Career Diversity

By PHYLLIS KORKKI

Q. You are getting ready to apply for a job electronically, and your résumé is ready to go. Do you need to prepare a cover letter? Are they necessary in this day and age?

A. Cover letters are still necessary, and in a competitive market they can give you a serious edge if they are written and presented effectively.

Cover letters are a graceful way to introduce yourself, to convey your personality and to impress a hiring manager with your experience and your writing skills, said Katy Piotrowski, an author of career books and a career counselor based in Fort Collins, Colo. You can also tailor them to a specific company in ways that you cannot with a résumé.

Ms. Piotrowski recently had a job opening at her small company, Career Solutions Group, and she was dismayed when about a quarter of the 200 applicants did not send cover letters. Most were within five years of graduating from college, she said, reflecting a more informal mind-set among younger people.

Q. How should your cover letter be organized, how long should it be, and what should it say?

A. First, do your best to find the decision maker’s name, and use it in the salutation. If you are applying to a blind ad, say “Dear Sir or Madam” or “To the Hiring Manager.” Ms. Piotrowski said she received cover letters that had no salutation at all or began with “Hey there” — not a strong start. If you want to be on the safe side, use a colon after the salutation, although some people now feel it is permissible to use a comma in an e-mail message.

Your cover letter should be short — generally no longer than three or four paragraphs, said Debra Wheatman, a career expert at Vault, a jobs Web site.

In your first paragraph, explain why you are writing — it may be that you are answering an ad, that you were referred to the company through networking, or that you learned that the company is expanding, said Wendy S. Enelow, author of “Cover Letter Magic” and a professional résumé writer in Virginia.

In the middle paragraphs, explain why you are good candidate, and show that you are knowledgeable about the company. Then convey a clear story about your career, and highlight specific past achievements. This can either be done as a narrative or in bullet points, Ms. Enelow said.

You can also highlight qualities you possess that may not fit the confines of a résumé, Ms. Wheatman said.

She once worked in human resources at Martha Stewart Living, and recalls reviewing applications for a chef in a test kitchen. One woman had a career in manufacturing, but her cover letter described how she had grown up in a family that was passionate about cooking and where she had frequently made meals from scratch. The woman got the job despite her peripheral work experience.

Finish your letter by indicating that you will follow up in the near future (and make good on that promise). Sign off with a “Sincerely,” “Cordially,” “Thank you for your consideration” or similar closer, followed by your name and, if you like, your e-mail address.

Q. Where should your cover letter appear, in an e-mail or in an attachment?

A. You can include your letter in the actual text of your e-mail message or place it above your résumé in an attachment. If you put it in a separate attachment from your résumé, you run the risk that a harried hiring manager will not click on it at all. If you place it in the text of your e-mail message, it should generally be shorter than if you use an attachment, Ms. Enelow said.

Then, if you really want to make an impression, make a hard copy of your cover letter and résumé and send it to the hiring manager by regular mail. Attach a handwritten note that says, “Second submission; I’m very interested,” Ms. Piotrowski said. “I’ve had clients double their rate of interviews simply from doing that,” she said.

Ms. Enelow calls this “double-hitting,” and says she has seen it work remarkably well. She said a senior-level client of hers got an interview and was hired because the hard copy of his cover letter and résumé reached the company president, whereas his electronic application was rejected by someone in human resources because it did not meet certain rigid criteria.

Q. What are some common mistakes in cover letters?

A. A cover letter with typos, misspellings and poor sentence structure may take you out of the running for a job. If you cannot afford to pay someone to review your cover letter and résumé, enlist a friend or a family member with good language skills to do it instead.

Another misguided thing people do is to make the cover letter all about them: “I did this, I’m looking for, I want to ... I, I, I.” Structure your letter so that it stresses the company and what you can do to help it reach its goals, Ms. Piotrowski and others said.

Another danger is including too much information — for example, very specific salary or geographic requirements, Ms. Enelow said. It is also unwise to point out that you do not meet all the criteria in the job description, she said. You can deal with that later, if you get an interview.

Hiring managers are looking for ways to exclude you as they narrow down their applications, she said. Do not give them that ammunition.

Gain some insight on writing business school essays.

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By Mesia Quartano & Barb Freda for LatPro.com.

We may be living in a global economy, but the fact remains: There are some subtle — and some not-so-subtle — differences between the way employment interviews are conducted in the United States and in Latin America.

To help you better prepare for U.S. interviews, LatPro took time recently to speak with two experts in the field of employment training: experts who have made it their business to coach Hispanic job candidates and employers in cross-cultural interviewing techniques.

Graciela Kenig is founder and president of LatinoWorkforce.com, an organization dedicated to finding and placing multicultural recruits into the workforce. Nelson A. De Leon is a bilingual recruiting consultant, and the owner and founder of America At Work.

We asked our experts: What makes an employment interview in the United States different from one that might be conducted in Latin America? What expectations do U.S. interviewers have, and what does a Latino candidate need to know to succeed in this new environment?

Here are their top tips to help you avoid possible misconceptions and cultural pitfalls so you can get the job you want!

Top Ten Tips for Acing your U.S. Job Interview

1. Take Credit for your Professional Accomplishments
An employer expects you to “toot your own horn,” says Graciela Kenig. This can be awkward for Latinos who are more community and group-oriented, but it’s a crucial part of the U.S. interview.

Employers want to hear not just how you worked as a part of a team, but very specifically what you did on that team and what your contributions were, notes Kenig. Discussing your individual accomplishments won’t be viewed as arrogant or egotistical. In fact, if you don’t point out your solo successes, employers will assume you don’t have significant contributions to talk about.

2. Make Eye Contact
Interviewers will be picturing you as a potential coworker during the interview. They expect you to look them in the eye and act like a colleague. For some Hispanics, such direct eye contact may feel uncomfortable, as it can have different connotations in Latin America, including attraction between a man and woman, a lack of respect or a challenge to authority. All of these potential cultural implications must be set aside for the interview. In the U.S., making good eye contact shows confidence; failing to look your interviewer in the eye will not only make them uncomfortable, it could be interpreted as a sign that you are being evasive or untruthful.

3. Be Direct
“We Latinos tend to communicate indirectly,” says Kenig “We need to give context to stories, and the story gets really long.” In the U.S. interview, however, you should get to the point quickly and focus only on the relevant facts. Kenig’s story strategy is SAR: Pick the Situation; relate the Action; highlight the Results.

Plunging right in and talking about the matter at hand may seem rude or abrupt to a Latino, but it won’t to the person doing the interview. They are busy, time is short, and you need to shine during the brief time you have in front of them.

4. Focus on Professional, not Personal, Issues
Interviewers may ask a question just to break the ice, says De Leon, asking a recruit to “tell me something about yourself.” They are not asking about your childhood, your dogs or your family.

The interviewer really wants to hear about you in relation to the jobs you’ve had in the past and the job you want. “That can be tough for Hispanics, who want to ease into conversations about themselves,” adds De Leon. Practice answering these types of questions without including your entire life’s story.

5. Get Rid of the “Yes Syndrome”
The Yes Syndrome is something De Leon identifies as an idiosyncrasy of Hispanic culture. As an interviewer is talking, the recruit may be nodding his head, saying yes over and over, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve understood everything. It does mean they’ve heard; they are listening, and they won’t interrupt for fear of seeming rude.

“It’s okay to ask questions,” says De Leon. “Ask, ‘Can you explain that?’ or just repeat back to the interviewer what you’ve heard: ‘You need A, B, C and D for this job.’” It doesn’t make you look stupid, as some fear. It makes you look and sound engaged in the interview.

6. Don’t Be Passive
This goes hand in hand with getting rid of the Yes Syndrome. If you are too humble or too reserved, says De Leon, you may appear uninterested in the job. Once you start asking questions, it shows you have a good grasp of the job at hand. The smartest people don’t give the best answers, they ask the best questions, showing potential employers they can identify problems.

7. Beware Tú vs. Usted
Latinos are aware of the formality of the “usted.” But because English only uses “you,” be conscious that you don’t get too familiar with your interviewer. De Leon sees this especially with people who have grown up in the Latino culture within the United States. While a recruit should not be subservient, there should still be respect. And if you happen to be interviewing in a situation where you will use Spanish, stick with “usted” during the interview. Don’t lapse into using “tú” for the entire corporate culture.

8. Dress Conservatively
“It’s always better to be overdressed rather than underdressed,” says De Leon, but what is dressy for going out on the town is not appropriate attire for the interview. Kenig reminds recruits, “Whatever you wear makes an impression and says something about who you are.”

Even if the day-to-day dress of regular employees is casual, you should choose conservative business attire for your interview. A professional appearance shows that you respect the interviewer and are serious about the available position. Avoid anything that will detract from the interview, including too much jewelry, perfume or aftershave. You want the focus to be on your abilities, not on an overpowering fragrance or distracting accessories.

9. Don’t be Discouraged if the Interviewer Seems Impersonal
Employers who don’t ask about your background, your family, your kids and your church aren’t being rude, and it doesn’t mean they don’t like you as a potential employee. In the U.S., these types of personal interview questions are prohibited. “There are a lot of legal issues they cannot discuss or bring up first in an interview,” says Kenig. If the recruit mentions a spouse or children, the interviewer can follow up on it, but they are bound by law not to ask first.

10. Research the company before your interview – and don’t forget your Hispanic connections!
It’s a big world, but our cultural connections can make the world seem smaller. In addition to more traditional research methods, use your cultural connections to gain valuable insights into a company. Within the close-knit Hispanic community, chances are good that you can find someone who has already interviewed with or worked for a particular company. Professional Hispanic organizations and their members can also be a wealth of information. All you have to do is ask!

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You Got the Look: Crafting the Right Resume Appearance

Your resume: your career history, your years of education, your commitment to your employers, your dreams, all ascribed on a sheet of white or ecru paper titled, at the top, with your name. But to be effective, a resume must adhere to one rule: information must be delivered in an attractive, efficient, and easily accessible manner.

The properly prepared resume of a less-experienced candidate can trump a poor resume from a more-experienced candidate. The difference between a good resume and a bad one is the difference between a new job and continued unemployment. But armed with the proper instruction on how to negotiate the art, writing a powerful, clear resume can be as easy as filling out a form. Here are a few simple rules about a resume's basic look.

^ Font

Don't get creative. Really. What you want in a font is not a decorative design choice, but a simple, easily read font that shows you mean business. In other words, when looking for a font, think gray suit.

Unacceptable Fonts:

Courier font: If you didn't have to write your cover letter on a 1930s travel typewriter, why make it look like you did? This font looks like the default font of a malfunctioning computer and is also notorious as the typeface that mediocre high school students use because of its massive, page-filling size. Do you really want such a dishonest font representing your words?

Say no to anything that looks remotely like handwriting or hints at it, like italicized versions of regular fonts. This is a business document, not a thank you note to a neighbor. And these fonts are difficult to read.

Avoid any font that looks like it would be more appropriate on a mediaeval manuscript or the label of a malt-liquor bottle. No Ye Olde Fonts. No historical-period fonts at all, for that matter. No art-deco twenties, no early-80s computer geekdom.

Whatever you choose, remember this: what impresses readers the most should not be the letters on the page but the words they spell.

Paper

A stroll through most business supply stores will reveal a sea of paper choices, from traditional plain white to hot pink and purple. Outlandishly colored resumes are to be used by people whose jobs demand more dramatic visual statements: hairdressers, fashion designers and clowns. The rest of us need to focus on the understated dignity of whites, light grays, and ecru. Use the same paper for your cover letter.

Envelope

While many employers say they do not focus their attentions on the envelope a document is sent in, others do. To some, a resume's wrapper can be a factor in their evaluation. Shannon Heidkamp, the recruiting manager for a division of Allstate Insurance says, "If a resume is being sent snail mail, the envelope should be typed." Typing the envelope is especially important if you have messy handwriting.

Scanning

Since so many business now scan resumes into computers, so they can be better accessed for future reference, a job applicant has to consider a few additional factors about his resume's appearance.

Scanners often have a difficult time reading underlined, italicized and bolded text or any unusual font (which you shouldn't be using anyway). Scanning also can create problems for those who write their resumes on anything but plain white paper. Even gray and white-flecked paper has been known to cause problems on picky scanners. A good way to test your paper's scanability is to photocopy your resume printed on the paper you plan on using. If the copy comes out blurred, dark, specked, or anything but white, think again about sending it out to a big company: their scanners might not be able to distinguish the information on the page from the page itself.

While the resumes are often organized according to the industry, they are most often pulled from within those categories by keyword searches, which means that it's more important than ever that you use the correct terminology in describing your knowledge and experience.

Interviews can be nerve-wracking but if you follow these tips, you will feel less anxious.

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I'm a huge proponent of business school because the experience is like no other. The diversity of people, classes, and opportunities is surreal. The possibilities in business school are infinite; MBAs are more likely to start companies, travel to multiple countries, and meet global thought leaders than I think any other grad programs allows.

The two greatest lessons I learned in business school weren't from classes; they came from my classmates challenging me to be my best and me challenging myself. My MBA taught me:

1. how to think bigger and
2. how to communicate complex ideas

For all those being admitted to B-school, congrats!!!

My MBA Action Plan is the tool I created and used to keep me focused on the reasons I chose to go to business school and what I wanted to get out of the two years. I hope this tool blesses you and helps you make the most out of your MBA experience in the same way it did for me.

The MBA application process isn't cheap. You should set aside almost $6,000 to prepare for the process. At the end of the day, the investment is small. In most cases, your salary will almost double after business school. Download this Excel document to craft your own budget.



Jullien Gordon
The Personal Development Guru
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>> About Jullien
>> Visit MLT

How do you prepare for life after college? Get started today by checking out the videos and podcasts from our Career Lab Events. Hear firsthand how leading business women created their own career paths. In our discussion forum, you can share stories and swap ideas on careers, getting your MBA, you name it. And don’t miss out on the great tips for landing your dream job!

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I'm a huge proponent of business school because the experience is like no other. The diversity of people, classes, and opportunities is surreal. The possibilities in business school are infinite; MBAs are more likely to start companies, travel to multiple countries, and meet global thought leaders than I think any other grad programs allows.

The two greatest lessons I learned in business school weren't from classes; they came from my classmates challenging me to be my best and me challenging myself. My MBA taught me:

1. how to think bigger and
2. how to communicate complex ideas

For all those being admitted to B-school, congrats!!!

My MBA Action Plan is the tool I created and used to keep me focused on the reasons I chose to go to business school and what I wanted to get out of the two years. I hope this tool blesses you and helps you make the most out of your MBA experience in the same way it did for me.

Jullien Gordon
The Personal Development Guru
>> More from Jullien
>> About Jullien
>> Visit MLT