Sunday, February 22, 2009

Cover Letters

The advice on cover letters given by collegegrad.com was very helpful, especially for me as I am currently in the process of preparing resumes and cover letters for potential summer internships. Making a cover letter is something that I have not done in the past, so there I learned a lot of new advice that I am likely to use in the future. However, I can't say that I agreed with everything offered on the website.

In the "Reality of Cover Letters" section I only partially agree with the suggestion that the cover letter should not be about you. I agree that it is good to work in some information on the company you are applying to in order to show that you have researched them and are serious about wanting to work for them. However, the people at the company already know everything about where they work and are reading the letter to see what the applicant has to offer for the company. In that sense I think the cover letter should be primarily about yourself. Also, while I agree that your chances of finding employment increase dramatically when you spend a significant amount of time and effort researching a prospective company and creating a cover letter, you don't lose anything by applying other companies without such preparation. If there is a company you have a second-tier interest in, and you don't have the time to fully prepare a well-researched cover letter, you may as well apply anyway and the worst that could happen is that you will not be selected. Putting your name out there for a number of jobs you might only be partially interested at least presents the oppunity that you will be selected for an interview and you will still have time to do research and decide if you want to pursue that job.

I did find the metaphor of the cover letting being a sales pitch selling a product (yourself) to buyers (prospective companies) to be a particularly effective one. I think that is a good way to think about and approach writing a cover letter. I also think the advice to be proactive, calling potential employers and making yourself stand out, is very important. Your chances of getting a job are magnified greatly if you make an effort to contact the company, show your excitement for the opportunity to work for that company, and they remember your name.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Redfern Client Project

The real-world client project provides an exciting opportunity to use our group's creativity and talents in a useful application. For a while, I thought coming up with a group name was going to be the toughest part of the assignment, but we finally settled on Pro-Health in recognition of the nature of our project. So far our group has basically discussed what aspects of the healthy campus initiative and our client's needs we are interested in addressing. I think that as a group we want to pursue promoting good nutrition, as well as help market the organic farm so more students know about it and the availability of the products of the farm. Personally, I did not know about the student organic farm before the client visit. I believe that there is a genuine demand for healthy, organic foods within the student population, and if we were able to make more students aware of the organic farm's products, both regular students and the farm itself would benefit.

I think my biggest concern at this point is that our group is being overly ambitious. We need to narrow the focus of our project, because our current discussions involve combining about four smaller, individual projects. I'm afraid if we continue to pursue everything that we as a group are interested in we will be unable to do a thorough job on any one aspect of the project. I would rather focus on a simple project emphasizing the importance of good nutrition for students and the availability of healthy, organic farm products. I had the idea to make a video featuring a student preparing a healthy recipe, and think it would be most interesting if the cooking was done in one of the many residence hall kitchens on campus. Perhaps if we made such a video we could obtain ingredients from the organic farm, film its location, and discuss it's products and purpose. This is just one idea that we came up with. Hopefully, after we discuss our project further we will be able to limit the scope of our focus and provide Redfern and the healthy campus initiative with a product it will be able to use.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Interview Mistakes

Overall, I agree with the 10 interview mistakes the website selected to be the biggest. I think the best thing you can do going into an interview (or in many other situations) is be confident. If you know that you are a qualified job candidate and you are fully prepared for the interview, there is no reason that you won't do well. The first mistake the website lists--not to ask stupid questions--seems to be a particularly difficult one to perfect. Formulating a question that is not addressed on a company's website or on any other interactions you have with the company before the interview is difficult. There are times when I have found myself unable to come up with an intelligent, legitimate question for an interviewer. I think the biggest tip that the website offers is a pretty basic one that is nonetheless often overlooked. Practice. It is important to anticipate some difficult questions the interviewer may present and give yourself time to create an intelligent, concise answer. This will prevent you from struggling and stumbling through that question in the actual interview.

I have gone through three interviews recently for different positions on campus. Two interviews were done for a large audience and one was just me and three interviewers. I felt like two of the interviews went very well while the third was alright but not great. I had failed to practice answering some tough questions that I encountered during the difficult interview and this, of course, led to less than stellar responses. I felt very confident going into my two better interviews. I think this is a big reason why I felt good about the results. I wasn't nervous or stumbling over my words. This gave the impression of being competent and well prepared.

Overall I feel good about my abilities in a job interview. It is getting the interview with very little work experience that is the trouble.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Big One

Given the choice to blog about any one topic of interest to me on the first Sunday in February, I'll choose the Superbowl every time. Superbowl 43, while it fails to contain either the Cowboys or the Panthers, provides an intriguing match-up. The Cardinals didn't exacly soar into the playoffs. Losing 4 of their last 6 games had sports analysts discussing whether it is fair that teams from extremely weak divisions (NFC West) get an automatic bid when other teams from more competitive divisions get left out. However, once they got to the playoffs the Cardinals have looked more like the St. Louis Rams from 2001, the last team that their current quarterback Kurt Warner led to the superbowl. The team that earned the nickname "the greatest show on turf."

The Steelers on the other hand have been a picture of consistency. Their strength definitely lies in their remarkable defense, which is ranked #1 in the NFL in virtually all major catagories. Add a decent offense that somehow manages to function despite Ben Roethlisberger's propensity to hold on the the ball way too long, and you have a very dangerous team. Certainly the team to beat according to sports betters all over the country.

I find myself compelled to cheer for the underdog Cardinals in this one. To adopt the Steelers as my team for this game would be equivalent to cheering for Apollo Creed to knock out Rocky Balboa. Not to mention it would go against my every instinct as a Cowboys fan (meeting the Steelers in 3 superbowls breeds contempt.) However, despite my disdain for the Steelers I do think they are the better team and will prove so tonight. However, I'm taking the Cardinals with the spread (+7).


Steelers 23- Cardinals 17.