For those in the class (and whoever else stumbles across this post), I’ve linked some additional information you may find helpful:

• Beautiful resume designs
• Anything else on this site related to job hunting
• Resume and job hunting resources at Monster.com
• Recommended reading: 48 Days to the Work You Love (Dan Miller), Purple Cow and Linchpin (Seth Godin), Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky, and Rich (Richard St. John), A Whole New Mind and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko (Dan Pink)
• Be sure to watch the Johnny Bunko trailer

Good looking suit for the interview?  Check.

Polished interviewing skills?  Check.

Electronic trail showing all your stupid misdeeds and bad attitudes?

Check.

You’ll have virtual free reign. We want you to take the lead. You’ll have a lot of influence here and across the web design and software design world.

We’re looking for someone who understands type, someone who understands color, someone who understands proportion, someone who understands what it takes to give something a distinct style all its own.

Now, of course, the applications are rolling in.  And there are problems:

Unfortunately it’s not all coming up roses. It’s surprising how many people don’t proofread, spell check, or otherwise pay attention to the basics when applying for a job. It’s a minority, but it’s big enough that I was encouraged to write about it.

We’ve received applications from people spelling 37signals as “37 Signals” and Backpack as “Backback” and Basecamp as “Basscamp” or “Base Camp”. We even got one email from someone calling Highrise “Hi Rise”. One said how much they liked “Packcamp”.

Casual communications are one thing, but when you’re applying for a job you have to pay attention. Know how the company spells its name. Know the names of the products. Read what you wrote so you know what you said.

Two kinds of people make these mistakes.  The first kind just don’t know that they should be paying attention to the details.  Bad education can be fixed–once you learn that your application must be perfect, you make changes and make it perfect the next time.  These people will get jobs, eventually.

The second group, however, is more troubling.  These people are talented and bright but they don’t care.  They know that the resume, the portfolio, should be perfect but don’t want to take the time.

Best not to be in either group–get the details right the first time.

_____

Related posts:

How (Not) to Write a Cover Letter, Part 1 and Part 2
Are You Just One of the Crowd?
Want a Job?  Work Hard.

You still want to avoid doing stupid things online, but the value of that online profile is increasing.  Seth Godin’s internship contest emphasized the value of being remarkable.  He was looking for more than just a good resume; he wanted to see  candidates demonstrate–online–their qualifications.  As Aaron Strout at Mzinga sought new employees, he emphatically stated: "No resumes."  Again, show off your stuff online.

If I were a forward-thinking young person in this time of change, here’s what I’d do:

• Clean up the garbage in my facebook/MySpace profile.  This is a bit like inviting others into your room or home.  You wouldn’t invite someone over for dinner and leave a bunch of stuff lying around on the sofa, papers strewn about here and there, empty pop cans on the table.  Get rid of all the cheesy facebook "apps," the silly–or worse–incriminating photos, the "poking."  If you want to use facebook as an online playground, fine; just remember that it’s all public information and it may work against you some day.
• Read some books and get good at something I care about.
• Develop an online portfolio (by using a personal web site, blog, or podcast) that demonstrates my skills and knowledge related to that something I care about.

The value in this is that you might not have to look for a job.  You might find that, by actively showcasing your interests and skills, somebody sees this and decides you’re the person they need.  That’s the easiest way a person could possibly find work.

Dan has been on a breakfast tour to meet readers interested in the book and Johnny’s six lessons. One reader showed up to the Chicago breakfast last month with a video camera, recorded the conversation, and posted it to YouTube. The interview is split into 12 segments and will take a little over 40 minutes to view in its entirety. Dan gives some insight into how he arrived at the six lessons Johnny learns, talks about how those lessons have applied in his own work experience, as well as the choice of manga as the book’s format and its role in the future of publishing.

Photo by Scott Sarver

Patti Becker, Human Resources Manager at Eaton Corporation in Lincoln, Illinois, spoke to one of my classes about employment communication (resumes, cover letters, interviewing) this week.  Eaton is a global corporation with 79,000 employees worldwide.  Patti has been involved with human resources at the 650-employee Lincoln plant for 20 years and brought some great experience and insights to the class.

After the class was finished, Patti and I headed to the campus podcast studio to record an interview for a wider audience.  We continued our conversation about employment communication and trends, as well as Dan Pink’s new book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko.  Enjoy.

Students seeking a summer internship should check out One Day, One Internship. The site features a new internship opportunity every day so subscribing to the RSS feed makes good sense. And these are good internships–recent postings have featured jobs with American Express, United States Golf Association, and Harry & David (whose pears are unbelievably tasty).

Tags: internships

Photo by churl

Yesterday we looked at a common error in internship cover letters, namely, seeing the internship as an opportunity to benefit the student while neglecting to show what the employer will gain. Today we’ll write a better cover letter.

The three parts of a cover letter

As I mentioned last week, a cover letter (and resume) work together to help get you an interview. A good cover letter should:

• Mention the position, a contact within the organization (if possible), and refer to your resume
• Describe how your experience and qualifications will benefit the prospective employer
• Ask for the interview

The first and last parts are fairly simple. You can find some good cover letter examples here and here that show you how to do this. That said, let’s look at two specific ways to address the most difficult part of your cover letter–expressing your qualifications as benefits to the employer.

1. Watch your "I’s." One way to see if you’re emphasizing the benefits to the employer is to look for all instances of first-person pronouns, especially "I." For example, the second paragraph of your letter might contain this:

I am a hard-working, detail-oriented individual who understands your industry. I worked in a box factory part-time during school where I gained some experience with pre-production layout, copywriting, and design.

Both sentences begin with "I." To highlight your qualifications in terms of reader benefits, substitute your "I’s" with "you’s." You can also revise your sentences so that they don’t begin with first-person pronouns. Here’s a better revision:

You will find in me a hard-working, detail-oriented person who understands your industry. During the school year, I worked part-time at a box factory. Experiences there with pre-production layout, copywriting, and design have prepared me to help your company with its design and layout needs.

Notice that no sentence begins with a first-person pronoun, and the last sentence shows how the applicant’s skills will be put to use for the organization.

2. Be specific. Years ago I took a short story writing course. One of the principles I learned in that class was "show, don’t tell." Good writing is vivid and describes action and characters. Here are two examples:

TELLING: John Smith was tall.
SHOWING: John Smith usually had to duck when passing through a doorway.

The first example is abstract; it fails to tell the reader anything about John Smith’s height. The second example, however, is concrete: we can see John bending down to get through the door, so we know that he is tall.

You can use the same principle in your cover letter.

TELLING: I’m a hard worker.
SHOWING: While taking 15 credit hours each semester, I also worked 20 hours per week at a local restaurant.

TELLING: I have great creative insights.
SHOWING: In my marketing class, I created a project presentation that the instructor praised as "original and inspired."

Remember that the cover letter is intended to show how you’ll use your skills for your future employer. Show those benefits and you’ll put yourself ahead of those who don’t.

Related posts:
Resumes and References: What to Do?
Resumes and Remarkability Revisited
Are you just one of the crowd?
Beautiful Resume Designs

Tags: resume, cover letter, internship

Photo by Shira Golding

I’ve been reading a lot of internship resumes and cover letters lately, and I’m seeing a trend: students are asking for internships as though the potential employer were doing them a favor.

This approach is misguided. In this post I’ll explain why and then discuss what a proper cover letter should do. Part 2 will show the three parts of an effective cover letter.

Do me a favor

Cover letters that commit this error usually begin something like this:

I need to complete an internship for my major and I’m wondering if you’d have a job for me.

The problem here is that the writer is offering nothing of value to the organization. This is a self-centered approach that sees the internship as a means to an end, something the employer should do for the student. "Help me out," this letter says, "because I need your help to finish my degree."

The recipient of this kind of letter, however, is likely to ask, "Why should I help you? What have you done (or will you do) for me?" This is a perfectly valid question.

Solve a problem

In What Color is Your Parachute?, the classic job hunter’s manual, Richard Nelson Bolles encourages job seekers to be seen as resource persons, not job beggars. Don’t create problems–solve them.

Many students don’t realize that internships create problems for hiring organizations. It takes time, effort, and valuable resources to hire and train someone for only a few months. In many cases this investment is never recouped by the organization. If anything, the prospective employer is doing the student a favor–not the other way around–by providing the internship opportunity.

Students can certainly offer something of value to the organization though. Cheap labor is usually one benefit. It’s also possible that they have gained some useful skills or knowledge in school (that’s our hope, at the very least). It may well be that you have something truly valuable to offer a company, but you won’t get hired unless you can demonstrate that you are a resource person instead of a problem. Internship seekers should therefore focus on using these skills to solve the organization’s problems, not their own.

Understanding this shift in perspective is essential to writing a good cover letter. Check in tomorrow for Part 2 on how to put together the cover letter pieces.

Tags: resumes, cover letters, internships