How to Stand Out

Posted on July 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

Jeff Haden (Inc. Magazine and Business Insider) posted two articles that any college student (and high school students for that matter) should use to “audit” their resume and their elevator speech. I’ve provided highlights of the main points here with my own bits of advice. The full articles are:

6 Ways Successful People Stand Out by Jeff Haden

10 Ways You Should Never Describe Yourself by Jeff Haden

Let’s face it. Your resume is a frustrating document to write. Do you include details or keep it high level? Do you include all work history or just the relevant stuff for the position you are applying for? Is one page the rule or is it best to have multiple pages?   The article “10 Ways You Should Never Describe Yourself” makes some very valid points. But how do you describe yourself? As Jeff states in his article, the 10 ways to describe yourself are great for others to say about you but probably not okay for putting on your resume.

At the end of this article, I’ll offer a complimentary assessment that will give you words to describe yourself. Yes, putting a few descriptors on your resume isn’t wrong, just don’t put words that are too general. My rule of thumb is, “if you are using a descriptive word because you think it is what the employer is looking for then you are misusing the space in your resume.

Haden’s 10 Words You Shouldn’t Use

Motivated – A better word might be “self motivated” which can be substantiated by things you’ve done.

Authority – Taking charge and leading (position authority) or having exceptional expertise (knowledge authority) need to be self-evident in your resume. A better strategy might be a statement like “Recognized for my leadership on the xyz project.” or “Recognized for my research on the zyq study.”

Global Provider – This may not be applicable to students, at least not right now, but many students have taken advantage of a Study Abroad program. This doesn’t make you a global expert. List the overseas period and describe what it gave you.

Innovative – Some people actually are innovative. That can be a good thing or a curse depending on the job. Some bosses don’t want a young upstart coming in and challenging or changing everything. They want you to learn. Employers want to know you are able to appreciate and follow their policies, procedures and work strategies. A better word might be creative if you were solely responsible for something new and creative that was recognized. However, that word has been overused.

Creative – We gave this one away as part of Innovative. Overused is the issue. Just be sure you have been recognized for something special. If not, don’t bother using it.

Passionate – This has no value. However, in the assessment report you might see “customer focused” or “results oriented” or “goal oriented”. Use those if you have a story to connect the word to.

Unique – Everyone is unique. I don’t see this word used too often but if I did, I think I’d file the resume in the round file.

Guru – Even if you could substantiate this some how, a student or recent grad isn’t a guru in anything. Be a learner.

Incredibly… – This is way too informal and is an exaggeration word. Avoid all words that exaggerate what you are trying to say.

Words that Work

If you’d like to take an online assessment to find better descriptors for your resume and for your interviews, go to http://www.ttisurvey.com///142181FUW This assessment takes about 20 minutes (2 parts @ 10 minutes each). The report is approximately 46 pages and will come directly to your email.

Haden has also made a list of 6 ways to stand out. There are many ways to stand out. I saw a person with pink and yellow hair. Yes, they stood out. Many young people today are  getting tattoos. To stand out from an employer standpoint, get into the recruiter or hiring managers head. What if you were them? What would you be looking for in a new hire?

Haden’s 6 Ways to Stand Out

Be first, with a purpose – From showing for the interview, to finding the job opportunities before they are posted on the company website. A position is officially approved and being recruited for 10 to 15 days before it gets any public exposure. Also, some companies have a policy of posting a position for as much as 30 days internally before posting it publicly. Make it your business to get the inside scoop from current employees and managers at the company you want to get hired. A great starting point is LinkedIn. But you have pursue that rich networking tool with purpose.

Be known for something specific – My son was advised to play down some of his high school accomplishments in his resume by a visiting industry mentor. The fact that he was accepted to and graduated (June 2012 –  and yes I’m very proud) from a prestigious university “assumes your high school years were impressive.” Whether it is high school or college stuff, be known for something! If you are currently in high school (or a parent of a HS student), be involved in something. I recently provided career coaching to a group of HS students (see Career Coaching for Students) and one student took this advice to heart and met with the school counselor and principle of the HS to request formation of a Poetry Society/Club. Stating on your college application resume “Founded and served as President of the Poetry Club” is what colleges and employers like to see. Just be sure you are able to say something about what you did after you founded it, such as, “grew first year membership to 48 students” and/or “Held 8 club meetings where 25 student-written poems were presented.”

Create your own side project – Integrating the project with another activity makes it exponentially easier and more likely to be completed. Many students are critical of, or sarcastic about, students that are in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts but colleges and employers value the experience. Both of these organizations have an “ultimate level” (Eagle Scout or Gold Award respectively) that is usually attained during high school that includes a significant project.  My daughter was president of the ecology club and also achieved the Gold Award by designing and building out the grounds as part of a “Greenhouse Enrichment Project”. This required fund raising, organizing volunteers and working with the high school administration for approval and support. The fact that she was involved with the Ecology Club gave her the ability to offer service hours to club members. Getting volunteers was easy.

Put your muscle where your mouth is – Don’t talk about what is wrong, even if the interviewer asks you to describe something that someone else screwed up. When put in that awkward situation, always share a situation or problem that you were at least partly responsible for delivering the solution – even if you were the one that screwed it up. Being part of the solution is what everyone wants.

Show a little of your personal side – Personal interests help others to identify and remember you. For many interviewers, asking the proverbial “tell me about yourself” can lead to all kinds of responses. Stay focused on the purpose of the question and environment you are in. If the interview is a standard 30 minutes, and you talk for 10 minutes about “who you are”, it is likely you won’t be getting the job or internship. Be prepared for how to “share a little.”

Work harder than everyone else – There is a book titled “Only the Paranoid Survive” by Andy Grove, ex-CEO of Intel, that gets this point across and then some. If you are in the right major and career for you, (or soon will be) this isn’t a hard thing to do. If you feel apathetic about your major/career choice, now is the time to do the work to find your passions. Working harder than everyone else should not be a chore. Look for the career that you can say “I can’t believe they pay me to do this stuff.”

Carl Nielson is an organizational development consultant, professional career and executive/leadership coach and creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ . Career Coaching for Students is available as a district-wide high school program and in group and on-one-one offerings through certified career coaches throughout the United States, Canada and other countries. Contact Carl Nielson at carl@successdiscoveries.com or call 972-346-2892 to discuss specific needs. Or visit us at http://www.careercoachingforstudents.net

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Choosing and Changing Majors: Status Quo or A New Standard?

Posted on July 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

The following graphic is from The College Board. We’ll start the discussion here.Is Changing Majors OK?

From the quote in the green bubble, “It’s okay to change your plans even if it means changing your major.” Well, yes, if you find yourself going in the wrong direction, change direction. But The College Board position, and that of most colleges and universities, is that changing majors multiple times to “find yourself” is okay. It isn’t. What it tells me is that the student didn’t do the work to determine a career path prior to showing up at college.

Many colleges and universities report the statistics that support the 2005 article by MSNBC.com that indecision about what major to choose can prove very expensive.  According to Dr. Fritz Grupe, founder of majors.com, eighty percent of college-bound graduating high school students have yet to choose a major before arriving on campus.

With tuition averaging $18,000 or higher in 2012-2013 at public universities, and much higher at private universities, indecisiveness can drain college savings accounts as students restart course sequences or transfer schools – losing credits in the process. Ultimately the result is that the student extends their college days beyond the four years parents planned to finance.

According to College Board, five- and  six-year students are not uncommon. Roughly 40% of those who start a four-year degree program still have not earned one after year six!

There are a variety of good reasons for dragging a college career into its fifth and sixth years—from taking time off for foreign study, to taking advantage of internships and co-ops or needing to balance academics with part-time employment to pay tuition. But changing majors is the one thing that drives up an education’s cost while potentially driving down a student’s self-esteem. It is also the easiest to avoid.

Bad Advice?

There are many (too many) assessments that aren’t valid and reliable. There are also “exercises” that professional counselors recommend if you don’t have access to professional tools such as valid and reliable assessments.

Kate Brooks, director of liberal arts career services at the University of Texas at Austin, thinks surveys can help focus a student’s attention on potential courses of study but she warns about the the students tendency to apply the results too inflexibly. “Often a student will say, ‘the test says I should be a florist, so that’s what I have to be,’” she says. A valid and reliable assessment and process doesn’t result in one career choice. A student that has that belief wasn’t counseled properly and was most likely not using a valid and reliable assessment instrument.

“Nationally, we see statistics quoted that as many as 80% of all college students change their major or that the average college student changes his/her major an average of 3-5 times. If you were able to count how many times students change their mind about what they want to do after graduation, it would be much higher. “
University of Missouri • MU Career Center, 2010
Student Success Center

Rather than properly designed, validated and reliable assessments, Brooks favors an exercise to help undecideds identify and translate interests into majors and eventually careers they will succeed in and enjoy.

She sends students to the nearest Barnes & Noble to browse the magazine racks. They are instructed to buy the three magazines they find most interesting. “We then discuss what prompted them to buy those magazines. It may be they chose Newsweek because they are interested in current events and politics. Or possibly there was an article in ESPN about nutritional sports bars. We talk about how pursuing chemistry could lead them to create a better bar or sports drink. Or maybe it is the marketing aspect that appeals to them — the ads. The point is to help them understand what things excite them and what careers are connected to those things, and which majors would lead them to those careers,” explains Brooks.

That exercise is wonderful but too simplistic. Choosing a career and the best major for that career direction is a little more complicated than that.

Tips for helping your student choose major

What can parents do to help their children get through college in a timely fashion while staying passionate about their choice of major? Here are some suggestions I think are worthy of considering:

  • Refrain from pressuring children into making quick choices or pursuing majors associated with high income professions. Not everyone should or can be a doctor or a lawyer.
  • Focus attention on pursuing courses of interest based on a career direction, even if the immediate relationship to a major or career is not obvious.
  • Double-majoring is a great way to keep opportunities open. With good planning in high school, double-majoring is not only very doable, it may very well be more interesting and provide an extra level of motivation and self esteem.
  • Encourage participation in job shadowing — going to work with people to see what their jobs actually entail and asking people they meet how they got into their careers. While in high school, interview people in the career of interest that are passionate and successful. Parents can help set this up.
  • If they do enter school undecided, engage in a career coaching program that provides professional-grade (highly valid and reliable) assessments and a process that leads to clarity and good decisions. It doesn’t hurt that the program will also assist in a broader sense of creating success across the bigger picture of life.
  • Refrain from giving advice based on the job market of twenty-some years ago or the “parent ego”. Today’s employers need a different kind of worker and favor different degrees. Many parents see their own career as a great direction for their son or daughter. Genetics may have played a part in creating that awesome son or daughter but choosing a career is a highly individualized event.
  • Urge them to take full advantage of campus advisory services to avoid floundering, shifting from one course of study to the next, and prolonging their dissatisfaction and their academic careers. While I am generally strongly negative in my bias about college advisory competencies when it comes to assisting students in choosing a career direction and then matching potentials majors for that career, if you are taking any of the other advice above, this may not be necessary but it is usually the first option. students rely on and is the one option with the greatest gap between expectation of value and actual value. Just keep in mind, you might be told to go to the local magazine store to find your career.
  • Help them understand that a major is not a career. There are multiple paths to most careers, just as there are multiple careers that can be had from a single major. Encourage them to explore their options. Having a career direction is much more powerful than choosing a major.
  • Help them prepare academically before arriving at college to avoid spending their high-priced time on remedial or review classes.
  • If a child is undecided, consider seeking out a college with the resources to acquaint them with all the options to make a well-founded decision. Not all schools have or emphasize such programs.
  • Understand that the student-to-counselor ratio averages 450-to-1 nationally at the high school level. Do not rely on high school counselors to guide children through the exercise of choosing a major.

However they get there, encouraging children to think through their career interests before choosing a school or program can help them avoid future frustration, academic let-down or feelings of failure. It is also key to helping them graduate in four years and move into their ‘real’ lives before they out-spend their college savings accounts.

A more up-to-date and informative article is available.

2015 national webinar to be held in July for career exploration and planning that leads to choosing a major

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Parents Guide to Career Exploration and Planning

Posted on June 8, 2012 | 4 comments

It isn’t possible for every high school student to benefit from the Career Coaching for Student program (maybe some day). If it were, you’d be sure to receive assistance in all of the areas listed in this article and your teen would be on solid footing for the path ahead. Short of that honorable goal of serving every student, the following ideas are for parents of incoming high school students and any teen ready to consider and explore their future.Happy Teens

Parents are a teens primary counselor. As much as teachers, school counselors and other professionals try, parents play a crucial role in drawing a study plan and shaping the career direction and future of their children. Entry into high school is the time parents need to acquire knowledge about educational options, objectively understand their teens interests and skill sets and “parent” them through the exploration and decision-making process. Decision making doesn’t have to mean “choose” a career while in high school. Decision making needs to be focused on strategic direction. That may result in a career decision or it may set the student on an informed path to explore and evaluate the best potential opportunities that lead to happiness and success.  Either way, a good career choice will be made.

Why parents’ guidance is important for student career exploration

  1. Because parents have rich knowledge and experience. The teen’s interests and talents may be very different from a parents, however, the parent has the knowledge and experience to bring greater wisdom to the process.
  2. Many students choose their school or college of study after a brief, mostly subjective look at a few choices, without research and due diligence, often times going by just the hearsay. In this situation, parents can encourage their teen to gather all relevant information to make a more informed choice, considering both the short- and long-term benefits and prospects.

How parents can help in career selection

  1. A parent’s attitude matters a great deal! Stay positive and focused on a future of success. The work place today is always changing and may seem scary. Don’t make the past seem perfect and the future terrifying. Encourage your teen to develop a positive attitude and learn about a variety of industries. Many career choices can be applied in diverse industries which present very different experiences.
  2. Do not shoot down ideas that your children may come up with on their educational and career choices. If you react negatively, it will likely shut down or reduce the communication process. Keep the lines open as you encourage information gathering and informed choices rather than “your” choices.
  3. Jump on opportunities. Informal discussions about the world of work with your teen can be productive. Current news and websites like www.ted.com can be a catalyst to a rich discussion.
  4. Provide guidance and blind encouragement. Do not impose your ideas against theirs. Your goal is to help your children find their own way based on their interests and skills and not follow your ideas and interests, which could prove counter-productive. By discussing interests, dreams and goals, you can get to know your children better, which will help you guide them.
  5. Encourage your teen to set goals. By starting early with goal setting and action planning, simple and rewarding goals will lead to extremely valuable skills for life and more consistent achievement of goals as an adult.
  6. Be practical and realistic in your approach but don’t assume something isn’t possible. Examine and find out whether their interests are genuine, or mere aspirations influenced by external forces.
  7. Encourage your child to explore their options through work experience and by talking to people in occupations that interest them. Visits to relevant businesses will help. Putting your teen in contact with those in a career of interest is extremely valuable. Meeting multiple people to gain “inside” career information can be more valuable than a summer job.
  8. Let your teen identify and select their area of interest. Parents can help students to identify the broad area of work that interests them, what sort of environment they would like to work in and then link it to their skills, interests, abilities and values. Be wary of popular assessments used for students. Many are not effective and can create confusion. Their validity and reliability may also be questionable.

How to begin

1. The best way to begin career exploration with your children is by talking about your own career. What do you do in your job. What decisions did you make that led you to this point in your career. Teens aren’t always overly interested when parents begin to share their wisdom with them. Be patient. When it comes to “telling”, asking questions more often is a better strategy for opening the door to rich discussions. Discuss a variety of occupations that you observe in everyday life and what those jobs may involve.

2. Emphasize personal accountability and self management. These are two critical skills consistently found in highly successful people – regardless of what career they choose to follow.

THE ACTION PLAN

The career decision-making process described below includes activities that can begin pre-high school and go through high school and post-secondary education.

Action 1 – Enable self-awareness through valid and reliable assessments. When it comes to assessments, start with yourself. Evaluate the assessment administration experience and the results.

Action 2 – You and your teen may also want to consider lifestyle implications and the overall impact that lifestyle preferences will have on career choice. For instance, will the job require irregular hours? Will the salary support the lifestyle your child wants? How much education does the occupation require vs the desire for continuing education? It’s important for your child to understand the relationship between lifestyle, personal preferences, occupational choice, and educational pursuits. Help your children understand and balance the difference between wants and needs.

Action 3 – Help your teen stay focused on career exploration.
Help your child to explore a variety of options with the goal of narrowing those options to a manageable few. Most students want to look at college choices first, major second and career third. Help them avoid that mistake.

Action 4 – Evaluate educational strategies that support a career direction. Evaluate educational options before looking at college choices. Schools vary greatly in their reputation for different areas of study. The best employers know which schools are at the top for a subject and which are not.

Action 5 – Research school choices based on career direction and desired post-secondary education. No school has everything for everyone. Even the most prestigious schools such as Harvard might not be the best school for what your teen is interested in. Choosing a college or university takes a little work.

Action 6 – Make choices based on quality information. Encourage your child to explore a variety of career areas, before making a choice. The economy, demographics, and technology will continue to change the workplace. Some jobs become obsolete while other new jobs emerge. Some occupations may maintain the same title, but they may change or evolve so drastically that they no longer resemble what they were a decade earlier. As the workplace continues to change, it will be more important to focus on personal soft skills and how they can be applied. Some soft skills are more important than others depending on the career. Decision making has been identified as one of the most important soft skills required for career success. It has also been identified as the weakest of soft skills of incoming Freshmen in college.

Action 7 – Create an action plan

Planning is much easier to do when a passionate future view exists. The passionate future view serves to motivate your teen to take challenging courses.

Action 8 – Begin planning for the expense of college. Motivation goes up when a teen sees that excellent grades will pay off in significant scholarship money and improved odds of being accepted to their first school of choice. Don’t think you can afford the most expensive colleges and universities? Explore all options available to get scholarships, financial aid, fellowships and interest free students loans. Why? Many of the scholarships will be based on achievement and required courses through the high school years. Many students of lower income families are provided significant financial support.

Action 9 – Take action. Encourage your child to stick with a rigorous school curriculum to build a strong foundation in math, reading, writing, computer skills, and science. The stronger the foundation, the more career options will be available later in life.

Action 10 – Review and revise. As your child matures and gains more knowledge and experience, his/her interests may change.

Course selection in high school will determine what opportunities are presented and the available course of action after graduation. For instance, if your child wants to go to college and she/he hasn’t taken the required advanced level courses, remedial courses may be necessary.

Help your child to stay on target by taking the necessary courses. Remember that all plans should be flexible in case your child wants to change some of the goals she/he set earlier on.

It is your child’s future, not yours! It is your role to separate your innermost desires and wishes from that of your child. Help them reach their own dreams.

Carl Nielson is an organizational development consultant, professional career and executive/leadership coach and creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ . Career Coaching for Students is available as a district-wide high school program and in group and on-one-one offerings through certified career coaches throughout the United States, Canada and other countries. Contact Carl Nielson at carl@successdiscoveries.com or call 972-346-2892 to discuss specific needs. Or visit us at http://www.careercoachingforstudents.net

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How to Crack into the Hidden Job Market for Summer Internships, Coops and First Jobs Out of College

Posted on June 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

“Five out of 1000 online job applications ever make it to the hiring manager’s desk.” Career Confidential CEO, Peggy McKee

Bottom Line: Nothing can happen until you meet with the key decision maker. To reach the decision maker, you’ll need to do more than send a resume to a company’s online resume collection system. You need a compelling reason for that person or their closest gatekeeper to start a dialogue with you. That first dialogue needs to lead to an ongoing relationship which leads to the right opportunities for you.

It is not unusual for a position that would be ideal for you not to exist when you initially contact those key decision makers. That fact means the job isn’t posted either.

Start by identifying the ideal companies for your desired career direction. What most students don’t realize is that when a key decision maker sees a value in you, they have the power to create the opportunity. That won’t happen with a shotgun approach to resume distribution. And it won’t happen without a face-to-face meeting.

A REALITY CHECK: NETWORKING IS THE ONLY STRATEGY

2013 Update: We’ve posted a presentation called Job Hunting in the 21st Century for Students and Recent Grads that you might find helpful.

Networking is the #1 most effective tool to get to key decision makers and land that job. Most of your immediate contacts do not realize how helpful they can be in expanding your network.

The first step in networking is to tell each person in your network that you are trying to expand your network – not get referred to a job. It is best to approach a personal contact with the purpose of seeking industry information or to explore referrals who your contact knows who could be of value. Their contact might be a person in a company that you have an interest in or in an industry of interest to you. By using this approach you are not putting your contact in a position where he or she feels obligated to push your resume in his or her company. If the offer is made [to push your resume], accept it but focus more on who he or she knows that could help your cause.

Develop a third party letter of recommendation that your associate can use, as it removes this task from your being assumed by your contact, which can get in the way of the referral. Having your contact send this letter first followed by a phone call from you is far better than simply calling unannounced to the referral.

THE KEY TO GETTING TO THE RIGHT PERSON

As indicated earlier, you must have a compelling message that makes its way into the hands of the right person and then have a means to get directly to that person. You need to either bypass the gate keepers or become successful at going through them. The typical generic introduction letter with a request for the recipient to call seldom works.

You must approach the decision maker positioning yourself as a TALENT VALUE that has the potential to be part of the solution to their KEY CHALLENGES – and not as a person seeking employment.

Too often college students see themselves as “low value” due to the lack of experience. For the employer, the lack of experience may not be as important as the “entry level pay level” that their budget supports. Or they might need your professional potential in 6 months but able to hire you into a “cover” job immediately if you are willing to trust the long term potential. For that reason, targeting your “ideal” employers is critical. You may have to start in a job that isn’t so ideal.

The only reason that an opportunity will be opened for you is that the core competencies, skill sets and accomplishments you bring to the organization are consistent with the immediate needs the organization is facing. As they say, timing is everything. Any good decision maker will look at you as a potential asset and will be looking at the return he or she will get on that asset. Your first mission is to communicate a high enough potential return that encourages the decision maker to open the dialogue. Once opened, the mission is to continue building the potential return. A willingness to start in something that is slightly outside your comfort zone is a plus. Many CEOs will tell you they started in the mailroom, as secretary or as a lowly junior salesperson. Contrary to much of what you read that says job hopping is “ok”, look at each company you target as the company you want to work at for 30 years.

There are two types of job opportunity strategies that you need to use: Individual and Group.

THE INDIVIDUAL STRATEGY

This will be specific to ONE company. Identify the ideal companies and use sourcing strategies such as LinkedIn to find people in those companies. Once you’ve targeted a person you want to reach, identify a strategy for reaching that person that involves those already in your network. Going directly to the person through a social media tool such as LinkedIn can work effectively if you are asking for “their industry advice and to share their experience” rather than “a job”.

Attend Industry Conferences

You can also identify these opportunities at trade shows (keynote speakers, session presenters, other attendees in the sessions you attend). There are usually student discounts available. Attending a conference and making contact with a speaker immediately after their presentation can be effective if you have a follow-up strategy to that first contact.

STUDENT BEST PRACTICE EXAMPLE TIP Within an industry, there are professional associations. Find the association’s website and see if there is a membership list that is openly published. Sometimes a list of member companies (or individuals) may be available. This is a quick way to find companies you might have overlooked if relying just on the college career and placement office. Exhibitor contacts may also be of use.

A Student Best Practice: Daniel Lewis, a college junior looking for both internship/coop opportunities as well as wanting to scout out high-potential employers upon graduation is attending a conference this summer being held across the country. His degree will be in mechanical engineering and his passion is in sports equipment design and manufacturing. The conference he is attending is the ISEA’s 9th International Sports Engineering conference in Lowell, MA.  Many students might feel attending a conference for experienced professionals to be outside their comfort zone. But for the student that goes outside their comfort zone, this can be a huge competitive advantage upon graduation. I salute the college students that take advantage and create these opportunities for themselves. These students will move to the front of the line with the contacts they make – avoiding all the fire walls along the way.

Contact a speaker by email about 3 – 5 days after the presentation. The opening paragraph should state that you attended their session and thought it was excellent. Also share in one sentence some benefit you gained from their presentation. Then request a 10 minute phone call appointment for the purpose of getting their advice about your desire to [find a position in xyz industry] or [find a [intern] position at 123, abc or xyz companies]. Again, your goal is to expand your network. Ask for “who” they recommend you talk with. Ask for their permission to say they referred you.

The next paragraph may come from your resume and include your positioning statement and four or five relevant and impactful achievements including your education. The last paragraph is a call to action in which you reiterate your request for a 10 minute call and confirm a time that you will follow-up. This follow-up time is critical as it is a very powerful tool to help you get by the gate keepers and to encourage the decision maker to accept your call.

This approach is also used for implementing group opportunity strategies and for approaching a company that has advertised a position of interest. Never indicate that you are responding to a specific position if responding to a job posting. Instead, use the information to customize your resume and cover letter to fit that opening while also expressing broader value (they may see you fitting another position you didn’t know existed).

THE GROUP STRATEGY

This is a highly efficient way of creating opportunities. Again the communication vehicle is not unlike that used for individual situations.

Identify 10-to-12 companies of similar size in an industry and send the group letter with a staggered but specific time for follow-up. As with all letters, use a spreadsheet and MS Word Merge tools to be efficient but be sure you are customizing specific to that industry.

THE PROCESS

Whether Individual or Group, the process is the same. The Group is simply replicating the Individual model.

  1. Using LinkedIn, Hoovers or some other available source, build target lists by industries of highest interest. Keep the industry selection to 3 or 4. Within each target list select 10 to 12 companies of great interest. Within this short list, if there are specific companies of highest interest, mark those for priority research. If you have specific companies outside of the industries you’ve selected that you would like to include, list those separately for an individual approach.
  2. Create a cover letter for each industry. In most cases one will suit all companies in the same industry.
  3. Identify the person(s) and their direct mailing address in each company who would be the most appropriate targets. Typically you would target a person two levels above your target position. If that person’s name is not readily available from LinkedIn or Hoovers, the company website or some other public source, pick up the phone and call the company and ask for the person’s name. If you are asked the purpose simply state you wish to mail a thank you as a follow-up to [a presentation they made at a conference or their recent help].
  4. Set up the letter on your computer and use the mail merge capability to generate the hard copy (always use first class not e-mail for this). Type each letter with a unique and specific “time” for follow-up. Allow four to five working days after mailing date for the follow-up date/time. If you are doing a group campaign leave an hour between each call so that if a discussion is opened you have time to close for the meeting and can take a breather between each.
  5. Send the letter (letters) out and follow up as stated in your letter.

There are at least three firewalls you must get by: the front desk (switchboard), the admin assistant and the targeted recipient. In each case the objective is to get to the decision maker and not simply be sent to HR or told “We are not hiring. The content of the letter is designed to help. If the front desk asks the nature of the call, simply confirm you are contacting the recipient per a scheduled time. If the admin assistant asks, respond in the same way. Engage with the admin assistant and respect their power. You can often turn a gatekeeper from a major roadblock into a willing helper if done properly. If you get directly to the recipient, confirm receipt and immediately steer the conversation.

DO NOT COME ACROSS AS A JOB SEEKER AS YOU WILL BE SENT TO HR. POSITION YOURSELF AS LOOKING FOR ADVICE.

Once the dialogue is opened, respect the time of the recipient. The objective is to get a face-to-face meeting. Speak long enough to achieve a high enough level of interest to get the recipient to agree to a meeting. If you get the target recipient’s voice mail simply confirm you are calling at the time indicated and that you will try back at the same time tomorrow. Do not go into a “sales pitch” as you will come across as just one more person trying to waste their time.

The key to success is persistence. Continue contacting people to grow your network in each target company until you are successful in getting to the decision maker or it becomes very clear that it is not to be.

Carl Nielson is an organizational development consultant, professional career and executive/leadership coach and creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ . Career Coaching for Students is available as a district-wide high school program and in group and on-one-one offerings through certified career coaches throughout the United States, Canada and other countries. Contact Carl Nielson at carl@successdiscoveries.com or call 972-346-2892 to discuss specific needs.

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Choosing a College

Posted on May 14, 2012 | 1 comment

There are many variables that go into choosing the right post-secondary college or vocational school. Before a student considers which school to focus on for their short list, it is important to first consider the career path and the educational requirements to be successful in that career path. The next step is to shorten the list of schools that carry a strong reputation for the major/subject and for placing graduating students into a first job upon graduation in that career.  With all of that said, this article assumes you’ve done that work and you are now focused on the short list.

To compare schools, try using a four box chart that allows you to compare two variables. The variables that you might consider need to be relevant to your needs. By combining the two variables, make a determination about what it means for a school to be in any of the four quadrants. The following examples are just a few of the variables to consider:

  • Retention Rate
  • Cost
  • Average Starting Salary of Graduating Students at that School (available at the school’s placement office)

Example 4 Box Chart
Using the link in the second paragraph above, you can download, print and create your own comparison chart for Retention Rate vs Cost. Here is what it might look like when you are finished (Legend of Colleges would be the names of the schools represented by the corresponding letter):

About Retention Rate

Retention rates at colleges varies widely and is a hidden metric that some schools would prefer you didn’t know about. The “retention and graduation rate” can be analyzed for 4-year undergraduate, 5 yrs, masters, all students, etc.

About the Cost of college

The cost becomes complicated when you consider all of the variables such as scholarships, grants, financial aid, etc. To keep an analysis simple, you can use the “Estimated Student Expenses (before Aid)” or the “Net Cost”.

Where to find College Retention Rate and Cost

The Career Coaching for Students™ program has an extensive and comprehensive research portal called Student Resource Central™ with the best of the best links to information on the Web for both college search and career exploration. One of the most informative sites that provides you with retention rates and cost data is the U.S. Department of Education sponsored site called College Navigator.

With College Navigator, you can search for and select colleges based on many variables that are important to you. Once you have a list of schools from the search, add those schools you consider to be “Favorites” to the Favorites List. From the Favorites list, you can “Compare” up to four schools at a time.

Carl Nielson is an organizational development consultant, professional career and executive/leadership coach and creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ . Career Coaching for Students is available as a district-wide high school program and in group and on-one-one offerings through certified career coaches throughout the United States, Canada and other countries. Contact Carl Nielson at carl@successdiscoveries.com or call 972-346-2892 to discuss specific needs.

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The BEST College Roommate: Tips for Good Roommate Relationships

Posted on April 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

Take the College Roommate Personality Assessment NowWhile having a roommate  has its challenges, it can also be a great part of your college experience. Success Discoveries has published a free college roommate assessment and guide for building and enjoying the “BEST” college roommate relationship that you receive upon completion of a short online personality assessment. In addition, we’ve provided a few tips here to make sure you and your roommate keep things pleasant and supportive throughout the year (or even years!).

Tip #1 – Find common interests.

Tip #2 – Include your roommate

Tip #3 – Talk to your roommate

Tip #4 – Introduce your roommate to your friends

Tip #5 – Give your roommate some space

Tip #6 – Pick up after yourself

Tip #7 – Don’t put your roommate in an awkward situation

Tip #8 – Apologize when something you’ve done upsets your roommate

Tip #9 – Don’t repeat doing things that upset your roommate

Tip #10 – Complete the Success Discovery College Roommate Compatibility assessment and receive guide to having the best relationship

Take the College Roommate Personality Assessment NowThe guide, How to Have the BEST Relationship with Your College Roommate, provides a comprehensive review of your assessment and guide to building a positive and healthy relationship with your college roommate. The assessments (2) focus on your behavioral style (“how” you do things) and your motivations (“why” you like to do what you do). By comparing your behavioral style and motivators with your roommate’s, you’ll be able to understand the differences, value those differences and adapt to create a great relationship. Try it! If you like it or know of other families that have a student going to college, forward this to them. They’ll thank you!

Some links from About.com on college roommate stuff

Carl Nielson is an organizational development consultant, professional career and executive/leadership coach and creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ . Career Coaching for Students is available to college students and high school students. Group and on-one-one programs are available through certified career coaches throughout the United States and Canada. The curriculum is ideally suite for customized semester-long programs. Call  972-346-2892 to discuss specific needs.

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Six Mistakes Made on Resumes

Posted on April 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

It has been over 20 years since I was in the corporate HR world handling 200 resumes for one job opening and handling 50 job openings at once. Today, being focused on organizational development consulting and coaching for the corporate world  I still get involved in helping mid-career professionals as well as provide the Career Coaching for Students program to high school and college students. Whether you are a college grad hoping for that first break out job or looking to make a 5th job change due to lay offs, mergers and acquisitions, a resume is more of a show stopper  than a qualifier unless you are utilizing relationships to get that interview.

Your network, statistically speaking, will most likely be the way you obtain the job, but every once in a while your resume is one of the 250 resumes that HR filters through before handing off 100 to the hiring authority. So your resume must be right.  I’ve compiled six reasons from my own experience and that of other bloggers in “corporate HR/recruiting”.  I’m amazed at how the reasons for going in the trash haven’t changed in 20 years. Here are six reasons your resume will get thrown in the trash.

#1 You don’t meet the minimum criteria. From a hiring manager: “It took only two minutes to find that first red flag in my four-inch stack. I saw an application on which someone from human resources had written ‘experience may not qualify.’ The candidate had spent two years working at a work-force-development agency, but the HR staff member didn’t know if that would count toward our need that the applicant have experience in vocational education. After reading the job summary on the résumé, I knew the experience wouldn’t count. Case closed.”

The first step in the application process is understanding whether or not you even qualify for the job. Your application typically will not go straight to the hiring committee. Instead, it will first go through the filter of the human-resources staff members who won’t forward unqualified applicants or will flag someone whose qualifications are uncertain. If you don’t have the job’s minimum requirements, the process is over. Note those minimum requirements and clearly demonstrate how you meet them.

#2 Employers fail candidates for bad grammar. It’s sad that I have to write that. The number of misspelled words, incomplete sentences, and other cardinal sins of writing is shocking. While the average employer would certainly drop you for such transgressions, some employers get twice as irritated about it. Misspellings signal laziness, inattention to detail, and just the overall sense that you aren’t taking this seriously.

Here are three pieces of advice: proofread, proofread, proofread. Every word processor on the planet has spellcheck. Is it that hard to click the little button? You’ve already (I hope) spent an hour or more writing the thing. Would taking another five minutes for a once-over be too much to ask? Ask someone that is known for their editing prowess to review your writing. One final question: Would you take this article seriously if I butchered the wording? Of course not. The same perspective applies.

#3 Did you even try to tailor your résumé? The next red flag comes from an excellent, well-crafted résumé. Clearly demonstrating the candidate’s expertise in accounting, it included specific accomplishments in previous accounting jobs. It was without flaw. The HR screener may have even said aloud, “This is the best I’ve seen in a while.” There was one small problem, though. The company isn’t hiring for an accounting position. On to the next candidate.

I’m sure many of us have either used or heard of the “spray and pray” method of applying for jobs. It means rapid-firing your résumé to every opening you can find. I have rarely seen that strategy work. In fact, one of the best things that applicants can do is demonstrate that they know what they are applying for. Mentioning specific programs or people you know that work at the company will be seen very positively. But the biggest desire is that HR wants résumé that deal with the company’s specific needs as a department line by line. You can’t do that if you haven’t bothered to notice what the department or company has open.

#4 I know you’re lying to me. Here’s a great rule of thumb—don’t lie on your application or resume. In fact, don’t ever lie, because the truth eventually surfaces. With social media, networking everyone to everyone, employers can chat with someone who will know you didn’t do half of the things listed on your application or will have very different dates of employment. Once that happens, into the shredder you go. Even worse, you might get hired and the truth will get you fired quicker than you can say “oops”.

Even if your lies help you make the first cut, you should know that HR and hiring managers (in small and large organizations, with or without HR expertise) will do research on you before the call for the interview. If they sniff deception, you’re gone.

#5 You didn’t speak our language. Here’s a strategy connected to #3 above used to land jobs: Copy specific phrases and buzzwords from the job posting into your résumé. Then build them into the bullet points. “Instructional design a plus” from the posting becomes “experience in instructional design” on your application. (Obviously, only do that when the statements are true.) Don’t refer to the descriptive term (instructional design) as something else not relevant or valued by the employer (such as “building course materials”).

Hiring Committee members who quickly scan résumés often look for the specific phrases they put in the job posting. Using other phrases to describe the same activity might cause a committee member to unknowingly pass over critical parts of your experience while they speed read. Many corporate employers are now using an automated filter that electronically weeds out applications if they lack the right number of “keywords,” which essentially are the words from the job posting. That is why so many refer to the online job posting systems as the “black hole”.

#6 You used too much personality fluff. This one is claimed to be a common mistake as reported by HR recruiters. It happens when candidates use descriptive phrases about themselves like, “dedicated worker,” “innovative thinker,” “cares about …” Those read like fillers you stuck in because you didn’t have enough concrete work experience to fill a page or perhaps you were trying to populate your resume with key words.

The problem is that the descriptors must be substantive and job-related. I coach my clients to add descriptors that come from their talent assessment results. For example, the following are from a mid-career client assessment and are listed on the first page of the resume prior to the Experience section:

Here is the challenge in using these descriptors. As one HR person stated, “I don’t care if you think you’re ‘motivated to succeed’ or ‘enjoy new challenges.’ Anyone can say those things and most people do, to the point of being cliché. Furthermore, just because you can say them doesn’t mean they’re true. I will be able to read your personality from the interview. That’s what the interview is for.” The person was making a fair statement until the end. “I will be able to read your personality from the interview” was arrogance and ignorance at its best, however, explaining why that statement totally discredited the HR person is outside the scope of this article. For each “talent descriptor” you include in your resume, be prepared with a job-related story that supports the claim. For example, in the list above, “Likes to bring people of common interest together” is something that came from the assessment report but is a huge strength for this person. She is in sales. She has many examples of how she not only exceeded sales quotas but connected others in her organization to selling opportunities – because she enjoys it.

Your résumé should show why you have the best background and skills for the job. Your “talent” as I refer to it includes your personality. That is part of why you have the best “total talent” for the job. As the arrogant/ignorant HR person stated, “If you are good at written communications, I should be able to glean that from a perfectly written resume.”

As you assemble your application, remember: When employers sift through a giant stack of applications, they look for excuses to end the relationship quickly. Don’t give them one.

Carl Nielson is an organizational development consultant, professional career and executive/leadership coach and creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ . Career Coaching for Students is available as a district-wide high school program and through certified career coaches throughout the United States and other countries. Call Carl Nielson at 972-346-2892 to discuss specific needs.

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New College Grad Survey Finds High Hopes for First Job

Posted on April 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

Reposted from Workforce Online magazine.

Despite spending most of their college years at the depths of the Great Recession, new graduates have high expectations of their earning power. About 40 percent said they expect a starting salary of $50,000 to $75,000 for their first job out of college.

The Class of 2012, soon to be spilling out of colleges and universities and applying for jobs, has high expectations for their career prospects.

In a new joint study by websites Experience and Achievers, this new batch of millennials is shown to be career-minded, loyal, brand-savvy and likely to know from the get-go at which company they want to work. Further, they’re most likely to simply pick up their smart phone and apply for a job online at that company’s website.

And apparently money isn’t everything to new graduates. Even though the Class of 2012 collectively is graduating with more debt than ever from student loans, 54 percent said career advancement opportunities were more important than salary, according to the study, which is in its third year.

Despite spending most of their college years at the depths of the Great Recession, new graduates have high expectations of their earning power. About 40 percent said they expect a starting salary of $50,000 to $75,000 for their first job out of college.

According to an annual survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, new grads may be aiming a bit high. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based NACE’s April 2012 Salary Survey report—the first report on salaries for the Class of 2012—shows the overall median starting salary for a bachelor’s degree graduate has risen 4.5 percent to $42,569 for the Class of 2012 from the last median salary of $40,735 for the Class of 2011.

“The overall median salary increase is the result of gains throughout most sectors,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. “Even in those sectors that showed decreases in median starting salaries, the dips were very slight.”

Education and communications majors are seeing the most significant increases to their median salaries over last year. Graduates with education degrees are entering the work force with a median salary of $37,423, 4.5 percent higher than the $35,828 earned by members of the Class of 2011.

Hiring of graduates is up as well and is improving. NACE actually revised its figures upward in April, showing that businesses expect to hire 10.2 percent more graduates this year.

Razor Suleman, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Achievers, said the study also uncovered a disconnect between statistics and reality when it comes to millennials. Twenty-two percent of respondents expect to stay with their first employer more than 10 years.

“According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, they stay 18 months on average” in a job, Suleman says. “But that’s not what they’re telling us their intent is. They’re entering this relationship with their employer, and on average they’re telling us they want to stay for 4.7 years.”

Knowing what this new generation of workers wants vs. what they do in the workplace is an opportunity for companies to change their approach to millennials, Suleman says. Most companies tend to be stuck in the past, using antiquated notions of performance review and recognition that don’t cut it with Gen Y workers, Suleman says. For example, a gold watch after 25 years of service means nothing to them.

“Gen Y grew up being praised, getting gold stars, getting trophies just for participating,” Suleman says. “When they enter the workforce, they’re not going to change; companies need to. If you want to keep them engaged in a workplace, feedback and recognition on a weekly basis is paramount. Of the nearly 8,000 respondents to our study, 84 percent said that is what they wanted.”

Suleman adds that employer branding has never been more important to the recruiting process. The study notes that 87 percent said they would apply for their first jobs at a company website. “These students already know who you are. You need to fish where the fish are biting, which is online.”

Carl Nielson is a professional career and executive/leadership coach and creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ . Career Coaching for Students is available as a district-wide high school program and through certified career coaches throughout the United States and other countries. Call Carl Nielson at 972-346-2892 to discuss specific needs.

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High Schools Recognize Online Student Career Planning Solutions Aren’t Making the Grade

Posted on April 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

According to an article in Education Week, more and more schools are recognizing that career and education planning for secondary students is essential to producing self-sufficient graduates ready for the workforce of today. With post-secondary education receiving an increasing amount of attention nationwide, many high schools are finding that helping students choose a career goal encourages improvement in academic performance and achieves significant results for their students.

Any increase in planning is welcomed, but many planning programs focus solely on admissions test prep and non-directed career exploration, relying on a series of questionable online inventories and surveys that do not allow for the introspection and guidance needed for such a consequential decision. In contrast, the American School Counselor Association’s National Standards for Students and The George Washington University Freshman Transition Initiative’s Standards for Freshman Transition find three areas of development are key to effective guidance and planning: academic, career, and personal/social development.

Online solutions may seem adequate but are poorly suited for promoting personal/social development, creating intentional student engagement in academics and achieving the results that will make a measurable difference for students. Many high school programs often settle for (and demand) the creation of a 4-year plans starting with the freshman year. Choosing a track is great if it is based on an informed decision by the student. Most high school freshmen are not given the opportunity to do quality research and introspection to make an informed decision – yet the chosen track will impact them for years to come. And these plans only focus on taking the student through a “chosen track” through the end of high school and neglect planning for post-secondary completion and workforce entry, unlike the 10-year career and educations plans recommended in the Standards for Freshman Transition.

There is one alternative – Career Coaching for Students™. To learn about the Career Coaching for Students program, which meets all the Standards for Freshman Transition recommendations, check out the information at http://www.careercoachingforstudents.net.

Carl Nielson is a professional career and executive/leadership coach and creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ . Career Coaching for Students is available as a district-wide high school program and through certified career coaches throughout the United States and other countries. Call Carl Nielson at 972-346-2892 to discuss specific needs.

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Career Mapping Catching on in High Schools

Posted on March 26, 2012 | 1 comment

The article Career Mapping Eyed to Prepare Students for College by Caralee J.  Adams, reviews the current state of high school student preparation strategies for researching and making career choices. I’ve pulled a few quotes and provided some comments and insights into what the reality of today’s efforts are producing.

Secondary schools are becoming more intentional about helping students discover their career interests and map out a plan to achieve them.

This effort is only as good as the foundational approach. As the article suggests, “Finding time during the school day can be a challenge, and the job of overseeing the process often falls on already stretched counselors, according to researchers and program administrators.” The assessments that schools use (see comment further down about Naviance) are not valid and can not be used in the work world to match people and jobs. Students recognize these issues quickly and consequently dismiss the entire exercise as a “waste of time”.

About half of all states mandate that schools help create individual or student learning plans, and most others have optional programs.

A student learning plan is something schools have been providing since student guidance counseling was created. Designing and attaching a student learning plan to a career direction is not something that should be done until high school. Mandating this activity has not created any measurable change that can be associated with increased post-secondary education, higher GPA or better test scores.

Enabling students to make their own plans puts them in the driver’s seat and encourages a long-term look at their course selection so their choices match their career goals, experts say.

The key here is “match their career goals”. A high school student is not equipped to make sense of the assessment results and do not have the necessary knowledge about different career paths to make decisions about career direction on their own. Schools do the best they can to expose students to different career areas but it is a shot gun approach that results in students feeling lost and/or overwhelmed.

Often, districts give students online accounts with passwords to track classes; create an electronic portfolio of grades, test scores, and work; research careers; and organize their college search.

These online accounts, including the one mentioned in the article, Naviance, have been around long enough to measure their effectiveness. Ask any student, and I really mean any student, that attends a high school with Naviance (or other online solutions) and ask them how they used Naviance. The answer I receive is “I didn’t.” or “It wasn’t helpful at all.“.

Schools, meanwhile, have not yet experienced the payback on their investment. As with many education programs, the rollout is left up to districts, creating a patchwork of approaches throughout the country.

This is a great “excuse” for the companies such as Naviance and the school administrators. A person I respect who works with at risk kids and served on a school’s trustee board and knows Naviance very well stated the online solution was “used only to help students get into a preferred college” – not to help them identify and focus on career direction.

Students create plans starting as early as the 6th grade. Of course, they can—and often do—change their minds about their career path. …Typically, a student might have a career-exploration unit in 7th grade. Through an interest inventory, in which the student answers a series of questions about preferences for working, say, with people or numbers, indoors or outside, his or her interests are matched with career clusters and pathways.

Childhood development studies clearly show that a student’s behavioral style and motivators are being established through middle school. The motivators (personal values) are set earlier. Behavioral style is in “wet cement” as students enter high school. The behavioral style and motivators are key to aligning a person’s “talent” to career options. Therefore, serious career exploration and career mapping is not useful until high school. Schools need to use a broader “exposure” strategy until high school. In high school, the focus needs to be at the individual level. That is where true career coaching is most effective. Also, did I mention the assessments used in school are not valid and reliable.

Knowing that high school students today connect best with online materials, the College Board recently launched a new interactive college-planning site, the BigFuture.org. And U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., recently introduced a bill to pilot a project in which students beginning in 1st grade could start portable online college-planning and -savings accounts.

Students connect best with online materials? Give me a very talented teacher and the student will choose the teacher over online every time. The issue may not be the “preference for online materials” but rather a rejection of low quality teaching. With respect for Senator Coons, if we want to make college more affordable, fund the use of career coaching programs like Career Coaching for Students™  that are known to reduce the risk of changing majors in college and provide a student with an exciting personal future view that leverages their motivational and behavioral career match.

Todd Bloom, the chief academic officer for Hobsons, the Cincinnati-based company that produces Naviance, an online career- and college-readiness system, said the depth and breadth of individual learning plans are expanding, and the cost can run less than $5 per student per year. “It’s not a hard sell,” he said. “It’s socially desirable to have that vehicle. ”

And here you have the issue. School boards look at their budget and what they are “required” to provide and see online systems like Naviance as an “easy” solution to implement. Parents that are aware of the offering assume it is providing something helpful. The saying “you get what you pay for” is very applicable here. There is no hard data that shows any ROI on these “low cost” online system solutions like Naviance.

Yet a goal of the program was to increase high school graduation rates and that did not happen, said Jay Ragley, the director of the office of legislative affairs for the state. “It’s difficult to peg why we are not increasing graduation rates. That goal has still eluded the state,” he said, adding that it’s been a challenge to get parents used to the idea of career planning as early as middle school.

Until parents demand and receive better solutions in schools, I strongly recommend engaging a career coach for your high school student – as early as incoming HS Freshman rank and no later than the beginning of the Sophomore year.

Side Note from the trenches: We’ve approached school districts about integrating the Career Coaching for Students™ program as part of a high school curriculum. This program can easily fit into one class per week for a semester with other classes referencing parts of the program throughout the four years of high school. Students have access to the online career and education research tools throughout the four years. The most common statement we received as feedback: “Wow! This is exactly what we need. If we had this, we’d push our “online-only system” to middle school and have this for all of our HS students.” Our response to that: “Great! What is the next step to make this happen?” Reply: “Oh no, we’re too invested in what we have now. To go back to the school board and say we’ve got something better would not work out well for us. And besides, we know we won’t receive more funding to cover a more expensive solution.”

Carl Nielson is a professional career coach, creator of the nationally recognized program Career Coaching for Students™ and managing principal of The Nielson Group, a management consulting firm specializing in hiring and selection, team effectiveness and executive coaching.

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