plenty of time to get ready for the day.
2. Have your interview suit ready to go, your shoes polished, a portfolio with two to three copies of your résumé and a working pen, and five to seven questions already written down.
3. Arrive at least thirty minutes in advance to avoid the slightest possibility of being late. You may wait in your car or a coffee shop until fifteen minutes before the interview. You don’t want to let the interviewer know you are there thirty to forty-five minutes early.
4. Read or listen to something inspirational before your interview.
5. Carry a small bottle of water in your briefcase in case your mouth gets dry.
During
The moment you have been waiting for has arrived—the actual interview. Keep six things in mind:
1. Body language
2. Networking updates
3. Focus
4. Authenticity
5. Questions to ask toward the end of the interview
6. Questions about the next step
Body Language
It is important to be aware of nonverbal impressions such as your handshake, eye contact and eye movement, posture, and facial and hand expressions. A sizeable percentage of what we communicate comes via body language:
• Eye contact
• Smile
• Handshake
• Posture
Eye Contact
Maintain good eye contact throughout the interview. It’s OK to look away occasionally, but, for the most part, eye contact should be steady. It shows confidence and inspires trust in all that you say.
Smile
When you are feeling stressed, a smile usually relaxes your face, which usually helps you to relax overall. An introductory or occasional smile shows that you are enjoying the conversation, and it adds to your confidence factor.
Handshake
Practice your handshake. The Goldilocks approach is best: Don’t crush the interviewer’s hand, but don’t give a soft, floppy handshake, either. Your handshake should be firm and businesslike. If you get nervous to the point of having a sweaty palm, wipe it against your pants leg or skirt just before you shake your interviewer’s hand.
Posture
Sit up straight with your shoulders back and your feet firmly planted on the ground. It’s fine to cross your legs if you feel more comfortable doing so, but avoid looking too relaxed. You should be poised and fully focused on the interviewer, ensuring that you answer all questions to the best of your ability.
Networking
If you’ve met others in the company, mention that up front. It’s a great way to open an interview because you establish that you’ve already met others at the company, and the interviewer also can contact them for feedback.
Focus
The more focused you are during an interview, the more successful you will be. Focus on the question asked and answer it directly. If you think you’ve gone off course for any reason, it’s OK to ask the interviewer if you are on the right track. Your answer should have a beginning, a middle, and an end that includes a real, tangible, and preferably positive result. Here is an example of a question asked and an effective answer:
Question: Jenna, what was your biggest contribution to the company you interned with last summer?
Answer: Throughout the summer, we had approximately five to six team meetings where the entire staff of ten engineers and their direct reports were present to discuss the major goal of the summer: the construction of a new courthouse.
I was tasked with drafting the agenda of these meetings and the agenda notes, which verified all that was discussed and agreed upon. The agendas directed complex meetings, and the agenda notes served as key documents that verified and clarified what was discussed and agreed upon during the meetings.
My first draft of the first agenda was much too broad, but with feedback from my manager, I ensured it included all the details necessary to hold a productive and effective meeting and created the structure for the agenda notes document. The agenda notes were typically three to five pages long, and by the second meeting, I was drafting the agenda and publishing the notes without any revisions from my manager.
I received exceptional feedback from several department heads because, in many instances, the notes saved countless hours of work. For example, during the third meeting, we reversed course on a previously agreed-upon strategy for the front columns of the courthouse. One of the key assistant engineers was not at the meeting, and when her peer brought her up to speed, he forgot to mention that the columns were changed from the Roman style columns to the Grecian columns, which needed a more intricate support system from the roof to the courthouse steps. Luckily, she read my agenda notes, which highlighted any course changes in red, and saved about two weeks’ worth of work, which was easily several thousand dollars. It also kept everyone on track regarding the completion date, which is June 2014.
To improve this process overall, I loaded the agenda and the notes into the department’s central files so instead of relying upon hard copies or e-mailed copies, everyone had one place to go for this important document that kept everyone on track. They are still using the improvements I implemented, so I’m very proud of that.
The answer’s beginning set the stage:
• Throughout the summer, we had approximately five to six team meetings, where the entire staff of ten engineers and their direct reports were present to discuss the major goal of the summer: the construction of a new courthouse.
• I was tasked with drafting the agenda of these meetings and the agenda notes, which verified all that was discussed and agreed upon.
Notice it had a middle that allowed you to understand how things were working:
• My first draft of the first agenda was much too broad, but with feedback from my manager, I edited it to include all the details necessary to hold a productive and effective meeting and create the structure for the agenda notes document.
• By the second meeting, I was drafting the agenda and publishing the notes without any revisions from my manager.
Positive momentum was built throughout the answer, and Jenna shared the positive results of her work:
• I received exceptional feedback from several department heads because in many instances, the notes saved countless hours of work.
• To improve this process overall, I loaded the agenda and the notes into the department’s central files, so instead of relying upon hard copies or e-mailed copies, everyone had one place to go for this important document that kept everyone on track.
• They are still using the improvements I implemented, so I’m very proud of that.
Authenticity and Honesty
Never misrepresent anything about yourself during the interview:
• Don’t indicate you are fluent in a language if you aren’t.
• Don’t mention you know a computer program that you clearly don’t know.
• Don’t mention you’ve been to a certain city if you haven’t been there.
Interviewers have a way of discovering any misrepresentations, so save yourself misery and humiliation by being authentic and honest.
Questions to Ask toward the End of the Interview
Table 8.1 includes some topics and potential questions. Table \(1\): Topics and Potential Questions
Topic Question
Goals of the company, division, department I understand that your main goal is to complete X.
Are you pleased with your progress so far?
Goals for the position I understand that should everything work out and I receive the offer, I would be responsible for Y.
Would you expect that I will be able to do that in one month, three months, or six months?
Training program Is there any training I would receive prior to my first day?
Would I receive ongoing training, or is it basically on-the-job training?
Critical skills needed What two or three skills do you think are absolutely necessary to succeed in this role?
Culture of the company I’ve researched your website and learned that the culture is x, y, and z.
Would you agree? Can you add anything to this?
Questions about the interviewer How did you get your start in this business?
What are you most proud of in your time at this company?
What is the one thing about this company that you are most focused on improving?
To what do you attribute your success at this company?
Additional questions I read the speech the chairman gave at the X conference last month. In that speech, she mentioned the importance of leadership and that this company is building a strong bench strength of leaders. How is that being done?
I recently read a few articles about this company in The Wall Street Journal and on BusinessWeek’s website. The articles seemed to say X. Do you agree?
I see that the stock has held steady lately. Can you tell me what you think caused this increase (or decrease)?
Remember to do two things when preparing your questions for the interview:
1. Match the proper questions to the proper interviewer:
• If you are interviewing with a managing director, ask about the goals of the company, the division, or the department. Ask about the stock of the company and ask what keeps them up at night.
• If you are interviewing with someone in human resources, ask about what is covered during the training program. You can also ask what skills are necessary for success, about past alums from your school, and so forth.
2. Research everything you can before the interview:
• Research the company’s, the division’s, and the department’s goals. Study the website, speak to alumni (if possible), and attend marketing events prior to the interview.
• Research your interviewer using Google and LinkedIn.
• Gather information from your network. Are your interviewers alumni from your school? If you knew someone else at the company, before the interview takes place, it’s fine to mention who you know and where you met.
Question Your Next Steps
Your final interview question should pertain to the next steps you should take so you will know how to follow up. Be certain your last question accomplishes the following:
• It demonstrates that you are forward thinking and that you tie up loose ends.
• It clarifies the follow-up process.
After
You can take definite steps after an interview to improve your chances of being called back for a second round or getting an offer for the position. Four steps increase your odds:
1. Send a thank-you note.
2. Update all parties relevant to your search.
3. Create your follow-up strategy.
4. Set up additional targets.
E-mail a Thank-You Note before the Day Ends
E-mail, versus a handwritten note, is preferred for many reasons:
• Your note will be immediately received by the interviewer. It’s common courtesy to thank people for their time right away, and manners count quite a bit during the job search.
• Your ability to write a concise business note is demonstrated.
• Your quick communication keeps you at the top of the interviewer’s mind.
• Your e-mailed thank-you note can be shared easily and often by everyone who interviewed you. This positive momentum keeps you in a positive light with all parties.
• Your e-mail is an opportunity to quickly confirm that you have the critical skills necessary to do a fantastic job. In the e-mail, you can reiterate the skills you have or mention something specific that was discussed in the interview, thus making an even stronger case for why you’d be a great hire.
• Your e-mail can include an attached article about the company or about an interest you share with the interviewer.
• Your e-mailed thank-you note is more likely to receive a response from the interviewer.
Some individuals believe a handwritten note distinguishes you from others; while that may be true, you never know if it arrived. You could send an e-mail and a handwritten note to cover all the bases, but don’t use the exact wording for both notes. Using a high-quality, professional notepaper or stationery is recommended.
Figure \(2\): "Sample Thank-You Note 1" is a sample thank-you note an employer received after a first-round interview.
Figure 8.3 and Figure 8.4 are additional examples of a thank-you note.
Update All Parties Relevant to Your Search
If you’ve met other people during your job search and they’ve been helpful in any way, send them an e-mail update as to how you’ve progressed. It will mostly likely be shared with others, so take great care when writing any note to a company representative.
Map Your Follow-Up Strategy
Once you’ve interviewed for a position, note your expected follow-up on your calendar. If the company representative said you will be contacted in a week, mark that on your calendar. If you aren’t contacted, add another three or four days onto your calendar and then follow up with the company. After that, maintain consistent communication to help produce positive results.
Different ways to keep in touch include the following:
• Thank the company’s representative for either the interview or the update.
• Give a results update.
• Send holiday greetings (throughout the year).
• Share an article about the company or about a common interest.
• Express congratulations on positive news about the representative’s career or the company.
• Make a referral.
Set Up Additional Targets
You should be working on no fewer than ten targets to ensure you have activity because some targets will get cold, while others get hot. The recruiting process is, to a large extent, a numbers game. Having more companies in play increases your chances of success.
When Things Go Wrong
Sometimes no matter how well you prepare, something still goes wrong. The following strategies will help you manage when things go amiss:
• If you forget to turn your cell phone off and it rings, apologize and quickly turn off the phone. Don’t look at the number of the person calling you.
• If you are late, call in advance to notify the interviewer and ask if the interview can proceed. Apologize when the interview takes place.
• If you have a wardrobe malfunction—a popped button, a run in your stockings, or you spilled coffee on your clothing—a little humor might help.
• If you went on a tangent and did not answer the question directly, check to make sure you are on track or ask that the question be repeated.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Assess your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes, and your goals before you begin the interview process.
• Knowing what to do before, during, and after an interview is critical to your overall success.
• Having a routine that you follow during the days before and the day of the interview will lower stress and increase your chances to succeed.
• The more prepared you are for an interview, the more likely you are to succeed. Control what you can through preparation and practice and when the unexpected happens, you will be in a better position to manage it.
• If things go wrong during an interview, you can take specific steps to regain your composure.
• Sending a thank-you note is a perfect way to thank the interviewer for their time and keep the lines of communication open. Identify something in the interview that you want to highlight in your note, yet keep it short and concise.
Exercises
1. Compare your list of strengths and weaknesses with those of a friend or fellow student. Seek reinforcement that your strengths are indeed your strengths and vice versa.
2. Select your interview outfit, including your suit, shoes, and briefcase or portfolio. When selecting something to wear, make sure your suit is professional and fits well. Preferred colors are navy, beige, and black. In the spring or summer, beige is an acceptable color for women. If you are not sure, ask a salesperson at a professional clothing store.
3. Draft a list of everything that you must do one, two, or three days before an interview and leave nothing to chance.
4. Practice answering a few interview questions, emphasizing the results you have achieved in various situations. Act confident even though you may not feel confident.
5. Draft a thank-you note and ask a friend or someone from career services to review it. Ensure it is grammatically correct in every way: spelling, tenses, and so forth. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/08%3A_Step_4_(Cont'l)_-_Master_the_Interview/8.01%3A_What_to_Do_Before%2C_During%2C_and_After_an_Interview.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the three types of interviews you will experience and learn strategies for succeeding at each of them.
2. Learn the difference between behavioral and case interviews.
3. Learn how informational interviews can lead to real interviews, and, at the very least, strong networking contacts.
You can experience three main types of interviews. Become familiar with each type and you will be more prepared and more successful:
1. Behavioral
2. Case
3. Informational
Behavioral Interview
The vast majority of interview candidates will participate in a behavioral interview. Behavioral questions focus on past performances versus hypothetical situations, following the premise that past behavior is a clear indicator of future behavior.
Later in this chapter, a comprehensive list is presented of the most-asked behavioral questions, along with strategies to answer them. Just about any other question asked is a derivative of these questions, so carefully review that section and practice your answers. Questions will relate to aspects of your past work and educational experiences. Here are four typical behavioral interview questions:
1. What was the toughest project you ever completed? Tell me about it.
2. Who was the most difficult customer you ever helped? Tell me about that situation.
3. What was your most challenging class? Tell me why it was challenging.
4. Were you ever a member of a team? What was your role, what was the goal of the team project, and did it go smoothly or was there an issue? What was the end result of the project?
The following strategies will help you answer behavioral questions successfully:
• Never mention anything negative about your past managers, past professors, or past clients. Even if a particular individual was difficult, speak instead about the challenge and the subsequent approval you received when you succeeding in satisfying that person.
• Focus on presenting an image of an enthusiastic and optimistic problem solver. Interviewers aren’t interested in someone who was downtrodden or didn’t get along with the team in general.
• Answer questions directly, and include a beginning, a middle, and an end in your answer.
• Quantify your answers whenever possible. For example, if you worked in your school’s library and you are asked about this work, include the number of books you managed per day, whether it was ten, one hundred, or one thousand. It’s fine to estimate.
• Ensure your answer is tied to the bottom line. Using the library example once more, your answer could include that using the electronic checkout system decreased lost books by 75 percent.
• Focus on the question asked to help you avoid going off on tangents.
• Ask the interviewer to repeat the question if you think you have gone off on a tangent or if you didn’t quite understand the question.
Case Interviews
Case interviews are predominately used in management consulting, though they are sometimes used in a variety of fields, including financial services, healthcare, consumer products, and education. A case interview is a hypothetical business problem, or case, that the interviewee is expected to solve during the interview. The case tests a variety of the interviewee’s skills and expertise, including analysis, logic, structuring of a problem, math, accounting or economics knowledge, specific industry knowledge, communication, creativity, and ability to deliver under pressure.
Case interviews might include short questions to estimate the size of a market:
• How many teenage Americans bought hiking boots last year?
• How many Christmas trees are sold in December in California?
• How many disposable cameras are purchased in London on a single day?
The interviewer does not expect you to know the specific answer, but that you estimate a final answer based on different facts (e.g., the population of the United States). The interviewer wants you to break down this broad request into smaller steps that can be calculated to see how you structure a problem. The interviewer is also testing your basic math skills and ability to work under pressure. The following information applies to the question on hiking boots:
• The population of the United States is about 300 million people.
• It is less obvious how many of those are teenagers, so you have to estimate. If life expectancy is approximately eighty years and equal numbers in each decade (ages zero to ten, eleven to twenty, and so forth) are estimated, then there are eight buckets of ages, including a teenage bucket, so the number of people in the teenage years represents 12 to 15 percent of the total population.
• Fifteen percent of 300 million is 45 million, but not every teenager wears hiking boots and not every teenager buys boots every year.
• If you estimate that 25 percent of teenagers wear hiking boots, then teenagers who purchase hiking books number about eleven million.
• If you estimate that a typical hiker buys a new pair every other year, then about five and a half million teenagers buy hiking boots each year.
Remember that the interviewer does not expect a specific answer, but rather wants to see the process you follow to estimate the answer.
Case interviews might also be as long as thirty to forty-five minutes of broad strategy or operations questions about a detailed problem. You may be asked how to manage a hypothetical teaching situation. You may be given a hospital scenario and asked how to streamline processes. You may be given data about the company or industry involved in the question presented. You may be asked to review charts, accounting statements, or other background material, such as in the following question: The CEO of a leading national toy company is considering acquiring a popular neighborhood toy shop in Austin, Texas. How would you advise the CEO whether or not to purchase the shop?
You might then be given more information about the national toy company, or you might be expected to ask for what you need. The questions you ask are part of what the interviewer is testing because your questions reveal the types of data you think are important to assess to make the purchase decision. You are trying to assess if the neighborhood shop fits into the national company’s strategy, and, if so, whether the cost of buying and integrating the neighborhood shop will be offset by potential future revenues.
Many large consulting firms, such as McKinsey and Bain, put sample cases and solutions on their websites. Books also offer sample cases and solutions. Many schools offer case-preparation workshops via either career services or extracurricular consulting clubs. Case interviews are very different from general job interviews but are rarely used except for management consulting jobs. Therefore, don’t spend any time preparing for case interviews unless you want a management consulting job. If you do want a job in management consulting, case interview practice is absolutely necessary. You will not get hired by a consulting firm without successfully completing several case interviews.
If you are interviewing outside the consulting industry, meet with a friend who is in your chosen profession. Ask them to tell you about when they were interviewed, and ask them to interview you. This can be a tremendous learning experience and can prepare you for success, so your time will be well spent in arranging a mock interview ahead of time.
Informational Interviews
Informational interviews, by their very name, give you the opportunity to gather information about the career you think you want to pursue. The more prepared you are, the better your session will be because the best informational interviews are two-way exchanges, more like a conversation than an interrogation. Your research will allow you to share vital information with your interviewer, and you both will benefit from the time spent.
Some informational interview questions focus on the interviewer:
• How did you get involved in this job, organization, or industry?
• What do you like most about it? What has been most rewarding?
• What is most challenging? Was there anything that surprised you?
• What is a typical day, week, or month?
• What skills are most critical to have, develop, and maintain to be successful?
• What personality types are most successful?
• What do you know now that you wished you knew when you started? (This is a great question to ask because it forces people to reflect on the arc of their career. It is unexpected and people appreciate this question.)
These types of questions establish rapport and will help you dig deeper and learn more about the job, the industry, and the career.
Some informational interview questions focus on the job and career:
• According to my research, the top competitors are [name the competition]. Am I missing anyone you think is significant? Is there a new player I should know about?
• I’ve read that [name a trend, challenge, or innovation] is a major trend, challenge, or innovation. Does this affect your job or organization? Is this overestimated in the media? Are there are other trends, challenges, or innovations I should be concerned about?
• Compensation isn’t the biggest factor in accepting a job, but I’d like to have a better sense of this. I’ve read that it is customary for people in this job to make [name salary range] and experience [name lifestyle, travel, work culture]. Is that accurate? Are there any nuances to this that are not publicized in the general media?
• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to have [name skills and experiences]. Is my background of [summarize your skills and experience] competitive? If you had an opening in your group, would you consider me? What do I need to do to improve my chances?
• What department are you in (i.e., the specific name if it’s not revealed in their introduction or on their business card)?
• Who oversees this department?
• How does it fit in with the rest of the organization?
• Is this the typical structure or are your competitors organized differently?
• I am doing research on [name another organization] and trying to find who runs the [name department you want]. Do you know anyone there whom I could ask?
Perhaps the most important question to ask during an informational interview is this one:
• I’m currently planning to speak to [name the people]. Should anyone else be on my list? May I use your name when I contact them?
Typical informational interviews lasting about thirty to forty-five minutes can be a vital part of the research you conduct to ensure you are targeting the right types of jobs.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Knowing the different types of interviews is important to succeeding at each.
• A behavioral interview is the most expected interview form for the vast majority of positions. Behavioral interviews rely on past performance as an indication of future performance.
• Case interviews are most widely used for consulting positions. The goal of a case interview is to test your logic and ability to problem solve quickly and effectively.
• Informational interviews, reviewed in Chapter 6, the section titled Informational Interviews, are a useful way to learn about an industry and a specific job through someone who has built their career in that area. You ask most of the questions, so you must prepare well in advance to get the most amount of information possible and impress the person with whom you are meeting.
• Some interviewers may merge aspects of behavioral and case interviewing into one interview session. Knowing how to succeed at each type of interview is a wise strategy.
Exercises
1. Participate in mock interview workshops given by career services.
2. Practice answering behavioral and case interview questions.
3. Prepare for an informational interview by deciding who you would like to interview and preparing the questions you will ask.
4. Pair up with an interview buddy to practice each type of interview. Critique each other’s performance. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/08%3A_Step_4_(Cont'l)_-_Master_the_Interview/8.02%3A_Different_Types_of_Interviews.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the pros and cons of live versus phone interviews.
2. Understand strategies that will allow you to maximize your impact during any type of interview.
Methods of Interviewing
One of four methods might be used to interview you:
1. Live interviews (one-on-one and a panel type)
2. Phone interviews (one-on-one and a panel type)
3. Video or Skype interviews
4. Taped interviews
Live (One-on-One and a Panel Type)
Live, or face-to-face, interviews, are the most common interview interaction. An increasing trend of recruiters is to pair up with another colleague and have two or more interviewers per interview candidate. Many candidates will end up interviewing before a panel of interviewers, so be prepared for that to happen as well.
You will need to employ all of the strategies outlined earlier in this chapter, in the section titled “Different Types of Interviews.” In addition, here are some specific strategies to employ when you are interviewing with one or more interviewers.
When you are interviewing with only one person, the focus is clear—it’s on one person. Ensure your nonverbal and verbal communication is focused, positive, and results oriented. The more you practice, troubleshoot, and improve, the more you will succeed.
If you are interviewing with two or more interviewers at the same time, focus and practice are just as important, but you can employ a few additional strategies:
• Focus on the person asking the question to ensure you fully understand the question. When you answer, however, look at all interviewers in the room (even if they are not speaking). Use the lighthouse approach, and just as a lighthouse’s light scans from side to side, do the same with your eye contact and connect with everyone in the room.
• Practice and helpful critiques for improvement cannot be emphasized enough. Conduct as many mock interviews as possible because your skills will improve with each attempt. Practice also will help you strengthen your performance significantly, thus helping you succeed in either gaining a second-round interview or getting an offer.
Phone (One-on-One and a Panel Type)
Phone interviews are just as important, if not more so, than face-to-face interviews. In down economies, more companies choose to conduct interviews via the phone versus face-to-face to save time, money (if they have to pay your expense to come to their office), and effort. So preparation and practice are key to succeeding on the phone.
Prepare for a phone interview (similar to a regular interview) by taking seven important steps:
1. Research the industry, the company, the competitors, and the interviewer (if possible).
2. Match your strengths to the job description.
3. Practice interview questions, focusing on the results of your projects and tasks.
4. Ask a friend to interview you over the phone so you are used to the medium.
5. Be proactive about discussing your strengths and have concrete examples of how you have used them.
6. Prepare questions for the interviewer.
7. Ask what the next steps will be.
Phone interviews have several advantages:
• You can focus more on the actual questions because you have fewer distractions:
• The surroundings
• The interviewer
• You can treat the interview like an open-book test and have several items at hand to help you:
• A copy of your résumé
• A list of your strengths and examples of each one
• A list of your weaknesses and your plan to strengthen each
Since many companies save time and money by conducting phone interviews, spend the time now to master success strategies as it will benefit you in the long run!
Phone interviews have some disadvantages:
• You lose your ability to make a first great impression visually.
• You lose the ability to impress with body language such as eye contact, a good handshake, and so forth.
• You cannot read the interviewer’s body language.
• You might become confused if more than one person is asking questions, especially if a speakerphone is used.
• You might be left in the awkward position of not knowing what to do next if the recruiter doesn’t value phone interviews as much as face-to-face interviews. They might reschedule or not call when they said they would.
Strategies for a successful phone interview include the following:
• Ensure your office or interview space will be quiet and uninterrupted.
• Put a note over your doorbell—“Do not ring from 2–3:00 p.m.”
• Put a note on your door—“Do not disturb—interview in progress from 2–3:00 p.m.”
• Ask someone to walk your dog for the hour you are on the phone, or put it in a fenced backyard. If you have a cat with a loud meow, put it in another room where it cannot be heard.
• Stop call waiting—check with your carrier as to how to do this.
• Shut off cell phones.
• Dress up even though you don’t have to:
• You will feel more professional.
• You will take the interview more seriously.
• Stand up during the interview:
• Your voice sounds better.
• Your focus will be keener.
• Have a glass of water handy.
• Have your important documents and whatever else you might need in front of you because the interviewer can hear you gather things during the interview.
• Remember that body language is important:
• Smile when you would normally smile in a live interview. Interviewers can hear a smile and smiles enhance the interview experience.
• Use inflection in your voice because a monotone makes for a dull interview.
Videoconference or Skype Interview
When you are at a more senior level, interviews might take place with someone in a different city, state, or even overseas. In such a case, a videoconference or Skype interview may be used. You will be seated in front of a computer with a camera and your interview will be live via that camera.
Strategies to succeed during a videoconference interview include the following:
• When answering questions, look into the camera instead of looking at the person on the screen. If you look at the camera, your eyes will meet the eyes of the person on the other end of the computer, making for a better connection. If you look at the person on the computer monitor when answering the question, you will appear to be looking down. It’s tempting to look at the person’s face versus the camera because you want to read their impression, but try to avoid this.
• Practice this technique by speaking to a friend via Skype. It’s the exact same medium as a teleconferenced interview, and will give you the much-needed practice.
• Posture is very important, as it is with all interviews, but especially in a videoconference because the interviewer will see you from the shoulders up.
Taped Interviews
Taped interviews are so rarely used that you probably will not encounter them. They are primarily used to hire a large number of people for the same exact position, for example, sales positions. If a company has a goal to hire one hundred or five hundred salespeople, a taped interview saves them time in reviewing candidate answers, since all the questions might be the same. Taped interviews are also helpful when hiring salespeople in different parts of the country because taped interviews save the enormous expense of flying interviewers from city to city to find the best possible candidates.
Companies that use taped interviews may direct you to a satellite office where the taping takes place. You would be seated opposite a computer or computer kiosk, and you would be given an overview of the process. Taped interviews could involve timed responses, so the pressure could be high. Remember these types of interviews are rare, but it is good to know they exist and how they are formatted.
Strategies to succeed in taped interviews include the following:
• Practice taping yourself before a taped interview using a Flip Video or ask a friend to tape you. This can give you much-needed practice that other candidates might not have.
• Review the instructions carefully before proceeding because taped interviews are often timed.
• Focus intently on the question because you will not be able to clarify it.
Interview Venues
Knowing the four different types of interview venues will help ensure your success:
1. On campus
2. Off campus
3. In a corporate office or conference room
4. During a meal (breakfast, lunch, or dinner)
On Campus
If your interview takes place on campus, you will probably receive instructions from your career services office regarding the date and time of the interview. Check with the office to ensure you know how you will be notified. Most career services offices have a general check-in area, a waiting area, and very small interview rooms. It’s best to practice in these rooms ahead of time, so you know exactly what to expect. Some rooms are literally five feet by five feet.
Off Campus
If your interview takes place off campus, the company with which you are interviewing will send instructions regarding where to report and when. Ensure you know exactly how to get there, and arrive early if at all possible because you probably will need to go through security. Bring the interview schedule with you; it should include the name(s) of the individuals with whom you will interview and their contact information.
If you need to travel via train or plane to an interview, dress professionally on the way there. Wearing yoga pants and flip-flops doesn’t make a good impression, and there is always a chance you will bump into company representatives during your trip.
In a Corporate Office or Conference Room
Most often, candidates will be interviewed in the interviewer’s office, but there are times when you will be interviewed in a conference room. Some conference rooms are glass-enclosed areas, and it can be distracting to interview as individuals look in and walk by. Regardless of the setting, maintain your focus on the questions asked and the interview at hand.
During a Meal
Mealtime interviews can be tricky situations because food and drink are involved. Strike a healthy balance of not being ravenous but not leaving your plate untouched either. Focus your full attention on the conversation and interview at hand. It is wise to stay away from messy marinara sauces and long strings of pasta because they can easily stain your clothing. Forgo alcohol at all costs and certainly if you are not of legal age to consume alcohol. If you are not comfortable with dining etiquette, familiarize yourself with it to increase your comfort level. Know which fork is correct to use for salad versus dinner. Research this so you are prepared in advance. Interviews that take place during a meal can heighten nerves and cause you to spill a glass of water, which doesn’t bode well for your confidence level. Practice can only help, so try to attend a dining etiquette class or study proper techniques to ensure a good impression.
No matter what the venue, dress well and take extra copies of your résumé, a portfolio with paper and a pen that works, a list of questions you will ask, and perhaps a bottle of water just in case you need it.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Knowing the different types of interviews is important to succeeding at each. Knowing the pros and cons to live and phone interviews can ensure you get a second interview or perhaps the job offer.
• Having a one-on-one interview is very different from having to interview before a panel of people. Researching the individuals who will interview you can decrease your stress and help you perform optimally.
• Some interviewers may merge aspects of behavioral and case interviewing into one interview session. Knowing how to succeed at each is a wise strategy.
• Your interview venue affects the interview dynamics, so preparing in advance can only help.
Exercises
1. Participate in any mock interview sessions held by your school’s career services office.
2. Find a peer at your school with whom to practice, if workshops aren’t available in career services. Interview your classmate and then critique their responses. Also have your peer interview you and critique your responses.
3. Practice a phone interview with a friend and vice versa. It’s great practice before a live phone interview.
4. Practice interviewing on campus in the career services office so you can be comfortable with the venue.
5. Ask someone in career services to interview you in their office so you can be comfortable with that particular setting.
6. Practice a mealtime interview with your interview buddy during breakfast or lunch. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/08%3A_Step_4_(Cont'l)_-_Master_the_Interview/8.03%3A_Different_Methods_of_Interviewing_and_Different_Interview_Venues.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the three distinct types of interview questions.
2. Understand how to answer each type of question confidently and stress a results-oriented approach.
Interviewers are most likely to ask one of four types of questions:
1. Open-ended questions
2. Specific questions
3. Motivation questions
4. Unconventional questions
Lastly, we’ll review illegal questions that hopefully will not be a part of your interviews.
Open-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions don’t have specific answers. They include questions like the following:
• Tell me about yourself. Walk me through your career. Why did you make the choices you made?
Such questions present an opportunity to tell your story in an engaging, articulate, and compelling way. Explain why you selected the school(s) you selected, your major and your minor, and your GPA (if it’s above 3.3). Describe the jobs you’ve had and how you got them. Did you apply directly or did you get them through networking? What were your most significant accomplishments at each job? Highlight significant accomplishments that may or may not be explicit in your résumé. Often, a theme will emerge, but if that isn’t the case, talk about your decisions in a positive light.
• With which skills and functions are you most comfortable? If I were to assign you a project based on your expertise, what would I give you?
If you enjoy working with clients, talk about your specific achievements and how you helped your clients. Have you served them well enough for them to be repeat customers? Have they referred other clients to you? If you are very strong analytically, give an example of the most analytical project on which you’ve worked and the project’s outcome.
• What are your weakest skills, and how are you addressing them? What areas would your supervisors say you need to develop?
Everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses. You should do a substantive assessment of your weaknesses prior to an interview. A weakness should never be a critical component of the job for which you are applying. If there is a trick to answering this question effectively, it’s to highlight what you are doing to strengthen each weakness. For example, if public speaking is something you consider a weakness, you can say that to improve this, you raise your hand as much as possible in class, and you volunteer to present whenever possible. The more prepared you are with the content of your presentation, the better you perform.
• What do you do for fun? What do you do in your free time? What do you like to read?
These questions present an opportunity to enthusiastically and specifically discuss what you enjoy doing in your spare time. If you enjoy tennis, talk about how long you have been playing and your favorite player. If you enjoy reading, mention the last great book you read.
Specific Questions
Specific questions have concrete answers and might include the following:
• Tell me about this [the interviewer can point to anything on your résumé, whether it be a project, an employer, a class, a skill, or a hobby].
You must be able to quickly and completely discuss any topic from your résumé and its relevance to your professional career. You should be able to recount every detail about each project, and enthusiastically relay those details to your interviewer. If you are not enthusiastic about your work, they will not be either. Also highlight the result of your work or any project about which they want to know more.
• Tell me about your favorite project, your most significant project, or a project that demonstrates your leadership, project management, analytical, research, or communications skills.
When answering this question, remember who sponsored the project, the project’s objective and deliverable, steps you took to complete the project, and the results of your efforts. Note your role as well as the roles of other team members. Be specific and quantify the results.
• Tell me about a project where something went wrong or tell me about a difficult client.
Everyone has worked on projects where something went wrong. If we procrastinated, we learned to become more disciplined in our approach to projects. If someone didn’t do their part of the project, which then caused us to do extra work, we learned to communicate more clearly and check the project’s progress on a regular basis.
We also have worked with difficult clients. The trick is to not say anything negative about a client. If a client was demanding, remember that all clients have a right to make demands. We need to raise our game to ensure they are pleased with the service and our level of professionalism. Never make negative comments about a client, a boss, a peer, or a company. Doing so sends an immediate red flag to the interviewer, so avoid such negativity at all costs. Position everything in a positive light, which can only help your candidacy.
• What do you think about current events or significant events in the employer’s industry?
Interviewers want to know that you are knowledgeable about current events, especially those pertaining to their industry. The very best candidates are well versed in the current news, so be prepared to discuss one or two items. It’s important that you cite the source of the news and what you learned from it. If you did subsequent research about the topic, discuss that as well. It’s an opportunity to highlight your research and your passion for this industry.
Motivation Questions
Interviewers often want to know about a candidate’s motivation by asking the following questions:
• With which firms are you interviewing? What positions are you seeking? How will you choose?
The most savvy interviewers know that the best candidates interview with multiple companies. Many candidates are comfortable discussing specific companies with which they are interviewing, and, from a recruiting perspective, it’s fine to mention the company names. If you would rather not discuss this, mention that you are currently interviewing with other companies, but this company is your number one choice and highlight why you want to work there. They should get the hint that you don’t want to mention specific companies.
No matter what company is interviewing you, ensure that you know why you want to work for that particular company. Know their strong points and know their competitors. Know clearly why you want to work for them versus their competitors.
• What do you hope to accomplish in your career? Where do you see yourself in one, five, or more years?
Your research will help you answer this question. If you’ve conducted some informational interviews, you will have a clear idea of what a career can look like in one, five, and ten years. It is also important to network with peers who have interned at the companies in which you are interested because they can share specific information with you. For example, consulting, investment banking, and brand management have well-defined career paths. Advertising has a defined career path, but it may not be as defined as other businesses and industries.
Additional sources of information on this topic can be gathered on various job-seeker sites such as http://www.vault.com and www.wetfeet.com. Career services can be a huge resource, as can alumni who are in the industries in which you are most interested.
• What questions do you have for the interviewer?
This can be a make-or-break question because some interviews consist of just this one question. Every interview candidate should enter an interview with five to seven questions written down in advance. These questions should come directly from your research.
• Why do you want this position? Why do you want to work with this company?
Answers to these questions will come from your research. Have a specific reason you want to work at the company doing the exact job for which you are interviewing. Is the brand name very strong, giving you an opportunity to work with the best? Is the brand name not yet a household name, giving you an opportunity to make it so?
It’s also important to know what skills you will gain in this specific position and which will enable you to be successful. Will the position strengthen your analytical skills? Will it enable you to become a subject-matter expert? Be specific in your answer.
Unconventional Questions
Some interviewers may think you are too rehearsed and may want to inject a bit of stress; perhaps they want to shake you up a bit by asking what may seem to be crazy or certainly bizarre interview questions:
• If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? Why?
• If you were a car, what color would you be? Why?
• If you were an item in the supermarket, what item would you be? Why?
• If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be? Why?
Note that these questions are rare and you probably will not be asked them, but since preparation is key, it’s worth examining why they are asked. These types of questions are asked to get a true glimpse into your personality. The “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be and why?” question could be answered the following way:
• If you were a corporate research analyst who relied purely on your research to describe a stock, and that research would be shared with hundreds of portfolio managers, you might say you were a redwood tree. A redwood is one of the strongest trees on the planet and has roots that grow hundreds of feet into the ground. Not even the strongest of winds can cause the redwood to sway.
• If you were applying to be a technology customer service representative who troubleshoots during their entire day, you may say that you were a palm tree. A palm tree bends and yields to gentle breezes and hurricanes alike, but it survives almost anything that comes its way and stands tall and straight the minute the wind stops.
The two types of trees have very different characteristics, yet they both survive and thrive.
Unconventional questions have no correct answer, but when asked them, four strategies can help you succeed:
1. Practice answering a few of these types of questions. If you need a few minutes to consider your answer during an interview, it’s fine to ask for a bit of time.
2. Answer by showing something positive or beneficial about you and your personality.
3. Avoid humor and answer the question seriously and sincerely.
4. Work backward to the answer. Think about a characteristic that is important to the job, and then match it to a tree, a fruit, or an item in a supermarket.
Illegal Questions
Illegal or discriminatory questions include references to the following:
• Age
• Birthplace
• Childcare arrangements
• Ethnicity and race
• Disability
• Marital and family status
• National origin
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
If you are asked any question relating to the preceding topics, it could be for one of two reasons. Either the interviewer is asking an illegal question or the interviewer might not be well versed in interview techniques. Many hiring managers have not been formally trained in interview techniques, and that lack of training can result in asking an illegal question.
It is hoped that the question would be harmless enough so that you can answer it without feeling uncomfortable. If you feel uncomfortable answering something, tactfully say that the question doesn’t relate to the job. Try to move onto another question or ask a question pertaining to the job to get the interview back on track.
If you feel that you were subjected to discrimination, speak to someone at your career services office. They could provide the guidance necessary at this stage of your job search. If that is not possible, consult a friend or professor and ask for guidance in your next steps. This is not a matter to be taken lightly, so it’s important to get help from someone who is familiar with these issues.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Interviewers are most likely to ask one of three types of questions: (1) open ended, (2) specific, and (3) motivation questions.
• Unconventional interview questions might be asked, and you must be able to spontaneously answer them.
• It’s wise to know what questions are illegal in case they are asked.
Exercises
1. Practice answering each of the open-ended, specific, and motivation questions, ensuring that you use specific examples for each.
2. Practice the unconventional interview questions as well. Ensure that you tie the positive traits of the object (such as a tree) to key components of the skills needed for the job.
3. Review questions that are illegal. If you are asked one of these questions during an interview, follow up with your career services office. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/08%3A_Step_4_(Cont'l)_-_Master_the_Interview/8.04%3A_Different_Types_of_Questions.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand why recruiters might be annoyed at certain interview behavior and learn how to avoid unpleasant interactions of any kind.
2. Learn about the importance of body language and practice until your body language is positive and impressive.
3. Learn strategies to keep your energy positive and strong throughout the interview day.
A number of things can annoy an interviewer and must be avoided at all costs. The following includes a list of things you should not do. Mock interviews are especially helpful at this stage because sometimes candidates are not aware they are doing things that are clear turnoffs to interviewers, so proceed with caution.
Not Being Prepared
Being unprepared is an insult to the interviewer who is investing their time and energy into meeting with you. You should be there on time, have several copies of your résumé in your portfolio, focus on answering any question asked, and have a list of questions to ask at the end of the interview.
Negative Body Language
Positive body language such as looking the interviewer in the eye and shaking their hand firmly when saying hello inspires trust. Poor body language can eliminate you as a potential candidate. Practice answering questions with a friend and look them straight into the eye. Smile when you talk about big goals that you have achieved. You may look away now and then, but for the most part hold their gaze throughout the interview. Sit up straight in an attentive position to help ensure you make a good impression.
Appearing Tense
Stress is a vital component of an interview because you want the job and you need to impress. Using that stress to perform better is key, and, with practice, you can appear more relaxed than you actually are. For example, if your palm sweats a bit, discreetly wipe your hand on your pants leg or skirt before you shake the interviewer’s hand. Preparing in advance usually lowers stress, but if you still need additional methods to calm yourself before an interview, try listening to soothing music before entering the building or read something inspirational before the interview. Taking deep breaths before you enter the building can lower stress a great deal.
Not Focusing on the Question and Not Answering It Directly
If your interviewer asks for a one- to two-minute overview, don’t spend six to eight minutes regurgitating your résumé. Focus and listen carefully to everything the interviewer asks you. If they ask for a one- to two-minute overview, make sure you give them one to two minutes. If you feel you might be going on a tangent and not answering the question, it’s fine to ask if you are going in the right direction, or you can ask the recruiter to repeat the question and start over. Practice is important, even when you practice going off the topic.
Waning Energy
The interview process is strenuous. If you interview with one person, it’s easy to keep your energy up. However, some interviews might be set up where you will interview with multiple people or several individual people throughout the day, and, in some cases, on different floors and in different buildings. Your energy level must be as strong and consistent with your seventh interview as it was with your first. To avoid waning energy, bring a small bottle of water with you to help you feel refreshed. If your interview day will be several hours long, bring a small snack bar to help you stay alert.
Blaming Others for Your Poor Performance
Putting anyone or anything in a negative light is not a good strategy for an interview. Criticizing your past peers, boss, or company puts you in a negative light. Interviewers red flag any type of negative comment and might probe for more negative energy lurking in other interview responses.
Not Treating Everyone with Respect
Treat everyone you meet during the day with the utmost respect, whether it is the security guard, the administrative assistant, or the actual interviewer. Be respectful if you are trying to rush through security or if you are holding an elevator for someone. All of these individuals communicate with each other, and if you leave a bad impression with any of them, it could end your candidacy. Be courteous and kind to everyone you meet. Manners do count.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The more prepared you are to execute an exceptional interview, the better are your chances of getting another interview or an offer.
• The interview process can be exhausting, so ensure you have strategies to keep your energy high.
• Focusing during the interview process is critical to success. Answering questions directly is the best way to showcase your strengths.
Exercises
1. Practice focusing on the exact questions asked by an interviewer to avoid going off track in any way.
2. Practice positive body language for interviews. Ensure you are comfortable in your interview suit, whether you are sitting at a desk or sitting on a couch in the interviewer’s office.
3. Ensure that all your interview responses are positive and relevant. You can practice this during an interview workshop or with an interview buddy. You can also print the top ten to fifteen interview questions and record your responses, and then strengthen each of your answers after you listen to them. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/08%3A_Step_4_(Cont'l)_-_Master_the_Interview/8.05%3A_Avoid_Interviewer_Pet_Peeves.txt |
Control what you can control, and your interview will be more successful. This includes doing the following, but this list is far from exhaustive:
• Assess your strengths and weaknesses before the interview.
• Research the company and its competitors in advance of your meeting.
• Prepare and practice interview questions.
• Create a routine for the day of the interview to ensure you don’t rush or skip important steps.
• Write down five to seven questions to ask at the end of your interview to prove you are motivated to get this job offer.
Remember that interviews are subjective and that a second interview is never a guarantee. Budgets can shift and your targeted company may have to pull an open requisition. Perhaps the company wants to promote from within and they may hire an internal candidate. Many interviewers hire in their own image, regardless of any interviewer training course they may attend. No matter what happens at the end of your interview, it’s important to stay positive and it’s equally important to not take it personally.
Regardless of the interview’s outcome, and especially if you don’t get the job, thank the interviewer for the interaction. Continue to keep in touch because that person can become an important part of your network. Leaving a positive impression can only help your future prospects because jobs for which you would be a perfect fit might open in the near term. Remember also that recruiters and hiring managers tend to move from company to company, and there is a strong likelihood that your paths may cross again. Maintaining positive relationships can only help your career.
Lastly, if you interview for a position and you don’t get it, at least appreciate the value and practice of your experience. Troubleshoot what could have gone better and improve on that one thing. If you are proactive enough at strengthening your interview ability and ensuring you have enough interviews lined up, you increase your chances of getting a job offer. Once that happens, you will probably be in the interviewer’s seat before long.
Chapter Takeaways
• Before you even think of interviewing, you must know three things:
1. Know yourself.
2. Know your résumé well enough to enthusiastically speak about every minute detail.
3. Know the company, the position, and the industry for which you are interviewing.
• Knowing what to do before an interview is key to your success:
• Research the industry, the company, the competitors, and the interviewer (if possible).
• Practice the interview questions.
• Have a full dress rehearsal three days before the interview.
• Know where you are going in advance and ensure you show up early.
• Have a routine for the day of the interview.
• Knowing what to do during an interview is critical:
• Maintain positive body language.
• Update your networking.
• Maintain your focus.
• Be authentic.
• Prepare questions to ask toward the end of the interview.
• Ask what the next step will be.
• Knowing what to do after an interview can strengthen your chances of getting the job:
• Send a thank-you note.
• Update all parties relevant to your search.
• Map out your follow-up strategy.
• Things can go wrong during an interview. Knowing how to get back on track is vital to your interview success.
• Interviews can be very structured or very unstructured, depending on the interviewer and the industry.
• The best way to succeed in any interview is to prepare for every type of interview and every type of interviewer.
• Interviews can be one of three types:
1. Behavioral interviews
2. Case interviews
3. Informational interviews
• Interviews can be conducted using different methods:
• Live interviews
• Phone interviews
• Videoconference or Skype interviews
• Taped interviews
• The venue will be either on campus or off campus and in either an office or a conference room.
• Some interviewers are more skilled at the interview process than others, so having a planned approach helps ensure your strengths are highlighted in the interview.
• You need to be prepared to answer various types of interview questions in advance of the interview:
• Open-ended questions
• Specific questions
• Motivation questions
• Unusual questions
• Familiarize yourself with questions that are considered illegal.
• Avoid interviewer pet peeves to ensure maximum success during the interview process. Some of these include not being prepared, not having positive body language, and not being enthusiastic, among others.
Chapter Review
1. How do you define an interview?
2. What should you know about yourself before you actually interview for a position?
3. What is the structure of a typical interview and what are some reasons an interview might be unstructured?
4. Why is it important to prepare and practice?
5. What are the most important things to do before an interview?
6. How important is having a routine to follow on the day of the interview?
7. What is body language and how can you use it to your advantage?
8. When answering interview questions, why it is more effective to have a beginning, a middle, and an end to your response?
9. What types of things can go wrong during an interview, and what can you do to get them back on track?
10. What three things should you do after an interview?
11. Why are thank-you notes important and how do you write an effective thank-you note?
12. Why are the three main types of interviews?
13. How do you prepare for an informational interview, and what are the main benefits to conducting them?
14. What are the four different methods of interviewing?
15. Why are more and more interviewers choosing to conduct phone interviews versus face-to-face interviews?
16. What are the pros and cons of phone interviews?
17. What is the difference between on-campus and off-campus interviewing? Why should you participate in both?
18. How can you practice the most-asked interview questions?
19. What strategies would you use to answer open-ended questions versus specific questions versus motivation questions?
20. Why would an interviewer use unconventional interview questions, and what is the best way to practice answering them?
21. What constitutes an illegal question, and what should you do if you are asked an illegal question during an interview?
22. What interviewer pet peeves can you avoid?
SuccessHawk: Interview
For tips and ideas about preparing for interviews, click on Interviews in the Advice and Research Section of the menu bar on the right. You may also want to review the demo using Perfect Interview, an interactive online interview practice feature under Interactive Features. (Note: There is a charge of \$19.95 for unlimited use of Perfect Interview for sixty days.) | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/08%3A_Step_4_(Cont'l)_-_Master_the_Interview/8.06%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercises.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Become aware of the importance of motivation to the job search.
2. Anticipate the areas within the job search where motivation is needed.
3. Start thinking about how you have handled motivation in the past and what you can use from past experience or what needs to change.
There are two types of motivation in your job search:
1. Long-term motivation over the duration of your job search
2. Short-term motivation for a specific job search event, such as a networking meeting, interview, or offer negotiation
Each type of motivation requires different energy and focus, and, therefore, a different strategy. It is similar to taking two different classes—one where the emphasis is on weekly exams versus another where the grade rests on research papers. The way that you prepare for each class will be different. The pace at which you do your work will differ. In a job search, the weekly exams are the networking meetings and interviews (in fact, you will have more than one exam during the busy weeks of your search). Getting from job idea to job offer is a long-term project, akin to a multiweek research paper.
Long-Term Motivation
To retain long-term motivation for your job search overall, you need to take certain actions:
• Pace yourself and move through the process.
• Push past the ups and downs, and do not get discouraged by the inevitable disappointments during the job search.
• Stay focused on the end goal of ultimately securing job offers.
Long-term motivation is the marathon aspect of your job search. If you are experienced at long-term projects, such as big research papers, then you can apply your experience and know-how about pacing and scheduling to your job search. If you are a better student in the weekly exam class model, then you need to periodically remind yourself of your overall job search goals. Select from the specific strategies for maintaining long-term motivation later in this chapter.
A good example of maintaining long-term motivation is the case of Emily G., a class of 2008 undergraduate who was interested in the media industry and had moved to New York City after college in Pennsylvania. Her job search took over a year, during which time she held a series of internships and part-time jobs, all while conducting her search. She graduated during a serious downturn in the economy. She received two offers that were rescinded, through no fault of her own, because the budget for those positions was cut. It took over a year, but her third offer finally stuck, and she is happily employed at a major media company in human resources.
Short-Term Motivation
In addition to long-term motivation, individual situations in the job search, such as a job interview, call for increased energy and focus. For every job interview, you will need to be at your best, regardless of whether the commute to the interview was tiring, whether you woke up feeling a bit down, or whether you stubbed your toe on the reception desk right after you walked in at your appointed time. This short-term motivation provides an immediate and necessary boost to whatever is the focus of your search right now.
There are many instances across your job search where you need to harness short-term motivation:
• Each and every job interview (and most companies will have multiple rounds for one job opening)
• Each and every networking meeting
• Career fairs
• Professional group meetings or mixers
• Phone calls to your target companies (e.g., for information, for a status update)
• Offer and salary negotiations
If you are a better student in the research paper class or you like to ease into a situation, then you need to ramp up your preparation for the high-stakes events like job interviews. Prospective employers form impressions very early in the process. You will not have the first five minutes of an interview to ease into it. Your interviewer will already have an opinion of you from meeting you at reception or from the small talk you make at the start of the interview.
A good example of maintaining short-term motivation is the case of K. V., an experienced executive who was negotiating an end to her contract at a major firm while negotiating a new role at another one, all while continuing to do her high-profile management job. K. V. would often have very different types of meetings in the same day, from contentious negotiations with her bosses to enthusiastic sales meetings with her future bosses. She had to maintain composure and advocate hard for herself in a severance negotiation, and then turn around and be cheery for an offer negotiation. She was able to be at her best in each scenario, came to an amicable end with her former employer, and is now enjoying a bigger role at her new employer.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• There are two types of motivation, long-term and short-term, each playing a critical role in your job search.
• Long-term job search motivation is akin to a multiweek research project, while short-term motivation is more like weekly class exams.
Exercises
1. Do you do better with exams or research papers? Based on this, on what areas of the job search will you pay particular attention so that nothing falls through the cracks?
2. Do you prefer exams or research papers? This gives you an indication of what areas you may enjoy in your job search.
3. How do you currently prepare for exams or research papers? What strengths do you have in one or both areas that you can bring to your job search?
4. What bad habits or tendencies do you need to avoid, for example, procrastination, nervousness? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/09%3A_Step_5_-_Stay_Motivated_and_Organized_and_Troubleshoot_Your_Research/9.01%3A_Two_Types_of_Motivation_Relating_to_the_Job_Search.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the importance for deliberate actions and routines.
2. Learn different strategies for long-term and short-term motivation.
3. Get specific examples that you can apply to your own job search.
Motivation at Will Requires Deliberate Action
For a successful job search, you need to be able to harness both short-term motivation and long-term motivation at will. The best way to do this is to have a plan and structure in place to deliberately motivate yourself. You cannot rely on sheer willpower or inspiration because that is exhausting and unreliable.
Champion athletes and performing artists are good examples of people who use deliberate motivation. They have well-defined routines for the day of big events and for the long-term preparation leading up to the big events.
A good example of deliberate long-term motivation: One piano teacher at a leading conservatory gave his students very specific pacing for learning the concerto selected for the school’s annual soloist competition. It included finishing the piece several months before the actual competition so that his students could stop playing it entirely for several weeks, and then pick it up again refreshed. A break of several weeks was deliberately built in to give students a tactic for staying refreshed, energized, and motivated on the piece.
A good example of deliberate short-term motivation: A commercial and TV acting teacher gave his students a specific routine and set of guidelines for the days they had auditions. One of the rules was no watching or reading news or dramas the night before and morning of the audition. This was a deliberate choice to keep the students upbeat in the hours leading up to the audition. He also coached his students to focus on one good thing that happened to them in the previous three days—another deliberate tactic to maintain positive energy.
Similarly, you will need a deliberate routine before job interviews and other high-stakes job search events. You will also need deliberate routines built in over your job search to stay refreshed, energized, and motivated. Deliberate motivation-at-will strategies will enable you to stick to your job search, regardless of nervousness, fatigue, or even forgetfulness.
Strategies for Maintaining Short-Term Motivation
Following are some suggestions for motivational routines to follow prior to a job interview, beginning the night before the interview:
• Do something relaxing that keeps you positive.
• Create a summary sheet of key research points you intend to share.
• Review your questions for the interviewer so that you ensure a two-way dialogue.
• Practice your interview responses for the top questions you are expecting.
The morning of the interview, certain actions can ensure a successful outcome:
• Skim the current event headlines so you can engage in a timely discussion.
• Have your favorite breakfast that will keep you full and energized, but not cause your energy level to crash (i.e., you may want to avoid too much sugar or caffeine).
• Pick a specific accessory or other item for your interview outfit that makes you feel good and is a visual cue that this is a special day.
On the way to the interview, you can continue to maintain your motivation:
• Listen to your favorite, upbeat song (remember to take the earphones out of your ears while you are waiting in reception so you appear approachable)
• If you are inspired by quotes, have your favorites on an index card to read, even right before you check in at reception.
• If you are visually oriented, have a picture with you that instantly relaxes you.
These same suggestions can also work for the other job search events that require short-term motivation, such as networking meetings, career fairs, professional mixers, and offer negotiations. For the high-intensity, time-sensitive job search situations, such as sending that thank-you letter on time, consider designating a job search buddy on whom you can call for support. This person doesn’t have to be a fellow job seeker, though that’s one popular approach as you can support each other. Just make sure you pick someone who is encouraging and focuses on action.
Try different things as you go through your job search, and keep a log of what works for you:
• Activities that are relaxing and can easily be scheduled the night before an event (You may love a long hike in the woods, but this might not work for the day before an early-morning meeting.)
• Foods that are sustaining and energizing, including meal and snack options
• Outfits and accessories that are appropriate, flattering, and good visual cues to motivate you
• Songs, quotes, and pictures that inspire you
• People who encourage and inspire you
Also keep a log of what to avoid:
• Activities that put you in a bad mood (e.g., sad or scary movies)
• Activities that you may enjoy but distract you (e.g., Internet surfing)
• Foods that give you heartburn or make your energy level crash
• People who drain your energy and discourage you
Strategies for Maintaining Long-Term Motivation
For long-term motivation, recognize in advance that your search will take several months, so you need to plan for regular breaks throughout each day, during the week, and at various points during your overall search.
High-focus, ongoing activities, such as research or corresponding with networking leads, require breaks that give you refreshment but also don’t derail your train of thought:
• Schedule activities that require concentration for when you do your best thinking.
• Block out uninterrupted time—turn off your e-mail alerts and close down your Internet browser so you don’t jump on and off your favorite sites at every pause.
• Set a specific time, say on the hour, when you will get a glass of water, stretch, or incorporate a different activity for a few minutes. For example, one job seeker scheduled exercise and personal errands in the spaces between job search activities to give herself a mental break.
Each week, you also need a longer break, where you can unplug from the intense concentration a proactive job search requires. Plan for a half-day of a personal-interest activity:
• Museum visit
• Movie, show, or sporting event
• Hike or other physical activity
• Volunteer opportunity
Job seekers who tend to their personal interests are more relaxed and more interesting to prospective employers. Candidates who engage in outside interests tend to have a personality, unique point of view, and balanced approach that will serve them well during crunch times. Taking breaks enhances your search and is an investment in the success of your search.
Use these longer breaks to engage in a hobby or deep interest that might add to your networking. This is not just about meeting people during the times you might be volunteering or participating in an extracurricular class (though this may happen, too). Having genuine outside interests that you actively pursue is also a great conversation enhancer. In networking situations, such as a conference or industry mixer, it’s tiring to just hear about work or the job search.
A good example of staying motivated and contributing to his job search is Daniel K. He was working full time, including lots of overtime, at a job he didn’t enjoy, so he was having a tough time staying upbeat and energized during his search. One of his longtime goals was to watch all of the American Film Institute top-one hundred movies. Not only did watching one or two movies during his weekly breaks energize him, but he also had natural conversation starters (the movies) for when he met with people. He noticed a huge difference in his demeanor and the way he approached his job search and was able to identify his next career step (in his case, graduate school).
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• There are specific events during your job search when you need to get motivated at will, including job interviews, networking meetings, career fairs, professional mixers, and offer negotiations.
• Creating a deliberate routine and set of actions can enable you to get motivated for these high-stakes events.
• Deliberate work scheduling and taking longer breaks will help you stay motivated for the duration of your search.
• Activities during your longer breaks are not just about refreshment, but they can also contribute to the enthusiasm you bring to your job search.
EXERCISES
1. Where do you see your energy flagging in your current job search? If you are just starting a search, where has your energy flagged in the past—in high-stakes situations or over the course of a long project?
2. Which short-term motivation strategies will you use? Be specific and pick actual quotes, songs, or pictures if you decide to use those techniques.
3. Which long-term motivation strategies will you use? Make a list of places to visit, shows to see, books to read, and other activities that refresh you. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/09%3A_Step_5_-_Stay_Motivated_and_Organized_and_Troubleshoot_Your_Research/9.02%3A_Strategies_for_Motivating_at_Will.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the two categories of job search information you need to organize.
2. Understand how each piece of information fits into the job search so you capture everything that is relevant.
There are two categories of data and information every job seeker needs to organize:
• Your overall contact list
• Your job search–specific list, including information on contacts and activities
Your Overall Contact List
Because networking is so important to your job search, it is not just job-specific contacts that you need to track. Family, friends, colleagues, classmates, acquaintances, and any new contacts specifically for your job search all should be cataloged in one master list or database. Even people who do not seem relevant to your search now may turn out to be relevant:
• They know someone else who is relevant (remember the networking 2x2 matrix in Chapter 7).
• They have resources or services (e.g., color printer, copyediting skills) relevant to your job search activity.
• They are encouraging motivators.
By keeping all of your contacts in one overall list, you easily can move people into and out of search priority and are always reminded that everyone is a potential help to your search.
Your overall contact list should include, but not be limited to the following:
• Names
• Mailing address
• E-mail address
• Phone numbers (distinguished by home, work, cell, or other)
Your contact list should also be categorized by relationship:
• Family
• Close friends
• Colleagues
• Classmates
• Service providers
You can also categorize each contact by priority. Some salespeople will classify contacts in their database in order of how hot the prospect is—that is, how close they are to buying. You might want to categorize by priority of how much contact you want to maintain over the year:
• A-level contacts are people with whom you want to maintain close contact.
• B contacts are people whom you might contact every month or every several months.
• C contacts are people whom you contact just once a year—at the holidays, for example.
You want to maintain your C relationships, but you are not trying to grow them. B contacts are people you are trying to get to know better. B contacts might become A or C contacts once you have a better sense of the relationship.
When you categorize your contacts, you are able to sort and find people for your exact needs. If you need a favor, you would look through family and close friends. If you have a general professional question, you may start with colleagues. If you are working on networking, you might want to look at B contacts specifically so you can find the people you already tagged as those with whom you want to expand the relationship.
Your Job Search–Specific List
Even though your whole list is important to your search, some contacts will be closer to your search outcomes than others. For these contacts, you need to track information beyond just contact information or category. For the search-specific list, this includes everyone with whom you have inquired about your job search. Your well-connected Aunt Mary is appropriate to your job search–specific list because in addition to being family, she works in the industry you are targeting. Informational interview contacts go on this list. Of course, people who interview you are on this list.
For the search-specific contacts, you will want to track the following information:
• How you heard about them
• When you first contacted them
• The quantity of activity involved with them (e.g., how many phone calls, how many meetings, how many attempts to contact or other back and forth)
• The quality of activity (e.g., what did you talk about, what reactions and rapport were evident)
• The most current point of contact and the date
• Any follow-up required (e.g., send a résumé, e-mail John Doe and say this contact referred me)
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• You need two lists of contacts: an overall list; and a job search–specific list.
• You need to track all of your contacts because you need one go-to place for information about your network.
• You need a job search–specific list because there is additional information to track regarding the contacts for your job search.
• For your job search contacts, you want to know the activity, dates, and follow-up actions related to your contacts.
Exercises
1. How are you currently organizing your contact list—cell phone, Outlook, LinkedIn, Facebook, paper address book, business cards you collect?
2. How do you currently categorize your list, if at all?
3. If you don’t yet categorize your list, will you use the categories and priorities suggested earlier? If your list is already categorized, is it suitable for your job search activity? Do you need to update any of your contact information or categories?
4. How in the past have you managed a long-term project where you have to track different pieces of information at different times—on paper, electronically? This may give you some guidance in terms of how you might stay organized with your job search project. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/09%3A_Step_5_-_Stay_Motivated_and_Organized_and_Troubleshoot_Your_Research/9.03%3A_Information_You_Need_to_Organize.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn why systems are important to getting and staying organized.
2. Get ideas for different organizational systems.
Systems are essential to getting and staying organized. By selecting a system, you ensure that your current lists get organized but also that any additional items to your list get organized. A system enables you to make updates and changes to your contacts or activities. A good system enables you to find what you need quickly so you can track your job search and move forward.
The most important criterion for selecting your organizational system is that it supports you and how you work best. You do not want to create or select a high-maintenance system that requires big changes in your natural work style and, therefore, a lot of additional work. Your job search will give you enough to do without having to add extra time and effort tracking the information.
Systems for Your Overall Contact List
Some popular methods of storing your overall contacts include the following:
• Paper address book
• Rolodex or business card collection
• Cell phone directory
• Outlook or other e-mail contacts database
• Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media network
• Relationship management system, such as SuccessHawk for job search or Salesforce for sales leads
For many people, the overall contact system is some combination of the preceding methods. The important thing is that the system supports you. There are ways you will know your system works:
• You can easily find the people you need.
• Information on your contacts is updated or easy to update.
• You can easily skim or search your contacts to discover people you might have forgotten.
• You can categorize people so that your network stays organized as it grows.
Systems for Your Job Search–Specific List
For your job search–specific list, you need a system that can capture both contact information and activity. So it needs to be more flexible and substantive than your overall contact system. You can choose from three categories of systems for your job search–specific list:
1. Paper based
2. Customized electronic
3. Off-the-shelf electronic
Paper-Based Job Search–Specific Systems
In a paper-based system, you have a tabbed binder or accordion file folder, with different sections corresponding to different areas of your search. You can have a section for each target company, as well as for your overall search. You can also have a separate sheet for each person related to each target company and log your activity with that person there.
A paper system has several positive traits:
• It is visual.
• It enables you to easily capture thoughts, ideas, and asides
• It is easily portable, so you don’t have to carry a laptop or find an Internet connection
A paper system does have some downsides:
• It is difficult to search. What if your research turns up a name for a senior executive at one of your dream companies, who happens to be an alumnus of your school? You don’t want to contact him right away because you want to do some other lower-level informational interviews first. Several weeks later, you know you want to go back to this contact, but what was his name? You would have to page through your whole paper system to find it.
• It is hard to back up.
• It consumes more space when you have a lot of leads.
• It lacks flexibility. If you arranged your filing by company, where do you put your general networking contacts or other people who may be relevant across companies?
Customized Electronic Systems
You can create an electronic system for your job search activity in Excel:
Table \(1\): Sample Activity-Tracking Spreadsheet in Excel
First Name Last Name Title Company Source (How You Heard of Them) Current Status Status Date Follow-Up First Contact
John Smith Head of campus recruiting Company X Career services Résumé and cover letter sent 9/23/10 Call after 10/8 to check on status 9/1/10
Jane Doe Marketing associate Company X Alumni database Second e-mail 10/1/10 Follow up on request for info interview 9/1/10
You can add additional columns as needed for fields you want to track. For example, you may want to include a Comments column and put notes or ideas there. As you add more contacts, sort by status date to see to whom you haven’t reached out recently. Then check the follow-up column to see if you need to do something specific or just reach out to maintain the relationship. The First Contact field shows the first time you reached out to this person, so you can see if you have moved forward since adding them to the list. In the case of Jane Doe, you attempted to contact her on September 1 and you are still trying to reach her for an informational interview on October 1. You need to try harder to reach her, or assume the contact is stale and find someone else to add to your list.
The preceding table was created in Excel. On the plus side, you can customize an electronic system:
• You can be flexible about what fields you want to add.
• You can format and sort according to exactly what you need.
• You can back up electronic systems.
Electronic systems do have downsides:
• You have to build the system from scratch.
• You have to know what fields are worth tracking.
• If your contacts have a lot of activity, your spreadsheet can quickly get crowded and disorganized.
Off-the-Shelf Electronic Systems
Salespeople use customer relationship management (CRM) software, such as Salesforce or High Rise, to track candidates and activity. In the job search, you are the product and employers are the customers, so you can apply the idea of sales-tracking software to your job search. One solution already customized to the job search is SuccessHawk Job Search Productivity Solutions.
SuccessHawk is a web-based platform that you customize with your contacts and activities. You can import your contacts from your existing overall lists. SuccessHawk supports online e-mail (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, and so forth), LinkedIn, Outlook, Apple Address Book, vCards, and Internet service provider webmail (e.g., Comcast).
SuccessHawk also has a section for tasks, where you can export tasks from Apple calendar or Outlook, or you can add tasks manually. So instead of documenting in Excel that you want to call Jane Doe for an informational interview, you would Add a Task to your SuccessHawk “My Action Items” section, designating the target (Jane Doe), a description of the task (call to follow up on e-mail request for informational interview), and a target due date. SuccessHawk sends you e-mail reminders of upcoming tasks, so instead of having to visit your Excel spreadsheet and sort by follow-up, the reminders come to you.
SuccessHawk also has other job search-related features built into the platform, including a space for goals, a résumé creator, and advice and research.
On the plus side, off-the-shelf electronic systems have several attributes:
• They are prebuilt so you can get started right away.
• They can be interactive and give you extra support (e.g., the reminder feature in SuccessHawk).
• They can be synchronized with other resources you already use (e.g., contact lists, task lists).
• They can be backed up.
• They have additional features and resources you wouldn’t get on your own.
Off-the-shelf systems also have a downside:
• You may have less flexibility if you are very particular about how you organize data.
• You have to buy the system or pay for a user account.
• You have to learn the ins and outs of the system.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• You need to select a system to get and stay organized.
• There are three main choices for organizational systems: paper-based, customized electronic, and off-the-shelf electronic.
• Each choice of system has its pros and cons.
• You want to select a system that matches the way you naturally work.
Exercises
1. How have you been tracking the information and contacts developed during your job search?
2. If you haven’t already selected a system, experiment with paper and electronic. Pick five friendly contacts and try to schedule meetings with them so you have something to track. Create a paper folder or binder system to track your efforts and build a spreadsheet to track your efforts. What data and fields did you include? Which system did you prefer?
3. If you already have a task-organization system, are there additional fields you will track for your job search? How will you change (or not) your organization of your search based on the information you have learned?
4. What do you wish you could track better, or where are you stuck in your organizational needs? What resources might you consult to get your organizational needs met? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/09%3A_Step_5_-_Stay_Motivated_and_Organized_and_Troubleshoot_Your_Research/9.04%3A_How_to_Create_Systems_to_Stay_Organized.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the importance of troubleshooting in your job search.
2. Learn the three stages of the hiring process where your job search can get stuck.
3. Become aware of how you can measure your own job search to identify your problem areas.
If you’ve made it this far, you have accomplished a lot toward your job search. You have a sense of what you want in your job targets, you are positioning yourself well with your marketing, you are arming yourself with research to make you a knowledgeable candidate, and you are putting yourself out there by networking and interviewing. You are doing a lot, but are you being effective? Troubleshooting is about looking at your search results to date and figuring out where your job search needs work and how to fix it.
At the networking and interviewing stage, you are getting market feedback. Even if you are getting no response from your networking inquiries, no response is still feedback (it’s negative feedback because what you are doing is not eliciting a response). There are many reasons behind the feedback you may be getting. You need to use the feedback you are getting (or lack of feedback) to troubleshoot your search. There are three stages of the hiring process where your job search can get stuck:
1. The candidate identification stage
2. The general interview stage
3. The closing stage
In the most general description of the hiring process, a candidate is identified, interviewed, and hired. A job search can break down at any one of these three stages. From the job seeker’s perspective, you must be identified as a candidate—that is, you must be invited to an interview. You must be interviewed and get called back for more interviews or for a hiring decision. You must be on the positive end of a hiring decision. So, the three categories of potential job search problems are (1) you are not getting enough interviews, (2) you are not moving forward in the interview process; or (3) you are not getting offers.
The Identification Stage Problem: You Are Not Getting Enough Interviews
If you have been submitting résumés or asking people for exploratory interviews for more than thirty days, look back and see how many people have asked you to meet with them. You want to meet with several people per week (five to ten if you are working on your search full time or one to four if you are working on your search part time). Are you not getting invited to meetings or interviews?
The Interview Stage Problem: You Are Not Moving Forward in the Process
If you have been getting meetings or interviews, congratulations! Clearly, your marketing is paying off. Now, your focus should be getting more meetings and interviews:
• More networking meetings that can lead to job interviews
• More first-round job interviews with additional companies
• More second-, third-, and fourth-round interviews with your existing targets
Look over your latest thirty days and note the types of meetings you’ve been getting and the steps that follow. Are you getting lots of first-round interviews, but are not getting asked to return for more interviews? Are you getting referrals from your introductory networking meetings to actual jobs or additional possible networking leads?
The Hiring Stage Problem: You Are Not Getting Offers
If you have been getting interviews and getting called back, then clearly you are doing something right because prospective employers are interested. But if there have already been several companies where you have been the bridesmaid but never the bride, then there could be a problem during the later stages of interviewing that is hindering your ability to close. Hiring is subjective, so if you lose one or two offers, that is to be expected and may be through no fault of your own. But three or more lost offers, especially if you went far along the process for all of them, could signal a problem.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The hiring process includes candidate identification, interviewing, and hiring. At any of these stages, there can be problems for the job seeker.
• You should measure the results of your networking and interviewing on a regular basis to see how you are doing at the identification, interviewing, and hiring stages.
Exercises
1. At what stage are you stuck in the job search process? If you haven’t started your job search yet, put reminders on your calendar during the time you intend to do your job search to troubleshoot according to the three stages.
2. As you have been reviewing your data capture so far, what data, if any, is missing that you should add to your search going forward? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/09%3A_Step_5_-_Stay_Motivated_and_Organized_and_Troubleshoot_Your_Research/9.05%3A_Troubleshooting_Your_Search-_Three_Areas_Your_Job_Search_Can_Break_Down.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn potential reasons for the problems at each job search stage.
2. Learn strategies to get your job search unstuck and moving forward again.
Three Reasons You Are Not Getting Enough Interviews
You may not be getting enough interviews for the following reasons:
1. There is a mismatch between what you are targeting and who you are.
2. Your marketing is incomplete.
3. You are too passive in your outreach.
What to Do for a Mismatch
A mismatch occurs between what you are targeting and who you are when one or both of the following are true:
• You are not the right candidate for what you are targeting.
• You are a qualified candidate, but you are not positioning yourself to reflect this.
You may not be qualified for the companies or jobs you are targeting. Some industries or functions have very specific certification requirements, GPA minimums, or some other very clear deal breaker. If you are focusing your efforts on these competitive areas, and you do not have the prerequisites, you are sabotaging your search. Review your targets to see if they are appropriate for your experience and skills. Be realistic with what the requirements are and what you bring to the table. You may need additional experience, another degree or certification, or a specific skill you do not yet have before you can go after your targets.
Similarly, you might be going after the right companies or jobs, but your positioning, the way you represent yourself, may not reflect how good a fit you are. Your targets may be correct, but you may not be positioning yourself correctly to your target. This is a marketing problem. Review your résumé, cover letter, networking pitch, and online profile to ensure that your marketing reflects that you are indeed a match.
What to Do When Your Marketing Is Incomplete
Your marketing may be incomplete when you focus too much or exclusively on only some, but not all, of the four main elements of your marketing campaign:
• 1. Résumé
• 2. Cover letter
• 3. Networking pitch
• 4. Online profile
Prospective employers often favor some elements more than the others, but you do not know which employer favors which element, so you have to be strong across the board.
Many job seekers spend a lot of time on the résumé, but not as much time on the cover letter or other correspondence. If your overall package is not consistent, you will lose out if a prospective employer happens to weigh the cover letter most heavily. Some job seekers do not have any online presence. If you do not have an online profile, and recruiters are looking for you online, then they will not find you. If you are not getting enough interviews, your marketing is not getting through to prospective employers. Review your marketing to ensure that you have both a strong résumé and online profile, that cover letters and all your correspondence are effective, and that you have a compelling and memorable networking pitch.
What to Do When Your Outreach Is Too Passive
Finally, you may not be getting interviews because you are relying too much on passive methods—recruiters or job postings—to get you interviews. Recruiters and job postings are just one source of leads. They are passive sources because you are waiting to be selected. You are giving up control of your search to someone else.
Instead, take a more active approach:
• Contact companies directly.
• Identify the specific departments where you’d like to work.
• Network your way to the specific people who manage these departments and, therefore, have hiring authority.
The majority of jobs are filled by candidates who are referred directly by employees or who otherwise network into the company. Fewer jobs are filled by external recruiters or unsolicited responses to job postings. Review your approach to ensure that you are directly networking with prospective employers and not just relying on recruiters or job postings for your leads.
Three Possible Reasons You Are Not Getting Called Back after You Interview
You may not be getting called back after your interviews for the following reasons:
1. Your interview responses do not convey key message points.
2. You spend the interview telling without showing.
3. You aren’t at your best during the interview.
Have Key Interview Message Points
Some job seekers blame the interviewer for not asking the questions that will enable them to highlight their best self. It’s true that some interviewers don’t know how to interview well, or at least in a way that enables the job seeker to show his or her best. But it’s the job seeker’s responsibility to control the interview. You should have three to four key message points that demonstrate why you should be hired. These are your unique strengths, skills, experience, and personal attributes most relevant to the job being discussed.
You need to weave these key message points into the interview, regardless of what is specifically asked of you. Think about the president of the United States facing the press room: He does not wait for the right question. He has an agenda prepared in advance and uses whatever question he gets as a springboard to forward his agenda.
Show, Don’t Just Tell
The best candidates give examples with details and tangible results. You don’t say you have great analytical skills. You talk about a specific example of when you used your analytical skills and the quantified results you achieved for your employer because of them. You don’t say you work well with people. You give a specific example of a project that involved coordinating a group of people or communicating or relationship building. You don’t say you will learn on the job. You come in having clearly researched your target company with specific ideas of what you would do in your role.
A good framework exists to ensure that the examples you give clearly highlight your contributions. That framework also gives the interviewer a good sense of the scope of your responsibility. To emphasize your contributions, answer these five questions:
1. Who sponsored the project? Was it the CEO, the head of a department, an outside client?
2. What was the overall objective? Were you researching a new market, developing a new product, organizing a conference for key clients?
3. What was the output you needed to deliver? Was it a PowerPoint presentation to senior management, an Excel spreadsheet with projections, a written report?
4. What was the result? Did the company enter the new market? Was the product developed, and was it well received? How did the conference turn out?
5. What did you do, and what did everyone else on the team do? A prospective employer needs to understand what you specifically did. Itemizing what you did shows your contribution. Itemizing what everyone else did shows you stayed on top of the overall project, and it also gives the interviewer a clear sense of the size and composition of the team.
For example, Russell S. is a recent undergraduate with extensive music-related internships but who now wants a sales role upon graduation. To highlight that his experience in music was indeed relevant to sales, he walked his then-prospective, now-current employer through a sample music project. He deliberately picked a promotion project because it is closely related to sales:
• I was promoting a high school band for gigs in the neighborhood. (Question 1: The band sponsored this project. Also Question 2: The objective was landing gigs.)
• I canvassed different restaurants, bars, and community organizations for the type of entertainment they booked and developed relationships with the bookers of places that fit the music of my band. (Question 3: The output was the sales process.)
• We landed several gigs throughout the summer, and many places became repeat customers. (Question 4: The result was multiple sales and repeat business.)
• I was not in the band, but I acted as the business manager, negotiated the contracts, collected the fees, and worked with the venues to promote the band. Everybody else was a performer. (Question 5: Russell itemized exactly what he did in relation to everyone else.)
Be at Your Best
This chapter started with the importance of harnessing motivation at will. A major way to kill an interview is to have low energy. If you are not excited and enthusiastic, it looks like you don’t really want the job. Many prospective employers will choose the less-qualified but more-enthusiastic candidate over a great candidate who appears disinterested. Remember the suggestions earlier in the chapter for motivational routines to follow prior to a job interview. There are several steps you can take the night before the interview:
• Do something relaxing that keeps you positive.
• Create a summary sheet of key research points you intend to share.
• Review your questions for the interviewer so that you ensure a two-way dialogue.
• Practice your interview responses for the top questions you are expecting.
The morning of the interview, certain actions can help ensure your interview is successful:
• Skim the current event headlines so you can engage in a timely discussion.
• Have your favorite breakfast.
• Pick a specific accessory or other item for your interview outfit that makes you feel good and is a visual cue that this is a special day.
On the way to the interview, continue to maintain your motivation:
• Listen to your favorite, upbeat song (remember to take the earphones out of your ears while you are waiting so you appear approachable).
• If you are inspired by quotes, have your favorites on an index card to read, even right before you check in at reception.
• If you are visually oriented, have a picture with you that instantly relaxes you.
Three Possibilities That Might Keep You from Closing the Offer
You might not be closing the offer for the following reasons:
1. You encounter job search fatigue.
2. You do not follow up enough and employers forget about you.
3. You aim for the job, instead of the offer.
Beware of Job Search Fatigue
Here’s that motivation issue again: you need to ensure that you are at peak performance throughout all of your interviews. You can’t just start out strong and assume that the positive feedback will carry through. What’s tricky about the later stages of interviewing is that job seekers experience a roller coaster of feelings. They are elated at being called back, but many interview processes last for multiple rounds. After a while, it’s physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting, and a job seeker gets tired, which looks like disinterest, which kills the later interviews. Refer to the refreshment activities suggested earlier to maintain your long-term motivation, including these activities:
• Museum visit
• Movie, show, or sporting event
• Hike or other physical activity
• Volunteer opportunity
• Job search buddy
Don’t Let Employers Forget about You
There are a lot of time gaps in the hiring process—the time between when candidates apply and when interviews are scheduled; the time between when interviews are scheduled to when they actually happen; and the time between when various candidates get through their interviews and decisions can be made. During these gaps, the employers are seeing other candidates. You think you are just waiting patiently, but don’t stay out of sight for too long:
• Keep in touch with your contacts at the prospective company.
• Don’t just ask about the status of the search—that puts too much pressure on the company.
• Check in with interesting news you have heard about the market. The networking chapter includes tips on how to follow up in an engaging but nondemanding way.
Focus on Getting the Offer, Not the Job
In the six steps to job search success, the last step is to close the offer, not get the job. We focused the language specifically on the offer, as opposed to the job, because you always want an offer, but you may or may not want a job. The offer puts the ball back in your court, so you can decide what’s best for you. If you only interview at companies where you are sure you want the job, you won’t interview that often because it’s not easy to evaluate a job without interviewing for it. Yet, you don’t want to analyze the job too closely as you interview because then you seem unsure. Recruiters and employers can see the doubts you bring to interviews. Therefore, go for the offer, not the job. Be 100 percent committed to getting an offer (you can still say no, after all). Don’t ever show the interviewers you are second-guessing.
Strategies to Troubleshoot Your Overall Job Search
The key to troubleshooting your search is having good data to review but also being honest with yourself about where you are. Remember that the stage where you are stuck—whether it’s not getting interviews, not moving forward, or not getting offers—is not a reflection of the quality of your candidacy. It is a reflection of your job search technique. You might be an amazingly qualified candidate, but have poor job search technique. Remember, you can learn good job search technique and adjust what you are doing to improve your search going forward.
There are very good reasons great candidates get stuck in their search. Career changers, on-rampers, or international candidates needing sponsorship are just some examples of candidates who may have trouble getting interviews. Employers prefer people who have done the job before (sorry career changers), or people currently active in the market (sorry on-rampers), or people who are easiest to bring on board (sorry internationals). All three of these candidate groups may have exceptional candidates, but they are coming with preexisting red flags that need to be overcome. Therefore, don’t see an ineffective job search as a poor reflection on you. Just acknowledge that something isn’t working, try to identify it, and fix it.
Build in time for regular troubleshooting, at least every thirty days. Schedule time for job search review in your calendar at these regular intervals, so that you automatically save the time when it arises, and you don’t have to rely on your memory or discipline. Regular review ensures you identify and can stop problems early.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• At the candidate identification stage, you may not be getting enough interviews because of a mismatch between your targeting and positioning, an incomplete marketing campaign, or passive outreach.
• At the interviewing stage, you may not be moving forward because you lack key message points that highlight your value, you give answers without examples, or you are not at your best.
• At the closing stage, you may not be getting offers because you have job search fatigue that appears to be lack of interest, you don’t follow up and employers forget you while they interview others, or you show hesitation about the job or self-doubt.
• You should be troubleshooting your job search at regular intervals by tracking your results data and by being honest with yourself.
Exercises
1. Review the possible problems at each stage and look at your own search activity. Are you guilty of any of these shortfalls?
2. If you have identified possible problems, do you know how to fix them?
3. If you haven’t started your search, which stage do you think will be toughest for you? Most job seekers, especially for first jobs, have the most trouble with the identification stage because early in a career there is not a lot of experience to differentiate yourself in your marketing.
4. Where could you use help with your search? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/09%3A_Step_5_-_Stay_Motivated_and_Organized_and_Troubleshoot_Your_Research/9.06%3A_Troubleshooting_Your_Search-_Strategies_for_the_Three_Common_Problem_Areas.txt |
Stay motivated and organized and troubleshoot your search:
• Keep your energy high and your focus strong.
• Maintain data in a structured and meaningful way.
• Identify and fix problems along the way.
Step 5 is the most proactive of the six steps to job search success because these activities can so easily be overlooked. Yet, for the job seeker who takes the time to master each of these activities, he or she will have a more efficient and productive search.
Chapter Takeaways
• There are two types of motivation, long-term and short-term; each plays a critical role in your job search.
• Long-term job search motivation is akin to a multiweek research project, while short-term motivation is more like weekly class exams.
• There are specific events during your job search when you need to get motivated at will, including job interviews, networking meetings, career fairs, professional mixers, and offer negotiations.
• Creating a deliberate routine and set of actions can enable you to get motivated for these high-stakes events.
• Deliberate work scheduling and taking longer breaks will help you stay motivated for the duration of your search.
• Activities during your longer breaks are not just about refreshment but also about contributing to the enthusiasm you bring to your job search.
• You need two lists of contacts: an overall list and a job search–specific list.
• You need to track all of your contacts because you need one go-to place for your network.
• You need a job search–specific list because there is additional information to track regarding the contacts for your job search.
• For your job search contacts, you want to know the activity, dates, and follow-up actions related to your contacts.
• You need to select a system to get and stay organized.
• There are three main choices for organizational systems: paper-based, electronic customized, and electronic off-the-shelf.
• Each choice of system has its pros and cons.
• You want to select a system that matches the way you naturally work.
• The hiring process includes candidate identification, interviewing, and hiring. At any of these stages, there can be problems for the job seeker.
• You should measure the results of your networking and interviewing on a regular basis to see how you are doing at the identification, interviewing, and hiring stages.
• At the candidate identification stage, you may not be getting enough interviews because of a mismatch between your targeting and positioning, an incomplete marketing campaign, or passive outreach.
• At the interviewing stage, you may not be moving forward because you lack key message points that highlight your value, you give answers without examples, or you are not at your best.
• At the closing stage, you may not be getting offers because you have job search fatigue that appears to be lack of interest, you don’t follow up and employers forget you while they interview others, or you show hesitation about the job or self-doubt.
• You should be troubleshooting your job search at regular intervals by tracking your results data and by being honest with yourself.
Chapter Review
1. Why is motivation important to the job search?
2. Why is organization important to the job search?
3. Why is troubleshooting important to the job search?
4. Why is after the network and interview phase has begun a good time to look at motivation, organization, and troubleshooting?
5. What are some ways to stay motivated during your job search?
6. What are some tools to stay organized during your job search?
7. Where are the three stages in a job search where a search may get stuck?
8. Why is it a good idea to set a calendar reminder for every thirty days to troubleshoot your job search?
SuccessHawk: The Scheduler
The Scheduler is the key tool for keeping your job search organized and on track. It notifies you of actions you need to take with your contacts to keep your job search moving forward. The Scheduler is activated in two ways:
1. Go to a Contact’s page and scroll down to “Actions to Take.” Click on “Actions to Take” and complete the form.
2. Go to a Contact’s pages and scroll down to “Reactions and Next Steps,” answer the questions, and click “Set Follow Up.”
Completing this procedure triggers the following:
1. SuccessHawk will automatically populate “Actions for this Week” on My Workspace. Note that you can export Actions for this Week to Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCal, and other applications that support calendar (.ics) files.
2. SuccessHawk will also e-mail you reminders about who to contact and when. You can choose how often you want to receive e-mail reminders by clicking on “User Preferences” in the right-hand menu bar under My Account. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/09%3A_Step_5_-_Stay_Motivated_and_Organized_and_Troubleshoot_Your_Research/9.07%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercise.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Know what to do before, during, and after a negotiation, as it will help to ensure success.
2. Understand how research will help to ensure that you know what the other party in the negotiation is expecting.
3. Learn active listening techniques that make for a productive negotiation.
4. Understand that it is important to remain professional at all times, as it’s crucial for negotiation and for your continued career success.
Before
Before negotiating, research the position or the person you are negotiating with. This should let you know what he or she expects the right compensation to be. You should also know the compensation you expect. Once those two things are known to you, build a bridge so both parties connect, and try to meet at the right point.
For example, your research for a teaching position should disclose the starting salary and the requirements for that starting salary. You may have gotten this information from speaking to career services, from prior graduates entering that field, and/or via research on the web. You can discuss the salary you want using the data you’ve uncovered during your research. If starting salaries for teachers in New York are between \$40,000 and \$45,000, you can try asking for a salary of \$45,000.
During
Listening is key during the actual negotiation, so use active listening techniques that include taking notes and nodding your head. Understand that adjusting to the situation and being open-minded are important versus a “one size fits all” model. Put yourself in the shoes of the person doing the hiring so you can clearly understand how he or she benefits from this negotiation. In addition, be on the lookout for unexpected opportunities that may present themselves, and be open to these. It’s a must to always be professional. Proactively seek to clarify and simplify, and always support your experience with specific examples. Making a situation a “win-win” is a great goal to shoot for.
For example, if the high end of the teacher’s salary range pertains to teachers with two to three years of student teaching experience and you do not have any, it is understandable that \$40,000 may be the right compensation for your starting salary. Perhaps a position in this city has a starting salary of \$40,000, but another nearby city might have a starting salary of \$45,000. If you are open to this different location, this could benefit you quite a bit! Even if things are not working out and it’s clear that you cannot come to a mutually beneficial point, always remain professional and thank the person for his or her time. If you make a good impression and a position becomes available the following week or month, perhaps you will be called back. The benefits to being courteous and professional are huge.
After
After a negotiation, it is very helpful to clarify things in writing and confirm a new timetable as soon as possible. Assess what took place during the negotiation so you can learn from your experience and strengthen your negotiation skills for the next time.
For example, perhaps nothing worked out at this particular time. Keep in touch with this person, as positions may open up the next month, the next quarter, or perhaps even the next year. Perhaps you accepted the lower starting salary of \$40,000. Send the interviewer a thank you and let him or her know you are excited. That positive, professional impression will go a long way toward future negotiations and perhaps promotions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Using the strategy of preparing what to do before, during, and after a negotiation will increase your chances of it going well.
• Being professional at all times will further increase your chances of succeeding during a negotiation.
Exercises
1. Pair up with a classroom buddy and brainstorm about what you need to do before a negotiation. How would you research the starting salary for the position you are most interested in?
2. Practice active listening techniques during the negotiation.
3. Remain professional during a negotiation role play, no matter how unprofessional the other party is.
4. How would you follow up if the negotiation yielded a job? How would you follow up if the negotiation did not yield a job? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.01%3A_Effective_Negotiation_Requires_Work_Before%2C_During%2C_and_After.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn how to remove the emotional element to negotiating in order to master this skill.
2. Understand that the more offers you have, the easier it will be to negotiate for a salary increase or any other component of the offer you would like to increase.
Many individuals are highly uncomfortable when the subject of salary or compensation arises. Why? Because money evokes emotion in a lot of people and whenever emotion is involved, rational thought tends to wane.
Money, to a large extent, dictates your style of living. If you are reading this book as a college student, the starting salary you receive may determine whether you will have to move back home with your parent(s), if that is even an option, or if you will have an apartment with one or more roommates. People get emotional about lifestyle issues.
To decrease the stress related to your living expenses (whether you move back home or have a place of your own), know your expenses, including rent, utilities, food, transportation, clothes, gifts, credit card debt, student loans, and so forth. If you’ve done your research, will the position for which you are aiming cover these expenses? Is there a match? Is there a huge disconnect? It’s best to review your expenses and think about them sooner rather than later.
We need to make rational decisions, so we need to remove the emotional component from the negotiation process, and it’s very possible to do so. If you have followed each of the steps in the job search process, you should have more confidence in the process. You should have a plethora of job search activity, no matter what the state of the economy, that should result in multiple offers. Knowing that you will have multiple offers should calm you, even if you are the most nervous or emotional individual.
Practice is a theme that has been present in every chapter of this book, and negotiation is no different. Meet with career services to practice negotiating until you feel very comfortable. After role-playing three or four or five times, your emotion should be kept in check and shouldn’t interfere with the conversation. You may also practice with a friend, but try to get as much advice from a professional as you can.
Remember to conduct in-depth research to ensure you have a clear idea of what the salary levels should be. There should be no surprises at this stage if you’ve conducted the proper research, which includes speaking to career services, speaking to your network of peers, and conducting various salary surveys. A good source of starting salaries can be researched on the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) website. NACE also has a Salary Calculator tool that enables you to enter the state in which you reside, the region, and the appropriate occupational categories (ranging from business to life, physical, and social sciences, to the arts, health care, sales, forestry, construction, installation and repair occupations, to transportation and material-moving occupations).
Another tool you may decide to use is GetRaised (www.getraised.com), which helps determine if you are being paid the right amount relative to the job you are doing. For college students seeking entry-level jobs, you can still use this tool by entering “one year” in the number of years you’ve been working in this particular job, and then enter all the other information asked (where you work, the title of the job for which you are applying, and so forth). This tool will give you the competitive salary for this position. Of course, you will have zero experience, versus one year, but at least it gives you an idea of the salary range you should be seeking. It’s a very useful tool for experienced job seekers, especially because it will give you the script you can use to negotiate for higher compensation. GetRaised is just one tool of many, so research various tools available to you.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The more activity you have in your job search, the better your negotiating ability.
• Posture is everything in negotiation. If you have an offer from a company and you are negotiating with another, that sense of nervousness and desperation is minimized or obliterated!
• Research is key! Know the starting salaries for the various jobs you are targeting.
Exercises
1. Pair up with a classroom buddy and create a hypothetical job and offer. Then take turns negotiating from a salary of \$45,000 to \$50,000. State why you think \$50,000 is the most appropriate level of offer.
2. Switch with your same classroom buddy and negotiate once more with the answer to your salary request being no. Position yourself to ask for one other component in the offer.
3. If at all possible, women should pair up with men and men should pair up with women. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.02%3A_How_to_Be_More_Comfortable_When_Negotiating_for_a_Position.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
1. Understand that there are many cash and noncash components, besides financial compensation, that can be negotiated when offers are presented.
It’s important to review the various components of an offer before accepting. When identifying what to negotiate, several individuals may think only to negotiate base salary, or total compensation.
Cash and noncash components can be negotiated, and each has a host of considerations:
Cash Components
• Base salary. You get paid your base salary on a regular basis, which will be weekly, twice a month, or monthly. Consider what the future salary potential could be and understand the timing. For example, most companies review performance and salary increases once per year, while others may review this twice per year.
• Bonus. Several bonus options could be available, depending on the company and opportunity. If you are not eligible for a bonus, ask if it would be possible to receive one in the future, if your performance goes above and beyond what is expected. Ensure you know the timing of each bonus that could be available to you.
• Sign-on bonus. Larger companies may pay sign-on bonuses, which were originally given out to reimburse students for moving expenses when they lived a certain distance away from their new work address. Corporations decided to streamline the process, and relabeled this a sign-on bonus, giving it to all candidates.
• Quarterly or year-end bonus. Some companies allot for a quarterly bonus and a year-end bonus, both of which are paid based on individual performance and, of course, company performance (which could result in huge percentage swings either way). It’s important to understand how these bonuses are calculated and exactly what you are eligible for in advance.
• Commission. Salespeople have a great opportunity to make commission, which is a percentage of the sales they make. This is a great opportunity, but you should also exercise caution. Understand the commission structure clearly. What happens if you do not sell anything for the first two or three months? Do you receive a base salary, or is it full commission? Is commission paid on gross sales or net profit? Do you get a draw that you will then have to pay back? Explore all of these details so you are clear on the entire structure.
Noncash Components
• Company stock. Sometimes, companies pay only the more senior individuals company stock or company equity. If company stock is made available to you, know the guidelines.
• Stock options. Companies grant stock options and an individual can then decide to sell them at a specific price. The profit represents the current value, minus the option price.
• Stock grants. Companies sometimes grant stock to an individual outright, usually with a vesting schedule to incentivize retention. If you receive a stock grant, you have the opportunity to own the entire stock.
• Retirement accounts. 401K and 403b accounts allow you to save, and accumulate, a percentage of your salary (before tax) that you can withdraw at retirement age. Some employers match these funds either dollar for dollar or perhaps fifty cents on the dollar. There may be stipulations that will allow you to withdraw these funds before retirement, but withdrawals usually come with a sizable penalty. In some instances, you can take a loan from the amount you’ve accumulated in these accounts. Ensure you understand the many details associated with each of these retirement vehicles.
• Benefits. Companies offer various benefits, and it’s important to review these carefully when considering an offer. Some plans allow you to take your benefits elsewhere (this is portability, and there is a fee, but it does provide flexibility). Often, these plans can be a bit confusing; many companies offer hotlines to call for further explanation. Benefits offerings can include the following:
• Health-care benefits. These can be extensive, including elder care, child care, and adoption benefits.
• Dental benefits. Some dental benefits cover 100 percent of the cost, while others cover only a certain percentage. Know what this is in advance.
• Insurance. Some benefits offer travel insurance, should something happen to you while traveling on business.
• Disability. This varies greatly per the opportunity. Some allow you to opt in for greater disability insurance. Knowing the options is very helpful.
• Education. Some companies will contribute a certain percentage to your future education. For example, if you wish to obtain a graduate degree, they may pay 50 percent toward that, or there could be a sliding scale based on your grade. Some companies may even provide on-site advanced degree programs with special partnerships at certain schools.
• Start date. Some companies will be flexible and others will not (especially if training programs or orientations are planned).
• Employee perks. These could include discounted movie tickets, free admission to cultural venues, and discounted cell phone plans, representing an opportunity to save money you would otherwise spend.
• Paid versus unpaid leave. This includes both vacation and holiday pay and sick time and personal days.
• Lifestyle and flexibility. This could include the opportunity to telecommute, or to work a four-day schedule. Companies sometimes have broad policies and sometimes customize for employees.
• Outplacement services and severance pay. This tool can be very useful should things not work out with the company in the long run. The bigger the company, the more likely you are to obtain outplacement and severance pay. This is especially useful for downsizings in bad economies, or when mergers and acquisitions are made.
There are many reasons noncash items can prove to be important and sometimes critical in the acceptance of a job offer. Perhaps you have a medical condition that requires specialized treatment or medication, so medical benefits are extremely important. Perhaps you have a vacation booked in advance and you wish to push the start date off a bit to enjoy this long-planned trip with family and friends. Perhaps a lower base salary makes sense when combined with bonus potential, stock options, or grants. A higher base salary may make more sense because it’s a given, whereas bonuses and stocks are influenced heavily by economic downturns. These are important reasons to consider all elements of a job offer before accepting.
KEY TAKEAWAY
• Knowing both the cash and noncash components of an offer can be extremely helpful when considering what you want to negotiate for, and especially so when the request for a base salary increase is refused.
Exercises
1. Select the two or three most important items from the preceding noncash list. Decide how you would negotiate for more in these areas.
2. Pair up with a classmate and role-play with you as the candidate, and then you as the hiring manager. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.03%3A_Items_Open_to_Negotiation-_Cash_and_Noncash_Components.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
1. Understand that recruiters and hiring managers at larger firms have about twenty individual steps in the job search process before they find the right candidate, which gives the final candidate leverage to negotiate.
Many individuals shudder to think of negotiating, in any type of economy, never mind a down economy. That should not be the case, especially when you consider all the work the company has to do before they identify you, the perfect person to receive the job offer.
All the steps a larger company may take to fill an opening are included in the following list. Smaller companies may require fewer steps, but the detail listed here demonstrates the great amount of time and effort needed to find the right person to extend an offer. Once that person is identified, employers do not want to start the process over again, so there is some room for negotiation.
Steps include:
1. The available position needs to be identified as either a “replacement” (someone has left and they need to be replaced) or an “add to staff” (an incremental position is needed). Therefore, the position will either be backfilled or a new position will be created.
2. The hiring manager must secure budget for this position. Just because someone left this position (i.e., they got promoted, they left the company, or they were fired) does not make it a given that the position will be filled. Many times, managers have to make the case for hiring a replacement. The tighter the budget, the less likely it will be filled.
3. The job description needs to be written (either by the hiring manager or human resources [HR]).
4. HR must be given the open requisition to fill (along with the forty or fifty other job requisitions they are currently filling).
5. HR will decide where the position will be listed. It’s typically always listed on the company website, but it will need to be listed on specialty job board sites in addition to the larger sites for the specific industry.
6. Candidates will submit résumés that need to be reviewed.
7. Top résumés will be compiled.
8. Top résumés will be shared with the hiring manager, and a top slate will be selected.
9. Candidates will be contacted for an interview (either by phone or in person).
10. Interview schedules will be created.
11. Candidates will be interviewed by HR and the hiring manager.
12. Top candidates will be selected for the second round.
13. Second and final rounds will take place.
14. The hiring manager and HR select the person to receive the offer.
15. An offer will be made.
16. The candidate will receive the offer verbally.
17. If accepted, the offer letter will be put in written form and mailed to the candidate.
18. The offer letter has to be signed by the candidate and returned to the hiring manager.
The preceding exercise demonstrates that once a company extends an offer to you, they want you to accept. If you would like a bit more in your salary, most companies will consider complying to ensure you accept, but some will not. If you would like a bit more in terms of year-end bonus percentage targets, they may easily decide to comply, but then again, they may not. If you are interested in a later start date, they may be open to that, and of course, some may not be.
It’s important to also remember that nothing is a given. In strong hiring markets, your chances are stronger to negotiate. But even in down markets, you still have leverage.
Also note that your base salary is a very important starting point at a company. Accepting an offer with a compensation level that is far below market value can be a tricky move as well, even if you are very anxious to get any experience you can. Your next employer may be very curious as to why your compensation level is so low, and it could add a red flag to your candidacy. Whenever in doubt, speak to a professional—perhaps someone in career services or a colleague in the field. For most opportunities, salary increases come just once a year and are sometimes skipped in down economies, so you could be “stuck” at a very low compensation range for a longer time than you would like. Getting a higher base when you begin can make a significant difference for many years to come. With that said, research is always a key point in the negotiation phase. Ensure you know the best starting point, and your negotiation will be more successful. Also note that if you are hired into a large company, with a formalized entry-level program, all hires receive the same exact compensation package, and there is no room for negotiation. You can still ask, but the answer may be no.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Hiring managers and recruiters have a lot of work to do before selecting a final candidate. Once all that work is done, they do not want to backtrack to find another candidate. This gives you negotiating power.
• Smaller firms will have fewer steps, but a significant amount of work is still necessary to find the best talent in the marketplace.
• If you decide to negotiate, select the one or two most important points and go for it. Expect a yes, a no, or something in between. Negotiation is far from an exact science.
Exercises
1. Conduct some research on acceptance and decline rates in the industry in which you are most interested.
2. Search your network to find someone in HR and get their opinion of the hiring process. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.04%3A_Why_You_Should_Always_Consider_Negotiating.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn how to be a successful job search candidate by conducting multiple searches simultaneously. This has to happen given that you begin with ten legitimate targets.
2. Use your strong and clear communication skills to keep recruiters informed of deadlines of any kind that can impede the offer process.
3. Stay organized in order to juggle all aspects of your job search.
Step 1 of the job search emphasized that an individual should shoot for at least ten targets during a job search. Your goal is to receive as many offers as possible. Offers equal negotiation power. If you plan your job search strategy properly, many of your targets will move toward step 6.
As you move toward an offer with one company, it’s important to communicate with the others as to when you expect to receive an offer. To be fair, give each company the needed lead time to prepare an offer.
Case in Point
Peter interviews with Company A, which is his number one company. If he receives an offer, he will readily accept. Company A has interviewed Peter twice, and he is a finalist. They are not ready to extend offers until next month, but they ask that Peter let them know if he receives an offer from another company.
Peter has interviewed with Company B and he is put on hold.
Peter then interviews with Company C just hoping to get an offer, so he can leverage that with Company A. Things go very well and he is more interested than he thought. If given an offer, he would seriously consider accepting. Company C lets Peter know he will receive a call regarding his candidacy on Friday and that they feel very positive about what he has to offer. They do not, however, tell him that he will definitely receive an offer.
Peter has interviews with Company D, E, and F in the next ten days.
Peter calls Company A and sends the following e-mail:
This e-mail communicates six very important things:
1. It addresses the urgency of the situation. The subject line highlights and notifies the company representative that the information is time sensitive, and in the last paragraph Peter states that he hopes to hear from them by Friday, or at the latest, by early next week.
2. Peter reiterates his interest in the position—in the first paragraph, in the third paragraph, and again in the final paragraph. It’s helpful to let this company know that they are his number one choice.
3. Peter lets the company representative know his interview activity is continuing, which also is helpful because the best candidates have a lot of interview activity. Recruiters know this, as do hiring managers.
4. Peter follows the recruiter’s instruction and lets Company A know he may have another offer.
5. Peter is, at all times, professional and respectful.
6. Peter also has posture at this point. He is likely to receive an offer from Company C, and is giving Company A enough time to get their offer ready.
Another Case in Point
Donna wants to teach in an elementary school and has been networking and meeting several principals. Two of them have interviewed her and have expressed interest in her teaching at their school.
Donna really wants to work at P.S. 55 and has received an offer as a teaching assistant. Luckily, Donna was also offered a position at P.S. 22 for a full-time teaching position, but she would much rather work at P.S. 55. She can negotiate with the principal at P.S. 55 in the following way:
• Thank the principal at P.S. 55 for the offer. Even though it’s a teaching assistant versus teaching position, she should let her know she is flattered to receive the offer.
• Let the principal know that while she’s been looking for the past three to four months, another principal has offered her a full-time teaching position. She also appreciates receiving that offer; however, her number one choice is P.S. 55 because she spent time student teaching at the school, and because she has formed solid relationships with several of the teachers in addition to the principal.
• Is there any way she could have a full-time teaching position?
• If that isn’t possible, and she accepts the teaching assistant position, would it possibly turn into a teaching position, and, if so, how long would that take?
• If the principal cannot guarantee the better position, Donna should take the job at P.S. 22. Although the school is somewhat unfamiliar to her, she should trust that she can succeed there and advance in a stellar way.
Stay Organized
Table 10.1. Table \(1\): Job Search Plan
Company Name Name of Contact E-mail and Phone Position of Interest How You Found Out about the Position Actions Taken Deadlines Next Steps
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
This single page in your playbook will keep all high-level information and each subsequent page can keep more detailed information. Reviewing this playbook on a regular basis ensures that you stay proactive on every job search target. It also reminds you that you should have ten targets at any given time, because some job targets are bound to go cold.
Use Strong Communication
The best candidates communicate consistently with recruiters, hiring managers, and networking contacts. If you’ve met three or four helpful networking contacts, and for some reason you did not make it to the final round, communicate with them as well, thanking them for the information they shared with you, even though your candidacy will not continue. Ask them if it’s OK that you continue to keep in touch, and wish them well with their careers. Individuals do shift positions and companies, and the world can be an amazingly small place. It’s quite possible that you will meet that person at another time, company, school, or organization, so include them in your LinkedIn contacts.
Poor communication can lead to poor decisions. If Donna didn’t explore full-time teaching opportunities at P.S. 55, she could have missed a full-time teaching position that opened up the next month. If Peter never sent the e-mail to Company A, and Company C gave Peter an offer with three days to accept, Company A may not have had the time to put together an offer by the deadline date set by Company C. Peter would have either gone with Company C (his second choice), or reneged on his acceptance to Company C by accepting the offer that finally came from Company A. Reneging is viewed negatively by some recruiters and by career services, so proceed with caution. At times, an employer will contact a student’s career services office to let them know that their offer was reneged on. Some career services offices deal harshly with students who breach such promises, so proceed with caution. Records of how many students renege on their offers aren’t kept, but one thing is certain: it’s never looked upon lightly. Communication with career services can help to avoid this at all costs.
One last point: never misrepresent an offer from a company to a representative at another company. The truth does have a way of making itself known.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Whenever you have deadlines for offers, you must notify recruiters and hiring managers of these deadlines, giving them ample time to extend an offer themselves, or to let you know that they will not be able to do so. Either way, you achieve more clarity with more communication.
• Reneging is to be avoided at all costs. Through clear communication with the hiring manager, and with career services, this should and can be avoided.
• Never misrepresent anything about an offer from another company. It’s a small world after all, and recruiters often network with each other.
Exercises
1. Create a playbook for your job search, listing ten targets in which you are most interested.
2. If you do not have a contact at a particular company of interest, network until you get a contact. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.05%3A_How_to_Get_to_a_Decision_and_How_to_Juggle_and_Time_Multiple_Searches.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the strategies that work well with recruiters and hiring managers when you do want to negotiate.
2. Conduct research, so you can back up any request and thus minimize conflict of any kind.
In the previous section, good communications skills were highlighted as a way to effectively negotiate an offer with two prospective employers. In addition to good communication skills, you can employ other strategies.
When negotiating for increased salary, it’s imperative to make the business case for why your skill set deserves the pay you request. Share market data that shows how much people with this skill earn (your research from step 3 will give you this information). Show how the skill will add to the company’s bottom line (your assessment of your strengths from step 2 and your interview skills from step 4 will enable you to do this). If you lack years of experience, focus on what you can do from here on and keep the discussion centered on the skill as opposed to experience to maximize your negotiations.
Case in Point
Kevin is a master’s level chemical engineering major. He received the offer he wanted: to work on a government base, focused on a fascinating project for which he was perfectly suited. He received an offer for \$53,000.
Kevin was disappointed and thought he should have received \$65,000. When he asked his career coach how to raise the offer to \$65,000, the coach asked where he came up with the \$65,000 figure. Kevin didn’t have anything to substantiate the figure, other than to say he thought it was an equitable amount given his advanced degree and his 3.8 GPA.
Kevin was instructed to conduct research as to what a chemical engineer, with a master’s degree would be able to get in the market. He checked with his career services office, and he was told \$60,000 was the going rate. He did a Google search regarding what a chemical engineer in New York City was apt to get and \$60,000 came up again. He then spoke to a peer at his college who was working for a similar company, doing a similar job, and she was paid \$60,000.
Kevin was now confident that \$60,000 was the number to reach. He wanted to contact his employer to discuss this, but practiced with his career coach in advance. Once he was comfortable with how to present his case, he made the call:
Kevin: Hello Mr. Duffy, it’s good to talk with you again. I wanted to thank you again for the offer you gave me for this position. This is exactly the type of work I was hoping to do once I graduated and I’m very excited to begin.
Mr. Duffy: I’m glad to hear it. I’m very excited to have you join the team, and I’m hoping you are calling to accept.
Kevin: I do want to accept and I want to be excited about the position. I’ve done a bit of research and found that my skills, in today’s market, call for a base salary of \$60,000 versus the \$53,000 offer I received from you. This was supported by my college’s career services office, by a salary survey of chemical engineers conducted just two months ago, and by my peers at my university. Is there any way I can get the offer raised to \$60,000?
Mr. Duffy: Unfortunately Kevin, my hands are tied. I have a budget that allows for \$53,000 and I cannot move from that point. In six months, however, I am able to give you a performance increase, should things go well, and there is a possibility that I can raise your salary by \$10,000. In addition, we offer you the opportunity to get your PhD, on premises, and at no cost to you. I hope that is of interest to you.
Kevin: It absolutely is. I have great confidence that my performance will be very strong and that I will be able to contribute quickly and significantly. I do have great interest in obtaining my PhD. I thank you for discussing this with me and I would like to formally accept the offer. Will you be sending me an offer letter?
Mr. Duffy: I’m so pleased. Yes, your offer letter will be sent out tomorrow and I look forward to receiving the signed copy back from you. I am anxious to have you join our team!
Kevin: I am as well. Thanks very much!
This phone exchange communicates five very important things:
1. Kevin is professional when communicating with Mr. Duffy. He is polite and thanks him once again for the offer, reiterating that this job is exactly what he was looking for.
2. Kevin then makes his case for a higher salary. He doesn’t just state he wants a higher salary for the sake of wanting it. He gives three legitimate points for why it should be \$60,000.
3. Once Mr. Duffy states that he cannot give a higher base salary offer, note that Kevin does not interrupt.
4. Mr. Duffy then states that while he can’t raise the salary, he is able to give an increase six months into the job. He also adds that Kevin has the opportunity to get his PhD. Kevin may not have ever known about the potential to increase his salary six months into the job. This is a vital information point that can be very lucrative for Kevin.
5. Both parties are pleased with the outcome.
Market your skills, especially if you have unique abilities. For example, if you speak more than one language, that can be seen as a benefit to an employer, especially when dealing with customers. Think about how that differentiates you and market that skill in terms of how it benefits your future employer.
Highlight how your background strengthens your candidacy. If you’ve had internships and part-time jobs that added to your skill set and will ensure that you contribute readily to an employer from day one, make sure you discuss that information with them. The key to impressing a potential employer is to make the case why your skills outmatch your competition by showing them why and how—even if you have to volunteer your time.
Demonstrate how your skills can benefit your employer now. If you’ve completed work via an internship or a previous job that has direct usefulness to your future employer, share it with them (as long as you don’t share confidential data). Demonstrate that you can do the job right now, and that you have familiarity with the process. That could nudge you ahead of your competition.
Always negotiate professionally, and always be prepared to hear no. This way, you are encouraged by what you can achieve through the negotiation process. Never engage in aggressive negotiating behavior because it can backfire and cause you to lose the offer completely.
Use your references. You were advised to gather recommendations in advance of your interviewing activity. Sharing testimonials of a job well done can only support your candidacy in a very positive way.
Remember the famous phrase, “It’s business, it’s not personal.” It can be difficult to separate business and emotions; however, highlight your accomplishments by their business impact, including costs saved, revenue generated, and profits increased. Be very clear about how your contribution leads to bottom-line impact.
Good negotiating is a valuable skill you will always use in your career, so strengthen this skill sooner rather than later!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Solid research lays the groundwork for solid and successful negotiation.
• Practicing your negotiation with a colleague or classmate can help tremendously in the actual negotiation session.
EXERCISE
1. Role-play to negotiate for \$5,000 more in base salary and a performance bonus. When role-playing the hiring manager, be especially tough in your negotiation stance. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.06%3A_How_to_Negotiate_without_Alienating_Your_Prospective_Employer.txt |
Learning Objectives
1. Learn that closing the offer requires focus, energy, and drive. The lack of these characteristics can prevent you from receiving the offer, even when you are a final candidate.
2. Learn about the most important characteristics to express, especially during the final rounds of a job search.
Whenever you apply for a position, you should have the six attributes described in this section at your disposal, at every stage: when you apply, when you are contacted to interview, and most of all, as you continue in the interview process. You should use these attributes most of all when you are a candidate on the final interview slate because you need to continue to distinguish yourself among other candidates.
The process can be grueling, demanding, and downright difficult. If you are a student going through the on-campus or off-campus interview process, you have to balance your job search activities with exams and perhaps even finals. If you have a part-time job or even a full-time job while going to school, you have even more things to juggle. If you are searching for a job after you have graduated, or if you’ve been out of school for several years, there are always things in your life that command your attention. You need to master keeping these attributes “at the ready” because your life’s chaos should never been seen or even sensed by your future employer.
Let’s review why each of these six attributes is important and vital in the job search:
1. High energy. This attribute is needed to succeed in any job. Being energetic means that you have the vigor, the force, and the get-up-and-go outlook needed to accomplish small and not-so-small tasks that any job will entail. Recruiters and hiring managers will sometimes call you back for several rounds of interviews. By demonstrating high energy, you prove you can handle any job given to you, and high energy will set you apart from others.
2. Positive attitude. Any job or any career is packed and perhaps jam-packed with problems, issues, and challenges. If you have a positive attitude, you are much more likely to see the answer to the problem, the issue, and the challenge. Being pessimistic can have the opposite effect. Recruiters and hiring managers are very keen on identifying a positive attitude versus a negative one, so ensure you demonstrate this readily.
3. Strong follow-up. This is particularly important because recruiters and hiring managers are often pulled in a number of directions during the job search. Having a strong follow-up ensures that you know what every next step is at every turn in your job search. There is also a fine line between strong follow-up and pestering; ensure you do not cross that line. The best way to avoid crossing that line is to not require that a recruiter or a hiring manager answer each of your e-mails. Whatever the stage in your job search, either simply state that you are still interested, that you hope for a positive response, or that you appreciated their time.
4. Determination to succeed. You will absolutely need a determination to succeed because you might face pitfalls, curves, and roadblocks at every stage of the search. Viewing this process as long term can be very helpful in ultimately getting a job offer:
• A long period of time can elapse between when you are first interviewed and when you are asked to interview a second time. This could be two weeks or two months. You will have no way of knowing. Having determination to succeed will get you through this drought.
• The interviewer could think you are a strong candidate, but not for this particular job, and may refer you to another division either on campus or off campus. Either way, you will have to drive this process through to fruition.
• The interviewer could turn you down because he or she went with another candidate, but later on, that candidate could renege on the job acceptance. It doesn’t happen often, but it could happen. The employer may then go to his or her original interview slate and decide to offer the job to the candidate who was second in line.
5. Savvy interactions. During the job search process, you will have ample opportunities to interact with all types of employees at the company, and often, they will be at varying stages of seniority. You will no doubt have interactions with administrative assistants, managers, VPs, and senior VPs. No matter what the interaction, show yourself to be a person who can get along with everyone, and be respectful of everyone’s position, from the security officer who screens your bags to the individuals you meet in the elevators. Be savvy and show you have the good sense and ability to leave positive impressions no matter where you go. Remember that you do not know where the strong relationships lie in a company. The security guard could be very good friends with the recruiter. Administrative assistants often hold quite a bit of power. Always use good business etiquette in every interaction. Show that you are capable of being part of a team and getting along with all types of employees. It will serve you well.
6. Posture. You can do two things to ensure you have good posture. One is to stand up or sit up straight, with your shoulders back and your head held high. The other way to ensure good posture is to execute every stage of the job search as outlined in this textbook, to ensure you have enough targets that will result in at least one or two offers coming your way. This type of posture means that you will always “care” about the result, but you will not be devastated if you do not get one particular offer because you will have the confidence to know that another will absolutely come your way. It is not be a matter of “if.” It is a matter of “when.” When you have that confidence, and that posture, you are in full control of your job search. You’ve heard the phrase “it’s the journey and not the destination,” and so it is with your job search. Having posture means you have the ultimate confidence that the outcome will be a positive one.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Keeping upbeat and focused at the final stages of a job search are necessities. It’s difficult at times because you are often juggling multiple searches, going to school full time, and working.
• Demonstrating these top six characteristics, in addition to what you’ve already learned, is not a guarantee that you will get an offer; however, it will dramatically increase your overall chances.
Exercises
1. Think back to the last time you interviewed for a job and received an offer. Did you demonstrate the characteristics listed in the preceding section?
2. Think back to the last time you interviewed and you did not receive an offer. Did you demonstrate the characteristics listed in the preceding section?
3. What can you improve on, going forward? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.07%3A_The_Six_Things_Needed_to_Close_an_Offer.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn about real-life negotiation and closing-the-offer scenarios by reviewing questions and answers that will help you face similar issues in your job search.
2. Learn that no matter what level of your career, you will always need negotiation skills, and you will always need to drive toward a closing situation.
Often, listening to questions and answers about a topic brings it to life. The following Q&A came from real job search candidates trying to solve issues they faced in their job search. The questions are written in the present tense and will include phrases such as, “I did this” or “I’m not sure what to do here.” Read on and learn about how to manage these situations should they arise in your job search five days from now or five years from now!
Question 1. I am planning to accept a job that pays below market because everything else about it is ideal. The job responsibilities are exactly what I want to do. The structure of the organization is ideal and my boss and team seem great. I also expect to move in two to three years anyway. How much impact will the lower salary have on my future negotiations?
Answer. You should be commended for considering factors other than just salary in your job decision. At the same time, salary history carries a lot of weight in future salary negotiations, so the decision to take a lower salary now will require extra work in the future:
• Better negotiation skills. Your past salary is a very strong anchor in the minds of prospective employers. I once conducted a search for a leading Fortune 500 company who finally found their ideal candidate after almost two years into the search. Their prospective hire had been grossly underpaid, so to bring him to market, the company would effectively have doubled his salary. In their minds, that suddenly seemed like a lot, so instead, they offered him slightly below market but still an enormous increase over his former salary. The candidate eventually negotiated for market value, and everything worked out, but the negotiation took much longer than it should have (and the candidate had to be a much better negotiator than he should have) because of his original salary discrepancy.
• Better positioning. Your past salary signals to employers your level, title, and responsibilities. Once you accept a lower salary to start, you then have to convince successive employers that you belong at the level, title, or responsibility that in their minds command a higher salary. You will need to position yourself so that future employers don’t have to think, “If she’s so good, why isn’t she paid accordingly?”
• Better personal financial management. Employers aside, your decision to take a lower salary affects your personal bottom line. You will have less money to save, invest, and cushion you during economic downturns.
Question 2. Is there ever a scenario where taking the lower salary makes sense?
Answer. Of course, there is. Career planning is a highly individualized process, so exceptions abound. However, rather than encourage you to accept a lower salary, I challenge you (women especially!) to explore as many other creative solutions as possible to get what you want without having to “pay for it” in a lower salary.
Question 3. What’s the best way to approach a recruiter about salary negotiation? How does someone new to the workforce approach negotiation? How does that approach change after you have a few years of experience?
Answer. Recruiters will demand to know salary before they present you to the client. They need to know that you are in the ballpark of what their client is expecting. It also is good market knowledge for them to have. So you need to know that whatever you say goes to their client.
When you are new, you might think you have no negotiating leverage. It is true that the big management training programs or analyst and associate programs at banks and consulting firms have set salaries with little negotiating. For everywhere else, and that means most other jobs, there is no standard salary. You are paid what the employer has in their budget and what they think you are worth. Look at the market value of your skills (computer, languages, analytical, coursework), your internships and part-time jobs, and your degrees. Know what benefit you will bring to your employer’s bottom line and what comparable people in these same roles are making. When you are new, employers will try to pay you based on your years of full-time experience because you have relatively little. You want them to focus on skills and results.
When you are experienced, it’s trickier because there are more variables, but the essential lessons remain the same. Know your market and how you contribute. That is your value and that should be your price.
Question 4. Due to the down economy, I committed to a job offer that paid very little (peanuts), but was offered a good job profile. As time progressed, I realized that the company did not deliver on its promises and I plan to quit soon. As I apply for jobs, I am expected to quote a salary based on my current salary. The current salary is very little and I believe that with my experience and education I should be able to quote a higher salary. How can one deal with this situation?
Answer. Your current salary is a very strong anchor to what employers think they need to pay you. Therefore, you need to do whatever you can to establish your value before divulging how little you make. Focus on what you are bringing to the job and what comparable people in these roles are making. See the points in the preceding answer. Now that you have established that this is the correct anchor, you can explain your salary as an anomaly and one of the reasons you are leaving. Employers are happy to get good hires at a fair price, even if that means paying a lot more than what you happened to make at a previous job.
Question 5. How do I respond when a job posting (application) asks for salary history and minimum salary requirement?
Answer. This is why I don’t recommend that people spend a lot of time responding to job postings. There is very little room to maneuver because some employers toss out applications with missing information, such as salary and salary requirements. I won’t even move ahead with presenting candidates to my clients and hiring managers without salary information. You have to respond with the truth, and, unfortunately, the salary you name anchors how the employer perceives you.
If you don’t want to respond, you need to find another way to apply that circumvents the application. Network into the decision makers and bypass the recruiter. Make a pitch that focuses on your value so that salary becomes a secondary consideration.
Question 6. I received an offer from a large consulting firm. The start date for the job is July fifth. My family always spends the July fourth holiday and the remaining week at my grandparent’s cottage in Lake George. This consulting firm has a training program that begins on July fifth. I’d like to begin on July eleventh. Can I negotiate for this?
Answer. Large firms put extensive time and effort into constructing training programs that can introduce you to the company, along with senior managers, and provide training that can be vital to your success.
Speak to your human resources contact and ask what is on the schedule for the first week of training. The training can be eight weeks long, with the first week scheduled with senior manager welcomes. If they feel this is something that can be missed, then you have an option to consider.
I would recommend you skip the family vacation this year, and get a good start to your career. Important networking contacts can be made in that first week when everyone is new to the company, and those contacts last decades. The information you can gather at this training event can be vital to your success.
Question 7. I have two years of administrative experience with a medium-sized manufacturing firm and I’m making \$45,000. I finally got an interview for a job I’ve wanted as a compensation analyst. The recruiter said I would be offered the job for \$45,000 because I don’t have any experience, but they really like me. I wanted \$55,000. Should I hold out for that?
Answer. You need to do your research. What are entry-level compensation analysts getting in your market—Los Angeles? Let’s say your research gives you two data points that indicate the going rate is \$50,000. You can then negotiate for the \$50,000, citing the research, and citing that you have two years of business experience under your belt. In my twenty-five years of corporate experience, I’ve never seen an offer pulled because a candidate asked for an additional \$5,000. Think ahead: is there anything else worth negotiating for? Either way, it may be worth taking for three reasons: (1) it’s a step up from administrative assistant, (2) you will be learning a new skill that is of great interest to you, and (3) you can grow within that discipline.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Learning about the struggles of others in the negotiation and closing-the-offer stage can be helpful for future career negotiations.
• Research and communication are two vital tools when negotiating and closing the offer.
• We negotiate for a lot of things, and probably never think we even negotiated at all. We negotiate for where to go to lunch, when to go to dinner, and what to do on any given project.
EXERCISE
1. Together with a classmate, remember back to the last time you negotiated for something—anything—and what was the result? Discuss a positive result and identify why the negotiation went well, and discuss a negative result and identify why it didn’t go well. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.08%3A_Q_and_A_Focused_on_Negotiation_and_Closing_the_Offer.txt |
Individuals can naturally get intimidated when they have to negotiate, but the truth is that we negotiate things every day, without even realizing it. We negotiate which restaurant to go to, which movie to see, how to best present a project, yet no one feels intimidated or nervous about negotiating.
It’s a given that negotiating for a job has more serious implications that negotiating for what movie to see, but if you’ve done your prep work, it should go very smoothly.
Negotiation is a skill and, like any other skill, practice is critical to succeeding. Role-play with your friends and your contacts at career services. Practice asking for a slightly higher salary with a partner who doesn’t give in easily. Practice asking for a higher salary with a partner who doesn’t give in at all. Respond professionally and appropriately at all times.
When receiving an offer, it’s best to think of the totality of the offer. What makes you happy about the offer? What displeases you and how would you like to see it changed? In some cases, you will not be pleased in the compensation arena because you’ll have less vacation time than you would like or no opportunity for a bonus (at the starting point). Either way, remain professional at all times, and balance and weigh each component, thinking about the long-term potential of the position, the company, and the industry.
Sometimes when you negotiate, hiring managers will go higher with compensation and sometimes they will not. If the compensation is extremely low, much lower than the average, perhaps you should refuse this offer. Consult someone who knows what they are doing: career services, a professional you can trust, or perhaps a career coach. It’s well worth your effort to ensure you move ahead wisely and appropriately.
Some people view compensation as the most important component of an offer, and others, perhaps most, place it in the top three or four components. Other components may include the following:
• Your manager: Can you adjust to their style?
• Your company: Does it have a strong brand?
• Your challenge: Is the job challenging enough, and can you rise to the challenge?
Interview and get multiple job offers and negotiation will be much less stressful.
One final note: don’t forget to follow your gut instincts. We often immediately know whether something is a good or bad idea, and we are usually right. Negotiating can be risky, but you can mitigate that risk by using all of the previous job search steps, and also tuning into and trusting your instincts.
Chapter Takeaways
• The final step in your job search should be fully supported by all the steps that came before it.
• Multiple negotiation points can be used when considering an offer. They include base salary and bonus potential; more time to consider accepting the offer; start date (either sooner or later); reporting relationships and potential managerial duties; benefits and insurance; job title and job responsibilities; and work and life balance.
• Negotiating is a much easier skill to master once you remove the emotional element from the equation.
• Your posture is immediately improved and visible when you have multiple offers. The more offers you have, the easier it will be to negotiate for a salary increase, or any other component of the offer.
• At larger firms, recruiters and hiring managers have multiple hoops to jump through before finding the candidate who will receive an offer. This great amount of work gives you leverage to negotiate.
• Strong communication skills are needed to keep recruiters and hiring managers abreast of offer deadlines.
• Staying organized is key to the job search process. Using a single page in a playbook that highlights the latest interaction with employers can keep you on track.
• Closing the offer requires an increase in focus, energy, and drive that will differentiate you from other finalists.
• Regardless of the level of your career, you will always need negotiation skills, and you will always need to drive toward a closing situation.
Chapter Review
1. What strategies can you employ to lower the stress involved in negotiating key components of a job offer?
2. What different items are open to negotiation? Which are cash items and which are noncash items?
3. Why should you always negotiate?
4. How do you juggle multiple searches while staying organized? What tool can you use to ensure you don’t miss any deadlines?
5. How do you negotiate without annoying or alienating your prospective employer?
6. How can you close the offer strongly and confidently? What do you need to do to rise above the other final candidates?
7. Why should you seriously consider not taking a job offer if the compensation is ridiculously low? How can that affect future searches? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/10%3A_Step_6_-_Negotiate_and_Close_Your_Offer/10.09%3A_Chapter_Review_and_Exercises.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Get an overview of different social media sites.
2. Understand how social media sites assist your job search.
LinkedIn
As of December 2010, LinkedIn had ninety million members and is adding new members every day. LinkedIn is a social media site designed to share your professional information. Much like a traditional résumé, the standard profile includes sections for a summary, education, experience, and additional information. You can also upload a picture, as well as attach presentations and your blogs and websites to your profile.
The social, interactive component of LinkedIn is your ability to connect to people and to see their connections (or people who have connected to them). You can reach out to these secondary connections by asking for an introduction from someone with whom you are already connected. In fact, you can reach out to connections of connections through the introduction process, so you have access to not just your circle but two circles removed from you. This greatly expands your network.
Another interactive component is the Groups function. LinkedIn has Groups based on a mutual interest or other commonality, such as university affiliation, professional goal, or geography. Anyone with a LinkedIn profile can create and run a Group, so you could use LinkedIn to create an online community for your specific interest or goal.
The following is a cursory overview of LinkedIn’s basic features, but you can see that having a LinkedIn profile can add tremendous advantages to your job search:
• You can upload your résumé details online and be able to point people to your LinkedIn hyperlink rather than an attached document. This is very useful when requesting informational interviews where you want the person to have your extended background, but you don’t want to be presumptuous and attach a résumé.
• You can share additional information that would be cumbersome on a traditional résumé.
• You can network with ninety million members regardless of where you are physically based.
• You can use the connections feature to keep track of your network and to meet new people, thereby facilitating your job search through networking.
• You can use the Groups function to meet people with similar interests and goals, such as people in your target industry, function, or geography.
Facebook
As of December 2010, Facebook reported over five hundred million users. Facebook originated as a personal social platform, so its profile includes basic information, such as education and interests, but is more geared toward sharing ideas, comments, and photos. Like LinkedIn, you can attach your blog to your Facebook profile so your posts will appear on your profile.
Like LinkedIn, the social, interactive component of Facebook enables you to connect to people as “Friends” and to see their Friends. You can send messages to your Friends and sometimes to their connections, so you have the ability to organize, maintain, and grow your network via Facebook.
Facebook has a Pages function, which works like the Groups function in LinkedIn. The range of Page subjects is much wider on Facebook, because it is predominately a personal site. You will see opinions, cultural themes, and other non-career-related Pages. At the same time, some Pages are dedicated to organizations where you may be able to see job posts and breaking news. Other Pages are dedicated to professional and career-related subjects, and you may see advice or resources on them.
Facebook is predominately a personal site, but there are advantages to your job search from having a Facebook profile:
• The reach is much wider, so you may be able to connect with more people. If you can’t find someone on LinkedIn, Facebook provides another option.
• The best networking starts with developing rapport, so the predominately personal environment of Facebook may be less intimidating for both job seeker and prospective networking targets.
• Organizations and people interact differently on different social media, so Facebook provides another data point for reaching organizations and people of interest.
Twitter
Once you sign up for a profile, which is just your Twitter handle (i.e., name), Twitter enables you to post Tweets (i.e., ideas, comments, and thoughts) of 140 characters or fewer in length. You connect to other Twitter users by “following” their Tweets. People can also follow your Tweets, and if someone is following you, you can send them a message.
As of December 2010, Twitter is one of the top ten most visited websites, as reported by Alexa.com. Alexa.com is a widely used tracking site to measure visitors and page views to websites. Most Tweets are not specifically job or career related. However, there are advantages to using Twitter for your job search:
• Organizations post job openings via Twitter.
• Individuals who may be instrumental to your job search might be on Twitter, and following them is another way to show your interest and possibly connect with them.
• Your posts reveal your ideas and expertise, so you could Tweet about items that showcase your industry or functional knowledge.
Other Niche Online Communities
The value of social media sites is putting your information out there and being able to connect with people, so it makes sense that communities have been established around very tight niches. The value of being active in a niche community is that the participants have a natural rapport already established from sharing a common affinity. This facilitates networking.
One example of a niche online community is Brazen Careerist, a site targeted at career issues for Generation Y (the generation of people born between 1980 and 1995, also known as Millennials and Trophy Kids). Similar to other social media sites, Brazen Careerist allows you to create a profile, post ideas, and connect with other members. The Groups function is where communities specific to industry, function, geography, interest, or goal connect. Organizations post jobs or sponsor events via the site. Because you know that Brazen Careerist is specifically targeted at Generation Y, you can become active on the site if you are trying to reach Generation Y contacts, including organizations that target Generation Y.
Another example of an online community, though not a social media site in its strict definition, is Meetup.com. Meetup.com posts live meetings around specific topics. You can set up an account so you can search for events and groups near you. The networking happens live, so it is not social media per se, but clearly the online component is greatly facilitating the targeted networking.
The value of niche online communities to your job search is in the targeted networking:
• If you want to reach a targeted group, by identifying a social media site for that group, you focus your networking efforts.
• Your ability to interact and build connections with this tight community is a way to gauge if you are indeed interested in this group and if they are interested in you. This can help you position your overall marketing.
• Organizations are also active on niche online communities, so you can find organizations that are predisposed to your profile.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Examples of social media sites include LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and niche online communities.
• The value of social media sites to your job search is in the ability to push out your information and to connect with people in a targeted way.
Exercises
1. Which social media sites will you select for your job search? If you are not familiar with these sites, visit the ones mentioned in this section to get a feel for each site.
2. What specific steps do you need to take to increase your activity in the social media space? Do you need to establish a profile? Do you have a profile but need to update it or post ideas? Pick one social media site (again, LinkedIn is recommended for its focus on professional careers) and create or update your profile.
3. How will you incorporate social media activity into your job search going forward? Set calendar reminders each month to update your social media profiles. | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/11%3A_Social_Media_and_the_Job_Search/11.01%3A_Social_Media_Sites_for_the_Job_Search.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand how social media can be used at all stages of the job search, not just networking.
2. Get specific action steps for incorporating social media into your current job search.
Table 11.1 presents each of the six job search steps and details how social media can help. Table \(1\): The Six Steps and Social Media
Job Search Step How Social Media Can Help
Step 1: Identify Your Target
• Other people’s profiles show career paths and job descriptions
Step 2: Create a Compelling Marketing Campaign
• Your profile and activity represent your experience, skills, and interests
Step 3: Conduct In-Depth Research
• Looking at profiles across organizations and industries reveals hiring patterns and other organizational information
• Ability to search profiles by keyword enables you to find people who fit the exact criteria for you to interview for informational purposes
Step 4: Network and Interview
• Ability to reach out and interact with other site members expands your network
Step 5: Stay Motivated and Organized and Troubleshoot Your Search
• Stay motivated by the community
• Self-edited status and information updates enable site members to have organized and current information about each other
• Find more contacts and organizations if your search stalls
Step 6: Negotiate and Close the Offer
• Ability to look at different profiles enables you to compare titles with scope of responsibilities
• Interactive questions and Group functions enable surveying for salary data
Step 1: Identify Your Target by Using Site Profiles as Prototypes
In step 1, we describe a well-defined job target as one with a specific industry, function, and geography. You can then map this to your decision criteria, or your personal values and interests. You look internally for your values and interests, but to understand how these might translate to different industries and functional areas, it is necessary to look externally at what is happening in the market. Social media enables you to look at other people’s careers and find prototypes (i.e., models or examples) that your own job search might follow. LinkedIn is most conducive to this type of search because the profiles are laid out like résumés.
If one of your potential job function targets is public relations, look at people in PR:
• What is their career path? Do you want these jobs?
• How are they describing their jobs? Do you want to work on these things?
• Look at the organization profiles for where they work. Do these types of organizations appeal to you?
• Join Groups related to PR and follow discussions. Are you interested in what is being discussed?
• Ask questions using the Groups function or Q&A function to get specifics on what it is like to do this job. Do you like what you find out?
If one of your potential industry targets is nonprofits dedicated to children and the arts, pick a specific nonprofit in that space (or several) and look at people who work there:
• What different roles do people have? Do you want these jobs?
• How do people describe what they do? Do you want to work on these things?
• Look at the different profiles in relation to each other. Are a lot of people in programming or development, or do they cover several functions? Does this structure appeal to you?
• Join Groups related to children’s education and follow discussions. Is most of the talk about fundraising, programming, and operations? Are you interested in what is being discussed?
• Ask questions using the Groups function or Q&A function to get specifics on what it is like to work in this industry. Do you like what you find out?
Step 2: Create a Compelling Marketing Campaign That Is Current and Comprehensive
An online profile is one of the four key components of your marketing campaign because it represents you online where recruiters and employers do look for candidates. Compare your profile to other profiles at your level and target, and make sure that you are competitive in your experience and skills. Continuing the PR example from earlier, if certain keywords (or, specific words or phrases) are often found in PR profiles, make sure you have these in your profile. (If you don’t have a legitimate reason to weave those keywords into your profile, this could be a sign that you lack something considered a prerequisite to getting those jobs!) Check also for specific computer or other technical skills to ensure you are competitive with your peers.
Social media enables you to update in real time, so make sure you update your status. In social media, status refers to what you are currently doing and may include professional or personal activities. LinkedIn has a status area on the profile. Facebook has a Wall to post what you are doing. Updating your status notifies site members connected to you. Frequent updating also ensures that people who view your profile always see the latest version. Each update is another nudge to view your background. It reminds people what you are doing. Don’t just think of status as your employment status—that is, whether or not you have a job. Use your status to communicate projects you are working on, informational meetings you have attended, and other professional activities that may not be directly job search related, but clearly demonstrate that you are keeping busy. Your status is not static, but should reflect your ever-changing skills and experience.
With a paper résumé, it is unwieldy to include a lot of attachments, such as a portfolio of your work. A work portfolio might include published articles if are a writer, or illustrations and designs if you are a designer. Using your online profile, you can link to an online collection of your work (for example, using the SlideShare application to showcase a slide presentation) and create a comprehensive view of everything you offer. LinkedIn and Facebook have applications that enable you to link your blog to your profile. If you have a blog and your blog showcases examples of your work, your profile updates with samples of your work whenever you post to your blog. LinkedIn also has applications that allow you to share what you are reading, where you are traveling, and even slide presentations you have created. While this level of detail would be onerous for a paper résumé, online it is easy to page through and access as much data as you’d like, so you can offer the reader (in this case, recruiters and employers) much more information.
If you are positioning yourself for a job in PR, ask the following questions about your profile:
• Do you share the same important keywords as other profiles active in PR?
• Do you describe your projects in a similar way?
• Should you join certain Groups so that you are active in the same circles?
• Can you update your status periodically to showcase PR work you are doing for a school club or professional association? Have you attended a conference or read an article that you’d like to share in your status?
• Can you share samples from a recent campaign?
• Have you read books or articles on the industry that you can add to your status?
If you are positioning yourself for a job in the nonprofit intersection of children and the arts, ask the following questions about your profile:
• Do you have examples of work with children and the arts in your profile?
• Have you isolated a functional area, such as fund-raising or programming, where you can focus your keywords?
• Are your Groups, status updates, and applications consistent with an interest in children and the arts?
• Can you post a status update or sample of a recent project or volunteer experience involving children, the arts, or both?
• What books or articles have you read in this area that you can add to your status?
Step 3: Conduct In-Depth Research by Viewing Profiles
In-depth research gives you insight into the functions, industries, and organizations of interest to you. Social media sites with their collection of people and organization profiles contain a lot of useful information. The career paths, project descriptions, and titles of people in your target function, industry, or organization reveal what is typical in that field. LinkedIn has a feature where, when you view a profile, suggestions are made for other matching profiles. A box on the lower right of the profile is titled, “Viewers of this profile also viewed…” and contains a list of other profiles. Even if you have only one name of someone to view, you can easily find more by using those suggestions. People in these other profiles often work at other organizations, and this can lead to discovering new organizations to target.
The ability to search by a wide combination of keywords enables you to identify very specific people for informational interviews and networking overall. You can look for specific alma maters, organizations, skill keywords, geographic locations, or a combination of keywords. Without social media and its reach and searchability, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to efficiently find someone from a specific school who has done a specific project or job, has a certain skill, has worked at a specific company, and lives within your target geography.
When you research, especially in preparation for networking meetings and interviews, you want to be current on the trends of your target industries, functions, and organizations. The continually updated statuses and dialogue of social media sites enable you to get breaking news. Follow discussions and see what subjects, ideas, and concerns are trending.
Finally, the organization profiles in LinkedIn or Pages in Facebook contain a summary of the organization and often include job postings. When you follow specific organizations in LinkedIn, you get a daily or weekly update on promotions, arrivals and departures, as well as job openings. This information is invaluable to finding possible relevant people profiles to view, having the latest organization news, and getting a jump on job openings.
If you are positioning yourself for a job in PR, the following information might help you:
• Look at specific companies for whom you’d like to do PR, but also look at PR agencies.
• PR might be called media relations or be handled within a broader department such as marketing. Use different keywords when you search.
• When you see late-breaking news for companies you are following, think about how this would impact your job in PR. Get into the habit of questioning and really analyzing your research.
If you are positioning yourself for a job in the nonprofit intersection of children and the arts, use some of the following techniques:
• Find nonprofits, foundations, and ancillary programs of bigger nonprofits that might be children and art related.
• Look at people’s backgrounds—do they have teaching experience or performing experience? What common threads are present among the people active in this space?
• Don’t just look at the professional part of someone’s background, but also look at volunteer work, special interests, and groups to which people belong. Are any organizations cited new to you, and can you add them to your target list?
Step 4: Network and Interview with a Larger, More Diverse Group
Social media sites are also referred to as social networking sites. With their interactivity and wide reach to many users, the networking potential is clear. Here are some tips to get the most out of networking via social media:
• Include a professional-looking picture so that people recognize you. If you try to connect with someone with whom you haven’t corresponded in years, they may not remember your name or background, so a picture is another clue. A big benefit of social media sites is your ability to connect with a wider range of people than you might if you network only in person or by telephone. The likelihood increases that you will reach out to less familiar contacts, so a picture bridges the familiarity.
• Put your LinkedIn profile hyperlink in your e-mail signature. LinkedIn (as opposed to Facebook or other social media sites) is specifically recommended for this tip because the LinkedIn profile is structured like a résumé. Therefore, the hyperlink effectively attaches your résumé without the presumptuousness or the potential virus implications of actually attaching a résumé. Keep the LinkedIn profile hyperlink for all e-mails, even personal ones. This makes it easy for any e-mail recipients to view your background, and Friends who think they know you can learn more about you and help in your job search. You never know 100 percent who other people know or what they know.
• When adding connections in LinkedIn, Friends in Facebook, or connections in another social media site, don’t use default invitation messages. Personalize the message with how you know the person and why you are reaching out. This makes it easier for the recipient to accept the invitation because they will have all the information they need to determine whether you are someone they want to connect to.
• Use Groups and discussions functions to expand your network. As you build your online connections, reaching out to people you know is a logical first step. You can also reach out to people from your school and any prior work environments. After that, finding people with like interests is another potential affiliation. The Groups and discussion and Q&A boards of social media sites are a great way to identify these like-minded people. Your comments to the Group and discussion boards are also a great way of showcasing your expertise. In an interview, you proclaim your expertise and experience to show why you’d be a great hire. As you display your expertise and experience in online Groups and discussion boards, you essentially publish your interview responses, which can reach prospective employers who have not formally called you for an interview.
Step 5: Use Social Media to Motivate, Organize, and Troubleshoot
Many online communities are focused on searching for a job. LinkedIn has multiple job search groups, and other social media sites have multiple options. The interactivity of social media helps people stay on track, maintain accountability, and keep momentum. The job search process involves several solitary activities (e.g., research, marketing). Remember to use social media to stay connected during the times when you are busy with solo projects.
Social media sites are a contact database that continually updates as people self-edit their status and information. You have to update your Outlook, cell phone directory, or other contact database, but the contacts themselves update social media sites. If you need to reach someone and your e-mail bounces back, reach out via social media because their contact information may have been updated since you last edited your own database. Don’t forget to interact when you do see an updated status—acknowledging someone’s new status is a good way to build in networking naturally.
Profiles on social media sites provide examples of how people in your target field are positioning themselves. Compare other profiles with yours to help you troubleshoot if you are missing critical words, descriptions, skills, or experiences. Another reason your search may be in trouble is that you are too passive in contacting prospective employers. The ability to search profiles of people and organizations enables you to find specific (and additional) leads for your search.
Step 6: Negotiate and Close the Offer with Online Data
Part of good negotiation technique is knowing what your negotiation counterpart wants and needs. Social media sites provide an opportunity to find this necessary information. Using social media grants you access to many people, making it easier for you to find those whose backgrounds match yours; you can survey these people for information. When you find someone whose profile indicates they have done the job you are seeking, you could try the following sample query: I noticed in your profile that you worked as a PR assistant in health care. I have seen data that estimates PR assistant salaries from the low \$30s up to the mid-\$50s. (Note to reader: You want to give a range so the person knows you at least tried to get some information on your own. This range was provided by http://www.salary.com by searching on public relations + New York, NY.) As an experienced PR person, is that what you have seen as well? What most impacts where you fall on the range? Any insights you have would be greatly appreciated.
Many recruiters use social media, so you can also reach out to them and learn from their expertise in hiring people for jobs you are targeting. The following sample query is addressed to a recruiter who specializes in nonprofits, ideally children and arts related: I noticed in your profile that you specialize in nonprofit children’s organizations (or arts organizations, as applicable). I am doing salary research on entry-level development (or programming, specify a functional area). (Note to reader: You need to note a specific level and function so that the recruiter knows what salary information to provide.) Because you are active in this market, what have you seen as typical starting salaries? Does this vary widely? Has this changed much over time? Any insights you have would be greatly appreciated.
Post a question about compensation via the Groups or discussion boards. Don’t forget to ask, not just about salary but also lifestyle, growth prospects, and all the components of your decision criteria. The following is a sample query to a Group or discussion relating to your target prospective industry and function: I am doing salary research on (specify functional area and level so that people know how to respond).What are the salary estimates for this area? Can anyone recommend resources or people to consult for my salary research? Thanks so much!
The preceding sample queries are a template to show the bare minimum of information you want to share to elicit the data you want. Remember the social component of social media, so your queries and interactions should reflect your voice and engender rapport. Much like your cover letter, networking pitch, and other marketing correspondence, your social media correspondence should be customized to your personality, background, skills, experience, and your job search targets.
Another aspect of closing your offer is the reference check process. A reference check is when a prospective employer contacts someone who has worked with you or managed you, so that the person who is contacted can “reference,” or describe, your work and work characteristics. Social media posts will never be a substitute for a reference check, but LinkedIn does provide a Testimonials feature where people who have worked with you can provide comments on your work. Having a few of these testimonials in your profile can nudge a recruiter or employer who is looking at your background closer to your favor.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Social media sites are useful at all stages of the job search, not just for networking.
• People and organizational profiles provide information for your target selection, marketing, research, troubleshooting, and negotiation.
• Interactivity and continual updating of social media sites enable you to ask questions and get breaking news of trends, people’s statuses, and even job openings.
Exercises
1. For each social media site you are using for your search, set aside some time and use the site for all steps of the job search, from finding new organization names to finding salary data.
2. Make an activity list of how you will use social media for your search. If you are struggling to find organization names, make an effort to join Groups in the industry so you can see more profiles and possibly get names, or ask questions in the group to identify names. If you are struggling with marketing, review profiles and focus on what you like and don’t like about profiles of people doing your target job.
3. If you are not comfortable using social media or not very active, can you find a tech-savvy friend who can be your job search buddy in this specific area? | textbooks/socialsci/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book%3A_Job_Searching_in_Six_Steps/11%3A_Social_Media_and_the_Job_Search/11.02%3A_Social_Media_and_the_Six-Step_Job_Search_Process.txt |
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